Ready for a shock? Twenty-five percent of American women take medication for a mental disorder. Think about that. Let me repeat: One in four—a quarter of the women in America—take at least one drug for conditions like anxiety and depression. Some take several drugs.

Last year, close to 16 percent of men ages 22 to 64 took at least one drug for conditions related to mental health.

These terrible statistics come from Medco Health Solutions Inc., which also found that one in five American adults use drugs to control psychiatric and behavior disorders. In some states, almost one in four adults are on these kinds of drugs.

Having so many people drugging themselves to treat mental conditions is not a good omen for the future health of society. More worryingly, these stats do not take into account all the other drugs people take for other ailments.

But psychiatric drug use is not the only thing sky-high. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19 million new cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia are diagnosed each year. According to the most recent estimate (now a decade old), one in five Americans have contracted a sexually transmitted disease. Homosexual and bisexual black males have disproportionately dangerous infection and transmission rates. America spends $17 billion annually on drugs to hide the symptoms of these diseases.

St. Louis Health Director Pam Walker blames Internet infections. Cyber courtship makes it easier for people to quickly hook up for sex. “You don’t have to spend a week in a bar to find somebody you’re comfortable with,” she said. “People are doing it online and they’re doing it faster.”

In 2002, a national study found that 95 percent of Americans have had sex prior to marriage. So presumably, people are now just able to do it more often, with more partners.

Meanwhile, all this cyber sex is undoubtedly contributing to the continued rise of another sad trend. Fifty percent of first marriages now end in divorce, according to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology. Sixty-seven percent of second and 74 percent of third marriages end that way too.

What this means is that about one quarter of American adults have now grown up without at least one of their parents.

It can be easy to read over statistics like these and not stop to think about the real-life implications.

It has been proven that children of divorce are much more likely to be dependent on welfare and to wrestle with drug and alcohol addictions than those raised in stable families. Children of divorce will most likely end up with lower grade point averages than those coming from intact families. They are four times likelier to be expelled. They are more inclined to have underdeveloped socialization skills, and to suffer from emotional instability, lack of love and attention, and lack of positive parental rules and guidelines.

As for the parents, divorce takes a toll too. A 2005 study funded by the National Institute on Aging shows a link between being divorced for long periods of time and higher rates of lung disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, stroke and loss of mobility later in life. Divorced people are also apt to smoke more, drink more and exercise less.

Does it bode well for a society to have so many over-drugged, over-diseased, under-parented—and obviously unhappy—people?

No one likes divorce. No one wants to take drugs with damaging side effects in order to feel “normal.” No one likes contracting venereal diseases. Deep down, everyone knows such behavior is deeply destructive, not only to themselves but to those they love.

It is obvious that in the search for happiness and fulfillment, a lot of people are getting hurt.

God did not create people to suffer from disease, depression and dejection—these symptoms are the result of broken laws. There is a cause for every effect. Ultimately, it is as simple as that. But God wants you to live a happy life full of purpose and hope. God wants strong families and happy marriages. And God tells us exactly how to achieve those things!

Summing up God’s way to happiness and fulfillment, Herbert Armstrong wrote in the Plain Truth (the predecessor to the Trumpet magazine) of March 1970: “Occasionally someone becomes angry, resentful, bitter, despising this right way! A hippie says, ‘Cancel my free subscription to your magazine. I thought you were hip—I didn’t know you were square!’ Yes, you bet we are square! We are square shooters—square dealers with others. Show us a way that is better, more practical, for our good, and we will adopt it. But to go the way of the unkempt, dirty, filthy and eyesore, the way of hopelessness, discouragement and frustration, drowning our sorrows in drugs, drunkenness and sex debauchery—no, thank you!

“We’ve found the way to happiness, ambition, fitness, vigor, clear minds, right thinking, anticipation for a wonderful future, and we enjoy this way too much to turn back onto the way of despondency and frustration.”

Mr. Armstrong was right! This morally ailing superpower may lead the world in drugs, debauchery and divorce, but there is a way to solve these problems. That way is open to you! God is calling on you to change. Stop walking in the way that causes sorrow, pain and suffering, and start walking anew in the way that brings joy, peace and happiness.

That way to happiness is revealed in the Bible and expounded on in Herbert W. Armstrong’s book The Missing Dimension in Sex.