Saturday nights are now mandatory family nights, so Saturday night posts may be a bit later than usual. I watched a lot of crime shows today, and they got me thinking.
My final article was about depression, mainly the rising cost of antidepressants and therapy. It dealt with the hard choice some have to make because treatment can easily reach over $300. The drug market is an extremely lucrative one, I realized. Especially ones dealing with mental illness. There can't be that many people out there with some sort of mental disorder. Can there?
There's a history of mental illness in my family. There's a history of mental illness in Dave's family. I know a lot of other people who struggle with or have struggled with some sort of mental illness in the past. Depression's the most prominent one, but there are a multitude of other illnesses out there. Sometimes it's overwhelming to think of how many there actually are. As of 2004, there's over 300, according to medical news today.
I understand that we understand a lot more about mental illness today than we did even 30 years ago, and that we're making huge advancements to help those who have them. But I can't help but think, with over 300 illnesses, are we just making things up so people can feel better about themselves?
Don't get me wrong, things like depression and schizophrenia are things I believe are actual disorders. But some others sound like an excuse for people who just cannot deal with life. Take for example premature ejaculation. That's listed as a disorder. And if there's some other underlying cause for it, then it's a symptom of another disorder, not a disorder in itself. It's more of a physical issue, or being extremely excited, in my opinion. A lack of control, if you will. And mathematics disorder. From here, it sounds like something that's said so the parent and student don't have to accept that math just isn't there thing.
It seems to me that we've come up with disorders to excuse what shortcomings or character flaws we have. Not only that, but when we research these disorders on our own, we can see parts of them that fit our personality. The reason silly personality tests we find on the internet to amuse ourselves work is because for the most part we're quite similar. And as humans, we don't want to admit we're less than perfect.
So if something sounds somewhat true to us, we'll latch onto it instead of admitting we have to work on ourselves. There's over 300 disorders that we could have, so there's got to be one that's bound to fit. And if nothing does, we'll badger people until something can be done. And when something's done, we can finally have an answer and try to do something about it.
Or not. Some people are perfectly content with knowing, and not trying to better themselves. That is, until the problem becomes so severe it can no longer be ignored. As I said before, we don't want to admit we're less than perfect. Because of this, we don't want to try and better ourselves if we see nothing wrong. We blame all our shortcomings on our illness, instead of trying to separate the two.
Nothing's wrong with having a mental disorder. But there is something wrong with attributing all your shortcomings to it. There's something wrong with using it as an excuse for the reason you do things, when it really isn't the reason. You are not your mental illness. You were someone before you were diagnosed, so the illness isn't your personality. Find yourself. I know it's hard.
I know it's hard. I probably struggle with a bit of body dysmorphic disorder. I could probably be diagnosed with depression, especially at this moment. Looking through the list and doing some very brief research, I could also have dependent personality disorder, and dysthymia for the rest of my life outside this past month. Not that I've talked to anyone about this, or read up on them for more than 2 minutes, but the initial research suggests I could. And I'm not planning on going and getting diagnosed, unless I let them affect my daily life.
And I won't let that happen.
I completely agree with you about the medical companies handing out mental disorders like candy so they can generate more profit from selling drugs and therapy.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, in the last 10 years, children under the age of 10 diagnosed as ADD or ADHD has risen exponentially. In all cases the children are said to "have lack paying attention in various situations" and "appear to be hyper-active" or "constantly craving attention from others." These aren't problems with the child's personality, they are a friggin' CHILD!! They are supposed to be hyper-active, want to play all the time instead of listening to people talk, and will make stupid mistakes. As far as the craving attention, that is a fault of the parents; not wanting to take responsibility for their child's actions (instead, they rely on school and other people to teach their children about life, right and wrong, and consequences for their actions).
If my parents got annoyed with me running around inside the house, they shoved me outside, gave me a stick, and told me to have fun. I seem to have turned out oka.....hey look! A penny!!