What Kev here fails to grasp is that real mental illness, not personality disorders, are caused by biological and physical abnormalities of the brain, mainly the frontal and temporal lobes.

NOT by things going on in the environment.

In other words, if someone who is Bi-Polar goes off his medications, he is going to go manic REGARDLESS of the content he has access to on the internet.

A paranoid schizophrenic who goes off his meds is going to go psychotic REGARDLESS of the content he access to on the internet.

If you ban the mentally ill from ATS, they are STILL going to be mentally ill.

What Kev is doing is taking the old "people, places, and things" from pop psychology and saying that if you ban mentally ill people from certain "people, places, and things" such as ATS, they won't go insane.

This is absolute rubbish.

It is called the nature/nuture debate from psychology, NOT psychiatry.

Nature/nuture debate-

Does "nature" cause mental illness (for example, epigenetics, brain function),

OR

does "nurture" cause mental illness (for example, ATS, things going on in the environment, see Behaviorism).

If you want to ban anyone from ATS, you should ban the people who give the mentally ill bad advice about medication.

Medications are necessary for the mentally ill, even if these medications are for the most part in the "dark ages."

So, what is the topic exactly Kev?

Why not just present it like this-

1)

a)

b)

2)

etc.

In Short Kevin,
I am equally suspect of those that believe they and they alone can pass judgement and set standards, self appointed governors and regulators who decide the acceptable benchmarks, in my opinion are more dangerous.
The globe has enough gods.

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Originally posted by HappilyEverAfter
In Short Kevin,
I am equally suspect of those that believe they and they alone can pass judgement and set standards, self appointed governors and regulators who decide the acceptable benchmarks, in my opinion are more dangerous.
The globe has enough gods.

I kind of thought this was the perfect post to close this argument with...it sums up in a nutshell how ludicrouly silly Kevs OP and arguments have been. (Kev left a while back with his tail firmly between his legs...and his needle stuck in the groove.)

It does however concern me deeply that a character like kev is loose among vulnerable people. (Especially as he's loose in Scotland where I too reside). His attitude, sense of superiority, 'us and them' mentality re patients and staff, his obstinacy and dictatorial tendencies, are, i am afraid to say, indicitive of the kinds of problem we in scotland face when trying to provide good quality care for people who need help. We have to get through the kevs of our system...those who prefer to impose their ideas of assistance without firstly speaking to the people they purport to be helping.

Originally posted by kevinunknown
It seems to be that almost every day now we have someone writing about their experiences of mental health but with a bit of a conspiracy twist. I am talking about statements like “I was abducted by Aliens and that is why i am mentally ill” or “I might be mentally ill but that is because of a glitch in the matrix”, and “I am not mentally ill rather I am being visited by God”.

All of the above statements are what any health professional would expect to hear form a person who is living with schizophrenia. Some can be very dark statements, like the man who once told me that he could only see death and how he perceived every waking moment as if it were hell. Another thought that the TV was trying to seal her thoughts and another man once told me that everybody else was mad because they all thought he was Jesus.

When people who are living with a significant mental health diagnosis on ATS they are confronted with two things that could be dangerous in their fragile state of mind. The first is an entire forum detected on the most part to expose medication as being unnecessary and even dangerous, it talks about how it can make us ill and even control us. The second danger comes from the people on ATS who fuel their psychotic delusions and build further mistrust in the health services. Sometimes people on ATS try to convince people who talk about a mental illness that they are not mentally ill rather they have some type of special incite or are being subjected to some form of mind control.

These claims to not benefit that person in anyway regardless if they are going through a psychotic period or not, they cast doubt over their very diagnosis and can encourage them to stop taking their medication. Its highly unethical and I suspect the only reason some ATS members like to give alternative explanations about what mental illness is, is because they are ignorant. I bet none of you would tell any relatives you may have who are living with a mentally illness that they are not mentally ill but just hearing the voice of God.

My own views are very much fitting with the status quo I believe what the medical community says about mental illness to be true. I also think that it would be advisable for any thread about mental health on ATS to be subject to the increased monitoring like the 9/11 forum. I would go as far to say any member who confesses to having experiences of a mental illness should be banned. I know that’s harsh but I really do think it’s for the best.

I once tried to argue about this on a thread about someone talking about their experiences of mental health and it’s fair to say I was flamed. It was also difficult for everyone because we all had to be sensitive to the OP. So for this reason I am starting this as a tread to discuss everyone’s views on mental illness so any views you have on any aspect of mental illness feel free to contribute.

EDIT: I should be more specific with the idea of banning people. I am only talking about people who have confessed to a diagnosis that causes delusions. But would support strong moderation of all threads about mental illness (including this one)

[edit on 20-7-2010 by kevinunknown]

Wow anyone that confesses to having a MI should be banned? I have paranoid schizophrenia and being a member of this community hasn't effected my illness one bit. If anything after reading some of the things on this board it just reminds me there are people with more F-ed up beliefs then me. I've seen some religous people with more delusions then I've ever had.

Yeah I agree there are some ignorant people on here. My goal is to help people understand MI. I run into stigmas and stereotypes all the time due to my illness.

Schizophrenics stop taking they're meds all the time. A lot of schizophrenics don't believe there is anything wrong with thierselves to begin with. It's just the nature of the illness. But alot of schizophrenics have insight to they're illness like me. I know better then to buy into BS.

Did you know that 1% of the US populations has schizophrenia? There are 3.5 million people in this country with it. Schizophrenia is the second most common mental illness other then depression. There are more people with schizophrenia then parkinsons or alzheimers. There are also 5 types of schizophrenia with several different subtypes such as paranoid personalities. Not all schizophenics are the same or share the same symtoms. Lots of schizophrenics can go a lifetime without needing treatment.

As if living with this illness wasn't bad enough. I have to deal with all the ignorant people that don't know the first thing about it but think they do. You know what its like to date someone and everything is fine until someone tells them you have schizophrenia and then they dump you because of it? Or how about your own grandmother seeing a story in the news about a schizophrenic that molested someone and she thinks all schizophrenics are molestors? Or how about working at a job for 3 years without a problem then one day you tell a coworker you have the illness. Then within 2 days your being called into the union office with your boss demding to know what medications you take. Then fired 3 weeks later. I worked at that job for 3 years without a write up. Then I got 6 in two weeks after that.

In my personal life I don't even tell people I meet I have schizophrenia. If anyone notices any of my problems I just tell them I have a seizure disorder. I met a guy that had a sister with schizphrenia. I knew him for over a year before I told him I had it. He said he would have never geussed I had it in a million years. The only reason I told him was because he mentioned his sisters illness.

The internet is the only opertunity I get to talk about it freely without a fear of being stereotyped. For the most I part I just try to educate people about it.