Lately, there have been many incidents of mass shootings, suicides and just wrong thought which has made me consider some of the implications of the societal mental illness that I feel we are going through. After a quick survey of a few sources, here are my thoughts.
Keep in mind this is part of my ongoing thesis that what we write about in social media might be the basis of some future template that is used to design AI à la Bina48. These conjectures are the current state of my thinking.
Before fixing a problem, one has to understand what is going on. What causes mental illness?
Genetics
There is a genetic component, which in history would have been self-correcting. People who had the genetic makeup which facilitates suicide would have been successful. After a couple of generations, they wouldn't exist anymore. Today, people with these traits are treated with antidepressants, hormone therapy etc. so they are an increasing component of our society. It is possible that these traits are recessive, so by awareness they can be prevented. Good examples of genetic diseases that are being dealt with are Tay-Sachs disease and Sickle Cell Anemia. These conditions have evolutionary advantages as carriers have immunity to tuberculosis and malaria (respectively) but the affected die. While not about genes that cause mental illness, the way that they are being considered might be how identified "mental illness genes" could be dealt with.
The traditional way that genetic diseases in the past have been dealt with was through identification and choice. Huntington's chorea is a disorder that results in brain cell death and that frequently appears after the age of 30. Since it doesn't appear until later, frequently children are born before the symptoms might appear.
Source
Historically a disease like Huntington's chorea might never have even appeared in a family, considering its onset frequently appears later than the average life expectancy up until the 1900s. Even a condition like Alzheimer's rarely is considered as it occurs so late in life. Traditionally people might be warned off from marrying or choosing not to have children.
The modern approach to prevent affected children, multiple embryos can be taken from the carrier women and tested; non-affected embryos are then re-implanted. There are financial implications but also personal philosophical implications. Discarding embryos or terminating pregnancies has differing impacts on different people.
The future approach might even be more controversial in another direction. While gene therapies to correct genetic diseases are probably without any apprehension, manipulating the genes of embryos may cross the line for many people.
Environmental
I have previously discussed how plastics can affect the body as a pseudo-estrogen. High levels of estrogen can negatively affect fetal development (association with autistic syndrome disorder etc.) and the regulating neurotransmitter systems that affect mood, like serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. Another contributor to mental illness is the correlations between the allergies and/or intolerance to gluten, milk and sugar consumption and schizophrenia and other brain conditions, including autism.
Milk intolerance is easily accountable to the fact that only people carrying a specific gene are able to consume milk into adulthood. Emotional disruption is within the realm of an allergic reaction as a consequence.
Sugar consumption is an area that is now coming to the forefront of research. During the 1950s there were a number of children who experienced seizures but the medication at the time was ineffective. They were put on a ketogenic diet (high fat, low sugar) which ameliorated their conditions. These children have grown and their brains are being studied as they become autopsied. Their brains are much more pristine compared to people with "regular" diets. While brains do consume glucose, brains which are on a ketone diet are healthier.
Gluten intolerance could be a signatory of a number of things. It could be symptomatic of a reaction to a low-fat diet, but it could also be evidence of glyphosate (Monsanto developed glyphosate in 1970 under the name Roundup Weed Killer) in our environment. The association between gluten intolerance and schizophrenia might actually be a sign of glyphosate poisoning.
“The endocrine disrupting properties also lead to neurological disorders (learning disabilities (LD), attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), autism, dementia, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder). Those most susceptible are children and the elderly.”
Source
Not only does glyphosate disrupt the endocrine system, but also kills intestinal flora (associated with gluten intolerance).
Epigenetics
Normally evolution occurs as particular circumstances give an advantage to one trait over another and are reinforced at reproduction. An example of this could be how dark moths would be selected in towns that have buildings covered by soot due to coal burning and pollution then being replaced with light moths as clear fuels are burned resulting in cleaner buildings. Epigenetics points at an external factor which changes genes. This is where the environment and genetics interact. This publication shows that alcohol can change the circadian rhythms and including other physiological, endocrine, and behavioural functions. Not only is an alcoholic affected, but it also results in changes to the DNA passed down to the children. Literally, the sins of the father are passed down four generations. Presumably, the chemicals that we are exposing ourselves to are having deleterious effects on us but also permanently damaging our DNA.
War
Another source of mental illness is that it is a byproduct of war. Not only do violent events affect the emotions of the immediate participants, but they can affect succeeding generations. Immediate mass suicides are often a consequence of wars. Perhaps the most known happened in Masada with the "suicide" of 967 people. Less known were the suicides in Germany post-WWII. In a town called Demmin between 700 and 1,000 people committed suicide there during the last days of the war. These suicides were not specifically caused by mental illness as much as fear. Their fear of being mutilated, tortured or raped made them choose suicide.
What is more insidious about war is that it affect succeeding generations regardless of whether the descendants of the winners or losers. There are no winners in wars. Although my father was a veteran of WWII, my family was spared any unusual behaviours (that I know of). However, there some of my schoolmates were the children of soldiers or were the children of refugees from Holland. Aggression, frustration, abuse and even pedophilia were signs of the effect of war on the families following the war. How much of this translates into mental illness and results in suicides ... I don't know.
Social Affects
War and catastrophic events can damage people quickly with long-lasting effects but there are also pressures exerted upon the individual which is manifested over a longer period of time but also could have long term implications for mental health across a large swathe of people. One of the largest sources of unrest is the perception of inequality. It isn't the inequality but its perception that is at fault. People living on at the lowest levels of a society are as happy as and frequently more happy than the people at the highest levels of a society. What disquiets you more: Hearing that French people spent fifty percent of their income to buy a loaf of bread in the 1780s or Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake"? She never said it but has been repeated as a symbolic justification for the perception that the royalty was out of touch with the rest of society. The reality was that Marie Antoinette was a generous patron of charity for the poor and moved by the plight of the lower levels of society.
It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The King seems to understand this truth.
— Marie Antoinette
Source: Lettres De Marie-Antoinette (in French). 1. Nabu Press. 2012. p. 91. ISBN 978-1278509648.
Additionally, there wasn't a famine in France at the time. There was a shortage of bread. Previously the state had a form of supply management as the king was responsible for ensuring the supply of food for the people. Turgot, Louis XVI's Controller-General of Finances established free trade in grain on 13 September 1774 but later price controls when a combination of bad crops and exhausted reserves caused the wheat producers hoarding and attempting to corner the market. People believed that the "famine" was intentionally orchestrated by Louis XVI, and the conspiracy theory "Pacte de Famine" emerged. It wasn't the shortage of bread that was the problem, it was the perception that the rich were withholding the bread for their own benefit which led to the Reign of Terror.
We are going through a similar process of a conspiracy theory known as the "Male Patriarchy" today. Historically there was a motive force based on something called hypergamy. Hypergamy is what has made humans what they are. The basic rules are that females select equal or superior males. If a female was attracted to a healthier, stronger, faster, smarter mate, she would achieve healthier, stronger, faster, smarter offspring. In recent history, the indicator for this would be a better financial and social status. Women were attracted to superior men and attracted them by providing a better home life for the men and their children.
Today, things have changed. Women have always been equally capable as men, but the harshness of life made men the principal hunters and gathers. Our civilization has reached a level that women do not need to rely on men to supply them with food or shelter. One of the unforeseen consequences of women entering the workforce is that it can conflict with the force that makes us human - hypergamy. In Canada, perhaps the top status job is a medical doctor. Women who enter that profession are financially superior to most men. Remembering that hypergamy requires women to join with men of equal or superior quality it causes a cognitive tension when there are few men that satisfy this requirement. I know of women with high-status occupations marrying men of lower status who have become emotionally unstable as a consequence.
Aside from the effect on the individual level, the conspiracy theory that is known as the "Male Patriarchy" will have a long term negative effect on the mental health of our society. Women today are perceived as entering higher status jobs than men. Why didn't they have high-status jobs in history? Obviously, it must have been due to the male domination of women. The reality which people with little grasp of or understand the implications of history fail to acknowledge. Life was hard on both men and women. Three of my great-grandfathers all died before their time due to work-related accidents. One of my great-grandmothers died before her time and that was due to childbirth. While women continue to displace men from higher status careers, they do not relish displacing men from lower-status careers. Equality will be achieved when as many women clean out the septic tanks as men. We really are progressing to a future as foreseen by H. G. Wells in "The Time Machine". Our society is dividing between the Eloi and the Morlocks.