> My personal impression is that the rise of mental conditions is an increase in diagnosis, not occurrence.

Robert Whitaker [1] has looked into the matter, and proposes that standard treatments take an episodic disease and make it chronic.

[1] Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America - http://www.madinamerica.com/product/62043/

My step-brother hates what his psychiatrists did to him. He stopped taking their drugs, and is rather normal now.