16 Comments

An important topic. My daughter is a therapist and I know how important mental health professionals are. I could not find a therapist when I really needed one after my sister died unexpectedly. I was on multiple waiting lists. I think I got a call back about a year later, when I was better able to cope. I sure could have used some professional help in the earlier days.

Expand full comment
author

I’m so sorry to hear this Michelle. Thank you so much for sharing and this really goes to show even in areas where professionals might exist, their availability is so constrained that they might as well not be present for all those they can’t serve

Expand full comment

Super interesting—

That map that you shared shows all of the Southern US states as exhibiting poor mental health. This is also where diets are rich in fried foods and coca cola, and lifestyles are terribly lacking exercise.

As a Midwesterner who moved to the South, the culture is eye-opening

Expand full comment
author

Definitely. Do you see this as being deeply connected to food or are there other things you have noticed?

Expand full comment

It’s the Bible-belt, man.

There’s this all-around air of over-conservatism.. like folks are holding on just a bit too tightly to old ideas and lifestyles.

From what I’ve witnessed, this leads to judgment and echo-chambers, which lead to hatred of “the other”

Ideally, human beings thrive with continuous openness and connection.

Many Southern cultures are simply just closed-off and constricted

Expand full comment

Just returned from.some time I'm vancouver alot of what you say here resonate with what I witnessed there.

Expand full comment
author

Very glad to hear that it resonated. Any things in particular that you saw?

Expand full comment

The scale for one. The amount I saw was on par or worse than ehat we see in California. Also some of the initiatives. There is a developer that is using old shipping containers to build housing for some of those affected. I was told this by multiple locals. I plan on doing more research into it now. It is a real problem. One that has the mayoral candidates promising real change

Expand full comment

Is this “1 in 5” figure even counting people who have given up on seeking overpriced and ineffective help with “mental health”? Or don’t believe in it because they’ve only encountered it as something pathologizing or stigmatizing? Misleading statistics are often used to bolster weak arguments, while here it looks like statistics are being used to make a systematic problem seem less prevalent than it truly is.

Expand full comment

The dumbing down of America for profit. Let’s start first by setting the bar higher with regard to lifestyle. Whole foods, exercise, learning goal setting, taking either an academic route leading to college, or a trades route leading to employment immediately after HS. Stopping this vaccine insanity with aluminum and other chemicals injuring nervous systems/brains and data shows healthier children would start day one of birth to stop the chemical assault. Problem solved, shortage doesn’t matter. Wake up America!!

Expand full comment

Oh please. Some of the "wellness" people think you can cure everything by eating an apple and talking a walk.

Expand full comment

🐴 💩

Expand full comment

Another nincompoop with no experience in healthcare with nothing to offer. Exercise has better outcomes for mental health disorders than meds,

Expand full comment

I have been a registered nurse since 1997

Expand full comment

So what’s horseshit about my comment? Rather than make an ignorant comment, explain how we got where we’re at then and why it’s this way? What am I missing here? Ranking last in chronic disease and children’s healthcare parameters in the western world while spending 2-3 times as much for these outcomes? More vaccines, more aluminum, more SSRI’s? And be damn specific or get off, we’ve had it with the poisoning of our society for profit!!

Expand full comment