Mental illness is dumber

[Portia]

I just find it strange that certain plants, chemicals, etc. are more-or-less socially acceptable to treat anxiety or depression and others aren't. I see no convincing evidence, for instance, that adults should NOT be able to use marijuana or derived compounds to treat anxiety, should they wish, but hey, we prescribe heroin, basically, for routine post-surgical pain.

Good luck, anglophile. Yeah, it kind of sucks, but at least for students it's affordable.

[Emiliana]

The main difference I see is that two of these are (usually, ostensibly) under the care of a competent physician, and the other two are not. Deciding the "dose" of your medication can be a dangerous thing (well, more dangerous than the alternative, anyways.)

Sort of. I have a Xanax prescription that basically allows me to choose my own dose. Of course, for me that means I take .25mg less than once a month, and if I began abusing it there would presumably be an upper limit at which my doctor would cut me off. On the other hand, if I were self-medicating with alcohol or weed there would be no upper limit -- is that what you're getting at?

On the other other hand, my friend's doctor cut off her Xanax supply because she was abusing it, and now she's abusing alcohol (more) heavily.

[Marduk]

Right. I have no problem with a competent doctor prescribing, say, marijuana as treatment for chronic pain or glaucoma (I don't know that there's significant research into using it for mood disorders.)

But yes, drinking alcohol, alone, when you're depressed, is a recipe for disaster.

[TheBlackSheep]

And benzos are not harmless. They have a place of course, and some people need them. However, every treatment center I've ever worked at is full of people who struggle with addiction to benzodiazepines. They are pretty easy to get in whatever doses you want with the right doctor (a lot of doctors, most doctors probably). People take Xanax or Klonopin like it's no big deal, but, you know. Addiction is bad. (Again, for certain anxiety disorders benzos DEFINITELY have a place. It's just a much smaller place than they currently occupy, in my opinion.)

And we do basically give legal heroin to people to fight pain. A lot of people get onto heroin because they get injured, find they like their prescription narcotics for more than just the physical pain, start abusing them, get hooked, buy them on the street, and then learn that heroin is cheaper. Of course opiate painkillers have a place, but these also are not harmless.

Alcohol... yeeeeeeah. There are waaaaaaaaay more alcoholics than addicts in this world. It also doesn't really treat anything. Escaping and treating are not the same thing. I love booze, I do, but it's just not the same thing. Good for social lubrication. Bad for dealing with depression.

I can't say I really have a problem with pot. I finally did meet my first person ever who identified as a pot addict the other day after years in substance abuse treatment, so I suppose it can be done. As far as I know nobody has tested using pot to deal with mood disorders, as Marduk said, and escapism is not good, but pot probably won't hurt you. You just won't get better.

Now, SSRIs. Completely non-addictive. Limited, rare, mostly minor side effects. Treat the actual problem. Cha-ching.

[TheBlackSheep]

And, of course, by "rare" side effects with SSRIs I mean the dangerous side effects. Almost everybody who takes Prozac, for instance, is going to have some sexual dysfunction to some extent, most often lack of libido or delayed/impossible orgasm (though some people seem to enjoy that part, according to several male clients). That can, however, be treated.

[Portia]

Interesting thoughts. I think alcohol use is simultaneously over- and under-stigmatized in our society. A drink with dinner does not a priori an alcoholic make; alcohol abuse isn't particularly rare among the young professional set.

I maintain my theory that the Utah pill-popper phenomenon arises from the twin forces of a huge stigma against alcohol (and meds get abused in much the same way) and a toxic environment for many women.

There was a good article trending on Vice today about mental preventive healthcare in one's twenties.

[Portia]

I can't picture myself doing ANYTHING less than once a month. So I am understandably hesitant to strike up a benzo habit, even under medical supervision. I experience intensely negative emotions probably daily? I don't know if I want to perform a Pavlovian behaviorist experiment on myself. I think I cope all right 95% of the time.

And I'm rather fond of my libido. We'll see what the doctor says. A lot of people say, I want to feel "normal" again, and I respect their viewpoint, but really, for me, residual anxiety is normal. I sometimes wonder if being constantly happy isn't a corporate invention of pharmaceutical firms. Ha.

I like my therapist well enough. Not being involved in a religion or having a close knit family, exchanging fiat money for a confidant doesn't seem so bad.

[Portia]

Well, I got a prescription for Lexapro. It was almost absurdly easy. I'd gained a couple pounds in two weeks with no meds. So. Interesting/weird that two different providers would give me different diagnoses. Undecided what I'll do.

[the anglophile]

really, for me, residual anxiety is normal.

Really though. I kind of wonder if (and how much) I'll ever get over this anxiety crap. It's kinda messing my life up in more aspects than one.

[Portia]

Welp this lady singing Count Your Many Blessings at the train station wins this round.

[Digit]

Interesting. From a paper in Current Biology,

There is, however, at least one group of humans who fail to show positively biased expectations — individuals suffering from depression. Strunk et al. (2006) have shown that while healthy humans expect the future to be slightly better than it ends up being, people with mild depression show no bias when predicting future events, and people with severe depression tend to expect things to be worse than they turn out

[Portia]

Interesting. From a paper in Current Biology,

There is, however, at least one group of humans who fail to show positively biased expectations — individuals suffering from depression. Strunk et al. (2006) have shown that while healthy humans expect the future to be slightly better than it ends up being, people with mild depression show no bias when predicting future events, and people with severe depression tend to expect things to be worse than they turn out

yay realism

[mic0]

Days when you start to get anxiety before waking up and then wake up already anxious about things. Fantastic. On the plus side, this caused me to wash the dishes first thing in the morning? That's kind of good?

[Marduk]

If you can't do anything about nervous energy, the next best thing is to put it to use.

[mic0]

Sooo true!

[Tally M.]

This is more or less related, but I'm in the process of typing up my journals, and I'm on one from my freshman year...boy, DO NOT DATE PEOPLE IF YOU HAVE LITTLE TO NO SELF CONFIDENCE. I was a wreck that year, and it's a really good thing I've grown up since then. I just wasn't in a good mental state to be able to actually make great decisions.

[Portia]

Well, I started taking the prescription, and whether it's regression to the mean or a noticeable change in brain wiring, I definitely notice a difference. It's like those cheeseball commercials: I feel optimistic, calm, equanimous, and so on.

Ha

[Zedability]

So I just found out I have depression (which explains a lot) but I have no idea how to bring it up to my parents. I guess a lot of the problem is I don't really feel like I NEED to bring it up to my parents, I just know that if they find out six months from now they'll be upset I didn't tell them sooner. But there's nothing I really need or want them to do about it and I feel like they'll either not take it seriously (are you sure it's depression, maybe you just need to sleep more, have you tried [insert unhelpful advice here]?) or they'll take it too seriously and be worried and keep trying to initiate conversations about it that I don't want to have.

They've made a lot of comments over my life like saying that having a child with a mental illness would be the hardest thing for them or telling me to never, ever, ever marry someone with depression (seriously in their eyes the only thing worse than marrying someone with a mental illness would be marrying a non-member or someone with worthiness problems) and I just don't know how they'd take it. And I don't really have a history of talking about serious things with them. They're usually pretty good about serious conversations when I initiate them, it's just always been something I've disliked for some reason.

[the anglophile]

So I just found out I have depression (which explains a lot) but I have no idea how to bring it up to my parents. I guess a lot of the problem is I don't really feel like I NEED to bring it up to my parents, I just know that if they find out six months from now they'll be upset I didn't tell them sooner. But there's nothing I really need or want them to do about it and I feel like they'll either not take it seriously (are you sure it's depression, maybe you just need to sleep more, have you tried [insert unhelpful advice here]?) or they'll take it too seriously and be worried and keep trying to initiate conversations about it that I don't want to have.

They've made a lot of comments over my life like saying that having a child with a mental illness would be the hardest thing for them or telling me to never, ever, ever marry someone with depression (seriously in their eyes the only thing worse than marrying someone with a mental illness would be marrying a non-member or someone with worthiness problems) and I just don't know how they'd take it. And I don't really have a history of talking about serious things with them. They're usually pretty good about serious conversations when I initiate them, it's just always been something I've disliked for some reason.

I felt the same way about when I told my parents about my anxiety issues. I probably waited 6 months before telling them, and another 6 months to get professional help. For the most part they were pretty supportive but there will always be those people who don't understand that you can't exactly help having a mental illness. Those people suck. I used to be one of them and I hate myself for it.

[TheBlackSheep]

When I first told my parents, I got a lot of the reactions you are worried about. For example, my dad frequently told me I just had to suck it up, that everybody felt that way sometimes and that it wasn't actually depression. If I had to do it over again, I would do it differently.

I would write them a letter, not tell them over the phone. An honest-to-god letter, with a stamp and everything. I'd say I have depression, that I don't need anything but I just wanted them to know, and then I'd say all the reasons I was afraid to tell them. I'd be gentle but clear. Then I'd say I love them and invite them to talk to me if they needed to. Then I'd live my life like normal.