Anyone Here Mentally Ill?

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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.

The real problem is this: diagnosing a defect of brain chemistry requires HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED and expensive imaging technologies that are not covered by insurance in most cases. Because there is no REQUIREMENT to *prove* chemical imbalance in order to prescribe most psychiatric drugs, they often end up being prescribed to people that DO NOT have an imbalance at all. You can have anxiety or depression without having a chemical imbalance, but if you take a drug for a chemical imbalance when you don't have one...you probably won't see a benefit.

Nowadays we are using biomarkers to put a finer point of diagnosis, and prescribe medicines that are more effective given your personal genetic makeup. That's the future of medicine, and it has been answering a lot of questions about why certain people do better on some drugs as opposed to others.

Tom Cruise would go apesh** reading this topic, maybe even jump on a few couches. :laugh:

OMG....too funny. Yes, he would have a field day on this topic.

OP: I'm not trying to have an argument with you, but insulin is a horrible example. I met a guy who wears a box on his hip that gives him insulin and he said he just puts in the food he wants to eat. He said, "If I want to eat a bowl of rice, I just put the number in the box." A BOWL OF RICE!?!

I'm not trying to de-legitimize your problems. Your visions of bugs on the wall. I was paranoid. I saw demons. The medication I was on for a few months helped me get balanced again. But they are not a long-term solution.

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...

THIS. I tell the patients I work with this all the time. We don't berate diabetics for having a weak pancreas and tell them to "think positive and you'll secrete insulin". There have been many studies about the physiological differences in brains of people with certain mental health diagnosis such as OCD, bipolar and schizophrenia. There is a spectrum of interventions needed for those people, just like diabetics. Some diabetics manage with proper diet and exercise, some need to take pills, some insulin, some an insulin pump. People with mental illness are no different.

Of course having proper diet and exercise is the foundation of any recovery, regardless of severity of illness.

It might be the future of medicine, but we aren't there yet. And if the cost doesn't come down, or if society doesn't accept the cost as part of having a society worth living in, we will never see that future. I'm betting we're never going to see it, based on our history.

That said, epigenetics in particular (which is what the study I cited involves) is a fascinating area of research, if I were young and could do more than basic math, I'd go into it.

Well, we are there already in many cases, particularly Her2Neu breast cancer. I could go on and on about the personalized medicine that's already happening in this country, but it's a bit off topic. Costs are coming down, btw. Keep in mind that genome mapping used to cost MILLIONS and now there are agencies that can do it at less than $10k. It's only a small matter of time...

The real problem is this: diagnosing a defect of brain chemistry requires HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED and expensive imaging technologies that are not covered by insurance in most cases. Because there is no REQUIREMENT to *prove* chemical imbalance in order to prescribe most psychiatric drugs, they often end up being prescribed to people that DO NOT have an imbalance at all. You can have anxiety or depression without having a chemical imbalance, but if you take a drug for a chemical imbalance when you don't have one...you probably won't see a benefit.

Nowadays we are using biomarkers to put a finer point of diagnosis, and prescribe medicines that are more effective given your personal genetic makeup. That's the future of medicine, and it has been answering a lot of questions about why certain people do better on some drugs as opposed to others.

That's really cool and I think adds a lot to this discussion, although I don't really have anything to respond to it.

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.

I never said I did some self-medication, but I agree on the fact that not being diagnosed rightfully by pros could be dangerous. I just wanted to say I gave up on hoping being different (eg fixed)

It's absolutely within the realm of possibility that you'll never be "fixed". Many mental illnesses are lifelong battles with no known cure. But with proper diagnosis, help and understanding of what's truly going on, it's quite possible that you'll be more "balanced" and able to live a relatively normal life.

As with anything, there's no guarantee. Mental illness is as individualized as fingerprints. I can assure you, though, that you will not be fixed, or even balanced, without understanding the true root of the issue.

Breast cancer is a tumor, mental illness not

If you want to believe that your problems are too complicated and "special" to have any humanly imaginable solution, that is completely up to you. For the millions of patients that are benefiting from medication on a daily basis, I will apologize on your behalf for insulting their attempts to better their lives.