The Wrong Approach

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When animals suffer from stress, neglect or abuse, they exhibit symptoms and behaviors that are often very similar to those of humans who are said to have a mental disorder. Some get listless and inactive. Some refuse to eat or stop grooming themselves. Others act anxious and paranoid, hide under furniture and wince at every noise or movement. Dogs left home alone all day may obsessively lick and chew their paws, which can cause wounds and infections. Some pets pull out their fur or feathers, or chew their fur / plumage off.

Some caged birds even chew off their toes in response to stress and loneliness. Other pets take out their frustration on their environment instead and destroy furniture, or act aggressively toward their owners. In all these cases, we realize their psychological problems as something that is caused by the environment. These pets have the same neurological conditions and neurochemical imbalances that affect many humans who are depressed, anxious or obsessed, or suffer from mood disorders or self-injurious behavior. But we intuitively realize that there must be an environmental cause, such as an abusive owner, lack of affection, or inadequate living conditions.

We also realize that we can cure them simply by improving their environment or changing our behavior toward them. Once removed from an abusive or neglectful home and treated with love and care, they quickly begin to recover. We don't try to fix them by medicating them. Drugging a caged, abused or neglected animal while continuing the mistreatment that has caused its condition would be a horrible thing to do. Only when it comes to human beings, medical professionals can't be bothered to look for the cause of an unusual mental state. Nor is there any interest in social programs and policies that protect those who are the most susceptible to stress, abuse, and lack of affection.

Instead, mental health professionals are looking for a quick fix that will temporarily dull the emotional pain and suppress the symptoms. A magic bullet that turns the so-called creeps, weirdos and psychos back into productive members of society. We don't have the same empathy for broken and abused adult human beings that we feel for cute furry pets, we simply don't want those strange individuals to scare or disturb the "normal" population. I wish society would treat us more like stressed animals and acknowledge the environmental causes of our problems.


PS: I'm not trying to say that autism is caused by stress, abuse, neglect or harrassment. But many other conditions are, including the depression and anxiety symptoms that are often comorbid with autism. Like pets, every human has different needs and some require a greater amount of care. But what we all need is social acceptance and basic respect, as well as a future perspective and the feeling of being appreciated by others. Drugs are not a solution.

Good point. Yes I have definitely noticed a bias toward making people "productive." My outward happiness is always judged in terms of "functionality" within the constraints of society as it's set up for people who are oriented differently, and it's more often than not judged incorrectly. My family and professionals I see have told me "But you've been so happy lately!" when I start talking suicidally "out of nowhere" and I say I haven't been happy at all, the medicine was formulated to make me appear to function like everyone else and nothing beyond that, it doesn't necessarily change how I feel and in fact if I'm "functioning" "like everyone else" I'm probably feeling pretty horrible whether or not I can physiologically show it what with antidepressants' inhibiting crying and so on.

Good post, and I agree the environment is very important......one cannot very well recover from anything in a unhealthy, tense environment. I think one issue is though if there are so many mentally disturbed people in a society that might point to the society creating an un-pleasent environment which is scary for normal people to acknowledge because then it means they might have to compromise.......instead of trying to mold anyone who deviates into something they aren't simply so they won't disturb anyone else by being abnormal.

Yes, I agree that Western societies as a whole are rather unpleasant and unhealthy environments, at least for the 99% at the bottom of the economic ladder. Aside from stress- and abuse-related conditions, this is also evidenced in our relatively high crime rates. There are human cultures with virtually no crime or violence, so we are obviously doing something wrong.

I was completely cured of autistic symptoms when I felt safe and loved. We're just animals, it makes sense.