Photo courtesy Bart Everson.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 10% of older adults experience mental distress regularly, an increase of 24% from 7.4% in 2015 (CDC). Compared to all other age groups, seniors aged 65+ experienced the sharpest rise in mental health diagnoses between 2019 and 2023…
— from Seniorly.com, June 2024
I’m not yet 65, but I will nevertheless assert that I’m quite old enough to experience severe mental distress. Regular readers of my humor columns here in the Daily Post will no doubt agree.
But there’s a real difference between a rise in mental health diagnoses… and actual mental health issues. Let’s get that out of the way, right from the git go.
The number of mental health diagnoses is directly proportional to the number of psychologists and psychiatrists looking to make a buck — not to the number of mentally distressed people. Everyone is mentally distressed, at least occasionally. The profit comes from the diagnosis, not from the mental distress.
The main reason older people are getting diagnosed with mental health issues more than younger people is simply that, old people are lonely and bored, and thus more prone to visit their psychiatrist, to have someone to talk to. Then they get diagnosed.
Speaking for myself, I’m not lonely or bored, so what’s my excuse? I really don’t have one, and that causes me additional mental distress.
The main reason I’m not lonely: I have a cat. There are people who have cats, and there are people who have dogs, and the main difference is how big the cans of food are. Also, you have to enjoy taking walks, if you own a dog. My cat, Roscoe, pretty much takes care of his own business without needing my assistance, except to deal with his cat box occasionally.
I suspect that dogs are more prone to share their owners’ mental distress, in a sympathetic manner. Cats don’t care about anyone but themselves.
But they eat less food, so there’s that.
If Roscoe does in fact experience mental distress occasionally — which I doubt — he has a quick fix. He takes a nap. If more seniors knew about that remedy, we would need fewer psychiatrists. You have to be careful about visiting your psychiatrist too often, because sooner or later, you will say something that makes them diagnose you.
To better understand the increasing number of mental health diagnoses in the U.S., I reviewed several online articles about mental health, and found this chart on Seniorly.com:
We note that Colorado is in the Top Ten — out of 50 states and Washington DC — well ahead of Texas (close to the bottom) and Arizona (even closer to the bottom).
But behind Utah. You can hardly get a better score than 0.938. I don’t know why people always make fun of Mormons when they can score 0.938.
One benefit to doing this type of research: seeing Colorado at Number 9 on this chart made me feel great, like I just woke up from a nap. (I can imagine people in Texas had the opposite reaction.)
But apparently, I’d be even happier if I were a Mormon.
Better yet, a Mormon who just woke up from a nap.
And found the cat box clean.