sharing my fb post from this am- it is time to move past the idea of "mental illness"

[mopinko]

it is time to move past the idea of "mental illness", a very slippery thing, imho, and start looking more closely at neurology. cte isnt a mental illness, it is a brain disorder. the texas bell tower shooter had a brain tumor. that isnt a mental illness, either. till we move past check boxes to actual biomarkers, it is just meaningless, stigmatizing, and the 21st century equivalent of blood letting and leeches. often w tragic consequences. it's a crap shoot at best to find meds that help.
i hope cruz gets a good mri of his brain at some point. i hope anyone who acts so inexplicably gets a good mri.
it has long been a pet peeve of mine that there is so much stove piping between shrinks and neurologists. they are finally starting to talk to each other. from my experience, the neurologists are for it, but the shrinks are still blaming mommy.
my own kid spent years w therapists before a brain injury was FINALLY found. 15 years of being seen as "crazy" instead of being treated for epilepsy. growing up being seen that way.
this could answer the civil liberties issues. instead of 30 days of probably useless detention, spend 30 minutes in an mri and possibly finding the real issue.
throw in a sleep study, too. the most treatable cause of "mental health" issues is sleep disorders.
there is a ton still to be learned, and testing to be improved, but that is the direction we should be moving. to the future.
lets drop the whole concept of "mental illness" and start talking about brain health.

[Moostache]

1. While I share your sentiment, did you forget what shit hole country we are in?

We cannot even get consensus agreement that belching CO2 into the atmosphere is having a devastating effect on the climate and the evidence for this is literally everywhere in front of our eyes. To get this country to agree on an esoteric or abstract concept is impossible due to the effects of Fox News and GOP propaganda against ANYTHING that they do not support or make money off of...

[mopinko]

2. well, i sorta did, cuz

of the great docs that i know, and the amazing research that happens here in my hometown.
getting it into the legal system will be hard. but on the ground, we are talking about mental health professionals and researchers. that is where it touches real lives of real patients. and hopefully keeping people from doing horrible things to begin with.

[Tobin S.]

3. I don't think it's all physiological, either.

Some of it is, some of it isn't. Until human beings learn to treat each other with compassion and respect we will always have problems like this on a larger and larger scale. It will continue to get worse.

My brain doesn't appear to be any different physiologically than a healthy person's, but I was nearly crippled with bipolar disorder. There's much more to the story than just brain tumors and chemical imbalances. Those things matter, but your upbringing and life experiences do as well. And, of course, there is the spiritual realm that nobody in the western world wants to talk about now days because we think we've got the universe all figured out.

[mopinko]

5. we are starting to find the differences.

i saw one article recently, today maybe?, about imaging brain differences in depression. i couldnt find it, but did find this.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016164358

we really need to focus more research on this issue. we like to say that mental illness is no different from diabetes, but that is not how it is looked at by shrinks. they are stuck on the idea that the mind and the brain are not the same thing. imho, that is just ridiculous.

and on the topic of childhood trauma, i am aware of very little research looking at the link between tbi, a frequent result of domestic violence, and "mental illness". this strikes me as the lowest of low hanging fruit. esp as it relates to growing brains. how many kids are getting med after useless med for depression, when the problem could be discreet legions on the brain? there are several just in my circle of friends.
cook county has started taking this on, getting brain studies on kids in their juvenile detention facilities. they are finding many violent, brain damaged kids.

obviously this is as complex as the human animal. and there are ways to treat the mind that dont involve addressing the brain "directly", but i suspect that some day we will understand how they affect the brain indirectly. this can only make such approaches more effective in the future.

[Tobin S.]

7. Totally physiological explanations for mental illness beg the question...

...is it a pathological problem related strictly to spontaneous physical dysfunction? Maybe sometimes.

Or were there environmental factors that the brain responded to and are these responses reversible just by changing the environment? In some cases I think they are. In others they are not.

There are no hard and fast rules here. There can be many causes for mental disorders and there can be many possible treatments. Medical treatment is not always necessary.

[mopinko]

8. what bothers me is the people who slip through the check boxes.

such a crude instrument. and so full of bias.
we really need biometrics. we will never find the other causes, the other "problems" until we can actually nail down the dsm biggies w actual markers. so many faulty dx's.

[No Vested Interest]

4. I've frequently said that we're still in the Dark Ages re understanding

of the mind.

Such great progress has been made medically re the human body in the last 50-60 years, but we know so little of the nuances of the human brain.
This has been brought home to me even more directly since a family member suffered a stroke, resulting in aphasia, but obviously affecting other areas, sometimes more, sometimes less. Includes some executive functions, such as decision making, making choices, and struggles that aren't even apparent to the observer, but are taking place unseen, causing unknown or unobserved stress to the individual.

[mopinko]

6. yup. i think the light is starting to dawn.

the crisis in brain health in the nfl, where we are talking about big money, has opened the door, imho.
the changes in player's behavior are a regular road map.

[No Vested Interest]

10. The changes in the brain now so obvious in football players and those in other contact

sports are now seen as actual brain injuries similar to PTSD, as the brain is visibly shaken within and against the skull.
Think of the many functions each area of the brain performs, and the interconnectivity of the cells working together.

Also remember that the cerebral cortex which controls executive functions- judgment, decision-making, etc.- is not fully developed until the early-to mid 20's, yet other parts of the brain and the body are developed enough to want to take on fully-adult functions, such as reproduction, emoting, and physicality.

I'm grateful my children chose non-contact sports such as swimming, running, and tennis, even before we knew of the dangers inherent in contact sports. Blind luck.

[steve2470]

9. ALL mental health patients should have a VERY THOROUGH medical examination

At times, this needs to include a neurology consult to rule in or rule out any kind of brain trauma or neurological disorders.

Obviously, with many many many patients, this NEVER happens, either due to incompetence (as in your daughter's case, mopinko), professional laziness, and/or just lack of funding in the case of indigent/Medicaid clients.

I've never seen a neurologist, but it wouldn't be a complete waste of time I don't think. None of my doctors or therapists have ever suggested it, but if I had a symptom that could not be reduced or eliminated or treated, I would get a referral to a neurologist.

It's a situation of both/and. If your CNS is in healthy condition, awesome! You can still have psych problems due to your situation or family background, etc. I think it's very obvious that Major Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia (to name a few) are pretty obviously rooted in brain pathology. I think there is no dispute about this. Now, can you have ONE episode of MDD and be perfectly healthy neurologically? Yes. If you have more than one episode, then it's time to seriously consider an organic basis from your family or another cause.

If your CNS is dysfunctional/damaged/diseased, then of course you are going to have psych issues of one kind or another. Then the organically-caused psych issues will tend to cause "functional" issues because society rejects/does not understand you and your symptom(s).

We need vastly increased funding of brain research, brain treatment, and just mental health in general. This is not rocket science. This is really not subject to serious controversy by anyone but the far right ignorant wing.

[mopinko]

11. actually my daughter DID have lots of medical evals,

including a pediatric neurologist! saw her for a couple years.
how that was missed, i dont know. but it was.
it did take a sophisticated test, not the first, to find it.
she had mri's for headaches. she had a full neuropsyche exam. but the tech just wasnt there 10 years ago, 15 years ago.

and dont even get me started about things like fibro and the way women get told its "all in their heads."

it's been a while (10yrs?) since i talked to a practicing doc about this, but my sleep neurologist was very frustrated by the stove piping. he said it was breaking down. i hope it will die soon.

[steve2470]

12. wow sorry to hear all this

So the tech finally caught up to the symptom. I wasn't trying to imply you neglected her medically, not at all. I was just making a general statement. You obviously did all the right things and got penalized, somewhat, by the lack of an adequate diagnosis for her. I won't get you started about the female-related issues lol, no worries, I get it. That goes all the way to Dr. Freud and his hysteria BS.

If it makes you feel any better about your daughter, my CURRENT shrink is the very first one to really understand my worst symptom, the "emotional rejection-sensitivity" thing (thin skin in layman's language). I've seen shrinks for 20 years now and regular MD's much longer than that, and yes, I can totally get what happened.

Sad to say, it takes an extremely assertive patient to get the best care. That includes forcing, so to speak, the various professionals to talk to each other (eliminate the stove-piping as you say).

[mopinko]

13. well one thing i did right was

raised 3 warrior queens.