5 ms·

I'm skeptical as hell of the entire field of psychotherapy, psychology, psychiatry, and cog sci. I think we're doing better than before, sure, but it's all such

I'm skeptical as hell of the entire field of psychotherapy, psychology, psychiatry, and cog sci. I think we're doing better than before, sure, but it's all such a shit show from my perspective as a participant. Rambles: Back in highschool we had a massively depressed friend. They tried it all with her: cognitive behavioral therapy, drugs (ALL OF THEM), weed, religion. Tough love. Exercise. Diet. Nothing cured her and her depression killed her via suicide. What's the psych tell me after? Sometimes there's nothing we can do? That sucks. Human genome, done. Prevent HIV from killing someone. Can't do shit about depression sometimes. And if you get depression - do you take the ssris? Fuck knows? http://www.healthtalk.org/peoples-experiences/mental-health/experiences-antidepressants/deciding-take-antidepressant http://www.healthtalk.org/peoples-experiences/mental-health/... and the "next page." Sometimes they make you numb to the world or feel like you're being controlled. Sometimes they make you have suicidal thoughts. Sometimes they take a weight off your shoulders. Sometimes they make you feel like you actually have a chance. None of my psychs were able to describe any of this. I had to research it on my own. And Lord forbid you've got multiple. Is it ADHD still? Newest psych has the idea that it's all ADD now - so, my memories of wildcat behavior that I'd be ashamed of in seconds as a kid, what was that? When shit bubbles up out of my mouth without me thinking, is that not the H anymore but just something else? And why did nobody tell me in 2 decades that a common symptom of ADD is shit memory? I had to find out on Reddit. Is it actually? Who knows! Does Adderall help? Well, I suppose! Hard to say. Technically, I could work without it. I am more productive with. But, also more robotic. And, it's nearly impossible to track the subtle personality changes that come with medicating via Adderall, no matter how hard I journal. Ask the psychs and they shrug and say "keep a journal." Ask what dosage and they say "higher until the side effects are unbearable, then one dosage down," instead of "lower until the medicine is ineffective, then one dose up." And as for those personality changes - perhaps that's a "better" me anyway? It's certainly a smarter one. Don't get me started on what fresh hell you find yourself in if the State discovers someone is suicidal and locks them in a psych ward. Came damn close to ruining my life by performing a full on jail break to get my friend out of that psuedo science nightmare. I welcome all thoughts on my rambles and I apologize if no helpful meaning was able to be extracted, on this subject I can think of no other way to get my thoughts on paper.

jstarfish 8y ago
Sorry to hear about your friend. I swear psychiatrists are exempt from observing the Hippocratic oath. "I need help. My life is falling apart. I'm struggling with work and school. I might have a learning disability." "You sound depressed. Here's a prescription for some obscure variant of an SSRI not covered by your insurance." "These meds you put me on make me feel sick." "Let's increase your dose." "I want to hurt other people. I want to die." "It takes 4-6 weeks for it to take full effect." "This just isn't working." "Let's add another variable to the equation. Here's a second prescription. Take both and see what happens." The experiment must continue. It always ends the same way. I know psychiatry helps some people (especially where sedatives are involved), but for the rest of us who slip through the cracks it's just the new Nazi science.
- diminoten 8y ago
  Would you rather: "This just isn't working." "Okay, well we tried." Once you're in the "this isn't working" phase of your story, shit is pretty dire. Hard to blame the caregiver for trying something else.
  - jstarfish 8y ago
    Honestly, yes. The solution to something not working is seldom to increase its complexity and/or double or triple down on it. Bad treatments often exacerbate or inflict the symptoms they're supposed to correct.
    - stordoff 8y ago
      It's a difficult one because sometimes it _does_ help people. 50mg of sertraline does nothing (other than making me sleep less, thus aggravating the base symptoms), 200mg made me feel sick for a week, but after that I'm noticeably better (OCD).
  - PavlikPaja 8y ago
    The thing is, when there are so many people who insist it isn't working, or even makes things worse, (while nobody has much of idea why the drugs should work in the first place, and there seems to be a growing movement to try treating people with currently illicit drugs instead), maybe the drugs are actually not working and the "experts" actually have no idea what they are doing.

jstarfish 8y ago

Sorry to hear about your friend. I swear psychiatrists are exempt from observing the Hippocratic oath. "I need help. My life is falling apart. I'm struggling with work and school. I might have a learning disability." "You sound depressed. Here's a prescription for some obscure variant of an SSRI not covered by your insurance." "These meds you put me on make me feel sick." "Let's increase your dose." "I want to hurt other people. I want to die." "It takes 4-6 weeks for it to take full effect." "This just isn't working." "Let's add another variable to the equation. Here's a second prescription. Take both and see what happens." The experiment must continue. It always ends the same way. I know psychiatry helps some people (especially where sedatives are involved), but for the rest of us who slip through the cracks it's just the new Nazi science.

diminoten 8y ago
Would you rather: "This just isn't working." "Okay, well we tried." Once you're in the "this isn't working" phase of your story, shit is pretty dire. Hard to blame the caregiver for trying something else.
- jstarfish 8y ago
  Honestly, yes. The solution to something not working is seldom to increase its complexity and/or double or triple down on it. Bad treatments often exacerbate or inflict the symptoms they're supposed to correct.
  - stordoff 8y ago
    It's a difficult one because sometimes it _does_ help people. 50mg of sertraline does nothing (other than making me sleep less, thus aggravating the base symptoms), 200mg made me feel sick for a week, but after that I'm noticeably better (OCD).
- PavlikPaja 8y ago
  The thing is, when there are so many people who insist it isn't working, or even makes things worse, (while nobody has much of idea why the drugs should work in the first place, and there seems to be a growing movement to try treating people with currently illicit drugs instead), maybe the drugs are actually not working and the "experts" actually have no idea what they are doing.