Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Discussing Mental Illness

Blog Explosion is a traffic engine that has given me some great viewers over on Gaiatribe and Hypatia's Hoard of Reviews. It also introduces me to some interesting blogs along the way. A couple of these deal with various flavors of mental illness; anxiety seems big right now.

One of them gave me a shout-out today for a comment I left. We're talking about how and why the treatment of mental complaints lags behind that of physical complaints, and it started with a previous discussion about whether and why drugs can be helpful.

Basically, I have noticed certain patterns in dealing with friends who have mental challenges, and that has built up a little basket of ideas on the topic. Sometimes when an opportunity arises, I set one of them out. One of these days I need to flesh these out and present them in full. You can see bits of several here: different solutions work for different people because there are many different causes of mental complaints, and there's a difference between mental illness and mental </i> injury, and we just don't have ways of perceiving exactly what needs to be fixed let alone the ability to reach in and repair it. So we ... muddle.
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  • 36 comments
...go 3 levels up... Expand
janetmiles

Re: Hmm...

janetmiles

August 10 2009, 19:10:29 UTC 11 years ago

Yes, this. I have depression -- and probably have had it since childhood, although I wasn't diagnosed until my mid-20s. Like you, I have learned through experience to tell the difference between "this is me" and "this is the depression."

I was amazed to learn last year that I have also learned to tell the difference between "this major depressive episode is based in my mind and needs to see a counselor" and "this major depressive episode is based in my brain and needs new drugs".
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Hmm...

ysabetwordsmith

August 10 2009, 21:29:21 UTC 11 years ago

Wow, that last bit is very astute.
janetmiles

Re: Hmm...

janetmiles

August 11 2009, 14:13:07 UTC 11 years ago

It was a very strange sensation, with my mind and my brain operating under different paradigms. In some ways, it was easier to cope until I could get in to the doctor and get new meds, since I could *use* all the coping mechanisms I've learned, but it was very, very odd. It was also the fastest-hitting episode I've ever had -- normally it's a long slide over weeks or months down into the morass, but that one I could pinpoint almost to the minute.

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