I’ve been thinking a lot about mental disorders.
The “incomplete” list I found had 204 mental disorders listed (I counted — you’re welcome) forcing me to imagine the world of normalcy that falls in the middle of the bell curve because I also read that approximately 32% of Americans suffer from mental disorders. That’s about 1 in 3 Americans with a diagnosable disorder — that’s an epidemic, folks.
While we’re becoming physically bigger, getting more in debt, and working longer hours as a generation of humans, we’re also becoming more mentally unstable if you align the trends. I suspect that if we unwound many of these other trends, we’d get to the roots of the problem: lack of freedom, increased pollution, poor diet, lack of exercise, lack of meaningful employment.
Is this an indication of sick citizens or a sick System? I have to wonder if such disorders are either manifestations of systemic anti-humanism (mental oppression, mental slavery), misdiagnosis (as in, there’s really nothing wrong once the person is set free), or truly accurate diagnoses of illness. Of course, there’s just plain ol’ batshit crazy which has always been around, but I suspect many of these disorders aren’t really disorderly at all and may just be yet another gouge into the brains of the idle. I mean, up until 1973 Homosexuality was a diagnosable mental disorder treated with electro-shock therapy and heavy-duty psychotropic drugs. It begs the question, why? or even, what does mentally healthy even look like?
Serious mental disorders attack marginal populations hardest: lower income, higher debt ratio, compromised health, etc. where there is little outlet for freedom. The Armed Forces are currently experiencing the highest suicide rates since the height of the Vietnam War presumably due to the prolonged combat exposure and societal disenfranchisement many experience upon return. Resources wars have all sorts of costs. In fact, “Time magazine reported that from the invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 until last summer, 761 soldiers had died in combat in that country — but 817 soldiers killed themselves over the same period” (full article here).
It is altogether possible that many people diagnosed with disorders may actually be more sane than the underlying, comparative society, and the ability to adapt with a so-called mental disorder is in fact a way of coping with an insane society — in some cases this may actually be an advancement that lives on the fringe. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe sociopath serial killers are a signal of progress, but the prevalence of disorders walking the streets seems indicative of some type of mental shift in coping capacity.
So, am I crazy or do you think there’s a real epidemic happening?
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s tricky. It seems that mainstream psychology assumes there is a “sane” way of dealing with the inherently insane way that our culture functions. So many psychobabble buzzwords come to mind. What does it mean when a mental health professional says that someone is “well-adjusted”? Well adjusted to our cultural insanity? Our cultural addictions? Our fucked-up cultural “values”? Oh, and I love all the meaningless talk about “balance”. Fuck balance. Give me resistance, passion and courage to NOT be balanced and well adjusted to our current way of living. Now that might actually be “sane”.
The mental disorder comes about when the experiences of the individual override the expectations from his or her social companions. When coming home from combat, the expectation is to fit back in. What is far from obvious becomes very obvious quickly, and that is that the experience has brought about changes in our priorities, including emotional response priorities. The “OMG!” for the dumb (non life threatening) shit just cannot be manufactured anymore. It is possible to become infuriated with the morons around us as we have learned under horrible duress that life is irreplaceable and the experience of living it is a horror show. How we treat others is the most redeeming quality we have to offer, and when one senselessly berates another human it is the same as carving a piece of flesh out of them, just longer lasting. Why my fellow citizens cannot see that is confusing, and my differences with those I swore to protect have grown to the point where I am constantly motivated to do one of two things, engage them by example and try not to be too harsh when correcting the bastard next to me who insists on berating the the waitress for delivering a substandard piece of toast (Are you fucking kidding me? You will humiliate another and rage over a fucking piece of toast??) The other option which I pursue with equal zeal, is getting the hell away from all of you self centered sycophantic consumerist shit heads. I pity you, but choose not to participate in your fucktardity and worship of self at the expense of your humanity. Go rot in hell. But don’t hesitate to call me if there is anything I can to help you.
Batshit crazy. Yep, that’s me. How can I help you?
Looks like there’s something for everyone on that list of yours. Not that I agree with everything on it. Guess it comes down to degrees…just how much impact or control the affliction has in our lives.
Most often, we’ve made a mess of ourselves.
We might consider the following roots:
1. Genetic – it’s in the genes as in alcoholism, bipolar, and schizophrenia to name a few examples. My second husband of 15 years was an alcoholic. My little brother is a full blown bipolar. Neither of these are “imagined” and both can easily take down a family.
2. Social – our emotional well-being/health is compromised and it plays out in a variety of these conditions. Eating disorders, are at the top of the list.
3. Physical – our bodies reacting to the things we injest like drugs, meds, food, alcohol, sugar, dairy, yeast. Exposure to toxins, chemicals, fertilizers, water and air quality issues. On the other side you have the physical damage done by lack of exercise.
4. Hormones – fragile body chemistry upset by strong internal elements. There are many “crazy” menopausal men and women out there! Thankfully it’s temporary.
5. Mental – our mental well-being is compromised/stressed. Over time things get worse if the “pressure” isn’t relieved. Triggered by loss: divorce, death, joblessness, homelessness, health, youthfulness. Also triggered by the insanity of man such as in war. Or by acts of Nature such as extreme weather events. Or by tragedy – such as an accident that forever harms another or causes loss of life.
For me the big question is: are we ready to heal ourselves? If not why…and what to do about it.
Sanity is Context-dependent.
I read a SF book (can’t remember the title) where, due to crowded conditions, the children evolve the ability to communicate by colored patches on their skin.
We don’t know HOW these crowded conditions will trigger the behavior of humans to develop more and more fringe behavior to influence them away from the crowding. Nature has many possible mechanisms for that type of adaptation which we have mostly tuned out with agriculture and civilization’s Systems of systems.
There may be some self-destruct mechanism in all DNA which just goes bat-shit physically and mentally, especially when exposed to so many complex chemicals and petroproducts that are cooked in the earth’s deep cauldrons and then sprayed everywhere we eat, sleep, and breathe.
Having been fascinated by psychology and stress, there are times when I can agree with the Scientologists; that psychology is mostly just stuff that’s made up and filled with babble. Other times, I think a few psychologists really do ‘get’ some basic characteristics of society and human nature: especially if they point to the random oddities and admit they just don’t understand what’s going on.
When society pretends to have a ‘normal’ way of behaving, and individuals are forced to see that it is more random than planned, those individuals have a really hard time ‘respecting authority’ after that.
You aren’t crazy, there is an epidemic. The possible causes you listed are probably correct, but I think there is a deeper-rooted problem: We are too lazy. I’d say the cause of that is poor parenting and a failing education system.
You want to know: what mentally healthy looks like?
http://blog.newsarama.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10087/What-me-worry-715605.jpg
Sorry, Murray. I’m not buying it.
There’s no way you can chalk up 100 million people edging toward what is classified as mental instability within a generation to “bad parenting.”
Plus, looking at macro trends, we’re working more than ever — which is completely opposite to the promise of technology and the so-called leisure class.
I’ll agree that our education system is really starting to suck, but that’s a follower of greater memes — not the cause. In other words, it’s the effect.
As a father, the idea that if my child develops some sort of mental illness that I’m classified a bad parent is a bit hard to accept. There are thousands of influences that simply didn’t exist 20 years ago that are changing the way we think, communicate, react, and develop as a society.
I was thinking about this very notion the other day. I was thinking about how a friend of mine who works at a bank has major OCD and loves routines. I feel like this is how he copes with a rather mundane and boring job. It seems that when you are working with your hands, or working a fulfilling job and are constantly learning you don;t have time to be idle and create repetitive processes to keep your mind busy and sane.
Do you think many farmers have OCD?
“They” are plotting against us, of course. Normal human behavior ranges across a broad spectrum but there exists whole industry consisting of school counselors, social workers, industrial psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, nursing homes, rehab centers, correction facilities, nursing homes, drug companies, insurance companies, et al, every one of them hell bent to make a buck out of declaring you & me abnormal in some way, slapping a label on us , and treating us (not necessarily CURING us)for said disorder, either voluntarily or by coercion or force.
I know an intelligent and active 6-year old kid whose grandma can’t cope with her and wants her labelled ADHD by social services and I want to rescue her.
I sat across from someone at Job & Family Services today who announced to the room that she was tired of this shit and ready to blow the whole motherfucker up. I didn’t see a bomb or the capability to produce one so I sat tight. She soon left us all in peace.
I know an elderly woman in assisted living who began hearing voices and having delusions that the bad people were coming to get her and the aide entered her room to find her clutching a butcher knife, muttering to herself and trembling in fear. Time to intervene, labels be damned, for her safety and those who care for her.
“the roots of the problem: lack of freedom, increased pollution, poor diet, lack of exercise, lack of meaningful employment.”
i would add “children raising children”. do we know the effects of bullying and cliques on the pre-k kids at daycare centers? to say nothing of poor attention and care given by their “caregivers”. is there a correlation in a generational increase in mental disorders with the use of daycare and after school care centers for “economy of scale” substitute parenting, now that both parents working is norm?
sorry tommy, i have to disagree with you about “bad parenting”. “peers raising peers” is the today’s rule, not stay-at-home moms raising their children. no one can convince me that trauma is an insignificant factor in mental illness. and the trauma of rejection? tell me young children are not much more sensitive.
HIGHRPM,
Ok, I understand that a lot better. Parents being forced into working more and therefore relying on institutional child rearing is bad, but I don’t believe most of these people are “bad parents.”
We’ve been building an increasingly complex society that requires longer commutes, more time away, longer lifespan careers, etc. I just have a hard time telling a working mom that she is a bad parent because she operates in a family that has bought into the American dream bullshit.
“no one can convince me that trauma is an insignificant factor in mental illness. and the trauma of rejection? tell me young children are not much more sensitive.”
Agreed. 100%. I think this is accurate. I’ve been VERY fortunate to simplify my life just in time for the arrival of our first child. This allowed my wife to quit her job permanently — something few of my peers could ever afford. Many people did not see that writing on the wall and would have to choose between credit default or foreclosure in order to stay home and raise kids. Add this to a stigma that says women equality means climbing a career ladder, and we’ve got a much wider systemic problem than “bad parenting.”
Had I not paid off $125,000 worth of debt, I would have been classified as a “bad parent” because we absolutely would have had to send my wife back to work and child into daycare. This is simply not a viable option for many Americans.
Bad parenting gives a connotation that parents don’t give a shit. I don’t buy that at all. Used to be that family absorbed child raising in a more communal environment. With families spread across the country, and grandparents still at work, we don’t do this as much anymore.
Again, this is a much wider problem that we need to fix in order for so many other problems to be solved.
Of course you’re crazy. You’re on Earth. There’s no epidemic. Disorder is the natural order of things.
We are all f’n crazy just a question of degree. Maybe if we add more types of crazy all those Psyco-logist can find a job. I know two workin at the marina,,,
here’s an idea ,,give these unbalanced persons a swiss army knife and a bottle of water,,,drop them in the middle of the Mata Grosso ,,when they come out they Will be better,,if they do not come out they will hardly be worse,,,worked for me.
Wow! Great stuff all around.
(harvesting and washing)
I see a couple of patterns here, also. There was a study in Europe that showed the companies that maximized leisure time for employees (flex time, 3 day workweeks, month long vacations) actually had higher productivity and profitability than those who maximized worker attendance.
Human beings evolved in tribal communities where the elderly assisted with raising children and provided continuity of philosophy from generation to generation. If there is one thing I’ve learned as a parent going through the process twice and being a child myself, it is that kids grow up with or without parenting. The way they grow up is by adapting to the environment they are in (“Freakonomics” also covers this). Very little we do as parents has much influence on their Future Self except how much they are exposed to us and the example we set. If everything we do is based on the numbers of a spreadsheet, and everything they are taught in a politically correct school system is based on hokey cornball psychology, then they simply ignore both and become “raised by wolves”, scavenging mores from randomness and advertising. If our food makes us tired and lazy and stupid, what do you think it does to an embryo? The development of the nervous system is very dependent on the chemical constituents of the womb. The vagus and cranial nerves that become the brain and the second brain (the gut) only grow out from the spinal cord once, and that is very quickly done. Read about folic acid and folate deficiency on Wiki and see if everything said above doesn’t apply. How many fresh veggies (from living soil, not California) did YOU eat this week?
If our food makes our children lazy and stupid, how will they ever find out?
JG wrote: “Do you think many farmers have OCD?”
LOL! Of course not! They are too busy killing shit and cleaning shit up!
I see lots of things that don’t make sense.
Insanity as a way of dealing with needlessly complex (if not out-right insane) surroundings? Now that makes sense.
I feel super encouraged reading this and the comments today. I have major depression (since I was 8, but recently treated by meds) and an eating disorder (hence the obesity); to add insult to injury, my kid is in daycare 3 days a week.
I always thought I loved my child; I knew I wouldn’t be a perfect parent, but I sure as hell didn’t think I would be a bad one. I don’t know… maybe bad parents still love their kids deeply?
I think the ‘daycare generation’ is indeed different in their outlook. I have a friend who has been a school counselor for the past 21 years. She says that kids are much less influenced by parents now and more influenced by peers, with whom they spend the bulk of their time, often being put into daycare as infants and then ‘graduating’ into kindergarten and after-school care. They grow up in an institutionalized and impersonal setting until the age of 18.
It used to be that parents were influential until the teen years but typical daycare-raised kids identify more with other kids than with any adult. They’re forced into social competition at a young age. What many call ‘socialization’ is actually a ‘toughening’ process whereby kids have to protect themselves at an age where many aren’t ready for the human jungle. It can work for outgoing kids but can constitute trauma for more sensitive, shy or less emotionally developed kids.
Sumo,
You’re fighting back. I know a lot of people who have kids in day care, and I do not think they are bad parents. Of those, I don’t know a single parent who doesn’t wish he had more time to spend with his kids. This is what FG is all about — freedom. Almost always it has to do with debt as a root cause, as in “if I didn’t have so many bills….”
There may be other innovative solutions to day care if you know other parents who are in a similar situation. You could go old school and set up a sort of co-op. I’ve done it in the past, and it works great. Since it’s with my neighbors, we all benefit because our kids get to hang out together in a safe, caring, and flexible environment.
I always hear about people not knowing or cooperating with their neighbors, but I have never experienced that. My neighbors are awesome, and is one of the things that keeps me sane. I know a lot of people in my neighborhood, and always have even in small towns. I’m not sure where the report of isolation comes from, but I hear it often. One of my joys has been coming home and having neighbor kids on my couch, in my refrigerator, or jumping on my bed wrecking shop. I love it because I know that sort of thing only occurs with trust. It means I’m a trusted member of a community or tribe. We take care of each other. NYC is not sterile or cold in this regard — quite the opposite.
Everybody is concerned with similar things (well, many), so there’s lots of opportunity for engagement and community building through your children. You can share expenses and time watching kids — or share the expense of a competent and trusted part time caregiver. Our babysitter is more like a family member who shows up when we really need help.
In an absurd, obscene world, suicide is the only sane option. I explored it and decided against it. Better a crazy life than a boring death.
No epidemic, we’ve always been crazy. Every artist of note was bi-polar. The greatest musicians were either bi-polar of autistic (savants). Arguably this is true for the worlds greatest inventors, rulers, great men and dispicable men. Normal people lead normal lives. No problem, I live a normal life and wouldn’t want it any other way. But normal people do not create great things.
GONE,
Great point. The edge of the human mind tends to pull the curve toward the tails over time.
@will,
Stick with crazy life, please.
It’s possible that several of these factors are true, giving us the “epidemic” that we have nowadays.
1) some ppl are not quite right, and those ppl have always been with us.
2) modern life is nothing like the evolutionary tribes and environments from which we involved, thus creating its own stressors and psychologic dysfunctions.
3) pharma really is trying to expand the sales of the meds they have, and so is aggressively growing both the scope of the disorders that are out there, and increasing the kinds of “diseases” that exist and can be treated with their meds.
Put all three together, and voila, you have an epidemic.