5 ms·

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 ap

• 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.
      • duped 3y ago
        Or we have gotten better about recording suicide today and they were under-reported years ago.
  • e1g 3y ago
    Yep, suicide rates increased by 20-30% across all races, ages, and genders over roughly a decade between 2006 and 2018 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db464.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db464.htm
  • harimau777 3y ago
    I think you are probably correct that suicide is a decent proxy measurement. It is possible that it could be skewed by changes in how likely people are to honestly report suicide; as opposed to calling it an accident.
    • bordercases 3y ago
      In which case the skew is positive.
  • NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    If suicide is directly correlated to mental illness, then what of euthanasia and assisted suicide? Anyone who applies to end their own life would be incompetent to make that choice, due to mental illness.
    • dredmorbius 3y ago
      Those modalities should be discernable when looking at data by age (assisted death tends to occur at older ages) and, with a slightly greater data burden, comorbidities. When looking at data, an otherwise healthy 20 year old, and an 80-something with multiple chronic and/or terminal Dx's, would stand out. The challenge in looking at population-level data is that the Dx may well not be available, though other indicia might suggest this (e.g., residence is an assisted-living or long-term care facility). In practice, studies are frequently limited to available data, and proxies are frequently used. These may not be appropriate for specific individuals, but at scale, the law of large numbers and general correlation are your friends.
      • bill_joy_fanboy 3y ago
        Like you said, I think looking at younger ages is sufficient. In 1999, teen (15-19) suicide was at around 8/100k, and it's now around 11/100k. It's lower in absolute numbers than in the general population, but there's still a disturbing uptick. https://www.charliehealth.com/research/the-us-teen-suicide-rate-is-on-the-rise https://www.charliehealth.com/research/the-us-teen-suicide-r...
        • NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
          It would be interesting to know how many people committing suicides were on SSRIs or antipsychotics, etc. at the time. These drugs are known to induce suicidal ideations (and ideations of violence, aggression, and homicide) and have carried black-box warnings. Sometimes, the cure is worse than the disease. Oh sorry, not a cure.
          • 3y ago
  • dredmorbius 3y ago
    NB, this the fundamental reasoning behind Emile Durkheim's seminal and foundational work on sociology, Suicide: A Study in Sociology (Fr.: Le Suicide: Étude de sociologie, 1897). The reasoning being that it's very difficult to hide bodies, and that statistics on suicide tend to point to some very deep-rooted pathology within a society. Yes, it's possible to fudge those statistics somewhat (the distinction between "accidental" and "intentional" deaths being salient), but far less so than other indicia of psychological trauma, particularly at population levels (the focus of sociology). <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_(Durkheim_book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_(Durkheim_book)>
  • NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
    > Suicide is an example. You can't "overdiagnose" suicide unless you outright lie that it happened. But you can do that. Throughout much of the 20th century (in the United States, at least), the cops might be willing to just call it an accident (he was cleaning his gun) or an unsolved homicide. Ostensibly to spare the family shame or to allow the family to bury them in the cemetery of their choice. Furthermore, there seem to be factors that cause upswings and downswings in the suicide rate. There were alot more people jumping out of skyscraper windows in 1929 and 1930 than there were in 1925 and 1926, for instance (though we might expect the opportunity to have been roughly the same). Now, that doesn't directly rebut your argument here. But it would mean you'd need to show that if there is an upswing today that it has lasted longer or otherwise been worse than similar ones in the past, or that it doesn't seem to have the same sorts of causes. If possible, it might actually be better to pick some other measurable event/behavior than suicide. Psychotic breaks, schizo episodes, or voluntary commitment.
• 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.