Living in America Will Drive You Insane - Literally

When I lived in the city, I was certifiably insane from the stresses of city life; self medicating with alcohol and anything else available. And San Francisco is a nice city to live in.

When I moved to the mountains, my health improved dramatically, spiritually, physically and emotionally. Financially I suffered some but even that seemed less important.

I'm blessed, but I had the foresight even thru my insanity, to know I need to make changes and I made them.

Now I live in a small village in the high desert at the base of the Rocky Mts. More blessings....

It's not America that makes you insane; it's your local environment.

Originally posted by FlyersFanAnd no, it's not society or America or values or morals or religion or whatever .... it's something else.

Challenge accepted.

...

Covetousness is the American dream.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


I lived in England for 2 years, and this was my observation as well. People do self medicate, and when I told them I was on anti depressants, they found it odd. Of course, drinking and other forms of self medication are more socially acceptable over there, and most people do not hold it against you, or think you diseased, if you drink heavy. So I did as the Romans did and self medicated to the fullest of my abilities. To be honest, I don't see it as any worse than having to take meds. It certainly was more effective, I'll say that much. And not any more harmful. Anti depressants can do as much damage as being an alcoholic or drug user. People were certainly more understanding about it then they are in the US.

It is ironic. In America, there is constant pressure to push yourself, to be happy, successful, awesome. If you aren't constantly pushing yourself towards some goal, you are a slacker. Perfection is a religion. An unforgiving one. One must be beautiful. And accomplished. Or be forever striving towards it. If you are not, you are a loser, or "average" which is unforgivable. And gods help you if you should show any signs of weakness. Drinking, doing drugs, or seeking therapy mark you as some sort of waste or freak. Makes you weak. Makes you a lesser person. You become ostracized. Inferior. Yet despite this, we are a nation with a high number of alcoholics, drug addicts, and neurotics in therapy, much of this hidden lest people look down at us. When we are stressed or at breaking point, we are told "go get therapy", and then abandoned or shunned as being broken. It really is a neurotic society.

Much of it has to do with our society. The isolation from families and communities. The unrealistic pressure to hold onto optimism, to always be happy, be positive,...be anything but a real human being. Families and friends are unwilling or uninterested in helping one another out in crisis, at least in any meaningful way, and instead, push their hurting "loved one" off on some therapist and expect them and meds to fix them so they are magically "normal" again. And refuse to accept failure.

I have been suffering from severe, chronic depression for 25 years. Meds. Therapy. All useless. How can someone get "healthy" or "fixed" in a sick, broken, neurotic society?

It boggles the mind. My time overseas really has shown me this is a uniquely American phenomenon. While there were certainly social ills and seriously undesirable cultural traits and failings in other countries I lived in, the level of social neuroticism here in America is really our own unique creation.

reply to post by CirqueDeTruth


I am very much in a similar boat to you. MST, going to the VA to see a shrink, getting meds that don't work, finding therapy useless, ect. I am now considering trying ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy, which seems to have had positive results for treatment resistant depression and anxiety. Pill popping really hasn't been cutting it for me.

Oh my...so much in this thread to talk about. Firstly, CirquedeTruth....well done you on getting off the meds and getting your life back the right way up. What a dreadful set of experiences. But you made it, so big hugs for you.

I can't agree enough about avoiding medication if you can. I come from a military/medical family...almost everyone is or was in a uniform, and they ALL self medicate, either with prescription drugs that they swap like sweeties, or with alcohol. My personal belief is that it's our modern, pressurised, urban environment that drives us mad. If the guys "in charge" really do have some nefarious plan to house us all in mega cities and control us even more, they must also be planning on drugging us indefinitely to stop us killing them.

Anyway...I'm very much on the side of therapy or counselling, as an ALTERNATIVE to medication. As part of the process of trying to resolve issues just to check on how your medication id doing maybe it's not so hot. I've been through counselling processes a couple of times myself and found it to be massively helpful, but still very hard work. It's not a quick fix, and does require commitment and effort to allow it to work, but it does work, at least for many people. And it has to be better than what big pharma want to feed us, right?

The other issue I feel very strongly about is that the urban environment is the worst possible place for us to exist. It's very often totally unnatural, far too noisy whether we realise it or not, we are too close to our neighbours, and the pace and stress induced but the constant traffic and deadlines is basically wrong for us. I definitely feel much better, calmer, happier, and more importantly....I'm much more productive....when I'm out in the sticks. I moved recently from a small village which was right on a main road, so a quite isolated farmhouse, and within weeks, my health issues started to clear up, and I got my life back. I also think that it has a massive amount to do with what's in the water. When I Iive in a house with well water, like I do now, I'm so much better, I work more, I'm more productive, much less stressed, more focused, I do what I'm supposed to be doing here, and have nowhere near the same level of tiredness and anxiety. God only knows what they're putting in the main water supply, but it's not good.

Not very thought provoking but interesting nonetheless.

If I remember correctly, there are theories that certain mental illnesses, psychosis and depression, are copying mechanisms. I'm certain about the psychosis, the depression I'm not sure, it might be my own theory.

My theory that might be partly from somewhere is that depression is a copying mechanism to environmental stress. The body isolates itself from stress and goes into a state of worrying to try to solve problems and braincells are removed because they are deemed unsatisfactory. The body wants to go to some sort of blank state and get back into life or go self-destruct.

I did a search, here are some scientific evolutionary theories:

en.wikipedia.org...

One finding says that depression helps increase the immune system.

a reply to: FlyersFan

No doubt.

But it has everything!

a reply to: FlyersFan

Heck, if you watch any TV "programming" for 5 minutes you would think that everyone in the country is depressed and nobody can get an erection.

Seriously, if drugs are only prescribed by your doctor when you need them, then why the hell are there commercials for them?

No new antibiotics in decades but literally dozens of different kinds of anti depressants and hard on pills.

That fact alone tells me its a product that they are pitching to you just like a George Foreman grill or a roll of flex tape.

a reply to: Cancerwarrior

The world is screwed that's why, I hate it too, it' afsadfi