About 25 percent of U.S. adults have a mental illness, according to the CDC

[caseymoz]

18. Not crap.

Consider one study found that without pesticide use, suicides would be cut drastically worldwide. Now also other chemicals in the environment, constant noise and light pollution, crowding and general angst about the future, we're not living in the healthiest mental environment.

If you are aware mental health treatment is still in the Stone Age (we give electro-convulsive therapy to depressed patients and only within the last two months got a scientifically valid hint as to why it worked) then the percent given becomes tenable. In the Neolithic Era, that was probably the percent of people who were physically sick.

Consider also this: one percent of all adults have schizophrenia. Three percent have bipolar disorder. Add to that number depressions, addictions, personality disorders, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, PTSD, OCD, Sleep Disorders . . . there's a lot more.

When you add in everything that can impair the mental functioning of a person in their lifetime, then be informed most of them or either incurable and/or require long-term treatment, then the number at least becomes tenable.