I was doing research for some upcoming radio interviews. I found statistics that surprised me and bolsters a theory I’ve had for some time:

People in the US are unhappy and stressed-out with the reality of their day-to-day lives… and an astonishing number of them are trying to numb the pain rather than confront the cause.

I’m referring to the current users of prescription anti-depressants and the estimated number of alcoholics! There are 54 million people on prozac and 15 million on lexapro. That’s 69 million people taking anti-depressants… and that’s only two of the drugs that are currently available. Add to that the current estimate that 4% of the population qualify as alcoholics…which is another 12 million people.

That’s 81 million people medicating themselves with anti-depressants or alcohol.

I’m not even including “illegal drugs”. Who knows how many millions more that will add the the total. The point I’m making here is that virtually one out of every three adults is so unhappy and stressed out that they must have some kind of medication in order to cope with it!.

They cope instead of making changes.

I maintain that this is a ticking time bomb. You can’t just bury how you feel under layers of mood altering substances. You’re just putting off dealing with the problem… that is until it turns into some kind of chronic illness. You can’t bury stress with drugs.

Too many people deny the truth.

They are unhappy. They are stressed… and they are turning themselves into emotional zombies! A pill or drink is never going to change the day-to-day effects of your attitudes, opinions and beliefs. You can temporarily silence the feelings of panic, dismay, fear, uncertainty and doubt.

But you will never get back the time you’ve lost avoiding the real reason for your stress: How you feel about yourself and the subsequent decisions and expectations that flow from that “truth”.

-Bob Baran