This letter writer to the Florida Times-Union had me agreeing until this ill-formed paragraph:
If there is blame, let’s blame those professions that delay mental illness recovery. Let’s educate the churches, which call mental illnesses sin or demonic possession; the medical professionals who do not screen for mental illnesses; the therapists who do not teach the necessity of treating brain illnesses like other serious medical problems; the lawyers and judges for not protecting access to proper mental health care; and the educators who do not teach our nation about suicides — the plague that claims 30,000 American lives every year.
Sorry, mental disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder are not simply “brain illnesses,” without any significant psychological or social components that must also be treated. They are complex disorders that involve genes, biology, personality, social development, environment, relationships, and a whole lot more in most people. Buying into the simplistic and discredited model of “brain chemical imbalance” isn’t something that’s beneficial for research or public advocacy or policy.
It is far, far more common for people to receive medications-only from primary care physicians for a mental disorder than it is for them to receive psychotherapy-only from a therapist (on something like a 100 to 1 basis).
So while I agree greater education is needed across the board, for everyone, on mental disorders, blaming entire professions in such broad generalizations (as another writer did earlier blaming all of law enforcement for not being sensitive to people with mental illness) isn’t really helpful either.
Less blame, more action.
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800 NOTES » Mental Disorders are Not Simple “Brain Illnesses” (10/26/2007)
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Zooglea » trastornos mentales (11/2/2007)
5 Comments to
“Mental Disorders are Not Simple “Brain Illnesses””
I feel I have an obligation to leave a positive comment anytime a mental health professional such as yourself notes that the “chemical imbalances” cited in psychiatric drug marketing campaigns typically have little to no scientific backing.
From someone who has been treated successfully with medication only, I disagree with you. Sometimes it is just a chemical imbalance, just like sometimes insulin works for a diabetic, or estrogen for hot flashes, antidepressants work for some mental illnesses. As with other diseases, sometimes it is more serious, may be in the later stages, the person may have self medicated and so caused other problems. The person may have family problems that need to be addressed. Treating the whole person has got to be better that treating just the head or the body. But sometimes just a pill does work and educating churches, judges, etc. to recognize symptoms of mental illness is a good thing, and also all the therapy in the world would not have helped me until I got the medication, as a person cannot concentrate, remember, hold a thought until the medication kicks in, then try therapy if you need it, because at least then the brain would be working.
Hi Debby, but I respectfully disagree.
Do you have evidence of when your brain was “in balance”? What caused it to fall “out of balance” on its own? Will the medication cause your brain to regain its “balance” and then can you stop the medication?
While the idea of “balance” in our brain chemicals is very attractive and appeals to our holistic nature, the research evidence simply doesn’t support this kind of direct causality in our emotional states. It’s far more complex than that.
Does that mean meds alone are sufficient for many? Sure, meds help millions every day who grapple with mental illness. But just because the meds work doesn’t provide direct proof that it is only a medical or brain chemical imbalance issue.
After all, we all take meds for the common cold, yet none of them actually do anything to cure the common cold — they only act on the symptoms of the cold, while we all wait for the cold to simply dissipate on its own. The fact that a given medication works on our symptoms says nothing about the causality of those symptoms.
I agree, society has so many false ideas these days….
Having a wonky liver can lead to high ammonia levels, which leads to some pretty bizarre thinking. Using that as an analogy, you are saying that the usual lactulose or whatever that removes ammonia from the blood isn’t treating a physical problem that leads to psychiatric symptoms? It doesn’t treat the liver, just the symptoms. It’s not the same as taking ativan for the anxiety associated with it. So if I take an antiseizure med for bipolar disorder — which I thought worked due to an electrical disturbance in the brain (I’m a layperson) — it’s not treating a physical problem that’s leading to symptoms like euphoria and rapid speech? It’s just masking symptoms? Although I understand that what causes the brain changes isn’t known, surely it’s still a physical brain issue. I know there’s research into retraining brains around schizophrenia as well. Is this just a case of my being an amateur and not really understanding the whole picture? It seems like ANY major physical illness or disorder is likely to come with some range of mental problems as well. I’m not arguing, just really confused.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 26 Oct 2007
