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"Every year, one in every five children and one in every four adults has a diagnosable mental illness. A quarter of all mental illnesses are considered serious.

"Every year, one in every five children and one in every four adults has a diagnosable mental illness. A quarter of all mental illnesses are considered serious." 1/16 adults having a serious mental illness seemed awfully high to me, but I went and looked it up and that may actually be low-balling it: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-coun...

stan_rogers 14y ago
When you consider that (probably) most of the people who exhibit serious substance abuse problems are self-medicating, the numbers aren't difficult to digest. (I say this not as somebody with studies in hand, but as a person who's been clean and sober for more than a quarter-century, and who has significant experience dealing with other addicts and alcoholics. One can make pretty reliable predictions about underlying issues based entirely on the addict's "drug of choice".)
- omarchowdhury 14y ago
  What underlying issues do you see with someone who takes psychedelics (shrooms, LSD, DMT, etc)?
  - comlag 14y ago
    It isn't about just trying them, it is about using them to medicate or escape other symptoms.
  - xk_id 14y ago
    Hmmm let me try… Psychedelics -> Social rejection MDMA -> Problems with parents Weed -> Infantilism Alcohol -> low IQ NOTE: they are not absolute (e.g IQ below average), but relative to what would make that particular individual comfortable given the life challenges he deals with at the time.
    - littlegiantcap 14y ago
      Alcohol abuse has actually been correlated with High IQ and is most commonly abused by this group because of the despair they see in the world due to their high IQ's. Essentially, because they tend to be more educated, and aware of global problems that makes them depressed.
      - 7952 14y ago
        The causality of that is highly suspect.
      - ramchip 14y ago
        That sounds like an urban legend.
      - stan_rogers 14y ago
        The high IQ is a bit of a miss—it covers the spectrum, although it is certainly true that there was a tendency for high-functioning people from relatively affluent backgrounds to find their way into a recovery setting years ago. Self-selection was certainly part of it, but we have to keep in mind that more effort would generally be put into "salvaging" somebody who had displayed a lot of promise once than someone who would be a lot easier to write off. The despair, though, isn't far off: chronic depression, or dysthymia, is common among alcohlics.
        littlegiantcap 14y ago
        I guess I hadn't considered that, although it makes sense that the people seeking treatment would skew the results.
Adirael 14y ago
There are a lot of mental illnesses (did I spelt this right?) which aren't noticeable and even untreated let you live a "normal" life (whatever a normal life is). I'm diagnosed with ADHD myself. I'm not on medication or treatment and while my attention span is somewhat weak I learned to live with it and find ways to accomplish things. Working in a field I find interesting, even when everything seems to be interesting for me, helps.
- aidenn0 14y ago
  I think that we need a new definition of "serious" if you can live a normal life without treatment. If someone has a "serious" tumor, the assumption is they are likely to die soon without treatment.
aes256 14y ago
I don't really like the term 'mental illness', not so much because of the stigma attached to it, but because the term implies there is some 'normal' from which only a small subsection of the population deviates. In reality, there is no 'normal'. There is no one person with perfect mental health; perfect clarity of thought, perception, of feeling and action. Everyone, to put things bluntly, is a little fucked up. Thus, these figures don't really surprise me. As far as I'm concerned you can end up with any percentage of the population suffering from mental illness, it just depends where you set the thresholds.
- lusr 14y ago
  There's a ridiculously vast difference between "a little fucked up" and serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, rapid cycling bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder. If you think serious mental illness isn't a real, debilitating reality, I encourage you to spend some time with somebody in a truly psychotic state and see how you feel afterwards. Then imagine living as that person. There may be no absolute "normal", but there are most certainly people who live in a sad, terrible, frightening state of mental disturbance with no simple treatment.
  - pnathan 14y ago
    > There may be no absolute "normal", but there are most certainly people who live in a sad, terrible, frightening state of mental disturbance with no simple treatment. Agreed. There's a vast gulf between someone who is quirky on Tumblr and someone with a mental illness. It's simply not the same, not even close.
  - aes256 14y ago
    Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to belittle those with debilitating mental illnesses. I simply don't like the view many seem to hold that mental illness is black and white; you have a mental illness or you don't.
- sejje 14y ago
  This has long been my opinion. I worked with kids at a YMCA in a wealthy area, I would say 50% of them were diagnosed ADHD. I think if it's 50%, then it's just normal. 50 years ago ADHD was normal--we hadn't set our bar there yet.

stan_rogers 14y ago

When you consider that (probably) most of the people who exhibit serious substance abuse problems are self-medicating, the numbers aren't difficult to digest. (I say this not as somebody with studies in hand, but as a person who's been clean and sober for more than a quarter-century, and who has significant experience dealing with other addicts and alcoholics. One can make pretty reliable predictions about underlying issues based entirely on the addict's "drug of choice".)

omarchowdhury 14y ago
What underlying issues do you see with someone who takes psychedelics (shrooms, LSD, DMT, etc)?
- comlag 14y ago
  It isn't about just trying them, it is about using them to medicate or escape other symptoms.
- xk_id 14y ago
  Hmmm let me try… Psychedelics -> Social rejection MDMA -> Problems with parents Weed -> Infantilism Alcohol -> low IQ NOTE: they are not absolute (e.g IQ below average), but relative to what would make that particular individual comfortable given the life challenges he deals with at the time.
  - littlegiantcap 14y ago
    Alcohol abuse has actually been correlated with High IQ and is most commonly abused by this group because of the despair they see in the world due to their high IQ's. Essentially, because they tend to be more educated, and aware of global problems that makes them depressed.
    - 7952 14y ago
      The causality of that is highly suspect.
    - ramchip 14y ago
      That sounds like an urban legend.
    - stan_rogers 14y ago
      The high IQ is a bit of a miss—it covers the spectrum, although it is certainly true that there was a tendency for high-functioning people from relatively affluent backgrounds to find their way into a recovery setting years ago. Self-selection was certainly part of it, but we have to keep in mind that more effort would generally be put into "salvaging" somebody who had displayed a lot of promise once than someone who would be a lot easier to write off. The despair, though, isn't far off: chronic depression, or dysthymia, is common among alcohlics.
      - littlegiantcap 14y ago
        I guess I hadn't considered that, although it makes sense that the people seeking treatment would skew the results.

Adirael 14y ago

There are a lot of mental illnesses (did I spelt this right?) which aren't noticeable and even untreated let you live a "normal" life (whatever a normal life is). I'm diagnosed with ADHD myself. I'm not on medication or treatment and while my attention span is somewhat weak I learned to live with it and find ways to accomplish things. Working in a field I find interesting, even when everything seems to be interesting for me, helps.

aidenn0 14y ago
I think that we need a new definition of "serious" if you can live a normal life without treatment. If someone has a "serious" tumor, the assumption is they are likely to die soon without treatment.

aes256 14y ago

I don't really like the term 'mental illness', not so much because of the stigma attached to it, but because the term implies there is some 'normal' from which only a small subsection of the population deviates. In reality, there is no 'normal'. There is no one person with perfect mental health; perfect clarity of thought, perception, of feeling and action. Everyone, to put things bluntly, is a little fucked up. Thus, these figures don't really surprise me. As far as I'm concerned you can end up with any percentage of the population suffering from mental illness, it just depends where you set the thresholds.

lusr 14y ago
There's a ridiculously vast difference between "a little fucked up" and serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, rapid cycling bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder. If you think serious mental illness isn't a real, debilitating reality, I encourage you to spend some time with somebody in a truly psychotic state and see how you feel afterwards. Then imagine living as that person. There may be no absolute "normal", but there are most certainly people who live in a sad, terrible, frightening state of mental disturbance with no simple treatment.
- pnathan 14y ago
  > There may be no absolute "normal", but there are most certainly people who live in a sad, terrible, frightening state of mental disturbance with no simple treatment. Agreed. There's a vast gulf between someone who is quirky on Tumblr and someone with a mental illness. It's simply not the same, not even close.
- aes256 14y ago
  Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to belittle those with debilitating mental illnesses. I simply don't like the view many seem to hold that mental illness is black and white; you have a mental illness or you don't.
sejje 14y ago
This has long been my opinion. I worked with kids at a YMCA in a wealthy area, I would say 50% of them were diagnosed ADHD. I think if it's 50%, then it's just normal. 50 years ago ADHD was normal--we hadn't set our bar there yet.