I was a double major in college in Psychology and Sociology. I completely agree that more visits to a therapist should be covered. More counseling and less pills are always a good thing. I’ll leave it at that.

By my senior year in college, I’d already decided that I’d NEVER work in the mental health field because it has changed DRASTICALLY over the last 10-15 years in the worst way. It is now a business and an extremely lucrative one. If they can’t fit a patient into a little box, they’ll just create another mental illness and find another pill for people to take.

Bipolar is the new black. EVERYBODY is suddenly bipolar. Mood swings aren’t bipolar and neither is PMS. Now they’ve even started to change the definition of bipolar and claim you can still be bipolar without the depression/suicide part. Sorry, but that makes you UNIpolar. Now they are starting to label children as bipolar. Anti-psychotic drugs for children now? My aunt was bipolar, back when it was known as Manic Depressive. Believe me, what I see now is NOTHING like what I saw with her while I was growing up, both inside institutions and at home. Not even CLOSE.

The goal no longer seems to be helping people get through their problems and out on the other side, but keeping them as patients as long as possible. And if you’re poor, government agencies will give you all sorts of pills free of charge and even make sure you’re registered to VOTE!! It’s one of the first documents they provide for you on your first visit.

I studied Psychology and Sociology because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the diversity of human BEHAVIOR. What is being taught in college now is about controlling human behavior and doing whatever it takes to pressure people to conform to subjective norms as defined by arrogant control freaks. It made me nauseated to watch young students being taught to prey on vulnerable people. Luckily, I went back to college when I was older.

People really need to research state laws regarding mental health issues in their states, because the laws being passed now are giving them even more power. Just last year in Louisiana, they passed a law that allows them to commit somebody BEFORE they become a threat to themselves or others. Thought threats? You Betcha! Yes, the law is unconstitutional, but nobody seems to care about that. If they’re “trying to help,” who cares about the US Constitution?

Criminal records can be expunged. Addicts go to rehab. Once a person is “labeled” as a mental patient, it’ll NEVER go away. It will haunt them forever. A complete stranger can call the police and get you locked up. And each time that happens, it’s even easier to do it repeatedly for the rest of your life.

If you call 911, the operator sees a mental patient. So do the police before they arrive at your house. They won’t know if you’re in physical danger or having a psychotic episode. If it’s a disagreement with a neighbor, you’re automatically considered the least reliable. If you go to the emergency room, you are automatically herded towards the mental health professionals, no matter what physical symptoms you may have. A close friend of mine almost died because they thought his asthma attack was a psychotic episode. My closest friend’s mother was committed repeatedly for 6 years, including given shock treatments. What was wrong with her? A BRAIN TUMOR.

What needs to be done for the benefit of every person who may need help for mental and emotional issues at some point is to destroy the entire mental health field and start over, beginning with the field of Social Psychology. It’s downright manipulation and you only have to look at the last Presidential campaign and that gutless squatter in the White House to see the mental health field at work.

In the meantime? Be as informed as possible on the LAW. Don’t go to an emergency room, especially if you have good insurance, unless there is a real threat of physical injury to someone.

This has just been brought out in the open since the Bush Wars because it HAD to due to the different kinds of warfare and injuries. But trauma and mental illness from wars has just been renamed from “shell shocked” in WW-I and probably earlier; now it’s named as “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”.

The mental illnesses aren’t all of one category, but have many names with different symptoms and affects. A lot of the mental hospitals of the past have been closed due to costs, and many new drugs have been developed for various symptoms. Not all drugs will “fit” all of the various mental illnesses – it’s not “one drug fits all”. Not all physicians are educated as to what type of drug is useful for all types of mental illnesses. All humans are not built with the same physical and mental chemistry to be fed the same pills.

I believe, too, that many drugs are prescribed for some, as in children, who are diagnosed with “a” mental illness, but instead lack social skills and environments to nurture their growth and life.

There’s still a long way to go before mental illnesses will be accepted as medical issues, treated and talked about openly. The jails are being filled with mentally challenged persons because the hospitals don’t have facilities to accept and treat them. The streets are also being overrun by homeless persons who have mental illnesses of varying degrees. There aren’t enough mental health specialists for the number of those who need their help.

The subject must be written about, discussed, and opened up so that those who believe that it’s “all in you head” and just “snap out of it” can learn that mental illnesses are diseases just as “physical” maladies.

Thinking about you this evening; and I wanted to share a custom some Native American tribes do after the death of someone they care about. You set a place at your table for that person, for a year. They say it takes a year for the soul to find its way to where it is to go to next. The “dinner” plate for your unseen guest gives you the opportunity to have conversations with your friend, good bad and ugly, as well as creates a ritual for you, for as long as you want. Sometimes I think we have difficulty mourning in our country. Just like any other rite of passage, when a ritual is developed and a behavior created to express the emotion, there is some relief for those in emotional pain, which is (IMHO)far more hurtful than physical pain. I know when my husband passed I had some times I would yell at his dinner plate( I put a picture there to help with the visual). Because of the deep depression his death put me in, I went to a psychiatrist, who correctly understood I was very angry, and encouraged me to just have my feelings. I did, much like a child at first, because this was new to me. Eventually I could understand my anger, and whatever guilt and blame I had acquired because of his death. I finally worked for hospice for about a year, to do death to death, so I would have some comprehension of why and my feelings.

Suicide is so very difficult as it harms so many people and is a situation which leaves many unanswered questions. I would also suggest asking his name be added to a prayer circle, many churches do so regardless of the type of death. Specifically I know Catholic Churches will add his name to their rosary and pray for him, this may help also.

Take Good care of You. (candymarl-Kiss to yer cheek)

http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/MentalHealthStatistics/URS2008.asp

The data do not show that breakdown, and I could not find it elsewhere. It would be interesting to know.

I am sure that all of the ads have fostered “medical student’s disease” (list of symptoms and one is sure they “have it”). We are all feeling down from time to time, or stressed, or angry. Most of the time the last thing we need is a pill.

But I hope I didn’t come off as putting down meds. They can be life-savers–literally. And just feeling better is worth something.

My point was only that they don’t typically “cure” what leads one to be stressed or depressed or whatever.

Condolences

For example what percentage of expenditures were for office visits, counseling, hospitalization, Rx, etc.

Mental health issues are complex. I personally know people with real mental health issues and some whom I believe are drug addicts gaming the system to support their addictions.

My late husband, mother and sister all benefited greatly from the use of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications during the end-of-life stage of their illnesses, lung cancer, kidney failure, and Parkinsons/dementia respectively.

But on the other hand look at how the media is saturated with advertisements for anti-depressant medications. People who watch the evening news broadcasts must be the sickest bunch of folks there are. If I remember correctly the law was changed some time ago to allow Rx drugs to be advertised to the general public. Did that help create a demand that wouldn’t have been there without direct advertising?

Since we are talking about 2006 data on mental illness, when the economy was doing better, then this cannot be blamed on the economy, how many people lost their homes, how many people stay together because they cannot afford to divorce and/or the high unemployment rate.

Does anyone know how much of the Medicare expense is for mental illness treatment?

Also, how does the new medical health care program going to affect mental health care and costs including if there is anything in the budget for helping to prevent mental problems or catching them early, so that few sessions may be required and maybe even fewer divorces?

It would be interesting to see now that we have hope we can believe in, if the mental health costs will go down. (snark)

Rich