> Does that mean something in the environment changed
Absolutely. Smoking and being overweight are huge risk factors for sleep apnea. It could also be something about how we're sleeping now.
Even so I think there's a difference between physical and mental disorders.
With physical disorders we mostly have pretty clear, objective and mostly society independent metrics for success, for example not dying and retaining mobility. If anything, our expectations have slightly reduced over time now that we don't need to walk for miles to fetch food and water. Yet still there are valid questions regarding over-diagnosis and over-treatment of benign conditions that we wouldn't have ever detected before PET-CT scans.
With mental health, metrics we use such as happiness and ability to do one's work and daily activities, which are themselves extremely environment-dependent. They even vary hugely within society. When asked "are you able to perform adequately at your job?", the answer might be completely different if the job is software development rather than being a journalist.
Then there's the deeper philosophical question of what are we even "supposed" to function like, and whether that's even a valid question to ask.
Absolutely. Smoking and being overweight are huge risk factors for sleep apnea. It could also be something about how we're sleeping now.
Even so I think there's a difference between physical and mental disorders.
With physical disorders we mostly have pretty clear, objective and mostly society independent metrics for success, for example not dying and retaining mobility. If anything, our expectations have slightly reduced over time now that we don't need to walk for miles to fetch food and water. Yet still there are valid questions regarding over-diagnosis and over-treatment of benign conditions that we wouldn't have ever detected before PET-CT scans.
With mental health, metrics we use such as happiness and ability to do one's work and daily activities, which are themselves extremely environment-dependent. They even vary hugely within society. When asked "are you able to perform adequately at your job?", the answer might be completely different if the job is software development rather than being a journalist.
Then there's the deeper philosophical question of what are we even "supposed" to function like, and whether that's even a valid question to ask.