I like how they view the problem as primarily economic, and then propose to solve it by spending lots of money.

Well, clearly if mental illness kills more Europeans than traffic accidents, the solution is simply to drive more.

Duh.

My advice for them would be to start drinking heavily.

Wait....

Nevermind.

Let's see what the US National Institute of Mental Health has to say about mental health in the USofA:
An estimated 22.1 percent of Americans ages 18 and older—about 1 in 5 adults—suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.

It would appear that Europe and the US have similar rates of mental health disorders, but the EU is taking it seriously.

I don't know if "mental illness" was defined the same in the respective studies, but the rate in the U.S. actually appears to be very similar:

The survey found that in the U.S., mental disorders are quite common; 26 percent of the general population reported that they had symptoms sufficient for diagnosing a mental disorder during the past 12 months. However, many of these cases are mild or will resolve without formal interventions.

Our total number of suicide deaths per annum is lower (around 30,000 versus Europe's 58,000), but our population is only about 65% of the EU's population.

Oops, vonKreedon, we posted at the same time, sorry about the partial redundancy.

I don't see any evidence in the linked article that the EU is taking things more seriously than the U.S. (we completed our survey first! USA! USA!).

It's easy to adopt an action plan, our own government agencies do it all the time.

I'm not saying that the EU doesn't do a better job vis-a-vis mental health (I have no idea), I just don't think that the linked article particularly provides evidence of that assertion.

BDS by any other name.

There are lots of things that are classified as "mental illnesses" that I would dispute: bipolar disorder, depression, ADHD, ADD, and introversion are described as clinical illnesses. And yet this may just mean you are moody, sad, jittery, or shy.

This is not to say that there aren't serious mental illnesses, but this is a ridiculously inflated number. Just another example of the "therapy culture" we were discussing in an earlier thread. The West is drowning in a "poor poor pitiful me" syndrome.

Bah.

At least it explains the whole David Hasselhof thing.

Monty-
You are correct sir, this is about the Oprahfication of society.
And it's also about money. The therapy industry is slavering after those sweet, sweet, Medicare and SS bucks.
Our local lefty rag, the Saint Louis Post-Disgrace, publishes a letter from one witch doctor or another almost every week proclaiming the need for government dollars for mental health "care". They want to do for head-doctoring what Medicare did for family practice.
Fucking bureaucrats and ambulance chasers.

Most Americans self-medicate -- with beer.

Its obvious why the US has lower numbers for suicide and loons - we have fewer hard core leftists.

Does running around in garb a la The Mddle Ages and pretending to sword fight constitute mental illness? Yep, I thougt so too.

Unluckily I never get to use the designation "batshit crazy" in my work but it does have a certain ring to it. Maybe I can petition the A.P.A. to add it to its list of designated mental diseases in the next installment of the diagnostic manual. They probably won't though. sigh

Rove, you've done it again. Upped the suicide rate in Europe.

I, for one think this only reinforces the need to remove God from all aspects of our public life. Yeah, I think this cements that. (snark)

jake

"Batshit crazy" does seem a bit strong for Europe.

I suggest "sorority-girl crazy."

Our local lefty rag, the Saint Louis Post-Disgrace . . .

Yeah, St. Louis has been going downhill ever since the Globe-Democrat folded.

It explains the Hasslehoff thing

And the Jerry Lewis thing.

And the whole women-with-hairy-legs/pits thing.

"Does running around in garb a la The Mddle Ages and pretending to sword fight constitute mental illness? Yep, I thougt so too."

Compos Mentis, are you copping to being a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism? 'Cause there's no way you could get the name "Compos Mentis" past the College of Heralds, y'know... :-)

Does running around in garb a la The Mddle Ages and pretending to sword fight constitute mental illness? Yep, I thougt so too.

compos:

Depends upon the contours of the breastplate, if you know what I mean.

Well, if you don't know, I mean bbeck, who actually does that.

Well, if you don't know, I mean bbeck, who actually does that.

I don't PRETEND to sword fight.

Compos Mentis, are you copping to being a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism? 'Cause there's no way you could get the name "Compos Mentis" past the College of Heralds, y'know... :-)

Har!

European Bureaucrats

Because the road to hell just doesn't pave itself, you know

Gawd...I want that on a bumpersticker.

Well egland give protection to crinimals and robbers france has gone plian weird the germans are run by dumbkoffs sweeden inacts rediclous animal rights laws russia is lose with terrorists and whats happening with poland, and switzerland?

Depends upon the contours of the breastplate,

I am reliably informed it is a custom job.

I remember that we asked the computer experts if Y2K was a real threat and they assured us it was. It was a self-serving answer because they made tons of dough solving a non-existant problem.
Now we are asking the Mental Health professionals about the percentage of people needing their help? Don't you think they will assure us that everyone can benefit from thier ministrations.

Y2K threats were real, but we took them seriously and paid for the required mitigation work so that very little actually happened. But feel free to develop a conspiracy theory instead, it will make it easier to dismiss the other looming crises.

Compos Mentis, are you copping to being a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism?

Fuck no! I was just making fun of bbeck! : )

I, too, remember the terrible consequences of a machine thinking it was 1900 when it was really 2000.

Lots of people stocked up on canned goods and hid in their basements, and tried not to look embarassed on January 1st.

The doomsday "china syndrome" scenarios were piffle right from the start. Anyone with those sort of critical systems dealt with it.

A real problem is coming up in about 20 years or so when the Unix clocks roll over. Good old crust DOS is good for another 60 years or so before it rolls over.

You know, I remember the Y2K horror stories, and talk about airplanes falling out of the sky, machines coming to life to attack us, etc. My parents didn't want me to fly on Dec 31st, just in case the 757 I was on decided that it needed to pile into the Rockies because it was Jan 1, 1900 for some reason.

I also remember that Russia, which apparently spent approximately $8.32 on Y2k prep, sailed through with nary a hitch. I think a large part of the hype was to help aging COBOL programmers make $500 an hour as consultants, an enterprise I wholeheartedly support.