Poll: Mental illness: a conspiracy?

[Leorex]

a mental disorder is not an excuse, if you can function in the world you have no excuse.

 

[Captain_Caveman]

Mental illness is scientifically proven. It is actively observable (w/ brainscans), manipulative.

Saying it's a scam is like saying gravity is a scam.

The only people who believe that crap are nutsos like Tom Cruise.

 

[razer17]

Obviously, a lot of mental illness is 100% real. Some, however, is a complete sham, and that applies to physical illness as well.

The biggest issue with the OP is that the "conspiracy" is not on the part of the mentally ill - they are the victims. People serve to profit from mental illness, and that introduces a number of issues.

i didnt mean that the conspiracy is on the part of the victims. i know that the mentally ill are not conspirators. i meant it to be mocking of the people who say mental illness isnt real, but it didnt work. i would edit the title but i dont think i can, can i?
i also agree with you on the issue of misuse and pretending to be mentally ill for the benefits it may bring.

 

[razer17]

Mental illness is scientifically proven. It is actively observable (w/ brainscans), manipulative.

Saying it's a scam is like saying gravity is a scam.

The only people who believe that crap are nutsos like Tom Cruise.

what do you mean? tom cruise is completely normal.
i like that qoute its like saying gravity is a scam. well done on that one, i have to agree

 

[gamergal126]

I think clinical depression is a myth, I personally know 2 people who openly admit to feining depression for attention.

As a person diagnosed as clinically depressed I am offended by your comment. I have had to change my perscription several times in the past three years, each time because of serious breakdowns (crying for no reason, and once contemplating suicide(this was seven years ago and I'm doing much better)). You can ask my mom or anyone who knows me I AM NOT FAKING IT!

 

[GothmogII]

When you can prove a mental illness by studying brain chemistry and neuron pathways, and can prove beyond a doubt that there is a physical difference between someone diagnosed with a mental disorder and someone who does not have one, then yes, you can prove that they exist. To claim that it's just trying to make an excuse for people with behavioral problems is just stupid, and borderline offensive.

This

Okay...side with the prick. That's fair. Just please, do yourself a favour and go visit a special needs school or a psychiatric hospital. Then come back and say these words: It's all in their heads, it's all their fault. They're just making excuses. Every single one.

Can you please, for the love of God, read a post in its entirety before you attack someone. Jesus Christ, how could you possibly think I'd believe mental illnesses were fake. Can you -read-?

Nope, read it again, feel free to correct this gist:

Unless it can be proven otherwise that there is a physical difference between someone with and without a mental illness. ----> To claim otherwise is to make an excuse on the part of those who are currently understood to be under the effects of these illnesses.

Ergo: Until there are/is readable physical data to prove so - Metal illness is either, greatly exaggerated or non-existent.


Maybe I am overreacting, but do tell anyway.

Dear God, I can't believe I'm doing this. OK, fine, I'll do it, but I only ask for an apology in return afterwards:

1. "When you can prove a mental illness by studying brain chemistry and neuron pathways, and can prove beyond a doubt that there is a physical difference between someone diagnosed with a mental disorder and someone who does not have one, then yes, you can prove that they exist. "

He is saying, you -can- prove there are mental illnesses. Why? Because I've studied neurology and everything he says is fact, and he knows it as well. Brain chemistry/neuron pathways are already officiated by modern day science, so he is saying 'when you can do this' (which is now), then yes, obviously you can prove they exist (of which they do).

In addition to hammer an extremely obvious point, he says:

2. "To claim that it's just trying to make an excuse for people with behavioral problems is just stupid, and borderline offensive."

^OK, this, I really can't understand how you could've missed. It's so obvious I don't even need to explain it.

To you I apologise, and thank you for clarifying. However, that last line is still throwing me off, again, maybe I'm misreading it.

To me it comes off as: If there are no observable differences then, it must not exist. To claim otherwise is just an excuse.

That's how I read it at least.

 

[Nick of All Trades]

I haven't been in a mental asylum, but it would really surprise me if it turned out to be just like a monkey house... on steroids... and on fire.
That mental illness is a subject of invention doesn't mean it is a conspiracy. It just means 'in contrast to discovery'. What bothers me is that only a trained doctor can forward a psychiatric diagnosis, which kind of speaks against the objectivity of the medicine; especially since two doctors can have two contrasting opinions, if I may use that word. Not to mention a differential diagnosis, where the doctor uses as many diagnostical manuals as possible to forward as many diagnosis as possible. But evidently that is the wrong answer on this thread, so I am gonna end by stating something very cryptic: 'Insanity' might be an older concept than 'sanity', but so is 'sickness' an older concept than 'health'

 

[irishstormtrooper]

There are mental illnesses, but "temporary insanity" is not. And it is over-diagnosed.

 

[Zosephine]

As a sufferer of depression, I think that mental illnesses are overdiagnosed in the more "visible" cases. By visible I mean when every other person mentions their cousin or their friend's little sister and says that they have ADD. Such diagnoses of children seem to me, like many here have said before, an excuse for lazy parenting.

However:

There are the people who actually DO suffer from mental illnesses. It's not a conspiracy. Personally, I would not be alive to post this if I had not received treatment. Frankly, I still fear that I will take my own life at some points. It is terrifying.

 

[Becoming Insane]

I'm conviced ADHD doesn't exist. I still think it's a label given to kids who are just unruly and disobediant. It would make sense for this term to become available because it allows teachers to bundle difficult children together in a group, label them insane, and therefore there is no need to treat them 'normally' because that would require far too much effort.

Also a more beleivable excuse for the mental illness would be the fact it allows parents to purchase Ritalin ($$$$$ for the drugs companies), and basically get them stoned and docile so they don't have to be dealt with properly. Label them insane, pump em full of drugs and be done with it. There's a difference between a full blown mental illness and having a short attention span out of either being stupid or just being easily exciteable.

I call personal foul on that. When I was young, I had ADHD, was given Ritalin for it, and it aggravated my dormant Tourettes Syndrome. I now take in the AM:
?1500 mg Keppra
?.5 mg clonazaepam
?15 mg Lexapro
?80 mg Strattera

In the PM:
?1500 mg Keppra
?.5 mg clonazaepam

Tell me that's a conspiracy.

 

[Toynip]

Mental illness does exist and it's because of the ignorance of a surprising amount of people that there are so many people suffering because of it.
However, shit like dyslexia is just a middle class excuse for not being bothered.

I think there are varying degrees of fakery for dyslexia. I'd imagine it's a very easy excuse to make if you're a bit thick, but I know a guy who genuinely struggles, get him to read a line out loud and he'll get the words right, but in the wrong order. He's an intelligent person, has rebuilt his car from scratch and did well at school, generally pretty switched on.

Depression annoys me as it is touted so much as an excuse for being a wuss. Someone I know has a genuine chemical imbalance in his brain but at the same time I know others who claim to be depressed and have every ailment under the sun.

Otherwise, yes, most cases of mental illness are genuine and the illnesses certainly exist.

 

[antipunt]

When you can prove a mental illness by studying brain chemistry and neuron pathways, and can prove beyond a doubt that there is a physical difference between someone diagnosed with a mental disorder and someone who does not have one, then yes, you can prove that they exist. To claim that it's just trying to make an excuse for people with behavioral problems is just stupid, and borderline offensive.

This

Okay...side with the prick. That's fair. Just please, do yourself a favour and go visit a special needs school or a psychiatric hospital. Then come back and say these words: It's all in their heads, it's all their fault. They're just making excuses. Every single one.

Can you please, for the love of God, read a post in its entirety before you attack someone. Jesus Christ, how could you possibly think I'd believe mental illnesses were fake. Can you -read-?

Nope, read it again, feel free to correct this gist:

Unless it can be proven otherwise that there is a physical difference between someone with and without a mental illness. ----> To claim otherwise is to make an excuse on the part of those who are currently understood to be under the effects of these illnesses.

Ergo: Until there are/is readable physical data to prove so - Metal illness is either, greatly exaggerated or non-existent.


Maybe I am overreacting, but do tell anyway.

Dear God, I can't believe I'm doing this. OK, fine, I'll do it, but I only ask for an apology in return afterwards:

1. "When you can prove a mental illness by studying brain chemistry and neuron pathways, and can prove beyond a doubt that there is a physical difference between someone diagnosed with a mental disorder and someone who does not have one, then yes, you can prove that they exist. "

He is saying, you -can- prove there are mental illnesses. Why? Because I've studied neurology and everything he says is fact, and he knows it as well. Brain chemistry/neuron pathways are already officiated by modern day science, so he is saying 'when you can do this' (which is now), then yes, obviously you can prove they exist (of which they do).

In addition to hammer an extremely obvious point, he says:

2. "To claim that it's just trying to make an excuse for people with behavioral problems is just stupid, and borderline offensive."

^OK, this, I really can't understand how you could've missed. It's so obvious I don't even need to explain it.

To you I apologise, and thank you for clarifying. However, that last line is still throwing me off, again, maybe I'm misreading it.

To me it comes off as: If there are no observable differences then, it must not exist. To claim otherwise is just an excuse.

That's how I read it at least.

Well at least you have the decency to apologize. I respect you for this.

I'll try to explain it for you as best as I can, because you are clearly misreading it (not meant to be offensive).

He says: "To claim that it's just trying to make an excuse for people with behavioral problems is just stupid, and borderline offensive."

That means essentially: People who claim that (mental disorders) are just trying to make an excuse for people with behavioral problems (are) just stupid and borderline offensive. In other words, 'to claim that it's just trying to make an excuse for people' is just 'stupid and offensive'. People who claim that it is an excuse for behavioral problems are being stupid and offensive.

Whew, hopefully that did it.

 

[The Brian J]

As someone with sort of a mental illness himself (moderate Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), I can definitely say that Mental Illness is real. I do agree that occasionally, someone will be over diagnosed, but for the most part the when someone is diagnosed, they are diagnosed correctly.

But as far as being a conspiracy/myth goes, I can guarantee you that is false. Mental illness is 100% real.

 

[Word Salad]

I think some are seriously over-diagnosed, and some are vaguely defined. For the second variety, look at PTSD for example. From what I can make of it, it is anxiety and depression caused from a traumatic event. I've suffered from it, from what my therapist tells me "Once you get down to it, you have a series of feelings caused by certain situations, and that's it." Apparently, everyone who gets it has a different brand of it, which causes it to be vaguely defined, and that makes people skeptical of it. That last bit being my own interpretation, anyways.

People just don't understand what other people are thinking, some mental illnesses are so rare that people have no idea what they are like, so they tend to think that mental illnesses are nothing, that people are just "acting". They can't empathize with their fellow human being.

Anyways, my mom has told me to "just get over yourself" several times before. I remember getting an anxiety attack (or whatever, flashback, "fit", I don't have a word for it); I was crying, then my mom found me. She acted all motherly about it. Despite knowing that I have these attacks, she assumed it was from "not having enough money to go to the prom". She knows how it is "a big deal to people your age".

Seriously, she thinks crying about the fucking prom is something to cry about. I don't give a flying shit about the prom, I'd rather buy a movie, or a video game, or a PSP. I haven't even mentioned prom to her before. Apparently PTSD isn't all that big a fucking deal.

That's my two cents anyways, people just don't understand. They just don't get it.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

I've got mild OCD and had depression a few years back. Anyone who says there is no such things as mental illness has clearly never been into contact with it, or suffered from one.

 

[the captain]

Of course it's a conspirancy. That's what Tom Cruise told me anyways.

 

[Becoming Insane]

Most mental illness is legitimate.

Things like ADD though, are completely ludicrous. Any child with ADD needs nothing more than a slap upside the head and to be told to shut the fuck up.

Bull. Fucking. Shit.

 

[Socius]

Of course not! still some are overrated...
I have no doubt that there are a lot of people out there actually having AD/HD and ADD but most psycologists use one of these as an ecsuse when they really have no idea whats going on in someones head, practically ADD is a synonym for "I-Have-no-F**king-idea-what-your-condition-is" on psychologics language! and if some one go to their school nurse saying: I don't understand english, i have trubble consentraiting! then she will diagnose you with ADD right away giving you ritaline! so... Mental illnes is myth? BUSTED! though not everyone diagnosed with one actually got it!

 

[soren7550]

I have a quack that labeled me as severely depressed because I couldn't stand him or his office (also, I kept correcting him and I may have insulted him.). So he's doping me up on a antidepressant that has caused suicide .(has a high suicide rate in my age group.)

Let me say that shit again: The antidepressant I'm taking causes suicide in it users.

 

[Zand88]

The whole Ritalin issue does seem suspicious at time. I wouldn't say it's much of a conspiracy, as much a method of doping up kids for cash.

However, I have tried a Ritalin derivative. Besides giving me a pleasant insomnia, it didn't make me crave more, and it did make me feel slightly smarter. I felt like my head was clear, and I was more competent-- for a while. Not exactly worth $50 co-pay, unless you plan to make cash off of Warcraft sessions.
So, I know first hand that's it's not simply "kiddie crack." Over-diagnosed? Maybe.