/mental/ - Mental Health, Illnesses and Disorders

As someone who has never been to one, my opinion is that they're bullshit. Just look at how much the diagnose and concept of mental diseases has changed over time. Psychology can at best conceptualize apparent forms of mental disfunctions, it's like trying to identify stuff in the dark. Psychology did have a major role in identifying symptoms of many mental diseases we know today, but I can't wait for the day when we can count on more biology based sciences such as neurology.

psychiatrist=top tier

psychologist, psychoanalist= shit tier

mental treatment= useful if taken with a grain of salt

diagnoses= useful if taken with a grain of salt

I just visit my psychiatrist every four to six months to check on my mental state and for refills, maybe adjusting dosages accordingly.

No need for a therapist or psychologist or whatever the fuck else.

I can power through this just by willpower and anti psychotics and anti depressants.

>>10306

Psychiatrists help the most when you're in the gutter (schizo, manias, mayor depression, full-blown OCD, anything that fucks you up hard)

When you actually have a mind you can half-control, you can undertake psychotherapy or even a psychoanalisis… this one, it's not a cute and nice thing to do. You go there to get your shit slapped. So it doesn't work much if you come in already fucked

The more I read this board, the more I think they over-value their diagnoses…

>>10448

what exactly am i looking at here?

do autists not feel the true embrace of a hug? do they also not know what to do if they're hugged?

>>10303

I don't remember when I was diagnosed, since it was when I was a kid.

That was over 20 years ago.

Getting therapy for my depression was exactly what I needed, though. Showed me the symptoms, gave me the tools I needed to work through it, and told me how I could actually fight it.

Turns out, getting enough sleep, eating regularly, and not playing fast-paced games before bed make me not depressed.

I don't know. I don't trust them so I lie to them too.

I was always suspicious of them when I was a kid. Ever seen the one that flew over the cucoos's nest?

Institutionalized deceit, profiting over make up diseases, political leverage against opponents.

I'm currently seeing a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) for cognitive behavioral therapy and have been seeing him once a week for about a month and a half now. I am currently on a waiting list for a psychiatrist and it's probably going to be a while before I see him because there's not very many psychiatrists in my area, and of the few that are around here, only a fraction of those are actually good doctors worth seeing.

As far as the counselor I'm seeing goes, I am really glad that I decided to start seeing him and actually wish I would have made the decision to see one years ago. I had put off seeking out help for years and years due partly out of nervousness and anxiety surrounding asking for help and actually having to talk to someone about my problems but mostly due to my own negative prejudices about mental health care as a whole. Now that I am seeing a counselor, my appointment every week is actually one of the few things I look forward to on a regular basis. For me personally, I find it super relieving and helpful to actually have someone that I can talk to about whatever is on my mind and not have to worry about being judged or feel like I'm being a burden rather than just letting all my negative thoughts pile up in my head for me to ruminate on non-stop. Another reason I like seeing him is that talking to him seems to be helpful in putting my thoughts and feelings into a more logical perspective; I think that it's sometimes useful to be able to step back and analyze you problems from a first-person perspective and realize that the things that you're letting bother you aren't actually as significant as you're making them seem in your head. Seeing a counselor for me hasn't magically erased my problems over night but it has helped me put them into perspective and I plan on continuing to see him for the foreseeable future just because of how relieving I find it to be able to confidently talk to someone every week about whatever is on my mind without fear of judgement.

As far as the psychiatrist goes, I'm still pretty nervous about seeing him especially because it's so easy to find countless stories about all the bad psychiatrists out there and I'm not entirely sure whether in open to the idea of medication or not. The main reason I'm seeing him in the first place is because there's a ton of mental illness in my family so I have seen first hand how much the right medication can turn people's lives around. The psychiatrist I'm on a waiting list for seems to be very highly respected by anyone I talk to that knows of him and my friends who have seen him personally like him a lot and tell me that I made a good choice in choosing him. When I mentioned his name to my counselor he seemed to have a lot of respect and praise for him which I found encouraging since I trust my counselor a lot and I figure if he thinks the guy is a good doctor then he's probably at least worth a shot. If I would have just went to a GP then I'd probably already have had an appointment and be on a medication already but I felt a lot more comfortable seeing a specialist who would be more knowledgeable in the medications they prescribe. Like I said earlier, I'm still not sure if I want to take medications or not, but I figure that it's probably better to at least see what a specialist has to say and see how he answers my questions before I make a final decision. I know there's a lot of people about there who hate all psychiatrists and think that all psychiatric meds are evil because of "big pharma" or whatever their argument is and I agree that there are a lot of crappy psychiatrists out there and people on meds that they shouldn't be on, but knowing all the people I know (who are blood relatives) who have had their lives greatly changed for the better, I think I should at the very least consider the option and talk to an expert about all the questions and concerns I have.

The one psychologist I talked with didn't really help all too much, we eventually hit a wall and decided to call it off for the time being. It did help me see what went wrong in my life, but I covered that with my psychiatrists too.

I've seen 2 psychiatrists, went through several meds with the first one. None of them had any effect on me he didn't tell me everything he wrote down.

After a break I saw a new psychiatrist at the same clinic since the last one left. She told me the previous guy wrote down I show signs of dysthymia, which he never mentioned. She asked if I ever got diagnosed for ADHD, which I actually wanted to bring up with her since I had a hunch. The meds she prescribed me also seemed to work considerably better, though not perfectly. But I made more progress seeing the new psychiatrist once than I did in a whole year with the other.

Might be that the previous guy purposefully tried to feed me meds that wouldn't work on me. Could also just be interpretation. Either way, it makes sense to me to see different people with these kinds of issues.

>>10666

Exactly, it means that some part of a non-autist person reacts to a hug, and that same part doesn't react in an autist person.

Precisely what does that part do? We don't know for sure. It's near the parietal lobe, so I can tell you it has to do with touch and the meaning of that touch.

>In therapy for general depression/anxiety and other ailments

at any moment, they can tell you that they have to go to the bathroom or some shit and you just sit there like a duck while they report you to the police for being 'suicidal' and ye go to the looney bin as your parents sell errthing you have while playing dumb by playing the 'where did we go wrong' card then you will have to pay a ton of money because of looney bin.

Physiologist on the whole are kinda useless for getting better.

I've found that therapists work better. They actual work with there patience more and are more honest about stuff.

Psychologists just want to give you pills.

Therapists know that pills don't solve shit most of the time and the actively want to work with you more.

>>11236

>Psychologists just want to give you pills.

Don't you mean Psychiatrist?

>>10303

Psychologists for diagnosis and dispensing meds, therapists for actually helping you deal with shit.

I'm so glad I didn't get dumped onto anti-depressants when I was pushed into dealing with my depression. My GP seems to be a traditionalist, and believes in actually trying to fix things. So I got referred to 'cognitive behavioural therapy' when I asked, instead of being given pills. Shit actually worked, since I wanted out of the hole I was in.

It was basically talking with a pretty blonde therapist for an hour or so a week, and being helped to work through my issues.

It turns out, I was depressed mostly because my sleep schedule was shit. Fixing that did a world of good. So did ditching the cunt of a girlfriend who was causing the up/down cycles.

>>10303

Over the years, I've seen a lot of different mental health professionals. Probably 25% of them were idiots because they used their religious views as a basis for counselling and made my issues worse for years. 5% told me I "needed to be saved." 10% creeped me out because when I was honest with them, they treated me like some case study nutjob and would stare at me like they wanted to dissect my brain. 20% met me when I was delusional/paranoid/angry and thought I was a shit human being because I was acting like a fucktard. 30% passed me onto someone else because they didn't want to deal with it. 10% were actually helpful and were the ones I met in the last few years.

My current therapist is pretty good. 90% of the time, she's helpful and positive and I feel better after leaving. 10% of the time, she is completely dismissive of something I find important or she treats me like an idiot and after 10 minutes, she'll have a completely different opinion and say directly contradictory things. It pisses me off and I tend to dismiss it because I don't know how to react. Last time, I confronted her the next session and she had no memory of saying offensive things. Or we'll talk one session and it'll be positive and the next time I bring up the exact same topic, she'll have the opposite opinion or advice. It's a little infuriating. Even so, she's the best I've ever talked to so far and has helped a lot.

I think mental health professionals are as varied in their capability and effectiveness as any other profession and there are bound to be retards whose actions have a profound negative effect on those trying to seek help.

>Also, I see a lot of people here introduce themselves through their diagnoses. What's /mental/ opinion on diagnoses?

People do that on mental health message boards because it allows the reader to more directly identify with the context of the post and the submitter.

Diagnoses can be helpful, sometimes they aren't necessary. I've found them helpful.

Some people can live normal lives without seeking treatment. If I hadn't, I'd be dead or in prison now.

I think everyone should see a psychologist first before seeing a psychiatrist. That is unless they are really fucked up.

I did it the other way. Was on lots of different meds that never did shit. Turns out all I needed was someone to talk to once a week.

>>11436

Thank you for writing this post. Many have been great yet, as a shrink, I will keep yours close to my heart

>>11468

Thank you for being a shrink. It's a hard job.

I personally don't trust them because they never cured me of anything. When my parents divorced in Middle School I stopped caring about doing homework, and started flunking.

It was a crazy time when the courts bled my parents dry taking advantage of the feud, and they even assigned me my own lawyer. (For what?! I only met him twice! And I was a kid for crying out loud, what did I need a lawyer to represent me? I just needed time to decide which parent I wanted to live with…)

When I opened up to my lawyer, he referred me to his psychologist friend in the same town, who my parents eventually thought was just a way of making sure he could make more money. He had a plush office, with relaxing paintings and so forth.

By then I had met a psychiatrist who had insisted on giving me unnecessary drugs to cure my migrane headaches, since tylonel wasn't enough - (turns out that when the divorce ended my migranes were gone), and a guidance counselor at a new school who I barely talked to, but who was biased and immediately thought I was a trouble child. He'd be very nice and fake to me, and then privately tell my parents, "We don't know what he is capable of," and suggest sending me to a foster home.

I had by then decided to refuse to completely open up to anyone in authority. Dozens of sessions, paid for by the court at via my parents, where I guarded my feelings, knowing anything I said that was out of the ordinary would probably prolong the divorce and worsen my situation. I just wanted them to get out of my life.

Since then I've felt if I need another Therapist, I can befriend some older woman and safely unload my problems to her. No more drawn out sessions that are more to the benefit of someone else. No more tempting the government apparatus to wreck havock on my family's savings.

i used to think "why do i need to see a therapist? i'd rather talk to my friends about my problems. i trust them and they know me, paying a stranger to listen doesn't make any sense."

then i realized, possibly as a result of having shitty friends, that opening up and talking about my pain tended to alienate people and drive them away. it's the drowning man metaphor: throw him a rope, but don't get too close or he'll pull you down with him.

i've also realized that therapists, hopefully being trained professionals, will ask you specific questions and make you think about and consider things from a different perspective that is meant to be helpful. friends are probably better at offering sympathy, but they don't know how to really help you get at the root of your issues.

of course, finding a good therapist is a whole other problem. there's a lot of shit ones out there.

psychiatrists just want to prescribe you drugs. some people need that, but if you go to them with any other goals then they won't listen because the only tool in their arsenal is writing prescriptions.