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Topic: Mental health
afrofizzo's photo
Mon 07/10/17 01:18 AM
at the end of the day..we have to pay for every type of treatments..am i right??

afrofizzo's photo
Mon 07/10/17 01:18 AM
at the end of the day..we have to pay for every type of treatments..am i right??

no photo
Mon 07/10/17 06:09 AM


I'm not disagreeing with what you've said but you need to do your homework - there are scientific studies that prove that some mental illnesses are caused by biochemical disorders in the brain - the biochemical disorders interfere with the brain's functioning and cause things like depression, anxiety, hallucinations, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. There are studies that compare the MRI's of people with schizophrenia with those who don't have it & the brain scans are different.
Also the person's body chemistry is different - different levels of serotonin, DHL, and other amino acids & hormones - so it is measurable.

Have you ever seen someone who is bipolar or paranoid schizophrenic on their meds & then off? If you did you would form another opinion. People who suffer from serious mental illnesses can't control their actions and the right medication does make a difference. I don't mean to preach - but too many people think that someone with a serious mental illness can control their moods & actions and are using their diagnosis as an excuse. Talk to any competent mental health professional or better yet, talk to the parents of a depressed bipolar or schizophrenic child or adolescent whose symptoms have been successfully treated with medication. Or talk to someone who has attempted suicide and then finds the right medication to treat their depression & ask them. i'm not advocating medication alone, but for some people you need to treat the symptoms (ie. hallucinations before other issues can be adddessed.


I
I was married to a diagnosed bipolar person for twenty years. Yes, I have a LOT of up close and personal experience with other real mental illness as well, with real people having to try to find the right balance of drugs, and with real people NOT being able to get the kinds of tests of things like serotonin levels in the brain that you refer to. Because that would involve extremely important brain surgery, which isn't done for the sake of diagnosing depression.

And yes, I have experienced both first and second hand, that lots of people STILL refuse to believe that mentally ill people are anything but slackers, again, because all they have to show, are written diagnosis from doctors who deduced their condition from their behaviors and other observations.

Perhaps in a cutting edge medical facility which a patient could afford to pay the huge cost themselves for tests that most insurance will not cover, could find some greater physical proof. But for the majority of current sufferers, mental illness is still one of the invisible maladies.

Which is the answer I'm giving to msharmony's thread question. If there WERE readily available physical proof to show to her, I suspect she would lose her suspicions.



'm sorry for your experience your marriage must have bee really rough at times - I just wonder why you
feel there needs to be physical proof ?- if a person is diagnosed with depression, bipolar or other mental illness and medication hepls to balance their moods & in the case of depression they no longer feel suicidal isn't that proof enough? Just curious. You don't need extensive medical tests to get a diagnosis and get treatment. Unfortunately the cost of treatment is usually prohibitive, which is why alot of people don'y seek treatment. How ins company's impact treatment for metal illnesses and the sorry state affairs of the mental health system in this country is another story.

TMommy's photo
Mon 07/10/17 06:46 AM
sometimes diagnosis is based on symptomology
ADHD is also like this and so is Austism
so for right now in many cases
the best we can do is look at the criteria
and if a client meets say five of them
then a diagnosis is made
is it always accurate? no
but it is the best we got for now


is psychology a subjective field?
mmmm..some say yes because we do not give you a cat scan when you walk in the door but it is based on what the client shares, observations and past history

IgorFrankensteen's photo
Mon 07/10/17 02:48 PM

'm sorry for your experience your marriage must have bee really rough at times - I just wonder why you
feel there needs to be physical proof ?- if a person is diagnosed with depression, bipolar or other mental illness and medication hepls to balance their moods & in the case of depression they no longer feel suicidal isn't that proof enough? Just curious. You don't need extensive medical tests to get a diagnosis and get treatment. Unfortunately the cost of treatment is usually prohibitive, which is why alot of people don'y seek treatment. How ins company's impact treatment for metal illnesses and the sorry state affairs of the mental health system in this country is another story.



I see what you misunderstood. I'm not saying that I NEED TO SEE PHYSICAL PROOF. I'm saying that the reason why many people are SKEPTICAL about how real mental illnesses are, are that way because THEY expect to see physical proof.

It's similar to the way that SOME PEOPLE still insist that homosexuality is an actual intellectual CHOICE that people make, because no one has yet found a genetic marker for sexuality of any kind. It's defective reasoning on their part on LOTS of levels, and in a number of facets. The most fundamental of which is, that the fact that existing tools haven't managed to let us see exactly what causes something, does NOT mean that no cause exists. Believing that, requires either that you first declare that humans are omnipotent, or that nothing which you have not witnessed, ever actually happened. Both ideas are nonsense.

Mental illnesses and infirmities are real. They are not yet understood well enough for us to fix them as easily as we fix machines or heal broken bones and the like. That's about it.

Tom4Uhere's photo
Mon 07/10/17 08:49 PM
Something I just read:

Date: July 6, 2017
Source: University of Maryland School of Medicine
Summary:
Depression affects more than 300 million people annually. Now, a new study has pinpointed how one particular gene plays a central role -- either protecting from stress or triggering a downward spiral, depending on its level of activity.

SOURCE ~ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170706114559.htm

The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, is the first to illuminate in detail how this particular gene, which is known as Slc6a15, works in a kind of neuron that plays a key role in depression. The study found the link in both animals and humans.

"This study really shines a light on how levels of this gene in these neurons affects mood," said the senior author of the study, Mary Kay Lobo, an assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. "It suggests that people with altered levels of this gene in certain brain regions may have a much higher risk for depression and other emotional disorders related to stress."

The researchers focused on a subset of neurons in the nucleus accumbens called D2 neurons. These neurons respond to the neurotransmitter dopamine, which plays a central role in the reward circuit.

She says her research could eventually lead to targeted therapies focused on Slc6a15 as a new way to treat depression.

no photo
Tue 07/11/17 03:21 PM


'm sorry for your experience your marriage must have bee really rough at times - I just wonder why you
feel there needs to be physical proof ?- if a person is diagnosed with depression, bipolar or other mental illness and medication hepls to balance their moods & in the case of depression they no longer feel suicidal isn't that proof enough? Just curious. You don't need extensive medical tests to get a diagnosis and get treatment. Unfortunately the cost of treatment is usually prohibitive, which is why alot of people don'y seek treatment. How ins company's impact treatment for metal illnesses and the sorry state affairs of the mental health system in this country is another story.



I see what you misunderstood. I'm not saying that I NEED TO SEE PHYSICAL PROOF. I'm saying that the reason why many people are SKEPTICAL about how real mental illnesses are, are that way because THEY expect to see physical proof.

It's similar to the way that SOME PEOPLE still insist that homosexuality is an actual intellectual CHOICE that people make, because no one has yet found a genetic marker for sexuality of any kind. It's defective reasoning on their part on LOTS of levels, and in a number of facets. The most fundamental of which is, that the fact that existing tools haven't managed to let us see exactly what causes something, does NOT mean that no cause exists. Believing that, requires either that you first declare that humans are omnipotent, or that nothing which you have not witnessed, ever actually happened. Both ideas are nonsense.

Mental illnesses and infirmities are real. They are not yet understood well enough for us to fix them as easily as we fix machines or heal broken bones and the like. That's about it.



Now I understand - thanks for clarifying.

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