DailySusan Humor Blog

67,000 Crazy People

In his “State of the State” address yesterday, Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns reported that there are 67,000 people in the Cornhusker State who have mental illness to the point where they need treatment.

Yes, and they fill Memorial Stadium every football Saturday. They’re bipolar, with wild mood swings depending on the win-loss record. They’ve had shock therapy recently in the coaching switch, and lots of talk therapy and venting on radio call-in shows and Internet bulletin boards.

Just kidding. Mental illness is real, and it’s real expensive. It’s a good move, albeit a little belated, to close the state’s three regional centers and deinstitutionalize those who are ready to live in the normal community. It’ll save millions and allow them a lot more personal liberty.

But when it comes to saving tax dollars, maybe years ago BEFORE we started funding state loony bins, taxpayers should have heeded the words of Dr. Hans J. Eysenck, a psychologist at the British Institute of Psychiatry who wrote over 800 articles for scientific magazines, authored 30 books, and combined findings of more than 170 studies to come up with this conclusion:

44% of people who get psychoanalytic therapy improve within 2 years

64% of those who receive eclectic (varied) therapy, including drugs, improve within 2 years

But 72% of those who receive NO therapy improve within 2 years

And in a 5-year follow-up, 90% of those who received NO therapy improved.

Other doctors, including D.H. Malan, O.H. Mowrer and D.L. Rosenhan, have done studies that show the same thing. And we’ve known all this since the 1950s.

All those salaries and all those pills and all those trips with men in white coats . . . all at taxpayer expense over the years . . . for NOTHING?

Good grief, Governor. I’d say you underestimated the number of mentally ill people in Nebraska. You left out the 49 state senators who kept authorizing all those mostly needless expenditures . . . and the 1.5 million of us who paid for it!

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Prayer request: An extra dose of strength today, Lord, for all those who are struggling to regain control over their thought life. We know mental problems are real, but so often the approach taken to solve them is off the mark. People with sick minds and souls need You, Lord. Fill their minds with Your wisdom and guidance, and send caring, positive people into their paths who can help them find that solid mental equilibrium they need. (Romans 5:3-5)