‘Overworked & over-medicated: US ranks as third most depressed nation’

Friday, September 16, 2016
By Paul Martin

RT.com
16 Sep, 2016

Americans are overworked, spending an average of 8-9 hours a day on the job, while looking for quick fixes and medications instead of long-term solutions to solve their problems, Dr. Lisa Palmer, Psychotherapist at the Renew Center of Florida, told RT

The World Health Organization [WHO] released its new list of the world’s most depressed countries. The US comes in third after India and China. Unipolar depressions, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse are the root causes of this, according to a large number of experts.

RT: How can such grim statistics be possible in the most powerful and the richest nation the world has ever seen?

Dr. Lisa Palmer: We definitely do have a mental health crisis in America. You know, 15 million Americans are affected by depression; 60 per cent of them are actually taking antidepressants, and believe it or not suicide is the tenth-leading cause of death in America. So it is a very serious issue – I agree with that.

RT: According to the WHO, India, China and the US are also the countries most affected by anxieties, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. It’s hard to imagine in places like Iran, Pakistan, or Indonesia are many people reporting mental health issues, or seeking the help of therapist? Do you think these numbers are skewed?

Dr. LP: That’s definitely true. There is a mental health stigma. I think that more people in America are prone to report or get help, so the numbers may be skewed that way for sure. But also there is that pressure in America to achieve the ‘American dream’. People have a hard time with that – work life balance, peace, skillful thinking, skillful living, a sense of loneliness and isolation is very much prevalent, very much because of the independent nature of our culture, as well, which is affecting people in their depression.

RT: The US also has a huge military, the largest in the world along with 15 years of war in the Middle East. Many of them are depressed when they come back home and statistics show that 22 veterans kill themselves each day. Do you think those elements factor into the depression?

The Rest…HERE

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