Mental illness gets more common
11 May Times of India
Although less than 6% adults suffer from severe mental illness every
year, according to a study of 2005, almost 25% of all adults will have a
diagnosable mental problem during their lifetime, said psychiatrist of
Moti Lal Nehru Medical College Dr Anurag Varma.
"People often don't realise how unwell they are. It is hard to tell
if we are mentally as healthy as we were a generation ago. We are better
off now at detecting mental illness with the technique of genetics and
brain imaging for diagnosis and if we detect it timely, we can,
intervene to reduce the intensity and/or frequency of symptoms," he
said. Hyperactivity, depression, or substance abuse are more likely to
be recognised and diagnosed now than before and increased awareness and
can check mental illness better, said the expert.
"We are actually getting "mentally sicker". More of us are mentally
ill than in previous generations, and our mental illness is manifesting
at earlier points in our lives. One study supporting this explanation
took the scores on a measure of anxiety of children with psychological
problems in 1957 and compared them with the scores of today's average
child. Today's children-not specifically those identified as having
psychological problems, as were the 1957 children-are more anxious than
those in previous generations", said Dr Varma.
An additional study supports the explanation that more people are
diagnosed with mental illness because more of us have it. Collectively,
this line of research indicates that more is going on than simply better
detection of mental illness.Some of the behaviours, thoughts, and
feelings that were within the then-normal range of human experience or
attributed to supernatural powers are now deemed to be in the
pathological part of the continuum. This explanation implies that we, as
a culture, are more willing now to admit mental illness in ourselves and
in others.Increased work expectations are another factor. The pace and
demands of jobs has increased. Many companies maintain as few workers as
possible to get the work done, and if an employee can't reliably perform
up to the (more intense) pace, he or she risks getting fired on top of
other problems, Dr Varma added.
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