Why there's so much mental illness nowadays

[paredler]

It's not the only reason, but I think it's a dominant one that people tend to overlook.
Most jobs today are mentally demanding and require taking lots of humiliation, harassments, insults and other types of mental violence from so many strangers. When people worked in factories, they suffered from physical illnesses. Today, when the dominant sector is the service sector, most illnesses that come from such work is mental.

 

[alienfreak]

Modern lifestyles are completely divorced from what our biology is optimised for. Especially our stress response - fight or flight adrenaline response make sense if you're attacked by a tiger for a few minutes, not if you have to spend hours/days/weeks preparing for a presentation at work

 

[paredler]

Modern lifestyles are completely divorced from what our biology is optimised for. Especially our stress response - fight or flight adrenaline response make sense if you're attacked by a tiger for a few minutes, not if you have to spend hours/days/weeks preparing for a presentation at work

Preparing presentation isn't the problem. Getting yelled at all the time by abusive customers and inability to respond is.

 

[Agon321]

I'm not an expert, so I don't know.

But in my opinion, the world is currently moving too fast. Little stability, enormous pressure, various stimuli from every side, we are bombarded with information (very often negative) on an unprecedented scale.
The Internet is a blessing, but also a curse in a sense. Among other things, we are witnesses to problems such as FOMO.

However, on the other hand, we have to say that in the past we had much less knowledge about psychology (or no knowledge at all about it). So we were not able to diagnose such problems.
But of course the current state of the world is very bad for our psyche. VERY BAD.

 

[CTB Dream]

Modern lifestyles are completely divorced from what our biology is optimised for. Especially our stress response - fight or flight adrenaline response make sense if you're attacked by a tiger for a few minutes, not if you have to spend hours/days/weeks preparing for a presentation at work

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[Forever Sleep]

I've wondered this too. Is it in part though that we now diagnose all these different ailments? Maybe they've always been there but, they were lumped under other more blanket terms in the past. Or, they weren't even recognised.

I once took a tour of a WWII submarine and people on the tour asked our guide- who was a navy veteran- whether they suffered from SAD or depression and he replied that- they basically weren't allowed to! It wasn't even recognised.

When assylums existed in the UK, you could find yourself being committed for a whole number of different symptoms. Some of which we wouldn't even find indicative of mental illness now:

10 Things That Could Get You Sent To An Insane Asylum - Listverse

Insane asylums were big business back in the early 1900s, and nearly anyone could be declared "insane" and sent to an asylum. In a newspaper report from

listverse.com

I do know what you mean though. During my school years, there were maybe 2 or 3 children in the class who were described as 'special needs' and who would receive more tuition. Maybe the odd behavioural issue here and there. I know teachers now who have multiple serious cases of behavioural issues including violence. It does feel as if there are more cases.

I think you're right too- I think it's a combination of the unnatural lives we lead. The amount of competition from an early age. I think social media has done as much harm as good. Plus, I just think our physical environment is full of pollutants. We're likely all breathing in and drinking/ eating micro plastics. That shit can't be doing our bodies/ brains much good- not to mention our processed food diets.

Plus- I expect a lot of things are hereditary. We've effectively bypassed natural selection so that (sorry for the maybe offensive phrase) 'defects' are allowed to prosper. Not that I support eugenics or anything but sometimes I have to wonder. Like I've known people who I believe to have likely hereditary mental illness like bipolar really want children. Honestly- being antinatilst myself, it just puzzled me. Like- aren't you at all worried they'll end up suffering as much as you have? Obviously- I didn't say it out loud. Ultimately- I'm more pro-choice when it comes to others but- it puzzles me nonetheless. I'm glad no child has ended up with my genes!