h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entries on such subjects in the EG rarely convey feeling beyond the fact. This one does. It also invites conjecture and personal research, rather than succumbing to the "all you need to know" prescription which is prevalent.
Thanks for writing it.

Thanks! I'm glad that you found it useful, it's actually a combination of some lecture notes I had on my psychiatry course. I failed the exam by two marks in the end

I've got a little experience of the territory, mainly through special needs education. The whole concept of the treatment of mental illness is a fraught subject. I think that the assumed social role of the doctor can itself be a malign influence for some patients.
Cognitive behavioural therapy is a fascinating alternative, with equally-vociferous proponents and opponents, as I'm sure your aware. Worth an Entry in its own right, perhaps?
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It would be, but it would need an expert to write it, and I'm not one... I've met patients who have benfited greatly from medical treatments, and those who have benfited from psychological treatments as well. I do think that patients who benfit from medical treatment tend to not be the ones who join support groups, they don't seem to be the ones who identify as mentally ill.

I guess I'm biased, but I tend to see it as the medical treatments suppressing the symptoms and the psychological treatments addressing the real person, and the usually-critical matter of their self-esteem.
Have you read "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sachs? It's the best thing I've read in this area. It paints experiences vivid enough for the general public to relate to.
The beginnings of an understanding of what it might be like are a prerequisite to helping the mentally ill, I think.

"medical treatments suppressing the symptoms and the psychological treatments addressing the real person" - well that would be a mainly psychological model

Yes I have, it was one of the reccomended texts on my psychiatry course as well, though I read it two years ago, also on the reccomendation of a tutour. Personanly if I was mentally ill I would rather have a drug treatment, it seems to be less time and trouble than spending hours in therapy! I've had my own mental health probelms, and not found talking cures to be personally of much help.q

It's interesting. I'm sure I mistrust drugs because I'm well aware (from both medical prescription and recreational abuse) that they can create very convincing false realities.
I know diagnosed sufferers of a number of the conditions that Sachs describes. A couple are people I'm especially close to.
I think they all see medical treatment to a greater or lesser degree as a last resort. (Note that I'm not talking about very severe mental illness here, ie cases where a measure of anaesthesia is probably necessary). As long as behaviours are not antisocial and not self-injuring, I'm rather persuaded that psychological treatment leads to a more positive outcome.
Another aspect of this is that the individuality of many of us lies at the "edge" of our personalities. That can get blunted by drugs. People classified as mentally ill are quite often highly creative, and moreover desperate to be so - because its the one thing society values them for. When drugs cost them that as well as "curing" their tics or whatever, I'm really far from convinced that we're doing them favours.

I know people who have found drugs to restore the relaty that the mental illness had blunted, especially with depressive illness. The fact I think is that different approaches work for different people and different illness in different situations. Some people do go to doctors genuinly wanting drugs, whilst some others wouldn't have them as a last resort.

You're right, of course. It's important to have a range of options, too. And we shouldn't forget that many (maybe most) receive some of both treatments in combination.

Maybe quite a lot depends on the starting mindset. If you believe you really are ill, then drugs probably appeal. If you're convinced you're just different, then they might not. Someone I know who's been helped greatly by CBT (and who suffers from a depressive condition, incidentally) remains convinced that he was as much the therapist as the psychologist. They were sorting each other out!

I guess another thing that slants my view is that I know people who've been helped by both, but the ones who were helped by a psychological treatment generally seem enthusiastic about the experience, whereas those who've been helped by drugs tend to talk about the cons as well as the pros.

In my experience as a patient seeing a therapist made me feel better whilst I was seeing them in much the same way that talking to a friend did. But it didn't help my problems in the long term, I can see how people get very dependent on their therapists. I saw one for about sixth months. At that time I couldn't make a descion without asking her what she thought. Fortunatly this was a therapist provided by my sixth form college and I left for univeristy where i managed cure myself of the unhealthy dependance on her. At the time I would have said that she turned my life around, but looking back she certaily didn't.

I can imagine that for a person having both drugs and therarpy the therapy would be a far more plesent experience than drugs. But it's difficult to see which made more of a difference if they are having both at the same time.

Sorry to just burst in, but I am both in therapy and on medication and find the therapy far less useful. CBT sounds great but when I practise it I feel all Pollyanna and say "forget it". I continue to take the medication since it is the only thing that has worked for me (both preventatively and to intervene in a "crisis"). I hope you will continue to contribute as I enjoyed your article and wish for more info from a medical standpoint since I am on the experience end of things. Thanks

No, thank you for bursting in, it's nice to meet you, it's also nice to get a comment that isn't an insult. I do find that some people, who believe that counselling is the way to go, are very insistent that no one at all is helped by drugs, and that they're all brainwashed.

I'm certainly planning on contributing more to the guide!

Nice to meet you too!
I have friends that have grown into the notion that all drugs are bad from our recreational misuses in the old days, and they seem to get a superiority feeling about not taking them. I feel I am able to function in society almost entirely because of the meds and that if they are available and ease suffering and enable me to contribute to society instead of lying unable to move, then I will take advantage of that. I do wonder though about animal testing and if psychiatric meds are tested on animals. That would make me feel sad.

One of my mothers friends who is regular recreational user of drugs of vairous sorts, not just the harmlessish herbal ones made an incredbaly big deal that she had given birth without any evil drugs. I did think that was mildly amusing, but I would be a rational person, unlike most of my mothers friends. One of my friends who is Bipoar as well finds drugs really helpful for her.

I'm glad that you're feeling better and funcitoning in society now especially as you have five cats, that's very important , (I'm jelous, I'm in a rented flat and not allowed pets)

That is amusing. I still am amazed at what people think. The mind is a terrible thing.

Cheers and again thanks for writing well!

yup people are funny like that, are you settling in ok on h2g2 then?

Nope-wonky as usual. But I've learned valuable lessons. Already.