Half of Us Are Mentally Ill (and the Other Half Are Undiagnosed)

Reason ^ | June 13, 2011 | Jacob Sullum

[cripplecreek]

I’m unhinged thank you.

[Psycho_Bunny]

The other half are Liberals.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

including the chief editor of the current DSM, who recently despaired that the attempt to define mental disorders is "bullshit."

Gotta love that. The DSM is a pretty respected publication and its editor is calling it like it is.

[mountainlion]

Good thing she is talking about New England.

[Beowulf9]

And the third half are editors.

[nerdwithagun]

Just how it is treated and administered, I could probably get diagnosed for anxiety or depression. I rather not go on why I think that; but I will say most of the time I am a happy person, i have never contemplated suicide or murder, and I rather just live my life out without a doctor's scrutiny.

[TheDingoAteMyBaby]

Someone coined the term, “pathologizing normal.” You aren’t just shy, you have social anxiety disorder.

[KosmicKitty]

I’ve been a Szasz since 1978. Have gotten into several arguments, especially with school social workers because of it.

Basically, people either have an organic issue, which with fMRI’s is getting easier to find, or thy have learned inappropriate behavior.

There is no such thing as ‘mental illness”

It ain’t rock science, just common sense.

[COBOL2Java]

The tally of those who are so disabled by mental disorders that they qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) increased nearly two and a half times between 1987 and 2007—from one in 184 Americans to one in seventy-six.

"Congressman Weiner, please pick up the white courtesy phone..."

[King Moonracer]

I wonder how many porn addicts get SSI for being porn addicts. so then they sit home, and , you know...

[rightwingcrazy]

“Half of Us Are Mentally Ill”

Close—Obama won by 52.9%.

[JoeFromSidney]

If "mental illness" is caused by a "chemical imbalance," then it should be detectable chemically. If it can't be detected chemically, then I doubt it exists.

[kittymyrib]

The country always gets more of what it subsidizes. It doesn’t take long to have a crowd gathering for “free” money.

[Rocky]

Well, the other 2.9% can be attributed to cheating at the polls.

[mo]

IMHO...federal bureaucrats have “loosened” the parameters..encouraging more Federal dependency=jobs/promotion.

[TheDingoAteMyBaby]

My father has a similar opinion. The brain can be ill, but the mind is not a physical organism subject to illness.

[Buckeye McFrog]

very convenient way of arriving at “none of us can have a gun”

[exDemMom]

Angell notes that "none of the three authors subscribes to the popular theory that mental illness is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain." She adds that "the main problem with the theory is that after decades of trying to prove it, researchers have still come up empty-handed."

I disagree with that. Schizophrenia is caused by genetic abnormalities. I think that, as we learn more about the human genome, we will find more mental disorders that have a genetic basis.

That does not rule out, however, that many so-called mental disorders are, in fact, results of enviromental factors. Parents who don't know how to tailor discipline to their child, for example, may have their child diagnosed with "oppositional defiance disorder." And I'm firmly convinced that ADHD is well within the range of normal; it's just a personality type that requires a little more effort to engage than the typical teacher droning along in a classroom cares to expend.

[dog breath]

Judging from what I have seen of humanity, normal is a pretty vague term.