Posted by linkadge on December 24, 2010, at 13:07:15
In reply to Are cancer patients maladaptive too? Dble standard, posted by jerryTRD on December 23, 2010, at 13:00:38
>As i stated in some earlier posts, I don't think >some members here who are labeling "us" >as "maladaptive" would label cancer patients, >those with HIV, Asthma, diabetes, Alzheimer's, >COPD, et ,etc as maladaptive for relying on >their medications to survive. Why are people >with depression any different?
Depression is different because it is not as well understood as these other disorders. Asthama, diabetes, HIV etc. do not have high rates of sponanious remission. With these diseases, there is no evidence that psychological intervention does much of anything for the core disease. With depression it is very different. No body organ is more responsive to a patient's own willpower than the brain. For many patients there is evidence to suggest that psychotherapy is as/more effective at treating and preventing future episodes of depression then medications (yeah yeah, I know - gimme the drugs cause that CBT crap doesn't do anything for me). I guess thats what I am trying to say here. If your own will power is eroded by the belief that medications will solve all your problems than you really have destroyed your most powerful asset.
Its about external vs. internal locus of self control. Many of us here have resolved that we simply do not have the faculties necessary to ever feel well on our own. We resolve that becuase our brains are so inherently dysfunctional, medication is the only way to improve.
An asthama patient cannot will their lungs back into proper function. However a depressed patient can, to varying extents, change their brain through willpower. Again, I am not telling patients they can just "snap out of it". What I am saying is that when you put all of your hope in medications; when you come to this board religiously expecting all forms of mental and emotional pain to be abolished with the submissive ingestion of a drug, you don't do much to strengthen the connections that can derive hope and pleasure from other aspects of life.
- Do you find yourself deriving more pleasure from the anticipation of trying a new medication than you actually feel satisfied or relieved by actually taking the medication?
- Do you find yourself needing to continually change your medication simply because you get bored and want to try something new?
I personally think that this behavior is exclusive to psychiatric patients. You never hear of a patient getting bored with their current blood pressure medication and want to try something new. With psychiatric medications, the allure is that you are affecting the mind, the very organ that assigns meaning to every other aspect of life. The idea that you can entirely change your life by chaning a medication is very seductive.
If it were as simple as somebody taking a antidepressant and getting back to their life, then there would be no issue. The problem is that these medications affect subtle aspects of judgment, motivation, reward, personality etc. As soon as you put a drug into the equation, you dramatically change the equation.
Even if there is a gene, or genes invovled in the developement of depression, current research is finding an incredable epigenic componenet to the manifestation of disease. Through environmental manipulation, you can literally change the way that genes express themselves. Sure, maybe you do have a depression gene. But maybe, given the right conditions, protective genes become more dominant.
Let me respond to "are cancer patients maladaptive too".
This is not a double standard. While there is a plethora of evidence on the lifestyle interventions that are capable of preventing cancer, there is little conclusive research that such non drug interventions are capable of treating cancer. As such, as far as cancer goes, once you have it, following the doctors orders may be your best bet.
However, if a cancer patient was spending most of his or her time obsessively researching new treatments for cancer - convincing himself that he more completely understands the disease mechanisms than his doctor, going against the doctor's recomendations to obtain such treatments and thus neglecting to spend time getting healthful exercise, relaxation and social interaction then yes this cancer patient's strategy would be maladaptive.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:973794
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20101218/msgs/974510.html