Is mental illness more prevalent now?

[DismayedAnnoyed]

I read a poster on another thread saying: Mental illness is so prevalent now that there aren’t the resources around to treat people

I am wondering, do people think this is true? Or just people are more aware?

I don't think it's that mental health problems are more prevalent now, certainly the rate of serious mental illness is static. What has changed is the number of Adverse Childhood Experiences that children now face, increasing the number of adults with complex trauma.

vimeo.com/189604325

Sorry here's a better link

You're so right, @RebelRogue my memories of the SA were buried and I had distressing images and thought I was going mad. I was talking about this with a family friend who was a GP and she said it sounded like PTSD. I couldn't remember anything so I dismissed it. But then when my DSis and I both had young children the memories came flooding back and it made everything clear to me. So believe me, a diagnosis was just what I needed.

What did help me, and I know it's helped others, was EMDR therapy, I don't get the distressing flashbacks now, the emotional damage is still there, but nevertheless understanding that I wasn't crazy was such a step forward.

want I disagree. It would be incredibly emotionally draining, not to mention that the target audience might have their own equally bad, or even worse problems to cope with, and not be in any position to offer support. And then quite likely would be accused of being unsympathetic.

In rl I find those most keen to share the details of their mental illness in great detail, when it isn't relevant to the conversation, and demand support, and their needs be prioritised above everyone else's, are often blind to what those around them might be going through. And usually at the milder end of the scale where some self help/ coping mechanisms are possible.

Years ago I was a member of a small, closed Facebook group for those who had survived abusive childhoods. Another member and I recognised each other from rl, but tried for the most part not to let the online sharing cloud our rl interactions, unless either of us really needed it. I will never forget some twat, unrelated to the Facebook group, expecting us both to constantly pander to her entitled, selfish behaviour. And when confronted turned on the tears and told us we didn't understand, called us all kinds of nasty cunts, and informed us we should be supportive of her ptsd because we hadn't suffered the childhood she had. A childhood that was apparently traumatic because her loving parents had little money for luxuries such as holidays. As it happens the two of us had a quite dark sense of humour, and with each other for moral support, were able to sit and laugh hysterically at how clueless she was. If one of us was alone and at a low point, it could have been quite harrowing to be abused for showing a lack of support to the self proclaimed victim.

I really don't want a culture where people like that feel it is the norm to share their self indulgent emotions with the expectation of support. And even when there are genuine reasons, the same culture would result in those less open being expected to support the 'sharers', regardless of what they are suffering themselves.

No. It is recognised more, and we have thankfully started to take away some of the stigma. I think that we should be recognising this as a good thing instead of complaining about it. Maybe a small minority of people are a bit whiny and use mental health as an excuse, but I'd rather have that and save some lives than the alternative.

While mental health services are stretched almost to the point of breaking (my partner is bipolar so I am experiencing this close up), I also think that if my great uncle was around now instead of in the 1930s, he'd have been able to seek some sort of help and feel like there might be a future for him, rather than just taking himself off to a local beauty spot and quietly hanging himself.

And while we're at it, eating disorders aren't new either.

I agree with you, @Thehogfather what this lady was talking about could not be described as PTSD. That does sound like a misuse of the term. Abusive childhood should mean that you suffered some form of abuse, not just that you had loving parents who couldn't afford many things. That's a tough childhood but it's not abusive. That indicates mistreatment in some form.

There is some reduced stigma but when my diagnosis is mentioned I am telling you there is a lot of stigma. I think there is more mental illness which in part is due to the complexities of today’s society. I know for a fact because I know these people that people hide their mental illness for fear of what stigma brings. It took a lot of fighting etc to get help and be assigned a psychiatrist.

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/03/admissions-to-hospital-for-drug-related-mental-health-problems-soar

I think people are just more aware, and there are labels for things that weren't officially 'labelled' before.
And I do think previous generations - certainly my parents' WW2 lot - were a lot more stoical - maybe they just had to be.

I sometimes wonder how after what my folks both lived through - my mother with the London Blitz and constant anxiety about my father, who was on the terribly dangerous N Atlantic convoys for years - that they weren't left with sundry mental health disorders. Maybe they were just 'lucky' - they certainly counted themselves lucky to come out of it all in one piece.

BTW, whoever said it, I'm pretty sure mortgages weren't 100% 40 years ago! You usually had to have a 10% deposit - very often having saved it with the building society that was going to lend you the rest.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER a lot of these things weren't diagnosed then. My MIL lived through the blitz as a young child. She has panic attacks sometimes at loud noises, especially Bonfire Night with the bangers. It's never been diagnosed as PTSD but it would be now.

Fruitcider, do children really suffer more ‘ACEs’ now than in the past? Your video says 50% of adults in the UK suffered as children and I think families where abuse/ drinking etc are problems have always been present. I would have thought there was more help for these children and families now, and a better care system for when things go really wrong, now than there would have been years ago? Children being hit was I think much more prevalent in the past?

I agree lizzie she just had a victim complex about every aspect of life. And the behaviour she was trying to excuse as ptsd wasn't acceptable or a symptom even if she'd been a genuine victim.

'So suffering from domestic abuse, witnessing a suicide or living in a war torn country (among other events), don't cause PTSD?

It's only veterans who can suffer?'

My own father used to believe that was true. I sat and watched my daughter suffer terribly through 4 in-patient, back to back rounds of intensive chemo for treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia and then die by inches in ICU. I have diagnosed PTSD as a result. I quickly disabused him of that notion. It wasn't 'just a shit' time, it was an agonising process with her untimely death as a result. Many of my bereaved parent friends are in the same boat and some have been diagnosed with complex PTSD.

As for 'It didn't happen in WWII', well, bullshit. Patrick Stewart has been very open about how his father was affected by his experience in WWII and the result of his alcoholic, abusive behaviour towards Patrick's mother, which was in no way uncommon at the time, just swept under the rug.

My dad had ptsd. Not from ww2 but later conflict. I never realised and he is dead now. His family said he was happy go lucky before the army and totally different when he finished. I remember his behaviour and it fits ptsd. Any trauma in life such as for example domestic abuse can lead to ptsd.

@FruitCider

I clicked away from the video you linked on to the next one... an interview with a ten year-old about his mum and possible abuse, and in tears I went to give my little brother (I'm the guardian) a massive hug. Thank you xx

Fruitcider, do children really suffer more ‘ACEs’ now than in the past? Your video says 50% of adults in the UK suffered as children and I think families where abuse/ drinking etc are problems have always been present.

Child abuse is rife, even now, emotional abuse or neglect is widespread due to parents having ACE's. 1 in 6 adults have been sexually abused by children and looking at the people coming through my doors I really cannot see a change in that statistic. Drug abuse and poverty are also both widespread currently, as is domestic violence. I think the current generation of children are going to really struggle in 10-20 years time....

false I've got no idea what it triggered for you, but if it was helpful then you are welcome x

People don't suffer in silence so much.

TV shows such as Grange Hill did a fair bit to bring issues out into the open, which previously would have been "we don't talk about things like that". Issues such as anorexia, bullying, heroin. (I'm watching my way through the old episodes at the moment.) Each "odd" character had clearly been conditioned to suffer in silence. Again and again there was the dialogue:
"You've got to tell someone."
"No!!!!"
"Why not?"
Insert reason such as it's grassing, they'll kill me/no one will believe me/my mum will do her nut.

Does anyone remember Simon Shaw? "Teachers just call me thick or stupid. I won't tell them I can't read, 'cause they'll send me to a school for loonies, that's why."

I'd like someone to explain what a "genuine" mental illness is and how you differentiate between ones that are and [supposedly] aren't.
To me, it's similar to people suffering from a cold and calling it the flu. Doctor tell you that you know you've got the flu if even if there was a £20 note on the floor, you'd be too out of it to pick it up.

Having worked with people who suffered from severe depression or anxiety, what I saw were people who were so distressed by the condition, they couldn't function, even if it was to do something they so wanted to do. For instance, I worked with a woman who suffered from social phobia and wouldn't go out. When she stepped out, she shook so badly with fear, she could take a step. Then her daughter told her that she was getting married and what she wanted more than anything was for her mum to be there. This lady was so desperate to go, so determine, she wanted to work towards building herself to go out. We did, but progress wasn't quick enough and in the end, she just couldn't make it on the day. She was totally heartbroken, cried the entire day, it was sooooo sad.

That to me is severe social phobia and very different to my daughter's friend who says she suffers from social phobia and is trying to claim esa because she can't cope with the prospect of going for a job when she couldn't face a job interview, but somehow had no problem to join a group of friend to go to a concert last week. That to me is selective social phobia.

I suspect the answer is very complex.

A lot was brushed under the carpet in institutions or went unspoken until recent decades. May be at the milder end of the spectrum, closer families and communities may have helped. Experiences that we recognise as being traumatic now such as the loss of babies/ young children were more commonplace. Grief was largely unacknowldeged, but maybe there was an unspoken support with it not being an unusual life event. Maybe these days that grief is exacerbated by social isolation of it being a rare occurence that few friends and family experience. More people survive traumatic events such as difficult births. There must be a significant proportion of PND triggered by difficult births where in previous decades the mother wouldn't have survived with the level of healthcare avaliable.

Life was physically hard in the past. Anxiety may have been more grounded in real life concerns. More people died young for example in industrial accidents before any other physical/ mental health conditions could manifest themselves.

There was also a stability of work and community even if life was hard. There were the "jobs for life" in communuties like the pit villages. Modern working conditions such as zero hour contracts can be very precarious.

There's a lot of mental pressure in the education system that's been growing for years. We're pressuring young people constantly to meet ambitious/ unrealistic goals. Gone are the days of studying then a a few weeks of revision and a cluster of exams. Young people now face formal testing at 7, 11, 14-16, 16-18, 18-21. For many conciencious personality types it's too much.

We live out of sync with the way our bodies evolved to survive. Pressure wasn't meant to be constant and mental. It was episodic and dealt with physically. Society is educated to be more analytical and that can feed disorders such as OCD and anxiety. (I wonder if these presented in superstitions, old wives tales and religious ritual and now present differently in forms such as health anxiety and hygiene routines.) As a society we live longer but with poorer health which will also contribute to illnesses such as depression.

The pace of modern life may make it harder for conditions such as HFA. Less routine, more sensory input all around constantly.

It has always been there but we see it differerently now and it triggers and presents differently. Society copes differently.

I had a friend in school (80's) who had hyperventilation, It'd be called panic attacks now. I knew girls who had anorexia, people who were abused. It happened back then too. I'm sick of people talking about the 'snowflake' generation when discussing mental illness.

However, I do think there's less people taking the blame for their own actions. Everyone else is to blame but them.

I haven't read the full thread, however I was on the thread you were referring too.

I think a lot has to do with better understanding and more diagnosis. As I said I was officially diagnosed last year at the age of 36, however looking back, the signs were there from my early teens. So really 20 years I've been struggling when I should have, could have, been getting support. But thankfully now my bipolar seems to be under control!

What a fantastic post Urgent

I was particularly struck by these comments:

Society is educated to be more analytical and that can feed disorders such as OCD and anxiety.

The pace of modern life may make it harder for conditions such as HFA. Less routine, more sensory input all around constantly.

And I do think that social media has triggered an epidemic of insecurity, neurosis and narcissism in many people, particularly young people.

I don’t think the number of people with serious mental health issues has increased (they’re just more visible in communities now since the asylum closures), but it does seem there’s been an increase in anxiety and depression in the last few decades.
Could be for a number of reasons:

1.) Forcing us all together in open plan offices, indoors, for most of the year with very little exercise or variety to our days.

2.) Losing touch with seasonal changes e.g. eating for the season, moving more in the summer and resting/sleeping more in the winter.

3.) Social media/celebrity/always online culture and the pressure that goes with it, especially for young people. There's so much focus now on the cult of personality and appearances that we've forgotten the importance of character.

4.) The increasing gap between ‘the rich’ and ‘everyone else’. I suspect there is a strong correlation between the widening gulf in social mobility and the rise of anxiety and depressive disorders.

5.) We’re more aware of global issues than we ever have been – war, global warming, terrorism, violence everywhere. That can’t be good for the naturally anxious among us.

6.) We’re smarter than we ever have been. Again, there’s a correlation between intelligence and depression isn’t there? Maybe as we become more intelligent as a species we’re generally getting more depressed!

Perhaps there is an element of over-diagnosis and medicalisation of normal personality traits, but I’d be more inclined to think that we do have an increasing problem with mental health to the point it could almost be classed as an epidemic.
Our society is fundamentally broken and a lot of people are suffering because of it – physically and mentally.