Mental Illness is a MYTH : Witchcraft and Power Politics in Medicine

originally posted by: Noinden
a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Prove what you say. A number of mental health conditions are an imbalance in chemicals. Just as several other diseases are.

In my OP I explained that physical disorders are real.

'Mental illness' is not real however, and is a misdiagnosis of a physical issue or it is just a label put upon someone who is otherwise functioning correctly but may be displaying 'abnormal' behavior or saying things people don't want to hear.

The "mind" is an abstraction, not a physical real object.

a reply to: muzzleflash

See. Your problem is you are so hung up on this "label" argument, but like I just said, you don't label someone with a mental illness. You diagnose it. The same as you don't label someone cancer. You diagnose that they have cancer.

Your version of mental illness is making it seem like having one defines them as a person, but that isn't true at all.

a reply to: muzzleflash

No, nice try. The symptoms that are diagnosed as mental illnesses are very real. Many don't have an understood cause, but they are there none the less and treatable.

Your condition of schizophrenia is not well understood (as we as a species studied the heart more than the brain), but it is believed to be genetic, as well as an imbalance in brain chemistry, and environmental.

So the mind is not an abstraction, because without the physical brain, you have none. Thus mental illnesses are real. Stop hiding from that.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

By his "logic" I disavow my gout, its just a label, so I will stop my alopuranol, and eat shellfish, while drinking lots of beer. Mind you in less than a week I'll be a flipping cripple, but screw the label of gout. Its not real

originally posted by: Noinden
a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

mental health conditions are an imbalance in chemicals

I will explain further.

Physical problems may lead to symptoms we associate with patterns categorized by X, Y, or Z mental illness.
But that is a method of grouping something under an umbrella buzzword. Not an actual something. It is stereotyping.

Having a physical problem in the neurological system is an actual something. You can point at it and show what's wrong with it compared to a normal healthy brain.

Therefore the argument than "mental illness" is often times a misdiagnosis of an actual physical issue which would be the more proper diagnosis.

Other times it is merely unfavorable behavior or speech that is suppressed by attacking the individual as mentally ill in some way or another, hoping to shut this person up or control their behaviors.

originally posted by: Noinden
a reply to: Krazysh0t

By his "logic" I disavow my gout, its just a label, so I will stop my alopuranol, and eat shellfish, while drinking lots of beer. Mind you in less than a week I'll be a flipping cripple, but screw the label of gout. Its not real

Is Gout a mental illness? No?
It's a physical ailment? Yes?

You haven't even ascertained my logic yet if you believe the crap you're posting.
That's a straw man by the way, a poorly constructed one.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Neighbour. You are deluding yourself.

What we call mental illness are the symptoms, of an underlying problem. They are not imaginary. That path lies in the direction of chaos, and hurt.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Mental illnesses are real, and have a physical cause. They are real. I can treat my gout, just as I treated my anxiety. It got better. If I don't treat my gout, I will be a cripple, if you don't treat your schizophrenia, you will be crippled too. If you deny this, you are hiding from the physical truth of the matter. You exhibit symptoms. They can be treated. QED its real

Your so called logic, is not logical at all. It is self aggrandizing, and circular in nature.

a reply to: muzzleflash

You do know that mental illnesses exhibit physical symptoms too right? Things like abnormal brain chemistry levels.

originally posted by: Noinden
a reply to: muzzleflash

No, nice try. The symptoms that are diagnosed as mental illnesses are very real. Many don't have an understood cause, but they are there none the less and treatable.

Your condition of schizophrenia is not well understood (as we as a species studied the heart more than the brain), but it is believed to be genetic, as well as an imbalance in brain chemistry, and environmental.

So the mind is not an abstraction, because without the physical brain, you have none. Thus mental illnesses are real. Stop hiding from that.

I never claimed the SYMPTOMS were not real. Obviously there are symptoms of something, but my argument is that it is NOT a "mental illness" as defined by the DSM.

I listed various possibilities it could be construed as.

The mind is an abstraction and having a brain doesn't guarantee you'll have a mind.

Alternatively, most people on Earth believe that there is an afterlife, or that ghosts exist. So there is a vast majority favoring the concept that the 'mind' does not even need a body or brain at all.

a reply to: muzzleflash

You don't seem to understand this. Mental illness is still an illness, which has symptoms, that are treatable. Psychiatrists deal with the symptoms. That is all we can do with many of these conditions, we do not know the causes. That is changing.

None the less they are real.

stop deluding your self.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

OR a viral infection, or an autoimmune response, or cancer, or injury, etc. Many possible causes, all still causing duh duh duh mental illnesses.

Its like the term cancer. Cancer is non descriptive, beyond "abnormal cell growth". Again many causes, many treatments, same overarching name for the condition.

a reply to: Noinden

That too, but I was referring to being able to physically detect mental illnesses by monitoring the brain and monitoring body chemistry. The reason many pills for mental illness work is because they adjust chemistry levels in your body that are out-of-flux. If these conditions were fake then those pills would be placebos and not have a demonstrable effect.

The OP's assertion that they are over-prescribed is likely true, but for the people that need them, they NEED them. I knew a dude while in the army who was severe ADHD and you could easily tell on a day-to-day basis when he didn't take his medicine. He was super obnoxiously annoying. Then on days where he took his pill he was a lot easier to talk to and be around.

originally posted by: OtherSideOfTheCoin
a reply to: muzzleflash

You don't have Attention Deficit Disorder - there's no such thing.

What qualifies you to make such a statement?

What people should just stop their meds now because you say that it doesn't exist.

exactly the thread the poster started is false and dangerous.....what qualifications knowledge schooling experience does this poster have in this field????? I pray no one stops taking their meds because of what the the poster posted...it is an insult to people with mental illness and their families.....my daughter is on antidepressant and antianxiety medicine...she always had anxiety since she was very young....the medications works very well for her and the good therapist that we went to.......yes sometimes mistakes are made and it can be trial and error until you find the right dose and type of medicine to work for you.

instead of getting rid of the stigma you are making it worse...you paint with the broadest of brushes....for people and families facing these challenges..you are insulting us and taking us back to the stone age

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Oh I know. There are also mental illnesses you can diagnose through other non grey matter physical symptoms.

But its all ok, they are not real according to the OP

While I believe that the mental health profession is sometimes used to advantage people of privilege, one only has to walk the streets of most cities to observe people who profoundly suffer from mental illness. That is not a myth.

a reply to: research100

I know I might get told off for this. However:

The OP has admitted to suffering from (or having been diagnosed) a condition. One which is actually highly stigmatized.

So with out victimizing the OP. I repeat, what skin does he have in the game? I am pretty sure its one that is ego based. I may be wrong.

a reply to: research100

He told me that PTSD sufferers weren't suffering and just needed to get over it earlier in the thread.

a reply to: muzzleflash

You fail at google. You copied links without reading them:

Your 1st link:

yet a rapidly growing literature from a broad spectrum of basic and clinical disciplines, especially epidemiology and molecular genetics, suggests that schizophrenia is the same condition as a psychotic bipolar disorder and does not exist as a separate disease

It does not claim Schizophrenia does not exist, it is suggesting that it may be a more severe case of an existing disorder.

Your 2nd link:

The term 'schizophrenia,' with its connotation of hopeless chronic brain disease, should be dropped and replaced with something like 'psychosis spectrum syndrome,'

This is just a guy who wants to rebrand the disease, not say it was a myth.

Your 3rd link:

Before we jump to wild conclusions like that, let’s take a closer look at what Dr. van Os is really saying too see what it might mean that schizophrenia doesn’t exist, but also that it does.

He wasn't saying it doesn't exist, he also thinks it is a more severe case of bipolar disorder.

Your 4th link:

I bet you couldn't even summarize that article...

Your 5th link:

A complete lie. He ripped out the context of the statement.

a reply to: raymundoko

I did read the links, I even said in my post explicitly that I didn't agree with everything said in them.

The exercise was to show that many psychiatrists cannot even agree on what's what or if a diagnosis is even real.