Bet this caught you by surprise -

[kyburg]

Not.

He said he was disappointed to learn from the survey that despite the availability of effective treatments for many mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety, about a third of people in need rely solely on nonprofessional sources such as Internet support groups and spiritual advisers.

Uh, One-quarter of all Americans met the criteria for having a mental illness within the past year, and fully a quarter of those had a "serious" disorder that significantly disrupted their ability to function day to day, according to the largest and most detailed survey of the nation's mental health, published yesterday.

Folkies.

I am NOT a trained professional. When I tell you that you'd benefit from professional counseling or therapy, get the eff out of here and get it.

That's all the code I'm throwing at you today.

Now. Who's surprised that we're leading the world in mental illness? Anyone?

Not just depression, mind. Sick in the head, mental illness.

And lagging waaaaay behind in treatment. Surprise surprise.

Comments

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

Most places don't have anywhere near the number of mental health professionals that we do here, and it comes as no surprise that they'd tell folks that many people would be diagnosed with mental disease if they went to a psych professional. No surprise at all.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

You want to weigh in on the larger (and growing) numbers of children being diagnosed with autism?

[natsumi.livejournal.com]

Doesn't surprise me at all. Maybe a comparison of what percentage of people with mental illness do not have access to health insurance would shed some light on the problem?

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

That's the biggest issue with treating mentall illnesses. Most of the patients can't cope with basic life requirements (they don't eat, they don't sleep and tell me you're going to function well with those two things missing, let alone the mental-foo they're dealing with, so no job either) - so most of them don't have the funds to afford therapy, let alone have group coverage.

[vertamae.livejournal.com]

Au contraire, I'd say we're overtreated, overdiagnosed, overmedicated, by a long shot. And I blame the drug companies and their damned television advertising. Everyone wants drugs, and too many people are taking them.

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

I agree with your first conclusion, but the drug companies are responding to an apparent need, as promulgated by supposed professionals. I suspect that we have an excess of mental health professionals who must report whopping numbers of mentally diseased folks to frighten funds out of the taxpayers.

[shutt3rg33k.livejournal.com]

Then again, many countries don't have services available to diagnose, let alone treat, the majority of their populations. Culture comes into play somewhat here, too, as mental illness is often dealt with in very different ways, ie. assigned a different value, ignored completely, etc. And who's to say which is right?

Having lived in a "second world" country, I believe that most people here do not have a good grasp on how radically different life most elsewhere truly is. But that's a soapbox of a different color...

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

...a point I'd like to have made...

[bigbigtruck.livejournal.com]

But medical treatment is for the weak! It's all in your head! Buck up and get better!

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*looks at the other comments*

What concerns me is that the article covered everything related to mental illness - the schitzophrenics and truly broken brains, included.

Nah, there's no stigma to having a mental illness. Nothing that would prevent a reasonable person from seeking care if they suspected one. NAAAAAAW.

[kali-ma.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a member of that camp myself, I can tell you a major reason why we don't seek the "effective treatment" they speak of - because it doesn't exist. What they do instead is drug you till you are drooling and then say "Don't you feel better now? Of COURSE you do!" Then feign confusion when most patients refuse their medication unless forced to take it. Um... if mental illness is mainly something which causes mental anguish, and the treatment they give out (drugs) supposedly makes you feel so much better and is therefore effective, then why on earth would people stop taking it so often? The few who don't stop taking it are the few whom it does actually help.

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

**Applause**

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Drugs are only cheaper. Cheaper, here in the States, is ALWAYS better.

The latest studies don't even show they work better than a $5 paperback book and some lessons in congnitive therapy. But those lessons are $100 an hour, yanno.

I refused medication. Unless the circumstances are dire, I recommend that stance.

Conservative treatment - always - but for crying out loud, treatment!

[http://users.livejournal.com/little_e_/]

i know people whom it really does help, but stop taking it anyway. on meds, they're functional, happy people. off meds, they're basically suicidal. they'll stop anyway, because who wants to be on meds? they look at themselves and say, yeah, i can do this! i can be happy! i don't need ot be broken anymore! and so they go off their meds, try really hard, and end up in hospital again.

[eve-dallas.livejournal.com]

When I was in the Marine Corps, there was a med that was given out for everything from a hangnail to flu symptoms to symptoms of clinical depression. It was called 'GI Gin'. I reported to sickbay with flu-like symptoms and was given a bottle of that and ok-ed to return to work.

Turns out, it was an experimental thing made up of some extract of turpentine mixed with alcohol and a touch of codiene. I don't know what harm it did, but we all felt really good when taking it.

My second-oldest daughter is in the throes of something. She hasn't worked for over a year. She has looked sporadically, but doesn't seem to care about much except keeping up with her online game...

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I think that falls under the "online support groups" clause, doncha think?

[neintales.livejournal.com]

I tend to get way WAY too wrapped up in my online gaming when feeling depressed/lonely or helpless about something going on in RL. It might be she's having some kind of depression/relationship worries? Not that I'm a professional.. but I know for me I spend too much time online when I feel a seperation from real-life friends and am having a hard time making new ones, as well as when I have been unhappy with real-life jobs/finances/projects.

It's just so much easier to get compliments and teamwork and things done in games than it is out of them, I feel like I accomplish something further in it than in getting my resume's rejected or having awkward conversations with people I've just met.

[solidkz.livejournal.com]

That's pure addiction with perhaps a bit of escapism thrown in.

Unless she's a pure introvert like my Brother-in-law who prefers the company of one or two people or a video game to getting out. Of course, he has a job and gives that his full attention when the time calls for it, but still. All of his free time is spent playing MMORPGs side-by-side with my sister.

[evilshell.livejournal.com]

The way I'd read articles on this is that depression was included - but perhaps they meant severe depression.

What scares me most is that Bush wants to have mental health screenings for all children (and was it adults, too? I can't remember).

I am not surprised by these findings, however. The little things tell me a lot - in America, so much goes on with insanity, with crimes that are unimaginable (child abductions and murders, random murders, serial killers and serial killers who like to eat their victims, etc. etc. etc.). I wonder what it is that is producing this........

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Do us all a favor - you're there. (I've been there too, but it's been a while.)

Ask what you should do if you need to see someone for a mental illness. Say, hmm. Not depression (but you can check if you want for extra credit) - say, an alcholic uncle, or a agoraphobic housewife....

[pseudicide.livejournal.com]

Nope, not surprised at all either...

[moropus.livejournal.com]

I blame a faster paced life, TV shows of perfect life to give us the 'I wants', inadequate nutrition because nobody cooks proper meals and eats fruits and veggies anymore, food with all the nutrition processed right out of it, air pollution, pesticides, herbicides, fumes from plastics and other artificial substances, chemicals in soaps, lotions and household cleansers and a whole world of chemicals that no one has every been exposed to before our lifetimes. Nobody knows what that stuff does to you or your descendents over the long term. We are a walking experiment for chemical manufacturing.
That's my pet theory for one side of the problem.

And coping skills, or lack thereof is the other side of the problem. My grandparents taught their kids to cope with life being hard. My parents started to do that, and didn't finish. My brother's kids have it all and don't know how to cope with anything. Every generation wants to make things easier for the kids, and now the kids don't know how to cope with anything.

I also think some people may have a higher ability to adapt to change which could be a great help in mentally and emotionally stressful situations.

Guess I'll put away the soap box now.

[http://users.livejournal.com/little_e_/]

I think the increase has to do with two things.

1, our diagnosing techniques are just plain better these days. One of my favorite books deals with the history of werewolves from the days of stake-burning to clinical pyschology and lycanthropic disorders. I mean, honestly, back in the 1800s, an autisitc child would have simply been considered fucked up.

2, life is a lot better for us these days. Used to be people had enough to worry about with, you know, crop failures, really high death rates, etc. If people were unhappy, it was probably because they were starving. the ratio of people who are unhappy because of bad shit compared to the ratio of people unhappy because of mental issues was probably very different.

i think, in a sort of priority of needs sort of ways, that when people are faced with death and starvation and barely ekeing out their existences, in a sense they don't have time to worry about mental illnesses. the mentally ill are either put to work doing some menial chore, or they die, or something. people don't really have time to be depressed.

make people basically comfy, and now they can actually focus on the little things. personally, i cry more often when i feel emotionally stable and secure than when i'm really unhappy. when i'm really unhappy, it's more emotion than i can safely deal with and so i have to lock it up down inside of me. but when i feel secure and comfortable, then i can actually deal with shit.

so i think in a sense we're secure and comfortable enough, and have the technology, to actually go around diagnosing and worrying about mental illness instead of worrying about locusts, and that's why there's so many more mentally ill people these days.

oh, yeah. number three: We live longer, and older people have a much higher chance of developing alzheimer's or some other mental degenerative disorder...


as for treatment, that's another sticky can of worms. i am personally very distrustful of psychiatrists, just because even the good ones i've known have acted like morons. which isn't to say that therapy can't be good, just that it can only be as good as the person doing the therapy, and in my experience the vast majority of people are, to some extent, in various contexts, morons (myself included.)

some people need therapy. some people need drugs. i myself am wary of drugs, but that's because i don't think my issues are such that i need to be medicated. I am functional, i am happy, etc. However, i know people who have tried to go off their meds (because who wants to go through life knowing that you can only be functional if you take little happy pills int he morning) and have literally ended up in the hospital for trying to commit suicide. other people i know don't actually become suicidal, but they become shrieking hell-bitches who drive away everyone else and become exceedingly miserable.

that said, i think we medicate people for the wrong stuff in a lot of cases. I used to be on medicine for ADD; it fucked with my appetite, my brain chemistry (duh) etc. being on stimulants as a teenager/adolescent for many years will do bad stuff to you. i think that life would have been much better for me if i'd only been on meds for a year (or less.) By taking the medicine, i was able to see what life was like for other people--and train myself to act like that when i needed to. it was valuable, but i didn't need to continue. I think most people with minor disorders like ADD can function perfectly damn well without medicine and should not be on it--at least not for any extended period.

people who become non-functional without medicine are a different kettle of fish. i think we over-medicate functional people because htey're different and we have to deal with that, and then undermedicate the non-functional people because they're ashamed or can't find good help. it's easy to get diagnosed with ADD. bi-polar? that's a different issue.

at any rate, medicine shouldn't be given in a vacuum. not only should people be watched (mmm overdosing...) people with serious conditions that need medicating should be in therapy, and this is where i think the system breaks down. not only because therapists can easily suck, but also because insurance companies don't like to pay for therapy.

[http://users.livejournal.com/little_e_/]

...my father has a terminal disease and my mother is his full-time caregiver. do you think this made her depressed? hell yeah. so she went to a few therapists to try and cope with shit, and her insurance got canceled. he's dying, but he can get insurance because his problems are just physical. but she had to go almost a year without insurance just because she got depressed.

it's all fucked up.

[miwasatoshi.livejournal.com]

If you think mental services in the States are bad ...

... try being mentally ill in Japan.

You aren't. You are either possessed by demons, or simply a bad person who doesn't belong in society.

[adriannightpaw.livejournal.com]

As a Psychologist in training, this doesn't surprise me one bit. The point however, is that there are two kinds of "mental illness." Those caused by actual chemical inbalances and physical "Brain foo" i believe it was called, and those called by the person's internal issues. Drugs should only be used as a last resort, and then only for actual physical symptoms. You have all hit on some good points. Yes, services are far too expensive. However, We face the same problems as doctors. Namely, that while we work we can be sued for every little thing and we have several thousand in loans to pay off. Most Mental health care professionals can't afford to offer services much cheaper than they do. I do also agree that Health professionals don't know everything. The disorders caused by the client's own mental issues, we really can't do anything about. It's all caused by you, so you have to fix it. I'm not saying that therapy can't help you do it, but in the end it comes back to the individual. That's a limitation we face. As for the other, more physical symptoms, I agree that the "Drug them up" approach used by far too many professionals is sick and wrong. I guess I'm saying don't lump us all in the "Evil doctor" box. We are actually trying to help.

[silvercatmon.livejournal.com]

If I had the money or some insurance I would not hesitate to get professional help.
Since I have neither, I'll just take my Meds and try to deal with it myself.
When I was in school at least I could use their counseling would was helpful, but not enough, now I'm on my own.