Posted by shadowtom2 on August 2, 2016, at 18:48:40
In reply to Re: Why do doctors push antipsychotics so hard?, posted by Tabitha on August 2, 2016, at 12:57:07
Thank you for your comment, Tabitha. I think that you made a number of good points, and I too tend to think that at least for many patients with mental health conditions, making lifestyle changes alone without utilizing other interventions that are indicated to help alleviate the symptoms that those with mental conditions struggle with will likely only help so much to resolve such symptoms. That's not to say that I find making healthy lifestyle choices to be a bad idea or that I think that making healthy choices with respect to things like food, sunlight, exercise, sleep, and community isn't something that can lead to improvements in a person's mental well being. Making good choices in all of these areas, I think, has the potential to improve the mental health of some individuals, even if the evidence to support their use as treatments for full-fledged mental health conditions might not necessarily (at least in all cases) be conclusive.
Still though, the idea that making healthy lifestyle choices might somehow be something that patients with mental health conditions should do instead of taking medications that they are benefiting from doesn't seem to be at all sensible to me. I'm all for increasing the number of treatment interventions for mental health conditions, especially when such interventions have a large body of evidence to support their use, and especially for patients who've tried using more established treatments without success. And I also think that making healthy lifestyle choices can be a good thing for everyone, including those who are taking medications and/or participating in talk therapy for a mental health condition and benefiting from such treatments. To me, when a person with a mental health condition makes healthy lifestyle choices along with utilizing any other treatment interventions that the person in question finds to be beneficial, that makes sense. However, suggesting that making healthy lifestyle choices should serve as a replacement of sorts for a medication regimen that's helping to alleviate the symptoms of a person's mental health condition doesn't seem like a good idea to me.
Tom
"Maybe someday
We'll figure all this out
We'll put an end to all our doubt
Try to find a way to just feel better now"- Rob Thomas
poster:shadowtom2
thread:1090899
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20160713/msgs/1091108.html