How Our Society Breeds Anxiety, Depression and Dysfunction

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/how-our-society-breeds-anxiety-depression-and-dysfunction



Severe, disabling mental illness has dramatically increased in the Untied States. “The tally of those who are so disabled by mental disorders that they qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) increased nearly two and a half times between 1987 and 2007—from one in 184 Americans to one in 76. For children, the rise is even more startling—a thirty-five-fold increase in the same two decades,” as Marcia Angell summarizes in the New York Times Book Review.

Angell also reports that a large survey of adults conducted between 2001 and 2003 sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health found that at some point in their lives, 46 percent of Americans met the criteria established by the American Psychiatric Association for at least one mental illness.

In 1998, Martin Seligman, then president of the American Psychological Association, spoke to the National Press Club about an American depression epidemic: “We discovered two astonishing things about the rate of depression across the century. The first was there is now between ten and twenty times as much of it as there was fifty years ago. And the second is that it has become a young person’s problem. When I first started working in depression thirty years ago. . . the average age of which the first onset of depression occurred was 29.5. . . .Now the average age is between 14 and 15.”

In 2011, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that antidepressant use in the United States has increased nearly 400% in the last two decades, making antidepressants the most frequently used class of medications by Americans ages 18-44 years. By 2008, 23% of women ages 40–59 years were taking antidepressants.

[steve2470]

1. extraordinarily important rec and kick nt

[Turbineguy]

2. Luckily, we have

the NRA who wants to make sure these people have unfettered access to guns.

[BainsBane]

3. Part of it is likely the result of greater isolation

breakdown of social ties, etc.... However, people also are more likely to seek help than in the past, which means higher diagnosis rates.

[Supersedeas]

11. that has to be a huge aggravating factor

[Fumesucker]

4. There are two major natural responses to continously getting the short end of the societal stick

The first is anger and resentment while the second is depression and withdrawal.

We are seeing more of both and it really doesn't help that the media is a Niagara of excrement largely designed to provoke either anger or depression since both tend to be addictive.

[xchrom]

5. +1

[nashville_brook]

15. people get addicted to having their rage nuts tickled...

which is why FOX news is still around. it's not news -- it's a rage machine. and people crave it.

[MindPilot]

16. The level of helplessness is building too.

I think many of us have come to the realization over the past decade that what little control over our own lives we thought we had really isn't there. Our representatives do not represent us, voting will not change anything except the name of the ass in the chair, marches are no longer any more effective than a parade, the barriers that stood between citizens and prison are crumbling, and you have no power at work because, well, it's not like you can just get pissed off, quit and find another job. Basically I think the main cause is people beginning to realize whether they know it or not, that it's over. Everything we've worked for, all the dreams we had are fading. Gone.

[Heidi]

6. Kick and

mornin', sunshine!

[xchrom]

7. Miss Heidi! good morning to you! i just had to try out my new coat for Brunch yesterday...

[JNelson6563]

8. Something to consider

there are doctors out there who are mighty quick to prescribe anti-depressants. So many people are taking these!

After waiting several years to see a doctor, due to no insurance, I finally went to see one about my brutal menopause symptoms. All physical. I get hot flashes so bad I turn bright red. I once had a stretch of nightsweats that saturated a couple of towels every night and it went for 5 months straight. The sleep deprivation was worse than having a newborn.

Well I went to a woman doctor thinking she might better understand it all but boy was I wrong! Not only was she very rude in that every second she spent with me was keeping her from something important, she wanted to prescribe anti-depressants for menopause. I'm not depressed. I am in a pretty good mood every day. I fit in naps if I'm short on sleep.

I have a couple of friends who had her as a doc. Sure enough they both got hooked on some really strong anti-depressants that are very expensive (and they no longer have insurance) and the withdrawals are brutal! What they go through reminds me very much of what an opiate addict I know has gone through.

I have to believe there is a vested interest by doctors to prescribe this crap. If nothing else they can demand office visits every few months to "monitor" the addicts they've created. I mean hey, rack up an extra $150 office visit for a five minute hey-howya-doin?-Here's-a-new-'script.-Buh-bye! job, right?

In related news, I often wonder about many of the drugs that are prescribed of late. Seems EVERYONE absolutely *needs* some prescription or other just to live, or at least they believe so. Hard to believe humankind made it so long before the existence of big pharma.

Julie

[progressoid]

9. I know of two people who were also prescribed anti-depressants for hotflashes.

It's not because they were depressed but to treat the hot flashes. It worked for them. YMMV.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) affect the brain's use of a neurotransmitter chemical called serotonin, which is thought to have a role in regulating body heat...Antidepressant therapy helps many men and women who have hot flashes from cancer treatment...http://www.webmd.com/menopause/antidepressants-for-hot-flashes

[JNelson6563]

10. So does estrogen.

And I've yet to hear of anyone who went through crazy awful estrogen withdrawal other than menopause symptoms returning.

I was surprised and disappointed that this was the very first answer. I had been in this woman's office 5 minutes or less before she offered to prescribe.

If that's how this shit's doles out, yeah, no wonder we've got a nation of folks strung out on it, convinced they can't live "normal" lives without it.

No thanks. I'll keep waiting it out and trying different natural remedies. Eventually I'll find a helpful one or menopause will lessen/end. Either way I won't find myself with an addiction to a drug that fucks you up.

Julie

[marions ghost]

13. Acupuncture

and Chinese medicine.

Just sayin'--for depression or menopause or whatever ails ya.

Can prevent going down the drug road.

[Flying Squirrel]

12. .

[marions ghost]

14. What a statement about our society-- that a quarter

of all women in their prime take anti-depressants. I don't blame them but I wish they didn't have to.

I think our society does make people depressed. Imagine what it would be like to live in a country where people didn't have to fear for basic needs. When you are always operating out of a sense of lack, out of fear and insecurity--you WILL be depressed. It is hard to think good thoughts about our children's future. It is hard to go through a single day without some worry about economics or what the evildoers in business and government are doing. It is depressing to see the extent of environmental degradation and feel powerless to stop it. It is depressing to see the American war machine operating 24/7. It is hard to witness gun violence day in, day out. It is depressing to realize that we are not building for the future, that we are mired in the past.

What if we could feel we live in a forward looking place, a country we could be proud of, where we are all pulling together for the common good? Can we even imagine that?

We must try, because it's going to be up to us to create it.