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It's surprising to me the number of people in the US who are on anti-depressants, seeing a therapist, abuse substances, or people who are mentally ill enough that they struggle to maintain friendships and relationships.
I had noticed this when I was dating. It seems that everyone has some sort of issue with depression, substance abuse, or even worse. And it's hard to find someone who is genuinely happy with life.
Lastly, I'm sure we have either seen or heard of mentally ill people roaming the streets in big cities in the US. Almost every time I get on public transit in the US, there are a decent amount of clearly mentally ill people on it. I've never seen this in other countries.
I think there is not more mental illness, but there is no longer a stigma, so we are more aware of it.
The old mental institutions are closed, so now we have mentally ill people living on the streets. They really threw the baby out with the bath water when they shut them down, rather than made them better.
I think there is not more mental illness, but there is no longer a stigma, so we are more aware of it.
The old mental institutions are closed, so now we have mentally ill people living on the streets. They really threw the baby out with the bath water when they shut them down, rather than made them better.
Good call! In a way, it's a good sign that we're more aware of it and the stigma's gone, because it means people are getting help that didn't used to have access to help, or families covered up "milder" forms of mental illness, like personality disorders, by referring to members of the extended family a "quirky", but believed the quirkiness to be within broadly-defined parameters of normal. And most people weren't well-enough informed about mental health issues to even be able to recognize patterns of behavior that were indicative of some condition. A lot of it was normalized. For that matter, even mental health care professionals didn't have enough knowledge about the signs of certain disorders, narcissism comes to mind, to know how it plays out and affects family systems. Nor about its root causes.
And when disordered and abusive behavior is normalized, it means kids growing up in that type of environment grow up to have issues themselves. But at least now, a) there's no longer a stigma to seeking help, and more importantly--b) mental health care research and innovations have finally reached the point where the profession is able to effectively diagnose and treat people with conditions like trauma, that it had a very poor understanding of before.
I agree about throwing the baby out with the bath water. The problem is, there was a lot of abuse going on in those wards. Now there are only temporary stays, but abuse is still a risk. It's prevented to some extent with surveillance cameras, I'm told. Funding for community mental health clinics needs to be increased, so the severely mentally ill can get the consistent help they need. When the permanent-residency hospitals were closed, insufficient funding was provided for the alternative--community clinics, not to mention of course, some kind of funding for housing the former hospital inmates/residents.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 09-16-2022 at 12:34 PM..
There has always been a lot of mental illness of varying types in America and elsewhere, but some of it was disguised as alcoholism. People self-medicated, which caused problems for others around them. I'm reminded of something I read about the British Empire; the officials and bureaucrats employed to run all the offices in far-flung countries and provinces included a significant percentage of alcoholics who didn't carry out their responsibilities satisfactorily, but they were covered for by higher-ups. It was a giant Old Boys Network, that strove to keep its officials employed, because nearly all had families to support. I've heard a similar thing said of the US Navy during the Vietnam war; lots of drinking went on, but everyone covered for each other.
Alcoholism used to be acceptable in US society. It was partially hidden in the cocktail party culture of the mid-20th Century and earlier. And that wasn't/isn't exclusive to the US. It's an issue that's found around the world. Alcoholism tends to lead to abuse within the family, which causes a domino effect of mental health or emotional issues for the next generation, leading in many cases to generations of abuse and the resulting trauma.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 09-16-2022 at 12:30 PM..
There are so many factors: poor nutrition, poor hygeine, pollution, physical, mental and sexual abuse, lack of education, poverty, violence on screens of various types... some people have all of these things. Welfare pays for minor children who are often born specifically to be a meal ticket. Too many people have been born into a situation like that and those numbers are growing.
As a cashier, I see so many people who are mentally ill to varying degrees. They are coping with life to varying degrees of effectiveness. Some days it is mind-boggling just how many compromised people there are in our U.S. society.
The food/terrible diets also contributes to this.
One in 6 are on some sort of psychiatric drugs now in the US.
Keep in mind that a lot of psychiatric drugs are also used for non-psychiatric issues. I get migraines and there are a couple of antidepressants that are used to treat them. Cymbalta is used to treat nerve pain and depression. Depakote treats mental illness but also treats seizure and migraine.
Birth control can also cause mood issues. I took one pill briefly that caused almost immediate serious depression. I have had other friends say they started medication that made them depressed, but it was less noticeable so that it took them a while to notice it.
Also, it’s only been since the ACA that insurance covers mental health treatment again. Prior to that, the benefits were slashed a while back. It was hard for people to actually get any coverage for medications or any treatment. If you know you can’t afford to get any treatment or your insurance won’t cover it, why are you even going to bother?
Several years ago we used to wonder if it was being caused partly by violent video games. I didn't used to think so but I've changed my mind. Then look at what's on tv. So much violence and crime that I don't know how anyone can watch it. Most entertainment now seems to consist of violence and crime. Not many wholesome and innocent tv shows and movies anymore. Crime and violence have become normal.
There's also the overly permissive style of parenting that's existed for some time now. Give them a medal for everything, don't hurt their feelings, always make them a winner. As a result, when they grow up and fail at something in the real world, they cannot cope because they have never lost before. Also, some are even dependent upon their moms to come to college and talk to their professors on their behalf. These are adults who still have the emotional age of children, children who never learned self discipline and never learned to deal with not winning all the time. They become despondent and can't deal with it. What do they know how to do? (See paragraph #1.) They know about crime and violence. So that's what they do.
What other people here have mentioned too, not just what I said, but multiple reasons. We do need treatment and shelters and hospitals for the really mentally ill.
violence and sex -the movie industry gives us what we want to see.
I agree,you work all day and want to relax in the evening,who wants to see all that killing ?
I think in the US there are no more social constraints. Or at least not as much as in Europe for example. You can do whatever you like here. You can choose not to work, you can go out in your underwear, do some drugs for fun etc etc. Basically, you do whatever you want for years and years, living on the edge so to speak.
Then it's very easy to just fell over the edge. And then it's too late.
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