[Mark Henry]

I know someone in this field

Every year she gets a few clients who were high IQ/highly educated who just snap. All it take is a precursor, for example a failed exam, to be the final straw.

Crowbob
It's all a matter of degree. Most of us have numerous mental and emotional pathologies which we manage in our daily lives quite well. Some of us are not so well equipped to deal with stressors, disappointments, failed expectations, etc.

In addition, the diagnosis of mental/emotional disorders is highly subjective. There are very few objective signs and the criteria overlap. Mis-diagnosing is frightfully common. Add to that the fact that a person's symptomatology changes and people experiencing 'issues' can be and frequently are extremely manipulative, especially if they are intelligent, hurting and want something.

Throw in cultural changes over time, political motivations, and secondary gain and you have pretty chaotic and unpredictable people-and those are the mental health care providors!

Just as physical conditions are cyclical, mental conditions also go in and out of vogue. Increasingly, when there's some kind of check involved, such as SS Disability or SSI, or insurance reimbursements for healthcare providors, the frequency of diagnoses rise and fall.

We all remember when ADD was rare. Next thing you know, kids could get SSI for ADD and millons of kids are now diagnosed and MEDICATED for it. Same with bi-polar, multiple personalities and personality disorders and all the rest.

Mental health care is particularly suspect because the diagnosis and treatment are almost excluselvly based on what the patient tells the care-giver. There are no x-rays or blood tests for schizo or bi-polar or ADD, etc. Now we have all kinds of brand new designer illicit drugs (i.e., bath salts, etc.) that lead to bizarre psychotic episodes that even the pharmacologists can't keep up with.

It's a total crap shoot. Literally hit-or-miss.

It was a lot more like they didn't know much about it, not unlike yourself.

Most people with mental illness at that time would have been institutionalized, so out of sight, out of mind. These may get a "cheque" but it's a fact that it's cheaper than having them live in an institution.