It’s fine to critique how “mental illness” is portrayed in pop culture, but the medical term is important. Yes, society is tough, but that doesn’t mean your struggles aren’t real or treatable. You can’t fight for change if you can’t get out of bed. Taking care of yourself is never something to feel bad about. <3
Depression as a medical term only applies to people who have objectively nothing to be depressed about. Nobody would (to turn it up to 11) argue that a concentration camp inmate has depression when he’s feeling like everything’s fucked, because very objectively, everything is fucked in his environment.
The comment is instead about people who are thrown into a depressing, pointless situation they can’t escape, just like the prisoner, only much much milder. They see no future, because there truly is no future for them. Now, that would be horrible for society, because those people might start to question why exactly they’re in this situation. So as a bandaid, they get diagnosed. It’s not actually shit, you just see it like that, because you are sick. Here, take a pill. It’s gaslighting.
The rolling Stones had a song about mother’s little helper 50 years ago. It’s not exactly new.
I take issue with calling it “treatable.” From personal experience, the treatment doesn’t really fix anything - it just makes it noticeably easier to bypass your natural reaction to being in an extremely unfavorable environment. That’s not treating the problem, it’s masking it akin to slapping a fresh coat of paint on walls with a serious mold infestation inside.
It’s addressing the symptom instead of the actual problem, and our entire society is geared towards doing this because it allows people to keep being used to better the lives of those one-percenters running everything while pushing the cost of keeping the people doing so back onto those same people. It’s disgusting, and it’s nearing a breaking point that’s gonna be very ugly when everything snaps.
I’m not confused by it. Much of society is, however.
I see the utility in treating someone to get through an unusually difficult - but temporary - situation. When the difficult situation has become the norm that you can’t escape from… then you’re no longer "treating,” but instead doping them to get the performance you want out of them - and the “treatment” is never-ending.
When the difficult situation has become the norm that you can’t escape from… then you’re no longer "treating,” but instead doping them
Idk with which forms of therapy you’ve made experiences with. I wouldn’t call it “doping”. Depending on the illness or disorder, helping patients to deal with their shit in a way that improves their well-being at least a little bit (and more in the long-term) is what it’s about. This does not neccessarily include work-perfromance or something like that. In fact, this is often not even important for therapy.
and the “treatment” is never-ending
Depending on what you have on your plate, long-time treatment can of course be required. What do you expect?
Psychologists can do a lot, but they can’t do miracles.
While for some short-term treatment is sufficient, it isn’t for others.
I’d like to inject some sanity (pun intended) into their point. Diabetes is body vs itself which obviously needs assistance. Some mental health things need to be “treated” just to make someone a “productive” member of society.
For a slightly different take, would you amputate one of your arms to fit in with a society where everyone else has only one arm?
… Yeah, obviously those things are bad. That’s a given. I was talking about things that aren’t harmful to anybody, neurodivergent people have been punished since always for being different
Since my spouse happens to be Type-I, yeah - I have. It’s not nearly equivalent. If anything, they are opposing examples - without insulin, none of us will be our normal selves. Insulin is a normal product of the human anatomy, depression meds are not.
So we come to the crux of it. Medications that benefit you and yours need are fine, but if someone else needs a different medication it’s ethically problematic. Thanks for clearing that up.
I see what you’re saying, but they can’t become a comrade if they died of despair. We need all the people we can get, so if that’s what it takes them to get to enlightenment, so be it. I say, eat the pills that make you numb until you’re to a place where you can stand, then let them go (and maybe step into some psychedelics if you want to/are able) and open your eyes to the horror around you, now able to face it. Then we can fight the system together.
The point is, from an epidemiological perspective, the correct treatments to advocate for are things like environmentalism and consumer protection law, not easier access to prozac or whatever. We will never solve the problem until we’re honest with ourselves, as a society, about the root causes.
Yeah, I get that, but you have to do what you have to do to stand on your own two feet before you stare at the ugliness of the world and face it, otherwise it will break you. If that takes antidepressants, take them until you’re ready to shake them off.
It’s fine to critique how “mental illness” is portrayed in pop culture, but the medical term is important. Yes, society is tough, but that doesn’t mean your struggles aren’t real or treatable. You can’t fight for change if you can’t get out of bed. Taking care of yourself is never something to feel bad about. <3
I think you’re misrepresenting the comment.
Depression as a medical term only applies to people who have objectively nothing to be depressed about. Nobody would (to turn it up to 11) argue that a concentration camp inmate has depression when he’s feeling like everything’s fucked, because very objectively, everything is fucked in his environment.
The comment is instead about people who are thrown into a depressing, pointless situation they can’t escape, just like the prisoner, only much much milder. They see no future, because there truly is no future for them. Now, that would be horrible for society, because those people might start to question why exactly they’re in this situation. So as a bandaid, they get diagnosed. It’s not actually shit, you just see it like that, because you are sick. Here, take a pill. It’s gaslighting.
The rolling Stones had a song about mother’s little helper 50 years ago. It’s not exactly new.
WTF? No.
I take issue with calling it “treatable.” From personal experience, the treatment doesn’t really fix anything - it just makes it noticeably easier to bypass your natural reaction to being in an extremely unfavorable environment. That’s not treating the problem, it’s masking it akin to slapping a fresh coat of paint on walls with a serious mold infestation inside.
It’s addressing the symptom instead of the actual problem, and our entire society is geared towards doing this because it allows people to keep being used to better the lives of those one-percenters running everything while pushing the cost of keeping the people doing so back onto those same people. It’s disgusting, and it’s nearing a breaking point that’s gonna be very ugly when everything snaps.
Thanks for sharing. ‘Treatable’ does not mean ‘curable,’ and you are not the first person to make that confusion.
I’m not confused by it. Much of society is, however.
I see the utility in treating someone to get through an unusually difficult - but temporary - situation. When the difficult situation has become the norm that you can’t escape from… then you’re no longer "treating,” but instead doping them to get the performance you want out of them - and the “treatment” is never-ending.
Idk with which forms of therapy you’ve made experiences with. I wouldn’t call it “doping”. Depending on the illness or disorder, helping patients to deal with their shit in a way that improves their well-being at least a little bit (and more in the long-term) is what it’s about. This does not neccessarily include work-perfromance or something like that. In fact, this is often not even important for therapy.
Depending on what you have on your plate, long-time treatment can of course be required. What do you expect?
Psychologists can do a lot, but they can’t do miracles.
While for some short-term treatment is sufficient, it isn’t for others.
Explain how long term mental health treatment is “doping” while type-1 diabetics who must take lifelong doses of insulin are not.
I’d like to inject some sanity (pun intended) into their point. Diabetes is body vs itself which obviously needs assistance. Some mental health things need to be “treated” just to make someone a “productive” member of society.
For a slightly different take, would you amputate one of your arms to fit in with a society where everyone else has only one arm?
mental illness is also the body versus itself, precipitating untreated in self harm, suicide, and addiction.
… Yeah, obviously those things are bad. That’s a given. I was talking about things that aren’t harmful to anybody, neurodivergent people have been punished since always for being different
Neurodivergence is not mental illness. The rest of us were talking about mental illness which is an entirely different topic.
How does insulin affect your mental processes? What a dumb false equivalence!
you’ve never seen anyone on the extreme ends of the blood sugar scale, have you?
Since my spouse happens to be Type-I, yeah - I have. It’s not nearly equivalent. If anything, they are opposing examples - without insulin, none of us will be our normal selves. Insulin is a normal product of the human anatomy, depression meds are not.
So we come to the crux of it. Medications that benefit you and yours need are fine, but if someone else needs a different medication it’s ethically problematic. Thanks for clearing that up.
I see what you’re saying, but they can’t become a comrade if they died of despair. We need all the people we can get, so if that’s what it takes them to get to enlightenment, so be it. I say, eat the pills that make you numb until you’re to a place where you can stand, then let them go (and maybe step into some psychedelics if you want to/are able) and open your eyes to the horror around you, now able to face it. Then we can fight the system together.
It worked for me anyway.
The point is, from an epidemiological perspective, the correct treatments to advocate for are things like environmentalism and consumer protection law, not easier access to prozac or whatever. We will never solve the problem until we’re honest with ourselves, as a society, about the root causes.
Yeah, I get that, but you have to do what you have to do to stand on your own two feet before you stare at the ugliness of the world and face it, otherwise it will break you. If that takes antidepressants, take them until you’re ready to shake them off.