2020 Has Been A Miserable Year, And Americans Are The Unhappiest They Have Been In Ages
What a year this has been so far. First, the greatest public health crisis in 100 years hit us, then the U.S. economy imploded, and now the streets of many of our major cities resemble war zones after weeks of rioting, looting and violence. It has been one thing after another, and this has taken a great toll on the mental health of the American people. Of course we weren’t exactly in great shape coming into this year. In 2019, it was being reported that the suicide rate in the U.S. was at an all-time record high, alcohol-related deaths were at an all-time record high, and drug overdose deaths were at an all-time record high. So the truth is that we were already deeply miserable before 2020 came along, and now a brand new survey has discovered that as a result of everything that has happened so far this year we have become even more unhappy…
Spoiler alert: 2020 has been rough on the American psyche. Folks in the U.S. are more unhappy today than they’ve been in nearly 50 years.
This bold – yet unsurprising – conclusion comes from the COVID Response Tracking Study, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. It finds that just 14% of American adults say they’re very happy, down from 31% who said the same in 2018.
Would you say that you are “very happy” with your life?
I hope so, and I would like to think that most of my readers are more content with their lives than the general population as a whole.
Personally, I would definitely label myself as “very happy”, but it looks like most of the population definitely does not feel the same way.
According to the survey, the coronavirus lockdowns are one of the big reasons why Americans are feeling less happy these days. Being forced to stay away from others has caused many people to feel increasingly lonely…
About twice as many Americans report being lonely today as in 2018, and not surprisingly given the lockdowns that tried to contain the spread of the coronavirus, there has also been a drop in satisfaction with social activities and relationships. Compared with 2018, Americans also are about twice as likely to say they sometimes or often have felt a lack of companionship (45% vs. 27%) and felt left out (37% vs. 18%) in the past four weeks.