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In reply to the discussion: Medicine's big new battleground: does mental illness really exist? [View all]TM99
(8,352 posts)and I agree with it in part and disagree with it in others.
Even though medications can (but not always) help individuals with bipolar, we still do not know what part of the brain causes this disorder. We still have no objective tests for measuring the effectiveness of a medication except trial and error. And technically these psychologists are right. We can not yet definitive say that these 'disorders' are an 'illness' with strictly biology origination. And to pathologize anyone's personal experience of a disorder such as bipolar has not been in my clinical experience particularly helpful. I don't particularly care when working with a client/patient what disease, disorder, label, etc. they have identified with. I am concerned right then and there with listen and helping. I do not just do talk-therapy so I am not a normal psychologist. I straddle a middle ground with my somatics work that is part biophysical and part cognitive/emotional.
Yes, get an individual like your son out of crisis and suffering. I would definitely support him taking medication. Then talk therapy assists him in managing having this disorder potentially for life. How many hundreds and thousands of individuals with mental disorders stop medications on their own and have literally no one to turn to for help - be it family or a licensed counselor.
There has been an astounding thrust forward in the last two decades in making all 'mental issues' be they deep seated, temporary and understandable, or reactive into 'diseases' that can only be treated with drugs and drugs alone. It is not either/or and perhaps this seems reactionary, the position these psychologists are taking, but bluntly as a professional myself, I do understand it. Outside of bipolar, schizophrenia, and deeply intransient depression, I have constantly seen most mental disorders effectively 'cured' or managed via talk therapy, behavioral therapy, and somatic therapy. Most depressed people do not need Prozac to stop suffering. Most PTSD sufferers do not need Ativan to manage anxiety. So yes, in most cases medications are just not necessary. They are over prescribed. They have horrid side-effects and discontinuance syndromes.
But the bottom line for me is that when it comes to patient care, I am not political. I use what works and offer my patients all of the help and support I can. I will without hesitation refer for medications, when necessary and warranted, and I will also talk bluntly with clients about not relying on them when there are other methods that might help in their individually unique cases.