Posted by Anna Laura on February 22, 2002, at 23:05:42
In reply to I dont relate well to the mental health community, posted by OldSchool on February 22, 2002, at 21:22:41
> My depression is more of a biological kind of depression. I never have understood this fascination and interest others seem to have with psychology stuff, therapy, "issues" and whatnot. I never was into that before my depression and Im into it even less now. My only "issues" are that I cant sleep normally and feel like shit all the time. And that I have cognitive problems that makes working very difficult.
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> I dont understand why the mental health community is so into "feelings" and "issues" and talk therapy. To me the handwriting is on the wall...all this stuff is another illness thats all. I oftentimes wonder if many of the complaints concerning mental healthcare is due to the fact this field is way off in left field, on a wild tangent. By that I mean the mental health field is too focused on "behavior" and not on the biological underpinnings of these problems.
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> I feel too much time and energy is wasted on "woody allen syndrome" than real mental illness. I also feel that its a very bullshit kind of thing that mental health professionals try to do to us...diagnose us by talking to us. I feel that these problems are more complicated than this. Im just very skeptical of all things psychology and all things mental health related.
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> Old SchoolI think you're right, even though some people with depression have personality traits which make them more prone to stress, the latter triggering or even worsening depression directly. It's like a vicious cycle, you know. Sometimes therapy might help to break this cycle by re-shaping and molding certain traits related to stress thus affecting depression in the long run.
Moreover, some people develop disfunctional personality traits (such as learned helpessness, pessimism and so forth) after long term chronic depression: therapy might be helpful in these cases by working on these features that could concurr in maintaining your depression.
I don't think therapy can affect you chemically, unless you suffer from a very mild form of depression (more a personality trait rather then a chemical imbalance in this case, even though both aspects are very often intertwined).
Nonetheless, support and and a rewened optimism could help you to reach out for what you need in order to cure your depression (medical cure and alternatives you weren't thinking of as depression was clouding your thoughts).
poster:Anna Laura
thread:18721
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020214/msgs/18723.html