Are Half of All Americans Mentally Ill?
Fox News
Now there's a headline most European media would love to jump on... Setting aside all the obvious first thoughts that bring a grin to my face when mulling the numbers on the red/blue state map, there is a serious side to this broad brush painted by the medical industry.
Fact is, give someone's mental beef or emotional traumas a medical term, and they qualify for treatment using their insurance carrier. Meanwhile, everyone whines when insurance rates rise by double digits, and wring their hands in anguish over the outlandish costs of any form of medical attention.
With these increased numbers of identifiable mental "diseases", why is it so impossible for the bulk of Americans to connect the dots between what may be a form of mental hypochondria and insurance skyrocketing out of the reach of so many? And we haven't even factored in the additional influence of malpractice suits.
Burning question here is, are people so far out of whack compared to a few generations ago? Or do we just toss out disease labels more easily, racing to doctors (and lawyers) at the drop of a hat?
LOS ANGELES — A new study by Harvard University and the National Institute of Mental Health (search) claims that 46 percent of all Americans will, at some point in their lives, develop a mental disorder.
But this new statistic has experts arguing over exactly what constitutes a true mental illness.
(snip)
Critics say that's crazy, and that it won't be long before all human quirks and flaws are classified as mental disorders.
"When you say we're going to provide mental health treatment to everyone, then the severely mentally ill usually get the lowest priority," said Dr. Richard Lamb (search), professor of Psychiatry at the University of Southern California.
Others say the DSM should be considered the mental health bible, because if it says that a person is mentally ill, then that person can get the treatment they need — and insurance companies will foot the bill.
read in entirety at link above
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