Pills and mental illness - what a subject my thoughts (and i've got experience believe me email me off list if you want material to cure insomnia otherwise known as my journey thru the mental health system)
- fads in psychology come and go. the 80's/early 90's fad was everything was caused by psychological trauma. today it's everything is biological. the truth is somewhere in the middle between these extremes, plus other factors too i'm sure (like unhappy marriage, poor job situation, lack of money, etc.) - people are individuals and 'mental illness' varies widely from garden-variety blues to severely incapacitating maladies. people always think they can generalize from their experience (or their friend, their relative, etc) - that is extremely hazardous. your 'answer' depends on your circumstances and the other person may be much more or less severely affected than you are. - diagnoses are subject to fads and interpretation, like so many other things in life. also among the so-called experts diagnoses vary widely. i've had a number myself. this has made me start counting them. it's up to about 7 by now, if not more. after a while they start to lose their impact. - race, class, and gender affect who gets diagnosed with what and it's important to recognize that the poor are both more likely to be traumatized and also underserved. otoh, if abuse happens in a well off family, the survivor is often accused of making it up. - the psychiatric profession as a whole is long on self-proclaimed experts and short on good listeners. just a few thoughts. mary
