i am getting a tension headache

[mayoraasei]

From all these ridiculous articles I cannot resist clicking on.

Depression? Don't believe it

Literally that is its title.

And it starts out with...

In 2000 the World Health Organisation named depression as the fourth leading contributor to the global burden of disease and predicted that by 2020 it would rise to second place. I suppose WHO didn’t mean it to sound like a target to be aimed for, but we seem to be rising to the challenge in any case.

Hey, I agree that depression can be over-diagnosed - but it is also under-diagnosed. I agree that people can be overly medicated for depressed mood (as opposed to actual depression). I agree that there is evidence that psychotherapy and CBT works.

But if the nutcase who wrote the article actually spent some time sitting in a psychiatric ward with some patients instead of reading the DSM from beginning to end and scoffing at it non-stop (and by-the-by, I agree that some of the disorders listed in the DSM borders on defining everyone as abnormal), maybe she'll see that you can never use blanket terms in medicine, and that SSRIs are used because they actually work, not because the "Big Pharma" made up the data.

I remember a lady suffering from terrible anxiety disorder, sitting in her chair quivering non-stop like she had too much caffeine. A week later, after a few ECT sessions, the change was remarkable. She managed to smile. She was sitting at ease. She could hold a conversation looking at us in the eye.

Sit in a room with a severely depressed patient whose countenance never cracks, who stares listlessly at the ground and barely raises the energy to whisper answers to questions...and tell me that their depression is imagined.

Overdiagnosis and overtreatment is a problem with any medical condition, but it is a danger to present the argument without a balanced view, especially with mental health still being a relative taboo in our society.

Comments

[oncloud999.livejournal.com]

wow. once again. people who don't know anything sprouting shit. Yes, I recommend this lady going to a psych ward and telling those patients that they're just deluding themselves they're fitting into a category in DSM!
And antidepressants are a sham? tell that to the lady who wanted to kill herself when they tried to change her meds. and GPs do tell people to go to social support groups. in fact, some gps RUN those social support groups. but some patients are usually too busy with their lives and want quick fix solutions.

this bitch clearly knows nothing about what she claims to be an expert in. how do people like this get to publish books? omg, i want to smack something.

(omg, stop reading all these articles and getting me all riled up too.)

[oncloud999.livejournal.com]

and i just read some of those comments that comes with the article. oh man, don't get me started on why doctors practice defensive medicine.

[luna-rainbow.livejournal.com]

OMG I HATE YOU FOR MAKING ME CURIOUS AND NOW I'M SCREAMING OMFG ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME AT THE COMMENTS.

It depresses me when my football team loses. It normally lasts 5 minutes and is dissipated by a loud expletive, but I wouldn't be suprised to find it in the manual. Because many of the "disorders' in the manual are that ridiculous.

All it takes for a "disorder" to get in is for some psychiatrist to write a paper about a patient who gets sad when he hears a sad song, and then they vote to include it. Presto, you've got sadsongphobia and need a lifetime supply of Prozac.

And they even admit they don't know how antidepressants work, don't consider the significant side effects or the fact that most of them are fractionally better than placebo, some less effective.

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS???

WHOSE BUTTHOLE DID YOU PULL THAT OUT OF????

DSM NEVER DEFINED DEPRESSION AS "5 MINUTES OF DOWN TIME AFTER FOOTBALL TEAM LOSES".

GO AND READ THE BLOODY MANUAL BEFORE YOU DARE TO OPEN YOUR MOUTH, YOU FOOLISH MORTAL.

/end capslock abuse

[oncloud999.livejournal.com]

wow, i didn't read that special gem up there. but wow. someone who clearly has no idea what he/she is talking about.

but dear "rufus" seems to have got the right idea:

"Excuse me if I don't take my advice on whether what is commonly called depression is a disorder from someone who is not even a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Just googled the author, she has a PhD in Comparative Literature.
Very irresponsible reporting on the part of The Age, methinks."

there is hope in humanity yet!