"The number of Americans suffering from mental illness has nearly doubled since 1987. That's when Prozac, the first of the 'wonder drugs' was introduced. Mental disorders are reported in more than 25% of returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. And more than 1 in 4 college students are now on anti-depressants."It is from a talk by a fellow named Stephen Bezruchka from the University of Washington, a practicing physician who also does research into population health and societal hierarchy. His talk goes on to explore the ways in which our social/political/cultural environment is contributing to a rise in mental illness across the board.
Mostly I just wanted a reason to mention the title of his piece, since I think it provides significant insight into the foundations of this blog:
Is America Driving You Crazy?
2 comments:
I don't know about other forms of mental illness, but it is certainly the case that the current state of affairs in the U.S., whether the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afganistan, the continued degredation of the environment and deconstruction of environmental protections, the economy, healthcare, declines in education, or a myriad of other government-induced worries, surely are grounds for increases in depression. Statistically our military men and women who must keep serving extended and repeated tours of duty are suffering higher levels of suicide, domestic violence, and post traumatic stress disorder. I wonder if anyone has been keeping statistics on changes in mental illness since Bush took us into Iraq. (It is probably unfair to blame him for the PST resulting from 9/11 so we'll just measure from our preemptive attack on Iraq till the present.) Perhaps I'm just paranoid but am I the only one who believes more people hate us now than before we invaded Iraq? Surely SOMEONE out there can definitively show that Bush and his cronies truly are driving America crazy. God knows he has driven me to paranoid, depressed distraction!
To add two-cents worth, my sense is the fatigue of diatribe, monomanicism, no possibility of any balanced, inclusive debate on ANY topic whatsoever, has taken a great toll. This is the utter loss of the principle that "reasonable people can disagree" which is necessary for democracy truly to function. Bush's "sign on or sit down and shut up" attitude has a lot of us at the breaking point--on Earth.
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