Mental health - why now?

THERE has been a growing level of attention paid to mental health, or more accurately to 'mental disorders', during the past few years.

- DAWN LESTER & DAVID PARKER

And this is to the extent that they are now regarded as a significant problem, as indicated by the June 2022 World Health Organisation fact sheet entitled Mental disorders, which states: "One in every eight people in the world live with a mental disorder." 

This means that almost one billion people in the world are claimed to be living with a mental disorder.

Why is this the case? And is this actually true?

The fact sheet says: "A mental disorder is characterised by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotional regulation, or behaviour."

In other words, certain thought processes and behaviour are considered to be 'abnormal'. The problem is that this relies on a highly subjective assessment of a person's cognition, emotions, and behaviour to determine the existence of a 'clinically significant disturbance'.

This, in turn, relies on the idea that there is a recognised set of thoughts, emotions, and behaviours that are 'normal', but this is not the case. There is no definition of 'normal' - it is not a medical term, nor is it scientific.

The fact sheet continues: "In 2020, the number of people living with anxiety and depressive disorders rose significantly because of the covid-19 pandemic."

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S. published a document entitled Underlying Medical Conditions and Severe Illness Among 540,667 Adults Hospitalised With Covid-19, March 2020-March 2021, that acknowledged that 'anxiety an fear disorders' were the second strongest risk factor for death for patients diagnosed with covid-19.

The increased level of anxiety was fuelled by rampant fearmongering stories that were deliberately promulgated by the mainstream media as the result of governmental policies, especially in the UK.