Psychology

Henning said:
People need help in learning to control their minds, and that's a matter of educating them, not medicating them.
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Henning said:
You can't lump all of what we consider mental illness into one treatment paradigm.
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I agree with your second point here more than your first. I do agree that JUST medication isalmost never the solution, but after time spent working at a county psych hospital, I believe medication to be absolutely essential in the treatment of some mental illness. There are some people that very much need psychiatric medication to be stable, when it comes to illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar, and other quite serious conditions. That doesn't mean they don't also need some other help, such as counseling, as well.

As for other conditions, there are multiple routes of treatment, and they have all shown some level of effectiveness. Some want to pop a pill, some shun meds and want talk therapy, some prefer other ways of treatment, such as group counseling or exercise and meditation. It can depend on the person, For example, when treating moderate to severe depression, I have found a combination of medication and counseling to be the most successful. The medication can help with serotonin levels to help stabilize them (fairly) quickly, while counseling can help process what they're going through, work on cognitive distortions, help them learn healthier coping strategies, etc. Over time, the client can usually wean off the antidepressant and would no longer fit the criteria of depression.
 
Corpsmaide said:
Theories about déjà vu?
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Everything you ever have, and ever will experience already exists because information, life, is a dimension that transcends space time, it also transcends us. We normally have filters up to perceive only the present time (living in infinity would be more than our minds can handle), however, sometimes a bit of information from another time slips through. This would also extrapolate into reincarnation theory.
 
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Henning said:
Everything you ever have, and ever will experience already exists because information, life, is a dimension that transcends space time, it also transcends us. We normally have filters up to perceive only the present time, however, sometimes a bit of information from another time slips through. This would also extrapolate into reincarnation theory.
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I was taught the current theory that evolved something being unconsciously encoded (like a sound, sight, smell) into your memory. It later is later cued by a similar situation and becomes attached to it, making a conscious memory. These are all theories.
 
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ClimbnSink said:
If he isn't kidding, he better be sharing.
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Don't see the attraction myself, recently had my knee scoped and was given Percocet for pain. I took one the night of the surgery and it made me feel like crap and nauseated. That was the only one I took, no thanks.
 
Morgan3820 said:
Why not? If all mental illness is not a result of chemical issues in the brain, what other cause? Viruses? demons? There has to be a cause. You see I am treating it as a disease. All disease of our chemical bodies is fundementally chemical in origin.
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As Henning said, there is not one cause. Mental illness can come from a variety factors -both nature and nurture. A lot of it is not hard science, because of the human element of it all. I have worked with many people who have been victims of abuse or sexual assault. They have been diagnosed with everything from depression to bipolar to PTSD to borderline personality disorder and on. Would they have had these symptoms had they not experience the trauma they were subjected to? Why do some people recover from trauma and some get PTSD? I believe it can be a mix of life experiences, combined with a genetic predisposition to certain illnesses or just something specific in a person's make-up.

It is extremely challenging to determine one specific cause, though the American Psychological Association is working to move towards more definable data when it comes to diagnosing.

PaulS said:
De-institutionalization can be an issue also. There are many severely disabled mentally ill who are part of the homeless population.
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Without a doubt.
Henning said:
Oh, that is what brought homelessness in America to the forefront. Under Reagan all the neglect of investment in the system came to a head and we were keeping the mentally ill in inhumane conditions. When confronted with this, rather than invest in the system, we did the opposite and closed all the facilities that weren't up to spec. And tossed the inhabitants onto the street.
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Yes, it's such a shame. It's shocking really, that this was the outcome of dealing with the issue of institutions. Yes, changes needed to be made, but the solution wasn't to shut the majority of them and send the patients out on the street. Mental health care in our country has a long way to go.
 
PaulS said:
Don't see the attraction myself, recently had my knee scoped and was given Percocet for pain. I took one the night of the surgery and it made me feel like crap and nauseated. That was the only one I took, no thanks.
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Oh, opiates and aspirin, that's nothing interesting...
 
Corpsmaide said:
Do you believe your dreams have meanings?
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Dreams are varied; deep sleep dreams are where we process short term memory, give it consideration, and file it into long term memory. REM sleep dreams are more 'imaginary' and can be influenced by our environment like having the radio or TV on when we're waking.
 
Corpsmaide said:
Do you believe your dreams have meanings?
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I haven't read much on dreams, but I know that mine often have bits and pieces on what I've been doing or thinking about recently. I always find it interesting to remember a dream that has put together bits and pieces of my recent life.

I wouldn't say that's "meaning," it's usually just some haphazard mix of minutiae, but I still find it interesting.
 
Dreams are another thing I was fascinated by in class. I personally almost never remember my dreams (maybe twice a year Ill remember a piece of one). Yes everyone dreams and I forget them before I wake up so essentially I don't. I am saddened by this because I feel like Im wasting several hours a day in just blackness when it could be so much more interesting. And upon further research I tend to remember my dreams when Ive had a few drinks in me. How and why, I have no clue but its interesting.

Another downside to not remembering my dreams is that a couple of times Ive woken up in the middle of the night from a night mare. Im not scared by many things but try going back to sleep when you don't know what it was that caused you to wake up.

One other note. When I was younger I dreamed a lot. Often I could wake up, go to the bathroom, go back to sleep and pick up where I left off in my dream.
 
What Henning said dreams are dumping useless info and rehearsing useful info and skills. There is some cool research on performance, using video games and measuring skill before and after sleep. All that Freudian dream stuff is mental masturbation mixed with the regular kind.
 
My late Sister was schizophrenic.

It's hell on earth for the family.

I loved her dearly, but I'm glad she's gone. That's my extent of psychology.
 
Corpsmaide said:
Do you believe your dreams have meanings?
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Absolutely. After I took the CPA exam in the last century, two weeks later I had a dream whereby I received my certificate. For some reason it put me at ease. 10 weeks after the dream I received a letter indicating I passed first crack, almost receiving an award (this was before computer testing).

When my ex wife was pregnant with the kids, each time I had dreams as to whether they would be a boy or girl. Was right both times prior to the ultrasound.

So I think dreams do have meanings....
 
Corpsmaide said:
Do you believe your dreams have meanings?
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Interpreting dreams and assigning meaning can be fun. Harmless fun. Can get whacky similar to seeing animal shapes in clouds.

But dreams sometimes harken us to urgent or hazardous conditions. Example: while baking a massive amount of brownies after work I fell into a deep comforting sleep while the last batches were in the oven. I actually dreamed I was baking brownies. As the dream unfolded I somehow became aware that this was no drill. I had brownies in the oven! I sprung into action and barely saved the brownies from turning into charcoal and filling the house with acrid smoke.

Another time I had fallen asleep while creeping up on the sea buoy at Eureka/Arcata. The boat passed safely right down the middle of the parallel breakwaters. I dreamt I needed to make a left turn. Even in the dream state this confused me; left turn for what? What does that even mean? I sprung into action and reached the tiller just in time to turn left within meters of running aground. Again, I was so dang exhausted that I fell into a very deep sleep. A dream prevented a profoundly hazardous event.
 
Currently I am curious of how short term becomes long term memory and how our perceptions may alter/affect that process. It is a layman's curiosity.

My ex-step daughter had written her post-grad thesis on how people identify negative behaviors in others quite readily but ardently dismiss those very same behaviors in themselves. Her work chiefly involved diagnosed schizophrenic out patients but upon comment from advisors she expanded that to include individuals from a broad spectrum of functionality. The results of her study did confirm what we see every day in places like SZ.
 
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