7 ms·

Something is seriously wrong with our culture the past 10-15 years to have contributed to such a dramatic rise in mental illness.

zer8k 3y ago
Is there a rise in mental illness or more people simply being diagnosed now? We're more aware of mental illnesses, leading to more diagnoses, leading to what appears to be a spike in mental illness. I haven't dug deeply into this but I wonder if studies on this have attempted to separate the two. Psychology is notorious for it's crisis of reproducibility. I take everything related to mental illness with two heaping scoops of salt.
- coding123 3y ago
  I don't know there seems to be a few things culminating - the pandemic and inflation. There are a lot of people that did not get the $10-25k pay raise that was necessary. Lots of people have gone homeless. Being without a home is one reason you can lose your shit. Also with the pandemic a lot of loved ones are gone forever. Some lost parents that takes a huge hit on ones mental state.
- bmitc 3y ago
  There is absolutely a rise. We live in a continually more digital and disconnected world, disconnected from each other and nature.
- bill_joy_fanboy 3y ago
  One way to cut the nonsense is to look at things that can't be fudged. Suicide is an example. You can't "overdiagnose" suicide unless you outright lie that it happened. The rate for suicide was something like 10/100K in 2001 and is hovering at 14/100K now. This is a significant increase. If more people are killing themselves, it's almost certain that there are far more people are also miserable or struggling than there used to be. This seems like pretty direct reasoning, but I suppose it could be flawed.
  - duped 3y ago
    > Suicide is an example. You can't "overdiagnose" suicide unless you outright lie that it happened. People have been outright lying about suicides for a long time.
    - hezralig 3y ago
      Do you mean in regards to under-reporting to save face?
      - EgregiousCube 3y ago
        "Died cleaning his gun" etc, yeah.
        Groxx 3y ago
        You absolutely see this in insular communities - lots of attempts to hide abuses or family politics that led to a suicide, by hiding it behind accidental death of some kind.
      - duped 3y ago
        Yes. Also if you put yourself in the shoes of a coroner/investigator, how do you determine if it's a suicide vs an accident? And would you get the context you need from the family/friends/colleagues of the deceased, keeping in mind they might not tell you, or lie because they don't want their loved one to be remembered as someone who lost their battle with mental illness? It's kind of undeniable that there's a rising mental illness crisis in the US and undoubtedly more suicides, but keep in mind that suicide, like all symptoms of mental illness, is hard to track accurately. Especially as the stigma towards mental illness is starting to cede.
    - bordercases 3y ago
      If it's counted as an accident rather than a suicide then the numbers are still high. If it's counted as a suicide rather than an accident then maybe. I would then ask who is lying. If it's faking deaths then that's the coroner system which you would have to question.
- diogenescynic 3y ago
  When I was a kid growing up in the '90s, there was only one visibly homeless person and he was just a schizophrenic guy who pushed a tv around in a shopping cart. Now, there are tent cities and visibly mentally ill using drugs openly in most cities on the west coast. Something has definitely changed.
- teekert 3y ago
  Yesterday I spoke to a couple, they were having second thoughts about their holiday because there was no mobile internet and no wifi and they booked a week. At first I though their kids (11 and 16) were complaining (couldn't imagine otherwise), but no, it was the 40 y/o parents. That's what addiction looks like to me, my wife and me were pretty shocked.
babyshake 3y ago
At best, our technology messes with our heads somewhat. At worst, it leads to serious mental illness. Silicon Valley is creating the digital equivalent to forever chemicals in our drinking water.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
bombcar 3y ago
I wonder how much can be attributed to legalization/decriminalization of drugs. Because if someone is on drugs but that is “fine” now are the classified as a mental illness incident?
- flangola7 3y ago
  Have you actually googled this at all? This reads like a question made in total ignorance of legal recreational substances, as well as their effects. I'm trying not to be insulting, but as someone who's social circle nearly universally consumes recreational drugs (not counting tobacco or alcohol), this comment is cringe-inducing how out of touch with reality it is. To answer your question, 0% can be attributed to it. Alcohol has been legal forever, but medicine still recognizes what alcohol-related addiction, psychosis, and liver cirrhosis are. Medical diagnoses don't really care if the drug involved in a drug related symptom is legal to purchase or not. There are people who don't consume drugs of any kind and have many mental illnesses, and there are people who consume many drugs and don't have any mentally illnesses at all.
  - dec0dedab0de 3y ago
    It is well documented that marijuana can cause psychosis in some people that are predisposed for it. I know quite a few people, my self included, that started using cannabis way more often after it was legalized. I think it's reasonable too assume that legalization of a formerly forbidden substance will increase overall use of that substance. I also think that it is reasonable to assume that increased use of a substance will increase the amount of people suffering the potential side effects. That said, I think social media, the economy, the pandemic, pollution, and the war on terror drugs have done way more harm than legalized weed.
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    Psychotropic pharmaceuticals can have strong interactions with legal and illegal drugs alike. If you're taking most types of these, you won't want to smoke pot or drink alcohol. Also, since you can't depend on the ingredients and dosages of illegal or unregulated drugs, there is really no telling what drugs you could or couldn't take in concert with your psychotropics. And then there are questions of whether you'll tell your psychiatrist. I've seen a quite accepting, non-judgemental attitude about recreational drugs, but can you count on this to be consistent? Do you want this on record in your medical chart? Do you want to try and consistently lie about activities quite germane to your mental health?
ProllyInfamous 3y ago
The juice ain't worth the squeeze. Social media has disconnected us all. DNGAF. Amen.
- keithalewis 3y ago
  If you don't have anything to add to a discussion on social media then don't post.
  - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    I'm just sharing personal perspective. As a recovered uppers abuser (sober over 14 years) I am grateful to care more than most peopls are willing to in such an unjust society. "It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
nmfisher 3y ago
I can't talk about culture but in Australia, this definitely correlates with the spread of methamphetamine. Meth-induced psychosis is a very real thing.
- LilBytes 3y ago
  Hard to say if positive outcomes for the average person in Australia started to decline before or after meth increased. From my anecdotal (but significant observations), there's a coroally with people taking up hard drugs in townships where our youth have no observable pathways to a content adult life. It's my hypothesis people are giving up before they've started. Regional Victoria and Regional Queensland, it's especially rife. Edit: not to say other regional townships are worse or better, just haven't spent a significant enough time to observe it.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  So is methylphenidate-induced psychosis, mania, and suicidal ideation.
1234554321a 3y ago
20 years ago a mental illness, now they changed the name and it’s not an illness anymore so everything is ok.
- edrxty 3y ago
  Do you mind elaborating on what you're referring to so I don't have to assume the worst?
AndrewKemendo 3y ago
9/11 and the Global War on Terror pretty much killed anything like optimism and kicked off the rise in authoritarianism worldwide. Throw in the 2008 recession and collapse in generational mobility worldwide. Add to that global media/internet access and increasing alienation with the increase in inequality worldwide. Finally top it off with a fat pandemic and you have at least two generations (X and Millennials) totally get their future put on hold while everyone older cashes out. Everyone younger is looking at all this in horror and are just waiting us out while innovating humor in the most refreshingly gallows way.
diogenescynic 3y ago
It's the potency and accessibility of drugs, now you can get fentanyl or meth that are dozens of times more pure and cheaper and available all over with virtually zero consequences. If you want to use drugs, there are no cops or doctors who are going to intervene and your family can't just force you into rehab. This new reality is simply sum of the cumulative bad decisions we've made--get rid of mental institutions, make health care unaffordable, tie insurance to employment so mentally ill and drug addicts have a harder time getting access to treatment, the breakup of the nuclear family, more females working and less time to raise their kids, decriminalize drugs, decriminalize sleeping outside in public places, decriminalize theft... this is the end result.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  > get rid of mental institutions which dispense drugs, > make health care unaffordable so patients can't afford drugs, > getting access to treatment which starts and ends with drugs.
noelwelsh 3y ago
The root cause is, I think, inequality. See, for example, https://equalitytrust.org.uk/health https://equalitytrust.org.uk/health "A much higher percentage of the population suffer from mental illness in more unequal countries; differences in inequality tally with more than triple the differences in the percentage of people with mental illness in different countries. Rates of depression in US states are associated with income inequality (after adjusting for income, proportion of population with a college degree and proportion over 65). The more unequal the state, the higher the prevalence of depression."
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  > income inequality Then is this the corollary to "Money Can't Buy Happiness"?
  - stevenicr 3y ago
    or maybe the opposite? Or maybe I misunderstand the statement. A lot of money seems to buy happiness, and when that pile of money is used to raise the price of housing / food / transportation - then those who do not have the big pile of money feel like they are hopeless and are often treated as such which has secondary effects.
alex_lav 3y ago
I believe it is very clearly social media. Humans aren’t intended to have fake-insights into what people around them pretend to be doing

zer8k 3y ago

Is there a rise in mental illness or more people simply being diagnosed now? We're more aware of mental illnesses, leading to more diagnoses, leading to what appears to be a spike in mental illness. I haven't dug deeply into this but I wonder if studies on this have attempted to separate the two. Psychology is notorious for it's crisis of reproducibility. I take everything related to mental illness with two heaping scoops of salt.

coding123 3y ago
I don't know there seems to be a few things culminating - the pandemic and inflation. There are a lot of people that did not get the $10-25k pay raise that was necessary. Lots of people have gone homeless. Being without a home is one reason you can lose your shit. Also with the pandemic a lot of loved ones are gone forever. Some lost parents that takes a huge hit on ones mental state.
bmitc 3y ago
There is absolutely a rise. We live in a continually more digital and disconnected world, disconnected from each other and nature.
bill_joy_fanboy 3y ago
One way to cut the nonsense is to look at things that can't be fudged. Suicide is an example. You can't "overdiagnose" suicide unless you outright lie that it happened. The rate for suicide was something like 10/100K in 2001 and is hovering at 14/100K now. This is a significant increase. If more people are killing themselves, it's almost certain that there are far more people are also miserable or struggling than there used to be. This seems like pretty direct reasoning, but I suppose it could be flawed.
- duped 3y ago
  > Suicide is an example. You can't "overdiagnose" suicide unless you outright lie that it happened. People have been outright lying about suicides for a long time.
  - hezralig 3y ago
    Do you mean in regards to under-reporting to save face?
    - EgregiousCube 3y ago
      "Died cleaning his gun" etc, yeah.
      - Groxx 3y ago
        You absolutely see this in insular communities - lots of attempts to hide abuses or family politics that led to a suicide, by hiding it behind accidental death of some kind.
    - duped 3y ago
      Yes. Also if you put yourself in the shoes of a coroner/investigator, how do you determine if it's a suicide vs an accident? And would you get the context you need from the family/friends/colleagues of the deceased, keeping in mind they might not tell you, or lie because they don't want their loved one to be remembered as someone who lost their battle with mental illness? It's kind of undeniable that there's a rising mental illness crisis in the US and undoubtedly more suicides, but keep in mind that suicide, like all symptoms of mental illness, is hard to track accurately. Especially as the stigma towards mental illness is starting to cede.
  - bordercases 3y ago
    If it's counted as an accident rather than a suicide then the numbers are still high. If it's counted as a suicide rather than an accident then maybe. I would then ask who is lying. If it's faking deaths then that's the coroner system which you would have to question.
diogenescynic 3y ago
When I was a kid growing up in the '90s, there was only one visibly homeless person and he was just a schizophrenic guy who pushed a tv around in a shopping cart. Now, there are tent cities and visibly mentally ill using drugs openly in most cities on the west coast. Something has definitely changed.
teekert 3y ago
Yesterday I spoke to a couple, they were having second thoughts about their holiday because there was no mobile internet and no wifi and they booked a week. At first I though their kids (11 and 16) were complaining (couldn't imagine otherwise), but no, it was the 40 y/o parents. That's what addiction looks like to me, my wife and me were pretty shocked.

babyshake 3y ago

At best, our technology messes with our heads somewhat. At worst, it leads to serious mental illness. Silicon Valley is creating the digital equivalent to forever chemicals in our drinking water.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

bombcar 3y ago

I wonder how much can be attributed to legalization/decriminalization of drugs. Because if someone is on drugs but that is “fine” now are the classified as a mental illness incident?

flangola7 3y ago
Have you actually googled this at all? This reads like a question made in total ignorance of legal recreational substances, as well as their effects. I'm trying not to be insulting, but as someone who's social circle nearly universally consumes recreational drugs (not counting tobacco or alcohol), this comment is cringe-inducing how out of touch with reality it is. To answer your question, 0% can be attributed to it. Alcohol has been legal forever, but medicine still recognizes what alcohol-related addiction, psychosis, and liver cirrhosis are. Medical diagnoses don't really care if the drug involved in a drug related symptom is legal to purchase or not. There are people who don't consume drugs of any kind and have many mental illnesses, and there are people who consume many drugs and don't have any mentally illnesses at all.
- dec0dedab0de 3y ago
  It is well documented that marijuana can cause psychosis in some people that are predisposed for it. I know quite a few people, my self included, that started using cannabis way more often after it was legalized. I think it's reasonable too assume that legalization of a formerly forbidden substance will increase overall use of that substance. I also think that it is reasonable to assume that increased use of a substance will increase the amount of people suffering the potential side effects. That said, I think social media, the economy, the pandemic, pollution, and the war on terror drugs have done way more harm than legalized weed.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  Psychotropic pharmaceuticals can have strong interactions with legal and illegal drugs alike. If you're taking most types of these, you won't want to smoke pot or drink alcohol. Also, since you can't depend on the ingredients and dosages of illegal or unregulated drugs, there is really no telling what drugs you could or couldn't take in concert with your psychotropics. And then there are questions of whether you'll tell your psychiatrist. I've seen a quite accepting, non-judgemental attitude about recreational drugs, but can you count on this to be consistent? Do you want this on record in your medical chart? Do you want to try and consistently lie about activities quite germane to your mental health?

ProllyInfamous 3y ago

The juice ain't worth the squeeze. Social media has disconnected us all. DNGAF. Amen.

keithalewis 3y ago
If you don't have anything to add to a discussion on social media then don't post.
- ProllyInfamous 3y ago
  I'm just sharing personal perspective. As a recovered uppers abuser (sober over 14 years) I am grateful to care more than most peopls are willing to in such an unjust society. "It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

nmfisher 3y ago

I can't talk about culture but in Australia, this definitely correlates with the spread of methamphetamine. Meth-induced psychosis is a very real thing.

LilBytes 3y ago
Hard to say if positive outcomes for the average person in Australia started to decline before or after meth increased. From my anecdotal (but significant observations), there's a coroally with people taking up hard drugs in townships where our youth have no observable pathways to a content adult life. It's my hypothesis people are giving up before they've started. Regional Victoria and Regional Queensland, it's especially rife. Edit: not to say other regional townships are worse or better, just haven't spent a significant enough time to observe it.
NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
So is methylphenidate-induced psychosis, mania, and suicidal ideation.

1234554321a 3y ago

20 years ago a mental illness, now they changed the name and it’s not an illness anymore so everything is ok.

edrxty 3y ago
Do you mind elaborating on what you're referring to so I don't have to assume the worst?

AndrewKemendo 3y ago

9/11 and the Global War on Terror pretty much killed anything like optimism and kicked off the rise in authoritarianism worldwide. Throw in the 2008 recession and collapse in generational mobility worldwide. Add to that global media/internet access and increasing alienation with the increase in inequality worldwide. Finally top it off with a fat pandemic and you have at least two generations (X and Millennials) totally get their future put on hold while everyone older cashes out. Everyone younger is looking at all this in horror and are just waiting us out while innovating humor in the most refreshingly gallows way.

diogenescynic 3y ago

It's the potency and accessibility of drugs, now you can get fentanyl or meth that are dozens of times more pure and cheaper and available all over with virtually zero consequences. If you want to use drugs, there are no cops or doctors who are going to intervene and your family can't just force you into rehab. This new reality is simply sum of the cumulative bad decisions we've made--get rid of mental institutions, make health care unaffordable, tie insurance to employment so mentally ill and drug addicts have a harder time getting access to treatment, the breakup of the nuclear family, more females working and less time to raise their kids, decriminalize drugs, decriminalize sleeping outside in public places, decriminalize theft... this is the end result.

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
> get rid of mental institutions which dispense drugs, > make health care unaffordable so patients can't afford drugs, > getting access to treatment which starts and ends with drugs.

noelwelsh 3y ago

The root cause is, I think, inequality. See, for example, https://equalitytrust.org.uk/health https://equalitytrust.org.uk/health "A much higher percentage of the population suffer from mental illness in more unequal countries; differences in inequality tally with more than triple the differences in the percentage of people with mental illness in different countries. Rates of depression in US states are associated with income inequality (after adjusting for income, proportion of population with a college degree and proportion over 65). The more unequal the state, the higher the prevalence of depression."

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
> income inequality Then is this the corollary to "Money Can't Buy Happiness"?
- stevenicr 3y ago
  or maybe the opposite? Or maybe I misunderstand the statement. A lot of money seems to buy happiness, and when that pile of money is used to raise the price of housing / food / transportation - then those who do not have the big pile of money feel like they are hopeless and are often treated as such which has secondary effects.

alex_lav 3y ago

I believe it is very clearly social media. Humans aren’t intended to have fake-insights into what people around them pretend to be doing