"Mental" Illness: The Future of Treatment

I read some of these posts and am completely at sea…What exactly are you talking about?

I’ve been seeing psychiatrists for years–I’ve been on psychiatric drugs for years–I’m not ‘sick’, I just ran out of serotonin years ago… Since I was born without a mental epidermis, I react to things other people can take, with only a hiccough or two, in their mental strides, in an apparent ‘abnormal’ way. Sure, it’s abnormal–but what’s abnormal? Isn’t that simply outside the ‘average?’

Most of us are ‘outside the average’ in some way(s)–my way is just my way.

I don’t see a psychiatrist for me. I see a psychiatrist for the people I have to deal with every day.

I take drugs that help me become less “different” from the people around me as well as to be able to express myself in ways that, hopefully, those people, including my psychiatrist, will try to understand and accept. At the same time, the drugs help me to understand my reactions and, again hopefully, to enable me to ‘govern’ my reactions so that other people understand why I’ve acted the way I have–or, at least, can try to accept me as I am.

“Oh, that’s just Liz…She weeps for every tree that’s cut down for no reason…That’s just the way she is…”

My psychiatrist gives me drugs so he can understand me, as well. How else would he be able to know me, if he weren’t able to give me what I need to be ‘normal?’

How else would he be able to ‘listen’ and, through talk therapy, even begin to try to help?

I’m talking about,Liz, the new thinking on part of analysts , that cognitive therapy is the best, without eliminating drugs, if needed. And wouldn’t it argue that the more drugged a person is, the less cognitive accessibility remains? A heavily drugged person will be less apt to talk, yet I believe like in alcohol, the level of cognitive function diminishes according to of drugs administered.

Any drug that effects the way the mind works is called “psychotropic.” This doesn’t, however, mean that every psychotropic drug effects mental cognition. I’m on two ‘psychotropic’ drugs–one equalizes my mood and the other regulates my equalized mood. This is needed because I’m physically unable to produce serotonin sufficient to regulate and equalize my feelings–to get those feelings to manifest themselves as ‘normal.’

Normality, however, is relative–it’s the middle of the bell curve. I understand this. I know that my brain doesn’t produce the needed amount of serotonin to keep my feelings somewhere within the middle of the bell curve, so I need drugs to help.

Research into the workings of the brain; the findings of neurologists who work with the brain and its functions; the development of drugs that can pinpoint the various areas of the brain and its functions is advancing almost daily. It’s hard work, since there are billions of synapses all of which are connected and interconnected. In my opinion, this makes AI a real impossibility.

Psychiatrists, as medical doctors, use drugs, possibly because drugs are short-cuts. If a patient shows signs of harming him/herself, the isn’t enough time for talk therapy. But drugs only treat symptoms.

Sometimes, treating the symptoms is all that can be done.

I agree and I am not talking about the assymptotes of the bell curve but the mid ranges where more access is available for understanding to occurs.

The extreme parts of severe lack or overabundance of chemicals may result in hyper or hypo activity and/or severe depression or mania.

Sorry for posting peacemeal but something I s wrong with my phone. I think the solution is to find the right mix of treating the symptoms

by drugs with behavioral/cognitive therapy. If you’ve been in and out of the garbage can, like me, for instance,
the mix may vary considerably.

Good to hear from you again. After seven years of this thread, have we come any closer to discovering the conditions of what it means to be normal?

Ierrellus,

I had an appointment with my psychiatrist yesterday. I asked him to not take me off my medications because I was able, during the last month, to meet a stumbling block and get through it.

It was a simple thing, but it made my insides ‘jingle.’ I can’t describe it any other way.

But I was able to stop and understand that my insides were trembling, then gather up my control and do what I could to deal with and then change the situation. My psychiatrist and I were very proud of me.

Those of us who have been burdened with not being “normal” because of genetics–i.e., the inability to create the chemicals needed to be normal–to fall within the high points of the “normal” bell curve, are–or should be–very happy with our meds. It would be very nice if the big Pharms didn’t gouge, but, then, I realize just how much neurology and the workings of the brain have advanced within even the last 20 years.

It’s amazing.

Now, if we can just convince people that we’re not crazy…

But that’s fighting deep, deep feelings in others…isn’t it?

It could be understood on another way. May be our being out of vac in the first place causes an over/under production of certain chemicals, for instance: if one is in constant fear, the production of norepinephrine , creates a constant feedback of it, setting the stage for a bio feedback of the vicious circle kind.I guess both scenarios are possible, sometimes the emotional umbalance, other times its the hormonal unbalance that starts it.

So then why, Meno, be against medication that can help?

I am not against meds generally, but needless medication of people who could benefit from other treatment options, which are foreclosed whereby : such as cognitive and analytical talk therapy, for lack of funds rather then insight.

Yes, funding for psychiatric help can be difficult for most and impossible for many, especially with public psychiatric hospitals closed and with Obamacare under attack.

I really feel, however, and I’ve gone through both, that talk therapy alone–or drug therapy without talk therapy–doesn’t work as well as a combination of both. :slight_smile:

Drug companies do not need to publish negative results of their studies regarding a particular drug. They can then refer to just the postive result studies. A couple of researchers useod the freedom of information act to get all the results. They found that wehn looking at all studies there was a very very small, almost completely negligible postive result on average using drugs.

However, there was a very significant, iow rather large set of bad side effect results for psychotropics.

IOW it actually makes more sense to refer to the positive effects as a tiny side effect and the drugs as effective in cause bloating, dizziness, suicidal ideation, dry mouth, paranoid thoughts, serious weight gain and so on.

These drugs are good at producing problematic emotional and physical effects, and quite near null at producing positive emotional effects.

And this would include effects that inhibit the effectiveness of talk therapies.

Do you have any links for those couple of researchers and their findings regarding drug studies? That was regarding psych drugs only rather than all meds right?

Quite frankly, I’d rather have dry mouth, which I have, than some of the thoughts and feelings I have without meds.

Reading and taking it apart, I have a question. The condition You are describing, ’ do to other’s involves a two fold process.

One , a stress related social anxiety, (common) coincidental with changes in brain biochemistry.

Two. Another binary: increased awareness , caused by greater intelligence. - with its own set of problems. Right? Because You are not at all an ‘averige’ person in terms of that.

  1. A trigger: which started the process, probably in later childhood to beginning maturity, probably teen age years.

  2. Some elements of rejection due to the above

5, your own primary misunderstanding over the causes of the above, leading to lifelong neural pathways altered for again a less acceptable ’ way out’ of the dilemma.

  1. Changes in affect, causing eeffect becoming an severe rupture in the depreciating gestalt.in the overall existential being of Your Self.

7.secondary rejections by Your own family and friends.

Am I unto something?

  1. Then finally panic situations as this process reveals the reality of Your Situation.

reddit.com/r/psychology/com … laries_of/

simpleorganicmedicine.com/unbeli … epression/

Unfortunately, depression, a serious psychological disorder, is affecting a larger part of the world population as the years go by. People who suffer from hidden depression tend to fight inner demons without anyone being aware.

Since we live in an age of superficiality, we do not always reveal our problems to others, but we tend to suppress them. However, this is not the solution! In order to be able to offer your help to someone who may be suffering from depression, you need to be able to recognize some of the major symptoms.

The Main Signs of Hidden Depression
Talented individuals for a need of expression
You have probably heard of famous people who have or had this problem. Pain can turn into a fuel for the emotions of these people and an inspiration as well. Did you know that Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Bill Hicks, and Sarah Silverman have/had this problem?

They search for meaning
The truth is that we all search for a purpose in our lives, but, in depressed people, this is much more accentuated because of their high level of anxiety. They tend to be obsessed with existential questions.

Cries for help
At a specific period, we all need aid from someone else. Therefore, if you notice that your friend or partner is constantly weak and on the verge to cry, but is hesitant, offer to talk to them. And, when you establish a bond, the trust will be stronger. This is when you need to take action. Still, make sure you do not push them too much.

Irregular sleeping patterns
In depressed individuals, it is not uncommon to see them staying in bed and sleeping for a lot of hours that can easily turn into days. However, there are situations when they also battle with insomnia.

Abandonment issues
Abandonment can be really hurting. When someone important to us leaves us all of a sudden, we cannot bear the pain. In depressed people, this pain is 100 times stronger and they can start avoiding other people to prevent more abandonment.

They have their own cures
These people have their own methods to deal with their depression. This may be going to the gym regularly, listening to specific music, walking in the park, etc.

Odd eating habits
This disorder is known to impact the patient’s eating habits. Their eating pattern varies, that is, they can eat too much or eat little or no food.

They tend to be pessimistic
Intelligence seems to go hand in hand with depression, which could be considered both a blessing and a curse. These people respond strongly to anything life throws at them, no matter how small or big. But, they can be excellent when it comes to solving problems.

Fake it till you make it
In order to hide how they feel from the rest of the world, they are masters of hiding their mood and they can always fake a smile. They are afraid of what may happen if they bring their demons to the surface.

Cover-up stories are their thing
Depressed people can come up with extensive excuses for almost anything in order to move away the attention from their feelings.

They cannot calm down their mind
These people have so many thoughts because they live at high speed. They are very analytical and deep.