Posted by Atticus on August 25, 2004, at 10:41:42
In reply to Re: about the chemical imbalance concept, posted by RH on August 24, 2004, at 18:44:44
RH,
Have you ever personally experienced severe clinical depression with an associated panic disorder? Do you really understand just how deep the abyss can be? I have and do every day. This isn't just a case of the "blues" we're talking about here. I didn't arrive in the ER in a fetal position; I arrived with the veins in my left wrist and forearm slashed to ribbons after fighting with this illness for eight years. And I can't speak for anyone else, but being put on Effexor XR in the hospital has literally changed my life. My perceptions are dramatically more lucid than they've been in a decade. I'm a senior writer and editor at a major nationally known university -- not someone who, as you describe people for whom meds may be appropriate, is a candidate for "institutionalization." I've been able to resume writing poetry (check out my 24 entries on the Psycho-Babble-Writing page) as well as painting. None of this would have been possible by the sheer power of positive thinking, believe me. I get very upset when I read posts such as yours, because mentally ill people such as myself have to battle the stigma every day that if we could just think "happy thoughts" and snap out of it, everything would be swell. I feel that conceptualizing mental illness as something that is merely perceptual, and has no basis in biochemistry, is just a giant step backwards in terms of protecting the mentally ill from discrimination and ostracism. I do feel that plugging SSRIs in television commercials and in magazine ads is inappropriate because it leads laypeople to self-diagosis and to go to their physicians and demand medications that may be completely inappropriate. But I can't conceive of dismissing all psychotropic medications as only fit for those unable to function outside a lock-up ward. One of my colleagues at work has two brothers who are both paranoid-schizophrenic, and they have learned to function in society (albeit not at the level of people without such an illness) due primarily to their medications. Were either of these men to go off their medications, the results would be catastrophic. And I think they would be for me and many others as well. I really had hoped that the "pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-with-some-help-from-talk-therapy" school of thinking was finally fading. I'm very sad to read that this isn't the case. Atticus
poster:Atticus
thread:381877
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040820/msgs/382104.html