I LOVE cracked. I refresh the page from 2.30 my time every day waiting for the update. And for the most part, I loved this article. But this really pissed me off:
"...today one in four Americans has some kind of mental illness, usually depression. One in four. Watch a basketball game. The odds are at least two of those people on the floor are mentally ill. Look around your house; if everybody else there seems okay, it's you."
It's like that crappy old joke about one in three people being Chinese.
If they're playing basketball? Probably not depressed. If they're sitting around you and interacting in a normal way? They might be depressed and covering REALLY well, I guess. But if you have to look around, it isn't you. There are genetic and situational components that mean that, more than likely, if you're depressed, someone else in the room with you is also suffering from depression. Maybe all of them.
I can see that it's well-meaning, but it really rubbed me up the wrong way.
I agree. I hate when statistical data is misused in such a faction. I always rubs me wrong like sandpaper. I otherwise loved this article, but I did have a little *eye roll* when I read that section as well.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-23 11:46 pm (UTC)"...today one in four Americans has some kind of mental illness, usually depression. One in four. Watch a basketball game. The odds are at least two of those people on the floor are mentally ill. Look around your house; if everybody else there seems okay, it's you."
It's like that crappy old joke about one in three people being Chinese.
If they're playing basketball? Probably not depressed. If they're sitting around you and interacting in a normal way? They might be depressed and covering REALLY well, I guess. But if you have to look around, it isn't you. There are genetic and situational components that mean that, more than likely, if you're depressed, someone else in the room with you is also suffering from depression. Maybe all of them.
I can see that it's well-meaning, but it really rubbed me up the wrong way.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-24 03:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-24 03:57 pm (UTC)I just woke up - Too early for typing coherently yet.