shit life syndrome

A British journalist in 2017 wrote an article on the health crisis in Blackpool where more than a tenth of the working-age population was deemed unfit to work on medical grounds.  Antidepressants were flowing freely.  Life expectancy was the lowest in England.  The medical staff there had a name for what they saw as the result not just of an individual’s poor health but of a social condition linked to poverty and deprivation that meant that the health of the community suffered.  They called this the shit life syndrome (SLS).  The Americans also had communities suffering severe economic downturns and government neglect so they had adopted the term SLS.  The Australian version of shit life syndrome is probably most commonly seen in outback communities but we have not yet fully embraced the term.