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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

Posted on 04/15/2013 8:28:25 AM PDT by 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...

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: apa; apaisajoke; banglist; burnthedsm; communism; corruption; democrats; dsm; dsm5; dsmabuse; dsmfraud; dsmiv; fraud; guncontrol; gunsmentaldisease; leftwingextremism; liberalism; liberals; mentaldisease; mentalillness; psychiatry; psychology; secondamendment; sovietdemocrats; sovietpsychiatry; trends; waronliberty
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To: ripley

The fraud being perpetrated upon the American public is epic in scale and proportion, and the masses have been so dumbed down, they don’t even realize they’re being led to the slaughterhouse. The few who refuse to be sheep know this, rejecting the nonsensical ideology, and will fight off the ones perpetrating this scheme.


61 posted on 04/15/2013 10:20:04 AM PDT by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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To: dfwgator

I have the brain of a leftist at home(in a tiny little jar)


62 posted on 04/15/2013 10:22:26 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad & lived with his parents most his life.)
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To: neverdem

Since Obamacare will put your diagnosis of “mental disorder” in a government database, it would be easy to cross reference this with government gun registration data. Soon government good squads will be knocking on your door to confiscate your guns because you have a “mental disorder”.


63 posted on 04/15/2013 10:32:09 AM PDT by The Great RJ
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To: neverdem
Snip:
And the new manual will likely make it even "easier" to get a diagnosis.

And harder to legally obtain firearms and ammo.

64 posted on 04/15/2013 10:39:11 AM PDT by RedMDer (May we always be happy and may our enemies always know it. - Sarah Palin, 10-18-2010)
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To: neverdem

” Americans scored higher on neuroticism in 1993 than they did in 1963, suggesting that as a population we are becoming more anxious. “

That seems to me to be a bad sign, could it possibly have to do with the growing prevalence in single parent house holds?

Wikipiedia defines neurotism as: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroticism

” Individuals who score high on neuroticism are more likely than the average to experience such feelings as anxiety, anger, envy, guilt, and depressed mood.”

Looks to me like signs of an unstable family as well as predisposition toward the leftist message which exploits anger, envy, guilt and depression to help bring out the worse in people.


65 posted on 04/15/2013 10:39:19 AM PDT by Monorprise (`)
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Fight the Leftist Gun Grabbers.
Support Free Republic.

66 posted on 04/15/2013 10:39:57 AM PDT by RedMDer (May we always be happy and may our enemies always know it. - Sarah Palin, 10-18-2010)
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To: neverdem

..........”more than a quarter each year—will have some diagnosable mental disorder”.....

Of course with all the foreigners moving in here....heck the S.Koreans say 100% of the escapees into their country are clinically paranoid.

We,ve got all the Easterners coming in with backgrounds of abuse from childhood and throughout their life...coupled with the Koran they adhere to, is enough to cause all sorts of mental issues.


67 posted on 04/15/2013 10:42:44 AM PDT by caww
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To: Billthedrill
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.

I've thought this for some time.

But since these pit the individual against the state, they must not be considered.

68 posted on 04/15/2013 10:46:29 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: neverdem
Of course ou will have 50% of people diagnosed this way if depression for time is classified as "illness".

In reality, being depressed is part of the human condition. It is not a "disease". It is normal.

Couple that with a refusal to label sin because of liberalism (atheism) permeating our culture. Much of being depressed is due to sin nature. When people refuse to recognize sin, pills are recommended rather than the real medicine which is repentance.

69 posted on 04/15/2013 10:59:43 AM PDT by what's up
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To: neverdem; cyn
Abnormal Is the New Normal: Why will half of the U.S. population have a diagnosable mental disorder?

Because the gooberment wants them to!?! It helps so much with control of the sheeple.

70 posted on 04/15/2013 11:05:31 AM PDT by TigersEye (If babies had guns they wouldn't be aborted)
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To: BenLurkin

http://www.psychquotes.com/

Psychiatry’s Views on Conservatives

“In August 2003, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the results of their $1.2 million taxpayer-funded study. It stated, essentially, that traditionalists are mentally disturbed. Scholars from the Universities of Maryland, California at Berkeley, and Stanford had determined that social conservatives, in particular, suffer from ‘mental rigidity,’ ‘dogmatism,’ and ‘uncertainty avoidance,’ together with associated indicators for mental illness.”
Source: B.K. Eakman, Chronicles, October 2004, pp. 28-29.
“Political conservatism as motivated social cognition” By Jost, John T.; Glaser, Jack; Kruglanski, Arie W.; Sulloway, Frank J. APA Psychological Bulletin, May 2003, Vol 129(3), p 339-375


71 posted on 04/15/2013 11:07:42 AM PDT by To-Whose-Benefit? (It is Error alone which needs the support of Government. The Truth can stand by itself.)
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To: BenLurkin

Liberalism is a mental disease. I say confiscate all of their guns, knives, and other objects that can be used as weapons.

That should make them “feel” safer.


72 posted on 04/15/2013 11:09:22 AM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal The 16th Amendment!)
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To: To-Whose-Benefit?
Articles that explain how modern liberals suffer from a mental disorder.


73 posted on 04/15/2013 11:15:33 AM PDT by TigersEye (If babies had guns they wouldn't be aborted)
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To: neverdem

Because liberalism is a mental disease?


74 posted on 04/15/2013 12:29:53 PM PDT by Twotone (Marte Et Clypeo)
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To: caww

Of course with all the foreigners moving in here....heck the S.Koreans say 100% of the escapees into their country are clinically paranoid.

We,ve got all the Easterners coming in with backgrounds of abuse from childhood and throughout their life...coupled with the Koran they adhere to, is enough to cause all sorts of mental issues.

**
You are right on here. Worked as a nurse on a neuro unit a few years ago — lots of illegals and immigrant types. I have never SEEN such a bunch of looneys ...and we are talking SERIOUS mental stuff ...going on starvation binges, crazy outbursts ...as well as brain parasites and that sort of thing. They are sick not only physically, but many are very mentally ill as well.


75 posted on 04/15/2013 12:39:13 PM PDT by LibsRJerks
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To: Twotone

76 posted on 04/15/2013 2:14:11 PM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: BenLurkin

“What is going in our culture that allows for this expanding definition of mental illness? There are many explanations. The first is related to payment for treatment. Psychological treatments and medications can be useful for a variety of problems, but for those treatments to be even partially paid for by health insurance companies, the problems must have a diagnosis... Second, pharmaceutical companies search for ever-wider markets for their products. When more people are diagnosed with a given disorder (perhaps because of less stringent criteria), or a new diagnosis is created, it widens the market for their drugs.”

And it widens the market for the gun grabbers.


77 posted on 04/15/2013 2:30:25 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Lancey Howard

I’ve brought up that same theory and believe it can happen.


78 posted on 04/15/2013 2:33:07 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: neverdem

If it goes over 50%, then wouldn’t that mean mentally normal people are now the ones that are abnormal?


79 posted on 04/15/2013 2:55:21 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: neverdem

Liberalism is a mental disorder, and, apparently contagious.


80 posted on 04/15/2013 3:10:42 PM PDT by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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