Illness or pathetic lack of drive?

Question

I cant help but wonder how many of these "mentally ill" folks are simply suffering from a poor upbringing or gross lack of self-discipline. This is not hard science in the same sense that Cardiology is a hard science. Theory and conjecture are stated as fact and then force fed to the general population.

I cant tell you how many times Ive seen "mentally ill" people pull that like an emergency Get Out of Jail Free card. Whan tey are over-reacting to some benign, percieved slight, its always the same exscuse. True mental illness is such a rarity, and yet despicable people continue to take advantage of the kindness of others and blame it on "illness".

We can call anything a disease these days. Are you too fat? Its a genetic flaw in your brain that causes you to overeat. Drink too much? Thats a disease too. Has nothing to do with the fact that YOU let it get out of hand. Depressed? Is self-pity one of your personality traits? Who knows.

All responses welcome. Its OK to be angry.

Answer 1

I agree with you. Heaven forbid anyone accept responsibilty for what they do. My brother has been heavilly into drugs for a long, long time. After my father passed away he claimed that was why he became addicted to drugs, never mind he was taking them like they were candy, never mind the fact I just lost my father as well and gee, I didn't turn to drugs. Most people I know who are alcoholics, druggies, wife/husband/family beaters, welfare bums (nothing personal about people on welfare, I was there myself at one point but I owned up to the fact I F U C K E D UP to get there), thieves, and anybody else (which is mostly everyone) who has any type of issues blames it on Mommy and Daddy, mental defect, environment, anything and everything else for their problems. Never mind that they adults now and have a pretty good idea that robbing the Seven Eleven to buy a bottle of vodka at the local liquor store is WRONG. The system failed them so it's the governments fault. My eldest son is at this point where nothing is his fault. He spilled his drink the other day and blamed it on his brother who was across the room. My eldest son said his brother (again, from across the room) bumped him and made him spill it. My other son burst out in hysterics in class and blamed his class mate for making funny faces. As much as I try to instill the ideals of self-discipline and responsibility into my children it is cut down by the ever loving notion of today's society of "It's not my fault, he made me do it". I'm currently majoring in psychology and have come to the conclusion I can not practice in public psychology because one of my clients will eventually frustrate me beyond all control one day by saying my Mommy didn't love me and my Daddy abandoned me so I had to beat my wife to a pulp and kill him. But hey, it won't be my fault, he made me do it.



Oh, for pete's sake, he is not saying mental illness does not exist, he is perturbed about those who abuse it. People who read a psych book, memorize the symptoms, and then cry sick so they can do what they want and not be held accountable for their actions. Get off your high horses people and read the full statement.

Answer 2

Where the genes are present within the person, that makes one more prone to addiction, if they need a coping mechanism for stress, family dysfuction etc. Not all people with the gene react in the same way and it IS to do with family and social dynamics.

People without the gene cope in other ways...ie do not become addicts. Disease is merely a way of explaining that a person is not at ease..or not balanced physically or emotionally.

WE cannot say they are mentally ill....and science is still out on the issue. Its the degree, in which traits effects the person, that quantifies it as a disease...ie most people lie occassionally but unless its compulsively its not deemed a disorder.

Poor upbringing (and environment) would play the MAJOR role in the expression of negative traits, so, unless there is brain damage (especially to the frontal lobe) or chemical imbalances they would not be called diseases.

I dont agree that laziness or lack of selfcontrol has much to do with it....just that they havent found replacement mechanisms for coping skills AND the underlying issues that brought them so much stress STILL havent been dealt with. Not all people have the necessary IQ to self-heal, relearn or undo whatever damage they experienced during childhood....often BECAUSE they never had the control over their own life to begin with.

Answer 3

Some people are suffering from poor upbringing or a "lack of drive." Other people have real mental illness. Some people with mental illness do have attention-seeking behavior that is frustrating to deal with. Sometimes mental illness is nothing more than "letting something get out of hand." But believe, me I used to work for a state mental hospital and true mental illness isn't rare at all, it's common as dirt. But theory and conjecture are sometimes taken as fact because that's the best we can do. We had a girl one time who cut a hole right into her own stomach; what do you suggest, Doctor? Slap her around and tell to get ahold of herself? We had another guy who thought he was Jesus and actually put a nail through his hand. How about we tell him to go get a job? We had people who swallowed knitting needles, batteries and light bulbs. Tell me your address, maybe we can send some of them to stay with you, since you have all the answers.

Answer 4

Even Alzheimer's disease cannot be Dx'd 100% unless the brain is autopsied. The symptoms tell the story. Tougher to dig around in the brain of a live person! Easier to just claim illnesses in the mind do not exist. Sounds like you are addressing those with "attitude issues". Mental illness is not rare at all. There are varying degrees of most illnesses. It has been only a little over a hunded years since doctors started washing their hands. Someone had to figure out the germ thing first. Theories change as more info is accumulated through study. We aren't stamped out with a "Body By Fischer" stamp, ya know!

Answer 5

There are people who take advantage of others in every realm of society. For some to take advantage of a disability label in order to gain advantage *IS* despicable, because it abuses the charity of society and makes life much harder for those who are disabled.

However, it is hard to argue with the fact that about 15% of people with bipolar and schizophrenia eventually kill themselves because of the agony of mental illness, and many people have spent considerable periods of time in institutions that until the 1970's actually allowed torture of mental patients. There is so much stigma (read that, hatred and fear) of mental patients, that everyone I know covers up their mental illness as much as they can and they don't tell most others - they are so terrified of being discovered that they won't even go for social support or get counseling because someone might see them getting help for mental problems. Perhaps that's why you think "true" mental illness (whatever that means) is a rarity - people with schizophrenia and bipolar and severe depression, etc. hide!! People with mental illness take drugs that cause morbid obesity (PROVEN they do this) or can make you look like a freak with the involuntary twitching. Or the drugs cause violent headaches, or you can't have sex. Or you can't get out of bed or drive anymore. A person could even die from sudden cardiac arrest. People take these drugs because these side effects are better than hearing the voices or hurting so much you have to end it all. Why would a person do this if they were trying to use mental illness as an excuse?

So far as poor upbringing goes, yes that is a factor in mental illness. Those with mental illnesses are far more likely to have suffered from the most severe forms of abuse (sexual abuse, locked in closets, beaten severely). Most everyone who ends up in a state hospital will have a background like that. Does that mean you should blame them for their illness, that a horrible childhood induced their schizophrenia/bipolar/depression? The genetic links are proven through identical twin studies, that these diseases do have a genetic component, but that also a severe environment causes these genes to be expressed. Sometimes the mental illness happens anyhow, even when there is no apparent stressors in a person's life.

So far as self-discipline goes, I have met very few people as ambitious as I am, but bipolar disorder's depression drops me to my knees so that I can't even make a can of condensed chicken noodle soup or clean my house. I used to work at NASA while I was earning my Ph.D. in physics, so I don't think you can say that I am suffering from a gross lack of discipline.

Also, you are misconstruing things. It is not medical researchers who are pushing ideas about mental illnesses as facts, it is drug companies and news reporters who do not understand science. They leave out all the maybes and mights and perhaps qualifiers that a scientist uses. I would not say that any medical researcher is doing "hard science." Hard sciences are physics and chemistry (although chemistry is becoming part of physics) and astronomy and the like. Biology and medicine are "soft sciences" not all full of math. That's changing over time, but we're not there yet. That mental illness exists is a fact, though, it's understanding what causes it where the difficulty lies, and what to do about it.

Rants like yours do not make it easier for people who are suffering so much. You are attacking among the most vulnerable members of society. Shame on you. And if you know people who are faking mental illness to gain an advantage from others, shame on them too.

Answer 6

Honestly I think thousands of mentally ill people are suffereing from a poor upbringing, but I wouldn't discribe it as simple. There are so many ways that a person's mind can be altered by the way they were raised. Emotional/mental abuse can be just as life changing as physical/sexual abuse, especially when it is over an extended period of time. A one time sexual abuse can alter the mental state of an individual for the rest of thier life, no matter what age it happens at.

Psychology is not a hard science, but that is because research into the brain of a living person is difficult. You can take pictures of what parts are activated at certain times and by what stimuli. Direct testing on how adverse conditions affect the human brain, development and personality of a human would be unethical. You can take a census of a target population and track them over a period of time, but you can not inflict people with trama to see how it effects thier future mental health.

I do not agree that one theory of psych is forced fed to the general population. Therapists and psychologist perform too different aspects of mental health and both will be schooled in classical and modern theories. Not every mental health perfessional will subscibe to the same theory. It is really the responsibility of the patient to find a therapist who meets thier needs. Plus, a good therapist would never push their own beliefs onto a patient. Most will not even share thier own view on such subjects and refuse to say if they agree or disagree with a patients views.

I have also seen those who will use mental illness as a scapegoat for their problems or as a reason for bad behavior. Ironically, these people do usually have issues, just not the ones that they claim to have. While these people may blind others to the seriousness of mental illness, they are the exception and not the rule. More people suffer quietly from mental illness than those who basically scream "look at me, I depressed."

Mental illness is not as rare as many people might like to believe that it is. There is a stigma in our culture that says that mental illness is something to hide, to be ashamed of. Many people are afraid to go to a doctor for a problem that they may have been raised to believe does not exsist, or that they fear being ridiculed about. I bet when society admits that you are normal even if you mentally ill in some way, then more people will feel safe and confident about coming foward for treatment.

It is a difficult thing to do when you play the blame game. It this a problem that you created for youself, that someone created for you or where you born predisposed to have this condition. I believe tha it is a combination of all three factors. If you think about behavior as an observable outsome to stimuli then you have to remember that some behavior is inborn, some become reflex over an individuals lifespan and others are learned form observation and modeling of those around them.

My final thought- I do not care what your beliefs are on the subject of mental health. I do care how you treat those who are having difficulty in some way. I don't care if you think their illness is fictious. Respect everyone.

Answer 7

You obviously have never suffered from depression, which can come from nowhere even during times when everything is going well. And, panic attacks can come from nowhere, the person suffering from panic attacks certainly doesn't enjoy it and has no idea how to control it. You can't look at someone at tell how they are feeling on the inside. A panic attack feels as if someone is holding you off the roof of a ten-story building by the feet, but you feel like that while sitting in your living room. If you could experience a panic attack, you wouldn't be so ignorantly opinionated. It's not rare either. It's probably as common as heart disease. It's discriminated against too. Like your insurance only pays for half, when it pays 80 to 100% for something physical .

Answer 8

Sorry, but your facts are not straight. There are specific chemicals in some people's brains that cause depression, etc.

When a person takes an anti-depressant, they improve most of the time.

If a person is diabetic, they take insulin. Same with many mental health illnesses.

HOWEVER, I DO AGREE with you that some people over do it! They use it as a crutch. A good psychiatrist will give the Rx with one hand, and a slap with the other (if/when needed).

(I bet you'll tick off a lot of folks with your question/premise, too!)

Answer 9

its not rare at all! with some of them u can go months w/no symptoms and then just all of a sudden for no reason u get really pissed or really sad. thats the mental illness known as depression. there are different types of it too. now what about ocd? thats when a person does something so much and to such an extreme that its uncontrollable. like knocking on door facings before they walk thru one or washing their hands until they bleed because they dont think they have all the germs off. wouldnt u call that a mental illness? let me guess u would say that person is just crazy. in a way yes but they CAN NOT help it. what about phobias? theres a really rare 1, i cant remember the name, but in this illness they are affraid of themselves. and another phobia the person is affraid to be around ppl. those are just some of the different types of mental illness. another 1 is retardation. explain how u think that is just in someones head! i know a little about mental illness cuz alot of my family members has some sort of 1. 1 person in my family is really happy and almost on cloud 9 one minute and then the next they are balling their eyes out, or this person will see me and my sisters on tv, or gets paranoid and says ppl are listening to him/her thru the tv. now explain how u think that isnt a mental disorder. all a mental disorder is is an imbalance in the brain. something doesnt work right in there. thats all it is. i have depression and most days im fine. i love myself and my life and everything around me and then theres days that i want to die. just like some one flipped a switch in my head. its not easy to deal w/and then have some 1 like u say its nothing. yes life throws some hard stuff at u but on days that im happy everythings fine and on days that im sad and want to die in all reality everything is still fine and i no it is but i still get that way.

and alcoholism is a disorder not really a disease and yes that CAN be inherited. now if u have any more questions about mental disorders just email me and ill be glad to fill u in on it.

Answer 10

depressed?is self pity one of my traits?

FUC* YOU!!

some of what you said are true but very general but ...and some of it totally... BS!

if someone really important in your life,meant the whole world for you..suddenly passed away,how the fuc* would you feel?

normally people get depressed ..badly or they become crazy or whatever

we all have different levels.....some may take it bad,some worse and some would feel so bad they take their own life,
and YOU blame it on being 'pathetic lack of drive thats why they r unable to overcome illness'

we all are different from one another.we have different levels,and we could at least respect that.

you judge as if you read it in a book