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BuyerBeware
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20 Oct 2014, 8:53 am

androbot01 wrote:
calstar2 wrote:
... Not so much that the person receiving a diagnosis isn't suffering with mental health, just that I think a lot of the time it is real problems they've been struggling with and not some mental disorder.


I'm not clear on what you mean here ... a mental disorder is a real problem.


Grieving your dear dead Granny intensely for more than six weeks is now a mental disorder. They call it "adjustment disorder." I guess you're really screwed if it was a long, slow death from something like cancer or Alzheimer's, if you were one of the primary caregivers (if you and Granny were lucky enough to have multiple caregivers), if it takes you two or three or four or more weeks to deal with all the "death stuff" and get around to processing the emotions enough to feel ANYTHING.

Kiprobalhato wrote:
yeah. this pathologization, treating traits and quirks that one were nothing more than just that, quirks, only serves to reinforce an increasingly narrow, cookie cutter standard that is "ideal". and those who don't fit it need to be "treated".


But if things are cut up into more and more cookies doesn't that increase awareness of diversity and then acceptance?[/quote]

Not if all the "cookies" are "problems" to be fixed, stigmatized, used as excuses by as*holes and lawyers, caricatured, gossiped about, made to disappear, used to invalidate thoughts, feelings and opinions, and all the rest of the stuff that happens to autistics, schizophrenics, people with unipolar and bipolar depression, et al every single day.

It COULD be a way to increase awareness of diversity and thus acceptance...

...but it ends up being used as a way to narrow the range of what is "normal," "acceptable," "human," and "OK."


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guzzle
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20 Oct 2014, 8:58 am

beneficii wrote:
Um, things like messed up thought patterns are part and parcel of mental illness. A whole area of psychology, cognitive-behavioral therapy, is set up to deal with and resolve such thought patterns.


Messed up thought patterns for the greater part are our childhood legacies. Inherited from well-meaning adults whom for a great deal themselves are too scared to confront their own egos and unknowingly teach children the same maladaptive coping mechanisms.

How many individuals learn nothing from their parents when it comes to relations? And they grow up and get into the same destructive relations time after time again. Why do so many abused women pick yet another abusing partner after the last one beat them into hospital?

In the end you got to do it yourself. With CBT you can only go so far. I prefer psychoanalysis but it's not for everyone.

Quote:
PROS of CBT
While it is collaborative, CBT fosters a more independent effort on the part of the client. As such, it involves less reliance on the therapist than psychodynamic therapy. Some people prefer this. Many people cannot afford or don?t want to go to ongoing therapy (six months or longer) and prefer to try to use the more directive skills learned in a time-limited (e.g., 12-16 weeks) CBT treatment on their own. CBT is particularly good for recent onset and relatively circumscribed issues or specific goals.

CONS of CBT
While some people find CBT helpful, others dislike it, feeling they are being talked out of their emotions. Some find that CBT?s focus on positive thinking feels too superficial to them, minimizing the importance of their personal history. Others find they don?t like the way CBT downplays emotions while seemingly overemphasizing the logical and thought-oriented components of one's mental life. Still others find they don?t get the results they desire with CBT and find that while psychodynamic therapy is more of an investment, it is more effective for them.

PROS of Psychodynamic Therapy
Those who find psychodynamic therapy a good fit tend to swear by it. It attempts to address the root causes of psychological issues compared to CBT. As such, the benefits are thought to be broader-based and longer lasting. Psychodynamic therapy is particularly good for more general distress, psychosomatic conditions, and personality patterns or tendencies such as repeated difficulties in one?s work or relationships.

CONS of Psychodynamic Therapy
While psychodynamic therapy can be brief, it does tend to take more time than CBT. Some people don?t find psychodynamic therapy to be a good fit. They may find it difficult to accept that factors outside of their awareness influence their thoughts and behaviors. Others are reluctant to think about their childhood or the relationship that develops with their therapist. Psychodynamic therapy is less structured than CBT and some prefer the more focused and directive approach of CBT.



Kiprobalhato
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22 Oct 2014, 11:31 pm

BuyerBeware wrote:
androbot01 wrote:
calstar2 wrote:
... Not so much that the person receiving a diagnosis isn't suffering with mental health, just that I think a lot of the time it is real problems they've been struggling with and not some mental disorder.


I'm not clear on what you mean here ... a mental disorder is a real problem.


Grieving your dear dead Granny intensely for more than six weeks is now a mental disorder. They call it "adjustment disorder." I guess you're really screwed if it was a long, slow death from something like cancer or Alzheimer's, if you were one of the primary caregivers (if you and Granny were lucky enough to have multiple caregivers), if it takes you two or three or four or more weeks to deal with all the "death stuff" and get around to processing the emotions enough to feel ANYTHING.

i guess i'm fortunate that all my four grandparents are alive and healthy.

with 8 and 12 children my grannies seem pretty set. :)


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DevilKisses
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01 Nov 2014, 1:14 pm

Kiprobalhato wrote:
Quote:
treating traits and quirks that once were nothing more than just that, quirks,

i guess putting different groups into molds and giving then names exposes them, but often there's also the problem of those generalizing an entire group just because they have a shared name and it's convenient.

it's why i prefer not to wear labels other than the ones i absolutely cannot get rid of, i don't want to be compared or contrasted to others that are "also this" or "also that."

I know that feeling. I hate being compared to autistic people. Autistic people have a lot of issues that I don't have. Whenever I have a problem with something people just assume it's autism-related. It never is. I just wish I could get rid of that label. People gave it to me because it vaguely described me when I was a bratty kid and it gives my parents a lot of funding.


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Sweetleaf
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02 Nov 2014, 9:54 pm

calstar2 wrote:
I believe a lot of mental illness is overdiagnosed. Not so much that the person receiving a diagnosis isn't suffering with mental health, just that I think a lot of the time it is real problems they've been struggling with and not some mental disorder. I just think they are too quick to diagnose instead of attempting to deal with underlying problems and seeing if the problems persist. On topic, yes I think labeling has gone too far.


mental disorders are 'real' problems, also people with mental illnesses can also be struggling with environmental/social factors in life on top of mental issues, or their situation/past situation could contribute to mental health issues.


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04 Nov 2014, 4:29 pm

I like having labels to some extent. Personally I have autism, Tourette syndrome, Obsessive compulsive disorder and ADHD. That's already quite a lot. Technically speaking though, it would be easy to label myself with many more conditions even though they might actually be parts of the four main conditions. To be honest, ADHD and OCD (In my case at least) are probably part of my Tourettes.) I could also (self) diagnose:

Dyspraxia
Dysgraphia
Proposognasia
Intermittent explosive disorder/rage attacks
Dyscalculia
sensory processing disorder
auditory integration disorder
misophonia

etc.

Most of these 'conditions', you could argue, are parts of my main diagnoses of autism and TS. Is there any benefit in labelling each thing separately? Not that I can see. You can almost develop an obsession with labels which either borders on or becomes an OCD obsession which is extremely unhealthy. If people learn to see each individual with maybe one or two diagnoses as unique, then this is more beneficial than having a long list of labels as long as the problems are treated.


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09 Nov 2014, 12:33 pm

I think illnesses have been invented (eg personality disorders) for people with annoying traits that impair them because they are hard to be with and they alienate people around them. They have even made grieving into a condition because some people grieve to a point where they play the blame game and it has torn families apart and sometimes they blame it on someone thinking they did it and they can't move on accepting that person had nothing to do with the death of someone. I will agree this is a "disorder" if this is what they are talking about when they say how they are making it a condition.

I wonder when ignorance will become a condition or stupidity or being an as*hole. I am not saying problems are not real, I just think they have all been given names and there are still people out there that have problems but don't fit in either box due to not enough symptoms so we have NOS labels or labels they don't even have enough for for a DX but are given that label anyway and sometimes people are treated for their symptoms than for a condition.

Think of when Asperger's was just being a quirk and people with it were just eccentric and absent minded. Now it's a condition because times have changed. Back when my parents were kids, having poor social skills was just eccentric, now it's a disability because they are now required when in the past they could still get jobs and live a normal life but times have changed. Plus I believe with this Asperger's label now and the whole autism spectrum, less aspies are learning because they are letting themselves be held back by it or their parents are doing it. Temple Grandin has talked about this too and also said in a video on youtube that people who are less affected by her can't even walk into a fast food place and order their own food and she can do that. My mom used to make me order my own food and would help me if I had trouble but I was still expected to say it. I had to overcome that fear and shyness and learning what to say when I order. I still have troubles with it sometimes but I still get through it.

Education has changed too so now there are more people with learning differences because work isn't taught their style anymore so they now need accommodations. I remember being told in 6th grade I have a different learning style and then I found out that was the reason why I was having problems learning in school and why I would get frustrated and then start acting up. I always thought I was stupid and I couldn't understand why I couldn't be smart and be like everyone else. Supposedly it was my Asperger's that caused this, that is what I have been told.

I think when society keeps changing, more and more problems will keep being discovered and then a new name would be invented for it. I feel I would have been "normal" if I lived in my grandparents time from when they were kids or young adults but I would just be seen as different or weird or eccentric or odd or a loner or shy or rude. My grandma managed to live through life without any labels. My mom thought she was Bipolar and she and dad also thought she had Asperger's and she had anxiety. Only DX she ever got was Alzheimer's and that was back in the late 90's. But times have changed and now getting employment is hard (it's hard for anyone) and I collect disability. Do I like it? Not really.


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