Shown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Christ_empowered on July 22, 2014, at 14:44:59
...poverty? low status? Loser in HS? ennui? anomie? job loss? divorce? widowed? shell shocked?
Ugh.
Posted by Partlycloudy on July 22, 2014, at 18:26:10
In reply to 'mental illness' or..something else..., posted by Christ_empowered on July 22, 2014, at 14:44:59
How many labels would you like, sir? We have quite a variety.
Sorry you are feeling so badly, CE. I know well that feeling. It's slightly better when I am able to drop any label at all.
Please take care.
PC
Posted by rjlockhart37 on July 23, 2014, at 23:27:54
In reply to Re: 'mental illness' or..something else..., posted by Partlycloudy on July 22, 2014, at 18:26:10
mental illness can be changed with the power wanting to be better and improve things. It takes motivation, and you have to see the big picture of everything, like ok...i'm disabled in this, need to figure out a way to learn to work around it......
vocational rehabs help with this and learning to enhance cognitive aspects, and learn to change.... sadly some mental illness that are severe has to be contanined in hospitals.....but that is a low number
don't sit and regret your past of being called names, i've seen people in therapy groups sit and repeatly say "hi, im xxx, and i suffer from apathy and rejection" just relive yourself from all of it and start new.....sit years in therapy and discuss the same problem just with 1000 diffrent coping mechanisms
free yourself from all of the pain, and apologize to no one
Posted by SLS on July 24, 2014, at 7:55:27
In reply to 'mental illness' or..something else..., posted by Christ_empowered on July 22, 2014, at 14:44:59
> ...poverty? low status? Loser in HS? ennui? anomie? job loss? divorce? widowed? shell shocked?
>
> Ugh.I don't think that any of those things represent mental illness. However, they all can be the result of it.
- Scott
Posted by Chris O on July 25, 2014, at 2:43:36
In reply to 'mental illness' or..something else..., posted by Christ_empowered on July 22, 2014, at 14:44:59
For me, it is "mental illness," a profound anxiety disorder (and resultant depression) that I have suffered from since childhood. Granted, my mother had a big environmental part in magnifying what I still suffer from today, but I think all of my frustrations related to not being able to make money, achieve status, and throw off the internal feeling of "loserness" is related to my internal "stuff." Now, the good news is, I have realized after almost thirty years of trying to aggressively treat my condition (since college, in one way or another, god, it's hard to believe), that if I can remove the physical symptoms of my anxiety and depression, my cognitive and functional skills improve greatly while my feelings of "loserness" also dissipate greatly. The bad news is ... I am having trouble finding treatments that make this occur for any significant period of time.
But if I understand your main point, it's the constant rumination that brain biology is not the primary cause of your mental health issues, but societal issues, such as class, race, inheritance, familial patterns, political-economic-social systems, etc.? Is that right? If so, I too struggle greatly with this issue, ruminating on it constantly. I have not come up with a definitive answer globally, but I do feel in my case that if I can successfully alter biological in a strong enough way, I can overcome some of the ensuing social challenges. But I totally get your frustration with this issue, if I summarized it correctly. I am especially sensitive to it when around politically conservative people.
Posted by Christ_empowered on July 25, 2014, at 2:53:33
In reply to Re: 'mental illness' or..something else... » Christ_empowered, posted by Chris O on July 25, 2014, at 2:43:36
yeah...maybe I read too much Szasz, lol.
OK. So, mental illness is real. I don't know how to define mental illness except as something that's incapacitating, or at least hampers functionality to the point that one can't perform up to a level otherwise expected.
OK. Still...I wonder...and ponder...lol.
Thanks for the responses, everyone.
Posted by Chris O on July 25, 2014, at 10:34:22
In reply to Re: 'mental illness' or..something else..., posted by Christ_empowered on July 25, 2014, at 2:53:33
Maybe it's reading people like Szasz that has you pondering these issues over and over. Or, maybe it's your seeing an environment around you that seems unjust and chaotic, where those with the most social and economic support seem to get away with murder (with no consequence) while those with little social and economic support are constantly struggling against Sisyphusian frustrations no matter how honest and decent and caring they are. It's certainly a real pickle to figure out, especially in our current (and apparently, very, very long-term) economic crisis. In college, this is probably why books such as Camus's "The Myth of Sisyphus" and Dostoyevsky's "Notes from Underground" appealed to me. But I am long past taking comfort in the idea that "there is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn" or in thinking existential philosophy really gets to the root of my inability to ever feel safe in the world. (Though, like you, I keep returning to these ideas as some enraged solace for my poverty and inability to accomplish anything in life.)
Chris
Posted by baseball55 on July 25, 2014, at 20:21:32
In reply to Re: 'mental illness' or..something else... » Christ_empowered, posted by Chris O on July 25, 2014, at 10:34:22
Really serious psychiatrists - as opposed to pill-pushers - write about mental illness as a bio-psycho-social issue.
Posted by Christ_empowered on July 26, 2014, at 13:34:25
In reply to Re: 'mental illness' or..something else..., posted by baseball55 on July 25, 2014, at 20:21:32
There's social class issues in psychiatry. Personally, when I was a misfit from what I've heard referred to as a "rinky dink, middle class family," I was mistreated.
Now my people are higher on the totem pole and they're behind me. Suddenly, I'm "in recovery from severe mental illness" and "surprisingly intelligent" (I say "surprisingly" because, wow...ECT, uppers, downers...wow...)...
..part of that is social class. If I were poor and/or didn't have my people behind me (or if they were poor, working class, possibly even middle class), this situation would be a whole lot different.
What I've found is that the same docs who really let you have it when you're down and out can sometimes be compassionate when you have people behind you with some clout.
The same public mental health place I go to that routinely orders and then handles "court orders" has chosen to leave me alone, since I now have "sufficient insight" to manage my problems with voluntary, oral medication. Read: ne'er do wells from more affluent families don't generally deal with court orders.
Ugh. Maybe I'm bitter because of previous treatment, lol. Did I tell you that back then they either underestimated my IQ by at least 10 points, or my IQ has shot up above what I started with? My best guess is that, despite everything, God has seen fit to restore my intellectual abilities (not a genius or whatever, just...smart), and now that I have my people behind me, docs are more willing to provide the kind of psychiatric treatment that everyone needs...
...accurate assessment, fairly accurate diagnosis, tolerable treatment, and some empathy.
"pill pushers" are mostly for people lower on the totem pole, although some are cash only Elvis doctors (happens both in psychiatry and pain management, as best I can tell).
Anyway...that's the end of my rant for now. LOL.
Posted by Partlycloudy on July 29, 2014, at 12:04:42
In reply to Re: 'mental illness' or..something else..., posted by Christ_empowered on July 26, 2014, at 13:34:25
Very accurate from my experience and point of view. It's a disgrace, really.
This is the end of the thread.
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