Re: The Drink & Suicides
Posted by Martin Dodge on November 22, 2007 at 01:20:51:
In Reply to: The Drink & Suicides posted by judy corbin smith on November 21, 2007 at 07:02:55:
As a person who is one-quarter Irish and a lifelong depressive, I would like to suggest that it may not be the booze that is causing the depression in Ireland but the depression that is causing the heavy drinking.
Alcohol has long been the medication of choice for people who are feeling pain, especially mental pain. (Many of the homeless alcoholics on the streets of American cities are actually self-medicating sufferers of mental illnesses.) And there are many possible causes of depression in Ireland:
1. The cold, gloomy weather (a known cause of Seasonal Affect Syndrome, which is treated by exposure to bright light). Suicide is higher in the Northern Hemisphere in general, and tends to increase as one gets closer to the North Pole.
2. Genetics.
3. The troubles of the past several hundred years -- misery being passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, over the generations.
4. The church, famous worldwide for teaching its parishoners to feel the guilt of the sinner.
3. Something in the potatoes.