Do you see mental health problems (OCD, bipolar etc) as "real" conditions?

This is utterly pointless.

No point debating with someone who refuses to acknowledge absolute tons of empirical research because of their unfounded "beliefs". That's just banging your head against a brick wall.

I truely hope that nobody close to you falls into that life-destroying pit of psychosis, lest you deem them as "misbehaving". I hope one day your eyes are actually opened to the amount of suffering and misery that mental illness can bring.

OCD well it's code for badly behaved beyond just the norm. But it still is wise to treat it rather than end up with some kid who sets fire to things for fun.

I've seen better arguments to support the existence of God than your arguments, belief is a poor substitute for education. In future I suggest you keep your half arsed notions to yourself unless you know what you are talking about. You are entitled to any opinion you want, even if it is preposterous. But a valid argument would be a good place to start not an ill conceived anecdotal opinion.

I believe that all behaviour is moulded by nurture. I don't believe that behaviours need changing, but if someones behaviour is impacting on their ability to live their life happily then deeper root causes must be considered - through counselling, perhaps. I'm all for people visiting GPs if they're struggling to deal with a behaviour, but I'm against classification and diagnosis because every person is different and behaviours don't need medical names.
Personally, I had a number of what could have been labelled 'mental illnesses' when I was younger; but they were natural reactions to what was going on in my life.
My brother has diagnosed dyslexia, and I think the key here is to foster good spelling - pointing out when he makes mistakes and teaching him how to spell properly, rather than resigning him to the fact that it's a mental illness and he'll never learn to spell properly, which really isn't the case (the reason I also disagree strongly with extra time in exams).
I may have gone off on a tangent here, but as I said earlier, I just really don't believe in the existence of 'mental health PROBLEMS', more conditions and behaviours that can be changed with a new mindset.

Ignorant prick. You don't have a clue what you're on about.

OCD has NOTHING to do with bad behaviour.

Well, thank you. And thanks for dropping from the one person on this thread offering a reasoned discussion without insult, to the same level as the others.

So you believe that a Schizophrenic is just "misbehaved"? So how do you explain the physiological differences such as abnormal neural activity in the frontal lobes, obviously increased ventricle sizes of the brain as well as various other differences.


http://www.schizophrenia.com/disease.htm

Damn those naughty Schizophrenics for being so misbehaved.



So seeing as you seem to want to dispute neurological evidence, do you assume that diseases such as Parkinsons, Alzheimers and Dementia are just "behaviours" as opposed to medical conditions? I believe someone needs to spend some time on an acute psych ward and meet some of these people yourself.

That's a pretty retarded and ill-thought out concept. What if someone progresses to the stage of illness where they no longer have the capacity to make such logical judgements about their own health. Schizophrenics often have a complete poverty in the ability to accept overwhelming evidence against their condition: i.e. "The TV is not talking to you. Here are reasons why, how do you dispute these reasons?" will only be responded by "THE TV IS TALKING TO ME. IT TELLS ME TO DO THIS, THIS AND THIS. I AM NOT ILL, I HAVE A MISSION TO DO." (obviously these behaviours differ, but this is a common one for paranoid schizophrenics, none-the-less).

Why keep my beliefs to myself in a thread asking for personal opinion?

Well, thank you. And thanks for dropping from the one person on this thread offering a reasoned discussion without insult, to the same level as the others.

Well, thank you. And thanks for dropping from the one person on this thread offering a reasoned discussion without insult, to the same level as the others.

You cannot lable someone, or force them to admit that they are "ill" if they do not feel ill or are happy with their life.

From pure observation, someone may appear to be acting very strangely and to be in discomfort, but if they truely feel content within themselves then why would they need help? Are they not more of a problem for soceity than a problem for themselves?

Ofcourse, as you say, a schizophrenic person may actually be very unhappy in their situation but not acknowledge that they have an illness. I don't know, however, how this is any different from a "sane" person feeling unhappy.

We can acknowledge that schizophrenic people are thinking in a different way to us. Why not help them to live with the illness and make them happy relative to their own state of mind rather than trying to bring them to a level of "sanity" that they won't be able to achieve?

Society may only be a very stressful place for a schizophrenic person because it is built around people of a very similiar or "normal" mental state. This is where "mental illness" becomes apparent. The ability of a person to be able tofit into society.

Society should fit around the varying states of mind rather than the other way round.

Wouldn't it be better for a schizophrenic person to be respected and listened to rather than pumped full of drugs? Where do you even draw the line between "ecentric" and "needs help"? Is it the person who has a problem or society who cannot deal with such a different state of mind?

Why is there a need to look for the "norm"? More "mental illnesses" are created the more we narrow the gap between sanity and insanity. Every person should be asessed individually, relative to their own needs. Ofcourse, it's too hard to do such a thing so doctors come up with catagories that fit people of a roughly similiar traits.

This is just classic 'you' isn't it? Make a stupid, ignorant argument and then ignore all the posts that completely disprove everything you've said and show you to be unintelligent.

Otherwise, answer this instead of ignoring it just because it proves you wrong:

Please introduce me to the people who are happy living a Schizophrenic, Phobic, Anorexic, Bulimic, OCD lifestyle. I can't say I've ever met a single one.



Again, see above. You'll also find that a typical Schizophrenic, if lacking the support of dedicated families, will end up losing their job and either become homeless or end up locking themselves in a squalored state-funded flat. (See Drift Hypothesis). I would hardly describe these people as being a "problem to society" in the sense that "the man has to keep them down". Most of the time they are forgotten and swept to the gutter, never to be seen by the light of day.




It differs in the fact that someone who is merely unhappy still has their grip on reality and is thus able to seek help if they desire to do so. This is the luxury of being sane.



How can you help someone to live with utmost paranoia and delusions of organizing meetings with the pope and satan to solve world hostilities without attempting to offer them a hand out of the dark consuming pit of insanity? You can't. It's the only mode of helping that doesn't just involve warehousing them away where their delusions are humored by members of staff. Schizophrenics CAN acheive sanity. Statistically, one third fully recovers, one third will manage to control their symptoms enough to continue with their lives, and a third will unfortunately never see sanity again. That's two thirds of the group potentially being able to live a life of quality.



If only. This would be absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately, the world is an incredibly cruel and judging place. This just isn't going to happen.



Yes, Schizophrenics should be given the respect that any human being deserves. This is an essential part of recovery. However, many of these people are unfortunately so deluded and distant from reality that they cannot even face any kind of recovery. Some to the extent that they are in pure catatonia. Meds are needed to build a foundation and offer the very weak grip on reality that is needed to introduce sanity back into their lives via respect, understanding and dedicated counselling. Imagine trying to find a lightswitch in a massive room in the pitch black. It's pretty much impossible unless you know the room. Meds offer the flashlight that provides the small amount of light to find the lightswitch.

The line is drawn by levels of suffering. Again see my previous post on statistical deviance. If you have an alternative, I'm sure the discipline of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry would love to hear it.



Yes, I agree with you 100% here. It's damn tough though, but people are sure as hell trying.

Idiot.

I didn't say that. I said make a valid argument, not an anecdotal miasma of ignorance and supposition based on nothing. Like I say you can have any opinion you want even if it is stupid.

I just don't believe that they're medical conditions. I accept that those behaviours exist of course (unlike the OP, who thinks they're faked), but I see them simply as being behaviours.
I just don't see why everything needs to be diagnosed and given a medical name, when it's simply a trait or behaviour - and I certainly don't think diagnoses (and thus following self-fulfilling prophecies and drug prescription) are the right way to go about changing behaviours.

Or do you think people just use them as an excuse.
For example, someone in my school pretends he has dyslexia so he gets more time in exams, but he blatantly doesn't have dyslexia..

Why do you think it's purely a behavioural thing when there is plenty of evidence in the medical journals to point towards a genetic or physical causes as well?

.