We're a nation of nuts?

[Osborn F Enready]

I clipped this from a local Libertarian Talk Show Website:
http://www.brianwilson.net/

A Nation of Nuts The experts won't be satisfied until every last person is suffering from some kind of disease or disorder or syndrome. If you add together all the numbers compiled by all the institutes, the councils, the foundations, the Ph.D.'s and authors, you come up with one sorry statistical portrait of a nation. According to The New York Times, as many as 9.5 million adult Americans suffer from attention deficit disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, "more than 10 million Americans" suffer from seasonal affective disorder, the syndrome that supposedly makes people depressed in fall and winter. According to the Chronic Fatigue Immunity Disorder Syndrome Association of America, up to 500,000 adults in the U.S. suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome. That's around 20 million sufferers so far. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, there are 14 million Americans alcoholics. According to the U.S. National Advisory Mental Health Council, five million adults in America have a "severe mental illness." According to the Mental Health Infosource web site, eight million Americans have some kind of eating disorder. That's 47 million. According to Peter Radetsky, author of "Allergic to the 20th Century," 2.5 million Americans have "multiple chemical sensitivity"--meaning that they cannot, say, touch a bottle of Windex without breaking out in a rash, etc. According the National Academy of Sciences, 37 million Americans are experiencing "increased allergic reaction to chemicals." Let's consider the 2.5 million with "multiple chemical sensitivity" to be a subset of the 37 million with "increased allergic reaction to chemicals," and that puts us at 84 million miserable Americans, and counting. But wait. There's more. According to the Social Phobia/Social Anxiety Association, 15 million Americans suffer from social anxiety, meaning, for example, that they're afraid to count their change in front of a cashier for fear of being watched. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, over 15 million adult Americans are depressed. According to that same august governmental body, three million Americans have panic disorder, meaning they experience heart palpitations, etc., for no apparent reason. We're up to 117 million. According to author Jerold J. Kreisman, M.D., 10 million Americans have "borderline personality disorder." This one allows you to have a shaky sense of identity, a tendency to split the world into heroes and villains and an intense fear of abandonment, all under the same banner. According to an outfit called the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation, "as many as 12 million" Americans suffer from something called restless legs syndrome. The foundation proudly dubs this one "the most common disorder you've never heard of" and claims it's "a neurological disorder characterized by unusual sensations felt in the legs... [that] cause the patient to constantly move the feet and legs in an effort to relieve the unbearable sensations." That's 139 million. The literature turned out by the institutes and foundations, by the way, almost always includes warnings that those suffering from a given condition have been seriously "undercounted"--and that each special ailment is probably genetic in origin. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 2% of the U.S. population has obsessive compulsive disorder. (That translates into 5.4 million Americans.) An additional two million are manic depressive. According to a study conducted by Patrick Cornes, Ph.D., 8% of the adult male population and 3% of the adult female population are sex addicts. (That translates into 7.6 million men and 3.1 million women.) We're now at 157 million--but let's allow for some overlap and say that five million people have more than one disorder. That puts the total number of sufferers at 152 million. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were an estimated 267.8 million people in the country as of August 1997. Of these, about 198 million are over 18 years old. The numbers related to the above-mentioned diseases, syndromes and disorders apply mainly to adults. So if you believe the statistics, 77% of America's adult population is a mess. And we haven't even thrown in alien abductees, road ragers or Internet addicts. But give the experts a little time. With another new quantifiable disorder or two, everybody in the country will be officially nuts. Mr. Windolf is executive editor of The New York Observer, where this first appeared.

Ahh yes, that about says it all, don't it?

[Compugasm]

There isn't a person alive that doesn't have some physical or mental handicap. It's already 100%.

[CoffeeSaint]

Quote by: Compugasm There isn't a person alive that doesn't have some physical or mental handicap. It's already 100%.

Cool! What's mine?
By the way, I suffer from none of the conditions or syndromes that Osborn mentioned, so you can go from there.

If I don't have a physical or mental handicap, does that mean I'm not an American? Or maybe not a human?

[Autolykos]

Personally, I consider myself a cashew.

(Bonus points to whoever knows which comedian talked about doing something special with cashews.)

- Rob

[lsbskins1]

There is such a thing as "overlap"? A schizophrenic who self medicates (alcholism) and also has some obsessive component to his mental illness (burns himself to stop the voices, and gets a co-diagnosis of OCD) does not equal 3 people.

Now, to be less of a smart-ass. I am fully willing to admit that alot of the numbers for these disorders and syndroms are exagerated. Some of the exageration is for selfish reasons ( I will be more famous if I treat an illness LOTS of people suffer from) and some of it is for more altruistic reasons (drug companies will not develope drugs for "orphan conditions" and government funding for research will be lacking if the need is not seen as "pressing"). So, though the problems are real and need serious attention, it is not really wise to take some of those numbers at face value.

[bishop]

heh.. this just reminded me of last night's south park where stan's dad became an alcoholic..

something happened in the mid 90's... the pussification of the american man as george carlin put it.. lots of touchy feely feelings, everyone going to therapists, etc..

hell, my parents forced me to go to therapy when i dropped out of my first school. (i partied too much and ended up getting B-/C+ grades, faaar from F's.) obviously, since my whole world kind of turned upside down, i was a little down on myself.. not exactly depressed, but i felt like i was in a rut... anyways, this dipshit shrink i went to (the 3rd because i told the other 2 to fuck off) tried to prescribe me lithium - something they give to manic depressives! that time i didn't have to tell her to fuck off, my parents went there themselves and told her instead. :)

that, fortunately was the final straw where i was able to get my parents off my ass, and off this "you need therapy" bullshit.

these days, i'd probably be classified as being an alcoholic and drug addict by these twit "doctors".

[phoenix_fire]

My parents used to threaten to take me to a shrink. I told them to go ahead: I'd embarass the hell out of them.

[Compugasm]

Quote by: CoffeeSaint By the way, I suffer from none of the conditions or syndromes that Osborn mentioned, so you can go from there.

Welcome to Loveine, I'm Adam and too my right is Dr Drew. Lets get right to the first caller. CoffeeSaint, what's up buddy? ....

[Scribbler1]

Quote by: bishop something happened in the mid 90's... the pussification of the american man as george carlin put it.. lots of touchy feely feelings, everyone going to therapists, etc..

Hmmm. I thought being a baby boomer had at least ONE advantage. By mid-90s I was too set in my ways to be told jack by any shrink.

They are good at convincing us they alone know what's wrong with us and they alone can treat what they say is wrong. It's an industry which creates problems for themselves to fix. Nice racket.
If you don't believe the psychiatric "profession" is fake, then in a court trial, how can the defense bring in a respected shrink to testify the defendant is/was insane and the prosecution can enlist an EQUALLY respected psychiatrist to say he ISN'T? At least ONE of these guys is dead wrong but that doesn't stop him from charging a mint to be just as wrong with some poor insecure fool who thinks there's something wrong with him.

It's like the drug companies. They TREAT, but they don't CURE. Otherwise they'd be out of business.

I could go on but talking about this subject just drives me crazy.

[CoffeeSaint]

Quote by: Scribbler1 Hmmm. I thought being a baby boomer had at least ONE advantage. By mid-90s I was too set in my ways to be told jack by any shrink. They are good at convincing us they alone know what's wrong with us and they alone can treat what they say is wrong. It's an industry which creates problems for themselves to fix. Nice racket. If you don't believe the psychiatric "profession" is fake, then in a court trial, how can the defense bring in a respected shrink to testify the defendant is/was insane and the prosecution can enlist an EQUALLY respected psychiatrist to say he ISN'T? At least ONE of these guys is dead wrong but that doesn't stop him from charging a mint to be just as wrong with some poor insecure fool who thinks there's something wrong with him. It's like the drug companies. They TREAT, but they don't CURE. Otherwise they'd be out of business. I could go on but talking about this subject just drives me crazy.

I went to a shrink for 6 years, from age 6 to 12 -- I had "anger management issues" (read: I can't stand my brother :)) I stopped going when I was old enough/mature enough to tell my parents that it wasn't doing me any good, that I didn't feel any better or any different at all, and wasn't worth the money. Two years later, I thought I had an epiphany, and I went back to my old shrink to see what he thought, if my idea fit in with my childhood behavior; he listened, said I was right, but there was a lot more to my problem and only reentering regular therapy would fix it.

Psychiatry is bullshit. Other than an ability to listen patiently, they don't even treat -- and in child psychiatry, since kids aren't generally capable of voicing their feelings, psychiatrists don't even listen. You know what I did with my shrink? I played games. Crappy games, too, like Candyland. Hoo-ray. $75 an hour to play with freaking Lincoln Logs.

Quote by: compugasm Welcome to Loveine, I'm Adam and too my right is Dr Drew. Lets get right to the first caller. CoffeeSaint, what's up buddy? ....

Hey, Adam. Love your show. I want to know what's wrong with me. Starting with, why the hell would I call you to hear something that I could think of myself in two seconds, or a diagnosis from your partner that I could google in thirty seconds? Is it this bizarre combination of obsessions in American society today, the twin urges to be famous, and to be a victim? Do I want to be heard on television talking about the worst aspects of my intimate life so that I can be pitied, and hated, by as many people as possible? Am I longing to become a Darwin Award, e-mailed to millions and laughed at for days? What the hell is wrong with our society that we keep breeding people like that?

Oh, that's right. We're all nuts.

[Scribbler1]

In this case, I would say "nuts" is a synonym for "gullible fools who refuse to accept responsibility for their actions".

The shrinks are just filling a need the American people have. They need someone to hold their hands and tell them it's not their fault. Daddy yelled at me when I was a kid, or drugs made me do it and all the other excuses shrinks have given people to use instead of "I screwed up. It IS my fault".

If you don't believe that, then tell me WHY people like Dr. Laura and Dr. Phil are so popular?

Idiot: "Oh, Dr. Phil, I'm so miserable because I'm so fat."
Dr. Phil: "Then stop eating so much. That's why you're so fat!"
Idiot: "Oh, THANK you Dr,. Phil. You are so wise."


And this guy makes more money than I'LL ever see even though he says the same stuff anyone else would say for free.

[lsbskins1]

This is a shining example of the compassion of Americans! Man, you guys and your sweeping generalizations! There is such a thing as legitimate mental illness, you know.

[Osborn F Enready]

As there is such a thing as using doubt and pity to make one feel inferior.

We outlaw drugs if people take them of their own volition, through a non-corporate source.
We hand out drugs for any ailment however, even if we have to create ailments for an excuse to hand them out.

Anyone remember "mothers little helper"? Valium?

Now we have a nation of legal valium(legal drug) junkies, who refuse to admit their junkies thanks to their prescription, which removes their responsibility. This same junkie(such as Rush Blimpaugh) is quick to condemn recreational users for seeking the same relief, through other means.


A nation of hypocrites is more like it.

[Scribbler1]

Quote by: lsbskins1 This is a shining example of the compassion of Americans! Man, you guys and your sweeping generalizations! There is such a thing as legitimate mental illness, you know.

I'm sure there is, but who is it that tells us which illnesses are legitimate? The shrinks? To them, EVERYTHING is legitimate. They can say nothing else as it's their own industry making these calls.

It has nothing to do with compassion. My argument is focused on the victimization of Americans by a self-defining "profession" that preys on the gullible who are guilty more of bad decisions, bad lifestyle choices or bad morals than any legitimate "illness". Their collective actions are overshadowing any REAL mental illness by the sheer bulk of BS illnesses. There are people with real problems out there and the people who MIGHT be in a position to treat them are too busy fleecing people who won't stop eating, can't hold a job or don't get along well with people.

[CoffeeSaint]

Quote by: lsbskins1 This is a shining example of the compassion of Americans! Man, you guys and your sweeping generalizations! There is such a thing as legitimate mental illness, you know.

Legitimate mental illness can't be "treated" by therapy, in my opinion. Legitimate mental illness is organic in origin, or based in trauma so severe that the mind cannot handle it --by definition. Do you believe that therapy sessions in mental institutions, in which psychotics describe their delusions, actually help people? It might serve to help acclimitize them to accept their delusions as such, but I'd say the lithium generally has more to do with that -- or whatever psychoactive drug is in vogue nowadays.

People can benefit from therapy, but only because therapists can be, as I said, patient listeners. The sad thing to me is that people go to therapists because they cannot trust their loved ones to listen to their fears and sorrows, and they cannot trust that the listener will think about it hard enough to help figure out what's wrong -- which is what a psychiatrist does.

Look: part of my anger problems when I was a kid was that I was overly sensitive concerning my mother. When my brother acted up with her, or when she and my dad got in anargument, I wanted to defend and protect her, and beat them up, or whatever my 6-year-old mind decided was the appropriate thing to do to "save" my mom. I couldn't beat up my dad, so I hit other kids, threw things, etc., etc. Now: do I need to know that a psychiatrist would term that a classic Oedipal complex? Or do I just need to think about things, and talk out my feelings to someone who would listen to me, and learn why I was angry?

If the second, why should I have to pay $75 an hour for it? Why does it have to be a therapist who I go to for it?

[Scribbler1]

Quote by: CoffeeSaint Look: part of my anger problems when I was a kid was that I was overly sensitive concerning my mother. When my brother acted up with her, or when she and my dad got in anargument, I wanted to defend and protect her, and beat them up, or whatever my 6-year-old mind decided was the appropriate thing to do to "save" my mom. I couldn't beat up my dad, so I hit other kids, threw things, etc., etc. Now: do I need to know that a psychiatrist would term that a classic Oedipal complex? Or do I just need to think about things, and talk out my feelings to someone who would listen to me, and learn why I was angry? If the second, why should I have to pay $75 an hour for it? Why does it have to be a therapist who I go to for it?

I would say you just got 75 bucks worth of group therapy there.

[CoffeeSaint]

Thanks, I do feel better. Your check's in the mail.

Next session can I talk about my pathological need to debate?

[Scribbler1]

Quote by: CoffeeSaint Thanks, I do feel better. Your check's in the mail.

You're in luck. You get the special Tuesday discount, like at the gas station.

Next session can I talk about my pathological need to debate?

Wow, that WILL be "group therapy". How many inmates...I mean members on this forum?