Who's the sanest?

[AlanC]

I came across this thing today and had to laugh. I knew all you Dems were crazy but I couldn't prove it until now!

And by a Gallup poll no less!

Well, maybe not all of you ... but enough!

Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43% of independents and 38% of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education.

Link to the poll (http://www.gallup.com/poll/102943/Republicans-Report-Much-Better-Mental-Health-Than-Others.aspx)

Now before you all go and chastize me for past posts discounting polls, keep this in mind; Since most polls seem to have a liberal bias to them, from my perspective, any poll that is published showing dems in a less than favorable light probably has at least some degree of credibility. :evil:

[AnnEsthesia]

Or maybe it just means republicans lie about their health more? :)

[preservanation]

Why not, Republicans lie about everything else, right?
Funny that the most celebrated liar in this country is Bill Clinton.
The last I checked he was a Democrat.
Or is that a lie as well?

[AnnEsthesia]

You know, not everything is an attack on republicans, pres, no matter what you think. Some of the nuttiest people I know are christian conservatives (and I mean certifiably nutty, not just odd) and they would never respond that they are mentally unstable, no matter what their medicine cabinet says. There are societal pressures among groups of people to be "normal" and even in a survey, people would not want to admit they are not what they are supposed to be.

[AlanC]

Which is why when so many Democrats do admit it, it makes you wonder.......[hr]I'm surprised no dem is claiming that it is the Republicans and Bush that are making them crazy....LOL

[AnnEsthesia]

Well, a good many dems are not part of a social group like a church where they are indoctrinated into being a certain way. Also, women, younger people, minorities and poorer people are more likely to claim worse mental health than richer, white, older males. If you include depression, upset and stress as mental illness, is it really that surprising that poorer, more hormonal, more disadvantaged people who cannot just pop to a Dr and get some pills will report more mental health issues?

[Alonzo]

Republicans are dominant in non city areas where access to health care is more difficult. Those populations are probably less likely to see mental health care as something beneficial, or something that "normal" people, as they see it, would need. They may be more likely to view themselves as healthy and their problems as "just part who they are", meaning not problems.

[AlanC]

Ahhhh.. yes that makes perfect sense.

But according to Gallup, it was not really a factor.

This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education

[Drocket]

I have serious issues with the question. Specifically, what in the hell does it actually mean? "How do you rate your mental health"? That question is so meaningless I can't believe they did an actual study on it. There's so many different ways to interpret the question, its impossible to know how to answer. I tend to get somewhat depressed at times: does that exclude me from the excellent category? Possibly, except that I think that's pretty normal - I really don't think I'm particularly different from anyone else in that regard. Someone who says they never get depressed is, to me, an answer that pretty much screams "liar". So if we accept occasional depression as normal, does that mean I can claim excellent again?

Then you have to deal with the fact that people who are batshit insane usually think everyone *else* is crazy. If you did a poll of mental institutions, you'd probably wind up with a 90% rating of 'excellent'. Perhaps the Republicans higher ratings indicated significantly higher levels of insanity, while the Democrats, being saner, are more capable of giving a rational assessment.

Without a *LOT* of other statistical data, this question is utterly meaningless.

[Pookie]

Or maybe, poll or no poll, the reason why mental health care has so many glitches in it is because Republicans are nuts but don't know it. Looks like the Independents and Democrats are better at recognizing mental illness than the Republicans.
I'm kidding of course, but really, it's something to think about.
Purrs,
Pookie