2 ms·

Do you believe latent mental illness exists in that large of a percentage of the population? I've seen this happen to a few people, but I don't believe it's a l

• tptacek 14y ago
  Yes, I believe mental illness is underdiagnosed, and that illness (or "predisposition" to illness) that is asymptomatic normally can be dangerously symptomatic in the presence of cannabis. Like you, I have firsthand experience with friends who have had this problem. I also know enough people who have had this experience with their friends to be fairly confident that this is a common problem.
  • stephengillie 14y ago
    So psychiatrists should use marijuana as a means to exacerbate mental illness, so these illnesses can be more quickly identified, and people can receive the correct treatment more quickly? I don't believe mental illness in the general population to be underdiagnosed, rather the opposite. I believe most people are narcissistic enough that treatment has an effect somewhere between the Hawthorne Effect and Munchhausen Syndrome. Attention and approval are highly addictive, more than caffeine, sometimes more than even heroin -- look at how well interventions work. I believe most psychology and psychiatry academics studied those fields to understand their personal problems, which leads people in those fields to hold a perception bias about the rest of the people on the planet.
    • MDS100 14y ago
      No. You can live your whole life without having an episode if you don't cause one. Weed seems to be a facilitator. On the psychiatric ward (specialized on schizophrenia) most people were smoking weed (some probably to alleviate symptoms). Some illnesses are overdiagnosed some are severely underdiagnosed.