Dr Lee, Psychiatry is confined to OPDs, clinics and mental health institutions - that is micromanagement of mental health crisis of people. What modern psychiatry needs is macromanagement of societal/social mental health crisis - that is addressing the aggregate mental health crisis of society. The psychiatric drugs (along other interventions & treatments) may help individual but it cannot help to cure aggregate mental health crisis of society unless we address the underlying factors - the dysfunctional political system, socioeconomic disparity, poverty (the single biggest cause of all human diseases), institutional decay (courts, law enforcement, academics etc), unregulated social media are some of the factors.
Interestingly, some of our politicians have a good grasp of psychological vulnerabilities of society. But due to the malignant nature of these politicians, they exploit this and aggravate it for their political gains. Meanwhile institutions like APA refuse to step forward in educating society about why and how it's being exploited.
I think that we also need a dedicated office of Sec of psychological health - goals should be formulating policies, implementing programs and monitoring of psychological health on both macro & micro level in America. There is an office of Assistant sec of mental health & substance abuse (i don't know it's exact functions) in US Govt but i don't think it lives up to the task in doing anything concrete.
Sanjeev, I love the idea of a Secretary of Psychological Health. In England they have a Minister of Loneliness. A member of Parliament, Jo Cox, set up a commission to study loneliness and its effects in about 2016. They presented their findings in 2017 and Parliament thought it necessary enough to appoint a Minister to see how loneliness could be addressed and reduced.
Its fascinating and admirable that the UK invests in mental health measures while using its political system. Systemic oppression in reverse. Imagine that?
Dr Lee, what US needs is a mental health policy. US has tons of think tanks, advisers and consultants that formulate US foreign policy, Defense policy, Trade policy, Climate change policy etc. These policies are based on strategic US interests and long term sustainable goals. It's interesting that US doesn't have a national mental health policy (i haven't heard anything about it).
Our response to mental health crisis is reactive rather than proactive (preventive) because we lack a concrete national mental healthy policy (mental experts like you should define & formulate it). But i give some examples.
Reactive approach - We have these counselors in schools that are needed to deal with gun violence. After school shooting, the students go through counselings to treat their traumas.
Proactive (preventive approach) - Sensible gun laws to prevent school shootings. If we can make sensible gun control laws, we don't have to treat trauma of students from gun violence.
Reactive approach - Unregulated & harmful sewers of social media that encourages self harm. The algorithms are built to make users addicted to social media and suck their minds dry. Then kids behavior changes & parents take them to doctor for intervention.
Proactive approach - Sensible Social media regulations, transparency and full disclosure of their algorithms, cleaning up social media of misinformation.
Reactive approach - Law enforcement deals with growing violence in society. Rise of racial, political, sexual violence - constant need of locking up more & more offenders in prison.
Proactive approach - Clean political system from MAGA infection and Trumpism, enforce rule of law, judicial reforms, strengthening democracy etc. Make better economic policies to cut poverty & unemployment.
We really need a national mental health policy that should be designed by experts like you and to diagnose societal mental health problems, their causes and possible methods of treatment.
We saw this coming when social media was in its infancy, just evolving from 'email'.
Here is wikipedia: "Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is a saying made by Mike Godwin in 1990. The law states: 'As a discussion on the Internet grows longer, the likelihood of a person/s being compared to Hitler or another Nazi, increases.' That means that as more people talk on the Internet for a longer time, it becomes more and more likely that someone will talk about Hitler or the Nazis."
Note: Godwin was not concerned about Nazis. Rather, he was alarmed about the tendency of online conversations toward extremism. And he was right. I have never used social media for this reason.
Fast forward and we have an epidemic of obsessive social media use by young people, and a coincident rise in serious mental health problems among them. I did not realize that it could come to this. I will read Sanders' piece.
Thank You Dr. Lee keeping us up to date on this and countless other mental and public health issues. You continue to provide timely information. each time helping the nation elevate national public awareness. I rely on your frequent reminders. You are fully appreciated.
Thank you, Dr. Lee. I'm reading your book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. It's helping me to better understand Trump's appeal to his base. I wish the news media would read it and report on the real causes of his support. He has tapped into a sickness in this country for his benefit, but to our detriment.
Thank you for you work. I have been following. Lost 2 daughters to the Magats, another to domestic violence/drunk driver homocide. The biggest lie is that the system is working. I now suffer from Long Covid. Have a background in MPH and agree with your assessment of culpability of 45, yet present administration ignores the many disabled and unable to work from this serious and still active virus. Keep going.
Dr Lee, Psychiatry is confined to OPDs, clinics and mental health institutions - that is micromanagement of mental health crisis of people. What modern psychiatry needs is macromanagement of societal/social mental health crisis - that is addressing the aggregate mental health crisis of society. The psychiatric drugs (along other interventions & treatments) may help individual but it cannot help to cure aggregate mental health crisis of society unless we address the underlying factors - the dysfunctional political system, socioeconomic disparity, poverty (the single biggest cause of all human diseases), institutional decay (courts, law enforcement, academics etc), unregulated social media are some of the factors.
Interestingly, some of our politicians have a good grasp of psychological vulnerabilities of society. But due to the malignant nature of these politicians, they exploit this and aggravate it for their political gains. Meanwhile institutions like APA refuse to step forward in educating society about why and how it's being exploited.
I think that we also need a dedicated office of Sec of psychological health - goals should be formulating policies, implementing programs and monitoring of psychological health on both macro & micro level in America. There is an office of Assistant sec of mental health & substance abuse (i don't know it's exact functions) in US Govt but i don't think it lives up to the task in doing anything concrete.
Sanjeev, I love the idea of a Secretary of Psychological Health. In England they have a Minister of Loneliness. A member of Parliament, Jo Cox, set up a commission to study loneliness and its effects in about 2016. They presented their findings in 2017 and Parliament thought it necessary enough to appoint a Minister to see how loneliness could be addressed and reduced.
Its fascinating and admirable that the UK invests in mental health measures while using its political system. Systemic oppression in reverse. Imagine that?
Dr Lee, what US needs is a mental health policy. US has tons of think tanks, advisers and consultants that formulate US foreign policy, Defense policy, Trade policy, Climate change policy etc. These policies are based on strategic US interests and long term sustainable goals. It's interesting that US doesn't have a national mental health policy (i haven't heard anything about it).
Our response to mental health crisis is reactive rather than proactive (preventive) because we lack a concrete national mental healthy policy (mental experts like you should define & formulate it). But i give some examples.
Reactive approach - We have these counselors in schools that are needed to deal with gun violence. After school shooting, the students go through counselings to treat their traumas.
Proactive (preventive approach) - Sensible gun laws to prevent school shootings. If we can make sensible gun control laws, we don't have to treat trauma of students from gun violence.
Reactive approach - Unregulated & harmful sewers of social media that encourages self harm. The algorithms are built to make users addicted to social media and suck their minds dry. Then kids behavior changes & parents take them to doctor for intervention.
Proactive approach - Sensible Social media regulations, transparency and full disclosure of their algorithms, cleaning up social media of misinformation.
Reactive approach - Law enforcement deals with growing violence in society. Rise of racial, political, sexual violence - constant need of locking up more & more offenders in prison.
Proactive approach - Clean political system from MAGA infection and Trumpism, enforce rule of law, judicial reforms, strengthening democracy etc. Make better economic policies to cut poverty & unemployment.
We really need a national mental health policy that should be designed by experts like you and to diagnose societal mental health problems, their causes and possible methods of treatment.
We saw this coming when social media was in its infancy, just evolving from 'email'.
Here is wikipedia: "Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is a saying made by Mike Godwin in 1990. The law states: 'As a discussion on the Internet grows longer, the likelihood of a person/s being compared to Hitler or another Nazi, increases.' That means that as more people talk on the Internet for a longer time, it becomes more and more likely that someone will talk about Hitler or the Nazis."
Note: Godwin was not concerned about Nazis. Rather, he was alarmed about the tendency of online conversations toward extremism. And he was right. I have never used social media for this reason.
Fast forward and we have an epidemic of obsessive social media use by young people, and a coincident rise in serious mental health problems among them. I did not realize that it could come to this. I will read Sanders' piece.
Thank You Dr. Lee keeping us up to date on this and countless other mental and public health issues. You continue to provide timely information. each time helping the nation elevate national public awareness. I rely on your frequent reminders. You are fully appreciated.
Follower since 2016.
Thank you, Dr. Lee. I'm reading your book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. It's helping me to better understand Trump's appeal to his base. I wish the news media would read it and report on the real causes of his support. He has tapped into a sickness in this country for his benefit, but to our detriment.
Dr.@BandyXLee's piece is the #manifesto of the year thus far
Thank you for you work. I have been following. Lost 2 daughters to the Magats, another to domestic violence/drunk driver homocide. The biggest lie is that the system is working. I now suffer from Long Covid. Have a background in MPH and agree with your assessment of culpability of 45, yet present administration ignores the many disabled and unable to work from this serious and still active virus. Keep going.
I appreciate your writing so much, I had read the article you link to and feel like this is all so extensive and important , thank you again ✨