Mental Illness and Psychology As a Whole

[Lurkette]

I didn't see any thread like this not related specifically to autism, but thoughts?

I personally find it all fascinating, but irritating that so many people use/see mental illness as excuse, instead of explanation. Even more disheartening is the awful rep psychologists/counselors/"big pharma" have, especially since the people who need help the most (e.g. schizophrenics) are the ones who can VERY easily be led down the rabbit hole. Mister Metokur/Internet Aristocrat had a video where a clearly schizophrenic man talked about gang stalking, and though the earlier videos were list apparently this man was seminormal before being introduced to the topic. On mobile rn but I'll snag it later.

I know this topic can get quite powerlevelly, so quick reminder to think twice before you post.

 

[Joan Nyan]

Psychology used to be a way to help people overcome problems and improve their lives. Now it's just a way to brainwash people with pills like Prozac, Adderall, and Xanax.

 

[Rap Scallion]

Not sure how far the trend has creeped into the real world, but the fact that it's a thing to list your various mental illnesses/chronic conditions/etc. is troubling. Diagnoses shouldn't be worn like badges of honor, they're there so all involved parties know what specific types of treatment should be sought out. Not to mention just like OP's mention, said diagnoses are often used as an excuse for shitty behavior like "hey, if I'm upfront about having xyz, I can be absolved of all guilt for acting like a tool because I have xyz".

 

[WW 635]

One thing that needs to be done for discussion to occur in the first place is to recognize that psychology and psychiatry are not one and the same. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who prescribe medications aimed at treating mental illness while psychologists work more closely with the patient to help them develop coping skills and methods of mitigating their symptoms via methods such as cognitive behavioural therapy, reframing trauma, etc. Ideally, the medications prescribed by the psychiatrist are aimed at getting the patient to a place where he or she is able to work on these coping skills with the psychologist. Ofc this is in an ideal world.

In general, psychiatrists do not spend enough time with or listen close enough to their patients. Also, access to a psychologist on a regular basis is something that many are not able to have. The system is flooded with individuals who believe that a magic pill will solve all of their problems and won't see a psychologist to actually work on it and refuse to do anything more than drug themselves, all the while complaining that the drugs aren't working as they down bottles of gin that get in the way of the medication. It creates a situation where the system and everyone in it suck.

Bottom line: everyone sucks and it's their own fault

 

[Bassomatic]

Honestly, I think I can briefly sum up my feelings with out raging or sperging.

There are 3 groups of people into both the fields, those to learn and grow, those trying to sort their own problems and those with an agenda. I feel it's a noble job if you are in the first and I don't mean to fault those whom are really trying to help people but I think the human mind is such a complex system we are not there yet and I can't be sure we aren't at a net negative or positive. I often wonder. Much like the Greeks thought there was someone flying in a Chariot pulling the sun, that was the best they could do they weren't being jerks to do so, it's all they had with the tech they had.

Neither of the fields are wrong, there a lot of bad and or damaged people in it, but some are really trying to make the best they can with out the tools to do so. And over all it still helps some people so I have a hard time shaming it but so many horror stories makes me wonder.

 

[Positron]

A few decades back people wailed about "the pathologization of deviance" -- homosexuality was a disease. Juvenile delinquency, crime, sexual promiscuity were apparently all caused by mental illnesses. Now the pendulum has swung and we're witnessing the "deviantification of pathology", when autism is just a form of "diversity", and trannyism is normal (or even desirable).

especially since the people who need help the most (e.g. schizophrenics) are the ones who can VERY easily be led down the rabbit hole. Mister Metokur/Internet Aristocrat had a video where a clearly schizophrenic man talked about gang stalking, and though the earlier videos were list apparently this man was seminormal before being introduced to the topic. On mobile rn but I'll snag it later.

A related phenomenon is that there a now a clout of "self-help guru" and "life coaches" -- people without any training (or worse, have woo trainings like Neurolinguistic Programming) presume themselves to be cure-alls. They have no expertise in handling the genuinely mentally ill, and many of their methods (like inducing mental fatigue or causing emotional breakdown to their clients) are very dangerous.

 

[A Potato Named Vodka]

While I certainly agree that some seek diagnosis to use as an excuse for their behaviors, or even self-diagnose to excuse their behaviors- I had a high school friend who did that- I feel that by and large, most don't. From some of the people I've met, many just say "I have xyz; if I'm being a cunt, that's probably and just tell me (I'm being a cunt)."

What I really think most of the issues in the mental health industry come down to is the pathologising of nearly everything. A person feeling down today is assumed to be down the next and the next day after that, so they are slapped with a diagnosis and given zoloft/paxil/ect. Society as a whole has forgotten the emotions that make us human and what is truly abnormal. So then, abnormalities are made to be good, a facet of someone's identity. When pathology becomes part of identity, the fighting stops. The person feels no obligation to try and be a functioning person in society, they don't try to improve themselves nor their condition. They just sit and stew in the bounty of excuses they've been rewarded with.

 

[DuckSucker]

Psychology used to be a way to help people overcome problems and improve their lives. Now it's just a way to brainwash people with pills like Prozac, Adderall, and Xanax.

I kind of agree and disagree. I dont want to powerlevel but know firsthand that if these pills are "brainwashing" people, they are brainwashing them into more normal, functioning people. I mean this forum was made to make fun of Christian Chandler, imagine if that dude took a pill that just mellowed him the fuck out, and brainwashed him into caring way less about Sonic or whatever. If he were a more normal dude he would have more of a chance at integrating into society which would solve the other half of his problems.

People abuse those pills, I had a girlfriend who was a pretty heavy (recreational) xanax user and would dissociate and send me texts that were literally "lhbfdsauhsdnej fdnsihje snfdj sisiild"--just jumbles of letter because it was the days of texting on flip phones-- so I know that it can be misused. But on the whole I think it's better to paint with a broad brush and take the good with the bad without the moral condescension and fake morality bullshit.

Are the diagnoses over-diagnosed? Maybe. But having a mental disorder, being weird, it's not something to strive for. Nobody WANTS that shit. Nobody should. The people who see psychiatrists, who take more than something like an anti-depressant, probably do have more mental issues going on. I think it's more likely that people just naturally skew towards being weird but everybody has to play the game to survive so more everyday people turn to these diagnoses to overcome their problems(cope) rather than fixing them. Like someone who is pre-diabetic just taking a bunch of medicine to "counteract" diabetes instead of changing their diet.

It's come a long way since the days of throwing "eccentric" people in a room and electrocuting them until they start to behave, although from a eugenics perspective you can argue it's not for the better but it does improve people's lives.

Not to mention just like OP's mention, said diagnoses are often used as an excuse for shitty behavior like "hey, if I'm upfront about having xyz, I can be absolved of all guilt for acting like a tool because I have xyz".

This, I dont know. In college I was in a dorm across from a girl who was LBGTQ way before it was cool, a literal tumblrina type of girl who would go on about her BPD issues--I didnt hang out with her enough to really know her, but she never brought it up in the context of "Hey if I act like a dick, you cant get mad at me because I have xyz" it was usually two separate notions like, "Hey I might act like a dick. I have xyz so that's why."

Its hypocritical of me to say it but it's a bit annoying that now, to a degree, it is more mainstream to be open about mental illness, because now everybody's a(n armchair) psychiatrist and the people who see them are all "pill poppers, junkies and addicts". Everybody is "fascinated" with it, but the reality is that most people are probably pretty fucking weird themselves, just not open about it. A lot of it stems from society's human nature, society was built for people to shit on each other and stuff like that; it's the "human condition" for a reason.

I pull a little bit from both sides of the argument--it seems like people want these guys to be normal, functioning and (ostensibly) happy but then get mad when these people abuse pills to change themselves to do it, I guess because it's like cheating? That's the condescension I don't get. On the other hand I do think that some "mental disturbances" are learned or acquired behavior, for better or worse in the context of the term--picked up either from hardship or picked up as a crutch, since people are basically the sum of their environments.

 

[Bassomatic]

As we are talking about the over under self diagnoses we see, I often wonder as I'm fully convinced and have seen (I think we all have) there are a few bad apples in this field. If it's our culture doing it or if they have pushed it upon us. I don't want to fault a field if we misuse or abuse it. A hammer is meant for building a home, but you can bash a head. You know? Now if they hand you a hammer and tell you to bash a head, that's a different story.

 

[zzzTop]

Well, the problem really exists. When I joined a startup working on mental health app, we faced hundreds of people applying for psychological help. Many of them believed they were mentally ill and required special medical treatment. But only ~5% of those applying for help were diagnosed to have mental disorders. Unfortunately, It has become trendy, people use it as a justification for their personal weaknesses. But what is more dramatic, is that because of them, people who really require special treatment aren't considered seriously.

 

[Narc]

Meaning is precisely that rarity awarded to the few overachievers who learn to bring value to life. Most mentally ill people spend much of their lives in denial of their own uselessness to others. They tend meticulously to nothing aside from an obsessive and disproportionately sized ego, believing themselves destined for some meaningful life, all the while being told that finding meaning will do them good. Mentally ill people go down this road, and they identify with stars and celebs, and all too often it comes to a harmful interaction between mentally ill people and healthy, active types; comparing themselves to others leads the mentally ill to despair and frustration, as it becomes clearer that the best in life is always behind them, and that things will not go their way all of the time. Psychiatry and therapy do little to abet this malignant encroachment of the reactive, toxic psyche. People show up to assume the role of privileged analysand on a comfy couch (or chair) and are progressively emboldened to follow their own dreams as an individual—big mistake.

Occasionally, we will find a mentally ill person capable of breaking that mold of false productivity. Harmony Korine, for example, turned big profits on early scripts. Society will recontextualize the savant's mental illness and praise that person for having such a 'different' mind. Still, then, we are left with a form of exceptionalism that exacerbates the lesser man's delusions of grandeur. I doubt that just any mentally ill teenager in Korine's shoes would have produced such output, but there sure are a lot of crackpots who get it in their head that doing or studying film will be of any profitable use to others, and so on. We are led to believe that giving that much freedom to mentally deviant people will somehow 'fix' their problems. (It certainly didn't, in Korine's case.)

Though "lock 'em up" is not my exact attitude, per se, there are many problems with any notion of "restorative" justice when discussing differences in human capacity alone. People act like they're here to do God's work, please get over yourselves. Even taking a closer look at these people in the first place can be dangerous, considering their auto-affective state of duress. The slightest reason for paranoia will send them spiraling. This is why they tend to be anti-establishment thinkers (if they care for politics at all). I'd say that, for one thing, clear punitive structure and consequences are better for these people than any support occurring behind their backs: hospice workers and social workers try to help, but private rules and measures are precisely the sorts of activities that trigger paranoid people and make them noncooperative.

Don't get me started on psychiatric medicine, it's shameful how often certain drugs are prescribed, considering the sorts of side-effects that can arise: flesh-eating diseases, heart failure, the list goes on. Many of these side-effects can linger for a lifetime, becoming worse than the original issue being treated. The best things in life for any mentally ill person: sleep, water, books, distrust in others, a good dose of cynicism about productivity coupled with an attitude of self-harm avoidance. Don't forget manners, either.

 

[DocHoliday1977]

Don't get me started on psychiatric medicine, it's shameful how often certain drugs are prescribed, considering the sorts of side-effects that can arise: flesh-eating diseases, heart failure, the list goes on. Many of these side-effects can linger for a lifetime, becoming worse than the original issue being treated. The best things in life for any mentally ill person: sleep, water, books, distrust in others, a good dose of cynicism about productivity coupled with an attitude of self-harm avoidance. Don't forget manners,

And willing open legs too? So let me guess, women who aren't whores are mentally ill in your opinion?

You all come across like "mental health professionals" that would advocate sex with the doctor as a healthy treatment and then rape all your clients. Anyone talking about mental health on kiwifarms is suspect.

 

[sola scriptura]

This is a subject of fascination for me, so pardon the tl;dr nature of this post.

I truly believe most severely mentally ill people just want a quiet, peaceful life as that is probably the best possible avenue for recovery for them and they know it. Medication can certainly help but it's also capable of causing a great deal of harm - increased hunger (specifically for unhealthy foods) and resultant weight gain, increased irritability, increased apathy towards life, even exacerbation of the very symptoms the medication is supposed to treat can result from an improper prescription that just doesn't jive with a patient's chemical makeup/pre-established med regimen. I've read that drug researchers and doctors commonly have the opinion that, say, schizophrenics are too deep in their delusions even with treatment to care about a bad med's effects on their bodies and personalities when that couldn't be further from the truth; until that misconception is abolished, we'll continue to have people subjected to these adverse effects. There's progress being made on this front in the form of more weight neutral and less zombifying drugs but not nearly quickly enough. Better than nothing, though, I guess.

Diet and exercise can also be useful, arguably as useful for treating mental health issues as they are for improving physical health. Lack of motivation is a common problem for a lot of severely mentally ill people, though, but gentle encouragement from loved ones can go a long way in combatting that in receptive patients.

I think the rise of people who self-diagnose for internet pity points and also armchair psychologists who write off everyone they dislike as being mentally ill with no actual evidence have done a great of harm to people who actually struggle with their mental health. That is not to say that every mentally ill person is a well-behaved angel; I've just found throughout my interactions with them that it's far too often the case that they're too absorbed in their own suffering to want to make others' lives equally as hellish. There are certainly bad apples who should be dealt with appropriately, of course, but I just don't believe in perpetuating the stigma that only leads to poorer outcomes for the more laid-back sufferers.

Work can be great therapy for mentally ill people who can handle it. Something repetitive and relatively low-stress overall like remote data entry or sorting books at a library can be a dream come true for someone frequently spooked by hallucinations or mood episodes but still eager to make a modest living. Not every mentally ill person can work but those who can and express an interest in doing so should definitely be encouraged to pursue a job they can handle because boredom and a lack of a daily routine can be detrimental to anyone's well-being and that's doubly true for the mentally ill.

This isn't even a decent fraction of everything I could say on this subject but I will spare you all further rambling for now, lol. It's certainly been interesting reading everyone else's thoughts.

 

[Brahma]

I think a lot of the pandemic of mental illness could be solved, for a given value of solved, by destigmatizing bullying and bringing back public shaming.