Is there any evidence that there is less mental illness in societies

[raccoon]

where people have more of a sense of community than the average person does in present day USA?

Recently there was a thread about how 1 in 6 Americans is on psychotropic meds.
( http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028360210 ) To me that indicates something wrong with the society. Someone pointed out that a few decades ago, many of those people would self-medicate with alcohol. Which is true, and comes back to the question of is there something wrong with the society.

Or is mental illness that common in humankind?

[RobinA]

1. Serious Mental Illness

is across the board. The worried well? Probably more of a First World Problem, and I don't mean that in an insulting way. Different societies spawn different issues in their members, and the issues are more or less debilitating in different societies.

In my opinion, there will always be "something wrong with society," because a well-functioning society depends on most people flying in formation (different societies, different formations) and that doesn't always work well for an individual who does better flying a different way.

Psychotropic med use probably isn't a good indication of prevalence of mental illness, it's more a measure of access. Think of a society such as Haiti, and I'm just using this as an example. The PTSD rate there must be significant and I doubt you'll find significant treatment for that. Lack of treatment doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist.

[raccoon]

2. Oh sure, just as in previous decades--and now--there are plenty of

people who have mental illness but they haven't been diagnosed, due to lack of medical care, stigma, etc.

Lack of treatment doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist.