[TBC: We have noted in past newsletters that the psychological industry is one of the most lucrative fields to be found. The following article shows how judgments are made that will inevitably increase the potential for further earnings.]
Nearly 1 in 5 Americans had mental illness in 2009 [Excerpts]
More than 45 million Americans, or 20 percent of U.S. adults, had some form of mental illness last year, and 11 million had a serious illness, U.S. government researchers reported on Thursday.
Young adults aged 18 to 25 had the highest level of mental illness at 30 percent, while those aged 50 and older had the lowest, with 13.7 percent, said the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or SAMHSA.
The rate, slightly higher than last year's 19.5 percent figure, reflected increasing depression, especially among the unemployed, SAMHSA, part of the National Institutes of Health, said.
"Too many Americans are not getting the help they need and opportunities to prevent and intervene early are being missed," Pamela Hyde, SAMHSA's administrator, said in a statement.
"The consequences for individuals, families and communities can be devastating. If left untreated mental illnesses can result in disability, substance abuse, suicides, lost productivity, and family discord."
According to the survey, 6.1 million adults last year had a mental health need that went untreated, and 42.5 percent said it was because they could not afford it.
It found 14.8 million Americans had major depression last year, and 10 percent of the jobless did, compared with 7.5 of retired people or those not in the job force, 7.3 percent who worked part time and 5.4 percent who worked full time.
( http://www.cnbc.com/id/40257359 - 2010 Reuters).
[TBC: More than one commentator has spoken of the “psychologizing of society.” Although this is an invented term, it illustrates well how older groups have lower levels of “mental illness” while the proportion increases with the young. It should as they have had more exposure to psychological teaching. Finally, in the March 2006 issue of the newsletter, we wrote, “The Bible teaches that reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ is the only way for man to truly remedy his sin-related mental, emotional, and behavioral troubles. ‘And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he [Jesus Christ] reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in [God’s] sight’ ( Colossians 1:21 , 22).”]
