I noticed from a previous thread that some people are of the opinion that there were less mental health problem years ago than there are today. I personally think this is untue, that people didn't admit they had a problem and suffered because of the stigma behind mental illnesses.

I suffer from panic attacks and take medication for anxiety, without it I think I would be agoraphobic - in fact I'd be everythingphobic!

After the Vietnam War a lot of soldiers suffered mental health problems and I heard people say 'it's all put on. soldiers didn't have all these problem after WW1 & WW2' What was 'shell shock' then? There were plenty of soldier who were in front line during previous wars that were put in institutions and forgotten about.

I think people who have the 'pull yourself together' attitude need to be re-educated and more understanding of other peoples problems.

What do y'all think?

I think mental problems are ridiculously on the increase but are not recognised as such. Not only that but many mental problems are seen as just byproducts re - pnd or being bipolar, not to mention s.a.d.

You go see the doctor - if you can book up the courage to admit you are in need of help, and you are told - its just a mild depression. Just try not to think about what is making you depressed. Hades but it is sooooo depressing.

Anyhow - it is much easier to ignore or ridicule mental illness these days. If we get people who are trully mentall ill then we may need to have to rebuild asylums and admit we do not know how to cope with those who are ill. Much cheaper and pc to leave them in the community and turn a blind eye.

Do not get me wrong - I had real difficulty seeing my wifes pnd, but I knew it was there and finally we got it sorted, only for whatever was the underlying problem to rear its ugly head. Imagine the difficulty coping with a worse strain of pnd when it took me ages to comprehend the easier type.

Men have serious problems understanding, which does not make matters any easier.

So - all in all - yes mental illness is on the increase, and no - I have not been aware of any such thing as an increase in mental illness!

Dragon

Originally posted by tulip
I think people who have the 'pull yourself together' attitude need to be re-educated and more understanding of other peoples problems.

What do y'all think?

I think the 'just pull yourself together' thing is more about denial and pretending you don't have a problem, than it is about moving through the illness and getting better.

The stigma thing though, what's that all about?

Maybe ill people don't want others to know they have an illness, for fear of being shunned or rejected.

Sorry to hear you're on tablets though tulip, have you considered exercise or meditation, do you think they may help you with your anxiety?

Originally posted by Dragon
I think mental problems are ridiculously on the increase but are not recognised as such. Not only that but many mental problems are seen as just byproducts re - pnd or being bipolar, not to mention s.a.d.

You go see the doctor - if you can book up the courage to admit you are in need of help, and you are told - its just a mild depression. Just try not to think about what is making you depressed. Hades but it is sooooo depressing.

Anyhow - it is much easier to ignore or ridicule mental illness these days. If we get people who are trully mentall ill then we may need to have to rebuild asylums and admit we do not know how to cope with those who are ill. Much cheaper and pc to leave them in the community and turn a blind eye.

Do not get me wrong - I had real difficulty seeing my wifes pnd, but I knew it was there and finally we got it sorted, only for whatever was the underlying problem to rear its ugly head. Imagine the difficulty coping with a worse strain of pnd when it took me ages to comprehend the easier type.

Men have serious problems understanding, which does not make matters any easier.

So - all in all - yes mental illness is on the increase, and no - I have not been aware of any such thing as an increase in mental illness!

Dragon This renaming of 'manic depression' to 'bipolar disorder' seems to be to cover a wider range of problems. I think personally it is a drug company ploy to make more money from medication. I found a Bipolar research centre on the internet and they had a series of questions to answer. I think the results would show 99% of the population as being bipolar!

They are enough people with problems without making people have mental health problems.

There are people out there with mental problems who do not realise they have. It all depends on how much of an imbalance they have and whether they can recognise it as such.

The baby blues, for instance, is a form of depression. Sometimes it can be serious enough to mean medication is needed - such as prozac, which is addictive. You then have an imbalance while you try to get off teh meds.

There are many forms of mental illness that just get swept under the carpet. And I stand by the claim that the male in a relationship fails to understand much of what goes on with the baby blues or other such illness's.

Dragon

I'm not sure.

It is a lot more acceptable to have mental health problems nowardays. In the past people were described as slow or eccentric but now they are classed as having serious problems.

I also believe that what is diagnosed as clinical depression nowardays would have been classed as lazyness or moping a few years ago.

I think most people will experience depression at some time in their lives.

I suspect medicating everyone would do no good at all.

Originally posted by Dragon
There are people out there with mental problems who do not realise they have. It all depends on how much of an imbalance they have and whether they can recognise it as such.

The baby blues, for instance, is a form of depression. Sometimes it can be serious enough to mean medication is needed - such as prozac, which is addictive. You then have an imbalance while you try to get off teh meds.

There are many forms of mental illness that just get swept under the carpet. And I stand by the claim that the male in a relationship fails to understand much of what goes on with the baby blues or other such illness's.

Dragon Yes you are spot on, the male doesn't understand through no fault of his own, he simply can't put himself the in the other persons situation. PND has been over looked for years. My mom was given Valium and was told she had bad nerves (that was in the sixties) she actually had PND but the doctors didn't recognise it then. My mom has shied away from medication ever since the Valium episode:|

Originally posted by robbie
I'm not sure.

It is a lot more acceptable to have mental health problems nowardays. In the past people were described as slow or eccentric but now they are classed as having serious problems.

I also believe that what is diagnosed as clinical depression nowardays would have been classed as lazyness or moping a few years ago.

I think most people will experience depression at some time in their lives.

I suspect medicating everyone would do no good at all. I'm not sure everyone needs medication. There are many different reasons for depression. Feeling down is not depression. Quite a lot of people have chemical imbalances that can only be treated with medication. Other people get depressed through loneliness, that can be treated through therapy.

I think some people will need medication. But others, are given it far too freely.

My doctor said to me 'you can have meds for it (mild depression) or you can try and get over it. I don't think the meds will do you much good but I'll prescribe them if you want'

So, I said no, I went through a lot and am still as bad some days it's just as well my family rally round because I was such a bitch to them!

However, I still don't go out a lot, I will be confident and go out to college and meet people and am confident enough to do drama and performances, but I don't go for social nights out or anything. I'd rather stay in and tidy or do nothing which is a shame.

I'm not good at socialising because I spent so long in hospital that I prefer my own company a lot of the time. I also have big body issues now because of operations etc. and don't like getting dressed up or trying to look nice!

But, I'm definitely not as bad as I was and am glad that I didn't let the doctor give me meds because it would have been twice as hard trying to get back off them.

Lottie

If we all treated eachother with respect and understood the problems etc; about mental health, instead of the stigma is causes, the world would be a better place.:)

Firstly, I think there is more awareness of mental health issues these days, and more people are diagnosed correctly than used to be. Particulalrly with women, at one time many would simply be dismissed as being 'hysterical' when they had real problems which needed addressing. And then you have to consider that people are not routinely locked away these days and rightly so. There's a book "20 years in the system" (can't remember the author) telling the true story of a man locked away simply for having depression.

The other thing to consider is that we live in a more fragmented society. So many of us don't have a support network any more. We live miles from our families, and friends can't always help as they are just as busy as we are. We don;t have neighbours we can rely on, and we don't live in communities where everyone watches out for one another. We are all essentially isolated.

Then there is the fast pace of living these days. It has become unacceptable to simply get on with your job, you have to do it a little bit faster, a little bit better every day; this adds stress into the mixture, which can cause severe and unrelenting depression. If you are in any way mentally delicate, then you can be cast to the kerb in today's society, particularly in the work place.

We are also isolated from some of the harsh realities of life, such as death itself. We (thankfully) do not grow up seeing death around us, so when we are presented with a life threatening situation we do not understand and cannot cope with the possibility of our own death.

I think that as a society we've become more aware of mental health issues and probably label people more these days. One of the real advances has been the emergence of Autistic Sprectrum Disorders as a 'real deal' rather than just bad behaviour in kids or painfully acute shyness or 'nerdiness'. The same with clinical depression; the identification of how the brain's biochemistry functions has taught us that some people cannot just 'snap out of it'.

Whilst depression, PTSD, OCD, etc. are real problems for many people, and in many cases require medication and counselling to deal with, I do think that there are some people today labelled as having mental health issues that 30 years ago would have been described as just badly behaved or attention seeking rather than having some 'syndrome' or other.

I think we have become more of a 'victim' culture today; sometimes people are just pains in the arse, lack self control, lack discipline in their lives. They don't have an illness or a syndrome or a disorder - they're just the way they are because deep inside they want to be. The medical health system will look at these people and apply labels that indicate that they can be treated - they could probably best benefit from a series of sessions with a life coach or a thick ear from a parent.

Modern living, though, does bring latent mental health problems to the top; the stress of modern life for many people is just too much. But it is important to differentiate between those with a genuine mental health or emotional health problem and those who just need to grow up and realise that sometimes the world isn't fair and that you can't always get what you want.

Joe

You are probably right madowl, but that does not help men understand the mental stress females suffer during pregnancy, let alone after giving birth. This affects most women to some degree, and still it is way beyond us mere males.

Respect does not do much, and true understanding probably can only be acquired through experience. Fancy getting pregnant? Not likely. But we can try to be supportive and to understand.

Unfortunately when we do we tend to get called stupid and insensitive. Ah well!

Dragon

Originally posted by tulip
I'm not sure everyone needs medication. There are many different reasons for depression. Feeling down is not depression. Quite a lot of people have chemical imbalances that can only be treated with medication. Other people get depressed through loneliness, that can be treated through therapy.

I'm always dubious how lonelyness can be cured by therapy.

I don't know how that could be the case.

Originally posted by robbie
I'm always dubious how lonelyness can be cured by therapy.

I don't know how that could be the case.

I guess that some of it would boil down to teh differences between being onely and being alone. Some people live alone and are not lonely; others may be surrounded by people but feel lonley.

Loneliness is probably not caused by a biochemical imbalance, it's a pain caused by you desiring to be with people who love you and want to be with you and your actual life in which such people are absent. I guess it might be possible for therapy to help you change what you wanted.

Joe

Originally posted by Dragon
You are probably right madowl, but that does not help men understand the mental stress females suffer during pregnancy, let alone after giving birth. This affects most women to some degree, and still it is way beyond us mere males.

Respect does not do much, and true understanding probably can only be acquired through experience. Fancy getting pregnant? Not likely. But we can try to be supportive and to understand.

Unfortunately when we do we tend to get called stupid and insensitive. Ah well!

Dragon If you knew me better you would understand why i said respect, with the respect comes the understanding- cause etc; im the father of 4 so i can only try to understand what mental stress this puts on a woman during giving birth, my brother in-law took his own life not so long ago, so i had to be there for my sister and her 2 kids, ive had a long illness and been on many pills so thats nothing new eaither, but if you show someone who is having a hard time with mental illness some respect by trying to understand why things are like they are to them, then your half way to helping them, too many people are all about themselves, and dont care about others and their feelings.... well i do care and would do all i could to help, as i know and have been low in my life, and its hard when you feel alone in the world.

Originally posted by robbie
I'm always dubious how lonelyness can be cured by therapy.

I don't know how that could be the case. Yes, I understand your point but some people have no-one they can talk to. Therapy can give them the ear they need plus help them to feel more comfortable about socializing.

Originally posted by tulip
Yes, I understand your point but some people have no-one they can talk to. Therapy can give them the ear they need plus help them to feel more comfortable about socializing.

Counselling and therapy is most unlikely to resolve the sense of loneliness and being alone in a crowd some people suffer from. Such feelings are indicative of a larger issue that needs to be addressed. If one is content within oneself and one's lot then it follows that this sense of loneliness and aloness will be less pervasive.

All counselling or therapy can do is provide a space of between 35 - 55 minutes to speak about whatever concerns a person may have for which they pay something in the region of £20 - £45 or more. When that session is over they walk out the door with both the counsellor and client getting on with their respective lives.

My very substantial experience of counselling is that it does not solve any problems and has caused me more harm than the original source of the issues under discussion.

Conversely if it was a discussion on the merits of life or personal coaching then as is evident from my posts on the subject (see life coaching (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=50292&highlight=life+coach) and melanoma thread) I can not speak highly enough of the skills required to be an effective life coach.