1 In 5 Americans With Mental Illness, National Survey

[RKP5637]

I can easily see this as factual, much as I learned as a student years ago. I also think some in politics and hopefuls have some serious issues, many undiagnosed. Now, the 20% is diagnosed, I think we would be stunned to see the total figure including undiagnosed below the radar screen. And, treatment for mental health issues is probably on the bottom of the totem pole as many can't get treated for physical problems.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240539.php

Some 45.9 million, or around 1 in 5 American adults (age 18 and over) experienced a mental illness in the past year, according to the US government's latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released this month.

The survey, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), finds that the rate of mental illness among 18 to 25-year-olds was more than twice as high as among people aged 50 and over (29.9% versus 14.3% respectively).

The survey report defines mental illness as having a diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorder based on criteria given in DSM-IV (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders edition IV, published by the American Psychiatric Association, APA, in 1994). The definition excludes developmental and substance use disorders.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in developed countries mental illness accounts for more disability than any other group of illnesses, including heart disease and cancer.

The economic impact of mental illness in the US is high: estimates suggest it came to about $300 billion in 2002.

[quinnox]

1. Jesus, that seems awful high to me

Maybe all that doping up of kids with drugs for ADHD or related psychology stuff is screwing these kids up?

[RKP5637]

2. I had about the same told to me in class years ago. Kids today IMO are under tremendous

stress, I'm not too surprised. Yep, agree, some of the items you mentioned also contribute IMO for the higher youth rate ... I think.

[arbusto_baboso]

3. And isn't it also about 1 in 5 Americans...

Who still self-identify as Republican voters?

Methinks there's a large overlap in the two demographics...

Just sayin'.

[HereSince1628]

9. Closer to woeful than wooful

Just sayin'.

[RKP5637]

15. I do, some of the republican presidential candidates, for example, were more than a bit bizarre.

And their followers a bit delusional IMO.

[upaloopa]

4. Speaking as one of the one in five and as a

County worker in an alcohol, drug and mental health dept , we as a people rely on anecdotal information as our chief source of information on mental illness. Way to much woo here.

[hunter]

5. Many would not be "ill" in a gentle society.

"Eccentric" maybe, but not "ill."

Much mental illness is a consequence of inhumane and toxic social conditions; it's an environmental disease just like lead poisoning.

Some mental illnesses are related to other health problems -- poor nutrition, lack of exercise, chronic inflammatory diseases...

Some mental illnesses are just mental illnesses -- simple "brain chemistry" problems that can be treated with medicine, or tangled and confused thought processes that can be treated with "talk therapy" and other non-pharmaceutical methods. Sometimes it's a combination of both.

My own most serious mental health issues seem to be entirely chemical and unrelated to my social environment. While I take meds I'm functional in bad situations or good situations. When I don't take meds I visit a very dark place where I'm driven almost entirely by my obsessions and paranoia. Talk therapy has been helpful to me when cleaning up the wreckage of my non-medicated misadventures, but it's useless to me without meds. It's the same with other non-pharmaceutical approaches such as meditation. When I take my meds I'm somewhat functional. When I don't take my meds I'm not functional.

[tk2kewl]

6. absolutely

you might as well flip the ratio... if you're not depressed by the state of the world there must be something wrong with you

[RKP5637]

7. Exactly!!! Often I think it's the better people in the world that develop issues. If one

objectively looks out at earth, it's a seriously fucked up place. To me, it's damn difficult to not be depressed by the state of earth, probably why sociopaths thrive so well, they just don't give a fuck about anyone they are so damn uncaring.

[progressoid]

10. There's a difference

between being sad about the world as it is and being clinically depressed. Big difference.

It's likely that everyone gets a little depressed by the state of the world. But that in no way is comparable to mental illness.

[RKP5637]

12. Yes, very very true. n/t

[Gore1FL]

8. This may explain the 20% who still approve of Dick Cheney. n/t

[justabob]

11. .... as many can't get treated for physical problems.

It makes me wonder how many of those physical problems are actually symptoms/results of the mental issues. I say this because I know for myself that my mental stuff manifests itself in physical pain, sometimes debilitating physical pain... never mind damage done by various self medication via alcohol, drugs and any number of other thing. I think our medical institutions do us a great disservice keeping mental/brain health separate and unequal from physical well being.... mens sana in corpore sano and all that.

[RKP5637]

13. Definitely, as you say, the physical and the mental are very intertwined. n/t

[struggle4progress]

14. Maybe it's time to start taking some nonstandard approaches to psychiatry seriously

I'll happily agree that psychiatric distress is real and can have real and debilitating effects in peoples' lives. But maybe some of our current social notions of normality and abnormality completely ignore the alienations intrinsic in what is currently regarded as "normal" society, and maybe substantial psychiatric distress mightsometimes be an entirely natural response of the organism to impossible circumstances

[RKP5637]

16. Many live in 'double-bind' situations today, more than enough to precipitate serious

dourest feelings IMO. And, our enforcement of what is considered normality and then prejudice and persecutory behavior, often legal, toward those not fitting that arbitrary and oftentimes stupid norm.