Cirion Spellbinder wrote: ↑Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:59 pm
If we add the idea that mental illnesses can only be solved by medical or therapeutic intervention, then I must concede that mental illness does make sense, but as far as I am aware, that distinction is not explicitly or universally made.
I admit that my definition is a bit ad hoc. I wouldn’t dare speak for psychiatrists and other mental health experts, but I specified the need for medical/psychotherapeutic intervention because it makes defining certain conditions as illnesses
useful. The entire field of psychiatry is functioned around the prevention and treatment of illnesses that inflict tremendous stress the subject, and won’t otherwise go away. Psychiatrists name them, study them, and help facilitate those who struggle to overcome them. As you mentioned, lots of conditions, like atheism, homosexuality etc. can be defined as mental illnesses under a more vague definition. But defining them as such isn’t useful, since medical “treatment” near always leads to a further
decline in mental health.
http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/ju ... facts.aspx
Cirion Spellbinder wrote: ↑Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:59 pm
I do not oppose modern psychiatry, but I also do not think that woes are caused by something wholly internal.
Perhaps all of those schizophrenics are actually being possessed by the devil
Cirion Spellbinder wrote: ↑Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:59 pm
Health conditions deemed mental illness are deemed so because of the subjective opinions of friends and families because a subject's woes are determined by them.
True, but they can also be determined by the subject him/herself. Those struggling with Generalized Anxiety Disorder can be fully aware of their own woes when *not* being stricken with irregular bouts of panic attacks, shortness of breath, and other symptoms. In other words, there are points of reference in which you can remember what it’s like not to experience those woes.
Cirion Spellbinder wrote: ↑Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:59 pm
If the grief does not go away, they will simply call it depression. It can only be labeled mere grief after the fact.
I don’t think this the only criterion on which a psychiatrist would diagnose a patient with depression. But that’s probably in indicator. Also, certain combinations of genes can predispose people to particular illnesses.
http://depressiongenetics.stanford.edu/mddandgenes.html
If depression has been known to run in the family, this could be a useful indicator for psychiatrists beforehand.
Cirion Spellbinder wrote: ↑Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:59 pm
The issue is that this is an ad hoc response to social change in the west. Mental illness are all "natural" and even if "treatment" is ineffective, that does not mean it is impossible or explain why mental illnesses must be treatable when they are never defined to necessarily be.
There’s a difference between an ineffective treatment and an unnecessary
harmful treatment. Homosexuality, unlike depression or GAD can be dealt with without the use of medicine or “conversion” therapy. What’s more, homosexuals who never undergo these “treatments” actually live
happier lives. If a mental “illness” does not need to be treated, then there’s no use in calling it an illness. What's the saying? If ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Cirion Spellbinder wrote: ↑Mon Jun 25, 2018 10:59 pm
That is not say that I think this deselection of homosexuality as a mental illness is further from the truth, just that we need a better notion of mental illness to properly remove it from the list.
Agreed there.