What's your mental illness?

14 Feb 2018

According to the national alliance on mental illness, 20% of Americans have experienced a mental health problem in the past year, and 4% experience a mental health issue requiring clinical attention (i.e. therapy and/or drugs).

Have you ever experienced a mental health issue?
Were you diagnosed? If so, what was your diagnosis?
Did you get help?
a) If so, what kind of help?
b) If so, did it help?
How do you cope with it?

Don't believe everything that you read.

14 Feb 2018

I've been diagnosed with a mix of depression and anxiety. While it's rooted in childhood experiences, it's been exacerbated by the stress of completing my education as a Ph.D student. I have been diagnosed, and was prescribed anti-depressants (Fluoxetine AKA Prozac) It's been moderately helpful in that I'm able to write my dissertation without freaking the fuck out or sinking into weeks of hopeless self-hate because my advisor e-mailed me, but I still experience periods of despair and anxiety. I've also attended therapy. I have mixed feelings about how well it worked. Therapy has helped me develop insights into where the issues came from, but I don't think it's really helped me to resolve them.

As for coping, I remind myself that my view of 'reality' (especially concerning self-perception) is somewhat distorted when I'm feeling anxious or depressed (similar to how a person may need glasses to accurately see the world), so I've learned to question the thoughts that I have, and to delay acting on them until I'm in a better frame of mind. I've also learned to cut myself a bit of slack, to not demand perfection of myself, nor to catastrophize minor incidents. I remind myself of my ordinariness - I may be depressed or anxious, but so are a lot of other people, so I'm not alone in it. I've also learned to seek out the bright side or silver linings to whatever happens in my life. Things that seem difficult can often provide lessons that help in future situations, or at the very least, reinforce my sense of resiliency.

Don't believe everything that you read.

18 Feb 2018

Quote by Just_A_Guy_You_Know
According to the national alliance on mental illness, 20% of Americans have experienced a mental health problem in the past year, and 4% experience a mental health issue requiring clinical attention (i.e. therapy and/or drugs).

I think that a lot more than 4% of Americans take psychoactive drugs for mental issues. It's more like 10 or 11% and the number is growing year by year. For people 45 and older the number is more like 18-20%.

Everybody has mental health issues, just like everyone has physical health issues. Unfortunately the stigma regarding mental heath is still strong so that most people are reluctant to address it.

If a person has a stuffed up nose, they have no problem buying a pill to relieve the symptoms. But in our society, mental health is still viewed as a weakness of sorts. Now that being said, the brain is a much much more complex organ than anything else in the human body. And the science behind pharmacological intervention is still in the infant stage.

If you do go to the doctor and get a prescription for mood stabilizing medication, understand that this is in no way a sure fire way to solve your problems. It may help, it may make thing worse or it may do nothing at all. The mechanisms for how anti-depressants affect various neurotransmitters are well known, but how that then affects overall mood is kind of a crap shoot. It's a trial and error thing.

Side note: I use the terms anti-depressants and mood stabilizers synonymously because there are really no "anti-depressants" unless you are talking about ecstasy. All of these drugs (if they do anything at all) usually just eliminate extremes of mood. They kind of just make you not care as much. That may be effective for some people.

If you go to your doctor and bring up depression or anxiety he/she will probably prescribe you something. Because that's what doctors do. What they prescribe you will probably be whatever drug is en vogue at the moment (or if you live in the US it will be dependent on whichever pharma rep they last had lunch with).

People often say that these drugs are over prescribed... and yeah maybe they are. But it's just because your doctor doesn't know what else to do. It's more cost effective than therapy, and therapy doesn't have a great track record either.

There are things like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia that are diagnosable biological conditions. Everything else is still in the learning stages.

The main problem I see is that most doctors aren't concerned about solving the problem. They just want to placate the patient, collect their cheque and go home.

I feel like a lot of what people see as "mental illnesses" are actually just personality traits that may not be what the general public views as "acceptable." Most of the geniuses throughout history would probably fall into the spectrum of being "mentally ill" by today's standards.

And when you eliminate biological conditions like bipolar and schizophrenia, you'll find that more intelligent people suffer more from things like depression and anxiety.

18 Feb 2018

I have not been diagnosed but do live with occasional bouts of depression, as I have recently mentioned over in Rump's. No medication or therapy involved, just coping. Coping mechanisms? Exercise, esp. outdoor walks and biking, helps. Fresh air (see previous). Music of some kinds. Comedy and humour gives me a boost (I've never been so low that I couldn't manage a laugh or two).

18 Feb 2018

Take your pick of diagnoses. You may or may not be right. For all i know, the doctors may or may not be right

18 Feb 2018

Quote by misty0666
Take your pick of diagnoses. You may or may not be right. For all i know, the doctors may or may not be right

That's often the issue with mental health, isn't it? A lot of it is still in a scientific grey area and they are often picking straws and throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Probably why I haven't bothered seeking help. I am getting to know what helps when the blues hit so I don't see any point to messing with therapies that may or may not help.

And in my previous post, i missed one important "therapy" for me: Get enough goddamned sleep. The probability of a depressive episode correlates heavily with lack of sleep for me.

19 Feb 2018

My Ph.D. is actually in a psychology-related field. Personally, I'm not a big advocate for diagnosing, which seems to me like trying to fit someone into a neat categorical box when human experience is varied, and unique in a lot of ways. Some people find them helpfule, but often patients get a label, treat it as explanatory, conform to it in their behaviour, and then use it as an excuse to do nothing about it. Diagnosis is necessary for insurance purposes, and can be helpful to clinicians in communicating about common clusters of symptoms, but for patients, I don't see too much value in it usually. Also it's important to avoid being totally defined by a diagnosis. I might feel depressed or anxious more than I'd like, but it's only one part of who I am, and often not the most salient part of my identity.

Don't believe everything that you read.

19 Feb 2018

Quote by DamonX

I feel like a lot of what people see as "mental illnesses" are actually just personality traits that may not be what the general public views as "acceptable." Most of the geniuses throughout history would probably fall into the spectrum of being "mentally ill" by today's standards.

I (and Michel Foucault) agree that mental illness is often defined in terms of socially undesirable characteristics, and that our society is highly normative which means you either conform to the status quo or you are marginalized as 'crazy'. However, for many people, 'mental illness' is often a rational response to an irrational world. I mean, if you aren't depressed or anxious or confused or frustrated by the state of world at least some of the time, then you're probably deluding yourself about it, and living some kind of fantasy disassociated from reality. And that's not to speak of the millions of people who have experienced abuse, trauma, or some other personal misfortune, and are trying as best as they can figure out how to cope with it (though it might not always be effective or healthy). They can often be seen as normal if not functional responses to a fucked up life.

Don't believe everything that you read.

19 Feb 2018

Depression and anxiety. Anxiety is the one that affects my daily life, unless I take medication.

I'm the only one in my family that was ever medicated for it, but if I look at behavior and symptoms, I'm very sure I come from a long line of anxious people. Both Mom and Dad had panic attacks, though they wouldn't have called it that.

21 Feb 2018

Quote by Just_A_Guy_You_Know
My Ph.D. is actually in a psychology-related field. Personally, I'm not a big advocate for diagnosing, which seems to me like trying to fit someone into a neat categorical box when human experience is varied, and unique in a lot of ways. Some people find them helpfule, but often patients get a label, treat it as explanatory, conform to it in their behaviour, and then use it as an excuse to do nothing about it. Diagnosis is necessary for insurance purposes, and can be helpful to clinicians in communicating about common clusters of symptoms, but for patients, I don't see too much value in it usually. Also it's important to avoid being totally defined by a diagnosis. I might feel depressed or anxious more than I'd like, but it's only one part of who I am, and often not the most salient part of my identity.

Speaking from my own life experiences, I've only witnessed positive things emerging from professional diagnoses; and I've known plenty of people with severe mental health conditions, notably schizophrenia and bipolar type 1. Yes, it might seem like 'categorizing', but the reality is that it allows professionals to properly define/understand a wide variety of psychological conditions. The current (and extremely valuable) knowledge that psychiatrists hold about schizophrenia certainly wouldn't be as extensive today if a proper label like 'schizophrenia' wouldn't have been put forward and thousands of people featuring much similar symptoms weren't investigated. I understand that no two schizophrenics are exactly alike, but in general terms, what holds true for a paranoid schizophrenic happens to be pretty damn accurate for the next one; and medications also tend to be similarly effective between patients of the same condition (even though they often require a lot of trial and error concerning dosage).

On the patient's side, the exceedingly favorable thing about formal diagnoses is that they allow people to dissociate their abnormal behaviors from their usual self-identity. A guy I knew (bipolar type 1) barged into his ex-employer's offices at the peak of a manic episode; within minutes he was smashing computers fully-naked. That particular guy was habitually a calm/introverted intellectual and a huge fan of Mozart, for the record. Now what would this guy think of himself a year later without an official diagnosis to explain his actions? And what little faith would he have in life without any professional guidance, knowing full well that these kinds of anomalous impulses could inexplicably happen again at any moment?

With a proper diagnosis (and further understanding of his own condition), what was once "I myself am an extremely fucked up human being without any hope of improvement" suddenly becomes "I am a perfectly normal person who's periodically affected by a condition which can be mitigated with proper treatment". And trust me, people with severe mental health conditions never ever find solace in complacency, and won't ever use their diagnosis to 'conform to it' or to 'excuse their behavior'. That might be true for the average self-diagnosed downer, but I can assure you that anyone who's ever had a psychotic episode and who's been regarded as an unhinged nutcase by dozens of bystanders won't seek to repeat the experience all that often.

A lot of the acceptance regarding psychological conditions is also directly attributable to the establishment of medical diagnoses. The most common fear is by far xenophobia, the fear of the unknown. Diagnoses tremendously helped to make conditions be known to the general public, thus considerably reducing all the demonizing and prejudicing typically associated with insane/abnormal behaviors. Even depression or anxiety are considered a lot more positively/empathically today than they were 50 years ago, especially in 'manly' environments that traditionally scoffed at these dispositions.

The only situation where I could definitely agree that diagnoses can have an adverse effect is with children. Young kids still in the process of realizing how they relate/differentiate themselves from others can most certainly suffer from receiving a weighty diagnosis that intrinsically sets them apart from their peers. Not to mention the golem-effect (or self-fulfilling prophecy) which their school environment might quite possibly instill into them.

Now do I suffer from a mental illness myself? Fuck yes I do, and quite a severe one at that. I was also hospitalized in a psychiatric institute for 2 weeks in my early 20s, where the majority of my daily thoughts was to contemplate how fucking fun and liberating it would be to kill myself. Don't ask me to be more specific than that because I won't, and I'm definitely not looking for anyone's sympathy.

25 Apr 2018

Anxiety.... I have extremely bad anxiety attacks but it’s actually been awhile since my last one and I have learned what works best for me is to just remove my triggers...

21 May 2018

I was treated for PTSD during my college years with two years of therapy. Part of that was to treat my anorexia as well. To paraphrase 'Alice': Am I mad? I’m afraid so. I'm entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.

21 May 2018

Someone(s) on my LUSH friends list ???

http://www.lushstories.com/stories/love-stories/exit-33-trust.aspx

21 May 2018

Quote by seeker4

And in my previous post, i missed one important "therapy" for me: Get enough goddamned sleep. The probability of a depressive episode correlates heavily with lack of sleep for me.

Absolutely. Sleep is the single most important factor in my mental outlook.

I don't consider myself clinically depressive, but during an extremely disruptive time in my life I took anti-depressants, and they helped greatly. After the stress level ramped back down, I SLOWLY weaned myself off of them (with the help of my doctor).

21 May 2018

I have been accused of being sex-mad - does that count.?

29 May 2018

I work some with veterans, about ten hours a week. mostly dispersing emergency assistance and passing out phone numbers for assorted veterans assistance sources. About half those I see have health issues, often more than one problem. ie: PSTD or TBI (traumatic Brain Injury = concussion) also accompanies nutritional problems, stress induced physical problems, or physical wounds. The Fourth of July is coming up & several I'm acquainted with are stressing already, For the PSTD afflicted the Glorious 4th is often hell.

2 Jun 2018

Quote by Just_A_Guy_You_Know

Have you ever experienced a mental health issue?
Were you diagnosed? If so, what was your diagnosis?
Did you get help?
a) If so, what kind of help?
b) If so, did it help?
How do you cope with it?

I have a parent with Bipolar, type 1 and I’ve been diagnosed as Bipolar, type 2. I started having problems when I was 16 and I’ve seen so many different therapists and psychiatrists over the years, some good and some bad and I believe I was misdiagnosed several times and prescribed medications that made me feel physically sick and only seemed to exacerbate my symptoms.

It’s important to look for the right clinical team and approach. People who listen to you and understand your specific needs. No one size fits all and I’d steer clear of anyone whose first inclination is to start you on multiple medications without first completing a comprehensive evaluation.

At this point I think I’m doing quite well. I take a single medication, moderate dose with little side effects. It hasn’t always been easy for me. I don’t take anything for granted and I will always consider myself a work in progress.

I was reluctant to respond to this question. I think disclosing such information, even under the veil of lush anonymity, might change how a few perceive me but I can’t really do much about it. It’s as much a part of me as is my hair and eye color.

2 Jun 2018

I’ve had an eating disorder that has progressively gotten worse and worse since the age of five. It was made worse by a series of events that culminated in one catastrophic event leaving me with PTSD in 2011. I was on Effexor for a long time after that which actually really helped. The only reason I stopped taking it is because of the cost and I think to a large extent it made my eating disorder worse. I’ve had as many diagnoses as I’ve had therapists, which is quite a few. I tried SSRIs for a while but the functioning of my penis is more important to me than dealing with my depression. I no longer feel like PTSD is an issue, although about a year ago I had a really strong panic attack to a scene from “Shameless.” So I may be in denial about that. I’ve been seeing my current therapist for a few years. He’s pretty good but I think if I’ ever going to be better it’s going to take a decade to change the way I think about myself and life in general. Which I guess is fine. I’m not really busy, so... yeah..

I’m not really sure I’m coping with any of it particularly well. I masturbate a lot. Thst seems to help.

2 Jun 2018

PTSD and manic depression. i hate the drugs, so i don't take them, except a few times when it's been overwhelming. i manage both with therapy, excersize, and meditation. not always well, but well enough.

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.

2 Jun 2018

Quote by Just_A_Guy_You_Know
My Ph.D. is actually in a psychology-related field. Personally, I'm not a big advocate for diagnosing, which seems to me like trying to fit someone into a neat categorical box when human experience is varied, and unique in a lot of ways. Some people find them helpfule, but often patients get a label, treat it as explanatory, conform to it in their behaviour, and then use it as an excuse to do nothing about it. Diagnosis is necessary for insurance purposes, and can be helpful to clinicians in communicating about common clusters of symptoms, but for patients, I don't see too much value in it usually. Also it's important to avoid being totally defined by a diagnosis. I might feel depressed or anxious more than I'd like, but it's only one part of who I am, and often not the most salient part of my identity.

My therapist does not like diagnosing people either.

2 Jun 2018

Quote by Mari_25

I have a parent with Bipolar, type 1 and I’ve been diagnosed as Bipolar, type 2. I started having problems when I was 16 and I’ve seen so many different therapists and psychiatrists over the years, some good and some bad and I believe I was misdiagnosed several times and prescribed medications that made me feel physically sick and only seemed to exacerbate my symptoms.

It’s important to look for the right clinical team and approach. People who listen to you and understand your specific needs. No one size fits all and I’d steer clear of anyone whose first inclination is to start you on multiple medications without first completing a comprehensive evaluation.

At this point I think I’m doing quite well. I take a single medication, moderate dose with little side effects. It hasn’t always been easy for me. I don’t take anything for granted and I will always consider myself a work in progress.

I was reluctant to respond to this question. I think disclosing such information, even under the veil of lush anonymity, might change how a few perceive me but I can’t really do much about it. It’s as much a part of me as is my hair and eye color.

most people already think i'm nuts, so i wasn't too worried. in all seriousness, i think everyone has some issues. some are more severe than others, but really, it's how well they deal with them that matters. a lot of people with fairly serious mental issues do pretty well keeping it under control and really, to me, it's a show of strength and character and i tend to look at them favorably as opposed to disfavorably, so yeah, good on you, girl. Big Hugs

at one point i was diagnosed as bipolar (shortly after attempting suicide, so it was an out of character time). the meds fucked me up and we ended up doing a reaccessment and second opinion and all that and i got "down graded" to manic-despressive (with illusions of grandeur, but that's a whole separate issue lol).

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.

2 Jun 2018

Quote by LovingSadist

My therapist does not like diagnosing people either.

funny, mine calls me a 'crazy mofo' all the time. i think that's just an opinion rather than a diagnosis, tho. smile

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.

2 Jun 2018

Complex PTSD

Anxiety

2 Jun 2018

Better than therapy

2 Jun 2018

Anxiety. It gets bad sometimes

www.szadvntures.com

Latest story:

TBD
Bump in the Night-Microfiction
Smoke Break-Interracial

2 Jun 2018

They say the first sign is recognizing you have one. I recognized mine as alcoholism. Some say that is not a mental issue. I disagree because once I realized I had it, I was able to cure it for a time. It is a constant battle to keep it at bay. I have not touched a drink in well over 30 years, but believe me, I want one every day. This is why I avoid drama and stress. I work for myself so I don't have to deal with company bullshit that can make me want one more. I work from home, so I don't have to go out and deal with people unless I choose to. I have eliminated almost all of the things that can make me want to drink again. I am in constant recovery mode.

Remember to check out a few of my stories. You can find them here.

https://www.lushstories.com/profile/Jimwillhavefun/stories

For those who like a change and prefer something a little more PG, check out my stories on Storiespace.
https://www.storiesspace.com/profile/Jimwillhavefun/stories

2 Jun 2018

Quote by Mari_25

I was reluctant to respond to this question. I think disclosing such information, even under the veil of lush anonymity, might change how a few perceive me but I can’t really do much about it. It’s as much a part of me as is my hair and eye color.

I was second-guessing what I shared about myself, too. But the reason I started the thread was because we so often treat mental illness as something to be ashamed of, and that attitude in itself prevents people from seeking the help that they need, and that tends to make matters worse rather than better. So I'm hoping to do some small part to destigmatize mental illness. It's not something that we've chosen, but it's something that we have to live with. Thanks for your comment. Hugs

Don't believe everything that you read.

2 Jun 2018

Quote by LovingSadist
I tried SSRIs for a while but the functioning of my penis is more important to me than dealing with my depression... I’m not really sure I’m coping with any of it particularly well. I masturbate a lot. Thst seems to help.

Yeah I noticed after getting on SSRIs, that my sex drive went way down (not totally dead, but it isn't what it used to be - then again, whose is after 35?). As I've mentioned elsewhere, my wife has been dealing with her own issues around sex, so now we kinda match and it's worked out.

Masturbation releases all kinds of good-feeling neurotransmitters into the brain, so that makes sense that it would help with depression. Then again if it becomes excessive and compulsive (or addictive), then that could throw those same neurotransmitters out of balance.

Don't believe everything that you read.

2 Jun 2018

Quote by sprite

funny, mine calls me a 'crazy mofo' all the time. i think that's just an opinion rather than a diagnosis, tho.

Your therapist sounds awesome. lol.

Don't believe everything that you read.

2 Jun 2018

Quote by Jimwillhavefun
They say the first sign is recognizing you have one. I recognized mine as alcoholism. Some say that is not a mental issue. I disagree because once I realized I had it, I was able to cure it for a time. It is a constant battle to keep it at bay. I have not touched a drink in well over 30 years, but believe me, I want one every day. This is why I avoid drama and stress. I work for myself so I don't have to deal with company bullshit that can make me want one more. I work from home, so I don't have to go out and deal with people unless I choose to. I have eliminated almost all of the things that can make me want to drink again. I am in constant recovery mode.

Alcoholism is a chronic condition. It never goes away, you just have to keep managing it (and it does get easier to manage over time, though some days are easier than others). 30 years is quite the accomplishment, though. I'm not an alcoholic myself, but I did smoke cigarettes for 10 years, and when I find myself craving one, I think of how much it sucked to quit smoking, and how much I would hate to go through that all over again.

Don't believe everything that you read.

Are you sure?