Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yet no one has ever proved empirically that such imbalances do exist. No "mental ilness" is diagnosed by checking the levels of various chemicals.
False! They're proposed and voted into existence at the APA. That's not how science works, that's how politics works.
There's an extraordinarily huge difference between something physically "wrong" (clear, verifiable damage, white cells fighting infections, tumors, etc. - all verifiable in laboratory conditions) and "wrong" behaviors which are simply human opinions about what is "appropriate" and what is not "appropriate"
Well, if an "illness" is not physical, then it only exists in the minds of those who believe it exists.
The question is whether the so called symptoms are real symptoms of real illness or they're perfectly normal behavior that simply isn't liked by some other people.
Wrong! Actually you can't really treat any kind of "mental illness" with drugs. You can only drug people to various degrees. There's a huge misunderstanding here: there are two large categories of drugs: stimulants and depressants. Stimulants have an effect similar to alcohol, while depressants are essentially tranquilizers that slow down the individual. The latter category is grossly abused and can be used to "quell" any kind of unwanted behavior. We could very well define opposition to rape as a mental illness . We could describe the symptoms and then drug the subjects with depressants until they show no signs of opposition to being raped. There's absolutely nothing fundamentally different from how other "unwanted behaviors" are being "treated" with drugs.
I'm not sure if it's possible to fit more error into a single post than what we read here.
I'm not sure if it's possible to fit more error into a single post than what we read here.
There's no error, just uncomfortable truths. And your reaction is pretty typical as is the lack of any real counter arguments.
Thomas Insel, NIMH Director:
The strength of each of the editions of DSM has been “reliability†– each edition has ensured that clinicians use the same terms in the same ways. The weakness is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure. NIMH » Transforming Diagnosis
Largely the same reason religious people reply with "No, you are wrong, you don't understand Christianity/Islam/whatever" when confronted with any challenge regarding their mythological beliefs.
Largely the same reason religious people reply with "No, you are wrong, you don't understand Christianity/Islam/whatever" when confronted with any challenge regarding their mythological beliefs.
This isn't about believing in the Easter bunny. In fact, it's really not about beliefs at all. It's about defining observable phenomena. If you read your link, that's what the author himself is saying. He doesn't begin to dismiss mental disease. In the slightest. He argues, I agree appropriately, for a better set of study criteria to establish more consistent definitions out of which improved protocols can be developed and implemented.
I have a friend who I've had a falling out with several times over the last few years. Each time I think the friendship is dead, I give her another chance hoping her behavior will change. But each time, it doesn't. She tends to be very insecure, getting mad at me if I don't respond to text messages quickly enough, getting upset if I don't display a certain amount of sympathy towards her, and she tends to lie to me in order to manipulate my feelings, such as exaggerating the seriousness of her problems. I've called her out on the dishonesty but she won't own up to it. Instead, she accuses me of picking fights with her. If I don't respond to a text message immediately or if I let a call go to voicemail, she'll feel slighted and punish me with the silent treatment. In a lot of ways, it feels like I'm dealing with a child. After discussing this behavior with others, the consensus is that my friend has borderline personality disorder. The fear of abandonment, the overreaction to even being slightly ignored, the emotional manipulation, etc. are all there. So I have a couple of questions.
First, are there telltale signs that someone has bipolar personality disorder?
Second, have any of you had experience dealing with a person who has this?
Third, have you told them what you suspect and how did they handle it?
Fourth, what (if anything) can I do to help this person or should I just leave them alone? That last option doesn't sound very good since the behavior will just continue. I'm guessing a person with this personality disorder won't realize it on their own and that others have to point it out to them.
These are signs that someone has borderline PD, if not the strongest signs. Bear in mind Borderline PD is nothing like bipolar disorder. In Borderline PD, the person's whole life is built around his or her abandonment issues -- they constantly test you to make you prove you really care, until you run for your life, whereupon they say "see, nobody cares about me" and starts on someone else. They don't see they are the ones driving everyone away.
I have had far too much experience with this, socially and professionally. The question is, how deeply do you want to go into this with this friend? With borderlines, everything is a life-threatening crisis -- and they really see it that way. If you can find a respectful, supportive way to tell her what you see going on with her, she has a shot at getting herself some real help. If she takes what you're saying as rejection, be ready for some blowback. You're right, they rarely see that they are the ones with the problem. If she is borderline (and not just on drugs or something, which can look a lot like it) she needs dialectical behavior therapy -- it's a specialty therapy just for borderlines. It helps a LOT.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
