Why is mental health such a big issue in North America and the U.K. and not in less developed countries?

In richer countries ppl. don't have to deal with basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and therefore (for better or worse) have time to focus on their mental health. In poorer countries where people don't even have one decent meal a day, mental health is, obviously, at the bottom of their priority list

In America, we have the luxury of being able to take the time to think about things we feel bad about. In developing countries, they need to fight just to exist. If you are always out there fighting to survive, you really don't have time to sit around and feel sorry for yourself.

It IS a problem. It just isn't as commonly diagnosed there. There are less people living there to diagnose and treat it. Also the doctors may be less educated. Also many people in underdeveloped countries just don't go to the doctor for things like that.

First a little story: Last week on the news there was a story about a group of American soldiers in Iraq who discovered a mother in a house. She had a two-month-old baby with a serious, serious, life-threatening medical condition (her intestines were exposed). The soldiers kept going back to the house, eventually the one who was kind of leading the effort to help the mother and baby was killed, and the others eventually went through channels to get special permission to move the baby to the U.S., where she could get medical help. My first question in response to the story was this: Why on Earth did that mother have a baby in that condition in her house?!! In the U.S. a baby that sick would be in a hospital. Also, why couldn't they get that baby to a hospital in Iraq? Would a hospital there be unable to do something for the baby? The above story pretty much sums up my guess as to why it may appear that mental health is talked about more often in North American and the U..K. People in poorer countries are often found to have far more mental health issues than, say, Americans generally are. They just don't get the help for them. As far as pace goes, some people would find it mentally destructive to live in at a slower pace than they do now. Some people feel alive and healthy by living fast-paced lives, and not all believe that a fast pace is a bad thing.

Mental health issues are epidemic in our country, primarily due to the epidemic nature of child abuse in our country. Perhaps other countries have less child abuse, or lack mental health clinics.

b/c people in less developed countries cannot afford to buy mental health drugs, hence no need to diagnose them with mental conditions.

A great part of the mental health " business " in this and other Western countries is treating the " worried well ". Those that really need to give it a break. The mental health establishment has sold itself well; to people that can afford it. They have problems in these other countries, but they do not have the population of the " worried well " that will pay well for some diagnosis that relieves them of some responsibility for their lives. Our fast paced lives may contribute to stress,but I would imagine that living in the much slower Sudan is no stress reliever. Of course, those people are dealing with real problems.

It is my understanding that there are many mental health concerns that are pretty much close to universal. They are just called a variety of names. Many developing countries do not follow the Western Standard American Psychatric Guide. Instead they follow regional adaptations to the W.H.O. mental health criterion. Also in some cultures things we construct as symptomology. Things that take away from a person's ability to participate in scoiety here can be viewed as a strength. For example I remember reading about one group of people who attempted to trigger dissociative identity disorder in their spiritual leaders. Symptomology is often very different. Much like gender differenences in how symptoms are often portrayed there are cultural differences too. There is a really good (But old) article called "Being sane in an insane world" which is a critical deconstruction of North American Psychiatric services, you might be interested in it if you can get your hands on a copy.

There are more Psychologists/Psychiatrists here to treat mental health in more developed countries vs. less developed countries. Less-developed countries' inhabitants have just as many problems, but no/little Psychologists to deal with it, so they concentrate on the more pressing issues.