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Mental Health

post #1 of 121
10/31/06 at 7:24pm
Thread Starter 
How do you go about determining if you have mental disorder, like depression, manic-depression, or some other thing. I know the one thing you always hear is that it's not a disorder until it starts effecting your life and being socially maladaptive. I do believe that point has been reached with me, perhaps a long time ago.

I just wish there was a way to know so that I could at least have something to work with. I know it took me a very long time to realize that I was allergic to a certain food. If I had but known earlier, I could have avoided a great deal of trouble very simply.

I do not want to go to a doctor, because I do not like doctors or the medical profession in general. I imagine I would go, he would proclaim me ill with his favorite malady and attempt to keep me on drugs for the rest of my life--regardless of my actual condition.
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post #2 of 121
10/31/06 at 7:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by trains are bad
I do not want to go to a doctor, because I do not like doctors or the medical profession in general. I imagine I would go, he would proclaim me ill with his favorite malady and attempt to keep me on drugs for the rest of my life--regardless of my actual condition.
Then rot. I don't like docs either, but the need for self-preservation supercedes my personal qualms. So don't be stubborn and go find out if you're broken or not.
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post #3 of 121
10/31/06 at 7:37pm
You're not going to like my advice: See a shrink or two. Or five if that's what it takes to convince you that they're not lying. (If you're going to do this though, it might be a good idea to switch to a PPO health plan right now.) There may be nothing wrong with you. People are, unsurprisingly, poor at self-diagnosis due to an inability to view themselves objectively.

If it turns out that you do have a mental health issue, you may be able to control it without the use of drugs.
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post #4 of 121
10/31/06 at 7:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by trains are bad
How do you go about determining if you have mental disorder, like depression, manic-depression, or some other thing. I know the one thing you always hear is that it's not a disorder until it starts effecting your life and being socially maladaptive. I do believe that point has been reached with me, perhaps a long time ago.
See a doctor. If at all possible, get your doctor to refer you to a psychiatrist.

Psychiatrists are trained to identify and treat disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder ("manic-depression"). Your average physician may have some familiarity with these diseases, but not the level of training and experience as a psychiatrist. It is extremely common, for example, for bipolar disorder to be misdiagnosed, at least initially, as depression and treated with anti-depressants. Unfortunately, the use of antidepressants in bipolar patients without an appropriate mood stabilizer like lithium can cause or aggravate manic episodes.
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post #5 of 121
10/31/06 at 7:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by trains are bad
I do not want to go to a doctor, because I do not like doctors or the medical profession in general. I imagine I would go, he would proclaim me ill with his favorite malady and attempt to keep me on drugs for the rest of my life--regardless of my actual condition.
Sorry to tell you this but the best way to determine if you need help and to get help is to see a doctor. If you had a broken leg you would go see a doctor to put it back together, the same goes for a broken mind (mental disorder).

If you don't like what one doctor has to say you can always get a second opinion, or a third, or a tenth... If you don't want to take medication you can ask for an alternative treatment. You're not going to be forced into taking medication you do not want. If you really feel that there might be something seriously wrong then the best thing you can do is to see someone who is professional trained to help you.

Hope you get better.
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post #6 of 121
10/31/06 at 7:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by trains are bad
How do you go about determining if you have mental disorder, like depression, manic-depression, or some other thing. I know the one thing you always hear is that it's not a disorder until it starts effecting your life and being socially maladaptive. I do believe that point has been reached with me, perhaps a long time ago.

I just wish there was a way to know so that I could at least have something to work with. I know it took me a very long time to realize that I was allergic to a certain food. If I had but known earlier, I could have avoided a great deal of trouble very simply.

I do not want to go to a doctor, because I do not like doctors or the medical profession in general. I imagine I would go, he would proclaim me ill with his favorite malady and attempt to keep me on drugs for the rest of my life--regardless of my actual condition.

you will have to make up your own mind about things like medication; for instance, right now i've been diagnosed with lyme disease by one doc and put on heavy antibiotics, and another doc tells me i can't possibly have lyme; i stopped taking the antibiotics because i'm feeling well, and am worried about longterm affects of heavy antibiotic treatment (years on end we're talking here)

i don't see why there'd be any problem with going to a doctor; they can't force you to take meds; i assume you're not institutionable since you seem pretty coherant; just keep an open mind, know that docs are not god, don't no everything, and contradict eachother and do the wrong thing all the time; not trying to scare you, just saying that you have to make your own mind; but i don't see the harm in going; when it comes to speculative mental health, my personal response is generally conservative: i wouldn't want to take drugs unless what was bothering me was CLEARLY caused by a biological cause, and was clearly causing me problems, but to each their own; there's also therapy which could be good; hope you have insurance; don't sweat it and just go, and make up your own mind
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post #7 of 121
10/31/06 at 8:02pm
ps: you gotta tell us what's been bothering you


and don't go into medical jargon; just tell what exactly you feel, feel depressed? seeing people that aren't there? what exactly is the issue?
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post #8 of 121
10/31/06 at 10:15pm
Thread Starter 
I don't really feel depressed, but I guess I have symptoms of depression.

All I want to do is sleep. I have very vivid dreams that I don't want to wake up from. I have no sense of time whatsoever. Sometimes I cannot remember what day, month, or even year it is. I regularly can't remember if I really did something, or did it in a dream. Rarely, I have had difficulty discerning if I was awake or not. A couple years ago I did have a real live panic attack/breakdown in the lab over this. I also have a phobia of rings. Like the ones you wear on your fingers. Even thinking about it to type it makes my breathing get faster.

I forget everything. I forget my family members' names. It's like my life is slipping past by the day, month, I might wake up and be 40. Or 14. Neither would surprise me, I just go by what people tell me assuming they know better than I do on the simplest things. I do things like go to work and notice something new, yet everyone tells me we have been doing it like that every day for the three years that I've worked there, and I honestly think it's the first time. I can do triple integrals, but sometimes I can't count to twenty. All these symtoms come and go, on and off pretty much since I started college (3.5 years ago).

I'm doing horribly in school; i have a very hard time focusing on it anymore. I focus feverishly on the silliest things and then move on. There was a time when I was interested in physics, but now all I want to do is study language, read books and watch movies. I'm all about history now. I can't do my homework; I spend ten times as much times studying japanese (which is completely pointless objectively) than I do all my classes combined. But language is just obsession of the month. It might be knitting next. If I don't stop myself, I will listen to music endlessly. I think I made a post last year about at what point you consider music listening maladaptive. I'll listen to music for entire days, if I let myself.

I feel hopelessly ignorant and slow, yet I seem to have a large amount of people fooled into thinking I'm smart. I go to a fairly expensive private school on a full tuition scholarship, was headed to graduate with honors until this semester. Last week I ran into a girl that I hadn't seen in years and she addressed me as 'that smart kid'. Even this summer when I went to montana there was a kid in my research program, a far better student than I, and a brilliant programmer, that probably actually deserved the internship, that I skated with, and just out of the blue he just said 'I don't want this to sound weird, but you seem really smart'. Which is just salt in the wound.

I live by myself, and I have more or less gotten rid of all my friends one way or another. I don't even call my parents anymore. I have never been able to maintain a relationship past a few days. I'm not physically repulsive and I'm a nice person, but I'm proof that if you put no effort into social relationships, nobody is going to go out of their way to care about you. I'm just indifferent; I don't care to be around people unless they are interesting and most of them or boring. I'm really not a strange person to meet or talk to at first glance, but sometimes I say things that seem to upset people without even knowing it; I'm familiar with the possiblility of offending someone or hurting their feelings without intending to in the least bit. Lots of people at school know me, and think I'm cool even. I don't really have any enemies. Everyone likes me. I think everyone at school assumes I have some other friends, but the truth is I'm in everyone's out-group simultaneously. And I really don't like touching people.

The recent severing of the last semblences of what I could call friends and my recent difficulties with school are what have led to my current situation.
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post #9 of 121
10/31/06 at 10:27pm
I'm taking a course on health right now, and a couple weeks ago I watched a video on depression. It turns out to be the #1 least reported mental illness. Please, for your own sake, see a doctor. Since your case is minor (I believe it is, but I only scanned over your post, as I have quite a bit of homework), you should be able to get by with a few visits to a therapist, or just a prescription to meds. If you do take my advice, and get on the meds, DO NOT GET OFF OF THEM. In the video, every single person in it thought they were better and stopped taking the medication before they were supposed to. They became depressed again after a few days, and I believe it brought them back pretty far, and all that time spent had to be done again. Anyway, I really hope you see a doctor.
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post #10 of 121
10/31/06 at 10:41pm
I'm going to have to say exercise would be the first step. There's just no substitute for it. Getting in to a weight lifting regimen will work unimaginable wonders on your life from a mental, physical, and emotional standpoint. A radical shift in lifestyle from a diet standpoint, including exercise, will knock most people out of any funk they are in. You just have to want it bad enough and you have to have the desire, time, and money to feed your body premium fuel. Soft drinks, trans fats, simple sugars, artificial sweetners all have to go. Most people literally have to do a 180 from what they consider a "normal" lifestyle, and they won't recognize that what they are currently doing is "wrong" until they've tried it from the other side and can see things from both perspectives.

I'm a personal trainer and I always tell people that I equate the momentum shift/lifestyle change with the everyday ceiling fan. There's that switch on the fan that causes it to revolve in the opposite direction. If you have the fan on high and you flip the switch you notice the fan has to slow itself down in order to reverse itself. That's the hardest thing for most people to realize and get past, without having been there once before, is that you really have to work hard at it for the first 3-4 weeks before it starts to "get easy". Most people want results within the first two weeks and many won't see them for a number of reasons, the number one being that they aren't pushing themselves hard enough. They just aren't accustomed to a real workout routine so they convince themselves that the little effort they put forth is plenty.

I'm right there with you on the doctor opinion. I think health insurance is the biggest scam on the planet and I refuse to go see a doctor unless I need rods to put bones back together. I also refuse to take any form of synthetic prescription medicine. Doctors are not nutritionists. They are not paid to stay up and current on alternative forms of treatment and lifestyles, and many have animosity towards anything out of the conservative norm. Sure I respect them and they are definitely needed for many things; however, IMO depression and anything self-help related is not one of them. I sincerely don't believe depression is something that requires prescription drugs. It's a state of mind one gets themselves in to and, if they are strong enough and determined, they can easily get themselves out of it. People just need to stop feeling sorry for themselves and do something positive for themselves and others. It really is that simple regardless of what the pessimists may say.

Change is extremely simple IMO and has everything to do with one's perspective on life. If you want it bad enough just make it happen. It really is that easy. Will it to happen, have faith, and it will.
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post #11 of 121
10/31/06 at 10:48pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Quote:
Soft drinks, trans fats, simple sugars, artificial sweetners all have to go.
I already lead what I consider a health nut lifestyle. I never drink anything but water, juice, and wine, I don't smoke, I don't eat processed meats, I go out of my way to buy free range eggs. I already have halloween candy that I'm going to have to give away.

It's true that I haven't been exercising as seriousy as I used to since my shoulders hurt, but I usually go downhill skateboarding at least a couple times a week. And I walk 3 miles a day rain or shine, except weekends. Please don't think that I'm a couch potato, if anything, I can't hold still. My bicycle is worth more than my car.
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post #12 of 121
10/31/06 at 11:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by F1GTR
I sincerely don't believe depression is something that requires prescription drugs. It's a state of mind one gets themselves in to and, if they are strong enough and determined, they can easily get themselves out of it. People just need to stop feeling sorry for themselves and do something positive for themselves and others. It really is that simple regardless of what the pessimists may say.
I think that's an extremely naive blanket statement...and a dangerous one for someone who really may need drugs (which I agree isn't needed in all cases).
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post #13 of 121
10/31/06 at 11:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by trains are bad
All I want to do is sleep.

I have no sense of time whatsoever. Sometimes I cannot remember what day, month, or even year it is. I regularly can't remember if I really did something, or did it in a dream. Rarely, I have had difficulty discerning if I was awake or not. A couple years ago I did have a real live panic attack/breakdown in the lab over this. I also have a phobia of rings. Like the ones you wear on your fingers. Even thinking about it to type it makes my breathing get faster.

I forget everything. I forget my family members' names. I do things like go to work and notice something new, yet everyone tells me we have been doing it like that every day for the three years that I've worked there, and I honestly think it's the first time. I can do triple integrals, but sometimes I can't count to twenty. All these symtoms come and go, on and off pretty much since I started college (3.5 years ago).

I'm doing horribly in school; i have a very hard time focusing on it anymore. I focus feverishly on the silliest things and then move on.

But language is just obsession of the month. It might be knitting next. If I don't stop myself, I will listen to music endlessly. I think I made a post last year about at what point you consider music listening maladaptive. I'll listen to music for entire days, if I let myself.

I live by myself, and I have more or less gotten rid of all my friends one way or another. I don't even call my parents anymore. I have never been able to maintain a relationship past a few days.

The recent severing of the last semblences of what I could call friends and my recent difficulties with school are what have led to my current situation.
Dude...go get some medical help. You only need the smallest amount of self-awareness to realize you need help.
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post #14 of 121
10/31/06 at 11:11pm
By asking this question, you KNOW you need help. I feel the same as you that I don't want to go on the drugs, the most terrifying thing is to be not a person, not in control, but you have to at least talk this through with people who know what tyhey are talking about. At the very least they should be able to catch you should the disease take hold more strongly and you lose your "insight" (the thing that's telling you NOW that you are not all right).
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post #15 of 121
10/31/06 at 11:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by F1GTR
I sincerely don't believe depression is something that requires prescription drugs. It's a state of mind one gets themselves in to and, if they are strong enough and determined, they can easily get themselves out of it. People just need to stop feeling sorry for themselves and do something positive for themselves and others. It really is that simple regardless of what the pessimists may say.

I'm typically very nice in this forum but I have to comment here. This is an ignorant post in both senses of the word.

Are you aware of the mechanism of action of antidepressants? How familiar are you with the empirical data published in peer reviewed medical journals? Have you read the overwhelming data harvested from post mortem dissections?

Depression is among other things an abnormally low amount of serotonin. These neuro transmitters are actual objects that have mass and although small they are crucial for tons of things including mood and homeostasis. Neurotransmitters are the genesis for anything you do, any movement you make, any thought you have, etc. What happens when one of these neurotransmitters has a problem? Depression etc.

Depression, anxiety, panic, OCD, etc are all tangible medical problems. They stem from actual physical problems in our body just like a broken arm would be a problem.

You just can't see or feel these neurotransmitters so to you depression is "all a state of mind". What a joke.
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