[lbo-talk] let's argue about the cause of mental illness

[Left-Wing Wacko]

On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 5:21 PM, shag carpet bomb<shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:>
> but other than that, since I've never personally experienced clinical
> depression (though Google knows that by all rights I should have been
> declared depressed at some point!), I've always just read what people had to
> say and assumed they knew best. If they feel they were depressed and it was
> a chemical imbalance, then that was the way it was. What did I know! But now
> I'm reading this book and wondering about the degree to which the
> pharmaceutical industry and physicians have pushed certain diagnoses on
> people, regardless as to any evidence supporting the diagnosis -- and to an
> unfortunate result as some folks have taken medicines that are useless or,
> worse, cause more symptoms that are then treated with more drugs. Or even
> worse, given drugs that injure or kill them.
>
> so, what is the state of the debate folks who know better than I?
>
> shag

Well shag, I don't necessarily know better than you as one of those
"experts", but I have been treated for depression via medication.
Once I engaged the psych. nurse practitioner that was prescribing my
meds. in a conversation about the causes and sources of depression.
And she was quite adamant that "the state of the science" attributes
depression nearly exclusively to "the medical model" of brain
chemistry.  That the present life conditions or circumstances of the
patient are not really important or relevant at all.  This struck me
as just completely absurd and overly reductionist.

On another note.  I had more than a few appointments with another
doctor where I witnessed the drug reps. delivering these very nice
lunch spreads very openly and without shame.  Once I joked about how
what was for lunch might influence what my prescription would be.

I have yet to watch this video all the way through, but its about how
our society influences our mental health.  Sounds pretty good as far
as the first 10 minutes or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5oJPRuFDIk

Sheldon