Widespread Mental Illness

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I still haven’t done my due diligence and gone through the links (which I’m leaving for this weekend), but as I’m thinking about this and watching the world, I’m forming my own opinion about factors which I think are driving this.

There’s another quote in the Ra material which comes to mind.

The Earth seems to be negative. That is due to the quiet, shall we say, horror which is the common distortion which those good or positively oriented entities have towards the occurrences which are of your space/time present. However, those oriented and harvestable in the ways of service to others greatly outnumber those whose orientation towards service to self has become that of harvestable quality.

So we finally capitulated to peer pressure and watched Squid Game… and it’s quite disturbing. And then a day or so ago I saw this article in the news.

South Korea's millennials say their lives aren't that different from 'Squid Game' as they face a crisis of mounting debt, unaffordable homes, and dead-end jobs

I think there is a widespread hopelessness, when young people can’t even entertain the prospect of buying a home anymore the world over. You're basically seeing inflation that's out of control. They’re panicking about staying afloat financially, then Covid hit and countless layoffs ensued, along with business closures. 

In China this hopelessness shows itself with the “lying flat” phenomenon:

'Lying flat': The millennials quitting China's '996' work culture to live 'free of anxiety'

Mix all of this with the dystopian entertainment on TV nowadays, and the endless stream of horror in the news, and it’s kind of the perfect storm. I think there’s a breaking point for many, and I think that’s what we’re starting to see.

My mom also mentioned something the other day (she’s in her 80s) which is so true. She said what passes for entertainment on TV these days is an indication of how sick society has become. She said in her day they had Sound of Music, Gone With The Wind, etc. There was a dignity in entertainment. Now it’s just debasement, dystopia, and disturbing content… and this poetic alliteration of mine was unintentional. It’s as if shock is the main driver in entertainment.

This of course is a wide-ranging topic, so the above thoughts are just some puzzle pieces... in a very complex puzzle.

Yes, I think we often discount the harm that comes from stress and anxiety. The way our society is structured forces many into rigid and stressful daily routines which some people simply aren't compatible with, and since they aren't able to integrate into this structure they are considered to have a disorder or disability. 

We spend most of our waking life working with the promise that it will allow us to support a comfortable lifestyle and raise a family, but that no longer the case for the most part. The prevalent culture is one where work is valued over rest and "laziness" and unemployment are considered moral failings. People are busy busy busy with little time to recuperate, and there's an added layer of financial stress from debt or high cost of living. People who are busy all the time also have less opportunity to develop meaning in their lives. The result is a state of alienation and quiet desperation. When one is operating under a lot of stress for an extended period it takes a toll on both their mental and physical health. This situation is only getting worse as time goes on, and the pandemic certainly didn't help things on that front, so I can see why there are increasing rates of mental illness.

Picking up the thread on ADHD, are there really more cases of ADHD in recent times or is it that more people are being diagnosed who would have flown under the radar previously? ADHD is a genetic adaptation for the most part, and may have actually been an advantage in hunter-gatherer societies: https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/evolution

Just some thoughts.