Wow-that's crazy. Though, I will say there might be some merit to the percentage of Americans who have substance abuse issues. People often forget that is lumped into the mental illness catagory without the massive amount of stigma that goes with Bipolar Disorder or many other types of genetic psychiatric conditions. I don't get it.

You're on point here. I bet Kessler puts himself in the normal half. The I recently heard someone whose spouse had died of cancer in her late 20's referred to as suffering from depression. If grieving for the slow painful death of your spouse is a mental illness, then what is not caring at all? Oh I know they're lots of diagnoses for that...bipolar mania, schizoaffective disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, etc. In other words, if your spouse dies, it is recommended that you seek counseling and there is no way to respond to this death that will not be classified as a mental illness. Kids in school have the same problem. If you don't have adhd but instead are calm and focused and prefer studying to spending time with your friends, you have asbergers. If you are sometimes really eager for social interaction and sometimes eager to stay in and study, oh you guessed it, Bipolar! The cause of mental illness is seeing a mental health professional. If you have a cholesterol test, there is a score that is normal, screened for colon cancer, test can be negative, i.e. you don't have it, have a normal colon, but there's no dsm number for normal.

In any battle you (generally) have two sides, one pro and one con. Science is supposed to be irrefutable and unbiased, not needing a pro and con. Psychiatry is thought to be a science when it isn't.
Szasz "simply a lie"

I'd say the latter, given the concomitant increase in diagnostic categories as well. I suspect that here, as in politics, it pays to follow the money.

I've never really been a fan of book burning but there is one book worthy of such an end and that is the DSM. Nothing has done more to divorce people's symptoms from the circumstances of their lives and remove them from any possibility of true healing. This book created disease by fiat, disease by committee, and I'm sure the pharmaceutical companies couldn't believe their luck when the shrink community decided on this idea to try and gain status in the medical community by being like all the other specialites. Read this interesting article published a few years back in the New Yorker into just how these "diagnoses" are determined.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/01/03/050103fa_fact

Wait--does that say :any disorder 46% ? What the hell is that? and anxiety? well add just those 2 up and weve got most public speakers,musicians,actors, etc. all handled, because WHO hasn't felt anxiety[normal part of the rush needed to boost singing or speaking in public--and well "any disorder". I guess that just about covers it.That "Have-ADD" group needs a vacation.

Of course a psych researcher is going to overestimate the incidence of mental illness. That's like going up to a realtor and asking her if now is a good time to sell your house. Or a car salesman, asking if a trade-in would be advantageous. It's all about money. These "researchers" have sold their souls to the devil.

It makes me sad to think that so many people are misdiagnosed. I was at a good friend's bridal shower recently. Her sister (who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder) was there giggling inappropriately and high as a fucking kite. Her doc has her loaded to the gills on Adderall, Seroquel, uppers and downers, and mood stabilizers. You just look at her eyes and you can see how high she is. She thinks life is grand now that the doc has figured out she's bipolar. She's a pill head, and bipolar disorder is now her life. It makes me sick that a doctor would do that to her. Prior to her seeing this psychiatrist she had a 4.0 at a good university, she was coherent, functional, but a little depressed. Now, she's completely messed up. She no longer has a desire to work (since the meds have been started), she is inappropriate, she no longer dates, and she thinks she's so much better. She's a psychiatrist's dream. She never misses a pill. I often wonder what would have happened to her if she had walked into a good therapist's office instead of seeing that psychiatrist. He has wrecked her life.

I guess this means 1/2 of all doctors and researchers have a mental illness also/ that would mean they lack they lack the insight and judgement to do research and make diagnosises/ With the rate of mental illness increaseing at such rates you would think the drug companies would specifically market the normals "DTN"/ I think they could claim a greater success rate pilling the normals/ There would also be no side-effects as the effectiveness would be based on how sick they make the normals/ Just a thought!

I saw it was '05. still equates to now, if not more.

Well, if 50 percent of the US is mentally ill, then I am in good company.

And I can tell you as a former academe, most professors and academics are a few fries short of a happy meal.

Check out some of Ronald Kessler's articles. Read it for yourself!

Hey if you like Ronald Kessler and his research than check out this link it will connect to some interesting articles by Ronald Kessler.

"I guess this means 1/2 of all doctors and researchers have a mental illness also/ that would mean they lack they lack the insight and judgement to do research and make diagnosises"
I know you're just trying to make a point, but I completely disagree with that statement. Some of the *most* insightful docs are those who have dealt with mental illness themselves, imho.

The most insightful doctors are those who have dealt with mental illness themselves? --

I've yet to hear one psychiatrist admit to having/or being treated for any mental illness. [and that's about 9 psychiatrists and a couple of PCP's]I have had one inpatient psych nurse admit to having S.A.D. when she wanted to diagnose my daughter with that and borderline personality disorder.-just imagine my answer to her-- I would also like to have a discussion about medications with a doctor who has taken the ones I have...so far that's a no-go.

"If grieving for the slow painful death of your spouse is a mental illness, then what is not caring at all? Oh I know they're lots of diagnoses for that...bipolar mania..." I'm replying to the first post. Sally, maybe you should do your research on mental illness, because "bipolar mania" is redundant. It's just "bipolar". Another thing, in your research, maybe you should research asberger's syndrome, bipolar, schizophrenia, etc. I know you probably are thinking that you are super-smart because you have heard of those disorders, but last time I checked (and I should know, being a psych major and a bipolar myself) that bipolar does NOT mean that you don't care. Most of these posts on this site are uneducated blogging. Maybe next time you people want to blog or comment about something, you should do your research so people that know what they are REALLY talking about don't assume you're an idiot.