Member-only story
How Modern Life and Technology Can Make You Mentally Ill
And some ways to keep yourself well
During my over 30 years in private practice and teaching psychiatry at Yale, there has been a slow drip of research studies that have always caught my eye. The slow drip is now a tidal wave. The studies show that the prevalence of mental disorders is increasing in all industrial countries over the past 30, and in some cases, 80 years.
I began to actively research why this is happening. By 2005 I had a paper published and in 2021, published a book on the subject, “Frontal Fatigue. The Impact of Modern Life and Technology on Mental Illness” (both to very positive reviews). Since then, the media has been full of stories on different aspects of this explosive growth in mental disorders (depression, anxiety, ADHD, and substance abuse to name a few), but is lacking an overall explanation of how this could happen.
What follows is a succinct explanation of what modern life is doing to our mental well-being. I’ll begin with a case study to introduce a part of the brain that most makes us human and most vulnerable to psychiatric problems. From there we can look at what is happening to us and how to protect ourselves from the toxicities of our modern era.
A couple of years ago a medical case report appeared in the Washington Post. It described a young woman whose mental health had been declining dramatically since college. Initially diagnosed with ADHD, this was later changed to bipolar disorder. Finally, at age 24, she became psychotic. She did not recognize her parents, was paranoid and generally incoherent. She was taken to the hospital to be admitted to a psychiatric unit.
Fortunately, an observant ER doctor noticed that her gait was unstable. This was odd for her age, so he ordered a CT scan of the brain. And there it was: Hydrocephalus; fluid on the brain. A congenitally narrow duct prevented adequate drainage of fluid, and it built up to the point that her prefrontal cortex, an area of the frontal lobe of the brain, was compressed. Surgeons opened the duct and the next day she was herself for the first time in years.
I tell this story to show what happens when the prefrontal cortex is damaged or unable to work properly. Unlike other parts of the…
