What is mental illness? Is it real?

[Anonymous]

Have you ever been diagnosed by a "professional" who told you that something was wrong with you? I have been. Several times by a bunch of different doctors. This was when I still believed in all of that stuff to a certain degree. Until one day I realized that they didn't know me, they couldn't get inside my head, and that it was all bullshit.
They had me on a lot of strong drugs like Zyprexa and Geodun and crazy brain shutting down anti psychotics that I never should have been on. They think treating "crazy people" means to give them so much sedative inducing drugs they can't remember their own name.
The psychiatric experience definitely left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I hear a lot of people jabbering about mental illness, chemical imbalances and all the assorted medications that come with it. But more and more, I just don't believe it really.

Like lets say I go into see a psychiatrist. I tell them I have intense mood swings, bouts of rage and anger, the normal stuff. Then I explain that I don't really enjoy things unless there is an element of danger involved because life is so fucking boring and tedious. They take this is a sign of desperation and depression. I've been diagnosed everything from bipolar to psychotic to major depressive but what does that do other than bring me down and make me think that I am chemically broken?

Do you think mental illness is heritary? Both my parents are convinced this psychiatric stuff is real for the most part and that they have problems and so would I, etc. My mom is on a whole slew of medications and is really into the self help community and all that. Its funny she still gives me crap about smoking pot every once in a while when we talk, but then she busts out a bag full of pills to take at dinner.

I just don't know what to think. Sometimes I think they are just a bunch of suits paid to mess with your head, and make you think you are not worthy of being a normal person or something. I wish people would stop telling everyone else they are broken and need to be fixed.

[Anne Bonney]

I think any of us that have been through a program could and would be diagnosed with either PTSD (which I do believe,  there's a specific cause and result) bipolar, depression etc. etc.  I had a similar experience.  I've been diagnosed a couple of times with all three of those and put on a variety of meds, all of which had shitty side effects.   Once I stopped listening to those people, found an MD who wasn't lockstep in line with the common 'disease' mentality of drugs and started smoking pot on a regular basis I finally started to get mentally healthy.  Seriously, pot has helped me tremendously.  My mom even sees that now.  She hated the meds I was on, hated how the effected me (funny, she's on pretty much the same shit though now) and saw the difference in me once I switched.  

Weed is the miracle cure we've all been looking for.  :smokin:  ::bandit::

[Anonymous]

I like you.  

[Carmel]

I think that mental illness is very real in a sense...but as a holistic healthcare practitioner, I see the irresponsible effects of the westernized theory that treatment of mere symptoms...and the compartmentalization of the bodies functions, independently from one another, is the answer to any ailment.

I am not talking herbal remedies and animal sacrifices...I am talking about the flawed basic idea that pursing any disease of the body or mind no longer begins at the source, but in the management of a continued illness without regard for the whole being.

The typical physician these days is not versed in the actual healthy functioning of the body as an efficient organism, so much as they are in the effects of chemical intervention without regard for cause or understanding.  Its not unlike standardized testing in our schools....how do you expect everyone to function optimally under the same conditions across the board?  They cant possibly.

I admitted myself to a psychiatric hospital last year for three days, I began crying and couldnt stop and felt extremely hopeless for the first time in a very long while.....I thought I really needed some sort of help, or at least a respite so that I might work through my issue.  I spoke to three counselors and two psychiatrists...all of to whom I explained that I had no history of depression, but I did live with anxiety and occasional panic attacks that I managed quite well without medication....and didnt feel that my current state was a result of my previous condtion.  Firstly, they decided to label me suicidal....because, well...everyone else in the ward was suicidal, so as not to break form.  Secondly, they put me on anti-depressants and sleep aids....of which I thought I had explicitly explained did not apply to me or my pre-existing condition.  The bottom line is, that NO ONE took the time or responsibility to make an accurate diagnosis or scenario for me based on what I was experiencing.  They just signed the papers, doled out the pills....and put me on suicide watch. After three days I realized the anti-depressants were making me anxious and paranoid and I requested that I be released.  They sent me home with a pharmacy and a wave, and that was that.

You know what I found out two days later?  I was pregnant.  I was a month and a half pregnant and Id had a hormone overload and thought I was going crazy.  They must have pulled 20 gallons of blood from me and tested me seventy different ways....and they didnt even stop to consider the most obvious symptoms.  I went home, took a test, and immediately felt back in control of my life because I understood the problem.

The point here is, how many go looking for help, dont have self-confidence or self-esteem....and go on following the directions of these self absorbed medical professionals that will never truly get to the root of their health issues?  Thats was scares the hell out of me.

The ancients had more understanding of the body as an organism than we do today....they just didnt have the technology...where along the way did we fail to combine the two for real, effective healing?

[Deborah]

the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, in which Mr. Scott is a Board Member, like psychiatry receives much of its funding from the pharmaceutical industry, thus it is not suprising that there would be the promotion of the 'chemical imbalance' theory in regards to emotional distress. Each era of psychiatry has given us a new conception, each often as oppressive as the first. Biological determinism and the theory of distress arising from so-called chemical imbalances is a popular and majority idea in the mental health field today. However, there is no evidence to support such a concept. Such an idea helps to further the profits of the pharmaceutical industry who are able to make lifelong mental patients in need of their products through the promulgation of such chemical imbalance concepts. The President of the American Psychiatric Association recently stated that there is no 'clear cut test" to demonstrate chemical imbalances. Elliot Valenstein, Ph.D. says, ?[T]here are no tests available for assessing the chemical status of a living person?s brain.? The late Dr. Loren Mosher who had headed Schizophrenia research for the National Institutes of Mental Health stated, ??there are no external validating criteria for psychiatric diagnoses.?
http://danledmunds.blogspot.com/

Edmunds has some other articles there. Much more on the internet and in the archives of Fornits.

[Anne Bonney]

I like you.  

   :smokin:  ::bandit::

[Anne Bonney]

I think that mental illness is very real in a sense...but as a holistic healthcare practitioner, I see the irresponsible effects of the westernized theory that treatment of mere symptoms...and the compartmentalization of the bodies functions, independently from one another, is the answer to any ailment.

Yeah, I didn't mean to say that it wasn't real.  I think it is to a certain extent.  I just think those labels are applied so irresponsibly and way too often.  IMO the vast majority of people that are on all these meds don't need to be.  Of course that's just MHO, I have no medical or mental health background.

I admitted myself to a psychiatric hospital last year for three days, I began crying and couldnt stop and felt extremely hopeless for the first time in a very long while.....I thought I really needed some sort of help, or at least a respite so that I might work through my issue.  I spoke to three counselors and two psychiatrists...all of to whom I explained that I had no history of depression, but I did live with anxiety and occasional panic attacks that I managed quite well without medication....and didnt feel that my current state was a result of my previous condtion.  Firstly, they decided to label me suicidal....because, well...everyone else in the ward was suicidal, so as not to break form.  Secondly, they put me on anti-depressants and sleep aids....of which I thought I had explicitly explained did not apply to me or my pre-existing condition.  The bottom line is, that NO ONE took the time or responsibility to make an accurate diagnosis or scenario for me based on what I was experiencing.  They just signed the papers, doled out the pills....and put me on suicide watch. After three days I realized the anti-depressants were making me anxious and paranoid and I requested that I be released.  They sent me home with a pharmacy and a wave, and that was that.

You know what I found out two days later?  I was pregnant.  I was a month and a half pregnant and Id had a hormone overload and thought I was going crazy.  They must have pulled 20 gallons of blood from me and tested me seventy different ways....and they didnt even stop to consider the most obvious symptoms.  I went home, took a test, and immediately felt back in control of my life because I understood the problem.

   Wow.  You and baby well?  

I've gone through my bouts of depression, but it was situational and dealt with through diet, yoga and weed.:smokin:

The point here is, how many go looking for help, dont have self-confidence or self-esteem....and go on following the directions of these self absorbed medical professionals that will never truly get to the root of their health issues?  Thats was scares the hell out of me.

The ancients had more understanding of the body as an organism than we do today....they just didnt have the technology...where along the way did we fail to combine the two for real, effective healing?

 

 :nworthy:

[Anonymous]

I totally think those mental health drugs are pushed. In college I went to the school shrink, and in one hour he had "diagnosed" me and wanted to send me home with a lunch baggie full of samples, I think it was as much as a one month's supply of Wellbutrin, for me to "try it out".

[Anonymous]

Did you sell it to your classmates?

[Dr Fucktard]

Insanity isn't the real issue with most of you; it's your chemical dependency.

[Anonymous]

Insanity isn't the real issue with most of you; it's your chemical dependency.

You might not want to hear this, Dr. Fucktard, but you are a Net Addict. When you are ready to accept this and make some changes in your life, there is a support groups that can help you. You need it.

[Anonymous]

I recently walked into my church during on off day only to find a group of Masturbation Anonymous in mid session...

[AtomicAnt]

Schizophrenia

I think there is a distinct difference between what I would label disorders as opposed to a true mental illness which I would define as being medically based.

I suppose one could argue that from a purely scientific point of view, that all of our mental functions are governed by electro-chemical processes and so anything that is going 'wrong' would qualify as medical, but I don't like the slippery slope where personality and disposition can be construed as an illness.

If forced to define the difference, I would say a disorder results from the patient's perception. The patient has developed a way of viewing the world that is dysfunctional in a way that is causing harm to that person's quality of life. A form of talk therapy would be the appropriate treatment. The goal would be to allow the patient to see his life and situation in a healthier, more rational way.

That said, I was raised by a schizophrenic parent and knew (even as a small child) that something was definitely wrong. My mother's behavior was way too radical to say it was mood or personality. She was talking to people I could not see and completely unresponsive to those right next to her. She spent a year in a mental hospital. Her condition was managed by medications for the remainder of her life. While there were side effects, and she was never 100%, these medications helped her remain at home and raise her kids.

I think the field is to quick to resort to medications. When I was divorcing, I sought help and my then wife (a psychiatrist) warned me that the therapist might run to anti-depressants first thing. She was right. I found someone else. I managed to get through the dissolution of the marriage completely drug free.

[The Tidy Bowl Man]

I'm mentally challenged and sedated and feel no shame. I have all kinds of great Shaman that have worked with me and it's been an adventure.Learning how to cope with people who don't understand it is the harder part. I'm not crazy though. I'm just different.

[Anonymous]

And while I do believe that some people are misdiagnosed, extreme cases are often easy to tag.
 
Take my daughter for instance.
 
She is bipolar, but was misdiagnosed for seven years.  Or let's just be truthful and say she wasn't diagnosed at all.  She was a mess for most of her teenage life.  We can look back at it now and see it so clearly, but at the time, she felt she was just another teen going through the motions.
 
Barely slept when she was manic.  Days at a time.  And would engage in periods of rage and craziness, throwing things, screaming, running away, self-medicating.  For a long time, the medical community told us she was "acting out."  Instead of seeing her as an "ill" child, we focused on her behavior.
 
Then, she would go through depressive modes, sleeping for 20 hours a day, unable to awaken to life, unable to communicate, sitting in her room for days at a time.
 
Barely graduated from high school.  Finally became so manic in college that she was hospitalized.
 
Is there mental illness?  Heck, yeah.  Of course there is.  With a little education, a few meds and some structure, she has come a long way.  Trying to regulate the lows and highs.  It's hard for her to become like us normal folks with few ups and downs.  It seems boring to her.  "Welcome to our world," I tell her. "It's not a rollercoaster, but it's safe."
 
By the way...she was at a wilderness camp for six weeks out west.  Did it work the way we wanted it to? No.  But she now refers to it as "the best she ever felt in her life."  Of course she felt well.  Forced to excercise, eat well, have structure, and talk about things, her illness stabilized.  It is now, for her, the basis of comparison of how to live....she knows she must eat well, sleep well, excercise and maintain structure if she is to lead a balanced life.
 
By the way.  If you need some convincing that mental illness exists, go to your state mental hospital and have a look around.  See if you'd like to pull up your sleeping bag and have a few nights there yourself.
 
Regards....