Abnormal Is the New Normal: Why will half of the U.S. population have a diagnosable mental disorder?

Slate ^ | April 12, 2013 | Robin S. Rosenberg

[neverdem]

Although fewer than 6 percent of American adults will have a severe mental illness in a given year, according to a 2005 study, many more—more than a quarter each year—will have some diagnosable mental disorder. That’s a lot of people. Almost 50 percent of Americans (46.4 percent to be exact) will have a diagnosable mental illness in their lifetimes, based on the previous edition, the DSM-IV. And the new manual will likely make it even "easier" to get a diagnosis.

If we think of having a diagnosable mental illness as being under a tent, the tent seems pretty big. Huge, in fact. How did it happen that half of us will develop a mental illness? Has this always been true and we just didn’t realize how sick we were—we didn’t realize we were under the tent? Or are we mentally less healthy than we were a generation ago? What about a third explanation—that we are labeling as mental illness psychological states that were previously considered normal, albeit unusual, making the tent bigger. The answer appears to be all three.

First, we’ve gotten better at detecting mental illness and doing so earlier in the course of the illness. For decades, mental health clinicians, physicians, the U.S. surgeon general’s office, and various state and local agencies have been advocating for better detection of mental illness. If we are better at spotting it, we can treat it. And if we detect it earlier, we can, hopefully, intervene to reduce the intensity and/or frequency of symptoms. For instance, people who decades ago may have had undiagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, or substance abuse are now more likely to have their problems recognized and diagnosed. But the increased awareness and detection translates into a higher rate of mental illness.

Second, we really are getting...

[BenLurkin]

Brave New World

[Viennacon]

Coincidentally, half also think a man can marry a man.

[null and void]

You can’t have a gun if you are insane.

If you want a gun you are, by definition, insane.

[factoryrat]

Obamacare.

Liberal, gay, socialist = OK.

Conservative, law abiding, god fearing = Christian gun toting nutjob.

You see where this is going, right?

[AD from SpringBay]

Uh...because they can be treated with a monthly subscription, I mean a monthly medication and, for some, an additional bi-weekly talk-session? I mean, people can cancel their cable, but their freakout pills? No way.

My first trip to the emergency room in 30 years and the young physician was telling me I needed these pills. I asked her how long I would have to take them and she said long-term. Puh-freaking-leeze! This is after one scan that showed some irritation in one of my innards, one blood test that showed all was normal and one urine sample that also showed all was normal. They push them pills and people like to gobble them up. After a week of what I'll call selective eating, I'm fine.

[SgtHooper]

Bingo!

[Sender]

Yep, everyone who has ever gone to a doctor must have some sort of mental disorder, and so is ineligible to own a gun. Law enforcement, politicians and Democrats exempt.

[Sir Napsalot]

Duh! The easiest way for someone(s) to consolidate absolute power is to declare those OTHERS mentally ill.

It is not as if following Soviet and other Communist rule books hadn't been tried.

And the public don't know nuttin’ ‘bout history.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Sounds like Hitler’s Germany, ya think?

[mnehring]

Combine this with Toomey-Manchin and now you have rights stripped from a majority of the population. Just wait until someone decides ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ and starts restricting 1st Amendment rights based on mental disorders(sic)

[BenLurkin]

Well, there...the lunatics were in charge.

[luckystarmom]

We had a neurologist pushing some medication to my daughter for a hand disorder she has (focal dystonia). He was correct at diagnosing the disorder, but wrong about the treatment.

He said the medication had minimal side-effects, but we reaseached, and it has terrible side effects. It also only works on a small amount of people.

We went to a movement disorders specialist, and she told us that is not how they treat dystonia when it is in 1 area of the body. The medication is for people that have it throughout their bodies and the benefits outweigh the risks.

The specialist has sent my daughter to physical therapy.

Grant it, it’s not helping, but nothing much does help with the disorder.

[jeffc]

1) To make homosexuality "normal".

2) To disqualify you from owning a gun.

It's really that simple.

[I cannot think of a name]

I would say any election clearly points this out.

All the votes for democraps are clearly people with a diagnosable mental disorder.

I realized this decades ago.

[SeekAndFind]

ABC News/Washington Post reveals that support is now up to 58 percent for gay marriage in the most recent [poll] up from 32 percent nine years ago.”

Well there you have it! Gay “marriage” is trending and a huge number support it.

What does this say about the American psyche today?

ABC News/Washington Post reveals that support is now up to 58 percent for gay marriage in the most recent [poll] up from 32 percent nine years ago.”

Well there you have it! Gay “marriage” is trending and a huge number support it.

What does this say about the American psyche today?

[ExTexasRedhead]

The same lunatics are here and now; Hitler and his Gestapo/SS are reborn, ya think?

[Billthedrill]

That part of this that is backed up by genuine research instead of definitional game-playing (half or less, IMHO) reflects a portion of society that is lacking something in its approach to life. I wonder if anyone has cared to correlate this with the erosion of religion within the affected cohorts? I do not say this as a bible-thumping Christian enthusiast, only as a simple observer - it is entirely possible, even likely, that religion helps keep us sane, and with it certain other aspects of society that have come to be regarded as conservative for some reason, such as a stable family with two parents.

The problem with grandly declaring a "new normal" is that it is neither new nor normal, and that there are reasons other than oppression, sexism, racism, and homophobia that have sculpted societies into their present sundry forms. Social theorists and engineers, and yes, psychologists, flout this at their, and our peril.

[mrsmel]

What’s interesting to me is how quickly and easily people fell into line on referring all their problems as “mental disorders” years ago, and now it’s sitting there in people’s medical histories so conveniently for the gun grabbers.

[Vinylly]

Too many Americans watch TV.