On The Other Hand

By Connie A. Anast

Newsflash! ABCNews.com is now reporting that as much as 6% of internet users are classified as "addicted to the internet" according to a study by psychologist Dr. David Greenfield of Psychological Health Associates in West Hartford, Connecticut. To take the survery, go to (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/addition_survey.html) ABCNews is claiming this as the "largest and most comprehensive online survey on Internet addiction ever."

The keywords here, dear readers, are ONLINE SURVEY. What did they expect?

We now have run the gambit of psychological disorders and diseases in the country. Everything is now an "addition". And I am starting to wonder if there is such a thing as "addiction addiction."

It has become quite a laugh. If you have a problem, any psychologist can compress and extract a disorder from it, and, as intended, make a profit in treating it. Hell, by these standards, I could classify as having a chocolate eating disorder...or maybe compulsive movie-watching-with-a- big-bowl-of-extreme-butter-popcorn disease.

It used to be that a person who had a mental or behavioral disorder could be treated by talented psychiatrists and psychologists and begin to understand their condition through therapy, medication and a tangent of other tools. But it has come to be that having a "disorder" is now a trendy thing. I am disgusted with the community of "doctors" who create a psychosis in order to treat it. It is a travesty to those who do suffer from a genuine addiction or disorder.

Persons with mental or behavior disorders are human beings, as I am sure most of you would agree, and I venture to guess that the majority of you know someone with a genuine illness. I find it fascinating that our culture who on one hand seeks to discover mental illness also does virtually nothing to make proper treatment readily accessible. One look at your health care benefits package will attest to that. Mine allows me 12 visits with a board certified psychiatrist or psychologist. 12 visits, my friends. One a month. Yet, I can have unlimited physical therapy for an injured knee, or see my physician once a week, once a day, perhaps, for an ongoing problem with moles.

We have attached a certain stigma to those with mental illness that organizations such as NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, have fought very hard to extinguish. I have attended NAMI meetings, and an offspring group for friends and family of loved ones with mental illness. I do not suffer from mental illness myself, but I have people very close to me who do, and I have found solace and companionship with others who have struggled with difficult decisions, and true "insanity" in the world of mental health treatment.

The simple truth is this: All of us in our lifetime will suffer from some mental illness. Even more enlightening is a statistic in Time magazine, June 28, 1999, from a letter by John M. R. Kuhn, M.D.: "People who do not have complete control over their emotions under all circumstances are by definition "not normal"; i.e., they have a degree of mental illness. The published statistics are laughable to physicians on the front lines in primary care. Eighty percent of the population is mentally ill at some given time, and all of us are mentally ill to a degree."

Eighty percent. That is no small potatoes.

But in all seriousness, we should examine our prejudices about those with mental disorders and help in the struggle for them to be recognized as just another patient who needs to be treated for just another problem. Demand that your body and your mind be treated fairly and adequately when choosing your healthcare coverage. And when you hear jokes and taunts about those with a mental condition, be aware that the next person who may be in need of mental treatment could be your spouse, your child, your parents...

Or even yourself.

If you are interested in more information about mental illness and treatment, visit N.A.M.I. at www.nami.org.