Is society causing mental illness?

I do not doubt that processed food is rather unhealthy, I mean I can't even eat most fast food because I end up on the toilet for a half hour or more with digestive system/stomach pain like it makes me sick. But I am on SSI, don't have much money so much of the time I have to settle for processed stuff luckily I can tolerate taco bell without that, except one time I got sick from that to but seemed like kind of a dirty place so could have been contaminated with god knows what.

Also I do notice when I am eating processed food more often I seem to be more irritable, that doesn't mean it increases my autism...it means I am irritable because my body isn't enjoying the food I put into it. Eating better won't get rid of it, however I generally feel better over-all when eating healthy than when not.

I know also I can find recipes and figure out stuff to make, but admittedly at times I have a hard time eating due to anxiety/ptsd crap..it messes with my appetite so then by the time I can eat I am so hungry I don't have energy to cook something and it feels like if I don't hurry up and eat I'll pass out so I grab whatever is quick regardless of how healthy it is. But I am trying to work on planning to cook ahead of time so by the time I am hungry I have food.

I am a bit concerned about eating too much fast-food. I used to do that myself, when I lived in the US. Now I live in Norway, and it is so much easier to eat healthier here, because it is more of a culture for real, home-made food. Also fast-food is quite expensive here. Every time I come to visit in the states, I find myself in some drive-through before I know it! If I travel with my son, then its IHOP for breaksfast every day if he could have it his way. So in his young mind, fast-food is already something wonderful. I try to keep it to the level of fast-food being a treat (to him it is...), and not something to be eaten to replace a real meal. As a parent I really dont want to teach him that it is ok to just go for the easiest and quickest, be it food, or anything else. But sometimes it is hard to compete with the very loud voice of the advertisments and consumerism sending messages I really dont want him to take too seriously.
I think the link between processed food and illness is about the fact that we dont get the nutrients we need if we eat too much of it. And then in turn, our bodies and minds suffer from it.

Fast food as a treat?....I only ever eat it because I have to eat and it can be cheap. Luckily there are some cheap places mostly Mexican food around the city I am near, it's not processed or fast food. Good thing I like burritos, tacos, tamales, green chili and spicy food,...though if I eat too much spicy stuff that can cause some unpleasantness too. However closest place like that to my house is pretty far...but when I am out and about away from there then its an option.

I wish it was more common in the U.S for fast food to be more expensive than healthier food, but seems the other way around unfortunately.

For a 13 year old boy, it is sort of a treat, at least with me for a mom! It really takes a big effort to cook meal for oneself, I know everything about that. I think what got me into cooking was when I had my son. Cant feed a kid fast-food, or too much processed food. And of course it helps to live in a place where fast-food is the most expensive option! When I am by myself, I dont cook as much, at least not dinners. I was given a blender by a friend, and I am putting that to work. I throw fruits and veggies in it; instant super, healthy smoothie! that is an easy, healthy way to get some real nutrition into me as well. I try to make the cooking into a pleasurable experience, by listening to my favorite music while I do it.

It sounds like your mom has some issues herself. It is very unusual for a parent not to like their child. I hope you have been able to find some peace around that, I really cant imagine how hard that must feel for you! Having strong religious beliefs dont make people into better and nicer people in my experience. I grew up in a small town, lots of religion... and really, a lot of them were not that nice at all!

For me, it runs in our family. It's genetic for us. My mom and dad both have undiagnosed depression (Dad has some PTSD from the Vietnam war also), my sister is Bipolar and I have Major Depressive Disorder.

But as others have said, some issues have been around a long time and just weren't talked about, some issues are new to our societies.

I don't believe MI is on the increase, not really. Its always been there but was ignored and not understood.
My grandmother was put in an asylum a few times, there were no meds then. Just a straight jacket.
The stressers are different thats all. Everyone is so materialistic now its all about the latest phone or car. So shallow.
Parents are the biggest influence on kids, for me I was not born depressed, but mother telling me how useless, stupid, fat and ugly I was didn't help much!

She has a lot of issues. I sometimes have peace. But everything's a little clouded right now. :/

A friend of mine was abused by her mother, and has a very difficult relationship with her. She told me that as she had gone through life, she had found many mothers. Women who had helped her, in small ways and big ways, and helped her along. Some of those women, she told me, were not in her life anymore, but they had left her a healthier and stronger person. My friend had had to go through a lot of pain because of the way her mother treated her, and she is afraid to have children herself for fear that she would repeat her mothers mistakes.(But she loves my son and is wonderful around him, so I think she would be a great mom). I find it a very uniqe point-of-view; that we have many mothers, not just the one that brought us here.

Yes, I agree with that. I had a similar life experience. I never had kids though.

I believe that mainstream everyday society is not exactly conducive to an environment which promotes health of any kind, least of all mental/emotional.

I have a similar problem - feeling that I would pass out if I do not eat right away.

There are solutions, however. As you said, planning+cooking in advance is the way to go.

For instance, at night I rinse a thermos with boiling water to make it hold the temperature longer and put steel cut oats with boiling water inside. In the morning I have a warm oatmeal for breakfast. I add apple sauce or maple syrup to it. Or, I put dried fruit together with dry steel cut oats and by morning the dried fruit becomes puffy and soft and sweetens the oatmeal just a tad - very nice. I no longer buy dry cereals.

Steel cut oats are one of the healthiest foods around. Even quick oats are a processed food, and dry cereals obviously are a processed food.

I also buy low sodium soups from Trader Joe's (not in cans, but in Tetrapak packets) and heat them in a microwave, then eat with a dollop of Greek yogurt. And, Costco sells low sodium chicken broth in the same rectangular Tetrapak packages - sometimes I heat a cup in my microwave and drink hot broth straight from the cup. It is nutritious, hydrating, and a comfort food.

I do not want to turn this thread into a recipe thread, but feel free to PM me for additional recipes.

RD Laing wrote a lot about this topic a long time ago. He has had cycles of being revered and reviled.

There was one flu epidemic in the fifties that seemed causally related to an increase in schizophrenia when mothers in the second trimester got that flu, their offspring was more likely to be schizophrenic. Subsequent research didn't find a causal connection with any other flu epidemics. Some researches are very much of the opinion that toxoplasmosis gondi infections have some bearing on mental illness. I brought up these biological, pathogen related theories because I wanted to make the point an increase in mental illness might have non-social causes, if an increase has occurred.

I think my schizophrenia/schizoaffective situation had some indicators in childhood. I also discovered I had an encephalitic (brain swelling) reaction to one of my childhood immunizations. I don't believe immunizations cause autism. The causality of my infant brain swelling might have not been the immunization, could have been an unrelated infection only connected to immunization by proximity in time. Anyways I think my MI has a strong biological basis.

However my being kept in a small Catholic grade school with faculty and students who had their own mental health situations, to spite the fact they were ill equipped to deal with me was something that I'm sure worsened my MI.

So even if most MIs are biological, I firmly believe situations like a MI person ending up in jail rather than getting a needed hospitalization really worsen a lot of people's MIs.

And I do think sometimes like my MI is mostly psychogenic rather than biological. I think its good to be multi-model about mental illnesses because in the average clinical situation no physical causes were determined. Our diagnosis usually came about by eliminating a few causes through an exam and some lab tests, and then figuring what mental illness our symptoms most matched. In a research setting more advanced genetic and metabolic markers might have been considered and there could have even been advance brain imaging like SPECT or PET scan, but that's rare.

I'm of a model that is biological, social, and psychological. I believe looking at societal causes is very worthwhile and in some people's cases I believe societal causes are primary.

Mental Illness comes in 2 forms from my own experience. That which comes through the DNA.....& there is also situational MI that can start when some life situation happens (this was what started my MI issues). The situation that hit me caused anxiety to start with & then turned into major depression.....then a trauma along the way created PTSD issues on top of what had started me me at the age of 42 when my career ended by something out of my control.

I know that as the economy has become more depressed (which started after the situation that initially caused my depression), I could feel my depression & hopelessness become even greater.

I know for me that there are some things that have changed in my life that have helped me to deal with my hopelessness in a much greater way & also leaving the bad marriage that I had been in for 33 years also was a wonderful help. It didn't fix the problems, but being away from the source of the aggravation has really helped me see just how much that it has also been a great part of the depression even though I didn't realize it at the time.

I also see where the changes that have occurred in society over all the years that I have been alive have also created a more depressed feeling in people......for all the freedoms they have struggled to get.....the more unhappy many people seem to be.....& the more unhappy people have seem to become, the more MI has come to be a part of their lives. I don't think that it's just that it's being recognized more than it used to be & now it's Dx'ed......I have actually seen the increased number of those around me who are struggling with MI issues at many different levels. Even the kids in schools are struggling with so many more issues than we did growing up & it's reflected in how they are dealing with their lives.....& the lack of the family & the increase in the breakup of the family has definitely increased the stress & the issues that the kids are going through even though it might be better than living in a family that's fighting.....it's better still if the family were together & NOT fighting.....but that has changed also.

There are so many more stressors in EVERYONE's lives then when I was growing up.....you can see how it does effect people because most have never learned the skills to deal with the stress.

Stress is one of the key triggers for my anorexia & I'm sure if it effects me that way,,,,I'm NOT the only one. When I grew up, TV was just becoming a household item, computers, internet, & photoshop didn't exist either & the entertainment business was NOTHING like it is today & the processed foods they did have didn't have the preservatives that they have chemically created like they have today......& they didn't pile tons of sugar into everything......studies have been made as to what effect these things do have on the body.....& the results AREN'T good

They didn't believe that cigarette smoking caused cancer back in those days either but reality IS WHAT IT IS.

There have always been MI's throughout the history of the world.....but the increased number isn't just because they are now being diagnosed. There were increased number of suicides during the depression....it was because of the hopeless feeling those people had & when you increase the hopeless feeling that society surrounded them with.

The higher number of teenage suicides than ever before......something is causing that & it's not just because more are being diagnosed with MI's....it's because of the hopeless feeling that they are surrounded with in their own lives, the breakdown of the family unit, the economic environment that their whole surroundings is struggling with, & I believe the added level of sexuality that is being forced on them by their peers & by society in general where everything in the entertainment industry is pushing it......not only who am I but what am I. Pressure in school used to be just getting good grades.....the number of teen age pregnancies has grown & how do deal with that also can leave them with issues that haunt them long into later life & also can be a part in the issues behind ED's.

Yes, society has always had it's number of screw up's that messed up their kids & we are seeing the effects now with the increased amount of CSA that has occurred.

All these things that happen in the world around us create links to MI.....not just that which is inherited....& many things we don't even understand until much later in life when we start to struggle with things & can finally chain it back to the beginnings of where it came from in our lives.

There are many things that impact MI....& we are learning more & more things that are related to the links. The fact that different people's minds work differently can make the difference between whether someone ends up with PTSD or not from the same situation.....which makes it even harder to necessarily define that something always causes a MI....as each different person's resilience cam also make a difference along with the level of vulnerability that a person is in at the time something touches their life.

But it doesn't mean that it doesn't have an effect on the MI of some & not others & is a cause for some & not a cause for others....it's just the way the mind works especially when we are dealing with the situational issues that attribute to MI issues.

I think our lifestyles certainly make things worse--food, stress, sedentary work.

Especially the food in our diet. I'm trying not to eat anything that comes in a cardboard box. It's difficult to eat right and exercise when I'm depressed, but I am making more of an effort now.

Relationships are most important (wish I had this perspective years ago). The back to basics concept sounds good too...

relationships are vital in my life. I also realized this late. Now I focus on spending time my friends who have not given up on me... I even managed to get get back into contact with some of the people I grew up with, and rekindled those friendship. It has taken an affort on my part, and this I have done while I have my better stages, when I actually have the energy to do so. I have made it a top-of-my-list-priority. Now I have four good friends in stead of just two! Our society makes people isolated, and I think that takes away a lot from peoples quality of life.

There is no doubt the rates of depression have skyrocketed in recent years. A hundred years ago depression was all but unknown, and today it's arguably the most prevalent mental health problem (at least in the U.S.) In addition I think our society, with its 24/7 news, ubiquitous social media, and endless obsession with celebrity can worsen mental illness for some. Sadly, people do compare themselves to others, and when that comparison is made to a celebrity, say, by a person with mental illness, the result is probably not going to be good.

To me our society's biggest failing in this area today is the lack of understanding of mental illness, as others have noted in this thread. I have type II bipolar, and when that comes up I inevitably have to explain, and dispel myths about, the disorder. When the stigma is finally gone from mental illness, we will be able to make some real progress in helping people cope and live with it, and maybe, someday, even curing it.