Posted by SLS on December 26, 2010, at 11:49:33
In reply to Re: Are cancer patients maladaptive too? Dble standard, posted by violette on December 26, 2010, at 9:17:54
> > Maladaptive is when we reject reality.
> That's where it gets problematic and why these types of discussions can be fruitful.
Is it possible that any one person can understand reality enough to reject it?
> Someone who is in denial does not know (and thus will not admit to themself) they have maladaptive behavior to begin with.
How do you know when someone is in denial?
> And someone in denial can become upset when their view of reality is threatened.
I know this isn't about me, but I am curious, as you have read enough of my stuff, do you feel that I am in denial since I know that a single pill is capable of bringing someone into remission from MDD? This is my reality. It is also the reality of a great many other sufferers.
Is there something about the existence of a primary brain malfunction manifesting as MDD that you find unappealing? I do not find anything unappealing about treating depression using psychological methods - especially when it works. For me, this is not an either-or debate about what we colloquially describe as depression and how it is best treated. There are different subtypes of depression as there are different types of cancer. Each type will be amenable to different treatments.
> Also, a person can merge their identity with their illness after time
Certainly. I did this for at least 20 years.
> The illness becomes part of them, and it cannot be seperated from their sense of self.
Not even with the application of psychotherapeutics?
> In this case, someone who is no longer able to for example 'search for medications over and over' will lose their identity,
Or perhaps rediscover it.
My posture is very defensive when people try to apply a schema of psychological pathology to every case of depression. This is a very dangerous falsehood that can lead to suicide. I am quick to become defensive on behalf of those people with biological mental illnesses whom are told otherwise. My being defensive is NOT the result of a perceived assault on my reality. The disease I suffer from is hideously painful and functionally debilitating. It is actually a form of mental suppression or mental oppression rather than mental depression. I just want to get well. I am using every precious thought to facilitate this. For people who are unwilling to embrace the existence of subtypes of depression that are caused by abnormalities in brain function and that are treatable with biological interventions, I am sad. I remember what it was like near the beginning of the establishment of biological psychiatry and psychopharmacology. I had to defend myself not only against the stigma and misconception of the illness, but of its phenomenology and treatment. In the 1980's, some very smart research clinicians could not commit to diagnosing anyone as having a predominantly biological mental illness, despite what their eyes witnessed right in front of them. Drugs can work. ECT can work. Sleep deprivation can work. Insulin shock can work. How does ECT penetrate the psyche to change the dynamics of denial such that it disappears? Does the ECT machinery have to know what the patient's issues are in order for it to work for them? What is true is that the remission of MDD accomplished through biological interventions can finally allow a patient to attack their previously refractory issues with success, whether it be with or without a professional psychotherapist.
- Scott
Some see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.
poster:SLS
thread:973794
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20101218/msgs/974682.html