Mental Illness, Neurosis, Depression and Suicide

Chivalry Augustus wrote:I am majorly critical of my blemishes and generally feel ugly

You have sexy lips.

Demelza wrote:I went through a very dark time and, in my experience, a good night sleep makes all the difference. 10mg of Zolpidem a night changed my life.

Plenty of sleep keeps my woman's brains level - it is an amazing thing that it's such a simple way of keeping on top of it. I've now pinpointed when she had her last 'episode' and it did coincide with a period of lack of sleep.

lardbucket wrote:not so sage

Meh, I speak from experience. 1 year of my own life, and 4 years of my youngest daughter's life. No miraculous epiphanies achieved at the hands of the numerous pscychologists and psychiatrists. IMHO (and my suicidal brother's), most are very expensive talking partners, a job that can be filled by an insightful family member or friend. If others have had more success with these people than I, then good for them.

sleep deprivation can make a sane person quite mad

if you're halfway there to start with, it must be worse

lardbucket wrote:sleep deprivation can make a sane person quite mad

if you're halfway there to start with, it must be worse

Aye, it's amazing the confusion that quickly rouses.

Conversely, I get little sleep and am as sane as a f*cking jigglepop.

I can tell from your avatar.

Ahhh, well that's a piece of pop art that represents the 'go get 'em sport!' attitude that I hold within. It's also an inhibitor that stops Dan talking in the third person.

I thought it was because you are a bit bananas.

Hmmm... I endorse your thoughts and wish to sign up to your newsletter, sir. Well played.

The more tough part is finding a good doctor or a quack who is genuine in helping his patients then ripping their bank balances off. In India a large number of medical practioners are turning too money-minded. Govt healthcare is pathetic and non-existent due to uncommitted mediocre people and corruption and is only used by the most poor or ones who can't afford good doctors [same is the case in education]. Private schools vs Govt ones where the latter is not even preferred by those who cant afford private education]. Reports of a couple of dozens kids dying due to lack of proper equipment or sensitivity on part of staffs are routine. Reports of Govt run camps operating rural poor en masse for eye cataracts and all of them getting blind due to unskilled doctors operating with scant respect to hygienic and laid procedures. The votebank politics of 'affirmative action' where lots of so called 'backward' communities are given reservations in most Got educations and jobs have led to a rise of class of underachievers who don't have to work hard and then can claim Govt jobs without deserving or being trained at it. It is this class of employees who revel in mediocrity and view making a fast buck for every work done from every approaching citizen as their birthright. Best treatments [like also in case of education] lies in Private practitioners. So in effect thanks to corrupt politicians both education and medicine are huge industries meant to exploit for profits and not for building a healthy learned society. Deliberate attempts to keep an challenge from Govt run institutions means these guys have license to loot. Schools are very expensive now and so are treatment for medical ailments.

People dread getting sick and going to a doctor for opinion. At any flimsy whom you may have to go through a zillion specialist opinions and reports at the doctor's whims if he can get commission from all of these. If you have enrolled for a serious ailment like bypass, transplant or serious infection than good luck if you have a medical insurance. if you than yo can bet the hospital will put you more needless procedures and semi-treatments aimed at drying up your medical insurance. They believe that if a medical insurance helps you benefit by not having to shell the whole treatment from your pockets, they have a bigger right to benefit off it than yourself. It is no co-incidence than that more politicians and profit driven business house are running more and more educational and medical institutes. The politicians are going to great lengths to ensure Govt institutes are left lagging and inefficient and every effort is being made to privatize every possible Govt service so the bastard politicians can milk them with their capitalist cronies. Its time we had laws that serving politicians and govt servants must have their kids study in and must seek treatment in Govt institutes. That is the only way to turn things around.

God help anyone needing psychiatric help for some deeper anxieties. You can bet he will never be allowed to get of the shrink's couch ever in his life and the possible deliberately prolonged treatment and it's expenses of staying sane itself could drive him to commit a suicide. Which makes me come back to my post opening. The more tough part is finding a good doctor or a quack who is genuine in helping his patients then ripping their bank balances off.

Batman wrote:Reports of a couple of dozen kidsnewborn infants of poor dying due to lack of proper equipment or sensitivity on part of Govt staffs and hospital are routine.

At any flimsyYou are made to take a zillion specialist opinions and reports at the doctor's whims if he can get commission from all of these.

A correction needed on those lines.

skully wrote:

lardbucket wrote:not so sage

Meh, I speak from experience. 1 year of my own life, and 4 years of my youngest daughter's life. No miraculous epiphanies achieved at the hands of the numerous pscychologists and psychiatrists. IMHO (and my suicidal brother's), most are very expensive talking partners, a job that can be filled by an insightful family member or friend. If others have had more success with these people than I, then good for them.

Depends on what you expect from the psychiatrist. If you're expecting epiphanies, well I doubt whether that actually happens in most cases.

From my experience - a few years worth, FWIW- talking to a psychiatrist can be useful because at some stage in the conversation (over time) you can 'hear yourself talk'. In other words, you discover the truths that you always knew but never articulated to yourself, voice the answers you never expressed aloud, and make the simple connections that you understood in your subconscious but never on the surface.

Understanding why can have tremendous healing, and in order to do that many of us just have to speak aloud what we were thinking but never knew it.

In my case I understood that I would tip into mild depression when I was physically/mentally very tired. When I understood that, the episodes went from say twice a month to once a year. I understood that I don't much like my mother, but she did what she did because she was responding to pressures in her life and she took it out on me. That changed how I thought of her.

I already knew all that, I just had to 'hear myself' articulating it. And when I said it, it became more bearable.

That's how a psychiatrist helped me. I wouldn't imagine talking like that to a friend or relative, too much emotional residue, resentments, and unwillingness to open up.

Obviously there are cases much more severe than mine, chemical imbalances and such, and I do not presume to talk about those.

**ahem** isn't that more likely to be a psychologist than a psychiatrist?

Good points made all the same though furry.

absolute quality thread...good for you Gus, Skully and BD for trying as you can to deal with it.

the evidence base on mental illness suggests that of all the therapies - cognitive behavioural thrapy offers some promise for particular disorders such as OCD...not much positive about the others - a third get better a third stay the same and a third get worse.

medications and ECT have a better evidence base in dealing with symptoms...nonetheless they are still a blunt instrument and so much remains unknown about the brain...I expect a hundred years from now meds will have improved immeasurably and everyone will look at our time as being somewhat backward..

the other difficulty is the stigma and fear of mental illness...one day people will look at someone having a major depressive episode and consider it as we would a broken collar bone

sadly I have forgotten the author, but years ago I read a terrific essay about psychotic illness (think he was a neurologist and philosopher - one of those amazing polymaths)...he argued that psychotic ilness worked in the same part of the brain that allows us to communicate...he also noted that pi was as old as human history and because it operated in the part f the brain that enables us to interpret and communicate to the world and each other was almost a precondition for our humanity and civilisation

aye, in those days there was nothing like a good trepanning to fix those psychiatric illnesses

...or a bit of witch burning

aye

More seriously, there seems to be far too much focus on this thread on Jungian and Freudian psychoanalysis, which Americans waste millions on and which is pretty useless; and not nearly enough on those therapies which have a very clear evidence base (CBT for OCD and neuroses, anti-psychotics for schizophreniform psychosis, and either ECT or anti-depressants for psychotic and severe 'endogenous' depression).

The Mum's just back from a week babysitting the middle brother. Said it was like watching a rollercoaster.

Brass Monkey wrote:

Clamson wrote:
Is it an appropriate time to re-post that photo again?

Having a schizoid personality has ruined my life. But it doesn't hurt. It doesn't feel like I miss out. I know I do though.

Shit, sorry to hear that mate - what aspect has it affected you the most in would you say? I have mates with it, they reckon they find it hard being on their own.

Most of the time I want to be on my own actually. Occasionally it is a bit hard, but weed usually gets me through those times as it seems to kill off any desire for any external stimulus. I can happily go days with no human contact though.

The hardest part is just speaking to anyone about anything. Smalltalk especially. Interacting with pretty much anyone who I don't know very well is a nightmare. Funny, then, that I've been a manager for three months now. That is tough...

Fascinating illness, really!

Clamson wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:

Clamson wrote:
Is it an appropriate time to re-post that photo again?

Having a schizoid personality has ruined my life. But it doesn't hurt. It doesn't feel like I miss out. I know I do though.

Shit, sorry to hear that mate - what aspect has it affected you the most in would you say? I have mates with it, they reckon they find it hard being on their own.

Most of the time I want to be on my own actually. Occasionally it is a bit hard, but weed usually gets me through those times as it seems to kill off any desire for any external stimulus. I can happily go days with no human contact though.

The hardest part is just speaking to anyone about anything. Smalltalk especially. Interacting with pretty much anyone who I don't know very well is a nightmare. Funny, then, that I've been a manager for three months now. That is tough...

Fascinating illness, really!

Yeah, well I'm like that. Put it down to shyness.

Clamson wrote:
Most of the time I want to be on my own actually. Occasionally it is a bit hard, but weed usually gets me through those times as it seems to kill off any desire for any external stimulus. I can happily go days with no human contact though.

The hardest part is just speaking to anyone about anything. Smalltalk especially. Interacting with pretty much anyone who I don't know very well is a nightmare. Funny, then, that I've been a manager for three months now. That is tough...

Fascinating illness, really!

Aye it is fascinating.. all of the brain and how it works is.

It's quite astonishing the difference between what you're saying and what I've heard from others they reckon that although they're quite distant, being on their own (especially with weed) seems to make them internalise too much and stagnate. I reckon you're probably the more 'classic' case.

It sounds pretty bad though man, yet it seems like you manage it well enough though, pardon the pun. Fair play to you, it must be a struggle.

Get yourself in here more often, Clam. You don't have to make small talk, just post shit 'n' stuff.

But go well, man.

skully wrote:Get yourself in here more often, Clam. You don't have to make small talk, just post shit 'n' stuff.

But go well, man.

It took a while to find the poo. It seems that photos of piles of excrement aren't widely available for some reason...

Google must have big problems with coprophiles!

This might be paywalled but it is an absolutely brilliant, poignant yet troubling piece from Gideon Haigh about Reeks:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/cricket/the-private-battles-of-cricket-star-moises-henriques/news-story/90e7a088af389d1fd12a9c5bb2e2d093