Are 50% of Americans Mentally Ill?

[sth]

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/in-the-age-of-anxiety-are-we-all-mentally-ill/



In 1980 the percentage of Americans suffering from anxiety disorder was 2%. According to a survey in 2009 an estimated 50% of Americans suffered from anxiety disorder. Critics say that doctors and mental health professionals have been using a far more lax definition of anxiety disorder to diagnose it and prescribe drugs such as paxil to treat anxiety. Drug companies are raking in money on these drugs. In fact 26 new anxiety drugs are being developed to coincide with a even looser definition of anxiety disorder in the new diagnostic guide for mental health professionals. I feel this is just a money making move by drug companies.

 

[Pez68]

Money, money, money. Easier to medicate people than try to solve their problems, and more profitable too.

 

[BiscuitintheBasket]

Have you seen what people post on the interwebs?

 

[supraman]

I'm pretty sure like 95% of the world is fucking Special person. Does that count?

 

[The Count Dante]

When commercials are telling me what drugs to tell my doctor to give me and you can go to certain drug websites that will list doctor's names (gee, wonder if they get a bit back for giving out drugs), coupled with the fact that Americans expect to be happy 24/7, I am not surprised.



"Have you ever felt sad? Have you ever felt angry? Would you like to zombie yourself out to block out the world to avoid being remotely different? If so, ask your doctor if Dummy-Ex is right for you.May cause anal leakage, depression, suicide, toe fungus, inflamed prostate, vision loss, excessive hair growth, drowsiness, insomnia. If you are pregnant, do not take Dummy-Ex. If you are not pregnant, Dummy-Ex has been known to cause pregnancy in some patients.

 

[winos5]

I think there should be Prozac salt licks in all public lobbies.....



There is a never ending supply of dysfunction in this country and everybody wants the easy way out. I read the other day they are in the develpmental stages of an anti-obesity vaccine.

 

[Tater]

I'm not mentally ill, I have a "mood disorder".

 

[LordKOTL]

I think everyone has some sort of mental illness. You don't get through the 1st half of your life being traumatized by parents and the 2nd half of your life traumatized by kids without picking up some psychosis.



The difference is...do you suffer from it or enjoy it?



I personally enjoy it.

 

[bri]

I'm not mentally ill, I have a "mood disorder".

We know, It's called Eternal Crabass Syndrome.

 

[supraman]

This disorder shit is nothing more than BS to sell meds. Everyone has to be special with their own little pyscho bullshit so they are special. "Only 12 people in the world have it" yeah because they are attention whores.



Sure there are some people with genuine issues but 50% of americans? Sorry I'm not buying what that story is selling. I'd say 90% of those people are just fucking morons.

 

[IceHogsFan]

How else did Obama get elected?

 

[supraman]

How else did Obama get elected?

The guy is a good speaker. There isn't a point in denying that.

 

[The Count Dante]

How else did Obama get elected?

Same way Bush did? And Clinton did? And Bush did? And Reagan did? And...



Well, I like Clinton because he was the only pres since my birth I want to party with...

 

[MassHavoc]

with the plethora of disorders and the varied ways of testing and defining them, I would imagine that if you ask enough questions and look for enough things, 100% of us would be diagnosed with something. And that something is called life. Deal with it. Of those 50% I bet maybe 10% have life altering mental disabilities that aggressive treatment in the form of drugs and other therapies are needed. But those drugs and therapies are so expensive that they need to make everyone else pay for them by fear mongering them with long lists of symptoms so that people get put on drugs that they don't really need. Record sales of drugs are up, but so are the costs, and number of years to get it through. New biotech treatments are taking 12-15 years to get to market, that's billions of dollars. but at the same time you can't fast track them because they can be very dangerous and affect different people completely differently.

 

[winos5]

If people are seeking treatment for things in that realm, be it anger, mood disorder, sexual dysfunction, stress, grief, or actual pyschotic illness, they will leave with a diagnosis. Thats how services are billed for. If the MD/provider can prescribe something to help, why wouldn't they. Just walking through the door implys there is an issue to be dealt with. Do I thnk 50% of the US is psychotic? No. Does 50% of the US have a problem in that realm that they may or may not seek help for at some point in their life. Sure, probably more. I'd bet everyone, at some point in thier life will meet criteria for dysthymia, acute anxiety or depression, wether they seek treatment or not is a different matter.

 

[BigPete]

I just watched The Beaver with Mel Gibson last night. Very interesting movie and not at all what I thought it was going to be. The premise of the movie is that Mel's character has severe depression issues that seem to be hereditary. He has a nervous breakdown and comes out of it by self treating with the use of a puppet to 'speak to other people for him'.

It was an interesting odyssey that showed how he, his coworkers, and his family dealt his mental illness. It was never dark, but rather a decent insight into how people may behave with this disorder and how it affects everyone around them.

 

[BigPete]

How else did Obama get elected?

Obsessing over Obama...could be a mental disorder...just saying what other people had to be thinking...

 

[MassHavoc]

If people are seeking treatment for things in that realm, be it anger, mood disorder, sexual dysfunction, stress, grief, or actual pyschotic illness, they will leave with a diagnosis. Thats how services are billed for. If the MD/provider can prescribe something to help, why wouldn't they. Just walking through the door implys there is an issue to be dealt with. Do I thnk 50% of the US is psychotic? No. Does 50% of the US have a problem in that realm that they may or may not seek help for at some point in their life. Sure, probably more. I'd bet everyone, at some point in thier life will meet criteria for dysthymia, acute anxiety or depression, wether they seek treatment or not is a different matter.

That's why I like my doc, we explore all options before pills, and pills before surgery.

 

[The Count Dante]

That's why I like my doc, we explore all options before pills, and pills before surgery.

HA! They are always throwing those dummy drugs at me. Candidly, I have tried them and hated them.



I was also talking to my mother about this type of conversation not too long ago (she taught mental/physical handicapped for 30 years) and she had mentioned that with autism, stats are much higher than they have been because of the advancements in diagnosis as well as the technology to allow autistic folks to communicate in their own "voice" where prior there was no bridge in communication.



With that alone, I can see where stats would show more head sick across the board. But 50% of all Americans? Nonsense.

 

[MassHavoc]

My wife's job is to work in group homes for the mentally disabled, (insert your joke about me here) and she will be the first to tell you that one of the big increases in Autism over the years is that they didn't even used to have a diagnosis for it at all, so they never did, not that people weren't. And then when they did it took them forever to tune it, and now that it's becoming big business, it's starting to broaden into a catch all for other disorders because doctors are getting lazy and just saying.... must be autism.