Posted by hgi698 on January 24, 2007, at 21:49:58 [reposted on January 26, 2007, at 23:07:03 | original URL]
In reply to Re: Does Mental Illness Exist? Feedback Requested! » mindevolution, posted by Sebastian on January 24, 2007, at 12:01:15
We know as much about the brain as any other organ. If you ask a doctor if they knew everything there is to know about the heart they would be lying if they told you they did. Something "simple" like the heart and the diseases associated with it are infinetely complex. Probably thousands of people with P.H.d.'s spend their life trying to discover all their is to know about it. When we give somebody a cholesteral lowering drug for instance, we have no idea how many effects downstream it has on the body. We get those wonderful commercials on t.v. telling us we need to lower our cholesteral, but are never told about the negative effects on the liver, reduction in coenzyme Q10 etc. So it is false to say that mental illness is somehow less defined than anything else. Most things we think we know are only a small part of the story. Even a "real" disease like AIDS still hasn't been figured out. My second point is that humans have been using drugs to achieve more desirable states of mind for 1000's of years. If you want to win an argument with one of these anti-psychitry people all you have to do is point out that 90% of americans consume caffeine in some form everyday. Caffeine is a psychoactive chemical (adenosine antagonist) that effects neurotransmitters like dopamine. Others smoke, others drink alcohol and others load up on eating carbohydrates (which increase serotonin). The question is then, how many people are chemical virgins?
poster:hgi698
thread:726938
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20061123/msgs/726940.html