

Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness - kevinrpope
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/04/us-europe-mental-illness-idUSTRE7832JJ20110904

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paganel
As an European battling a (mild) depression I wouldn't call it a mental
illness. The same goes for anxiety attacks or "alcohol dependence" (that's the
first time when I see this mentioned as being a disease).

It's a very long explanation which I have in my head, but I don't have the
mental energy to go through all of it. But parts of it would mention that any
such studies that are backed up by "the director of the institute of clinical
psychology and psychotherapy" are bound to be skewed on the side of "everybody
is mentally ill", Michel Foucault explains it in his books better than I could
ever do (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madness_and_Civilization>).

Also, I find this emphasis on "everybody should be happy and economically
productive" a little bit disconcerting. Being depressed is part of being
alive, you cannot just be happy from the minute you were born all the way to
your dying moments. Great works (if not the greatest) of literature and of
arts in general have been created by depressed people. The feeling itself of
eternal, blissfully ignorant happiness makes me more depressed.

As far as "being productive all the time at all costs", I won't go into it, it
isn't worth it, I just blame it on the poorly misunderstood religion of
Taylorism (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor>)

~~~
tuukkah
IANAP but you argue based on the fallacy that depression would be the opposite
of happiness. FYI, happiness is to sadness as mania is to depression.

"Alcohol dependence" is the medical term for alcoholism. There are people who
drink too much, want to drink less, see their lives and loved ones destroyed
by their drinking, yet they can't stop drinking. Welcome to the world of
addictions.

As a layman it's easy to understand someone is ill when they have bad fever or
other visible, physical problems preventing them from living a normal life.
It's not so easy when it's constant pain or headaches that you can't "prove".
It's even less easy when it's a mental illness that you can't really even
start to image unless you experience it yourself such as the anxiety attacks
or the obsessive-compulsive disorder.

I agree the modern society and way of life makes the problem worse by being
more mentally demanding, but I'm sure there's always been mental illness. It's
something that people need outside understanding and help to cope with -- just
like physical illness.

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pitiburi
Science from Reuters. Yeap. Not a single link or reference. Just a bombastic
title and then.... then the director of an institute of psychotherapy in a
third order university, which lives by the money it can get from government
out of the perceived need for research on mental illness, comes out saying
that mental illness are the worst problem for europeans right now. Pfff.

Science by Reuters. Yeap. What's next? C++11 lambdas explained by Shaquille
O'Neal?

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yason
All people are--more or less--lost in their heart, held by beliefs, limited by
fears, being ripped in pieces among several opposing forces in life, or just
freaks in general. That pretty much comes in the package of being a human.

The term mental illness ought to be reserved for individuals who truly need
hospitalized or at least serious treatment in order to cope _at all_. Nobody
can keep everything together all the time but that's just normal. Depressions
are normal, anxiety is normal, fear is normal, neurosis is normal, everything
is normal unless it actually renders you completely inoperable so that you
become a danger to yourself or others.

~~~
tuukkah
"All people are prone to accidents, infections, cancer. That's how humans are.
Flu is normal, influenza is normal, a little plague is normal, everything is
normal as long as you're not _dying_. Then we might say you're physically
ill."

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ramblerman
Blame socalized medicine gone too far for this one. It pays to get labeled as
a 'condition' rather than just sucking it up and getting on with your life...

I personally know a 'depressed' individual who has been living off the
government for 6 years now. Physically able, mentally capable but according to
her psychologist too sad to work...

~~~
gogogorilla
It's clear you don't understand what depression is. Neither did I until it
took away my creativity, imagination, enthusiasm and the ability to enjoy
anything at all. Depression is not "feeling sad", it's an illness that makes
you psychologically and _physically_ sick, and you can't "snap out of it".

It may be that your friend isn't actually depressed and is just too lazy to
work. But if she is in fact depressed, you're not doing her or anyone else any
good by saying she should just "suck it up and get on with her life", because
she can't, and being reminded of that is just going to make it worse.
Depression feeds on itself. She may look fine to you, but you can't see if
someone's depressed. We tend to hide what it's really like, this absolutely
maddening feeling in our heads, the constant headaches, dizziness and mental
and physical fatigue is not something you want to announce to the world.
Nobody except my doctor knows about my depression.

I don't know about the statistics presented in the article, but I'm an example
of the economic and social cost attributed to these illnesses. I've wasted a
year of my life on depression, during which time I've been unable to work.
Luckily, so far I've been able to live off my savings but if I'd been needing
support from the state that cost would've doubled. I've never been the most
social and outgoing person, but with the depression I became grumpy,
uninterested, whiny and generally a little unpleasant to be around.

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bugsy
It's obviously not true that 40% of Europeans are not mentally ill unless
mentally ill is defined so loosely as to be meaningless.

But let's play the game for a moment and assume it is true. We must then ask
if it is a good idea to have Democracies given that nearly half the voting
population is mentally ill.

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GertG
How do they come up with the 38%? From the numbers given in the article I get:
165 sufferers in a population of 514. Isn't that 32%?

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DiabloD3
Fark ran this with the headline "Nearly 40 percent of Europeans support
socialism."

