City Residents Live With Mental Illness At Higher Rates Than General Population 214
Dating back to the 1930s, researchers have discovered that mental illnesses are more common in densely populated cities than in greener and more rural areas, but it wasn't until recently that scientists have started to seriously study the mechanisms through which exposure to various environmental stressors could be wounding our mental health. Popular Science reports: Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, director of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, and his research partner Matilda van den Bosch, an environmental health researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, recently reviewed the scientific evidence for these and a number of other physical stressors to find out whether they contribute to depression. The pair searched for studies concerning a wide range of substances and situations that people might run across in everyday life. They discovered that while many of these factors were particularly abundant in cities, they weren't limited to urban environments. For example, air pollution isn't only found within city borders. Another potential danger was pesticides, which farm workers in particular come into contact with.
Still, a key part of improving our collective mental health will be making our cities more livable, says Meyer-Lindenberg. He and van den Bosch published their findings this year in the journal Annual Review of Public Health. More than half the world's population already lives in cities and this number is expected to rise to nearly 70 percent by 2050. In their review, Meyer-Lindenberg and van den Bosch found that some potential threats had been examined more thoroughly than others. For some, including pollen, there wasn't enough information yet to show a convincing link to depression. However, the team did find a number of studies suggesting that heavy metals like lead, pesticides, common chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA), and noise pollution may contribute to depression, although further research is still needed to confirm that this is the case. Even more compelling was the evidence condemning air pollution. In addition to causing respiratory and cardiovascular problems that kill millions of people each year, this particular menace raises our risk for a number of psychiatric problems. Poor air quality has been associated with depression, anxiety, and psychotic experiences such as paranoia and hearing voices. Obviously if you live in a city, these studies don't mean that you will develop depression or anxiety. Rather, they suggest that hazards like air pollution and pesticides will increase a person's overall risk, especially for those who are already vulnerable for other reasons.
"For people in poor communities, though, the impact is likely especially potent; not only does financial stress contribute to depression, but low-income neighborhoods face disproportionately high levels of air and noise pollution and lead exposure," the report adds. It goes on to say that people can fight back by spending more time in nature, which has been shown to calm activity in several brain regions involved in rumination, the tendency to obsess over one's mistakes and troubles that is a common feature of disorders like depression and anxiety.
Still, a key part of improving our collective mental health will be making our cities more livable, says Meyer-Lindenberg. He and van den Bosch published their findings this year in the journal Annual Review of Public Health. More than half the world's population already lives in cities and this number is expected to rise to nearly 70 percent by 2050. In their review, Meyer-Lindenberg and van den Bosch found that some potential threats had been examined more thoroughly than others. For some, including pollen, there wasn't enough information yet to show a convincing link to depression. However, the team did find a number of studies suggesting that heavy metals like lead, pesticides, common chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA), and noise pollution may contribute to depression, although further research is still needed to confirm that this is the case. Even more compelling was the evidence condemning air pollution. In addition to causing respiratory and cardiovascular problems that kill millions of people each year, this particular menace raises our risk for a number of psychiatric problems. Poor air quality has been associated with depression, anxiety, and psychotic experiences such as paranoia and hearing voices. Obviously if you live in a city, these studies don't mean that you will develop depression or anxiety. Rather, they suggest that hazards like air pollution and pesticides will increase a person's overall risk, especially for those who are already vulnerable for other reasons.
"For people in poor communities, though, the impact is likely especially potent; not only does financial stress contribute to depression, but low-income neighborhoods face disproportionately high levels of air and noise pollution and lead exposure," the report adds. It goes on to say that people can fight back by spending more time in nature, which has been shown to calm activity in several brain regions involved in rumination, the tendency to obsess over one's mistakes and troubles that is a common feature of disorders like depression and anxiety.
revolutionary scientific discovery (Score:1)
'dog eat dog' is bad for you. Who knew?
Re:revolutionary scientific discovery (Score:4, Insightful)
Or it could be a case of C!=C.
Does the city make people crazy, or do crazy people move to the city?
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Does the city make people crazy, or do crazy people move to the city?
Speaking as someone who is bat-shit crazy, I like living in a European city.
Speaking as someone who grew up in a suburbia US town . . . I would be even more crazier if I lived there.
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Maybe having to deal with sharing walls with other people, and being so crowded amongst other people isn't the way humans have evolved to exist happily?
I know we are generally social beings, but I think it is also important to have some 'elbow room' so to speak.
Data suggests that (Score:2)
If I read the data right*, the top craziest cities are:
Washington DC
San Francisco
Chicago
Detroit
Do crazy people go to Washington, or does Washington make people crazy?
* That might be true if I read the data right. In fact, I didn't read the data. I bet that list is pretty close, though. :)
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I've lived in two of those, and been to the others. Except for SF, they're highly segregated. Detroit, DC, and Chi all have high crime/high drug use areas, as well as a very large number of people living below the poverty line. If those things don't help increase depression, I'm not sure what does. As for SF, it's always had the highest percentage of freaks per square mile of any U.S. city going back to the 60s.
That tells us something (Score:2)
I listed the four cities that seem most likely to attract crazy people.
You've found half of those "crazy people cities" so attractive that you moved there. The two you didn't move to, you went to. What does that tell us about you? :)
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It tells you that I was born in Detroit (mom got us out to the burbs when I was in 7th grade), and moved to DC's suburbs (Northern VA actually) in my mid 20s. As for SF and Chi...well, everyone likes to watch a train wreck. That's how Trump got elected.
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The big cities are precisely the reason why rational politicians like Trump have a hard time being elected.
I have a modest proposal (TM). Since big cities are home to so much insanity, their residents should be declared incompetent to vote. So many problems would be solved.
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I met a DC native on a trip I took. He claims (though I have not confirmed) that a large number of of inhabitants of the DC environs are transients or transplants. He also wished they would leave. "The whole country is mad about DC, but they're the ones who sent those crazy politicians to us. Please take them back."
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People tend to be like the other people that surround them. Everyone in my small says hello when they pass someone on the street. The fact that they very well couldn't care less is irrelevant to how those actions have a positive impact on other people versus no one willingly even looking at you unless it's to say fuck you as they pass you by with a shoulder check.
It's the rent (Score:2)
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So, if you're making half as much in a rural area, and needing to come up with $1k/mo, is that any different? I don't see how you can back up your statement.
Road traffic (Score:5, Interesting)
I think a lot of this comes down to road traffic. Every time you enter the road, either as driver or pedestrian, you need to be continually vigilant to ensure that you don't get killed or kill someone. Even if you're walking down the sidewalk, the cars zoom by you, like speeding bullets slightly out of your path. This must induce a continual level of stress which is psychologically bad for you (in addition to the noise and pollution discussed in the article).
When I visited Europe and stayed in the old city centers where cars couldn't really enter, it felt almost as peaceful as if I were in a forest. I wonder if it would have been equally psychologically healthy.
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I think you've identified something here. It would be good to look at the data to see if there's evidence for it. Traffic is noisy and I'm sure that is a factor but is just hearing this in the background all the time stressful by itself? I think so but if we can prove it that would show the opportunity for what it is.
For what it's worth, I find noisy subway trains a bit stressful too. I wear headphones and it helps a lot.
So, is it the thought of getting run down or the general noise pollution? Let's have a
Road Traffic *and sirens* (Score:5, Interesting)
I grew up in the countryside, rural Home Counties in the UK. As a teenager I went to a boarding school, and it took me a little while to get used to the sound of trains going past the end of the rugby fields at night, but after a few months I adapted and got used to it as "background noise".
I'm now 40-ish and a few years back moved to a small city (well, technically a large town). I live near to an airport, but I got used to the rumble of planes going over just like I did the trains back at school.
But there's one thing that puts me on edge, that wakes me up every time (at night) and that makes a near-instant difference to my mood level in the day: Sirens. Police sirens, ambulance sirens, fire sirens. I can't get used to them, ever. In the countryside I hardly ever heard a siren. Here I hear them all day long.
What's worse - and something I can't get my head around - is that apparently for drivers of siren-ed vehicles, a siren isn't enough any more. No, they have to continually honk a really loud horn as well as the siren blaring out.
I'm sure that someone will come on and claim that people just don't get out of the way, but (until I very recently moved to a slightly quieter area) I could look out of my bedroom window at 3am and see a police car zooming past with its siren blaring, horn honking, and *no other vehicles anywhere in sight*. What the hell? Surely just your blue lights are enough in that situation? I suspect that your average PC Plod is so pissed off they're on traffic duty at 3am when everyone else is asleep, they make as much noise as possible just to make themselves feel better.
I think perhaps that because a siren is linked to an "emergency", or at least something negative (when is a siren signalling something good?) it's impossible to associate it with anything positive mentally, and therefore it's not just the noise, but the whole "idea" of a siren than means it has a huge impact on my wellbeing.
Am I alone in this, or is anyone else here siren-o-phobic?
Sleep (Score:2)
I think the role of sleep interruption in the city is being overlooked.
Sirens, traffic noises, loud neighbors, lights and inadequately dark shades on your windows, or just having bars and places to go late at night into the early morning all are things that will deprive you of or interrupt sleep.
If people aren't getting a full or good night sleep then it can cause a host of health issues. And it is very difficult to mitigate some of these factors in the city.
In less densely populated areas you can have som
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What's worse - and something I can't get my head around - is that apparently for drivers of siren-ed vehicles, a siren isn't enough any more. No, they have to continually honk a really loud horn as well as the siren blaring out.
For one thing, people get used to those if you always hear them. There are some types of sirens that you can't ignore, they're illegal in most countries though as they cause hearing damage. Not forgetting that not all countries use a strobe system independent of the main vehicle horn/siren either. Most do, or they've switched to a wireless system. Both cases it's to switch the traffic signals to green for them. And on top of that, most countries require an emergency vehicle entering and clearing an inte
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They honk their horn when they're approaching a blind intersection. They don't want to be T-boned by someone running a red light, or (if the emergency vehicle is going to run a red light) by someone ignoring the siren because they can't hear it over the sound of the music blar
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only a problem in the US i think ... no such problems in northern Europe :)
I spent a week in Amsterdam last year, and found the constant distant wailing of sirens very annoying. Or does Holland not count as northern Europe?
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You felt peaceful here in Europe because you were on vacation. When I'm in the US, I also feel peaceful.
Glad I could help.
road rage (Score:5, Interesting)
In addition to causing respiratory and cardiovascular problems that kill millions of people each year, this particular menace raises our risk for a number of psychiatric problems.
although of course this is slashdot, so it is essential to state "correlation != causation", it is worth noting that if you look at the symptomatic behaviour someone exhibiting "road rage", they are exactly the same symptomatic behaviour of someone who is affected by *carbon monoxide poisoning*.
https://www.express.co.uk/life... [express.co.uk]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/b... [nih.gov]
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In addition to causing respiratory and cardiovascular problems that kill millions of people each year, this particular menace raises our risk for a number of psychiatric problems.
although of course this is slashdot, so it is essential to state "correlation != causation", it is worth noting that if you look at the symptomatic behaviour someone exhibiting "road rage", they are exactly the same symptomatic behaviour of someone who is affected by *carbon monoxide poisoning*.
https://www.express.co.uk/life... [express.co.uk]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/b... [nih.gov]
So you're saying rural people don't get road rage... I've got some bad news for you.
Has anyone considered the simple fact that people in cities have better access to mental health service than people living in rural or remote communities?
In the country, if someone is a bit strange they're considered eccentric and its "never mind oor Phil, ee's just been a bit sad since is wife left 'im". In the city if you're a bit strange, everyone treats you like an leper.
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And here I though it was just deranged gun nuts.
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it is worth noting that if you look at the symptomatic behaviour someone exhibiting "road rage", they are exactly the same symptomatic behaviour of someone who is affected by *carbon monoxide poisoning*.
It's also the same behavior as a person suffering from heavy metal poisoning, both lead and mercury. Lead is still all over the place, used in gasoline as you might remember. Some areas though show higher than norm incidences too, mainly areas that had gold mines where the use of mercury was common back ~100+ years ago, and unlike lead which eventually works itself out of the environment to some level. Mercury doesn't, and various foodstuffs like fish, softshells and so on just soak it up.
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"behavioral health less likely to be properly diagnosed and treated in rural area"
IMO that right there is the key. That 1930's study should be more closely questioned. My wife, who grew up in the country, often talks about how the people she knew back home were crazy as hell compared to the people she's met in Atlanta. If they're not diagnosed or treated, it's as if they don't exist when studies like that are done.
Stress (Score:5, Insightful)
Crack open a psychiatry textbook, and you'll notice that a shocking number of mental illnesses are caused by stress (as well as the desire for attention). Cities are more stressful, due in part to a faster pace of life, ergo more mental illness.
People in the city are busier working and spend less free time with their family and sometimes friends; if you work with your friends you may spend more or less time with them due to this.
In the city you're more anonymous, and people are less likely to know/care about you, thus contributing to you receiving less attention. People who crave attention tend to act out so as to demand attention (arguing, picking fights, feigning weakness/illness, etc.)
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"Cities are more stressful..."
Are you sure about this? There is an awful lot of isolation-related stress in the countryside. It's just a different kind of stress
It's possible the report is confusing causation with correlation. That is, people who have mental illness are less likely to be rich and therefore less likely to afford the greener but more expensive parts of the city. I don't know as I didn't read it (this is Slashdot after all).
Re:Stress (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, cities are more stressful. Isolation stress? If you're lonely in the countryside, you go to the one shop (or pub) and meet some other country folks. You yammer about how bad everything is (the weather, the youth, the government, computers, foreigners, ...) After a while, you feel better and go home.
Isolation stress is for people who run a remote lighthouse. In the countryside, other humans are only a few km away.
In cities, there are too much people. You run into others constantly. Most cope with this, some can't. Unlike the countryside, everybody doesn't know (nearly) everybody. You're surrounded by 99% strangers. Therefore, criminals greatly prefer cities and contribute to the stress of living there. People who fail in the countryside, move to cities hoping for "more options". Hence, cities fill up with poor people who are more stressed. In bad times, some of them turn to crime and stress others.
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Criminals including people who wore skirts above the knee or played Dungeons and Dragons? Being known all around town isn't always positive even if you aren't Robber McDrugRape. If everyone hates you for being the town slut/heathen, you're likely to be worse off than the lighthouse keeper who doesn't have to deal with active malice from the neighbors. There's no problem with preferring the countryside, but you're talking like you think humans who don't want to be locked into a specific local hierarchy are s
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Exactly! All these efforts to blame air pollution, too much lead in ??, and so on just sound like grasping at straws to me. They're nice straw-men arguments when you want to blame something in your surroundings for a heath problem because everyone knows those things aren't "good for you", and it's tough to prove they AREN'T contributing to whatever problem you're talking about.
I definitely see where higher stress levels in a big city make mental issues worse, though. Like someone said above, just heavy t
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It is the stress of having to constantly deal with so many people in close proximity and at any given time you might have to interact with people you don't know and might be trying to screw you over. You have to constantly dodge people. If someone stops you to say something, you have the stress of trying to ignore them because most of the time, randos are scammers or homeless beggars.
.
Regular sized city, you don't walk past hundreds of people on a short walk somewhere, you get in a car and drive past all
The quiet box myth... (Score:3)
All of these small stressors add up over time. Every time you turn around in the city, there is noise from something. In most places, pure silence still means the hum of the HVAC, or a very low rumble of traffic noise. Most people de-stress by changing scenery of one sort or the other. If its quiet, or solitude you want, the city can be a tough place find it. There is no quiet, empty brook to bury your head in for a while if you need it.
Want quiet? Go lock yourself in a quiet box with noise canceling ear phones. ...because ironically, you met a couple of your friends in the local park the last time you wanted to be alone smelling the flowers.
Don't like enclosed spaces?
You can drive 4 hours to the woods, just be back by morning.
Want new friends and activities? You already know the closest 50,000 people, where you going to go?
--
Nothing always stays the same. You don't stay happy forever. You don't stay sad forever. - Cat Zingano
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Dogs. It seems country people only want a dog for it to be outside barking at leaves, other dogs, etc. It gives a feeling that the place is protected.
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Pure quiet tend to drive me nuts. In city I want an AC or a fan running to sleep properly. In the country I want wind through the trees or a river nearby. In a pinch crickets/cicadas/locusts will serve.
It's the other way around (Score:2)
I don't understand why people persist in associating environmental factors with mental health, like, "escapism causes depression" instead of "depression causes escapism". Historically, from what I've read and the various old families I've met, the people who were the first to settle in cities, or emigrate to a richer country, had a certain type of mindset with traces of poor impulse control that you could lead to a milder form of ADHD and bipolar disorder... plus people with OCPD tendencies were more prospe
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My ancestory starts out in Hanover, Germany
No, your ancestry starts out in the same place as every other living thing on this planet - in some cell somewhere that managed to replicate itself billions of years ago. Everything alive has survived in an unbroken line from that cell.
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Let's assume we all started with the Big Bang. You may proceed with extrapolation as an exercise.
Cities are magnets for the mentally ill (Score:5, Insightful)
It's weird that nobody is considering the magnet effect of big cities on the mentally ill, and it instead assumes they all started there.
Social services, income opportunities, entertainment and amenities are still important to the mentally ill. Minneapolis has heated bus stops ffs, you're not going to find a heated bus bench to sit on in rural areas.
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Academia is also a magnet for the mentally ill. What is considered odd in the normal world is tolerated in academia. That's not really good for the oddballs who have discovered they can feed and water their oddness until they have full-blown psychological problems.
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On the other hand, just try building a camp fire in the city.
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This is well reasoned but I think it only explains half the story. The other half is that these situations / services enable mental illness. Mental illness doesn't exist in isolation in most cases. We can debate if it is good or bad but in rural areas the "mentally ill" are "treated" by local business owners / family keeping them busy with whatever work they are capable of at a low or non-existent wage and providing necessities. Most people, maybe even the family/employer don't even specifically recogniz
Not really news. (Score:1)
Humans need one of four things:
Family
Art
Unblemished Nature
Religion
If you don't have those, perhaps in combination or only have them in a twisted and broken manner (disfunctional family, facist religion, bullshit concept art, etc.) People will either take drugs or become mentally ill. Often both.
If you live in a city and aren't into religion you better have art, philosophy or serious downtime in the countryside. Since that doesn't happen all that easyly, people in the city are more wack than country folks. O
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Suicide stats confirm that; you get about 5-7 major principal components after the number crunching. Society that has almost zero suicide rate is composed of poor, uneducated, religious, big family rural dwellers. Bonus points if they are at war.
The highest risk is then for single city dweller, non religious, intelligent, relatively wealthy, living in peace.
I always get a bit worked up when people say we MUST change whatever is necessary in our way of life to achieve zero suicide rate. Well, break up the nu
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Everything else is secondary, and you can live without it for longer periods of time.
What the city allows, but rural life mainly does not is being a highly functional human with traits bordering to mental illnesses or even with mental illnesses. Rural environments regularly expell people not being able to bear living there, who then resettle to a town and continue living. A city doesn't break down just because a larger part of its inhabitants have mental problem
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I'm not sure about religion, it seems to generate nutjobs. It also fosters an Us vs. Them so loved and cherished by the Evangelicals.
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And people want to increase city voting power (Score:1, Interesting)
I guess the Founding Fathers were smarter than we gave them credit for when they opted to split voting power between rural and urban areas, rather than allow the tyranny of the urban majority to overwhelm the more sane rural voters.
It is interesting when science can prove the wisdom of old systems, and makes you wonder about the true objectives of those who would argue for disrupting them.
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The founding fathers said nothing about any in-state rural/urban divide. It was really all about smaller states vs larger ones.
The real problem didn't start until Abraham Lincoln created multiple states out of single territories so as to increase the number of senators from empty lands. The state of Dakota was incorporated into "North" and "South" to double the representation for short term political gain. The nation has suffered ever since.
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I guess the Founding Fathers were smarter than we gave them credit for when they opted to split voting power between rural and urban areas, rather than allow the tyranny of the urban majority to overwhelm the more sane rural voters.
This weird little myth is strangely persistent. The one and ONLY election in the 1770s in the United States that gave inordinate power to almost empty states was the electoral college for the presidential election. No other election had that weird split. Senators were appointed by the state legislators, not elected.
Nor did the Founding Fathers give a shit about rural and urban areas. In 1770 in the not-yet-united-States some 70-80% of the population lived in rural areas and did rural labor and it wasn't
City residents have more resources (Score:2)
It's a fairly safe bet that city residents generally have more mental health resources available to them. Those in rural areas may not have the same opportunities. Rural people in some areas typically have a greater distance to travel to whatever resource they have access to. A growing number of areas are losing their local hospitals, which often provide at least some mental health resource. Lower-income folks, those without reliable transportation, those with no mental health coverage through health insu
Re:City residents have more resources (Score:4, Insightful)
Further, there's a cultural difference with regards to getting health.
At least in the rural area I grew up, the overriding theme was having your own land and being self-reliant. This is largely incompatible with refusing to admit you have a problem if it is at all possible to admit it. Extends also to your family. I knew of a person who was schizophrenic and nearly constantly in a state of psychosis. Parents just never took her anywhere and just apologized for not raising her better. Help was available and many people tried to get them to accept the help, but they said she wasn't mentally ill. This carried on for about 25 years, before finally the parents were just too old to handle it anymore and had her evaluated and ended up institutionalized. The sad part is that her siblings hadn't been able to have a conversation with her in 25 years (she was unintelligible constantly) and with medical help, she was able to have some semblance of conversation again. Of course, to your point, the institution was in the city, so she went from undiagnosed mentally ill rural resident to a mentally ill city resident.
Contrast with life in the city, where there's a much higher tendency to go seek assistance if you can afford it. Also, if you are at the point of having very noticeable episodes, it's more likely that an observer will call for help and result in treatment.
Certainly it's much more relaxing and I would believe pollution is better where I grew up and that certainly would help with the milder neuroses, but I think cultural differences in recognizing mental illness and, as you say, that extremely mentally ill people that are treated will end up in cities one way or another.
overload (Score:2)
city life just overloads the senses, some places are so busy, so overwhelming that being exposed to it all the time is just too much.
even if you are alone in your appartment, it is never really quiet or restful, there is only so much you can take.
some people say they get used to it, and don't notice it anymore, but it is still there and somehow still being processes.
outside the city, it's easier to come to rest.
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Higher Concentration of Diagnosis (Score:2)
Calhoun's mouse utopia (Score:3, Informative)
Pretty much all the pathologies re: city living was demonstrated by Calhoun back in the day...in mice.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com... [smithsonianmag.com]
Obvious (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, duh. Anyone looking at election data could tell you that urban dwellers are crazy.
Well ... (Score:2)
... people with mental illnesses tend to drift to the city, where they can get more services.
There are simply more mental health services available there, whether paid or in particular government provided.
This is true both directly for mental health services, and also for additional services (welfare, housing, etc.) that you are more likely to need if you suffer from a mental illness.
Or the causal arrow points the other way. (Score:5, Interesting)
And did they not consider the effects of crowding, like noise, alienation, general stress, traffic, cost, pace, etc.? Well, no, the wrong kind of scientists did the study. Environmental health researchers look at pollution, so their answer is, "I guess it's pollution".
It could also be that people with depression and anxiety tend to think that living in a city, where there's a lot going on, will make them feel better by providing enough distraction to keep their minds off their troubles. That other studies have shown being in nature does that, not cities, is more significant if you want a solution.
The solution being, move. Cities suck.
This... (Score:2)
...is utterly unsurprising to anyone that lives in the country.
Living in the country (Score:1)
and I can tell you that a lot of folks go undiagnosed in their mental illness.
Depression ranks very high in rural areas. As if the high obesity and suicide rates didn't clue you in.
Yes, mod parent up! (Score:2)
They can only measure people who are diagnosed or willing to self report for a study. Not as many out in the sticks would bother to respond to a study.
Explains Leftists (Score:2)
ntr
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Rather, it explains left wingnuts AND right wingnuts.
Neuropeptides (Score:1)
I wrote a book about mental illness based on case studies of 150 incidences of psychological abuse. Not because I wanted to, but because I needed to, I was cursed with the presence of a bi-polar affective and a narcissistic sociopath, two very extreme expressions of cluster B personality disorders.
My "thesis" (200,000 words) posits two factors that appear to be obvious to me, that mental illness is contagious to people exposed to it over a long period of time and that it is addictive.
The DSM 4 (DSM 5 ha
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I've too have seen mental illness as addictive. Fortunately I've been spared. However, there are many who are mentally ill that have learned to feed and water their condition, thus making it and its attendant problems grow. In an odd way, many like being mentally ill because it gives them something few others can claim. And they can always point to it to explain why they did something obnoxious rather than the Flip Wilson excuse, the Devil Made Me Do It.
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I've too have seen mental illness as addictive.
It would seem that some see the idea challenging enough to mod down. Perhaps they are virtue signaling?
Fortunately I've been spared. However, there are many who are mentally ill that have learned to feed and water their condition, thus making it and its attendant problems grow.
Indeed, putting the burden on the people who care for them and propagating the psychological abuse cycle.
In an odd way, many like being mentally ill because it gives them something few others can claim. And they can always point to it to explain why they did something obnoxious rather than the Flip Wilson excuse, the Devil Made Me Do It.
It allows them to play the victim and the power that brings. It burdens the people around them with the consequences of their abusive behavior whilst simultaneous absolving them of any responsibility for it. That is how well meaning people's intentions are subverted into enabling the abuse.
People
Link to liberals and left leaning policies? (Score:1)
Asking for all my large city friends.
Methodology issue (Score:5, Insightful)
The guy who threatens to shoot anyone that knocks on his door is considered cranky in the rural areas, and mostly ignored.
That same guy is arrested and thrown in a mental institution in a city.
People living rough in the rural area are called "Mountain Men". Do the same in a city and you are called Homeless. The Mountain Men are never checked for mental illness, while the Homeless are - and institutionalized.
Also, crazy people can easily die in a rural area where no one will find them until it is far far too late. But in a city they are more likely to be found and given medical help, then institutionalized.
Re: Methodology issue (Score:1)
Interesting points. Perhaps the solution to homelessness is some sort of rural retreat so they can become Mountain Men instead. :)
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while the Homeless are - and institutionalized.
Actually, no. We used to do this. But then they closed the institutions and 'mainstreamed' the mentally ill. Blame the right wing for trying to save money or the left wing for writing the illness off as alternative life choices.
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That was an unholy alliance between the right and left wing. I have a sister, currently institutionalized because she caused so many problems. Once, when she was living on her own, she went off her meds. I tried to track her down. Tracking down someone in the city is no easy task. Eventually, from the feelers the family had sent out, a nurse at a psych ward of a local hospital when asked point blank on the phone, admitted that yes she was there but we didn't hear it from the nurse. The mentally ill have rig
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OK, they are labelled as insane and left alone. My point was that mentally ill people in rural areas are not COUNTED as mentally ill, they are called other things, like eccentric. In the city you have to be really wealthy to get called eccentric.
Re: Methodology issue (Score:2)
The Songs of Distant Earth (Score:2)
If you haven't read Clarke's short story (DO IT), this is a spoiler:
The protagonist longed to see the great cities of Earth that her forebearers had told stories about. When she meets a man actually from Earth and tells her about this, he laughs.
Once the People of Earth had invented the Internet (not called that in 1958, obv.) and personal clean-energy drones (again...) they rapidly abandoned cities for a more placid life in the countryside, closer to the environment for which humans are evolved.
Cities are
Here's a fun coincidence (Score:2)
Urban voting districts tend to vote Democrat as is evidenced by every POTUS electoral map going back decades. Coincidence?
Cool (Score:2)
As someone who has lived in most of these environments, I personally really like small town suburbia living. I grew up in a REALLY rural area (an my parents still live in that same house). Getting to a grocery store was a 20 mile drive, nothing was available to be delivered. Even nowadays about the best internet you can get there is 3Mbps DSL if you're lucky (my parents are and they have that - my brother lives slightly farther and no DSL is available at all).
In my small town it's small enough to be quie
How about just write a better headline? (Score:2)
Headline: "City Residents Live With Mental Illness At Higher Rates Than General Population"
From the Summary: "Obviously if you live in a city, these studies don't mean that you will develop depression or anxiety. Rather, they suggest that hazards like air pollution and pesticides will increase a person's overall risk, especially for those who are already vulnerable for other reasons. "
So, why not just use the following as the headline?: "City Pollution & Pesticides Increase Risk of Mental Illness"
Now, Map overlay please (Score:2)
Cities are Magnets (Score:1)
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Epilepsy is a neurological condition, not a "mental illness".
Where do mental health professionals live? (Score:1)
So that's why... (Score:2, Insightful)
...large cities vote Democrat. City living has made them all crazy!
Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.
Exposure to soil micro-organisms improves mental h (Score:2)
It is known, and is the subject of several important scientific studies.
A modern city may have fewer beneficial micro-organisms and more harmful ones, but even just having potted plants and occasionally walking in the park improves mental health - and not just by decreasing stress!
https://qz.com/993258/dirt-has... [qz.com]
If you live in a modern house in the countryside for a while, you won't have to be very observant to recognize how staying inside all the time affects your mood, health and stress levels. If you g
Correlation is not Causation (Score:2)
It has more to do with treatment services not being available in rural and even suburban areas, actually.
This is what we should be calling "Fake News"
Dumb title (Score:2)
Higher rates than the general population? (Score:2)
Doesn't the majority of the population live in cities? Something on the note of 55% or so, if I'm not mistaken. Wouldn't that fact skew the numbers a bit, seeing as how the urban dwellers make up the majority of the general population?
Also, most of the city kids grow up thinking they're special little snowflakes. I guess they can't handle the real world where they're actually not special at all.
Also (2) the air is more polluted, so they grow up with less oxiygn to feed their brain, which could cause some
Horizon visibility (Score:2)
I grew up in Florida and we have a big horizon. I went to college in Tennessee where there were mountains (large hills) and lots of thick trees around.
I noticed that being unable to see as much horizon was really uncomfortable to me. Same when I go to large cities like DC. If all I see is concrete instead of sky, it really starts to unnerve me.
I think that may be at play quite a bit. Not to mention many large cities are in northern climates with cold and grey weather, etc. Something else I could never learn
What is mental illness. (Score:1)
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When all we care about is the last episode of Game of terrible writters. What is metal illness. ? Facebook, Google, Amazon have an army of psychologies to manipulate us. I would think the unwashed masses are totally fucked up by media !
Mental Illness nowadays is a real problem for teenagers and adult people. I was cured with synthetic drugs and I may say that the results are pretty sad. But also, my doctor said that I probably should try https://naturalwellnesscbdoil.... [naturalwel...cbdoil.com] this one natural and organic drug. I know that a lot of people think about marijuana but you need to google more and you will be impressed.
Other People (Score:1)
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/08/010807075959.htm [sciencedaily.com]