Oh, good grief. A psychiatrist has claimed that 50 percent of college students have a “psychiatric disorder.” But get how broadly he defines the term. From the CBS Boston story:

Dr. Gene Beresin, a psychiatrist and Executive Director of The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital, says 50% to 60% of college students have a psychiatric disorder.

“What I’m including in that is the use of substances, anxiety, depression, problems with relationships, break-ups, academic problems, learning disabilities, attentional problems,” says Dr. Beresin. “If you add them all up 50% doesn’t seem that high.”

That’s known as youth.

Please. Everyone has problems, fears, anxieties, sadness, and emotional pains. I mean look at the upset caused by this election!

Part of this concern is suicide, which I get. But the broader problem, I think, is that too many of us believe that an overriding purpose of society is the prevention of suffering, a corollary to which, is the idea that we all somehow deserve continual happiness, freedom from problems, and personal fulfillment.

But that’s crackers. Life is filled with serious bumps and bruises that cause depression (with a small D), pain, and anxiety. Those states of being are not psychiatric disorders.

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Cross-posted at The Corner.