Just one of the problems with psychiatry

The aim of psychiatry is treat the patient, with drugs in order to make them better.
but we see time and time again that it does not work,

when someone says yes those anti-psychotic made me better, there is no real and honest way to clearly test and say for sure that it was the drugs that made them better or was a common coincidence where they had the drugs at a time when they were getting better anyway.

a drug is foreign to the system and can hinder and mask crucial symptoms that otherwise would of been picked up on so we are strongly against the use of man made highly profitable substances when it comes to the complexities of the human being

Hello

I don't think psychotic drugs are the best way to treat most mental illnesses but they do cure SOME people. That is how big drug companies are able to stay in business. Psychotherapy is a much better overall way to cure a person's problems in my opinion and much research confirms this as well. Its just that drugs are much more marketable then psychotherapy. In severe cases I feel that drugs and psychotherapy should be used to cure a person. But just thinking drugs is the answer to curing all illness is ignorant reductionism. Though psychiatrists are trained in psychotherapy, I feel they do prescribe medicine too hastily.

I agree psycoactive drugs are not the best way to treat mental illness. However, they are used the most. Part of the reason is the great amount of advertising that makes us think that one little pill will quickly and easier change our lives. Most will take a pill. Just by chance some will get better, therefore we think we have a chance--just as people buy lottery tickets althouth the chance of winning is the same as being killed by an asteroid.

Indeed, many studies have showed that pills are no better than placebos at helping with depression. The drug companies do not have to publish all research, so naturally they just publish the results that show positive results. Even with that, the best studies only show a little bit of effect.

We also might want to consider that many people just will not try certain proven alternatives to treating depression such as exercise and cognitive therapy--they take too long and require a lot of work. Well, I was desperate, I tried many alternatives and have been drug free for decades. I'm no smarter than others, but I could no longer take the pain of an empty life.
James

To make a long story as short as possible- I was first diagnosed as Paranoid-Schizophrenic with manic-depression in 1976. (Those were the terms of the day.) I resisted all forms of therapy and treatment with the one thought, "I'll get better." Although I struggled with daily life, at a few points not even having a place to live, homeless, I slowly began to come back to some sort of sanity by myself.

Over the course of 30+ years I came to be what I'll call successful. I learned a skilled trade and advanced into a management career eventually becoming the VP of a small aerospace machine shop. Then the economy started to go sour and my job went along with it. Because I didn't have an advanced degree my job prospects were limited so I became an OTR truck-driver. I loved that job as it gave me time to think.

Unfortunately I injured myself to the point where I am unable to drive and have been out of work recuperating for the past almost 3 years. During this time, a little over a year ago, I experienced a psychotic episode seemingly right out of the blue. It was a wake-up call that yes, I do have schizophrenia with the added 'benefit' of a bipolar disorder as well.

I have been taking my prescribed medications faithfully since my episode. I have sufficient clarity of mind to look back in time and see how much my illnesses have ruled my life. I had all of the outward signs of success but I too struggled with alcohol abuse and depression. Having those somehow made me feel normal. I could blame my depression on alcoholism. I could blame my broken marriages on alcoholism and even though self-treatment for alcoholism requires strong introspection I had fooled myself so thoroughly into believing that my original diagnosis was wrong I never considered that it was right. I BELIEVED to my core that I was as normal as everybody else.

Guess what, boys and girls, I was wrong.

I can now look back and see how much my disorders affected my life. They may not have been 'in charge' of me but they certainly ruined the quality of my life. I believe that I'm MUCH better off taking medication that prevents me from having schizophrenic episodes and bipolar 'attacks', for want of a better word.

I'm writing this to say that hindsight can be 20/20. It's too easy to NOT accept a diagnosis and self-medicate. It may be religion that gets you thru the day or just a good social network but your underlying condition can still exist and be in charge. It's only thru my acceptance, finally, that I do indeed have disorders for which there is good, medically proven treatment that I have been able to have a better quality life than I was having before. That's what it's all about. My disorders no longer control me as I know them for what they are. I'm not now nor will I ever be completely whole, (whatever that means), but accepting the diagnoses is a huge first step towards being able to continue having my freedom and the ability to decide for myself. I put it like that because uncontrolled mental disorders can lead to places where you're not able to act on your own free will.

I don't want that. I'm afraid of that. There's good reason to be afraid of that and it's not my paranoia talking to me either. People with untreated mental illnesses often find themselves in trouble with the law.

If you, the reader, have good reason to believe that you have a mental disorder after receiving psychiatric diagnosis I implore you, don't make the same mistake I made and try to do it on your own. There's no shame in taking medication and receiving counseling. I believe it's to your benefit if you do. You still need to help yourself and maybe work harder than ever to get thru the day so don't think that medicine and counseling are going to do it all. They won't. They will help. If there is medicine to treat you, take it, just don't expect it to fix you. For that you must do it yourself. You CAN do it and find some measure of sanity, peace and happiness.

Hollowman, medicine does not treat psychosis, it only puts a mask over it (knocks the patient out), and numerous doctors agree that it then becomes much harder to treat because the underlying symptoms cannot be seen.
In my opinion it is far better to tackle the route cause of the distress.
Studies overwhelmingly show that patients who go the drug way are continually relapsing compared to the none-drug route. counselling is a very good step and can help towards the ultimate goal imo which is self-control and self-understanding.

I've been that route of self-discovery and understanding and yet I'm still left with the fact of a genetic abnormality that causes psychosis. Treating the brain malfunction, as I'll call it, allows me to view things clearer without my psychosis being in the drivers seat.


Here's how I see it, if there's some 'defect' it's possible that the disease, whatever it is, can go into remission and you just think, 'aha, I've conquered my mental disorder', but in reality, you've just living in a period of remission.

I don't feel as if I'm under heavy medication. I'm on 3mg Risperdal taken at night, recently increased from 2 mg as I, due to my self-awareness, noticed more disordered thinking than is common for me.

I'm also left with another reality, counseling is expensive. I simply can't afford it. No way. I talked my Doctor into seeing me on a six month schedule just because of the cost. I go to see him again in another couple of weeks, at my request, so he can meet with my wife and I to address her concerns for my well-being.

Contemplating your navel and addressing the ROOT cause of any problems would be necessary whether on medication or not.

If my symptoms are being 'masked' by my medication all I can say is thank God because I certainly don't need the confusion and delusions associated with schizo-affective disorder running my life. How is one to be expected to get 'better' when they think they're God, or alternatively, the second coming of the Messiah?

I've followed the natural path and, as I've said, accomplished many things though I can't help but wonder how much better off I'd be today if I'd been on medication to keep my diseases from affecting my personality as only I can know they have.

I think that now it would take a LOT of cold hard data to convince me that taking medicine designed to treat my psychosis and bipolar is bad for me. My doctor has trimmed me back as far as he feels he safely can even to the point where I was suffering as a result of it. The minuscule increase in my daily dosage of Risperdal has resulted in better thinking for me and I'm the one to judge what it feels like inside of my skin. If you find a holistic approach is more suitable for you, knock yourself out. It worked for me for a time but I can see now that it wasn't all it's cracked up to be.

The brain is an organ that requires specific chemical interactions to function. Although researchers do not know exactly how SSRI's and other drugs work specifically within the brain, they have been able to prove that some mental disorders are based on the brains inability to process the chemical compounds that it requires.

Do all mental conditions respond to all pharmaceuticals, no. But to say that pharmacology is not an option for the treatment of mental disorders is not reasonable either.

bereft wrote:Do all mental conditions respond to all pharmaceuticals, no. But to say that pharmacology is not an option for the treatment of mental disorders is not reasonable either.

Excellent point.

I can only speak to what I know. It may very well be that some people are over-medicated by their doctors, actually I'd be very much surprised if there weren't, but I know that I'm much better off taking my meds rather than not. At this point in my life I'm having a rough enough time as it is that I don't even want to know what it would be like if I didn't have something to help me.

I think that a sense of personal responsibility is important. I also think that people need to work out their treatment programs for themselves, with their doctor's help, as it seems to me that there are few blanket statements that one can make that hold true for the treatment of mental disorders.

Hollowman,

An educated and intuitive patient is the best patient a doctor can have.

I have been taking anti'ds for over 30 years. Until recently I would go on and off of them depending on how I was feeling. I would go to a doc in the depths of depression and get the drug d'jour and take it for awhile. Sometimes it may have helped, sometimes I may have just thought it helped, and sometimes they didn't work. In any case at some point I would quit taking the pills.

My current doc is different than any I have ever had. He monitors me closely and makes changes based on what I tell him. Sometimes the changes are for the better, but sometimes not. In either case, I always know I can go back and tell him the truth and he will work with me.

I know there are lazy doctors, and I probably had my share of them, who will give a patient a prescription just to get them out of the door. There is no follow-up care which is imperative for any treatment.

There are also patients who aren't happy unless they walk out of the office without a handful of scripts. Again, that is not particularly beneficial to anyone but the pharmaceutical companies.

I hope that you continue to find success with your treatment and are able to share your story with those who are so desperately looking for a way out of their disease.

Best,

B

bereft wrote:I hope that you continue to find success with your treatment and are able to share your story with those who are so desperately looking for a way out of their disease.

Thank you.

I reread this discussion and I just want to be clear that I'm not trying to come off as some kind of know-it-all. I'm just looking for a place on the Internet where people won't automatically judge me for having a mental disorder and the first forum I saw was one that is all anti-psychiatry or whatever. I came here to meet people like myself who are trying to do their best living with what can at times be a really hard thing to live with and not to have someone telling me that it's my upbringing or a lack of self-control or morals that makes me the way that I am.

The way I understand schizo-affective disorder is that SA can be caused by defective genes. If there's one thing you CAN'T choose is the genes you inherit at birth. There's some evidence that having older parents may put one at risk for having the SA disorder. My doctor said that I was destined to have it.

Great. Not what I wanted to hear but I'm accepting of that. Both of my parents were older than normal when I was born. My dad was 50 and my mother was 42. I had no idea, until about a year ago, that my diseases could be caused by something over which I had absolutely no control.

I could be bitter about that I suppose but it's actually a relief to hear it as I used to be the kind of guy that thought, "hey, fix yourself. I did". I see that it doesn't work that way. To me now, there's no fix other than treatment with anti-psychotic medicine and that contemplation of ones navel, the introspective look I was talking about earlier.

That's MY method of treatment and I'm likely not able to explain it well. I'm definitely not saying that I have it all together because I sure don't. I'm just trying to say that there are good psychiatrists and medical treatments and I'm glad that there are. I'm not a shrink-basher and I'm not cynical enough to think that it's all about the money for the pharmaceutical companies. While I DO think that there is a lot of commercialism of mood changing drugs I also know that some people need them. Taking a drug as a panacea without doing some work on the underlying causes, to me, looks like an exercise in futility.

Sorry for being so wordy. I just don't want to come across as this dude that claims to know how to fix 'things'. I've too much to do than to try to tell someone else that I have the answers for them. I don't. I know what appears to be working for me and that's it.

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I'm lacking acceptance from other people. No one else in my extended family knows about my diagnosis and I intend to keep it that way. There's such a stigma associated with being schizo and I have a tough enough time dealing with my family that I just don't want to give them any more ammo to use against me. I know they would.

That's what prompted me to look for a forum like this. I want to be able to just hang out with others who are successfully dealing with their mental health issues. If my 'story' and the stuff I deal with can help somebody that's cool but I'm not here to do that. I'm actually here looking for help, looking for a community of others like myself.

Dealing with all of this can be overwhelming. There's times when I don't even want to go into town without my wife going along with me. I'll say it, I'm scared that I won't be able to conduct my affairs peacefully. The way people treat each other is terrible. People are rude and crude to each other and it's hard to deal with. My wife helps to keep me on a more even keel.

I could go on but I think I've said enough.

I appreciate your well wishing. I hope I can be an asset to these forums.