Toxicity in The United States

The United States has been suffering from mass levels of toxicity for decades. Unfortunately, there have been and continue to be numerous issues that are engulfing most of us living in the United States. These toxic behaviors and thoughts are seeping into the rest of the world daily. The catastrophic events and issues Americans have faced end up being shown on the news for the entire world to view, which is shameful and a complete disgrace. It is tragic as an American to know about the devastations we are enduring, mostly due to those with bad intentions that are full of anger and hatred. Sadly, many have become desensitized, and the pain others are experiencing does not cause them any distress☹.

One issue that appears much worst in the United States than in any other country is gun violence. In other countries, when there was one case of gun violence, the country took the proper measures and banned guns for everyone. In the United States, you are unable to watch the news or read articles on any news outlets without seeing about shootings with or without casualties. There have been numerous school shootings in the United States and this needs to stop. Children and teens should never have easy access to a gun of any kind. If a parent or another adult in the household chooses to have a gun, they should take necessary safety measures.

Many Americans seem to believe because it is the 2nd Amendment is the right to bear arms that everyone deserves to own a gun, but there need to be more laws that are followed. We do not have to be in war times with each other or anyone else. There also needs to be more education involved regarding the purchase of a gun and gun ownership. An individual who has mental health issues and is a threat to themselves or others or has a criminal record should not be able to own a weapon, which I know is already a law, but it needs to be enforced much better. I do know of at least one person that has a criminal record of violence and the person was able to not only purchase a gun but was also given a concealed weapon permit.

Another major issue that seems to be much worst in the United States is the opioid crisis. I have wondered why this seems to be the case and what I have discovered was not too surprising. The people that are to blame for this crisis are the greedy pharmaceutical companies pushing the dangerous and addictive medications, the doctors who are overprescribing these drugs, and the drug dealers who are selling fentanyl. Of course, many people are suffering from chronic pain due to illnesses or are gravely ill due to cancer. Unfortunately, some are addicts and careless. The overdose death rate in the United States is twice as much as in any other country in the world. Preventable opioid deaths are occurring among individuals between the age of 25 to 54. The overdose deaths of those older than 55 are increasing rapidly. The drug dealers that are pushing the extremely deadly drug fentanyl are out of control which has been the cause of 80% of the overdose deaths in 2022.

A very controversial issue in the United States is abortion. This was a legal action for women for almost 50 years. I am not saying that I am pro or against abortion, but I am pro-freedom. This includes for a woman to have the freedom to decide what she does with her own body. You can probably say that I am pro-choice! If a woman gets pregnant after unprotected and consensual sex and can admit she does not have the means to provide for a child or she is raped and decides she cannot carry her rapist’s child, it is her body and her choice to terminate the pregnancy. If the United States wants to continue saying we are a free country, then a woman should be free to her body. Doctors and the government should not be in control of a woman’s body in a free country!

Mental health has been a critical issue in the United States for many decades. There is a very negative stigma that surrounds mental health causing people to feel shame and afraid to try getting help. Even when a person decides they want help, there are limited resources for them to do so. Once they can locate a facility that offers the help they desperately need, the wait list is so long, and the expenses are too high causing them to give up. We need more places to be readily available and affordable to help those who are suffering silently from mental health issues. We need to find ways to remove the negative stigma and be more open to anyone with mental instabilities. This could be a solution that may prevent mass shootings and suicide.

The United States is the only developed country that does not offer free healthcare, but instead, the cost is on a steady and consistent rise. The increase in the cost of healthcare in 2022 was 6% and is expected to increase another 5%. This is ludicrous and unacceptable! The United States is the wealthiest country in the world by a long shot. With this fact, why can healthcare not be a free right for everyone? So many people cannot afford healthcare in America and therefore are left to suffer from ailments and diseases. Even those with expensive healthcare still nearly can go bankrupt due to all the other costs. In a country with outlandish wealth, no human being should ever have to suffer from illness or disease without affordable healthcare.

In my entire 41 years in the world, I have only lived in the United States. I have lived in the northern and southern states, so I do not know if equality is an issue in other countries but do know it is a major issue in the United States. People are judged and treated differently based on where they are from, the color of their skin, religious beliefs, political following, and who they love. None of this makes sense to me and never will. We are all human beings and while I do have my strong views on certain things, I do not judge or think negatively about how others view things or how they live their lives. I only judge and feel a certain way about others based on how they treat other people. I wish everyone from sea to shining sea could learn ways to express love and acceptance more because hate is only going to destroy the planet, we are sharing.

As broken as the country and system appear, there must still be hope for it to be better. The good and honest men that fought for this country many years ago should not have risked their lives in vain. Mine and my husband’s late Grandfathers were a couple of these amazing, strong, and kindhearted men who fought for this country. Their risks along with countless others should be remembered and we should be doing better for people like them and stop the evil hatred the world is conflicted with. Hatred and misery will never do anything positive for anyone, but they will damage the people we love.

Thank you for visiting my site today. Even though what I have shared was emotional and safe, I do hope you found it interesting. I am aware not everyone is going to agree with every word of this post, but this is how I feel about things in the country I live in, and it breaks my heart. I wish the world could be filled with love and compassion, but I do not have any control over how others behave and can only control myself. We do not have to agree with our family or friends, but we need to be respectful of their feelings. I am looking forward to reading your comments and will respond as quickly as I can. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes! 

Always, Alyssa

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2 thoughts on “Toxicity in The United States

  1. “We need more places to be readily available and affordable to help those who are suffering silently from mental health issues. We need to find ways to remove the negative stigma and be more open to anyone with mental instabilities.”
    ____

    There remains platitudinous lip-service by society in general, including police services, when it comes to proactive mental illness prevention as well as treatment. Various mainstream news and social media will state the obvious, that society must open up its collective minds and common dialogue when it comes to far more progressively addressing the challenge of more fruitfully treating and preventing such illness in general.

    But they will typically fail to address the problem of ill men, or even boys, refusing to open up and/or ask for help due to their fear of being perceived by peers, etcetera, as weak/non-masculine. The social ramifications exist all around us; indeed, it is endured, however silently, by males of/with whom we are aware/familiar or to whom so many of us are closely related.

    Even today, there remains a mentality, albeit perhaps a subconscious one: Men can take care of themselves, and boys often are basically little men.

    Even Ms. Jackson Nakazawa’s own book, Childhood Disrupted, was only able to include one man among its six interviewed adult subjects, there presumably being such a small pool of ACE-traumatized men willing to formally tell his own story of childhood abuse.

    One must ask: Is it yet more (in a societal pile of) evidence of a continuing subtle societal take-it-like-a-man mindset, one in which so many men will choose to abstain from ‘complaining’ about their torturous youth, as that is what ‘real men’ do?

    One also sees some of that mentality reflected in, for example, a New York Times feature story (“She Was a Big Hit on TikTok. Then a Fan Showed Up With a Gun”, February 19, 2022). Written by Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson, the piece at one point states that “Instagram, owned by Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has … been accused of causing mental and emotional health problems among teenage female users.”

    The fact is, mental and emotional — along with physical — health problems are being suffered by teenage boys directly due to social media use. Revelatory of the latter is the increasing incidence of social-media-focused obsession among boys with gaining significant muscle mass, a.k.a. “bigorexia”.

    The author of The Highly Sensitive Man (2019, Tom Falkenstein, Ch.1) writes that There are “numerous psychological studies over the last forty years that tell us that, despite huge social change, the stereotypical image of the ‘strong man’ is still firmly with us at all ages, in all ethnic groups, and among all socio-economic backgrounds.

    “In the face of problems, men tend not to seek out emotional or professional help from other people. They use, more often than women, alcohol or drugs to numb unpleasant feelings and, in crises, tend to try to deal with things on their own, instead of searching out closeness or help from others. …”

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