ChristiansUnite Forums

Christian Doc Speculates Why Americans Rank #1 in Mental Illness

by Mary Rettig
July 7, 2005

(AgapePress) - A recent study on the mental health of Americans says in the past year, one in four people in the United States met the criteria for having a mental illness. According to head researcher Ronald Kessler, that would seem to indicate that the U.S. leads the world in mental illness.

Psychiatrist Dr. Robert Rogan, a spokesman for the Christian Medical Association, says one reason for this statistic may be that Americans are more attuned to feelings than people of many other societies. "It certainly appears in our culture that we're noticing mental illness more and more," he notes, and "there certainly is an element of being socially more aware of things."

But at the same time, Rogan says, Americans are increasingly aware and focused on the fact "that there are costs to mental illness in the workplace and in life -- that there are financial consequences and other consequences. I think that may be helping drive things in that direction also." The Christian psychiatrist points out that this heightened awareness of psychological states and their implications is not necessarily bad news.

Rogan believes having more understanding about mental illness helps Americans more readily identify potentially problematic symptoms. He also feels they are less stoic than their global counterparts. But while Americans may express more of their inner life, he contends there has traditionally been a spiritual buffer in their culture that helped to address and contain many of the mental health crises that occur.

"A lot of times when we have [psychological] problems or issues," Rogan says, "when the church was maybe more predominant in our society and maybe more active, a lot of these things may have been just absorbed into the natural caring that you got in a church-like Christian community." However, the CMA spokesman contends, taking God out of the public realm has removed some of these protections.

The Christian Medical Association is America's largest organization of faith-based doctors and serves as a Christian voice on today's most important bioethical issues. CMA addresses breaking bioethical news and comments on issues related to mental and physical health and quality/sanctity-of-life topics such as abortion, stem-cell research, physician-assisted suicide, and disability concerns.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.

http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion02976.shtml

Additional information on ChristiansUnite.com is available on the Internet at http://www.christiansunite.com/
Copyright © 2003 ChristiansUnite.com. All rights reserved.

I can agree with Dr. Rogan, having a Christian viewpoint on the world does help others.   Most churches are more accepting of those suffering from mental illness than other organizations.  But there is still a long way to go in educating people, even Christians, about mental illness.  There is still much prejudice even within churches.  

Mental health issues are important as genetic testing is becoming more and more advanced.  Consider that the "treatment" for a diagnosis of an unborn baby with trisomy (Down's syndrome) is death (abortion),  this is already very scary.  If there were prenatal tests for mental illnesses such as schziophrenia, bi-polar, autism,  are the "treatments" recommended going to be death too?  

I think Dr. Kessler might be a little off in saying that one in four Americans meets the criteria for mental illness.  Consider these definitions for personality disorders and it seems most Christians (or any other religious people) might fit the criteria for Schizotypal Personality Disorder.  If they like to evangelize, they might be put into another group etc:

<sub>"Currently, there are 10 distinct personality disorders identified in the DSM-IV:

Antisocial Personality Disorder:  Lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the local culture, marked inability to get along with others or abide by societal rules.  Sometimes called psychopaths or sociopaths.

Avoidant Personality Disorder:  Marked social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and extremely sensitive to criticism.

Borderline Personality Disorder:  Lack of one's own identity, with rapid changes in mood, intense unstable interpersonal relationships, marked impulsively, instability in affect and in self image.

Dependent Personality Disorder:  Extreme need of other people, to a point where the person is unable to make any decisions or take an independent stand on his or her own. Fear of separation and submissive behavior. Marked lack of decisiveness and self-confidence.

Histrionic Personality Disorder:  Exaggerated and often inappropriate displays of emotional reactions, approaching theatricality, in everyday behavior. Sudden and rapidly shifting emotion expressions.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder:  Behavior or a fantasy of grandiosity, a lack of empathy, a need to be admired by others, an inability to see the viewpoints of others, and hypersensitive to the opinions of others.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder:  Characterized by perfectionism and inflexibility; preoccupation with uncontrollable patterns of thought and action.

Paranoid Personality Disorder:  Marked distrust of others, including the belief, without reason, that others are exploiting, harming, or trying to deceive him or her; lack of trust; belief of others' betrayal; belief in hidden meanings; unforgiving and grudge holding.

Schizoid Personality Disorder:  Primarily characterized by a very limited range of emotion, both in expression of and experiencing; indifferent to social relationships.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder:   Peculiarities of thinking, odd beliefs, and eccentricities of appearance,  behavior, interpersonal style, and thought (e.g., belief in psychic phenomena and having magical powers).

According to Dr. Sam Vaknin, author of Malignant Self-Love: Narcissism Revisited, individuals with personality disorders have many things in common (see The Interrelationship Between Personality Disorders):

Self-centeredness that manifests itself through a me-first, self-preoccupied attitude

Lack of individual accountability that results in a victim mentality and blaming others, society and the universe for their problems

Lack of perspective-taking and empathy

Manipulative and exploitative behavior

Unhappiness, suffering from depression and other mood and anxiety disorders

Vulnerability to other mental disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive tendencies and panic attacks

Distorted or superficial understanding of self and others' perceptions, being unable to see his or her objectionable, unacceptable, disagreeable, or self-destructive behaviors or the issues that may have contributed to the personality disorder.

Socially maladaptive, changing the rules of the game, introducing new variables, or otherwise influencing the external world to conform to their own needs

No hallucinations, delusions or thought disorders (except for the brief psychotic episodes of Borderline Personality Disorder)"</sub>

Hello M,

I also have mixed emotions about the value and validity of studies such as this.

I have my own personal thoughts about the mental health of America. I would simply say that I believe the massive erosion of morals, values, and the removal of God from our society has taken a terrible toll. It would be easy to list 100 things or more that have gone down into the sewer in America over the last 50 years. Sin does have a cost, and there are numerous reasons why it is closely associated with misery. In short, the moral fabric of America is torn, and the general description of turning away from God is accurate. I give thanks for the many sweet Christians trying to mend that moral fabric while many are still trying to shred it to pieces. I also give thanks that God hasn't sent judgment on America, at least yet.

Maybe God has reserved judgment on America thus far because many Christians are still fighting and trying to stand for HIM. I obviously don't know, but I want to be one of those Christians standing and fighting as long as God wants to use me.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 100:3  Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

It is my understanding that "personality disorders" are not considered mental illnesses.  They fall under the realm of "disorders" and not illnesses.  A mentally ill person "may" not know the difference between right and wrong, but a disordered personality supposedly does.

Don't you think that someone who might be labelled with a personality disorder might be helped by church ministry and prayer?   They might seen odd or difficult to handle but this requires patience.

Yes, if they truly want help.  Usually PD people don't think there's anything wrong them.  They tend to "blame" everything and everyone else, hence, the disordered thinking that labels them.  I have never heard of a PD person who was delivered from this malady? or whatever.  They are unusually difficult to deal with.  It has been said their personalities are "set in stone" and it's almost impossible for them to change.  I haven't heard of any cured nor have I read about any who have been cured.  We know that God can do the impossible though.  Can't ever give up hope.  I'm not so sure these people aren't subtly possessed and this is why we never hear of any cured.  They're simply written off as odd.  Too bad.  The church needs to awaken to the underhanded, covert wiles of the devil.  

Grace and peace,
cris

I read an article recently, though I can't find it now, that said if you have a mental condition such as schizophrenia you would be better off if you lived in a third world country such as India, because of the family and community support you would receive there, whereas here you would be treated with drugs and institutionalised.  The church provides (or should provide) a kind of community support that would enable people to recover from mental problems.

Hello Rhys,

It's great to see you back on the forum.

By the way - Good Points in your post. There are all kinds of support functions that are almost gone in America now. Many families don't even consider it a high priority to raise their own children with personal attention.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Hebrews 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I wonder what Tom Cruise, "Mr. Scientology" would think of this thread.  :-X  ;D

 ;D  I doubt he would know until ET called home first.

We have the most mental illness because we have the most shrinks who, if they had their way, would make everyone a patient, concocting symptoms to make us all insane by definition.