Can other animals suffer from mental illnesses?

Something I've often wondered is can other animals suffer some of the same diagnoses people get? Many animal behaviours seen with pets for example seem like Seperation Anxiety, OCD, and whatever things a 'mean dog' might have. But are they actual clinical disorders or just normal variations to personality? And if they aren't disorders like people get, why do people have disorders, but other animals are just condition-response, instinctual, etc.?

Looking at the Personality Disorder section I'm struck thinking, these are just normal variations to personality. If we're gonna say every little variation is a disorder, then the entire human race is mentally ill. Everyone has some quirk, or something that makes them seemingly unique. If we declare everyone who stands apart from the herd as being mentally ill, just what's the definition of 'normal?'

Some examples include: Politicians. Are all politicians suffering from megalomania believing they're the ones who should be in charge of everyone else (especially Presidents and other heads of state.) Are religious clergy all delusional, schitzoprehic, sociopathic (ones wanting religious law enforced instead of secular civil laws?) Yet these are people we make role-models, reverie, and let make life-altering decisions, but are completely sane? How is a person who talks out loud to G-d, but isn't employed as some kind of clergyperson different from an actual clergyperson?

If we looked back into the history books and religious texts, everyone who made it in the a historical record did something out of the ordinary. Everyone in religious texts was having two-way interactions with gods or angels or demons. Yet we never say these people were pathological and instead make them into the best people who ever lived. Whereas individuals who haven't yet done anything remarkable are written-off and marginalized labelled mentally-ill.

Is mental illness just a crock completely, or is it a tool used to suppress extraordinary performance. If someone who talks with G-d is insane, no one's gonna wind up following them around and kicking off a new religion. But minus mental illness being a thing we can label such people with, they would be starting new religions or contributing to existing ones.

Yes i believe animals have all the variety of experience and diseases and disorders do. We humans are, after all, animals.

even the animal animals are social creatures. They can have bad parents and good parents. They can be abused. They have social hierarchies and they have genetics. They even have personalities.

None of this takes anything away from treatment options for humans. The fact that we can communicate in a sophisticated way and cook up medications makes us different from the rest of them. This does not mean that psychological treatments or psychiatric medicine is invalid.

cats can see things that aren't there lol

all animals are psycho, that's why they are better then us.....humans marginalise eachother for being unique and we have labels invented to keep them categorised and out of the way


I have actually heard that some dogs and cats can get treated with human drugs for things like depression I hate to think a quack trying to diagnose schizophrenia in an animal, that would be stupid and the animal wouldn't suffer for it.

our industrialised world is sick, most sickness's are a reflection of this, animals don't have to deal with our toxic world.
interesting though to wonder what the chook at the bottom of the pecking order feels like...probably horny and scared

-- Sun May 05, 2013 10:47 pm --

I like that you postulate that MI is just a variation of normal,, if the quacks could define normal they would see that it cross's over to apparent illness's....illness is just an extention of a normal process or it is just normal perhaps grossly misundertood.....

or the misunderstood person elevates to a situation of being considered ill, but its an illusion yet it has power over the situation and reality or the marginalised person falling from grace

heard a blackbird once say its a hard life being a bird, you wouldn;t want to be a bird kinda thing

so the bird thought i was listening to him? does that make him paranoid,,,why else would it be talking to me about bird life?

lol

I thought of this before but never started the thread.

Go into a pet store with alot of puppies, out of every litter you will see many are ADHD one or two with social anxiety, dogs are known to have mood swings ect. I have seen depressed dogs... dogs that shake all the time like they have an anxiety problem.

Psychiatry’s diagnostic criteria are literally voted into existence and inserted into the DSM book. It is a system of classification of symptoms that is drastically different from anything in else medicine. None of the diagnoses are supported by objective evidence of physical disease, illness, ect.

They even sell psych drugs for dogs now !!!

Reconcile® (Prozac®), Clomicalm® and Other Anxiolytic Drugs

Anxiety-relieving medications, coupled with behavior modification techniques, can be an effective tool for retraining dogs that are aggressive, reactive or fearful. However, they are not right for all dogs.

Drugs such as Reconcile®, Prozac® and Clomicalm® can be quite effective when used as a tool in training an anxious or fearful dog that becomes reactive or aggressive. These drugs are labeled for use in separation anxiety in dogs. However, they are frequently used in other situations as well.

It is important to remember that Prozac®, Reconcile®, Clomicalm® or any other drug is to be used only as a training tool. The purpose of the drug is to calm your dog so that learning new behaviors becomes easier. These drugs should never be used in place of behavior modification training.

http://www.pet-health-care-gazette.com/2010/10/06/using-prozac-and-other-drugs-for-reactivity-fear-and-aggression-in-dogs/
[url]
http://www.dogloversdigest.com/2010/03/ ... s-in-dogs/[/url]

dunno why I wanna put it here but it has to do with primordial nature which aligns us to wisdom and on the same level as the animals and plants, they exist on the primordial [,aybe except some house pets maybe-they take on attributes of their masters-maybe]...The [primordial is important for the mentally ill for aligning with it means you are free from suffering and filled with wisdom and objectivity for the magic of life and the universe. with reality the ultimate reality that is the primordial,,,,i feel it like aligning with the ancients...,

I think animals have a lot more going on then meets the eye, some of that is just ignorance coz we cant communicate....what do they think of us [not meaning house pets]

I'm feeling love again...like i saying about primordial, I am feeling the female singers in the pop songs as I see animals, how animal nature makes me feel and the singers are making me feel good

I love that girls sing on pop songs, makes me feel good

now the antipsychotic lifted and alowed me to feel and think again and feel good,
sorry that isn't about animals with mental illness's

some of it is character, like bipolar people are the most colourfull and interesting you ever meet, but they made out to be ill and on drugs to stop them being so vibrant and interesting! same with dogs that are shaky and have lots of character that might be considered an illness

its just normal

-- Mon May 06, 2013 8:22 am --

its normal so people need to learn to deal with it and align with their true nature which is the primordial, not fitting into the artificial mind of the herd and industrial intent for us to think and feel a certain way--including the fear of our own minds and people pushing U into psychiatry.

its tricky I guess...sorry I put it like --its just normal so learn to deal with it...get with the primordial

can do that by tuning the breath and aligning the posture to way god intended us to be

hey about the mad dog syndrome made me think that ---hey its just instincts

maybe a lot of human suffering is about instinct when it gets chaotic in the modern world our senses can't handle it then might think the CIA are looking at us

for me if i ever think like that, its aabout recruitment lol
so I get positive delusions if any

would start a new topic about the primordial yet It might be considered to be a spiritual thought and cheze won't let me write anymore topics to do with it

maybe someone can research what primordial means for mental health and aligning with our god given nature and wisdom. posture body balance and perceptive mind that goes beyond the illusions that we are induced into by modern society engineering or what is inherited by the evolution of value systems of the family...can be challenging to align with a higher path in the late teens and family react bady and causes crisis and apparent psychosis1 it happened to me once

primordial aligns us with animal nature and how say a bird see's the world, no random thoughts it focused in the moment of true alignment with reality that can be exhilerating...or aligning with the ancients to propagate according to the potentials of our god given rights by being human.

shame the elite think they are above this and would like us to be humped over and dumbed out and not seeing things objectively...its a barrier but noting can stop you when you're aligned with the primordial..... I have a recommended book if you would really like to learn how to align your life to true mental health and learn living meditation and warriorship.

"Shambhala ; sacred path of the warrior" I think it should still be available I got it second hand when I was aligned with synchronicity and find magic books music etc like on a trip.

dunno if anyone can relate

sorry I got inspired about animals and the fact that they are aligned with primordial nature, the reality and requirements of life as any particular species and what it means to be graced with being born a human.

GRACED? NAH human world is sick, yet we have the power to create our own sanctuary and freedom from illusion and disgrace

I've had some insights into the shaky dog syndrome!!

I've had it at a funeral when it wasnt that cold but I would shivver unneccessarily

also today after I had my case-manager,the nurse who was doing my depot and two other fellows like a seige, I think they might have been cops she thanked them for coming...I was in the middle of writting a letter to the Health services commissioner, they are linked to the department of health in the govermnent, about schizophrenia and psychiatry the best I could and better now I not on any drugs...anyway latter I had shivvering really badly yet not noticeably anxious or anything, so its just something else...maybe the dopamine buzzing? and I also was hungry! and had too much caffeen.....ummm? so thats what I think might be happening with the shaky dogs! don't ask me why I think that....anyway

so add up the peices if you have a shaky dog out there and call on arch-angel Raphael if you have any worries about them and don't worry about them since I also got a hunch its a kind of telepathic thing??not sure but the $#%^ I was pickiong up on the case manager wanting me to be a schizophrenic like a good boy was actually making e schizophrenic, but I fought it off

pretty clear these illness's exist in the minds of ordinary men and has power, not sure exactly why but its instincts and about persecution...the dog mightn't be anxious like a crude brainchemical analysis, but sensitive to a fear of being persecuted which to a layman will just sound like they are anxous but not necessarily...

its a bit like yawning

has anyone else had shivers when you hungry too much coffee, up too early not enough sleep and a bit raw on the inside?

dooes anyone notice that my thought disorder has gone with the fleupanthixol leaving my system?

-- Mon May 06, 2013 7:59 pm --

lol !

the quacks would say since I am diagnosed with schizophrenia, then give the dog antipsychotics...

:0 or lol

I didn;t get the shakes on antipsychotics therefore it works!!!!! get the logic dum wits