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Whoa, I lost track of this thread last year but it's still valuable to me.
In response to some comments,
I've deliberately NEVER tried alcohol or drugs because when I was a child, Nancy Reagan taught me to "Just Say No to Drugs," and I'm still fine with that.
I do hear voices when I'm in stressful situations or under a lot of pressure. In July 2015 I was fired from my job as yoga teacher because I'd been so depressed I couldn't keep up with my schedule. (The frustrating thing is that yoga & exercise are my medicine which make me feel well, but if I have a moment when I'm not feeling well, I can't even drag myself to the gym in order to feel better So I eventually got fired.)
Back to the hearing voices thing: an example of when I'd hear voices was when I was teaching classes. I'd think the students were yelling at me, telling me to do things different or better, or that I was doing it all wrong. But in reality the classes of adults were always attentive & respectful. The voices were in my head, and did affect how I felt and what I said. I would never want to see a video recording of any of the hundreds of classes I taught. I'm sure there were some good days and some bad days. No video recordings were ever made, thankfully.
Veganwriter commented to "give up on Western medicine for this one."
Trust me, I have given up on Western Medicine for anything beyond broken body parts. Yoga, fresh air, natural nutrition, and exercise really do make me feel right as rain. Those things sound so simple that most people glaze right over it without even consideriing that if everyone lived that way, we would live in a state of utopia. Does that scare everyone so much? To treat their bodies well so the world can be a better place?!
But Western medicine doesn't advocate those things. They just push pills & talk therapy in order to fill their own bank accounts, without actually helping their patients, perpetuating the cycle of illness, stress, sadness, and capitalistic greed.
Veganwriter mentioned that "spiritual emergencies" ARE indeed listed in the DSM. I didn't see that until today, more than a year after you told me that! Next time I am required to see a doctor I will suggest they consider me with a spiritual emergency because I'm certain that is what's happening. But I'll be damned if they try to medicate me for it!
Currently mental illnesses are almost always diagnosed by symptom alone. So with current thinking, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck.
There are some neurologists who are in the early stages of studying more about underlying causes for different mental illnesses and, depending on the results of their studies, there could someday be more objective measures to determine whether someone has a given mental illness. But until then, if the symptoms fit the definition, then the person will usually be considered to have that mental illness.
There are some exceptions applied for differential diagnoses, mostly of the "this symptom should be discounted because it's actually caused by this physical issues." There are endocrine issues that can cause symptoms similar to various mental illnesses. There are drug-related behaviors that present like symptoms of mental illnesses. There are a few other physical problems that can create mental-illness-like symptoms that should usually be ruled out before a formal mental illness diagnosis is made.
But once those are ruled out, it basically becomes a diagnosis based on symptom. One other exception is schizophrenia, which some neurologists won't diagnose without a supporting brain scan, since "real" schizophrenia usually comes with visible differences in MRI scans. Schizophrenia-like symptoms without a positive brain scan may just be more generally diagnosed as a non-specific schizo-affective disorder.
One caveat is that laypeople should not attempt to make a diagnosis. Most people display some mild form of symptoms that can be used in a diagnosis of mental illness - everyone is sad sometimes, everyone has moments when they're confused or scatter-brained, but that doesn't mean everyone is depressed in a clinical sense, or that everyone has schizo-affective disorders. It takes years of training to made a valid termination of how severe those symptoms are and thus how relevant for making a diagnosis. So if you're asking because you think you have symptoms that define a mental illness, do not jump to the conclusion that you actually do have that disorder - always, ALWAYS consult a psychologist or psychiatrist for a formal assessment because they have far more experience and training to know what is really a problem and what is just an occasional quirk for you.
I don't know it's all semantics so does it matter? Whether it stems from chemical imbalance or the enviroment, it's still a nearly impossible thing to overcome so in my eyes a mental illness is a mental illness.
However, I do think that doctors need to stop prescribing all these medicines. All these substances just aren't good for the psyche. Most of the time medicine is just a way for pharmacies and doctors to make money. The medicine also comes with a huge list of side effects too. I would think that the mood variety was the worst offender of that too. They don't actually think that it will help you they just want to keep giving it to you so they can keep getting their nice paycheck. GERD for example is apparently a chemical problem but I refuse to take medicine for it even though I was diagnosed with it last year.
I agree with you 1,000 percent on the money motivation for psychological diagnoses.
As a former teacher, I can tell you in my opinion kids are way over-diagnosed with an alphabet soup of attention deficit disorders, bipolar, etc. with matching medications, insurance payments, and wealth accumulation for professionals that we are supposed to trust. I'm not talking about legitimate issues, which exist, but normal kids which are told they have a problem and even memorize their diagnosis to justify behavior issues which were easily corrected in an earlier time by treating the kids as what they were--normal kids.
It's easy to forget that parents and children profit from these diagnoses as well, not only the professionals. In some cases, diagnoses are pursued for something so trivial as extra time on standardized tests like the SAT. Tag your kid with an acronym and they get time and a half on the SAT and thus an advantage over other kids in college admissions. I've seen this happen with the hardest-working, most well-adjusted, most socio-economically well off kids in the classroom. If you lean towards the other direction as a parent, not wanting to see your kid anymore, you can get them diagnosed and sent off to a facility. Money changes hands, the parents are free of their child, it's a win-win from a certain point of view.
I don't see much objectivity in how professionals make diagnoses. For example, is Edward Snowden paranoid because he thinks people are out to get him? Obviously people are out to get him. So somebody has to make a subjective judgment call on his paranoia, somebody with an agenda, since we all have them. They can't just make an objective determination, because that would interfere with all of their carefully crafted earlier diagnoses where "paranoia" indicated this or that, without qualifiers. And what about people who have jobs that involve lying, such as informants? They demonstrably, objectively, wake up every morning and deceive all of the people around them. They show little conscience in doing this. Yet these symptoms are completely ignored by professionals in diagnosing sociopathy or psychopathy, because of subjective determinations of the motives (!) for the lying. In other words, the behavior is ignored in favor of the justification. As a scientist and not somebody paid to interpret, hide, or inflate symptoms to fit an agenda, I see a liar as a liar, because well, that's what they are.
Considering there is no evidence that "mental illness" is a brain disease or that chemical imbalances exist (this theory has been debunked) and all these disorders are nothing more than labels. Yes it is certainly possible.
I knew a person that was diagnosed with bi-polar. Turned out it was just her hormones. The mania/insomnia she'd experience was always coinciding with her period... for years she tried numerous medications, therapies, hospital stays, nothing really helped except a "natural" or "alternative" way.. and thats when she discovered her hormonal imbalance. She got on hormone supplements (i cannot remember which ones were off, but her GYN and endocrinologist did the testing) and sure enough she was "normal" again
Currently mental illnesses are almost always diagnosed by symptom alone. So with current thinking, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck.
There are some neurologists who are in the early stages of studying more about underlying causes for different mental illnesses and, depending on the results of their studies, there could someday be more objective measures to determine whether someone has a given mental illness. But until then, if the symptoms fit the definition, then the person will usually be considered to have that mental illness.
There are some exceptions applied for differential diagnoses, mostly of the "this symptom should be discounted because it's actually caused by this physical issues." There are endocrine issues that can cause symptoms similar to various mental illnesses. There are drug-related behaviors that present like symptoms of mental illnesses. There are a few other physical problems that can create mental-illness-like symptoms that should usually be ruled out before a formal mental illness diagnosis is made.
But once those are ruled out, it basically becomes a diagnosis based on symptom. One other exception is schizophrenia, which some neurologists won't diagnose without a supporting brain scan, since "real" schizophrenia usually comes with visible differences in MRI scans. Schizophrenia-like symptoms without a positive brain scan may just be more generally diagnosed as a non-specific schizo-affective disorder.
One caveat is that laypeople should not attempt to make a diagnosis. Most people display some mild form of symptoms that can be used in a diagnosis of mental illness - everyone is sad sometimes, everyone has moments when they're confused or scatter-brained, but that doesn't mean everyone is depressed in a clinical sense, or that everyone has schizo-affective disorders. It takes years of training to made a valid termination of how severe those symptoms are and thus how relevant for making a diagnosis. So if you're asking because you think you have symptoms that define a mental illness, do not jump to the conclusion that you actually do have that disorder - always, ALWAYS consult a psychologist or psychiatrist for a formal assessment because they have far more experience and training to know what is really a problem and what is just an occasional quirk for you.
I agree with everything that you said here, especially the bolded part. Two years ago, my psychiatrist diagnosed me with bipolar disorder with mixed states. For two decades before that, I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. If I were to diagnose myself, I would simply assume that I had just depression and anxiety. Looking back I realize that I had manic episodes that were brought on by antidepressants, which is not unusual in people with bipolar. As far as physical illness or a vitamin deficiency being the cause of symptoms, a good doctor is going to test for things like blood sugar levels, thyroid problems, and vitamin deficinencies before arriving at a diagnosis of a mental disorder. These disorders are also ruled out if the subject has symptoms that are brought about by abuse of alcohol or drugs.
Believe me, I was a huge proponent of alternative therapies in the past. It's a more attractive notion that an illness can be "cured" through diet, supplements, or some other type of therapy that doesn't involve expensive doctor visits or medications. I am more inclined to trust more in conventional treatment because I have tried many supplements, diets, and vitamins and they did absolutely nothing for me in terms of alleviating my symptoms. All they did was give me expensive urine and lighten my pocketbook. In my experience doctors and therapists don't push medications and therapy just to line their own pockets. My PCP did prescribe medications, but also educated me on diet and exercise and will recommend certain supplements like melatonin for sleep and a high-quality multivitamin. My psychiatrist knows that I do not want to take a bunch of medications, so he is trying to find medications that will replace one or two of the pills that I am currently taking and recommends exercise to help improve my mood. If they were primarily money-motivated, they would not recommend these behaviors because there isn't anything in it for them if I take a vitamin or go to the gym. And one would argue that the purveyors of different supplements and alternative therapies aren't necessarily doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. They want to make their money, too.
Another thing that people like to say is that medications work because of the placebo effect. If it were a matter of truly wanting to believe that a course of action would alleviate the symptoms that they are experiencing, wouldn't it stand to reason that these alternative therapies would work as well? I suspect that the "healing" that people experience when they take different supplements, etc. is that they were never truly affected with the illness in the first place.
You also have to ask yourself how willing a patient is to change their behaviors to contribute to their own recovery. It's not easy to change one's diet or to start and sustain and exercise regimen. It's also not easy to do the hard work in therapy that will help address things like cognitive distortions that may contribute to mental malaise. I wonder how much patient demand plays into the amount of prescriptions that are doled out. There are people who do think that there is a miracle pill that will fix them without their making a single lifestyle change.
I have no problem with people seeking information about unconventional treatments. The problem I have is when someone with no medical or psychiatric training reads a few books or something on the internet and asserts that everyone can be treated by eschewing doctors and curing themselves with supplements. It is maddening and irresponsible.
Kundalini.
There is a chance that you may be experiencing a "Kundalini Emergency."
Meds only keep you locked in the out of balanced, distorted mind space.
Dr. M. Scott Peck wrote in his bestseller, "The Road Less Traveled," that about a third of the people diagnosed aren't mentally ill, they're spiritually ill. Likewise, about a third of the people diagnosed as physically ill are really spiritually ill. (i.e.-- "I went to the doctor and they did all these tests and they still can't find anything wrong with me..")
Western medicine is tops if you're in a car accident and need to be structurally put back together ... but there are ancient concepts of the body and mind it ignores.
You know the symbol of the American Medial Association? The pole with the two snakes running up .. with the glob on top?
That's the symbol for Kundalini.
It's also the symbol for Luke the Great Physician (Bible)
It's also the symbol for Hermes, the Greek messenger of the gods
and yes, it's the symbol of the American Medical Association
The pole is your spine.
The snakes are the DNA Helix that run up your spine.
The globe at the top is your head.
"When the inner is in balance, the outer comes into balance."
I'd wager that there are a LOT more than, "one third" of the people diagnosed with mental illness that are really going through a spiritual emergency (as in, "spiritual psychology").
All the world's traditions discuss it... but it's coded.
For instance, people are taught that the Bible is to be read literally. Many of those stories are insane if you read them literally and as, "fact." What "Good Spell" (Gospel) is ... is a book of anatomy and psychology that shows you how to get out of "bondage" (trauma, negativity, evil) and go through the "Red Sea" (emotions), into the "Promised Land" ... (i.e. "The Kingdom of God is within you.")
I'd suggest that you Google, "Kundalini Yoga" and start searching for a good teacher. It takes a bit of effort to leave "sloth" (the resistance to move yourself into higher consciousness) ... but if you do, you'll discover that this "crisis" is actually the greatest gift you've ever been given.
This heavily reconciles with me too....but, is it better to go out and seek such a yoga instructor or is it the kind of situation where the kundalini yoga instructor finds you? or does it even matter
"Is it possible to have all the symptoms of a mental illness, but not have the mental illness?"
No
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So I eventually got fired.)
Many of those stories are insane if you read them literally and as, "fact." What "Good Spell" (Gospel) is ... is a book of anatomy and psychology that shows you how to get out of "bondage" (trauma, negativity, evil) and go through the "Red Sea" (emotions), into the "Promised Land" ... (i.e. "The Kingdom of God is within you.")
