Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board
Voicelessness and Emotional Survival => Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board => Topic started by: Dr. Richard Grossman on September 05, 2011, 10:02:40 AM
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Hi everybody,
A new study authored by Wittchen et al. reports that 38% of Europeans are suffering from a mental disorder. I have not seen the study so I don't know whether Narcissistic Personality Disorder or other personality disorders were included. The 4 most prevalent: anxiety disorders, insomnia, depression, and dementia. See, for example:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/05/third-europeans-mental-disorder
And this at a time when pharmaceutical companies (facing the loss of revenue as their blockbusters lose patent protection and become available as generics) are cutting back on research in brain disorders:
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110614/full/news.2011.367.html
Richard
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Quote from Dr. G:
"And this at a time when pharmaceutical companies (facing the loss of revenue as their blockbusters lose patent protection and become available as generics) are cutting back on research in brain disorders:
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110614/full/news.2011.367.html"
Can we say Corporate Greed by Big Pharma?
Bones
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So 62% of Europeans are not suffering from a mental disorder? I bet they mostly live in the sunnier places, with access to the Med sea, olives, red wine, a little cheese...
As for the 38%, well, have you met my family?
Bones
I could say something different, but I tend to be quite polite on this board.
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I really like this topic however I am late in replying. I could write a book on why but I will spare you. If 38% of the people are miserable maybe it is not the people but the culture that needs looking at. Medicating everyone for anxiety is so 1984ish. The money that pharmaceutical companies make off of human misery is obscene.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Sea storm
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I think Western culture is going through a crisis that is manifesting in these ways in people...
It's Africa's turn. Asia's turn. Latin America's turn.
We blew it.
We can build something different if we want, but there are a lot of human ashes.
Hops
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I think there are pockets of healthy family out there and that has a significance to the greater community...yet to me personally it doesnt make a difference! People are becoming more savy even if slow to catch on, I think in a couple of decades there will be a greater mass realization of basic things like anxiety and depression as being normal responses to an unhealthy situation.
About dementia, well part of the deal with this is that humans biologically were not meant to live this long anyways.
People are skewed...taking every kind of supliment and hormone replacement therapy and viagra and hair replacement etc...to always appear as young as possible. We are living a life that is artificial in context to what the human biology dictates.
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Just what is a mental disorder anyway? It sounds like these 38% are not happy with the status quo. Some of them probably have some serious problems but labeling them as "disordered" is laden with judgement.
This is so helpful to pharmaceutical companies. No wonder the rivers and stream of the Have part of the world are full of antidepressants.
I agree that there are pockets of healthy people. I wonder what they are doing to stay off the anti depressants. I think some of them are part of communities like the Christian community. I flit around the churches in town and can't really commit to one.
Families are breaking down at an alarming rate. At the same time more people are homeschooling and trying to raise their children in a kinder, gentler world than the school system.
If they looked at the problems of this 38% such as poverty, trauma and abuse I think there would be a different picture.
Sea storm
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in a couple of decades there will be a greater mass realization of basic things like anxiety and depression as being normal responses to an unhealthy situation.
Couldn't agree more, Boat.
I think this is one reason I am so strongly attracted to those "outside" the culture.
Though I'm superfically in it, my psyche's way over the line.
And I'm faking it.
Hops
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I agree that there are pockets of healthy people. I wonder what they are doing to stay off the anti depressants. I think some of them are part of communities like the Christian community. I flit around the churches in town and can't really commit to one.
Families are breaking down at an alarming rate. At the same time more people are homeschooling and trying to raise their children in a kinder, gentler world than the school system.
Sea storm
I'm going to a little church in a smallish town. Only been a few times. It's really quaint and when the pastor dismisses the children to go off to Sunday School during the service they all run down the isles smiling. I'm more agnostic-ish or open-philosophical about the practice and don't feel like I'm a hardcore participant but it gives me a reason to get out of bed on Sundays.
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Hey Doc. G,
I have not read through every post on this thread.
IMO, if 38% were diagnosed, then these were the honest ones.
I fear/believe the count is much higher.
Maybe I am cynical given what I lived through, but I am coming to the conclusion that dysfunctional is actually functional. And the term dysfunctional should be redefined... to functional.
And maybe,with all my limitations, fears, PTSD, ....
I am functional?
In the "real world."
Peace
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In general terms, this could mean that on average:
38% of European politicians have a mental disorder
38% of nurses and doctors have a mental disorder
38% of school teachers have a mental disorder
38% of military personnel have a mental disorder
38% of police have a mental disorder
38% of judges have a mental disorder
38% of bankers have a mental disorder
38% of daycare workers have a mental disorder
38% of celebrities have a mental disorder
38% of IRS employees have a mental disorder
38% of clergy have a mental disorder
38% of your family has a mental disorder
38% of your European neighborhood has a mental disorder
38% of European news reporters have a mental disorder
It truly is a crazy world out there :lol:
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Yes it is.
Sea storm
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Madness can be a sane response to an insane world.
Ever read The Politics of Experience by R. D. Laing?
In a way over-glorifying schizophrenia was in vogue, but it was also a wonderful reminder that there's meaning in delusion (just like there is in dreams).
Hops
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Yes,
It is a crazy world out there.
One I am sooooo tired of.
Yes, madness can be the response to an insane world.
But, is it madness or clarity?
Is the world insane rather than me? Or has my insane world driven me to sanity?
I had an aunt with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia – she “saw and talked to dead people.”
I know first hand the difference between mental illness and reality.
I can only speak from my world.
I had a therapist who told me I could choose to see the world as:
· Negative
· Positive
· Neutral
Prior to this, I saw the world as negative. Since then, I have tried and tried and tried to find the world as neutral – but IME it is not.
It reminds me of the series of publications/studies of how people who are depressed actually see the world as it really is.
I believe in what I see, sense, detect…sadly, I wish better.
Peace
PS - I live on a street with 50 homes back to back, which means approximatley slightly less than half of those people are dysfuntional. In the world of diagnostics and people who decide what is funtional and not? Sadly, less than half the majority of my street is funtional - is this true? Or is it an opion of someone who has decided for us?
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Hey Peace,
applying those statistics to your neighborhood is a discouraging thought! (But it sure would explain a lot wouldn't it? LOL...)
I think it's possible that functional/dysfunctional people locate in community clusters... in other words, out of those 50 homes, maybe 40 are functional... or other combinations. Ever notice how 4-5 homes all appear to be well-cared for, in a group? Everyday life proceeding with very few upheavals? And then, there'll be one that sticks out like a sore thumb...
I'll stop there. This topic has the nasty tendency to open up my "rant-channel".
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Once a month I go to the Mental Health Clinic in my small town to see a psychiatrist. He basically checks to see how my antidepressants are doing. I also was taking sleeping medication. I got very burned out in my job and have PTSD. I used to feel embarrassed to walk in the building and I dd not want to sit in the public waiting room. Now I think.... These are MY people and I smile and chat to whoever is there. They seem a little shocked at this as they are embarrassed too.
I would much rather sit there with them than pseudo communicate with the people at work. It was such a nightmare of phoniness and competition and busy ness. I am labelled Depressed but I am getting my soul and my spirit back. I have unplugged from the system that made me so sick. I might as well have a D branded on my forehead to the people at work. Or probably an N for Nuts.
I spoke out about things no one else did. I would go to bat for kids who were abused. I made waves tactfully but nevertheless it was out of the norm. It IS disturbing to think of what is happening to our culture. I find it very comforting to know that I am not alone in this.
Sea storm
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Thank you,
I am coming to believe that the DSM is based on the beaver-clever sitcom…
::joking kind of::
What determines normal?
Who are they to define me based on what I have experienced; albeit, the definition fits.
While the definition may fit, it doesn’t cure.
And that is where I have a problem.
They can put me into the “beaver cleaver” puzzle and diagnose me, but can they ever, ever, give me the perfect “beaver cleaver” after ending? No they can’t, because, IME, it doesn’t exist … not in my world.
I don’t believe that less than half the majority of my neighborhood is “functional.”
They are all “functional,” based on what they lived through.
I don’t adhere to a definition based on perfection – IMO, the DSM should be redefined to be based on perfection as perfectly imperfect.
Peace
(Thanks so much to everyone who posts here - you have all helped me sooooo much).
Peace
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Hi Peace!
What you said, really hit home with me:
They can put me into the “beaver cleaver” puzzle and diagnose me, but can they ever, ever, give me the perfect “beaver cleaver” after ending? No they can’t, because, IME, it doesn’t exist … not in my world.
I think what you just said, is the source of what passes for my source of "creativity". And why I "keep trying" and don't ever just "give up". If it doesn't exist, my logic at the time went... then I'll just try to MAKE IT, so it does exist. That didn't work so well, either! LOL... so it was back to the drawing board...
There are moments though. They're all different, when I just happen to glimpse and feel that everything all around me is perfect (in it's own way) just the way it is -- dysfunction and all. Now, what I accept in that perception of "perfection" moment probably wouldn't be considered "beaver cleaver", at all! But that's the key, I think - there is no one size fits all definition - we all make up our own. Yours will be different than mine - but we might appreciate a few things from the other's - the common thread.
What I can't decide, can't learn... is whether that perception I have - that all's right with the world in this moment - is something letting go internally in me... or if it really exists all the time as some sort of wavelength, frequency of vibration and being that I'm only tuned into sporadically. So even tho' the moments really are just that - like subliminal advertising in my normal perception of "reality" - they sure seem real to me and not just wishful thinking. And I'll take every nanosecond of that reality that comes my way! They're like wound-healing moments... and each one smooths out the scars, de-activates another line of code behind certain "buttons"... etc.
Fun helps. Play... was really hard to re-learn for me. As far back as I can remember, I was programmed to understand "play" as education or training for skills. Fun always got me in trouble. We could all use a little play-therapy! ;)
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Hey Doc. G,
I have not read through every post on this thread.
IMO, if 38% were diagnosed, then these were the honest ones.
I fear/believe the count is much higher.
Maybe I am cynical given what I lived through, but I am coming to the conclusion that dysfunctional is actually functional. And the term dysfunctional should be redefined... to functional.
And maybe,with all my limitations, fears, PTSD, ....
I am functional?
In the "real world."
Peace
Hi Finding Peace,
Great question!
What if self-deception and an overly (and inaccurately) positive view of oneself (without the other negative attributes of narcissistic personality disorder—e.g. healthy narcissism) were considered a mental disorder? What might the statistics look like in that case?
In that case, should some in the 38% (leaving aside the personality disorders, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and other biological syndromes) feel a little “healthier”?
Food for thought ;-)
Richard
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The self-soothing behaviors.
New term I heard recently: denierism, sort of like consumerism but instead to indicate a mass population behavior of people avoiding looking at reality.