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Mental Illness--Is It More Common These Days?

I just had a brief but very interesting exhange with someone dealing with Body Dysmorphic Disorder. (Fortunately, this person knew his attitude was irrational but about 50% of the people suffering with BDD don't.)

That led me to ponder. . . Are we, as some experts have claimed, really seeing a rise in mental illness? I think 1 of 3 things are happening:

1. We really are seeing more mental illness these days.
2. We're simply getting better at diagnosing mental illness.
3. We're expanding the defination of mental illness and extending sympathy to an ever-widening population.

Personally I think it's probably a combination of all 3. What do you think?

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deorre's picture

Expanding Diagnoses...

Submitted by deorre on Wed, 2006-04-26 05:57.

I think all three appy too, though it is number three that concerns me. As we 'diagnose' more and more conditions, the concept of normal becomes smaller and more narrow.

As if normal humans will not have unique nuance and foible.

deorre

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Elly's picture

Yes, you are right.

Submitted by Elly on Wed, 2006-04-26 13:10.

I think the ADHD or Attention Deficit Disorder is a case in point. I'm not convinced about this one.

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Elly's picture

Yes, I'd go for all Three

Submitted by Elly on Tue, 2006-04-25 16:32.

Plus I'd add another. Drugs. Legal and illegal. As an R/N working in psychiatry I was well aware of the problems resulting from use of cannabis. Research now supports this. As well, there are the problems created by marriage breakups, and sexual issues (paedophilia, etc) - that seem to be every increasing. One thing I remember was the large number of young men with mental problems - created it was thought by their inability to cope with their parent's marriage breakdown. Schizophrenia is often linked with this.

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