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?

[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]

Complex problem. We have no idea what causes autism. However, in 1975, I heard a lecture about autism. It defined very strict guidelines for the diagnosis. I believe that these guidelines were loosened in later versions of DSM, and then loosened again. This would, of course, lead to the impression of growing amounts of autism in the US, when, actually, the effect would be to allow more families to have access to any special teachers or funds. Mind you, this isn't my area of specialty, but that's the impression I've gotten from outside observation.

[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.

[vertamae.livejournal.com]

I doubt people in this country are any more 'mentally ill' now than they were in the past, it's simply that now there exists a drug for every woe. Not feeling so hot?, pop a pill. Can't concentrate?, pop a pill. Can't get it up?, forget aging, pop a pill, you can be erect for days! I think it's sick, really.

I'm all for therapy and navel gazing, but the prescribing of drugs instead of helping people is a good idea gone bad.

[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...

[bigbigtruck.livejournal.com]

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

[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]

I'm daily faced with people who want to "feel better", and they are sure that there must be something that they could take to do it. Witchdoctors and priests (of the pre-Christian type) have been faced with this same problem throughout history. The difference now is that the drugs actually change brain chemistry...

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

**Applause**

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

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

[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...

[eve-dallas.livejournal.com]

Still, some people need some kind of help or guidance to cope. The demands put on people who shoulder the burden of their own support by their employers are often enormous. Add to that the 'suggestive' burdens put on people by advertising in general. In many cases (like mine, I guess) I've let outside influences put so many expectations on me that sometimes I can't cope. There are days I would almost welcome oblivion - not the permanent kind, just the luxury of being able to turn off everything I need to do and turn to something I want to do.

[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]

*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.

[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....

[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!

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

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

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

There is something about having everything and being miserable...and being the survivor of concentration camps and being spiritually uplifted - that's worth some study. How do these two states happen, and how do we get both camps into the "happy" category?

Rule #1 - you can't buy it. That's for certain.

[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.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Something fast, cheap and won't make them examine their own selves too deeply. Yup, yup.

You'd think after a while, even they would realize that that way lies madness....

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

I've wondered about that, and the ADD/ADHD/etc. increase as well. I wonder if diet has something to do with it, particularly things that weren't around or as prevalent when I was a kid, such as corn sweeteners, heavily processed foods, trans fats, etc. I wonder if chemicals used in the environment around us have anything to do with it. I wonder if it's exacerbated by maternal stress (Gods know the stress level, overall, has increased). I wonder if it's a combination of factors that we don't know about, because the effect on fetuses, babies, and children of all of the above has not been studied.

[mycroftca.livejournal.com]

Let's just say that plenty of concentration camp survivors weren't uplifted. Simon Wiesenthal probably didn't enjoy spending decades gathering historical evidence of the Holocaust, for example. But it seems a tenet of many religions that mortification of the flesh improves the spirit.