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The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:11:04 AM   
mistoferin


Posts: 8284
Joined: 10/27/2004
Status: offline 		First off I would like to say that I am not attempting to make light of anyone's issues. This post is about my own observations and a quest for the thoughts and opinions of others on the subject.

Diagnosis of mental illness is at an all time high. Prescriptions for mood altering drugs are also at an all time high.

Do you believe that there really is such a huge increase in mental illness and if so, what do you attribute it to? If you don't believe the seemingly high rate of increase, where do you think this is all coming from.

When I was growing up, there was no such terms as ADD or ADHD. Looking back I don't see that there were any huge numbers of children who seemed to be affected by such conditions. Sure, there were your random children who were sometimes a discipline problem who might have fit the criteria, but it certainly seemed far more rare than the numbers we have today.

As a teen and young adult, I didn't know many people who were chronically depressed, manic depressive or who suffered from anxiety attacks. Yes, there were some but they were few and far between. If the issues were large enough they generally saw counselors and therapists. Medications were not prescribed on anywhere near the scale they are doled out today.

Speaking to folks much older than myself about these things they say that these issues were not prevalent in "their times" in the way they are today. There were no quick fixes and you dealt with life on life's terms. Unruly behavior from children (or adults) was simply not tolerated by society in general and those who chose to exhibit such were quickly addressed.

Today it seems that every other person I meet is taking some kind of medication to alter moods. Even here on these boards there have been many who have stated that they are diagnosed with this or that and are taking this or that. It leads me to wonder about the validity of the numbers that seem to increase with each passing day.

If indeed this increase is valid, what could be causing it? The foods we eat? The additives that are embedded in all of our commerical edibles today? Environmental factors?

If this increase is not valid....who is behind the numbers? Big pharmaceutical companies pushing doctors to sell their products? Doctors who don't take the time to get to the root causes? Patients who expect quick fixes?

I once went to see a doctor for severe upper respiratory infection. During the course of the visit I told him that one of my dearest friends had passed away and her funeral two days away. I had said that it was a difficult time and I was hoping that I would be feeling better in time for the funeral. He took out his prescription pad and wrote two prescriptions. One for antibiotics....one for an antidepressant. I asked him why he prescribed it. He said, for your depression. Not once did I tell him I was experiencing problems with depression or that I felt that I needed anything of that kind. I handed the prescription back. There is a huge difference between dealing with a difficult event in life and being depressed.

A similar incident happened last year when I was recovering from surgery. The doc asked me how I was holding up. I said I was frustrated that I couldn't just get up and do all the things I needed to do and having to have others help me was a difficult thing. He said he could prescribe me some Zoloft. Zoloft!!!! Because I was frustrated that I was not at my physical best and needed help with chores and just wanted recovery to move at a faster pace. 

So I wonder, if I have had two such incidences, how likely is it that many others have had doctors who automatically handed them prescriptions for life events that should never be considered treatable by such drugs. Should things like the death of someone close be assumed to be a valid reason to diagnose someone as "depressed" and in need of treatment? If you are nervous about an upcoming job interview should you be labelled as having an "anxiety disorder" and placed on meds? Have we been bamboozled into thinking that we can or should treat all that life throws our way with pills?

Or are my incidences exceptions to what is going on out there and is there really a valid monumental increase in mental illness?

_____________________________

Peace and light,
~erin~

There are no victims here...only volunteers.

When you make a habit of playing on the tracks, you thereby forfeit the right to bitch when you get hit by a train.

"I did it! I admit it and I'm gonna do it again!"
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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:19:58 AM   
phoenixinchains


Posts: 2534
Joined: 4/5/2007
From: i live here
Status: offline 		the cute ones are always crazy.

i recken folks have a easier time sharing information, so it's easier to identify certain maladies, in the mind and body. in my grandmother's day doctor's said, "it's all in your head," same condition, in my mother's day, "it's endometriosis, and we'll have to remove your uterus," same condition, in my day, "it's endo and we're gonna shot at it with this laser."

i don't know what to say about the pills, in my life, the only positive example i can think of is what ever my mother's taking. it treats angxyity and let's her focus, when other wise she'd just be a total spaz.

we're all here 'cuz we're all "not there"     phoenix

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:22:08 AM   
KatyLied


Posts: 13029
Joined: 2/24/2005
From: Pennsylvania
Status: offline 		Erin, I can't believe your doctor prescribed zoloft for surgery recovery.
We had similar surgies last year and pre-surgery, when I didn't know what I was facing, I was an anxious mess and my family doc offered me some anti-anxiety meds, I told him no thanks.  I didn't want to pop a pill, I wanted to face it.  So there seems to be a need to medicate, even among doctors whom I consider conservative in their approaches (otherwise, anyway). 

I feel that schools encourage the medicating of children and I do not understand it.  It wasn't like that when I was in school.

Are they better at diagnosing?  Do they want a quick fix?  Do they want to alieve the symptoms without working on the causes?


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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:24:17 AM   
cjenny


Posts: 1736
Joined: 11/27/2006
Status: offline 		Money honey. There is a profitable partnership between the pharmaceutical industry & our current erm.. leader. That isn't the whole of it but a big part.

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:24:50 AM   
seeksfemslave


Posts: 4011
Joined: 6/16/2006
Status: offline 		A very well constructed post. I was about to launch one of my cynical posts but thought better of it since I think your experiences reveal clearly that this a problem verging on a major scandal.

Having said that, as I understand it, a person who is truly depressed can be identified with very little difficulty.  A severe loss of will and self regard which a quick prescription is unlikely to fix.

< Message edited by seeksfemslave -- 5/8/2007 11:26:50 AM >

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:30:50 AM   
KatyLied


Posts: 13029
Joined: 2/24/2005
From: Pennsylvania
Status: offline
quote:

There is a profitable partnership between the pharmaceutical industry & our current erm.. leader.T


Note sometimes seen at my doctor's office

"No pharmaceutical reps today, our schedule is full."

I guess without those reps there would be people who wouldn't get the necessary medications, but you have to wonder who's in bed with whom.


_____________________________

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”
- Albert Einstein

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:37:36 AM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline 		Most of this is Big Pharma pushing drugs.
When I was a teen and young adult I was too busy with school, work, cunt-hunting, and other things to have "ADD" or be depressed.
If I ever told my father who was a Navy Veteran of ww2 and saw a lot of combat in the S. Pacific and then became a Firefighter that I was "depressed" he'd give me a good beating, I can hear him now; "Depressed? I'll give you something to be fucking "depressed" about!"
A lot of the teens and young adults are fat and out of shape, they don't work and have too much time on their hands.
When I grew up most people were out of the family house at 18 or 19 working, going to school or in the military.
Lack of excercise can cause depression too.
The people that drive their kids to school everyday are NOT doing them any favors!
Those kids should be WALKING!
As kids we thought nothing of walking five miles one way to go horseback riding.

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:40:28 AM   
LuckyAlbatross


Posts: 19224
Joined: 10/25/2005
Status: offline 		It's hard to say whether our amazing increase in leisure time and prosperity is what allows or encourages the development of these problems, or whether the fact that so many of us had to work so hard to live for a much shorter time simply didn't allow for time to be spend on these issues.

It's hard to think that a poverty stricken village in Namibia has much cause to discuss bi-polar or DID or depression or passive aggressiveness issues.

Certainly those of us who have the time and access to post on a board like this is pretty fat and comfy for the most part.  When we're fat and comfy and bored- we turn to other things- mostly ourselves and our relationships.  Suddenly we legitimately can worry and even get access to things which will help cure us.

I was thinking last night about the difference between my co-worker and myself.  My co-worker wants to avoid drugs and doctors because she's paranoid on them being overused and weakening immune systems.  I avoid drugs and doctors because I was raised that they were too expensive and to be used as a last resort when your body really needed it.

I think there's a lot of different parts to it- a society that feels entitled and bored, a drug culture spawned from treating the symptoms and not dealing with the cause, the ease of access, and a culture which needs everything right now quick overnight results on time is too late.

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"Sometimes my whore logic gets all fuzzy"- Californication

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:43:47 AM   
NorthernGent


Posts: 8730
Joined: 7/10/2006
Status: offline 		Obviously, some people have serious mental health issues - e.g. schizophrenia. Much of the treatment for mental health disorder, however, is treatment for anxiety and long term sadness/being unhappy etc - these are normal human emotions.

The problem is that we live in a world where we're constantly fed images of what a 'normal' person should act like (smiling all the time, one big happy life etc) - any behaviour outside of these norms, such as anxiety, and people are reaching for the pills/prozac/valium in attempt to comply with the norms that don't allow for the breadth of human emotion i.e. the norms channelled through various forms of media.

In the 1970s, psychiatry was widely discredited because tests cast doubt on their ability to read minds and diagnose the problem. Then they changed course and looked purely for symptoms - hence, if there are symptoms of anxiety (as defined by the psychiatrists), then the person must be suffering from a social disorder - utter hipposhite, humans get anxious, it's in our make up to be happy, sad, anxious etc and to grieve when someone dies.

I would estimate there is not a monumental increase in mental illness.

_____________________________

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Sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:53:36 AM   
missfrillypants


Posts: 124
Joined: 4/27/2007
Status: offline 		we live in a schizophrenic society, they say. i think that some of the things about the way we live now, with fewer real connections to people, families and familiar things farther away, and more and more expectations in the material realm (the sheer volume of stuff people are expected to own has gone up. to have a normally equipped home these days you need a dvd player, a televison set, a computer, a modem line, at least one car, a reasonably good stero system, a portable music player of some kind, etc) people's job security is very low at the same time, and most of us live under the knowledge that there is someone else out there who will do our job for less money and with fewer complaints.
i think that some of the stress from this may cause depression in some people. i think that there are people out there who haven't reconciled the fact that human beings are designed to spend time looking for, hunting, growing, and working for food with the kind of jobs people have now which largely involve standing or sitting in one place for big chunks of the day.

also, there's a a stigma attached to mental illness which is starting to fall away. people are more educated about what it means to be depressed or have add or what have you, and so they are much more likely to get help for it. the drug companies run ads every day to tell more people about the diseases their product treats, and people seem to be listening. granted some of those people are going to be hypochondriacs or something else like that, but still.

the doctor that mistoferin was talking about was not a good doctor. there are people who are told that they have a mental illness just so that they will be given pills to fix their behavior that does not conform to the standards of society. that's the way we deal with things now, we medicate and theraputize them. in the past people with add would have been given jobs that ate up their too much energy (i have a coworker who does this) and people would have shunned anyone who behaved too far out of normal. these days we don't want to lock people up or tell them "no, you can't (think|feel) that." it makes us feel un pc. so instead we "help" them through medication and therapy. and there are some people this works for (my mother has done very well in therapy for things that happened to her, and i have done very well on medication for bipolar disorder) and some people who it doesn't work for (there was a boy in my school with add who's medicine made him sick to his stomach and unable to enjoy things with any real enthusisam, so when he was able he stopped taking it. last i heard he went off the stuff as soon as he turned 18.)

it's a social problem, but it's older than people think, and i don't think it'll go away. it'll just mutate into some other way of dealing with people.

sorry for the long rant....

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:53:43 AM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline 		Gent, I think you're right.
The drug companies are advertising all kinds of stuff on t.v. for all kinds of maladies.
"Sad? Depressed? Not feeling up to snuff?"
People see that shit on t.v. and self diagnose themselves; "OHH! That must be what's wrong with me!"
"Ask your doctor for a free sample!"
So off they go to the dr's office and the drug companies make hundreds of billions!

Missfrillypants, yes, we need to return the "stigma" to mental illness.
Also, we should bring back the draft, then alot more people wouldn't have "any problem dealing with people."

< Message edited by popeye1250 -- 5/8/2007 11:59:11 AM >

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:56:26 AM   
Mercnbeth


Posts: 11766
Status: offline 		What comes first, the drug or the disease?

Favorite example - Rogaine. The key ingredient, minoxidil, was developed to treat high blood pressure. As a blood pressure medication it worked okay, but didn't bring anything new to the table. Only when Upjohn discovered that one of the side effects was reduced hair loss in men did it become a Billion dollar bonanza. Now reducing hair loss is its principle use as a 2%-5% solution. Note it says it "reduces" it makes no claims for stopping hair loss. Its similar to the magic diet pills with the disclaimer that the user will see a weight loss if they take the pill in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise program. If people had a healthy diet and exercise program they wouldn't need the pill! 

However, the best part of Rogaine, or any similar drug is that you must take it forever to work. Imagine the poor bastard with one lonely hair on his head thinking that if they stop buying rogaine it too will fall out! Damn - that is great marketing!

And that's the bottom line. I know that mental illness is not in the same category as hair loss, but to the drug companies they are exactly the same, and have the same goal - the bottom line of the drug company. In some cases "mental illness" is a illness or desire to just not face the realities of life. Being 'medicated' is a better way to deal with life than not.

Problematic of this principle are the people who fall through the cracks. When "everyone" has a mental illness those that have real problems, such as the campus murderer at Virginia Tech, aren't handled properly. Were he an 'exception' instead of one great number of students facing mental problems maybe his path in life could have been diverted.

My basic belief is that there is no more or less instance of mental illness now than there was 25-50 years ago. But we have thousands of new drugs that need a market. The need for a market creates the need to diagnose.

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 11:57:34 AM   
LadyEllen


Posts: 10931
Joined: 6/30/2006
From: Stourport-England
Status: offline 		The Lord God approves our glorious Leaders. Inspired by His wisdom and enabled by His capacity, our glorious Leaders produce societies which are perfect in all ways. Thus, for citizens to be in any way distressed can only be due to two circumstances;

1) A lack of regard or an ill founded lack of appreciation for the work of our glorious Leaders, which given the divine approval of their works amounts to a lack of regard or appreciation for the Lord God, which is blasphemy for which punishment is due.

2) Psychological ill health, for which through the works of the glorious Leaders, treatment is made available that distressed citizens can be made again well and have proper regard and appreciation for the glorious Leaders and so the Lord God.

Clearly, the 2nd option is preferable for distressed citizens, likely explaining the rise of mental illness diagnoses.

E

PS - Politics and religion, all in one go!

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 12:04:50 PM   
LuckyAlbatross


Posts: 19224
Joined: 10/25/2005
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Mercnbeth
When "everyone" has a mental illness those that have real problems, such as the campus murderer at Virginia Tech, aren't handled properly. Were he an 'exception' instead of one great number of students facing mental problems maybe his path in life could have been diverted.

You haven't done this here Merc, but what is up with the Va Tech murder thing being used as an example to support and every cause?  On another of my boards today it was brought up as a reason we need more maternity leave!

That IMO really cheapens what actually happened and trying to find a scapegoat and pet for one's own cause is just really distasteful.

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"Sometimes my whore logic gets all fuzzy"- Californication

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 12:09:47 PM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline 		Merc, Lady, you both hit the nail on the head!
When I was young an "intervention" was a good fuckin' beating in the backyard by the old man.
I've seen that same kind of thing in the Military but we called it; "a significant emotional experience." like the psycho babble people (lol)
A lot of times people really do need to "just get over it."
It's called "life" and a lot of times you're going to be the bug on the windshield of life so accept it.
"Sometimes you're the hammer, sometimes you're the nail."

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 12:12:47 PM   
MellowSir


Posts: 260
Joined: 4/17/2007
Status: offline 		People have mental problems now just as they did in the past, there are just more people on the planet now, so the occurence seems higher. Science is always finding "new" illnesses to name that aren't new at all, as long as humanity has been around, so have the crazies. As far as the use of drugs, well, just another way to get a hand in your pocket used by the pharmaceutical companies. Drug use isn't the problem, it's the society that breeds the need for it that's the problem. I'm crazy in a fun way, hmmm, wonder if they'll come up with a name for that too lol. Oh wait, already have, FREAK syndrome lol.

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 12:15:25 PM   
Mercnbeth


Posts: 11766
Status: offline
quote:

You haven't done this here Merc, but what is up with the Va Tech murder thing being used as an example to support and every cause?
No - just the most recent. Why did I "use it"? It fit as a perfect example of the mental heath industry serving many people, but not focusing on people they, themselves have identified as a danger to themselves and others. Had it not occurred, I would have used another example of a person diagnosed with a mental illness but who was 'lost' in the system.

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 12:23:53 PM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: LuckyAlbatross

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mercnbeth
When "everyone" has a mental illness those that have real problems, such as the campus murderer at Virginia Tech, aren't handled properly. Were he an 'exception' instead of one great number of students facing mental problems maybe his path in life could have been diverted.

You haven't done this here Merc, but what is up with the Va Tech murder thing being used as an example to support and every cause?  On another of my boards today it was brought up as a reason we need more maternity leave!

That IMO really cheapens what actually happened and trying to find a scapegoat and pet for one's own cause is just really distasteful.


L.A. and maybe the Cho guy was just plain fucking EVIL.

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 12:23:56 PM   
pahunkboy


Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline 		this OP reminds me of the book "future shock".  the pace of change is ever faster. wacthing this flick is almost funny now as many objects in it are now obsolete.

mental illness has been with us since teh dawn of time. at one point supected whitches were burned at salemn.

IMO- mental illness is undertreated in the US.  we are designed to be hunters and gatherers- not noen tube geaks. so evolution has not caught up with the reaality of today.  factor in the modern world- full of contaminates that did not exist 100 yrs ago.

try to forget about the profit motive. answere the post purely on the content- with no regard to profit.

i nver understood how a person on teh phone was more important then the person sitting face to face with you..

we- and i mean YOU and I- are pioneers of teh teck age. We are writing teh rules- the protocol- the tradition. When the west was setlled- you did not have insurance, license plates, driver licenses, AAA etc.  And so it is with the morthing teck.... the computer phone and tv are morphing into one hybrid item. one day it may even be implanted into our respective bodies.  the thing is- we here and now are laying the groundwork- in this sense it truly is a fantastic time to be alive.  all this over a series of 11111000000011111000001010101000011100101
1 and 0.

the human body was not meant tpo be couped up glued to the boob tube. we were meant to be in harmony with earth.

i have seen ppl type in the most personal secrets into a computer that they would not tell their closest friend.

now onto the profit motive. i personally am for rx choice for adults. i think it all should be deregulated. i am however against psychotrophics for children. a child is still developing.

heres a good example. we gut the clean aaair act. 100k more people get ashma. 80% buy ashma meds. it is good for capitalism. tho not any benefit to the larger good.

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RE: The rise of mental illness - 5/8/2007 12:55:09 PM   
kittinSol


Posts: 16926
Status: offline 		In Brave New World, Huxley described a dystopian society where human beings would be genetically engineered before being 'spawned', where the word 'mother' would be an obscenity, and where people would swallow tablets of a happy drug called 'soma' that would act in prevention of any antagonistic feelings of pain and fear.

Huxley was truly visionary (the novel was written in the 1930s).

In the late eighties a few people made the correlation between the new wonderdrug Prozac and the fictional soma.

However, I don't think people are more 'indulgent' because they take drugs (whether recreational drugs or prescribed medication - which does make the massive pharmaceutical industry richer) for mental/emotional suffering. I think the suffering is very much there. I believe our world is so individualistic that people simply can't abide by its rules. I fear we have achieved a society, not unlike Huxley's nightmarish vision, which is bordering on the truly inhumane.

No wonder so many of us can't cope any more...

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