I'm gonna go a little bit 'Murica on you here, and please believe me when I say it comes from a place of love.
Europeans in general and British in particular are backwards when it comes to mental health. Look, with a few reservations, I love the British model for healthcare, it's a travesty that we still have people in this country going bankrupt because they get sick. I'm not suggesting that the US is a better place to get sick in any general sense of the word.
And yet... A friend recently left her career in London to move to the states because getting proper care for her daughter's ADD was impossible. There is a soul deep misconception among the British people that ADD is simply a moral failing. And to the extent that it is accepted as a thing, we still find a complete unwillingness to treat it with medicines that we know will have a positive effect. When I brought up my daughter going onto amphetamines to treat her ADD at a gathering that included a few of our European and British friends there was an audible gasp.
And before anyone suggests that it is a bias against amphetamine use. Keep in mind that Adderall is perfectly legal in England and most of the EU if you have narcolepsy. See narcolepsy is not a moral weakness, but being unable to complete homework assignments is. And I get it, I think ADD and ADHD is over prescribed in the US and RX therapy is over-used. But that's not where the push-back across the pond is coming from. The most common reaction I get is that ADD doesn't really exist or is a behavioral matter caused by bad parenting. Oddly enough, this sentiment is just as common regarding depression in a number of Eastern European countries. In a number of discussions I've had about various brain meds there is a deep aversion to them by the British and Europeans. Especially if there is any possible recreational use of that drug. Benzos are an effective short term solution to anxiety related sleeplessness and when prescribed by a doctor for this have few side effects and a very low potential for abuse (
https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-DetTabs-2016/NSDUH-DetTabs-2016.pdf), yet I mention klonopin or ambien around our European friends and it's as if I recommended Hitler flavored baby harp seal jerky.
Apparently in England severe insomnia is treated most often with anti-psychotics and anti-depressants like Dolsulepin, Olanzapine, and Trazodone. Dolsulepin kills hundreds of Brits every year (dozens accidentally) but no body gets high off it so that's what they prescribe. Olanzapine and Trazodone both trigger thoughts of suicide and lead to higher incidents of suicide. Olanzapine can cause diabetes and permanent nervous tics, Trazadone can trigger a priapism that might even lead to penile gangrene ... but nobody's getting high off those meds so that's what they get.
It's barbaric. My English friend's pediatrician actually told her, "Hey, not every kid needs to go to university." I mean, sure, not every kid wants to go to university. But hers did. And it's not about natural ability. Once she moved to the states and her kiddo got the medicine she needed to focus on her schooling she went from a failing student to carrying a full AP curriculum. This kid's teacher in the UK recommended she look into learning how to do nails.
I'm not usually so much of a Jingoist, I am fairly critical of American politics and culture, and to be clear, we have a lot of ground to make up when it comes to mental health, but in my travels abroad I've found most cultures have a much more primitive if not outright antipathic view on the subject.
Agree that access to care is completely inadequate. We've seen a number of counsellors over the years for various reasons - blessedly our supplemental health plans always covered it. A good thing being as some of the professional fees were as high as $300/hour. That would have been prohibitive for us and actual "free" help (funded through health care) had wait-lists so long as to make them functionally unavailable.
