Hi @Former-Member, @Appleblossom, @Former-Member,
I personally don't believe that mental illness is on the increase, but who knows? I think it is just being diagnosed at greater levels because people are being encouraged to seek medical help now, whereas in the past, plenty of people would not admit they were having distressing symptoms.
I think it's become a self-perpetuating cycle now.... more people are seeking help, and doctors are becoming better educated in MI issues. Less people are falling through the cracks and also less people are prepared to accept anything less than an amazingly happy life....
Our standards of living have gone up... but our overall happiness has not, leaving plenty of people wanting more... more fulfilment, more satisfaction, more happiness and more of everything, really. When life doesn't deliver us huge amount of satisfaction, it does tend to leave the door open to depression..... I think people's mind-sets are changing a bit.
Yes, I do personally believe that anti-depressants might be being over-prescribed. They are cheaper and easier than long-term therapy and in a lot of cases, they get results. I think that given a choice, many patients would prefer to pop a pill rather than have to talk about their problems. Because as far as many of them are concerned, their only problem is that they feel depressed! It's a catch 22 situation.
It could possibly be that experiencing long-term sadness could lead to a change in brain chemistry, rather than the other way around. But the people who manufacture all the pills would have us believe that adverse changes in brain chemistry 'just happen' and that the cause of these changes is not understood. So the solution is to pop a pill and get the brain chemistry back to where is should be. Then everything is supposedly going to be rosy!
The underlying sadness will still be there, as soon as you stop taking the pills. Because that sadness has, in many cases, not been examined. Or only superficially examined. Let's face it, therapy leaves many patients bewildered.... because it has been incomplete and inadequate.
