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| quote: | Originally posted by Domesticated
This sums up my feelings on most forms of mental illness extremely well. Unlike cancer, or diabetes, I don't think of mental illness as an on/off switch. Rather, most of the garden-variety "conditions" can be thought of as a 1-10 scale. Someone with an anxiety level of 5 or 6 would feel very uncomfortable in crowds, but be able to deal with it. Anything above that, and they may find it hard to function, needing medication or removal/avoidance of that particular situation.
I also tend to think of these things as latent within all of us, with some people's base levels higher, and more easily pushed into the problem zone, while some people's tolerances are better. The triggers? Alcohol, drugs, severe psychological and/or physical trauma. These triggers simply amplify traits that are already present.
I also believe it's this sliding scale effect which has led to rampant over-diagnosis of mental illnesses by doctors. They see symptoms presenting themselves at small, manageable levels and then think, "Oh shit, this person is sick, pull out the drugs!" when things are still very manageable and only slightly worse than that found in the rest of the population.
I say all this from (slight) experience. Depression runs in my family. My older sister has it quite badly, while on and off, I've been mildly depressed since I was 16 or 17. I've never bothered to go to a doctor or get medication, because I can usually beat it back by exercising hard, eating right and getting a lot of sunshine. There have been periods when this hasn't been possible, and they were tough, but my point stands that a lot of people are too quick to run to their doctor. |
While I do agree with most of this, I don't think there's necessarily a rampant over-diagnosis of mental illnesses by doctors. They may just be recognizing symptoms earlier now than they have in the past. Issues such as anxiety and depression are tricky, because one could theoretically "fake" such a disorder for access to drugs (xanax, valium, etc.) but when these conditions are legitimate, they can pose serious issues to physical health. Anxiety can lead to high blood pressure, and depression can obviously lead to suicide. Doctors' first responsibility is to protect the physical health of their patients, and if a mental disorder threatens to cause physical problems, I don't see a problem in treating the disorders with medication.
Again, mental health issues are tricky because there's no real physical testing that can be done to diagnose many of them. The same kind of issue seems to be even more of a problem with ADD/ADHD. The amount of people prescribed Ritalin or Adderall is astounding, and it's hard for me to believe that so many people actually need those drugs. When I was in college, I knew dozens of people who used (abused) them by either snorting them in place of cocaine, or using them to stay up for all-night study binges before tests. I think all of these things pose significant issues for the Psychological community, as some people are very good at faking mental health issues.
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| quote: | Originally posted by OrangestO
This isn't about physics, this is about waves.
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