Posted by Ceres on January 30, 2009, at 1:48:27
In reply to To Bleauberry, posted by garnet71 on January 29, 2009, at 20:15:03
Hi, Garnet~
I think I can understand some of your frustration. (And what I'm writing might be frustrating to read, as I'm having a heck of a time completing my thoughts here)
Mental illness is part social construct, especially when it comes to personality disorders & neurosis . I think there's a lot of room for skepticism & evolution here.
Foucault, & the many books on how to read Foucault, are important tools for social analysis. I have damp moving boxes full of such reading. I'd love to revisit them, but in order to be able to focus on high theory, I have to figure out a way to enable my mind/brain to do so.
Unfortunately, we don't have the best context nor tools for this healing. We have psychiatrists who range from sincere healers to dry or passionate academics to those who regard us as specimens & mostly, many in between. We have therapists, some effective, some quite obviously unhealthy themselves (not that healthy equals a/effective). We have an astounding amount of pseudoscience psychology(& yes, I know Foucault has interesting things to say about the great god science).
And, sometimes it seems like we're volunteering to be Other.
I do see psychiatry as hodgepodge & random tinkering much of the time. It just seems that for some pain, it's the best shot in the dark we've got.
For symptoms such as unrelenting mental anguish, intense anxiety, psychosis, compulsions, etc, most will want and need relief & bear stigma & side effects to get it.
Initially, taking medication was an act of desperation for me. It has prolonged my life so far. Granted, quality of life is often in question.I do understand how scary & revolting those constructs are.
P.S. -how nice, the juxtaposition of "Bleauberry" & "Garnet"
poster:Ceres
thread:877099
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090104/msgs/877185.html