The Crisis of Mental Illness: A Growing Epidemic

I work in the ER at a large hospital, and over my ten years in healthcare, I’ve noticed that Americans seem to be becoming more mentally unstable every year. This observation isn’t just a gut feeling; it’s backed up by extensive statistics. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, mental illness affects at least 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 10 children in the U.S., which adds up to about 60 million people.

What’s worrying is that, despite the growing number of people dealing with mental health issues, there don’t seem to be effective solutions in place. It feels like we’re getting closer to a point where mentally ill and mentally healthy people exist in almost equal numbers, which is a truly frightening prospect.

A big part of the problem is that many people with mental illness receive little or no help until their condition becomes so severe that they need to be removed from society. Every day, our ER sees people who need physical treatment, but many of them are in desperate need of mental healthcare too. Unfortunately, as physicians, we aren’t equipped to provide the psychological support they need, so they leave in the same mental state they arrived in.

In college, I was a member of Greenpeace, and I still care deeply about conserving the planet. But from my perspective in the ER, the state of human mental health is far more alarming than the state of the environment.

In summary, people are increasingly depressed and unhappy, especially teenagers and young adults, who seem angrier every weekend in the ER. While we’re trained to treat physical injuries, we lack the tools to address the mental health issues that are affecting more and more people in our communities. Compared to the mental health crisis, cancer feels like a smaller issue. I hope we can make significant strides in preventing and curing mental illness soon—it’s crucial for our collective well-being.