We seem these days to attribute anything other than a stellar and straight life to mental illness: crime, poor health choices and outcomes, etc.
I think we’ve taken that explanation way too far—which contributes to our being way over-medicated.
“I think we’ve taken that explanation way too far—which contributes to our being way over-medicated.”
I agree. Drinking alcohol is a means of ignoring or treating mental pain. I suspect the pain originates because we find ourselves in a situation that we really don’t like. But, for whatever reason, that situation is not escapable. Yet, our unforgiving subconscious demands that we escape. The tension between the self-driven need to escape and the inability to physically or mentally do so causes pain. Getting buzzed on the cheapest and legally obtainable substance, alcohol, temporarily dulls the pain. Is this menial illness? Maybe not. But it is self-destructive. The shorthand description for this condition is mental illness. As in all generalizations, much is lost by using the shorthand.
I think we’ve taken that explanation way too far—which contributes to our being way over-medicated.
The Left does this on purpose to get people to thinking their actions are not of their own doing and thus there is no such thing as personal responsibility.
Without personal responsibility people look to government for all the answers and can be more easily manipulated by the politicians.