Can clinicians tell whether a person is mentally ill?

@marc6x Hi Marc6x you bring up some interesting arguements. I would love to be drug free but literally go insane without my medications. It is for my protection as well as protection of others that I am on my medications. Sad but true. I just get overly stimuated by my envrionment. Little things I pick up on plus my delusions and hallucinations make it impossible for me to function without my magic pills.

I agree with you however with what you say but am afraid to go it alone (which I would have to do as my psychiatrist would drop me if I did - she said). I couldn't do it alone. Also I have my kidults to take care of and they need a totally sane mother even if that means she sleeps most of the day due to being drugged out on medication.

No winners in this argument. greenpea

Hi greenpea,

It's always good to get an earnest reply from someone, so your response is appreciated. But consider this.

Drug medications always should be considered as a last resort for someone exhibiting signs of mental illness. As wise man Johann Hari has pointed out, depression (and by inference all other forms of mental illness) is essentially a psychosocial reaction. We need to start addressing not "What is wrong with you?" but "What happened to you?".

MHA never asked the right questions from the start, and antagonised me into much greater misbehaviour. Concerns about my social life, diet, exercise and mindset were never fully addressed, except by myself independently. I sympathise with the fact that you are unable to control your symptoms, but consider someone whose alleged mental illness is not so severe, and is even in doubt. I've done four online tests for mental illness, and three of them have indicated that I do not have a mental illness.

Then there are the severe negative effects of drugs such as bodily tremors and "lightning bolts" which create greater self-esteem problems than they can imagine. I would probably assign you the right to take your drugs, but only if you were to assign me the right not to take mine, until such time as it is a last resort for severe criminal misbehaviour.

Thank you!

Very interesting discussion @marc6x and @Bunniekins

Can I firstly say, your grasp of the written word is impressive. It's a treat to read such powerful posts.

Can we distinguish the difference between a mental illness and a mental disorder? I think there's a fine line between the two, and also the fact an illness can trigger disordered responses.

There's far too much emphasis on the 'diagnosis' than symptomology and its cause. I once spoke with a psychiatrist while working in a psych ward years ago about the amount of 'labels' out there. He shook his head and smiled; "There's a name for anything you can think of and more being created every day. Getting your name attached to a new diagnosis can devour some psychiatrist's time. Their focus is self indulgent and separate from the patient's experience"

This to me is the biggest problem the psychiatric community has. Unfortunately they deal with the brain and its function and although it's imperative, it's only a portion of our mental health journey. An holistic approach doesn't seem to be out there except among patients/clients with enough drive to educate themselves; usually the hard way which is what I did...self assessment/treatment through trial and error.

I applaud your enthusiasm, even though it's been many years dealing with the system, you're still driven. Kudos and keep up the great work!

Hope

@marc6x You have hit the nail on the head with your sentence ending in 'until such time as it is a last resort for severe criminal misbehaviour.' This is why I take my meds ....

Hi Hope4me,

Thanks, appreciated. I dont know the important difference between a mental illness and disorder, so maybe you can explain.

I think diagnoses and prognoses can be useful for ascertaining the actual concern. Being accurate is a discipline. But I take your point about the need for less labelling and perhaps being more inclusive of one's whole personality (?).

I'd like to read more from you - thank you for contributing.

Hi,

Thanks - yours is a short answer but I want to do justice to it. As well as being many other things, I am an anarchist (not in the sense of 'chaos' tho) - in other words, an antiauthoritarian who believes that people behave in the most appropriate manner when given the greatest amount of freedom.

I hope this creates an important point to my story above!

Hi @marc6x

Love your insight and posts

@Bunniekins I too chose meds for my children, who needed a calmer mother.

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was 24 years old. That was 47 years ago. My battle with MHA and medication has been an ongoing one. For me the medication works, at least to suppress the symptoms, but the side effects of an effective dossage is unexceptable. For years medication has been an on-off affair for me, sometimes with heavy handed interference by authorities trying to force me to comply with their demands.

My various attempts to deal with my issues using non pharmaceutical interventions have generally been met with ridicule and discouragement despite the fact that some of these things have actually been quite helpful. Recent overseas research is now showing that some psychological interventions are at least as succesful as drugs in dealing with severe mental health problems but unfortunately Australia remains a stagnant backwater in this area.

My response to the question that you posted is that in my experience, many so called MH professionals have a very limited repertoire of skills that they are willing or able to use. Consequently they tend to deal with people by giving them some simplistic and generalised label followed by a prescription for medication.