Even in the affluent West, life is a trial. In the list below, some have two or three of these problems at the same time, while others may have none at the present but eventually will. This is a list put together by a psychiatrist “in a wealthy, mostly-white college town consistently ranked one of the best places to live in the country.” His specific instances are problems no one would wish to have to deal with. Here is his list of a macro breakdown of the misery that can be seen to exist if one takes a cross-section of the population.

– About 1% of people are in prison at any given time
– About 2% of people are on probation, which can actually be really limiting and unpleasant
– About 1% of people are in nursing homes or hospices
– About 2% of people have dementia
– About 20% of people have chronic pain, though this varies widely with the exact survey question, but we are not talking minor aches here. About two-thirds of people with chronic pain describe it as “constant”, and half of people describe it as “unbearable and excruciating”.
– About 7% of people have depression in any given year
– About 2% of people are cognitively disabled aka mentally retarded
– About 1% of people are schizophrenic
– About 20% of people are on food stamps
– About 1% of people are wheelchair-bound
– About 7% of people are alcoholic
– About 0.5% of people are chronic heroin users
– About 5% of people are unemployed as per the official definition which includes only those looking for jobs
– About 3% of people are former workers now receiving disability payments
– About 1% of people experience domestic violence each year
– About 10% of people were sexually abused as children, many of whom are still working through the trauma.
– Difficult to get statistics, but possibly about 20% of people were physically abused as children, likewise.
– About 9% of people (male and female) have been raped during their lifetime, likewise.

Bleak is the word for it. And even if one has no misfortunes to report so far, it is hard to get through life with no major moment of misery. But perhaps the lesson is not to read lists written down by psychiatrists.