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12-10-2006, 11:28 PM | #1 | |||
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There has recently been some discussion about these parts about which mental illnesses are actually "neurological" and therefore will no longer have a home in the realm of mental illness. This made me realize that psychiatry is moving faster than most of the population realizes, and decided to create this thread to lay a little groundwork for questions and discussion.
The truth is that serious depression, PTSD, bipolar illness, various personality disorders, autism & Aspergers, schizophrenia, o-c spectrum disorders, ADHD/ADD, criminality and even psychopathic thinking, perceiving and behaving are either all due to changes in the brain and/or all CAUSE the changes in the brain. Actual differences in the physical structure of the brain, actual differences in blood flow to certain areas of the brain, changes in electrical activity in different areas of the brain, and changing chemical balances in the brain - chemicals responsible for the modulation of emotions. Psychiatry is no longer the sole province of psychoanalysts and behavioralists. It is no longer believed that you can cure a woman of emotional distress by removing her uterus, we no longer think that we should wrap people -mummylike- in long sheets and immerse them in ice baths for hours to "cool them down". Nope. It is no longer believed that you can stop a person from being addicted by giving them electrical shocks when they see a picture of a bottle of alcohol. Or cure a man of pedophilia by giving him a shock when he views a picture of a nude little girl. Nope. It's now recognized to not be just the result of "wrong thinking".. or "having a negative attitude".. or "being shiftless and unmotivated".. or "just too scared to try".. Nope. Now next two posts, two crucial definitions - of Mental Health. and of Mental Illness. Last edited by OneMoreTime; 12-11-2006 at 12:03 AM. Reason: tense |
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12-10-2006, 11:41 PM | #2 | |||
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Definitions of Mental health on the Web:
The noun mental health has one meaning: Meaning #1: the psychological state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment Antonym: mental illness (meaning #1)
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12-10-2006, 11:54 PM | #3 | |||
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Definitions of Mental illness on the Web:
Last edited by OneMoreTime; 12-11-2006 at 12:06 AM. Reason: formatting |
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12-11-2006, 05:26 AM | #4 | ||
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12-11-2006, 09:25 AM | #5 | |||
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The fact remains, however, that our understanding of how the brain works is about where medicine was at the turn of the century, 100 years ago. Researchers still don't understand the most basic mechanisms of how things like electrical impulses and neurochemical changes work to affect changes. It's like when doctors observed that cleaning out a wound will help your survival rate, but not understanding anything about infection or how infection causes harm.
So these distinctions -- "neurological vs. something else" -- are, I would argue, arbitrary and not really helpful at this stage. You can't get a blood test that shows you have "depression," and, in fact, all mental illnesses are diagnosed still through behavioral symptoms -- you tell me what's wrong, and I see what category that best fits into. That's not to say it will always be this way. A decade or two from now, who knows? And remember -- everything you do affects your brain chemistry. When you're happy, I can you show you PET scans of how your happiness lights up parts of your brain. When you're sad, same thing. When you're bored, same thing. When you're having a heated argument, or playing a video game, same thing. So the fact that we can show some brains light up differently than others is a good start, but it doesn't help us at all to establish ontology. John
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