Interesting Article on Mental Health

[aknifemaker]

Its not political or 2A related, but with all this BS going on about guns, food for thought. And maybe why this country is going down a bad road.

Just some interesting information and facts on mental health.  Pretty sad actually.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wests-struggle-for-mental-health-illness-uvalde-shooting-depression-anxiety-religion-meaning-authoritarian-11654034338?st=gztdu6ijctwkqbq&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

[Chucktshoes]

Good read. 

[Links2k]

Excellent article. 

[RED333]

A few lines struck me as to what we are seeing now.

"Specifically, it suggests that functional mental illness is a characteristic disease of prosperous and secure liberal democracies. "

"The more a society is dedicated to the value of equality and the more choices it offers for individual self-determination, the higher its rates of functional mental illness. These rates increase in parallel with the increase in the available occupational, geographical, religious, gender and lifestyle-related choices."

"Equality inevitably makes self-definition a matter of one’s own choice, and the formation of personal identity—necessary for mental health—becomes personal responsibility, a burden some people can’t shoulder."

and then this one is just scary,

"In contrast, rates of functional mental illness in societies that are insecure, poor, inegalitarian or authoritarian are remarkably low. For decades, the World Psychiatric Association has pondered the “perennial puzzle” of the relative immunity to such illnesses in Southeast Asian countries."

aknifemaker, thanks for the link

Edited June 2, 2022 by RED333
Because I can

[Luckyforward]

Interesting read.  In my 35 years as a licensed psychotherapist I wish causation and mental illness was  as simple as he puts it.  If it was my job would be a lot easier.

 

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by Luckyforward
spacing error

[Alleycat72]

10 hours ago, RED333 said:

 

and then this one is just scary,

"In contrast, rates of functional mental illness in societies that are insecure, poor, inegalitarian or authoritarian are remarkably low. For decades, the World Psychiatric Association has pondered the “perennial puzzle” of the relative immunity to such illnesses in Southeast Asian countries."

aknifemaker, thanks for the link

Is this like some communist and Islamic countries "eliminating" homosexuality?

[Erich]

The video at the end of the article, mental illness as the next pandemic is worth a look if you haven’t done so. 

It touched  on how one of the recent shooters was brought into a mental facility beforehand, but the system is set up to not care and sweep it under the rug and get them out asap.

[RED333]

11 hours ago, Erich said:

The video at the end of the article, mental illness as the next pandemic is worth a look if you haven’t done so. 

It touched  on how one of the recent shooters was brought into a mental facility beforehand, but the system is set up to not care and sweep it under the rug and get them out asap.

Most insurance company's will not pay for the service.

[Erich]

10 hours ago, RED333 said:

Most insurance company's will not pay for the service.

Not sure of your context. In general not a reason to ignore pursuing  a course of action to deal with a broken system ignoring the real problem.

In this case, the shooter threatened to go on murder - suicide spree at his school. The cops arrested him,  state mandated mental eval and hospitalization. That’s a criminal matter. Not an elective  insurance coverage situation.

The state, the police, and facility all failed in their duty. Blaming insurance for systemic views on mental health is helping the bad guys make excuses for not addressing it and going after 2A…cause it’s easier, unfortunately.

[m16ty]

I've been thinking about this the last few days, and I can't help but think the these war and violence video games play a part in all this. Now I don't think these video games will do anything to a mentally stable child, but somebody that is a little unstable I think it works on. First off, kids these days play these games and seem to confuse video game play with reality, I've seen these kids. I got into a argument of a FB gun page about a M16, I thought I was talking to just a misinformed individual, what I finally found out was it was a kid that his only knowledge of a M16 was what he had learned in a game, and swore that the info was 100% correct. We are producing kids that have zero real world firearm experience that turn into young adults that go out and buy a gun and think they know all about it because they used said guns in video games. These kids either don't have fathers in the home to teach them about firearms, or they are in a "gun free" home, and their knowledge of firearm safety and consequences of misusing is taught by video games. It also desensitizes mentally unstable kids of the horror of actual killing.   

[10-Ring]

8 hours ago, m16ty said:

I've been thinking about this the last few days, and I can't help but think the these war and violence video games play a part in all this. Now I don't think these video games will do anything to a mentally stable child, but somebody that is a little unstable I think it works on. First off, kids these days play these games and seem to confuse video game play with reality, I've seen these kids. I got into a argument of a FB gun page about a M16, I thought I was talking to just a misinformed individual, what I finally found out was it was a kid that his only knowledge of a M16 was what he had learned in a game, and swore that the info was 100% correct. We are producing kids that have zero real world firearm experience that turn into young adults that go out and buy a gun and think they know all about it because they used said guns in video games. These kids either don't have fathers in the home to teach them about firearms, or they are in a "gun free" home, and their knowledge of firearm safety and consequences of misusing is taught by video games. It also desensitizes mentally unstable kids of the horror of actual killing.   

Haven't really thought that much about it.  I'm of the generation that grew up with Nintendo, then Playstation with the GTA series in my early 20s.  Coming from a loving home where I was taught right from wrong, and to respect firearms, I had no issues killing dope dealers in GTA, taking their money, robbing a bank, and going about my business in the game, then turning off the PlayStation and returning to being somewhat good citizen in real life.  A kid from a less stable environment may have not been able to do that.  I had several friends play the Call of Duty series, I get the draw, looks like fun and all, but the vast majority of people who go to war are afflicted with PTSD when they return.  Not that video games are capable of inflicting that level of reality, but potentially unstable individuals are replicating activity that results is severe mental issues in people who actually have these experiences in real life.  I've always been of the opinion that video games are not the cause of violent behavior, but I'm afraid that the case was actually that video games didn't result in ME doing bad things.  With the amount of time the average kid spends playing video games these days it may well be time for mental evaluations and background checks before these video games are sold. 

[m16ty]

1 hour ago, 10-Ring said:

Haven't really thought that much about it.  I'm of the generation that grew up with Nintendo, then Playstation with the GTA series in my early 20s.  Coming from a loving home where I was taught right from wrong, and to respect firearms, I had no issues killing dope dealers in GTA, taking their money, robbing a bank, and going about my business in the game, then turning off the PlayStation and returning to being somewhat good citizen in real life.  A kid from a less stable environment may have not been able to do that.  I had several friends play the Call of Duty series, I get the draw, looks like fun and all, but the vast majority of people who go to war are afflicted with PTSD when they return.  Not that video games are capable of inflicting that level of reality, but potentially unstable individuals are replicating activity that results is severe mental issues in people who actually have these experiences in real life.  I've always been of the opinion that video games are not the cause of violent behavior, but I'm afraid that the case was actually that video games didn't result in ME doing bad things.  With the amount of time the average kid spends playing video games these days it may well be time for mental evaluations and background checks before these video games are sold. 

I don’t think it is just video games, I think violent movies can have the same effect, to a lesser degree. 
I grew up in the country where hunting and shooting was a way of life, but you take your average suburban kid wouldn’t even know the difference between a rifle and shotgun if somebody didn’t teach them. Video games are teaching them, and they do a horrible job of teaching kids gun safety and morality.

Something has changed in the last 20 years to create these mass shooters, and I don’t think you can lay your finger on just one thing, but I think it is several things that have come together to create these monsters. You take the breakdown of the nuclear family (nobody to teach them right from wrong), video games, movies, and the internet (replacing the parents in teaching kids right from wrong), and the trend to just drug kids with problems instead of doing the harder job of correcting the problem, and you have the perfect storm.

[RED333]

I was listening to radio this morning, the host was talking about the young shooters and how it been found that both were in trouble in school. Fights and other problems with the law that are not reported to the back ground system. Now the host said if these were reported the shooters just might have not been able to buy the firearms.

Edited June 4, 2022 by RED333
Because I can

[Jeb48]

I have thought for a long time that the level of violence in games, TV and movies have to be part of the problem for people on the edge of having a problem. Never have understood gun free households that don't have a problem with the violence games, TV and movies their kids watch.

On another forum I read a summary of a book (should have saved the link) on the cause of mass killings. I expected the usual hand waving and left speak but that is not what I got from the summary. They started by saying guns should be secured so someone on the edge would not have easy access but then went on to say that in the 180 mass killers they investigated that all were suicidal. They had no intention on walking away and would either kill themselves or plan on the police shooting them. They feel that more phycological access in the schools and society would reduce the mass killings. Then went on to say that neither party were willing to supply the funds to put a psychologist in every school to start fixing the real problem. I don't remember if it was in the same article but it was mentioned that psychiatric beds available were only a fraction of what they were 40 years ago.