5 Ways America Society Is Making You Mentally ill

If you have ever watched the hunger games one detail that is often overlooked are the people who were provided with everything.  Their lives were so simple that watching children kill each other was seen as entertainment.  Having all the resources you could need or wanted sounds like paradise, but when humans have no goals in life we begin to lose something important, passion.  Society takes up new activities when survival is no longer a struggle and try to find something to feel passionate about.  For example fashion or some type of extreme sports to fill their lives with excitement or purpose. We are filling our time with useless wants and desires.  These are 5 mentally illnesses that are growing because of our society.

1. Anorexia

Anorexia is when your body weigh is extremely low to the point that you could die from starving.  There are more than 200,000 cases reported a year in the U.S. if you look at the studies from the National Eating Disorder Association. Now you should consider that as time passes more people were able to afford going to the hospital which may cause a jump is statistics. Still the numbers are increasing especially the gap between men in women for this disorder.  Anorexia is most commonly found in preteens to young women. Due to social norms, women attempting to become underweight is seen as an accomplishment.  When girls are told skinny is better they continue to lose weight no matter what the cost to their bodies.  Sadly, this is one of the most encourage mental illnesses to have in America just watch America’s Top Model and they will show you how being underweight is required to be beautiful.

2. Bulimia

This is another mental illness that is more common among women.  This is one of the steps or symptoms people with anorexia have.  Mental illness can grow because of what type of society you live in.  It is  not by accident that Bulimia is more common with women. Society has told them that starving yourself to look good is a choice.  That way of thinking should never be an option and yet to this day we still encourage women to make themselves smaller to please others.  This illnesses takes the biggest damage with those peoples teeth because of all the acids they are releasing daily from their mouth.

3. Hoarders

When I first heard of the idea of what a hoarder was I did not believe it.  The idea that people would willing fill their homes with trash just seem like such a bad idea that no one would do that on purpose. However, after watching a few episodes of hoarders I started to understand that this was about much more than having too much trash or being lazy. This lifestyle is a form of expressing grief.  The people on those shows lost something special that could never be replaced so instead of looking to people for support they began to hold dearly to anything they own whether or no it had value. This is their way of controlling something in there life.  In America, we encourage people to keep buying even when they don’t need it because we are a capital run society and this type of greed is overcoming our abilities to find comfort in people instead of object.

4. Anxiety

From the day we are born we are taught to judge. Anxiety is the product of someone feeling they are out of place or don’t belong.  Anxiety is much more of an external problem because we are judging every person we lay eyes on.  Some people have to deal with this more than others due to their gender, sexual partners, race, or birth defects.  We as a society are causing so much pain, yet we pretend it is not connected.  All we can do is teach people coping skills to handle the pressure instead of stopping the people and habits that are causing anxiety.

5. Obesity

Now in the U.S. alone there are over 3 million cases being reported a year dealing with obesity.  Many tend to believe that this is a sign of wealth but that is not true.  The poorer you are the less likely your are to have fresh produce daily.  High calorie foods are cheap which causes many to buy more of it.  Now many like to look at being overweight as the main problem that can only be solved with working out but that is just more propaganda to cover up the real issue.  You can be the right weight and still have high blood pressure.  It is not about the weight, the main problem is how you maintain that weight. Eating 500 calories in fruits verses candy does make a difference on the inside and it is causing more health problem for people who thought they were fine.  The BMI scales does not prove that you are healthy.  True obesity is just another mental health problem.  Just like the hoarders people become addicted to food to fill the space of another problem.

Fighting Against Society

The moral of this story is that our society is making us empty inside.  I am not saying that these mental illnesses would all go away if we had a better society, however I do believe that the increasing numbers of cases are growing because of our society.  It is not random that worm suffer from anorexia when people constantly praise being underweight as a form of beauty.  We are making people mentally ill and if we continue this path the only people who will profit are the hospitals. Sometimes less is more.


All of my information comes from the NEDA.


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