Anyone Here Mentally Ill?

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  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
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    how is getting help looking for a label? you dont just pop up at a hospital and check a box that says "call me bipolar!"

    the whole antipsychiatry thing amazes me. do you tell people who need insulin that they are using it as a crutch?

    I might if research showed that insulin and a placebo had the same effect, yeah. Many antidepressants on the market today are no more effective than placebos.

    http://www.docguide.com/intranasal-insulin-safe-effective-against-placebo-normalising-blood-glucose-type-2-diabetics-present

    " Intranasal insulin is safe, well absorbed and was effective in normalising blood glucose compared with placebo in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to findings presented for the first time at the 19th Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE)."

    You missed my point. Insulin works on diabetics, placebos do not work. But studies of many antidepressants showed that both the antidepressants and the placebos worked equally well.
  • juliesauber13
    juliesauber13 Posts: 62
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    OCD, Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia, Depression and GAD (woo hoo!) On 40mg Celexa per day. Also just earned my PsyD in Clinical Psychology. So yes, meds are a crutch, and a life-saving one at that in many instances. I would be a complete mess post-partum if it wasn't for Celexa.

    Much love to you all living with mental illness. It's great to have a sense of humor about it, as with all things. But, it's also important to put your health and well-being first and to take that seriously. Those who don't understand how mental illness manifests might be threatened, weirded out, annoyed, or confused by what we go through. But, just have tolerance for those who are ignorant and do you.
  • AnthroRebel
    AnthroRebel Posts: 3 Member
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    Don't let the anti-psychiatry people get to you. I went through regular therapy, a mental hospital about 20 years ago, medication and years of cognitive behavior therapy. I had been a very frightened, socially timid person. In 2003, I went back to college. In 2007, I graduated Magna cum laude at 40 years old. In 2008, I quit my job, sold my house, packed my belongings and my dog and cat in a Uhaul, and drove 2100 miles to AZ by myself to follow a dream to get a Masters in anthropology. I now have a different Masters and am searching for a job, but I am OK

    My point is, that therapy and medication work for a hell of a lot of people. My life isn't perfect but I am a really happy person now. People can get better, whatever label they put on.
  • Axels91
    Axels91 Posts: 213
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    how is getting help looking for a label? you dont just pop up at a hospital and check a box that says "call me bipolar!"

    the whole antipsychiatry thing amazes me. do you tell people who need insulin that they are using it as a crutch?

    I might if research showed that insulin and a placebo had the same effect, yeah. Many antidepressants on the market today are no more effective than placebos.

    http://www.docguide.com/intranasal-insulin-safe-effective-against-placebo-normalising-blood-glucose-type-2-diabetics-present

    " Intranasal insulin is safe, well absorbed and was effective in normalising blood glucose compared with placebo in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to findings presented for the first time at the 19th Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE)."

    You missed my point. Insulin works on diabetics, placebos do not work. But studies of many antidepressants showed that both the antidepressants and the placebos worked equally well.

    that goes back to the whole pharmacological vs cognitive therapy. different diseases can LOOK the same, but must be treated differently. which is what i was getting at with the whole "labels" argument. the issue is not so much with the treatment, but the diagnosis. its a grueling process.
  • PercivalHackworth
    PercivalHackworth Posts: 1,437 Member
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    I think medics are nothing but a crutch

    Yes, medication is a crutch - one that has kept some of us alive. Without that crutch I likely would have turned my brain matter into a giant red Rorschach test on the wall behind me.

    THANK YOU

    its important that people know what they are talking about before spouting nonsense. people are so quick to jump on the antipsychiatry bandwagon without actually looking at how these drugs have saved people's lives.

    You ask people if they are ill, now I speak nonsense. The medication didn't save me from trying to kill myself ; though I was quite convinced hard drugs would kill me before. (could be the alcohol also) - you just can't put your point of view on one Universal altar
  • _Timmeh_
    _Timmeh_ Posts: 2,096 Member
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    Tom Cruise would go apesh** reading this topic, maybe even jump on a few couches. :laugh:
  • AnthroRebel
    AnthroRebel Posts: 3 Member
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    Tom Cruise would go apesh** reading this topic, maybe even jump on a few couches. :laugh:

    Tom Cruise is a poster-child for mental illness.
  • LilRedPitViper
    LilRedPitViper Posts: 104
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    I think medics are nothing but a crutch

    Yes, medication is a crutch - one that has kept some of us alive. Without that crutch I likely would have turned my brain matter into a giant red Rorschach test on the wall behind me.

    THANK YOU

    its important that people know what they are talking about before spouting nonsense. people are so quick to jump on the antipsychiatry bandwagon without actually looking at how these drugs have saved people's lives.

    You ask people if they are ill, now I speak nonsense. The medication didn't save me from trying to kill myself ; though I was quite convinced hard drugs would kill me before. (could be the alcohol also) - you just can't put your point of view on one Universal altar

    But it's alright to generalize medication as a "crutch" because it didn't help YOU? Color me confused.
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
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    that goes back to the whole pharmacological vs cognitive therapy. different diseases can LOOK the same, but must be treated differently. which is what i was getting at with the whole "labels" argument. the issue is not so much with the treatment, but the diagnosis. its a grueling process.

    When health professionals have the patients' best interests at heart and not just society's best interests, I think therapy can and does help. In some cases, medication helps, but not always. Many times, a psychiatrist will simply prescribe pills that work no better than a placebo because it's cheaper and it's a fast way to get the patient out of the office.
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
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    Tom Cruise would go apesh** reading this topic, maybe even jump on a few couches. :laugh:

    I wonder how many calories that burns?
  • Axels91
    Axels91 Posts: 213
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    Psychiatry didn't work neither. I'm not against it, some work their way through it...some NEED it actually, as far as I'm concerned (since I participated, and i'm "here mentally ill") psychiatry is also a medium. But are you talking about psychiatry, or psychoanalysis, or psychology ?

    psychiatry studies and treats psychiatric illnesses. because it didnt work for you, yet you continue to experience what you label (using psychiatric terms) you are receiving th wrong treatment, or back to a simpler explanation, you merely believe that your individual experiences had to have had a basis in psychiatric illness, when they did not.

    that is why seeing a professional is important. too many people think they have this and that and this and that. mental illness is all encompassing, life changing, life threatening, and a fetter on the ankles. you can cut the chains, but the cuffs will always be there. you learn how to run with them anyway.
    that is alot different than having a few symptoms and slapping a label on yourself, then dismissing psychiatry altogether because you wrongly believed you were ill when you weren't.
  • Axels91
    Axels91 Posts: 213
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    that goes back to the whole pharmacological vs cognitive therapy. different diseases can LOOK the same, but must be treated differently. which is what i was getting at with the whole "labels" argument. the issue is not so much with the treatment, but the diagnosis. its a grueling process.

    When health professionals have the patients' best interests at heart and not just society's best interests, I think therapy can and does help. In some cases, medication helps, but not always. Many times, a psychiatrist will simply prescribe pills that work no better than a placebo because it's cheaper and it's a fast way to get the patient out of the office.

    therapy can help definitely, but sometimes breathing exercises and meditation aren't enough. i know that was a generalization, and therapy is not useless. but people with serious illness NEED those drugs.

    depression is one of those hit and miss things also. its probably the most misdiagnosed thing out there beside adhd.
  • PercivalHackworth
    PercivalHackworth Posts: 1,437 Member
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    I think medics are nothing but a crutch

    Yes, medication is a crutch - one that has kept some of us alive. Without that crutch I likely would have turned my brain matter into a giant red Rorschach test on the wall behind me.

    THANK YOU

    its important that people know what they are talking about before spouting nonsense. people are so quick to jump on the antipsychiatry bandwagon without actually looking at how these drugs have saved people's lives.

    You ask people if they are ill, now I speak nonsense. The medication didn't save me from trying to kill myself ; though I was quite convinced hard drugs would kill me before. (could be the alcohol also) - you just can't put your point of view on one Universal altar

    But it's alright to generalize medication as a "crutch" because it didn't help YOU? Color me confused.

    Because I didn't help me, neither lota people I know/ knew. But I think it could be interesting to go from the original question "how are you battling with it ?" to "let's review all the medications for ill people and see how every one of them acts on both serotonin, dopamin and noradrenaline neurotransmitters "
  • HardcorePork
    HardcorePork Posts: 109 Member
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    I think medics are nothing but a crutch

    Is chemotherapy a "crutch" for someone with breast cancer? The brain is an organ, and can be diseased like any other organ, after all...
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
    Options

    that goes back to the whole pharmacological vs cognitive therapy. different diseases can LOOK the same, but must be treated differently. which is what i was getting at with the whole "labels" argument. the issue is not so much with the treatment, but the diagnosis. its a grueling process.

    When health professionals have the patients' best interests at heart and not just society's best interests, I think therapy can and does help. In some cases, medication helps, but not always. Many times, a psychiatrist will simply prescribe pills that work no better than a placebo because it's cheaper and it's a fast way to get the patient out of the office.

    therapy can help definitely, but sometimes breathing exercises and meditation aren't enough. i know that was a generalization, and therapy is not useless. but people with serious illness NEED those drugs.

    depression is one of those hit and miss things also. its probably the most misdiagnosed thing out there beside adhd.

    You're right about that. Lazy practitioners tend to slap women with a depression diagnosis even when they're suffering from physical illness that has nothing to do with their brain chemistry.
  • PercivalHackworth
    PercivalHackworth Posts: 1,437 Member
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    Why for most people suffering from bipolar disorders, they an ad vitam eternam treatment ?
    And why nowadays, with all the great progress we made, we still don't know how to cure it ?
  • LilRedPitViper
    LilRedPitViper Posts: 104
    Options
    I think medics are nothing but a crutch

    Yes, medication is a crutch - one that has kept some of us alive. Without that crutch I likely would have turned my brain matter into a giant red Rorschach test on the wall behind me.

    THANK YOU

    its important that people know what they are talking about before spouting nonsense. people are so quick to jump on the antipsychiatry bandwagon without actually looking at how these drugs have saved people's lives.

    You ask people if they are ill, now I speak nonsense. The medication didn't save me from trying to kill myself ; though I was quite convinced hard drugs would kill me before. (could be the alcohol also) - you just can't put your point of view on one Universal altar

    But it's alright to generalize medication as a "crutch" because it didn't help YOU? Color me confused.

    Because I didn't help me, neither lota people I know/ knew. But I think it could be interesting to go from the original question "how are you battling with it ?" to "let's review all the medications for ill people and see how every one of them acts on both serotonin, dopamin and noradrenaline neurotransmitters "

    And it's not possible that you weren't helped by medication because your self-diagnosis was incorrect?

    There's a reason that it takes *professionals* to properly diagnose and medicate. Let's not also forget that incorrectly self-diagnosing and self-medicating based on what you THINK you're suffering from can greatly exacerbate the symptoms of whatever disorder you actually have.
  • juliesauber13
    juliesauber13 Posts: 62
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    Psychiatry didn't work neither. I'm not against it, some work their way through it...some NEED it actually, as far as I'm concerned (since I participated, and i'm "here mentally ill") psychiatry is also a medium. But are you talking about psychiatry, or psychoanalysis, or psychology ?

    psychiatry studies and treats psychiatric illnesses. because it didnt work for you, yet you continue to experience what you label (using psychiatric terms) you are receiving th wrong treatment, or back to a simpler explanation, you merely believe that your individual experiences had to have had a basis in psychiatric illness, when they did not.

    that is why seeing a professional is important. too many people think they have this and that and this and that. mental illness is all encompassing, life changing, life threatening, and a fetter on the ankles. you can cut the chains, but the cuffs will always be there. you learn how to run with them anyway.
    that is alot different than having a few symptoms and slapping a label on yourself, then dismissing psychiatry altogether because you wrongly believed you were ill when you weren't.

    Yes! I struggled with trying to self-diagnose for years (using Google, books, etc.) but it wasn't until I went to (in order) a psychiatrist and then a therapist (MFT and a psychologist who practiced psychotherapy) that I started to get better. And then, many years later, the meds came. I'd had a baby and all my diagnoses were getting worse. I couldn't tolerate most daily activities anymore, so I decided it was the best choice to seek a psychiatric eval (from a psychiatrist) for mental health meds.

    Even though diagnostic criteria usually falls under certain categories, it doesn't mean we can slap labels on ourselves and just live with it. Seeking help --whether through meds, therapy, or both -- CAN be a life-changing, often live-saving option.

    I didn't go into becoming a psychologist myself until it was proven to me that the mental health industry can be a legit choice in healing.
  • PercivalHackworth
    PercivalHackworth Posts: 1,437 Member
    Options
    I think medics are nothing but a crutch

    Is chemotherapy a "crutch" for someone with breast cancer? The brain is an organ, and can be diseased like any other organ, after all...

    Is breast cancer an mental illness ? Does a breast have 100 billions neurons ?
  • HardcorePork
    HardcorePork Posts: 109 Member
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    Is breast cancer an mental illness ? Does a breast have 100 billions neurons ?

    its made of masses of cells like every. other. organ.

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