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You sound so clueless and ignorant about mental illness so just stop! Just earlier today I received a call from my sister who's in a psychiatric hospital. She's been in and out of hospitals since she was 19, countless of times. Do you think she's faking it? She wasn't born with it? It's not brain chemistry? Can you please let me know what it is? She and my family have been dealing with this for over 35 yrs. and we're still trying to figure things out. It's pathetic to hear when people say that depression and mental illness is a made up thing. Tell that to my sister who was tied up in the hospital yesterday because she was so out of it! Do you think she likes being tied up?! She's so out of it at times that she has no idea of what she's doing or saying. Today she was able to use the phone but most of what she was she was saying didn't make any sense. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
Politically, I'm not a fan of the Kennedy's but my heart goes out to them. Those who have dealt with or have family members struggling with mental illness wouldn't wish that on our worst enemy. It's so sad that this young girl had to deal with such deep depression at such an early age. I don't know why, but there so many young people nowadays suffering from depression. I think it was so brave of her to write such an open and honest essay about her struggles in an effort to help others in dealing with their struggles. I'm not sure why depression and suicide are on a rise in this country, especially teenagers and young people, but we should be looking for answers not pretend this doesn't exist. Wishing that people would just stop with this "depressed" thing; now that's truly nuts!
Depression is real, making up reasons for it such as chemical imbalance is in most cases a bunch of hooey. Life is hard for everyone, especially with a crap childhood or other sorts of emotional trauma in the rear view. If you are depressed with no apparent reason, figure chemical imbalance, go see a shrink and get on some pills = stupid way to deal with your depression. I'm not saying there aren't people out there in legitimate need of medication for mental illness, but I think in most cases people would be better off to toughen up and work through it rather than turn to pills.
Alcohol continues to cause so many problems in society and it ruins so many lives, its high time, we force our lawmakers to do something about it!
They seem to be extremely concerned with our health and safety when it comes to prescription drugs or street drugs...why would that concern be any less just because it was a different substance? Is protecting the alcohol industry really the priority in all of this? LOL
Im waiting for the day someone is killed in an accident involving alcohol and the family files suit against the ATF or DEA, for basically refusing to take action or to protect citizens from these dangerous substances/drugs!
Besides that, surely the alcohol industry is not more powerful/influential than the pharma guys?!!!
Alcohol continues to cause so many problems in society and it ruins so many lives, its high time, we force our lawmakers to do something about it!
They seem to be extremely concerned with our health and safety when it comes to prescription drugs or street drugs...why would that concern be any less just because it was a different substance? Is protecting the alcohol industry really the priority in all of this? LOL
Im waiting for the day someone is killed in an accident involving alcohol and the family files suit against the ATF or DEA, for basically refusing to take action or to protect citizens from these dangerous substances/drugs!
Besides that, surely the alcohol industry is not more powerful/influential than the pharma guys?!!!
I don't know what you have in mind, but if its banning alcohol that's already been tried.
It was called Prohibition. It was in effect from 1919 through 1933. It was a disaster. People drank anyway. They made their own or smuggled it into the country. It lead to the rise of the Mafia in our country.
Any good accomplished by it was outweighed by the harm done.
Depression is real, making up reasons for it such as chemical imbalance is in most cases a bunch of hooey. Life is hard for everyone, especially with a crap childhood or other sorts of emotional trauma in the rear view. If you are depressed with no apparent reason, figure chemical imbalance, go see a shrink and get on some pills = stupid way to deal with your depression. I'm not saying there aren't people out there in legitimate need of medication for mental illness, but I think in most cases people would be better off to toughen up and work through it rather than turn to pills.
You don't know what you're talking about.
That's like saying don't give a diabetic insulin and let them "tough it out".
Apparently you have perfect mental health, be grateful for it.
Seeing the family picture has me convinced that there is no curse, it's just a HUGE freaking family and when you have this many people things will happen over time. And we are going back generations when we list all the tragedies.
“And we mourn her loss but her memory will live on as someone who wasn’t going to keep silent and wasn’t going to be feeling as if she had something shameful, but rather something medical that she sought treatment for,” Saoirse's cousin, Patrick Kennedy, stated.
“This affects every single family in America,” he added. “It’s way past time that we deal with this in a way that we would deal with any other public health crisis.”
It is my understanding that situational depression is something quite different from depression resulting from a chemical imbalance.
Yes, THIS.
I have dealt with situational depression several times over my lifetime. I can't imagine the hopeless feeling of that WITHOUT an issue that can be dealt with and worked through and put behind me.
Depression is real, making up reasons for it such as chemical imbalance is in most cases a bunch of hooey. Life is hard for everyone, especially with a crap childhood or other sorts of emotional trauma in the rear view. If you are depressed with no apparent reason, figure chemical imbalance, go see a shrink and get on some pills = stupid way to deal with your depression. I'm not saying there aren't people out there in legitimate need of medication for mental illness, but I think in most cases people would be better off to toughen up and work through it rather than turn to pills.
Sigh.
Like the person you responded to, I also have a seriously mentally ill brother. Let me lay something out there for you to ruminate over:
Seriously mentally ill people with chemical imbalances often try to self medicate because they do realize that SOMETHING in them needs to be fixed in order to feel better. They also tend to make poor decisions because - well, because they are mentally ill! They often make decisions based on paranoia, fears, mistaken beliefs, delusions, etc. These decisions are often not illegal in and of themselves, and the law clearly states that it's not against the law to be irrational or paranoid yada yada yada. The law generally won't step in unless someone actually breaks the law. Many of these decisions result in traumatic events that further exacerbate the existing mental illness. It's a vicious cycle. Pretty soon they have messed up lives, with substance abuse and terrible life choices further complicating their mental health issues.
Note - I am NOT saying that everyone who abuses substances or makes poor life choices is biologically mentally ill.
There have been many interesting studies linking early regular marijuana use (before the brain is mature) to schizophrenia. Scans and tests reveal actual differences in the brains of schizophrenics who have regularly smoked weed since their teen years, and healthy brains from healthy individuals. But which came first - the chicken or the egg? Did they abuse marijuana BECAUSE they already had jacked up brains, or did the jacked up brains create a desire to smoke weed regularly? Jury's out on that one but personally I believe that the weed exacerbated a condition that might have otherwise lain latent.
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