Expensive Gas and Broken Glass
For Some, These are Desperate Times
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation - Henry David Thoreau
As we gear up for another election season, I can hear the sounds of mud being slung left and right as both sides begin their attack campaigns. Every four years it’s the same thing, attack, make an empty promise, and attack again.
The faces of the candidates may be different but the game of politics remains the same. I am sorry but promising to cut taxes or end abortion just doesn’t seem to cut it for me anymore. I tire of that situation.
I believe that The United States is currently in a mental health crisis. I believe that this crisis should be addressed by each candidate who is running for any elected office. Not just the president, who as we should all know by now, is about as influential as the the hood ornament on your car.
It’s all too often that we see a store window smashed in or hear a story about a business getting robbed. We see open drug scenes (Tent Cities) in every major urban area. We have a rampant homelessness problem that only seems to be getting worse.
As I was driving around today, I stopped to get some gas. When I got out of my car I realized that the front door was boarded up. This is the second time this year that their glass door was smashed in by someone more desperate than I am.
The problem that this business is experiencing is not unique to them. Many businesses both urban and rural are dealing with the ramifications of an underlying untreated addiction and mental health crisis.
This mental health crisis has been steadily unfolding for years but has been recently exasperated by the feelings of desperation and uncertainty that many individuals deal with.
There are several factors at play here when it comes to our current mental health situation. The COVID-19 pandemic, economic hardships, and isolation have brought this crisis to the forefront, putting in our faces what was once hidden away from polite society. It’s the elephant in the room.
The COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst for the mental health crisis. Lockdowns, social distancing measures, and fear of the virus have led to isolation and disrupted routines.
I am not a bleeding-heart liberal or a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps Republican. I am politically homeless but I feel that we have very limited options when it comes to our elected officials.
Access to mental health care in The United States can be a significant challenge, this is especially true for lower-income individuals. Our current mental health care system is not equipped to handle the level of care that is needed across the board.
Drug addiction and mental health go hand in hand, the current opioid epidemic has made this more apparent than ever before. Job losses and other financial instabilities have helped to escalate the opioid epidemic further.
The rising cost of goods and services due to inflation can account for financial stability in the most frugal of individuals. The rise in the price of grocery items can cause excessive worry in people who are already dealing with some degree of instability regarding mental health.
This excessive worry can greatly reduce the quality of life for certain sects of the population. For example, if you’re already dealing with a job loss and bills, or maybe you lost somebody in the pandemic or to a fentanyl overdose, then your favorite grocery items are too much to afford. That may be just enough to push an already unstable person right over the edge.
Once again, I don’t really hear any political candidate talking about the struggles of the everyday man or woman. They are just out to get the other guy, from the other party, who they have known for years and probably hang out on the weekends. After all, it seems like it’s all a game to them.
For some, these seem like desperate times, some more so than others. I think anybody who’s paying attention can tell that there seems to be more societal discontentment than it feels like there should be. It’s a struggle out there for so many right now in a variety of ways.
If we don’t bring the mental health crisis to the forefront during this election cycle, I feel that we have failed to take care of the basic needs of our people. If we don’t even address it that would be a complete failure. Fixing this issue is definitely not going to be easy, it will be hard, but it will be worth it for society in the long run.
We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard - JFK
I feel very strongly about this issue. And you are right, the system is not able to handle the magnitude of the mental health crisis facing our nation. The struggle seen everywhere is overwhelming and I wish that more folks would see the strong connection with drug addiction and mental health. Having worked in the substance addiction field, almost every person that I worked with had their addiction stem from either severe mental health or trauma of one sort or another. I hope our society can get this one figured out and of course there is no easy answer for a solution. Thanks Brian for an opportunity to weigh in on this topic.
My sentiments exactly!