Some report claims that 20% of the population, and 30% of youth, had a mental illness last year.
I think this must be a gross over-diagnosing of people who are going through tough times in their lives.
Feeling depressed, fearful, and even having suicidal ideas, however, can be quite normal for people in jams. If you apply a DSM checklist to 100 random people, you could come up with at least one diagnosis for every one of them.
Sometimes I feel that modern Psychiatry and pharmacology imagines that anybody who doesn't feel perfect all the time must be assigned a diagnosis (and maybe given a pill or two). Here at Maggie's, we term that Psycho-utopianism - and we have the trademark on that term.
Life is tough. Being a person can be tough. Most people's problems stem from dealing with themselves. I cannot assign a diagnosis to many of the patients I see (but I make them up when need be, for their insurances). If you have trouble with your feelings or your behavior, there is some help out there. Few cures, but plenty of help despite what the article implies.
I did get a kick out of this part:
The survey also found that 23.8 percent of women had some form of mental illness, compared with 15.6 percent of men.
We all know why the gender inequality there: hormones, and having to deal with kids and men.
