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Originally Posted by BudFox
I can see how it is a relief, but that does not make it credible. Seems depression, anxiety, rage, obsessive-compulsive, etc are not reducible to simple explanations or causes. As someone said, depression is an abstract feeling, it is not a disease, it is a symptom of poor health on some level. Could be emotional, psychological, existential, physiological, situational, spiritual, etc.
As for medical conditions, you'd have to be more specific cuz not sure what you mean. Things like chronic infections, chronic toxicity, severe nutrient deficiencies can cause symptoms of "mental illness". But neither therapists nor psychiatrists are in a position to treat such things. And when therapists use the word "treatment" seems they are stretching that concept quite far.
I think the MH system gets it wrong so often because it is incapable of comprehending the complexity of human beings and the human body, preferring instead reductionist concepts that avoid the mess and the confusion, and that sell a lot of drugs and a lot of therapy. I personally reject the idea that depression or anxiety is a disorder that we cannot manage or resolve without "treatment". So too the idea that these problems are not simply a natural response to our life situation.
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Like I said, couch it in whichever terms you'd like. For me, personally, therapy and medication helped. Kierkegaard didn't. To each their own.
I just hope the implication here isn't that therapy and medication helped me because I've been duped by the great overlords of Big Pharma and the Self-Help Industry. I tend to think therapy and medication worked for me because these are legitimate treatments for my very credible mental health concerns.
I mean, believe whatever you want for yourself--I'm certainly not going to tell you what to believe, what your problem is, or what you need to do about it. And I don't think you're trying to do that to me, either.
It just sort of sucks to read a wholesale condemnation of the system that has helped me so much because I wonder what the implication is for me. That I'm wrong about the system having helped me? That it's only an accident that is has? That the next time I hear a voice that isn't there calling me a "stupid ****" I should take some magnesium and move some place where they don't spray pesticides, since, clearly, whatever my doctor/therapist recommend can only be considered "treatment" if I put the word in quotation marks.