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I struggle to explain the drop in the 80s. Any ideas? The term 'health' shows a similar trend during this period.

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    It was a case of temporary sanity.
    – TimR
    Commented May 31 at 10:17
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    As with any data visualization, it would help to have a link to the actual search you ran, including what corpus you tried and a paired visual showing the results for "health." That would help with identifying any factors involved.
    – TaliesinMerlin
    Commented May 31 at 13:13
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    Why is this about English Language ? It is about Statistics?? In answer to the question, possibly because due to the machinations of the UN, there was world wide reclassification and closure of mental institutes.
    – Rohit Gupta
    Commented May 31 at 13:15
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    This is not an opinion based question. It may be very difficult to answer objectively, but it still not opinion based.
    – Mitch
    Commented Jun 1 at 20:17
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    I think the mental component here is a red herring, since health and diet show the same trend, but not well-being or fitness. No clear synonym pops to mind. There is a possibility that this is an artifact of the materials Google is sampling, though that seems even harder to explain.
    – jimm101
    Commented Jun 2 at 0:08

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One possibility occurred to me. The early 80s marked a sea change in American politics with, among other things, the aggressive defunding and dismantling of social safety nets. This included deinstitutionalization and privatization of asylums, shifting of their populations to halfway houses and local communities.

In large part, this was a response to film documentary horror stories wrt the appalling conditions in many large institutions as well as judicial changes in the rights of the mentally challenged to incarceration. No one was to be hospitalized against their will -- only people who were a danger to themselves and others could be institutionalized.

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    Can you say something more about 'mental health' in particular?
    – Mitch
    Commented Jun 2 at 20:32
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    I thought your abstract reasoning was insightful, but as an answer would be improved considerably by adding details about the OPs specific question.
    – Mitch
    Commented Jun 3 at 1:43
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    adding this as a comment seems reasonable. If you feel all the content is relevant, you can post more than one comment.
    – Mitch
    Commented Jun 3 at 13:44

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