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I'm worried there's a taboo developing where only professionals or mentally ill people themselves are allowed to express any kind of opinion about mental illnes

I'm worried there's a taboo developing where only professionals or mentally ill people themselves are allowed to express any kind of opinion about mental illness or the mentally ill.

alexanderstears 9y ago
Well, let's be real you can hardly criticize someone without pathologizing it. In the 1970s, people were worried about kids reading comic books and garbage novels. In the 1980s-1990s, people were worried about kids playing too many video games or watching too much tv. Now we're worried about internet addiction as though kids get itchy and cold without their fix. We can't just say "don't spend 8 hours/day watching TV. Go outside" - we have to use the language of healthcare.
timthelion 9y ago
I'm worried that the field of psychology is gaining a monopoly on expression of feelings. We can no longer express happiness and sadness, anxiety and frustration, without being "diagnosed" in a horoscopic manner which has little or nothing to do with science and bears a great deal of stigma. The psychological disorders of today are the occult of yesterday. We believe that one can become possessed by depression or anxiety. Possessed by psychosis, possessed by a personality disorder, possessed by PTSD, possessed by a history of child abuse. And we have to call upon the psychologists to preform an exorcism.
- drb91 9y ago
  You are free to reject diagnosis and medication unless you are determined a danger to yourself or others. HIPAA also gives you control over where your diagnoses travel. Not with facebook, of course, which doesn’t qualify for hipaa protections yet.
  - timthelion 9y ago
    Of course you are free to do so, but back in the days of daemon possession, most people were just as free to reject the claim that they were possessed. What mattered back then, was not the claim though, what mattered back then was that ordinary people would look at someone and think "oh he's acting weird, he must be possessed". And that "possessed person" would then be feared. It interfered with the process of empathy.
    - drb91 9y ago
      Well, HIPAA also protects you from your doctor telling your social circle. So i’m not quite clear on what the parallel to “being afraid of a possessed person” would be.

I'm worried there's a taboo developing where only professionals or mentally ill people themselves are allowed to express any kind of opinion about mental illness or the mentally ill.

alexanderstears 9y ago

Well, let's be real you can hardly criticize someone without pathologizing it. In the 1970s, people were worried about kids reading comic books and garbage novels. In the 1980s-1990s, people were worried about kids playing too many video games or watching too much tv. Now we're worried about internet addiction as though kids get itchy and cold without their fix. We can't just say "don't spend 8 hours/day watching TV. Go outside" - we have to use the language of healthcare.

timthelion 9y ago

I'm worried that the field of psychology is gaining a monopoly on expression of feelings. We can no longer express happiness and sadness, anxiety and frustration, without being "diagnosed" in a horoscopic manner which has little or nothing to do with science and bears a great deal of stigma. The psychological disorders of today are the occult of yesterday. We believe that one can become possessed by depression or anxiety. Possessed by psychosis, possessed by a personality disorder, possessed by PTSD, possessed by a history of child abuse. And we have to call upon the psychologists to preform an exorcism.

drb91 9y ago
You are free to reject diagnosis and medication unless you are determined a danger to yourself or others. HIPAA also gives you control over where your diagnoses travel. Not with facebook, of course, which doesn’t qualify for hipaa protections yet.
- timthelion 9y ago
  Of course you are free to do so, but back in the days of daemon possession, most people were just as free to reject the claim that they were possessed. What mattered back then, was not the claim though, what mattered back then was that ordinary people would look at someone and think "oh he's acting weird, he must be possessed". And that "possessed person" would then be feared. It interfered with the process of empathy.
  - drb91 9y ago
    Well, HIPAA also protects you from your doctor telling your social circle. So i’m not quite clear on what the parallel to “being afraid of a possessed person” would be.