tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2894514913516471357.post5181441188121274576..comments2023-07-13T05:01:01.343-07:00Comments on Holistic Recovery from Schizophrenia: People who are critical probably don't belong in support groupsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06700295858497275586noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2894514913516471357.post-73336540548626305912010-03-24T11:48:45.600-07:002010-03-24T11:48:45.600-07:00Anonymous: Of course neither "depression"...Anonymous: Of course neither "depression" nor "schizophrenia" nor any other "mental illness" are chronic by definition. "This too shall pass" probably applies even more to the mind than to a somewhat more solid form like the body. Not even psychiatry itself regarded "mental illness" a chronic condition before the drugs caused an increasing number of people to actually become chronically ill. <br /><br />But it's not only the drugs. It's also that a whole lot of people happily identify as chronically "mentally ill". To be "mentally ill" provides an identity in a time where nothing much really makes sense anymore, where people have great difficulty finding out who or what they are, in a time where we don't tell stories anymore, and have lost our sense of belonging. We've successfully deconstructed everything that once provided us with an identity, and we desperately try to fill the gap.<br /><br />Psychiatry was at the leading edge when this development was about to get out of hand, back in the 1970ies. Because it was facing the threat of losing its identity, and thus its raison d'être itself, deconstructed by, among others, David Rosenhan. So, psychiatry made a deal with society: we offer you a range of pseudo-identities to fill the gap with, and in exchange you secure our survival. <br /><br />Why do so many people, consumers as well as professionals, react with such an amount of aggressiveness whenever someone mentions the possibility of recovery? Why do they often instantly attack the person? "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM1y-aZ4UpI" rel="nofollow">"Fear she's the mother of violence."</a> (Sorry for the detour, just couldn't resist the temptation :) ) People know very well that their "mental illness" is a pseudo-identity, a house of cards. That's what they need the drugs for, to suppress this knowledge. If the ego can't be this or that, "mentally ill" for instance, it can't be: identity crisis. And instead of facing and overcoming their fears, or their Fear, of the unknown, unpredictable, of a life in freedom where everything is possible, and the sky is the limit, people then turn their identity crisis into their new identity, with the help of psychiatry. It's their last resort before existential freedom - or total annihilation in as far as they're identified with their ego - becomes inevitable. So, hold on to it, chronically, so to speak, and don't let anybody take it away from you!Marianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16273435151682585281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2894514913516471357.post-60979319338778350672010-03-23T07:36:06.495-07:002010-03-23T07:36:06.495-07:00Inasmuch as antidepressants are cited in the progr...Inasmuch as antidepressants are cited in the progression of depression from an acute to a chronic condition it can also be said with confidence that antipsychotic medications are responsible for the progression of psychosis to a chronic state of schizophrenia.<br /><br />One need only review Harding's long term follow up studies in order to deduce this as plausible. All individuals who recovered fully from their label of schizophrenia, in the follow up studies, did not take medication.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2894514913516471357.post-18731370996759369222010-03-21T13:21:54.227-07:002010-03-21T13:21:54.227-07:00IMO, these so-called support groups support only o...IMO, these so-called support groups support only one thing: their members' pain body, to use Eckhart Tolle's term for the drama- and misery-loving side of the ego. <br /><br />I left this comment at <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/03/more_on_depression.php" rel="nofollow">one of the posts about "depression"</a> at Jonah Lehrer's blog (and I'll probably post it on my own blog, too): <i>A strange phenomenon I observe time and again, virtually everywhere where "mental illness" is discussed, is that a whole lot of people immediately react with an outcry of resentment as soon as anyone dares to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the whole situation isn't quite as bleak, that maybe, just maybe, recovery is a possibility, and that maybe, just maybe, all the suffering isn't only horrible but has some value to it in terms of this recovery. I try to imagine someone with a somatic illness, who's told they have a good chance to recover, shout and scream: "No no no! It's not true! I can't recover! It must not be true! I'll be suffering most horribly for the rest of my life, and don't you dare to tell me something else!"<br /><br />What is so attractive about pain and suffering that makes letting go of it almost an inconceivability, and everyone/everything suggesting that it can be overcome, a threat? That it provides an identity? "I am mentally ill"? "I suffer, therefor I am"? Mind-boggling.</i><br /><br />The "I suffer, therfor I am" is as well applicable to relatives as it is to the "mentally ill" individual him-/herself. I always feel like asking these people: Who/what would you be without your suffering? But I guess the mere idea would throw most of them into agony...Marianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16273435151682585281noreply@blogger.com