Mental illness epidemic: why is it normal?

Don't knock drugs. That's so demeaning and belittling. You have NO way of knowing how a person feels or how immensely they may be helped or even saved by drugs.

I think it's wonderful for people with actual diagnosed mental illnesses to be comfortable with their disease if it helps them understand why things are different for them and they are receptive to appropriate treatment.

Your brother doesn't have ADHD unless he's been properly diagnosed by someone qualified, armchair diagnoses from a teacher means nothing.

For some medications are part of the first resort when they are a danger to themselves or others, but that should be as a part an acute treatment program. Cases of mild depression may or may not require medication, but going for a 30min walk each day has about the same effect as most of the common antidepressants without some of the nastier side effects like suicide. Remember though that people with depression have incredible difficulty with motivation, it's easy to sit on the sidelines telling people to 'try' but that's as useless and perhaps condescending as telling them to 'just snap out of it'.

As someone with actual diagnosed mental illness and developmental disability, I hate hearing people say things like "I cant do this because of my adhd/depression/anxiety/etc" It bothers me because despite my diagnoses I still do stuff. If I have a hard time doing something Ill do it anyways even if I suck at it. Theres a huge differance between saying "I can't" and doing things even though you suck at those things. The only failure is not trying at all.

They pathologize everything. I hate psychiatry. Schizoids (not schizophrenia) are not diseased. ADHD may not be smart, but they are useful for manual labor. Not going on about ASD. Depression is NOT just serotonin. It makes me sick how they make money off of making people THINK they are sick.

Its far to easy to get mind altering drugs from the doctors.

Infact they practicaly force them on you from the first visit.

Its way cheaper than therapy etc and theirs a big market for the drugs.

There are some ailments that I thought were phony excuses for drugs, such as anxiety. This was until I developed anxiety disorder and realized how huge of an effect this has on a persons life!

In general though, I do believe that doctors are way to easy on the pill giving. There are tons of kids medicated for ADD who simply need a good ass spanking. ADD has become something that is almost "cool" to have because people see the erratic behavior as charming and funny!

I've always thought the same. My sister has aspergers, very mild I might add, and she uses it as an excuse for everything. For example, she's over weight, and she said she wanted to get fit, so we commited to go to the gym together in the summer, and when we got to it, she didn't try very hard at it with an excuse that it was cause she has aspergers.

I strongly agree.

Drugs have their place but they are prescribed to readily and the patients are often not monitored well enough to ensure the drugs are working.

A professional diagnosis can be wrong.

Not all doctors are quacks but not all doctors are not quacks.

I think it depends on the case.
Doctors are way too willing to hand out pills and a diagnosis rather than actual treatment. In cases such as mine, doctors are so willing that instead of finding the root of the problem (in my case, I was being abused at home), they would rather slap on a diagnosis and prescribe some pills.

So do I think that having a mental illness absolves personal responsibility? No, save for extreme cases. I still feel that there is a stigma on mental illness that needs to be overcome. It has always been around and it has only been just within recent human history that you can admit you have a mental illness without being chastised by the town/church (which was the same thing back then).

Personally, I don't think that drugs should be used as a last resort every time. For some of us, waiting can mean that by the time we get over it and go to the doctor for medication, our lives have already been destroyed, our loved ones can't stand us and we have lost our job/friends/family/house/car/etc.

As usual, I think many doctors are way to cavalier about diagnosing mental illness and I think PEOPLE are way to cavalier about excusing their behavior and giving up their personal responsibility to a diagnosis that they heard from a friend or read off of wikipedia (I call them WikiPsychologists). I think that people should ALWAYS get a second or third opinion before accepting a diagnosis of mental illness because once you start treatments, they ARE brain altering and if you're treating yourself for ADHD when you really have a thyroid problem (like myself), you could be setting yourself up for some damage later on down the road. It surprises me how much some people blindly trust doctors, who are humans too y'know?

Because people with mental illness CAN'T help it!

The main difference between someone with a mental problem and a douchebag is this:

People with a mental problem will always try to overcome their problems.

Douchebags on the other hand will take on any label and use it as an excuse so they don't have to work on themselves.

I don't personally think that drugs should be used as a last resort, because a lot of research has shown that the most effective treatments are a combination of medication and psychotherapy.

I have a friend who was diagnosed with depression who at first refused medication, but when she finally agreed to take it, she felt so much better. Her psychologist is also taking her through cognitive-behavioural therapy, which is a form of therapy aimed at changing maladaptive thought patterns and beliefs. I can see a major difference in her now, and it's definitely thanks to the combined antidepressant/CBT treatment.

You know, I think mental illness has always been common and that it only now seems more prevalent because the stigma attached to mental illness is decreasing, which is definitely a good thing, because it means that people are less ashamed to admit that they need help and are more likely to seek treatment.

Hopefully when the DSM-5 comes out things will improve, maybe.

What everyone else said.

I agree somewhat. I have Asperger's and never used it as an excuse for slacking off in school, even when it was really affecting my class work.

The world has changed way too much and has become totally all fucked up

I would agree. I think a lot of people are diagnosing themselves to make excuses. I get that people have mental illnesses. I have some. But I don't go around flaunting it to excuse laziness.

I have a strong agreement with you.

If anyone on here watches enough television or internet ads, you will notice advertisements for antidepressants or other drugs. In my opinion, that is just noise. Another sale regardless of the consequences.

I love you and I strongly agree with everything but where you said you don't do enough / could do more. I work hard in my life.

I have ADD if i dont get pills ( which i now found a better kind of 0% drugs in them ) i can get angry without even knowing why and have hard consentrating on anything i also have atypical autism.