People with mental ilness?

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Do you think esspecially these days given what our society is like having a mental ilness is a very a bad thin because it really is a cruel and a not very understanding world.

basically the goverment does not really 'care' about people who suffer from insanity.

As bad as stigma still is, this is the most progressive era for neuropsych disorders. Just think back 30 years ago, let alone 50 or 100 years ago. We're lucky to live now.

Well I don't know about especially these days as that seems to have been the case for most of human existence, but yeah I certainly see what you mean. Seems like society is more concerned with 'well can't you just not be mentally ill so its easier for everyone else' at least that's how it feels sometimes.

There is certainly a stigma still attached to mental illness. I see it and hear it on a regular basis.

Still, I am happy I am not being subjected to barbaric "cures" that have traumatized, maimed and killed the mentally ill of past generations.

Things are better. They still aren't great. There is still a lot we don't know, and many treatment models of mental illness still hold us personally responsible for our condition. "If you did this, if you didn't do that, you would be okay." How many of us have heard that?

It seems sometimes people assume if you aren't well on your way to recovering from mental illness......that its your fault your still mentally ill. I mean don't people realize its not quite that simple? I mean I can think if a number of reasons mental illness can get in the way of recovering from it........and some people might never fully recover or be cured of their mental problems...but of course there are those who will try to find fault in that as well.

The media treats people with mental illness like animals that needs to be shot on sight. This murderer had mental illness this rapist had mental illness and so on. What about the other murders and rapes that had nothing to do with mental illness? The media makes a bigger deal out of a murderer that had a mental illness and was "insane" than the non insane ones. The stigma sucks.

There were times when in our 'civilized world' people with mental illnesses were seen as demons/wizards/witches and killed upon sighting.

There were times when in our 'civilized world' people with mental illnesses were seen as possesed and were subjected to exorcism that may ended by death which was perceived as redemption for the poor, possesed soul.

There were times when in our 'civilized world' people with mental illnesses were seen as non-humans and were exterminated with the idea of improving the human race.

There were times when in our 'civilized world' people with mental illnesses were seen as danger to society and were institutionalized, medicated and possibly lobotomized.


I think, that in our 'civilized world' people with mental illness live in a good times today.....

It's probably mostly better than in the past, but still far from ideal. I don't know how true the "mentally ill" == "shaman" in some cultures is, but that could be one example of the past being better than the present.

In Scotland, we have a national campaign aimed at ending stigma and discrimination against mental health. http://www.seemescotland.org/ According to evaluation, it has had a positive impact. I was wondering if other countries had similar programmes.

We are all extremely lucky to live in "these days", any other time before now would have been hellish for someone like me.

I think catagorizing all mental illness as "insanity" kind of reinforces the idea that all mental illness is terrible. I have clinical depression, but I think it's a far cry from insanity.

It's not the governments job to "care" about anyone anyway. It is the governments job to run programs to help people in situations that the majority of citizens believe should received help. They don't have to care about people who are sick, elderly, in poverty, have mental illness, etc. Their job is to run programs to help, not to hold hands and care.

I've been chewing on this much of my life, how much of myself to reveal.

I was a psychiatrist from 1971 to 1989 and may have learned a little.

However, let me promptly say that there are more than a hundred ways to looking at the human mind - and that is just one of thousands of books and journal articles that come out daily, never mind the internet.

I don't know a better guide that to get as clear on your own integrity as you can and then stick close to that as you meet with various people who are there to help.

I do think people go into these areas because they want to help.

I also think that burnout, PTSD type symptoms and the like are common among the "helping" class.

I don't know about that...

After "practicing" psychiatry for fifteen years I can't begin to even give a summary of the one hundred "mind maps" that the field has generated, never mind the treatments and such.

I think I remember the number of 15,000 pages a month of professional psychiatric publications.

There are whole sections in the library on schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and various personality disorders.

The point?

Try to put yourself on the other side of the desk the best you can and look at your presentation to the doctor from that perspective. What it does is make many people realize that the last thing you need to tell someone suffering is to do something. As if they don't think about what to do all the waking and many of the sleeping hours.

I like computers and have been playing with them since Apple II plus and CP/M.

They are pretty complex, there are a large number of possibilities in the programming area.

Well, the human brain with it's, what? 5,000,000,000 neurons with each one interfacing with around 100 others, well you get the idea of the complexity of the thing.

I've lost the plot, enough.

Interesting posts caveman2, you're right that those in caring professions have a high burnout rate.

It's a shame that the narcissists and egotists have the best time of it, being in their bubbles of imperviousness, whilst the ones who see the problems in others and want to help alleviate that pain can end up bearing burdens that are too heavy.

I hope you are finding your way and being kind to yourself, we are all in need of a bit of kindness I think.

Wow. That's really impressive and exciting to see. No, we don't have anything like this, at least not nationally, in the US. I wish we did. I have PTSD as well as Asperger's. I get so disappointed how even within the autism and larger disability community, people with mental illness are invisible and our struggles are not taken seriously. Just had an incident about this tonight on twitter, with some people there making jokes that stereotyped/stigmatized people with mental illness, and they were also autism folks too no less.