1 in 5 Americans had mental illness in 2009

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters Via MSNBC

CHICAGO — More than 45 million Americans, or 20 percent of U.S. adults, had some form of mental illness last year, and 11 million had a serious illness, U.S. government researchers reported on Thursday.

Young adults aged 18 to 25 had the highest level of mental illness at 30 percent, while those aged 50 and older had the lowest, with 13.7 percent, said the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or SAMHSA. The rate, slightly higher than the previous 19.5 percent figure, reflected increasing depression, especially among the unemployed, SAMHSA, part of the National Institutes of Health, said.

"Too many Americans are not getting the help they need and opportunities to prevent and intervene early are being missed," Pamela Hyde, SAMHSA's administrator, said in a statement. "The consequences for individuals, families and communities can be devastating. If left untreated mental illnesses can result in disability, substance abuse, suicides, lost productivity, and family discord."

The 2009 mental health survey hints at the impact of record unemployment rates, which last year hit a 25-year high as struggling employers slashed jobs to cope with a weak economy.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40257545/ns/health-mental_health/

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. "If left untreated mental illnesses can result in disability, substance abuse, suicides,

lost productivity, and family discord."

Truer words were never spoken. :(

[reggie the dog]

13. i know i started to use cannabis daily when

i was depressed.....at least with that bout of teenaged depression i was mentally prepared for the 30 something wife left me and lost the job and kid blues.....

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. I dunno how anyone can truly be prepared for that. *hugs*

[reggie the dog]

21. thanks for the hugs

i have enough experience with depression to know that the darkness will lift eventually if i hold out long enough..... so no reason to try suicide again like when i was 16

[GreenPartyVoter]

29. Yeah, knowing my ebb and flow also helps me hang on too.

[Demeter]

2. And Odds Are, They Were Unemployed, Which Didn't Help At All

The undiagnosed ones are still in upper management....,

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[murielm99]

4. We need to remember that when we post here,

and be sensitive to each other. There has been concern in the DU mental health support group. We throw around words about mental health and use them as derogatory terms to make fun of our political enemies.

I have a family member who is mentally ill. She deserves some kindness, even though she has created chaos for everyone around her. No one took the initiative to help her years ago, when it might have done some good.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. As someone who has battled mental illness most of my life --

I really don't have a problem calling someone life a Sarah Palin "crazy" -- I think she is. I think it is high tiome we start calling the real "crazies" crazy. The people who believe the world is 6 thousand years old are crazy and should be called on it. That Rep. who said global warming is fiction because God promised in the bible he would not destroy the planet again is crazy and should be called on it. thos folsk are the "crazy" ones. Me? I suffer from mental illness, a completely different animal.

[Kucinich Feingold]

5. It must be the economy.

[RKP5637]

6. IMO there are also a number of people with mental illness that do not get tracked

because they have never sought help or been forced too ... can't afford it, etc.

[Mimosa]

9. Treatment for mental/nervous complaints is often precluded from health insurance

BC/BS notoriously excludes treatment for mental, alcohol or drug treatment from their policies.

[Posteritatis]

20. And a lot of people don't recognize such things as real at all

Which leads to fun things like telling a Bipolar II person that they'll feel better if they just smile and think happy thoughts, or the (so far) three DUers in this thread alone who've decided that mental illness boils down to political views.

[superduperfarleft]

37. You forgot it all being a big conspiracy by BIG PHARMA!!!!!111one n/t

[Posteritatis]

39. Nah, I see those those arguments as mostly synonymous

"Mental illness is a hoax by Big Pharma" and "mental illness is a hoax by Big Brother" really aren't that different from each other, and most denialists I see either fall squarely into one of those camps or make arguments that both of them use quite a lot.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mimosa]

10. Maybe true but not pertinent to discussion.

I hope your comment gets deleted.

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. I'd say he's deluded, not delusional.

Not quite the same thing.

You want delusional, you're talking Glen Beck.

[Posteritatis]

18. Yay! Another "disagrees with me politically = mentally ill" post!

Just what DU needs!

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[reggie the dog]

12. i knew that it was difficult to be in my late teens

but i had no idea so many others around me had depression or other disorders.... 3 out of 10 people 18 to 25.... that is horrible.....

[elocs]

14. It was 2 years ago at Christmastime 2008 that my goddaughter had her 1st psychotic breakdown.

During that time she was hospitalized 16 times at a dozen different hospitals. She is now 19 years old and has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. She has been pretty stable as of late and is on SSI, but it will be a lifelong battle that should get better as she gets older. She never will be truly "cured" though. What has helped her is that she has family and others who care for her that have advocated on her behalf.

She went back to her mother's home in the Chicago area last weekend and while she was there she met a cop who helped her when she was in the midst of her psychotic break. He recognized that she was mentally ill and argued with her sergeant that she should be taken to the hospital and not to jail. When she saw him last weekend she thanked him for what he had done for him and my guess is that hearing that from her meant a lot to him.

[slackmaster]

17. Only 1 in 5?

:crazy:

[scribble]

24. ... it's worse than that ...

If American families include an average of four members, and our lives are strongly affected by our close relationships, then about two thirds of us are being personally affected right now, by someone important in our lives who is mentally ill. We all have skin in this game.

Just consider: 20% of all mothers have mental illness. How are their kids doing? How are their mentally stable kids doing? How about their fathers? If their families are OK; how about supervisors at work?

And it's worse. 20% is a minimum estimate. It doesn't include personality disorders like narcissists, obsessive-compulsives, paranoids, and people with hysteric, addictive or anxiety disorders, or people with high-functioning autism. These are more prevalent.

Most health insurance plans do not cover treatments for mental illness.


sc

[slackmaster]

25. 100% of my ex wives have some psychological problems

I had a girlfriend a few years ago who was quite sane and stable, but her nutball daughter ruined things for us.

I guess I should be content to be the only human in my house for now.

[HereSince1628]

30. And of course there are our co-workers and our social contacts

including other DUers.

It's pretty much a given that each of us makes contact with the mentally ill on a daily basis. At that point of contact our thoughtful interaction can be a help. In the same way that teachers speak of 'teaching moments' it is also possible to speak of 'moments of understanding and support.'

[Odin2005]

19. Our whole society is insane and deranged, of course it's going to make people mentally ill.

[RKP5637]

22. Excellent point!!! It's really become a weird place, each day is a struggle and

the outrageous gets more outrageous. And I swear some of these politicians and those seeking office are clearly not stable IMO.

[valerief]

23. Yeah, teabagosis. Not to make light of real mental illness, I think some of

these figures reflect more of the effect of Big Pharma pushing as many pills on kids as possible, which may or may not have anything to do with real mental illnesses. I wonder if some mental illnesses appear along with the new pills, illnesses that never existed years ago. You know, like work expands to fill the hours allotted for it, mental illnesses expand to fill the drug supply allotted for it.

[Posteritatis]

27. "Big Pharma" did not invent schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

Your reversing cause and effect aside, the line between "real" mental illnesses and other ones is an interesting distinction; I'm curious as to which ones you suspect to be fraudulent or malingering.

Also, "yeah, teabagosis" in response to this is making light of real mental illness, and you're the fourth person in this thread with enough contempt towards the issue to pull that line out. You've got company, at least.

[valerief]

32. Geesh, you woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Big Pharma likes

to feed people pills whether they need them or not. They make money that way.

I thought I qualified my statement by exempting real mental illnesses, but apparently you chose to not read that.

Lighten up. Take a chill pill. (Irony intended.)

[Posteritatis]

33. So which ones, in your professional opinion, aren't "real" mental illnesses? (nt)

[valerief]

34. Diagnosing an illness is not the same thing as having an illness.

You never heard of kickbacks? I'm talking about corruption, not mental illness.

[Posteritatis]

35. You specified new mental illnesses appearing as part of this apparent malpractice. Which ones? (nt)

[superduperfarleft]

38. You want to talk about the "stigma" of mental illness? Look at your own post.

Attempting to convince people who may be suffering from actual illnesses that they're not really sick and that they're just being coerced into taking (potentially lifesaving) medications by some giant "Big Pharma" conspiracy is fucking vile.

Not to mention your "theory" is basically just pulled from your ass with zero actual evidence.

[Demoiselle]

26. This is awful news. 30 percent of young people?

I remember how hard Rosalyn Carter worked to bring attention to our mental health problems and take the stigma out of mental illness.
Thanks, Rosalyn. We clearly need to keep working on it.

[DonCoquixote]

28. I humbly offer this link

http://www.best-quotes-poems.com/sanity-quotes.html

Best one of the bunch
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. " Krishnamurti

[postatomic]

31. If you wish to read the actual report:

http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUH/2k9NSDUH/MH/2K9MHResults.pdf

It's 174 pages. Page 24 is interesting. It would back what someone else said about this number not being accurate because so much is not being reported. Also; many people don't want to be told they have a mental illness or they will just live in denial until a major trauma occurs. And by then, it might be too late. The suicide rate for people over 50 is increasing. An age group that was once considered more "normal".

[nalnn]

36. How many in this thread?

Approximately 5 so far...

[ProudDad]

40. Most of the other 4 in 5

have undiagnosed mental illness from trying to cope with an impossible, dead-end corporate capitalist system...

50% of USAmericans have to take some kind of pill or medication just to get through the day...

(not counting Viagra)...