Year 2 A.K.

What has happened in the last two years. I (rich) moved from Philly to the Chi. J and his wife dropped a kid. TSO is still rolling along. And New Orleaneans are still suffering.

Call it “Katrina stress” or the “Katrina funk”, but it’s all too real — and it has real implications for the future health of the city. While the physical devastation of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina has been well documented, the psychic toll is just becoming clear. The suicide rate has nearly tripled, depression is common, domestic abuse is on the rise, and self-medicating with booze is a favored method of forgetting.
As bad as it is right now, the real crisis will come if the city can’t resolve the post-Katrina lack of primary care and rising depression. “In five years, we’ll be the stroke capital of the world, the heart disease capital of the world,” warns DeBlieux. “We’re going to see long-range complications from diabetes and heart disease and stress because people are neglecting primary care now.”

The State Of . . . Us is not good.