Mental Health - why do we steer away from it?

[Crissi]

The people in most need of help are often the least capable of advocating for themselves. Just one example, I don't consider myself a medical expert by any means, and that's important. My dad got very sick (will not go into details). After his recovery, he developed extreme OCD symptoms. I reviewed his list of medications and one in particular stood out to me (as an educated person, not as a medical professional). I went to his next appointment with the specialist and with some resistance got her to take that drug out of his regimen. OCD fixed.

Which is why you should always ask questions, and always inform the doctor of what medicines you're taking since some combinations can have wacky side effects as well as get a second opinion. Thats what my parents did with me when the therapist and psychiatrist I had been seeing said I might have mild Asbergers. My dad then had me visit my old psychologist who had known me for over 10 years but had to stop seeing due to distance. She agreed with them, but told me she didnt want to say anything at the time because as an emotinally fragile tennager at the time, she didnt know how I might react.

[belfpala]

Which is why you should always ask questions...

I want to circle back to identifying this stuff in the first place. It should NOT have been left to me to figure out that Ritalin (there, I'll name it) in my dad's set of medications was making him stand in doorways, opening and closing them repeatedly until someone came to get him.

I'm not anti-medication in the right situations, but...

[Crissi]

I want to circle back to identifying this stuff in the first place. It should NOT have been left to me to figure out that Ritalin (there, I'll name it) in my dad's set of medications was making him stand in doorways, opening and closing them repeatedly until someone came to get him.

I'm not anti-medication in the right situations, but...

May have been either a bad doctor, or one who didn't know his medical history. I guess I'm more pro psychiatrist than most because it has HEAVILY benefited me. If you had seen how I was at 14, and how I am now at 27, I'm like a completely different person (positively speaking)

Even now, if i forget my medicine for more than a few days, i do notice a fairly big change in my emotions and anxiety levels.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

May have been either a bad doctor, or one who didn't know his medical history. I guess I'm more pro psychiatrist than most because it has HEAVILY benefited me. If you had seen how I was at 14, and how I am now at 27, I'm like a completely different person (positively speaking)

Even now, if i forget my medicine for more than a few days, i do notice a fairly big change in my emotions and anxiety levels.

Medicine has helped me as well and frankly, I'm glad I got it. Now it doesn't solve ALL of my problems but it does enough. Now what it doesn't do...is cure my kyphosis and my bad physical condition.


More on that later.

[belfpala]

May have been either a bad doctor, or one who didn't know his medical history. I guess I'm more pro psychiatrist than most because it has HEAVILY benefited me.

Like I said, I'm not anti-medication.

I just know the time I got put on an anti-anxiety medication it almost destroyed everything. Yes, it fixed any anxiety I had. It also made me feel nothing about anything. Almost ruined a relationship. Almost made me fail out of school.

I went to a different source of professional help and was able to resolve the issues just by talking.

Again, I understand every case is going to be different.

[Crissi]

Like I said, I'm not anti-medication.

I just know the time I got put on an anti-anxiety medication it almost destroyed everything. Yes, it fixed any anxiety I had. It also made me feel nothing about anything. Almost ruined a relationship. Almost made me fail out of school.

I went to a different source of professional help and was able to resolve the issues just by talking.

Again, I understand every case is going to be different.

True enough. Quite a few issues can be dealt with by having a good support system, and as such is the main difference between regular and clinical depression. Every individual is different, and form my experience the first month or 3 with a psychiatrist will be a lot of experimentation to find what works and what doesnt, and in your case that was apparantly non medicated counseling. My issue was with darkwarrior who didnt trust any medical professional, when they are usually more qualified to make such a decision over a regular joe that serves on juries.

[Meillquei]

I think the reason it isn't more widely noticed is because it is just one of those issues that is shoved under the rug. People want to pretend it doesn't exist. Right now it's pretty much just "Hey, take these pills and shut up about it", which just puts a bandage over the problem.

[Senathor]

If anything, I think we're over diagnosing and overmedicating for mental health problems at this point, diluting the resources available for people with serious issues. When 42 percent of college students are declared to have symptoms of depression (source), we're diminishing what the word "depressed" means. I think the same is true for ADHD (which has diagnosis rates that are something approaching fraudulent, as recently discussed in the Times and other places) and anxiety disorders.

Unfortunately depression is not uncommon. However, severe depression is quite different and it's this type of depression that in many situations can benefit from medication. Many people can't seem to segregate normal depression from severe depression. At least that's how I've experienced it. The world is a bad place.

[Senathor]

A lack of education mostly.

Yep, ain't nothing gonna change here in Sweden tho. The #1 country on the list of shitty ass fuck education.

[Dezerte]

It's an taboo issue.

Many people think it's normal to feel a certain way mentally, that they'll get over it or fix it by themselves. Then they reach a point where they recognize they have a mental problem, now the road to seeking help starts. It can take several years before you can muster up the courage to tell your parents or call a doctor, and this is directly because of the prevalent generalization of mental health in society; the vocal minority likes to make it very clear that mental health problems aren't real problems and people are just imagining things or looking for attention.

It's a bit similar to coming out as an homosexual.

[Afrospinach]

If anything, I think we're over diagnosing and overmedicating for mental health problems at this point, diluting the resources available for people with serious issues. When 42 percent of college students are declared to have symptoms of depression (source), we're diminishing what the word "depressed" means. I think the same is true for ADHD (which has diagnosis rates that are something approaching fraudulent, as recently discussed in the Times and other places) and anxiety disorders.

Probably quite true, a lot of mental illness resides on a spectrum too so when do you diagnose? Probably the area of medicine with the least precision.

[Puremallace]

CMS issued some new guidelines recently that addressed how insurance companies are supposed to cover Mental Health services. I work for a hospital and prior to this Mental Health was simply a write off to the hospital. Nothing was ever covered honestly.

The real issue is there's no money in it right now.

[Adam Jensen]

because most of it is made up. u can prove a broken bone or cancer. You cant prove you are hearing voices in your head. You cant prove you have multiple personalities. If you cant prove it then its all made up and thus not an issue in the first place.

And misconceptions like this are part of the reason why we can't get good mental health care.

[artemishunter1]

Not all people with mental illness are dangerous or walking around thinking of hurting someone. You don't have to be mentally ill to hurt someone either. There are plenty of mentally sound people that do bad things and hurt people too. This is a stereotype that needs to be stopped.

Depends on the diagnosis. Depression, at most you will be suicidal, bi polar disorder, in manic phase you gonna hurt some one (all bi polar people have hurt someone in their lives during manic phase either economically, or losing control, thats how they find out they are bi polar, get treated), schizophenia you might hurt someone, you are not predictable). If they are treated, the illness can be managed, left untreated some of the illness makes you walking timebombs. What makes mentally unstable people more dangerous is their unpredictableness. One day you are driving with that person, the next day he shoots you because he hears voices and he has no control over that action at all.