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Is mental illness increasing (along with secular atheism)?

Lion IRC

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There's a Startling Increase in Major Depression Among Teens in the U.S.

A 37 percent increase says;
http://time.com/4572593/increase-depression-teens-teenage-mental-health/

This information won’t come as a surprise to school counselors and clinicians who’ve seen a rise in depression, anxiety and related incidents of self-harm first hand, as reported in TIME’s Nov. 7th cover story “The Kids Are Not All Right.”

Why is the mental health burden in Emergency Departments rising?

Asks Clinical Psychiatry News
http://www.mdedge.com/clinicalpsych...anagement/why-mental-health-burden-eds-rising
 
I blame science:

1.png


http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
 
Offhand I'd say that there are increasing pressures coming from things such as the difficulty of finding secure employment, where once it was fairly easy, with related difficulties in buying a house, raising a family, erosion of income, etc.
 
Well, obviously it's because they are not believing the correct story about magical human sacrificial murder and torture and how they'll spend eternity burning if they don't.
 
Well, obviously it's because they are not believing the correct story about magical human sacrificial murder and torture and how they'll spend eternity burning if they don't.

Floof,

Right on. Some people tell us that religion is a panacea for mental health. I have personally known two young people who ended their lives through mental illness. Both converted to Catholicism on the way, and it didn't change the outcome.

Buddhists are generally more honest. I have been told by a Buddhist monk and teacher: "Buddhism is not a cure for mental illness".

IMHO theist religion just compounds emotional/psychological problems with more guilt and bad feelings. There is a quote from the old Cheech and Chong records. A 'Jesus freak' openly admits "I used to be all f***** up of drugs; now I'm all f***** up on the Lord!!" :eek:

Alex.
 
Yes yes yes.

You can get special attention and drugs if you claim you are very sad and unmotivated.

When we used to just call you lazy and put you to work.

Vigorous exercise works wonders with major depression. For the few that continue with it.
 
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Did anyone see that ring of Saturn in all this?

Q: Say I have a multivariable (several independent variables) regression that consists of 3 variables. Each of those variables has a given coefficient. If I decide to introduce a 4th variable and rerun the regression, will the coefficients of the 3 original variables change?

A:
A parameter estimate in a regression model (e.g., [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]β[FONT=MathJax_Main]^[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]i[/FONT]β^i) will change if a variable, [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]j[/FONT]Xj, is added to the model that is:[/FONT]

  1. correlated with that parameter's corresponding variable, [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]i[/FONT]Xi (which was already in the model), and
  2. correlated with the response variable, [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]Y[/FONT]Y
An estimated beta will not change when a new variable is added, if either of the above are uncorrelated. Note that whether they are uncorrelated in the population (i.e., [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]ρ[FONT=MathJax_Main]([/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]i[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Main],[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]j[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Main])[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Main]=[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Main]0[/FONT]ρ(Xi,Xj)=0, or [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]ρ[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Main]([/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]j[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Main],[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]Y[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Main])[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Main]=[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Main]0[/FONT]ρ(Xj,Y)=0) is irrelevant. What matters is that both sample correlations are exactly [FONT=MathJax_Main]0[/FONT]0. This will essentially never be the case in practice unless you are working with experimental data where the variables were manipulated such that they are uncorrelated by design.[/FONT]
Note also that the amount the parameters change may not be terribly meaningful (that depends, at least in part, on your theory). Moreover, the amount they can change is a function of the magnitudes of the two correlations above.
On a different note, it is not really correct to think of this phenomenon as "the coefficient of a given variable [being] influenced by the coefficient of another variable". It isn't the betas that are influencing each other. This phenomenon is a natural result of the algorithm that statistical software uses to estimate the slope parameters. Imagine a situation where [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]YY is caused by both [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]i[/FONT]Xi and [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]j[/FONT]Xj, which in turn are correlated with each other. If only [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]i[/FONT]Xi is in the model, some of the variation in [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]Y[/FONT]Y that is due to [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]j[/FONT]Xj will be inappropriately attributed to [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]i[/FONT]Xi. This means that the value of [FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]X[/FONT][FONT=MathJax_Math-italic]i[/FONT]Xi is biased; this is called the omitted variable bias

Simplified, the above is called the Rings of Saturn effect.[/FONT]


 
You have to wonder, really, if ANYTHING is increasing in our population as much as things are increasingly reported?

Like, i gotta think that the number of gays in the population has probably been steady for the last 1000 years, but the frequency at which people will admit to it is way, way up.
Learning disability is probably a steady rate over time, but the diagnosis has changed over time, to 'learning disability' rather than 'lazy fucking kids.'

So are mental health problems increasing or are we just getting better at noticing them?
 
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What's been the major change in the past twenty years? I'll give you one guess.

It's a lot easier to feel anxious when you can, in a single day, learn of every single shitty thing happening on the planet.

It's telling that most people believe the world is becoming more violent, when we live in one of the safest times in history. What's changed is that we can actually see our own violent nature in real time, rather than being confined to our child-hood street.
 
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When I graduated high school I could go to a number of local mills and factories for employment and obtain a very good wage, buy a home and start a family. The cost of a college education was very small compared to today. No one worried about medical care. My friends had a baby at the local hospital and paid nothing because they were indigent.

But lots of young people today have no memory of such times so maybe it's really no different for them. It just is what it is.

My uncle was an alcoholic and a janitor who kept his job for 30 years and retired with great pay and bennies. That same guy today would be flipping burgers at best.

And if everyone was living in this religious golden age before the increase in secularism/atheism, how does that happen? Understand? How does the answer turn into the problem? How do good Christian states become Nazis and Fascists and Stalinists like happened in Europe? Inquiring minds want to know how their jesus failed them. :rolleyes:
 
Yeah, well, thing is, depression goes up because people are living older and older but not in a very happy state. People live longer but not healthier. In my parents' generation, bad lifestyle meant early death so the good souls would get to prevail statistically among the survivors. Nowadays, we managed somehow to keep going way past the sell-by date of our brains and depression comes quick. Obviously, it's the whole society that's gearing towards this very end. Migrants have to take all the jobs in our retirement homes because we are all too old to do it! We spend too much time in the toilets! It's a vicious, vicious circle. Even women are getting their children older and older. This is the one main contributing factor. Children are born older and older. And like in old people, the older you get is the cause of this increase in depression. And if you're a bright kid and you're depressed, it doesn't help that people won't let you build that beautiful wall. And everything you do try, they stomp their foot on it and you know you now look like an idiot and it makes you feel even more depressed. I would say, though, try more exercise. It's like untermensche says although with the kids we've got today you'd be better advised to start gently. Kids are not exercising enough. It's now generally accepted that regular exercise helps. I would also say food, which is why this diagram above showing the correlation between science and depression is correct. Science somehow led to more sugar in our diet. Not just a little bit but, like, an atomic bomb of sugar in our body, and the atomic bomb is definitely big budget science so the correlation has to be true. It also looks like the ski slope I did age eleven in the Pyrénées. And the curve showing the level of sugar in our scientifically determined diet. No coincidence that. Also, increased exposure to social media. The diagram above shows the number of connexions to the Internet, with a slight drop in 2003 because of the war on Iraq because some of the guys installing the connexions had to go in the military. Kids nowadays are made to be aware of how inadequate they are like nothing it was in my time. They haven't a chance in the world and they know it. They become angry and cynical. Depressed and suicidal. And they look at Trump on the screen and there's a blank that fills their minds. The curve shows the correlation between depression in kids and the lies by politicos. It is depressing. I exercise so I'm Ok but I do understand how you must feel already aged ten the day you're born into this world and you look at Trump on the screen.
EB
 
Yeah, well, thing is, depression goes up because people are living older and older but not in a very happy state. People live longer but not healthier. In my parents' generation, bad lifestyle meant early death so the good souls would get to prevail statistically among the survivors. Nowadays, we managed somehow to keep going way past the sell-by date of our brains and depression comes quick. Obviously, it's the whole society that's gearing towards this very end. Migrants have to take all the jobs in our retirement homes because we are all too old to do it! We spend too much time in the toilets! It's a vicious, vicious circle. Even women are getting their children older and older. This is the one main contributing factor. Children are born older and older. And like in old people, the older you get is the cause of this increase in depression. And if you're a bright kid and you're depressed, it doesn't help that people won't let you build that beautiful wall. And everything you do try, they stomp their foot on it and you know you now look like an idiot and it makes you feel even more depressed. I would say, though, try more exercise. It's like untermensche says although with the kids we've got today you'd be better advised to start gently. Kids are not exercising enough. It's now generally accepted that regular exercise helps. I would also say food, which is why this diagram above showing the correlation between science and depression is correct. Science somehow led to more sugar in our diet. Not just a little bit but, like, an atomic bomb of sugar in our body, and the atomic bomb is definitely big budget science so the correlation has to be true. It also looks like the ski slope I did age eleven in the Pyrénées. And the curve showing the level of sugar in our scientifically determined diet. No coincidence that. Also, increased exposure to social media. The diagram above shows the number of connexions to the Internet, with a slight drop in 2003 because of the war on Iraq because some of the guys installing the connexions had to go in the military. Kids nowadays are made to be aware of how inadequate they are like nothing it was in my time. They haven't a chance in the world and they know it. They become angry and cynical. Depressed and suicidal. And they look at Trump on the screen and there's a blank that fills their minds. The curve shows the correlation between depression in kids and the lies by politicos. It is depressing. I exercise so I'm Ok but I do understand how you must feel already aged ten the day you're born into this world and you look at Trump on the screen.
EB
You're right about proper eating and physical activity, but those things take effort. People just want pills, pills, pills.
 
What's been the major change in the past twenty years? I'll give you one guess.

It's a lot easier to feel anxious when you can, in a single day, learn of every single shitty thing happening on the planet.

It's telling that most people believe the world is becoming more violent, when we live in one of the safest times in history. What's changed is that we can actually see our own violent nature in real time, rather than being confined to our child-hood street.

rousseau,

That's a good point.

A.
 
Folks,

I don't see mental illness as a lifestyle choice. There are those that do.

A.
 
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There's a Startling Increase in Major Depression Among Teens in the U.S.

A 37 percent increase says;
http://time.com/4572593/increase-depression-teens-teenage-mental-health/

This information won’t come as a surprise to school counselors and clinicians who’ve seen a rise in depression, anxiety and related incidents of self-harm first hand, as reported in TIME’s Nov. 7th cover story “The Kids Are Not All Right.”

Why is the mental health burden in Emergency Departments rising?

Asks Clinical Psychiatry News
http://www.mdedge.com/clinicalpsych...anagement/why-mental-health-burden-eds-rising

All of that can also be explained by the fact that mental illness is less stigmatised today. Suicide rates going up might as well our society sees suicide as less shameful, so it's easier to admit it, rather than to label it as accidents.

But if mental illness really is going up I think it can be better explained by technology. We're living in a world we have not evolved for. The types of activities humans do today are completely and utterly alien to anything our ancestors did. The types of stress are completely different. Hunter gatherer humans walked, pretty much all day. That's what we're "designed" for. No shit we feel terrible when we stop. Walking and physical exercise is required just to push various chemicals through membranes around our bodies. If we stop it's going to mess with our brains and well being. The body and mind are connected. The physical activity of today is a hell of a lot less than just a generation ago.

I think secular atheism is most likely better adapted to cope with the modern world than any religion.
 
Folks,

I don't see mental illness as a lifestyle choice. There are those that do.

A.
You are guilty of oversimplification, which is itself an overcomplicated word for what it means.

Let me make it more complicated.

Of course there's always a rather small but natural percentage of a given population that will suffer from some mental illness or other. There was a study a long, long time ago saying there was broadly the same proportion of mental illness in primitive groups in Amazonia and elsewhere and in the urban populations of modern countries.

So of course there are plenty of cases of mental illness that are not a consequence of our personal lifestyle.

That being said, the question is whether the objective conditions in which we live and how we choose to live our lives have any impact on our mental health. Personally, I'd be very, very surprised if that was not the case big time.

And I think it'd be better if this was the advice given. It won't work for many people and that may make then furious but it will work for many others and that would be an immesurable benefice for them personally and a serious improvement for society and our lives together.

Unless I'm completely mistaken.
EB
 
You have to wonder, really, if ANYTHING is increasing in our population as much as things are increasingly reported?

Like, i gotta think that the number of gays in the population has probably been steady for the last 1000 years, but the frequency at which people will admit to it is way, way up.
Learning disability is probably a steady rate over time, but the diagnosis has changed over time, to 'learning disability' rather than 'lazy fucking kids.'

So are mental health problems increasing or are we just getting better at noticing them?

.. or just defining them into existence... like how Autism was recently defined to include the outer fringe of the spectrum (Asperger's, for example). So we can say "Autism is up", meaninglessly.
 
Disability pays.

Until we can sort out overdiagnosis from reality there's no way to know if it's actually increasing.
 
So many thoughts, so many armchairs, so little rationality.

care to be specific? Or perhaps you are unable to rationally address any opinions here? Any facts stated here that a Google search can show are incorrect? Have you anything to contribute besides putting your fingers in your ears and singing "la,la,la,la".
 
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