The Clog from Oz1/4 of Americans Have Mental Illness
October 6th 2006 04:48
“The statistics on sanity are that one in every four Americans are suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of three of your best friends. If they’re ok, then it’s you.” - Rita Mae Brown
Rita Mae Brown is an American writer and social activist. She has done screenwriting, written novels and poetry. She has been quoted to say “I became a lesbian because of women, because women are beautiful, strong and compassionate”. But she had gone too far with her lesbianism, for in the early 70s, she became a founding member of ‘The Furies’, a lesbian feminist newspaper which believed heterosexuality was the root of all oppression.
I’ve heard this statistic before, but I think it all goes down to what you classify as a ‘mental illness’. According to Wikipedia, a mental illness is a “broad generic label for a category of illnesses that may include affective or emotional instability, behavioral dysregulation, and/or cognitive dysfunction or impairment.” It gives examples such as major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
Of all the people I know, only one has one of these illnesses. According to www.schizophrenia.org.au, a mental illness “refers to a group of disorders that affect the way a person thinks, feels and acts. Some mental illnesses involve the experience of psychosis (where a person loses touch with reality) and some do not.” Using this definition, my Mum could be considered as having a mental illness as she likes to clean a lot (but not as much as in an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder!)
This is because she has something she thinks (“Did I remember to vacuum today?”), feels (“This house looks so dirty”) and acts (actually going to clean the house).
So if you look at it this way, it may be correct to say that one in every four Americans are suffering from some form of mental illness, or even more...
Rita Mae Brown is an American writer and social activist. She has done screenwriting, written novels and poetry. She has been quoted to say “I became a lesbian because of women, because women are beautiful, strong and compassionate”. But she had gone too far with her lesbianism, for in the early 70s, she became a founding member of ‘The Furies’, a lesbian feminist newspaper which believed heterosexuality was the root of all oppression.
I’ve heard this statistic before, but I think it all goes down to what you classify as a ‘mental illness’. According to Wikipedia, a mental illness is a “broad generic label for a category of illnesses that may include affective or emotional instability, behavioral dysregulation, and/or cognitive dysfunction or impairment.” It gives examples such as major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
Of all the people I know, only one has one of these illnesses. According to www.schizophrenia.org.au, a mental illness “refers to a group of disorders that affect the way a person thinks, feels and acts. Some mental illnesses involve the experience of psychosis (where a person loses touch with reality) and some do not.” Using this definition, my Mum could be considered as having a mental illness as she likes to clean a lot (but not as much as in an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder!)
This is because she has something she thinks (“Did I remember to vacuum today?”), feels (“This house looks so dirty”) and acts (actually going to clean the house).
So if you look at it this way, it may be correct to say that one in every four Americans are suffering from some form of mental illness, or even more...
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