Long-lasting mental health isn’t normal

About 83% of people experience at least one episode of mental disorder in their lifetimes. Only 17% stay mentally healthy for the duration. Which begs the question, "What's in the water?"

Long-lasting mental health isn’t normal

The vast majority of people experience at least a temporary mental disorder by age 38, a long-term study finds. A small percentage stays mentally healthy and often, but not always, reports enhanced well-being.

Abnormal is the new normal in mental health.

A small, poorly understood segment of the population stays mentally healthy from age 11 to 38, a new study of New Zealanders finds. Everyone else encounters either temporary or long-lasting mental disorders.

Only 171 of 988 participants, or 17 percent, experienced no anxiety disorders, depression or other mental ailments from late childhood to middle age, researchers report in the February Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Of the rest, half experienced a transient mental disorder, typically just a single bout of depression, anxiety or substance abuse by middle age.

...“For many, an episode of mental disorder is like influenza, bronchitis, kidney stones, a broken bone or other highly prevalent conditions,” says study coauthor Jonathan Schaefer, a psychologist at Duke University. “Sufferers experience impaired functioning, many seek medical care, but most recover.”

...Less surprising was the 83 percent overall prevalence rate for mental disorders. That coincides with recent estimates from four other long-term projects. In those investigations — two in the United States, one in Switzerland and another in New Zealand — between 61 percent and 85 percent of participants developed mental disorders over 12- to 30-year spans.

a reply to: soficrow

Newer research in JAMA is showing irrefutable correlation between our food, gut and brain health. Between processing additives and herbacides and pesticides, the integrity of the gut lining has been decimated. Lack of excercise combined with low BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factors) foods has elevated incidence of dementia, alzheimers and other neurologically based diseases to unreal levels.

I could go on, but just waking up...needless to say yes, there is something in the water

a reply to: soficrow

Of the rest, half experienced a transient mental disorder, typically just a single bout of depression, anxiety or substance abuse by middle age.

I think the lines defining a mental disorder have been blurred somehow in this study .

I think many are too quick to deem natural human reaction to very sad and disappointing issues as " mental health " problems.

It's perfectly natural and human to react to sad circumstances in ones life and to label that as mental illness is demoralizing to a perfectly good human heart. 😕

This could be a flawed study simply based on the fact that they came up with a new name of a new illness practically every month to explain areas of psychology they really don't understand. It all falls into two categories though. Either you have a chemical imbalance that can be fixed through medication or you suffer from trauma and stress which may never heal. There's not much gray area inbetween.. They like to have 1,000 diagnosis at their figertips but it's really about chemicals and stress.

a reply to: hutch622
a reply to: Sheye
a reply to: libertytoall

I dunno guys. I look around my neighbourhood, ATS, FB, most anywhere - and it's pretty clear to me the all the studies cited are pretty much dead on.

That's because its Abnormal!

a reply to: soficrow

and it's pretty clear to me the all the studies cited are pretty much dead on.

Well the majority of those that have never suffered a mental disorder must come from the people i know . Being melancholy is not a mental disorder .

originally posted by: soficrow
a reply to: hutch622
a reply to: Sheye
a reply to: libertytoall

I dunno guys. I look around my neighbourhood, ATS, FB, most anywhere - and it's pretty clear to me the all the studies cited are pretty much dead on.

But .. but .. how can we trust your assesment . You most likely suffer from mental disorder, so your opinion is subject to opinions of others 😉

Of course I say that in jest . But .. but according to the study 😜

a reply to: soficrow

I think a huge part of the problem is dietary. Poor diet increases inflammatory markers in the blood, which are known to cause depression, so add in all the stress factors in the world......

I changed my diet to a predominantly organic vegetarian diet, with some meat (free range grass fed) on the weekend, and not only have I noticed that I have more energy and enthusiasm, but there's no more depression. Its amazing.

The FDA, doctors, and Big Pharma are slowly killing us and driving us crazy in the process.

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me. Hunter S. Thompson

I dunno guys. I look around my neighbourhood, ATS, FB, most anywhere - and it's pretty clear to me the all the studies cited are pretty much dead on.

Certainly brings on a bit of depression, eh?

I wonder if natural hormonal changes are being lumped in, judging by the age of onset? As a mom who has lived through, and going through, life with teenagers I can tell you that hormones can make teenagers CRAZY!!!

Seriously, maybe researchers are seeing an uptick of antidepressants, ADHD treatments, behavioral issues, etc. due to parents not understanding their kids' normal changes. And once these kids are in the system, they never really get out. No one has shown them how to deal with their changes in a positive way.

I'm not discounting diet - kids eat like #*^% too!

If you get too much acetylcholine and not enough dopamine it can lead to anxiety it appears. There are promotors and inhibitors of choline. acetylchollineesterase breaks down acetylcholine. Inhibitors can be temporary or permanent. Pesticides and herbicides are permanent inhibitors, stuff like cigarettes and cannabis are temporary inhibitors. Temporary inhibitors block permanent inhibitors from raising the acetylcholine levels for too long.

en.wikipedia.org...

Now components of acetylcholine are choline, found in eggs and meats and other places. We need these for mental clarity and proper nerve function. Coffee actually helps to form acetylcholine as does any caffeine product. The problem occurs when acetylcholinesterase is inhibited permanently. It is not really permanent, it is till the cell dies and is replaced.

They give meds that boost acetylcholinerase to treat many mental issues and other problems too. Hypertension can be caused by too much acetylcholine. It also can be caused by too much tyramine chemistry. Stress is a result of too much acetylcholine many times so they give stuff like paxil and prozac and zoloft to counteract the pesticides and herbicides.

The problem is that the pesticides and herbicides are actually designed after natural plant defense chemistry, many plants create very similar chemistry to mess up the browsers that eat them. Too much plant chemistry can make you crazy. Think of Cane and Abel. Organic veggies also have this chemistry and some of it is permanent type. If it looks too good and no bugs have eaten it, maybe you should consider it might be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

If there is too much dopamine and not enough acetylcholine, then it sets the stage for dementia. Especially Alzheimer disease. If there is too much acetylcholine and not enough dopamine, then it sets the stage for parkinsons. Now both these diseases suck. If you have problems with the COMT gene and can't break down dopamine and other transmitters well, maybe you might need more acetylcholine to balance things. Without some sort of intervention this can lead to skitzo and other diseases. These people must eat properly to insure adequate acetylcholine production but must also not consume permanent promoters of acetylcholinesterase too much.

I just see the problem, I need help from others to identify how to properly fix the problem. I just know I cannot eat a lot of veggies or I get too wound up and can't sleep. I can tolerate some of the organics better. Potatoes use a different type of herbicide with it's own set of problems. The preharvest treating of grains with glyphosate is not a good idea, it can leave high residues which are in our flours and can lead to permanent promotion.

I hope you guys kind of understand this, I am trying to combine many articles and put it into laymans terms. It is almost impossible to get it simplified more than this and still have a scientific basis to satisfy those who have knowledge of these things, people who may be able to help solve the problem.

I think the people in California and New York are eating too many vegetables, it can negatively effect our cognition.

Being normal is a mental disorder because plenty of normal people who experience abnormal stress are quicky placed into the abnormal category on the basis that the doctor him or herself has never themseves experienced the trauma and stress that comes with living through traumatic or mutliple traumatic events. It's much easier to prescribe medication and call it a fancy illness than to actually treat the stress and trauma. For example, let's say you experienced gang violence and watched multiple friends get shot in front of you. Can your doctor even remotely comprehend what that trauma is like? How about being raped or worse? Often times a doctor will prescribe medicine and through therapy sit in a room and wait for you to talk out your own healing which is highly ineffective.

a reply to: soficrow

I'm a believer!!!
Between what is in the food and the water....who knows how much and how badly this affects people!
Many...or most...of us have our bodies in a constant state of inflammation....which is not good for our physical or mental well-being.
I won't even go into the known/unknown side effects of MSM drugs.

This goes along quite well with the book I am currently reading.....Grain Brain...read about here

I think we have far too many things that we label as 'mental illness' as opposed to just being on the spectrum of genuine human emotion.

Our scale for that was very black and white until the last 20 years, if that. So this means that we spent the better part of 100 years asserting that anything outside of 'culturally accepted or socially accepted behaviour' as falling into a mental illness.

The overwhelming stigma about mental health hasn't helped either. I also think that the pharmaceutical industry has a large part to play in this since they started pushing RSSI's more and more. And that's not to say they don't work for some, there's most certainly a need.

But part of the reason kids these days are having anxiety disorders as young as 10 or 12 is because of the expectations put upon them and the other subsequent cocktail of poor nutrition, education and drugs found in tap water, among other things.

~Tenth

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
I think we have far too many things that we label as 'mental illness' as opposed to just being on the spectrum of genuine human emotion.

Our scale for that was very black and white until the last 20 years, if that. So this means that we spent the better part of 100 years asserting that anything outside of 'culturally accepted or socially accepted behaviour' as falling into a mental illness.

The overwhelming stigma about mental health hasn't helped either. I also think that the pharmaceutical industry has a large part to play in this since they started pushing RSSI's more and more. And that's not to say they don't work for some, there's most certainly a need.

But part of the reason kids these days are having anxiety disorders as young as 10 or 12 is because of the expectations put upon them and the other subsequent cocktail of poor nutrition, education and drugs found in tap water, among other things.

~Tenth

We are all nuts, one way or another. I actually do not know one person who isn't nuts about something. The idea of the medical and Psychology industry is to make us all know we are all nuts so they can sell us services and medications.

Most thinks people are a little nuts about are harmless, but they do cause them grief in their life on occasion. They used to have a lot of names for these peculiars but they should not be defined as mental illnesses. Just because I have ten times the tools that a normal guy has doesn't mean I have a mental illness, it just means I am a little nuts.

originally posted by: Sheye
I think many are too quick to deem natural human reaction to very sad and disappointing issues as " mental health " problems.

It's perfectly natural and human to react to sad circumstances in ones life and to label that as mental illness is demoralizing to a perfectly good human heart. 😕

I agree 100%, thank you for posting that!

I wish that the community at large could figure that out. I think they will slowly, but the industry that profits off this insane system is in the way.

originally posted by: Sheye
I think many are too quick to deem natural human reaction to very sad and disappointing issues as " mental health " problems.

Well, I agree with you, but I don't think that is what the article is about.

Anyone who feels has had episodes of sadness, disappointment, failure, extreme happiness and the like.
That is not "mental illness"...that is a brief absence of mental health.

If you compare it to physical health....it's like having a cold or the flu....not a chronic, permanent condition.

However, I do believe that the many things that make up our environment and cause elevated stress and inflammation of our brains will eventually wreak havoc on more and more people.
I think most of us have read there is a potential explosion of Alzheimer's expected in the world in the not too distant future.

a reply to: soficrow

I think getting back to source naturally reveals flaws/cracks more up the wall or structure.

Personally, I removed Flouride consumption to the best of my ability. I practice meditation deeply, and pretty much just enjoy my insanity. I feel much more free as a spirit/person being that I strive to avoid what the masses are doing at all costs. When the masses move one way, there is a herding effect of chaos. As I push through the opposite crowds, I fully expect and welcome being titled as crazy. The quote that has stood by my name has been a long belief of mine.