It’s interesting you mention the millennial generation coming up with so many more mental health issues. My MI partner and I are only in our 40’s and 50’s, but mental health wasn’t talked about growing up or even in early adulthood. It was shameful, an embarrassment, avoided, hidden, stigmatized heavily for us. Interesting thing with the millennials seems to be a full cultural push for awareness. The hip thing to do seems to be to ‘get into therapy’ wether you need it or not. It’s good for everybody! For all we bitch about them NOT doing to our preferred specs, I love this and applaud this attitude. I can’t help but imagine how different so many lives could have been for ourselves, our parents, even our grandparents if there had been a more conscious and developed understanding of MI. Of corse I don’t forget the horrors of early psych studies, lobotomies and other maiming and torture and the such being the accepted ‘norm’ that the generation under me has based countless horror flicks on. I’m actually old enough to REMEMBER some of these practices and people would be abhorred to know what was still going on in state-run psychiatric facilities with long-term care right up until the early 90’s until they were shut down for inhumane conditions and practices. (I worked for DMH for a few years back in the day doing direct care for severely mentally disabled adults). Seriously horrifying stuff. But my point was, there’s only one way to have such an increase of incident of diagnosis and that only happens if people are actually in offices utilizing therapists and being observed! It isn’t a BAD thing I don’t think. Honestly, I’m not sure any of us could go through proper regular therapy without getting handed SOME kind of diagnosis (me for sure 
) and I think that goes for the general public too!
Thanks for that little thought session…! I know it was off-topic
Great point ! MI is spoken a lot more now then back then . I am 50 years old and back then if anyone showed signs of MI they were just called nuts ,crazy or mad but today there are many names for it , SZ , Bipolar etc . For example my ex (sons father) whom i had no choice to divorce was rude , aggressive manner ,mania , had mood swings , hypochondriac and was very different from his siblings .Back then no name , now if i had to guess a diagnosis it would be Bipolar .
@Deborah when my son recovers after episodes there’s always a stretch of time, early in his recovery when he has bouts of anguish and very tense anxiety, where a car ride is soothing and peaceful. We’ll drive the country roads and sometimes explore new areas. It’s always calming for him. This period has lasted about 1 or 2 months. As his recovery progresses and he responds more to external stimuli and interacts with the world, we go on fewer and fewer car rides. Eventually, no rides with mom unless we’re going to In-N-Out Burger for lunch.
So true! (And some people are just plain assholes. )
My son likes to drive. I think it gives him a sense of independence. Although at one time he was a flight risk, now I’m glad he has our old vehicle to go places, that he wants to be social and is able to do so, and can pay for his own gas!
The numbers of people with Serious Mental Illness have probably not changed all that much in the last several decades. Now many of those persons are in jails or on the streets. Who among us ever dreamed our loved one would be among those that does have SMI? NOW we know that the numbers are staggering…1.1% of the U.S. population has SZ alone (and it exists around the world, also, although it does vary from place to place).