Mental health: a problem no one has talked about.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

Sense the 90's death by suicide in the US has spiked.

Worldwide an estimated 800,000 die beacuse of suicide.

No politician I have heard from recently has talked about mental health.

So, why aren't more people talking about this? We here plenty on suicide, but nothing on other mental health problems.

What I think should be done is that health plans issued by the state should cover psychiatrist and psychologists visits.

There should also be a massive cultural shift towards letting people know that it is ok to and talk to someone about this. It's ok to go get help.

What do you think NSG?

[Yagon]

Sense the 90's death by suicide in the US has spiked.

Worldwide an estimated 800,000 die beacuse of suicide.

No politician I have heard from recently has talked about mental health.

So, why aren't more people talking about this? We here plenty on suicide, but nothing on other mental health problems.

What I think should be done is that health plans issued by the state should cover psychiatrist and psychologists visits.

There should also be a massive cultural shift towards letting people know that it is ok to and talk to someone about this. It's ok to go get help.

What do you think NSG?

Trump has made a few comments about mental health, but I think the motivation was less of a concern for it than to draw attention away from the firearms issue related to shootings.

I'm no expert whatsoever, but I think part of it is that mental health, in addition to the stigma, starts with the fact that the brain is tremendously complex and mental health is a much broader array of factors than some other issues. The chemical function of the kidneys or lungs are relatively well understood, but the brain has a more elaborate role.

I don't know if this is true, but apparently DARPA is beginning more advanced examinations of neuroelectric activity with abstract concepts held in the mind, and that in time may bear some fruit.

Treating mental illness is very difficult. Medications can and sometimes do provide help with symptoms, and can be a helpful treatment tool, but often either don't provide enough amelioration of symptoms to stabilize a person enough to be self-sufficient/functional, and for some percentage of people with some conditions, they don't really help at all.

More money for research, and more money for the housing and treatment (beyond just medication and inclusive of more talk-therapy and other specialists, which can be very expensive) would probably do the most good, but its hard enough to get society where I live to even be willing to give money to a little kid who needs basic healthcare, much less an adult who may need many years of exploring a wide variety of expensive treatments to have some chance of getting better.

Where I live, there is a concerning number of people who believe mentally ill people should just "act right and get a job", or be left on the street.

[USS Monitor]

Politicians only talk about mental health after mass shootings when they want to move the debate away from gun laws. And I say this as someone that isn't enthusiastic about gun control. Regardless how you feel about guns, it's not right for mental disorders to be used as a red herring instead of being addressed as a serious issue in their own right.

It is important that people get help when they need it, but what is even better is if we can avoid having so many people get sick in the first place. We really need to rethink the stress that we are putting on people through societal expectations, work habits, etc.

[Yagon]

Politicians only talk about mental health after mass shootings when they want to move the debate away from gun laws. And I say this as someone that isn't enthusiastic about gun control. Regardless how you feel about guns, it's not right for mental disorders to be used as a red herring instead of being addressed as a serious issue in their own right.

It is important that people get help when they need it, but what is even better is if we can avoid having so many people get sick in the first place. We really need to rethink the stress that we are putting on people through societal expectations, work habits, etc.

But if we stress them until larger numbers of people suffer from mental health issues, we can see short term gains in profits for small numbers of people. And we'll call that "Good for Jobs and The Economy".

You can also use that to hose the environment, health care for the poor, and increased stress on military people.

[Methodological Individualism]

So, why aren't more people talking about this?

I suspect certain implications concerning free will, and our self-supposed superior intelligence.

Mental illness suggests certain material realities placing us firmly on the "monkey brains" end of things. Unfortunately, the "soul" is still the popular preference.

[Yagon]

So, why aren't more people talking about this?

I suspect certain implications concerning free will, and our self-supposed superior intelligence.

Mental illness suggests certain material realities placing us firmly on the "monkey brains" end of things. Unfortunately, the "soul" is still the popular preference.

That reminds me of a school I was put in when I was young where it was taught that the mentally ill have "demons" (generally attributed to some failing of virtue on their part) and that they need to be cast out with prayer and fasting and screaming "IN THE NAME OF JESUS I CAST YOU OUT DEVIL!" at them while the flock stands around support-shouts hallelujahs.

I don't know if any clinical evaluation was ever made of their method.

[Albrenia]

Mental health should be treated like any other part of a person's health. It was getting better for a while there, but recently seems to have taken a slight downturn thanks to people deciding that we don't have to care about people's mental and emotional wellbeing anymore since they are just 'fee-fees' and not real.

Not saying that insulting someone should be illegal (don't want to start that particular threadjack, thanks), just it's nice if 'not being a dick' wasn't considered a personality flaw by some.

[Yagon]

Mental health should be treated like any other part of a person's health. It was getting better for a while there, but recently seems to have taken a slight downturn thanks to people deciding that we don't have to care about people's mental and emotional wellbeing anymore since they are just 'fee-fees' and not real.

Not saying that insulting someone should be illegal (don't want to start that particular threadjack, thanks), just it's nice if 'not being a dick' wasn't considered a personality flaw by some.

It does seem like there is this idea in some places that the mentally ill are somehow intrinsically inferior or "weak" and it is somehow justified to leave them without help because they are in some way defective or broken.

The exception of course would be those mentally ill who still manage to be financially successful (the grace that provides forgiveness for all sin in my country) who are then called "eccentric" instead of mentally ill.

[Methodological Individualism]

I suspect certain implications concerning free will, and our self-supposed superior intelligence.

Mental illness suggests certain material realities placing us firmly on the "monkey brains" end of things. Unfortunately, the "soul" is still the popular preference.

That reminds me of a school I was put in when I was young where it was taught that the mentally ill have "demons" (generally attributed to some failing of virtue on their part) and that they need to be cast out with prayer and fasting and screaming "IN THE NAME OF JESUS I CAST YOU OUT DEVIL!" at them while the flock stands around support-shouts hallelujahs.

I don't know if any clinical evaluation was ever made of their method.

This is probably more effective:

You know, to the extent a dead person is technically no longer ill.

[Albrenia]

That reminds me of a school I was put in when I was young where it was taught that the mentally ill have "demons" (generally attributed to some failing of virtue on their part) and that they need to be cast out with prayer and fasting and screaming "IN THE NAME OF JESUS I CAST YOU OUT DEVIL!" at them while the flock stands around support-shouts hallelujahs.

I don't know if any clinical evaluation was ever made of their method.

This is probably more effective:

You know, to the extent a dead person is technically no longer ill.

Also that method of treatment has one particular ailment which it can successfully treat, in the unlikely event that the patient doesn't die.

Yelling at demons never solves anything.

[Yagon]

That reminds me of a school I was put in when I was young where it was taught that the mentally ill have "demons" (generally attributed to some failing of virtue on their part) and that they need to be cast out with prayer and fasting and screaming "IN THE NAME OF JESUS I CAST YOU OUT DEVIL!" at them while the flock stands around support-shouts hallelujahs.

I don't know if any clinical evaluation was ever made of their method.

This is probably more effective:

You know, to the extent a dead person is technically no longer ill.

I had hoped that increased human technical knowledge and understanding of the brain would help solve the problem, but the climate scientists spent a lot of time developing knowledge of a complex system, and society (at least in my country) just went "bullshit hoax fraud!"

I fear that even a critical breakthrough in the understanding of the brain would be met with similar response, which then may motivate the neuro-scientific community to go "okay, fuck it, we'll go whole-hog transhumanist via skunkwork and then see what happens, fuckos".

[Methodological Individualism]

It does seem like there is this idea in some places that the mentally ill are somehow intrinsically inferior or "weak" and it is somehow justified to leave them without help because they are in some way defective or broken.

Welp, since all souls are made in the image of God, and God is perfect, with a bit of Puritan elbow grease you should be able to do whatever you want.

Or something.

I also blame some 1 AM health supplement commercial I saw once; some kind of testosterone crisis making me up to 10 times less teste than my grandfather.

PT Barnum lives.

[Yagon]

It does seem like there is this idea in some places that the mentally ill are somehow intrinsically inferior or "weak" and it is somehow justified to leave them without help because they are in some way defective or broken.

Welp, since all souls are made in the image of God, and God is perfect, with a bit of Puritan elbow grease you should be able to do whatever you want.

Or something.

I also blame some 1 AM health supplement commercial I saw once; some kind of testosterone crisis making me up to 10 times less teste than my grandfather.

PT Barnum lives.

If you don't spend money to rectify your generational de-testification, you are a communist! A girly communist!

[Methodological Individualism]

Also that method of treatment has one particular ailment which it can successfully treat, in the unlikely event that the patient doesn't die.

A few moments of clarity right before massive hemorrhage and or sepsis.

Walking before running, etc.

[SD_Film Artists]

Politicians only talk about mental health after mass shootings when they want to move the debate away from gun laws. And I say this as someone that isn't enthusiastic about gun control. Regardless how you feel about guns, it's not right for mental disorders to be used as a red herring instead of being addressed as a serious issue in their own right.

Indeed, that distraction tactic prevents both issues from finding a progressive answer.

[United Muscovite Nations]

Imo, it's unlikely that normies will ever have enough sympathy for the mentally ill that they would be willing to actually do anything about it, because it's easier for them to just say that it's a personal behavioral problem.

[Outer Sparta]

Politicians only talk about mental health after mass shootings when they want to move the debate away from gun laws. And I say this as someone that isn't enthusiastic about gun control. Regardless how you feel about guns, it's not right for mental disorders to be used as a red herring instead of being addressed as a serious issue in their own right.

It is important that people get help when they need it, but what is even better is if we can avoid having so many people get sick in the first place. We really need to rethink the stress that we are putting on people through societal expectations, work habits, etc.

Throwing in mental issues in gun control simply is throwing a smoke screen, distracting us from actually pushing forward legislation and other solutions to combat such problems.

[Xmara]

Politicians only talk about mental health after mass shootings when they want to move the debate away from gun laws.

Which is probably why we still have the unfortunate stigma that mentally ill=violent.

[Saiwania]

In the US during the early 20th century, there were a lot of institutions for the insane but problem was- there were a bunch of people locked up for questionable reasons and the bar is significantly higher now to involuntarily commit someone.

Even if someone is crazy, they can generally speaking; only be held for 72 hours at most. The US closed down a lot of mental health facilities because that just isn't where funding priorities are now anymore. Hasn't been since at least the 1960s. There are at least less than half the amount of available clinic beds, that're needed to begin to tackle this problem.

[Yagon]

In the US during the early 20th century, there were a lot of institutions for the insane but problem was- there were a bunch of people locked up for questionable reasons and the bar is significantly higher now to involuntarily commit someone.

Even if someone is crazy, they can generally speaking, only be held for 72 hours at most. The US closed down a lot of mental health facilities because that just isn't where funding priorities are now anymore. Hasn't been since at least the 1960s. There are at least less than half the amount of available clinic beds, that're needed to begin to tackle this problem.

It was during the Reagan period that many of the existing institutions were deemed underfunded (and yet simultaneously too expensive for the public) and poorly run (many actually were), so funding was cut to those institutions and they were shut down. The homeless population spiked.

In America, it is like pulling teeth to present that the poor should receive any kind of healthcare, much less the stigmatized mental health care.

Leave them on the streets, punish them. That's the thinking here.

[Socialist Tera]

this is going to be a guess but the reason why there has been a huge spike in suicide is isolation. People do not hang out and talk as much to each other in person as they used to be. So many people hide in their rooms and isolate themselves from the outside.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

I think another problem is the bad image of straight jackets and padded rooms along with the cost.

This might be anecdotal, but it's what kept me away from talking with my doctor about this for years.

Worst mistake I have ever made.

[Yagon]

this is going to be a guess but the reason why there has been a huge spike in suicide is isolation. People do not hang out and talk as much to each other in person as they used to be. So many people hide in their rooms and isolate themselves from the outside.

I may be incorrect, but I think there is some research that supports your position that human relationships and community can be very good for mental health, as well as for treating substance abuse (which has something like a 70% comorbidity rate with mental illness, if I recall).

[Yagon]

I think another problem is the bad image of straight jackets and padded rooms along with the cost.

This might be anecdotal, but it's what kept me away from talking with my doctor about this for years.

Worst mistake I have ever made.

Indeed, in the region I live, the government funded custodial facilities are referred to as "snake pits". The imagery is disconcerting.

[Thermodolia]

I think another problem is the bad image of straight jackets and padded rooms along with the cost.

This might be anecdotal, but it's what kept me away from talking with my doctor about this for years.

Worst mistake I have ever made.

Societal image of mental disorders sucks. Though the Internets, specifically Tumblr, obsession with self-diagnosis isn't helping at all