People living alone 'are more depressed'
People of working age who live alone increase their risk of depression by up to 80% compared with people living in families, says a Finnish study.It says the main factors are poor housing conditions for women and a lack of social support for men, who are both equally affected.
The study tracked the use of anti-depressants in 3,500 Finnish people.
A mental health charity said people who lived alone must be given outlets to talk about their problems.
The study authors highlight the fact that the proportion of one-person households in Western countries has increased during the past three decades, with one in every three people in the US and the UK living alone.
The participants in the study, published in BioMed Central's public health journal, were working-age Finns; 1,695 were men and 1,776 were women, and they had an average age of 44.6 years.
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Researchers found that people living alone bought 80% more anti-depressants during the follow-up period, between 2000 and 2008, than those who did not live alone.
Well, dang. Do beer and single-malt count as anti-depressants? That's a rhetorical question, btw... no answer required. It seems to me I read yet another study a few years back that claimed the Finns were the most depressed group of people in all o' Europe, what with their long winters and lack o' sunlight. I nodded north-south when I read that study, not so much this one. Ya think THAT might have sumthin' to do with the number o' depressed single people, at least in Finland? Mebbe?
I tend to be pretty satisfied these days, but I can only speak for myself. Beer and single-malt, yanno?
It's the results of surveys that cause depression ...that, and medical research
ReplyDeleteI don't know, man. I know a lot of people that are depressed because of who they do live with...bitchy, or belligerent, abusive spouse...ungrateful, worthless kids, etc.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'...
A cute joke about the opposite: A little old man in his erly 80s is sitting in thee front row of the packed largest Synagogue in NYC when the Devil strides in thru the back main doors. He's dressed in the whole bit--red suit, hood, cape, pitchfork, horns, pencile mustache, goatee, barbed tail, cloven hooves--the lot. Those assembled scatter like quail out all the doors, some out the energency side exits, some past the Devil back thru the main doors, others thru the rectory, etc, al except for the little old man sitting alone deep in thought/prayer. The Devil notices, strides up to the front, looks down the length of the front bench and calls out: "Old man! Don't you know who I am?" Of course I do," he replied, "your old Nick, Lucifer himself in the flesh." The Devil answered, "And then you must know the most horribly exquisite tortures that I can visit upon someone like you, do you not?" "Of course I do," the little old man replied. "And yet, knowing all this you are still not afraid? " asked the Devil. "Why should I be?" the little old man replied. "I've been married to your SISTER for 56 years!"
ReplyDeleteSo much for "companionship." LOL
PS:Apologies for all the misspellings, grammatical errors--was deep into a looong conversation with Monsieur Barbancourt all day yesterday and into early evening. IIRC I typed my little joke not too long before I went face down. But gotta scream with the Eagles this ungodly am as I've things to do, so here I am..hope you liked the joke, Buck. A little long, and better told than written, but cute nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteAndy gets the award!
ReplyDeleteHave you ever looked at most Finns? The women are either stunningly hot, or very not. I think the medical study jerks keep picking Finland because the country is "Properly Progressive" (read: Socialist) that most academics feel is the proper and eventual methodology of human governance. The Academics want so very badly to have a Socialist Utopia (TM) that provably works!
Buck, sipping a single malt lifts my spirits any old time. But any kind of study depresses me anymore. I can't stomach any of them.
ReplyDeleteGood joke Virgil.
Skip: Points taken.
ReplyDeleteAndy: Your points, too. One of the VERY few bennies of living alone is not having to listen to miscellaneous bitching simply because she CAN. I've yet to meet the woman without that particular trait, which is more pronounced in some rather than others. But they ALL have it, to some degree.
Virgil: I'd heard the joke before but it bears repeating WELL. And how IS Monsieur Barbancourt these days? ;-)
Dan: Yeah, there's not a week that goes by without our attention being drawn to some waste of grant money, somewhere. But I suppose academic researchers have to eat, too.
Darryl: Most Nordic women fall into my sweet spot, as far as looks go.
Bitching -- we prefer to call it a skill.
ReplyDeleteAnd as I said... some are better at it than others. I've met a couple o' professionals in this space, too.
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