To say that mental illness is on the rise because prescriptions for psych meds are on the rise is nonsense. Nothing could be further from the truth. What's on the rise here is bogus diagnosis due to psychiatry's junk science. And the pharmaceutical companies work together with them to make the greatest team of pill pushers the world has ever known.
Sure, prescriptions are up. Why? Because the diagnosis is up. Why? Because convincing normal people that they are sick has become the most lucrative business on the planet. I'm sorry, but diseases that have no scientific basis in fact are not diseases at all.
Pharmaceutical companies are corrupt and psychiatry's solutions are a failure. Budget cuts are appropriate. Don't throw more money at failed systems that create drugged populations.
Melissa Butz
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Ms. Butz,
There are very few psychiatrists in Chattanooga. We have enough mentally ill people around here to keep a couple of hundred of them busy if we could get proper funding. We as a community, state and nation spend practically nothing on mental illness. We do put a lot of mentally ill people in jails and prison. That's easy enough. They can't hold a job so they beg, borrow or steal to survive if no family member can step up and help them. Is that less expensive than a generic antidepressant at $10 a month?
As a society we have decided not to treat the mentally ill. We just give them a $750 a month "crazy check" and a Medicaid card. Beyond that, they're pretty much on their own.
You may also be surprised how many people need just a little help to continue to be productive members of society. Somebody needs to keep up with the improvements to treatments, including the latest medications that treat depression, bipolar and even deeper mental issues. That is the psychiatrist's job.
Mental illness is a physical condition, like a failing heart valve, a ruptured disc or migraine headaches. I'm sorry you don't understand that. I've got a pretty good psychiatrist, and some magic medications that allow me to live a fairly normal life. I don't know why depression strikes one person and not the one next to them, but telling someone to just snap out of it when severely depressed just doesn't work. Not treating depression doesn't work, either.
My wild guess is that for every mental patient getting treatment, there are a dozen who need help and can't get it.
Harry Presley
Chattanooga