Public Perspections on Mental Health Treatment

[schopenh]

I was reading a post on here earlier where someone linked their own personal blog on which they expressed feelings of depression and suicidal ideation. In the comments section there were comments like, "I hope you get the help you need." etc.

If there's a news article about a suicide, you can bet the comments section will also (as in the afforementioned blog post) be littered with people expressing sentiments about how it's sad these people, "didn't get the help they needed." Suggesting that if this person had better or more access to mental health treatment, they would presumably not have committed suicide. In these comments we see a clear and widespread ideology - positive perspective of mental healthcare treatment.

The fact is though, that most suicides are not suicides of transient mood disorders (like the depression, which can be quite strong, of an otherwise happy person that follows the ending of a longterm relationship). Most people who commit suicide do so after a long time of predication and trying many conventional (and oftentimes non-convetional) treatments to consitent failure.

I'm not saying that modern mental healthcare treatment access is adequate - it's not; it's really, really not. I just think that what does exist is massively overvalued by the general public. I suspect that the average person truly believes that all, if not a lot of depression and suicide would be erradicated if depressed people had more rapid or regular access to anti-depressants, counselling and other lesser used forms of mental health therapy. Most psychiatrists and psychologists, in my exerience, tend to be massive zealots, but I doubt even they rate their skills as much as the general public seem to.

I can tell you what the gold standards (anti-depressants and counselling) did for me personally. (But keep in mind, my depression is a symptom of severe, chronic pain, so without that resolving that, one couldn't reasonably expect to treat the depression.)

First, the anti-depressants (I tried venlafaxine and amitriprtyline - amitriptyline being the best anti-depressant we have according to our extremely low quality evidence base) took my stable misery and made my emotions wildly oscillating. Instead of just being down I was now breaking into fits of crying for hours on end. I also experienced a few unpleasant side effects and found tapering off to be a very difficult process that took months (something which the medical community currently pretends isn't real).

Second, counselling. Anything I do makes physical pain worse. The psychiatrists aren't knocking on my door to help me, I have to go there to talk to them, which is extremely painful. What happens in the counselling session? Nothing. You have an unproductive conversation about whatever you want and then you're given some useless advice and mostly just pressured to take medications. It ultimately ends up being an exhausting mental gymnsatics game if you actually want to get something objectively helpful from them (like sleeping pills). All the extra physical pain for what objectively amounts to a chat is simply not worth it.

None of these things will change and I offer no solution (seeing none; due to various systemic problems of the david vs goliath varieties), I just felt like sharing the insights.

 

[Sweet emotion]

I was reading a post on here earlier where someone linked their own personal blog on which they expressed feelings of depression and suicidal ideation. In the comments section there were comments like, "I hope you get the help you need." etc.

If there's a news article about a suicide, you can bet the comments section will also (as in the afforementioned blog post) be littered with people expressing sentiments about how it's sad these people, "didn't get the help they needed." Suggesting that if this person had better or more access to mental health treatment, they would presumably not have committed suicide. In these comments we see a clear and widespread ideology - positive perspective of mental healthcare treatment.

The fact is though, that most suicides are not suicides of transient mood disorders (like the depression, which can be quite strong, of an otherwise happy person that follows the ending of a longterm relationship). Most people who commit suicide do so after a long time of predication and trying many conventional (and oftentimes non-convetional) treatments to consitent failure.

I'm not saying that modern mental healthcare treatment access is adequate - it's not; it's really, really not. I just think that what does exist is massively overvalued by the general public. I suspect that the average person truly believes that all, if not a lot of depression and suicide would be erradicated if depressed people had more rapid or regular access to anti-depressants, counselling and other lesser used forms of mental health therapy. Most psychiatrists and psychologists, in my exerience, tend to be massive zealots, but I doubt even they rate their skills as much as the general public seem to.

I can tell you what the gold standards (anti-depressants and counselling) did for me personally. (But keep in mind, my depression is a symptom of severe, chronic pain, so without that resolving that, one couldn't reasonably expect to treat the depression.)

First, the anti-depressants (I tried venlafaxine and amitriprtyline - amitriptyline being the best anti-depressant we have according to our extremely low quality evidence base) took my stable misery and made my emotions wildly oscillating. Instead of just being down I was now breaking into fits of crying for hours on end. I also experienced a few unpleasant side effects and found tapering off to be a very difficult process that took months (something which the medical community currently pretends isn't real).

Second, counselling. Anything I do makes physical pain worse. The psychiatrists aren't knocking on my door to help me, I have to go there to talk to them, which is extremely painful. What happens in the counselling session? Nothing. You have an unproductive conversation about whatever you want and then you're given some useless advice and mostly just pressured to take medications. It ultimately ends up being an exhausting mental gymnsatics game if you actually want to get something objectively helpful from them (like sleeping pills). All the extra physical pain for what objectively amounts to a chat is simply not worth it.

None of these things will change and I offer no solution (seeing none; due to various systemic problems of the david vs goliath varieties), I just felt like sharing the insights.

I can't agree with you more. You know we both have crps. I can talk to a therapist until I'm blue in the face and it's not going to make me want to live. It hurts my ears, head and face to talk for more than five minutes. I was blackmailed by pain management into seeing a therapist or I'd have my pain meds taken away. So I went and had to talk for an hour and a half. I wanted to die by the time I was done. I was in so much pain if I had a gun I would have blown my screwed up brains out. I told the doctor I couldn't do it and we were going to talk by email. But the dumb bitch never answered me. Hey I did my part. I was told two months ago that I had to see a therapist. I put my foot down and told them absolutely not. And they wanted me to do physical therapy three time a week. Don't they understand when you have crps you don't even want to move and activity makes it worse? I said if I talk for a long time I'm going to be in too much pain. The guy kept saying to me, maybe you won't. I started screaming. I said how can you say that when I've done it already!?!?! Do you think I isolated myself in the house because it's my dream life?!?! I can't be around noise and I can't talk much! Therapy isn't going to make me want to live! They think that it will help me manage my pain better. Bullshit! They wanted me to go to cog itive behavioral therapy. But they said no one really does that and they don't even know what it is. I said if you don't even know what it is why are you recommeding I go to it? There's no place around me that does it so I'm not going. I told them there's no way in hell I'm going to physical therapy. I didn't care if they kicked me out of the practice. That is why I've saved all my meds up. I refuse to be bullied into going to other doctors where I'm going to walk out in more pain then I have before I walked in. The whole therapy and how does that make you feel.....that does nothing. Words don't help. Actions will only help and no one is taking any actions with the disease if crps and a lot of other Conditions. When you're dying in pain are you thinking King of what the therapist said? Of course not!

 

[Polka]

I think for some of us there is no cure. Maybe in the future the brain might be able to be decoded.

Brisk walks, pills and chatting with pipe smokers whilst reclining under a blanket just do not cut it.