Nearly 1 in 5 Americans had mental illness in 2009

[WestVirginiaRebel]

CNBC:

CHICAGO - More than 45 million Americans, or 20 percent of U.S. adults, had some form of mental illness last year, and 11 million had a serious illness, U.S. government researchers reported on Thursday.

Young adults aged 18 to 25 had the highest level of mental illness at 30 percent, while those aged 50 and older had the lowest, with 13.7 percent, said the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or SAMHSA.

The rate, slightly higher than last year's 19.5 percent figure, reflected increasing depression, especially among the unemployed, SAMHSA, part of the National Institutes of Health, said.

"Too many Americans are not getting the help they need and opportunities to prevent and intervene early are being missed," Pamela Hyde, SAMHSA's administrator, said in a statement.

"The consequences for individuals, families and communities can be devastating. If left untreated mental illnesses can result in disability, substance abuse, suicides, lost productivity, and family discord."
________

Younger people are crazier? Might explain why so many of them seem to be liberal Democrats...

[Argyle58]

I truly don't believe that there is any higher instances of mental illness than there was 50 years ago. They just keep broadening the scope of conditions that are considered illness. Depression is now considered a mental illness.....just a few years ago it was condition that needed to be addressed, but was not considered serious.

 

As I look around, seems that almost everyone I know, except myself, are on some sort of medication to make it easier for them to adjust to social norms (as defined by some liberal somewhere, no doubt). Everyone seems to be depressed, suffer from axiety, has a "mild bi-polar" condition, they can't sleep and a slough of other things.

 

I don't know how much of this is a record of actual problems, or if the list of conditions has expanded in order to market the new drugs created to "combat" them.

[pollyannaish]

I agree Argyle58

 

I think it's odd that in a world run by PC modes of behavior, the world has become much less tolerant of people who are eccentric. Now it's not just that a person is different than the average joe...they are sick and something is wrong with them.

 

I lost my job, and frankly there have been times where I've felt profoundly depressed about it. My husband has a complicated chronic illness and sometimes I get a bit down about that. My family and I have had a tough few years. But it would be weirder if we didn't get depressed. I wouldn't call that mental illness, I would call it a natural reaction to life that must be powered through.

 

I'm not against better living through chemistry if it helps, but I think that this labeling is odd and unfair to normal people who have life struggles just like everyone else.

[SrWoodchuck]

Another "new" disease or disorder, is bi-polarism.

[AceRimmer]

Younger people are crazier? Might explain why so many of them seem to be liberal Democrats...

 

The main shows college students watch these days are on MTV and they consider The Daily Show and Colbert Report serious news. When I was finally old enough to vote, Reagan was in office and Bush the Elder was about to demolish Dukakis. Registering Republican was cool back then. Now, liberal students and professors are trying to run them off college campuses.

 

The dumbing down of America's youth by the public education system wasn't an accident, IMO.