mental breakdown

According to the census bureau, the US has 217.8 million adults, ages 18 and over. California has the highest number of adult resident at 26.1 million, followed by Texas, at 15.9 million and New York at 14.7 million. Florida has 13.1 million. All other states have less than 10 million.

According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, there are approximately 14.8 million adults suffering from Major Depressive Disorder in the US. That is more than the entire adult population of New York. Another 3.3 million suffer from Dysthymic Disorder, a milder form of depression. 5.7 million suffer from Bipolar Disorder, formerly known as manic-depressive illness.

These numbers are confirmed by medical prescriptions. Of all prescription drugs issued in the US, anti-depressants make up the largest category with almost 120 million scripts per year. Anti-hypertensive medication is second at 113 million. Even if you don't believe Americans are depressed, you better believe they are under the influence of some pretty potent psychoactive medications.

It gets better, approximately 40 million American adults suffer from an Anxiety Disorder. That is nearly as many adults as live in California and Texas combined. Almost 9 million suffer from the adult form of ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

That brings us to a whopping 72.8 million American adults (33%) suffering from a major psychiatric illness in any given year. NIMH is a bit more optimistic and puts the total figure at 1/4 instead of 1/3. They perform this magic by claiming many people suffer from more than one mental illness at a time. A quarter of the adult population is mentally ill and half of those have more than one mental illness. That sounds even more comforting!

But we are not done yet. An estimated 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's Disease and one million suffer from Parkinson's Disease. Count a few other miscellaneous brain disorders and that brings another million to the table. All in all the number of adult Americans with a diseased brain is somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3, but probably closer to the latter. That means that if you have three adults in your household, one of them is mentally disabled. Or if you and your wife, meet up with your neighbor and his wife, one of you is mentally ill.

Now it is up to you how to interpret these data. Either a quarter to a third of the country is mentally ill -which can help explain why some incredible things happen in this country and because of this country- or the pharmaceutical industry has got us all by balls. There is no clearer way to put it.