The Real Problems With Psychiatry

[Love4All]

The author of the Atlantic article says that the problem is that “the DSM categories aren’t real.” In other words, it’s not like the Merck Manual. The disorders it discusses may or may not be physical diseases. There may be no etiology given for the disease. Apparently, in many cases of mental illness no underlying physical or biochemical factor can be isolated. The DSM entries are voted upon, for pity’s sake!

It is noteworthy that the same author wrote the book “Manufacturing Depression—The Secret History of a Modern Disease.”

Psychiatry is part of the medical field, yet if you ask psychiatrists “if these disorders exist in the same way that cancer and diabetes exist, they’ll say no.”

The author also says that taking the DSM categories too seriously has the effect of eliminating the moral aspect to certain behaviors." If you have a disease which causes you to behave badly, you aren’t culpable.

You are basically saying that psychiatrists, when pressed, actually admit the invalidity of their chosen “specialty.”

 

[Love4All]

Aw, come on, concede us at least around 0.000001%

Keep in mind that I am not making the assertion about either Neurology or Pharmacology.

Neurology studies the brain and nervous system. Asked to show you what he studies, a neurologist can.

Pharmacology studies chemical compounds, and their effects on said nervous system. Asked to produce samples of the subject matter of his chosen specialty, a pharmacologist, likewise, can.

Psychiatry studies, what, exactly? Can a psychiatrist show you what it is he is studying? What is the real entity a psychiatrist deals with that is not covered by either neurology or pharmacology?

 

[Love4All]

I would! I cannot speak for the person who made the claim but I did not read “valueless” to mean worthless but rather, ‘based on no fixed / eternal / absolute value.’

I meant useless. Detrimental, in fact.

 

[Love4All]

I would! I cannot speak for the person who made the claim but I did not read “valueless” to mean worthless but rather, ‘based on no fixed / eternal / absolute value.’

But yeah, that works, too.

 

[Love4All]

You could not be more wrong.

Psychiatric disorders like Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, OCD etc… are due to chemical dysfunction in certain parts of the brain.

Which are caused by. . .? Any idea?

Thanks to technology such as PET scanning, we have made incredible advances in understanding mental illness over the last decade. These advances have led to fantastic new medications that are now making it possible for people with severe, debilitating illnesses such as Schizophrenia (basically a death sentence a generation ago) to live some semblance of a normal life (I have some Schizophrenic patients who are stable on medication and have professional careers/families).

I am deeply saddened to know that there are many people who accept the level of functioning you are describing as the best it can get for them. I realize it’s the best you can do, but it is not in fact the best that can be done, and I am greatly hopeful that what I know as much, much better, can become known, and can eventually replace Psychiatry as the cure of what Psychiatry simply could not fix.

The degree of ignorance of people who make comments such as “psychiatry is valueless” is mind-boggling. I work in a Psychiatric ER in a major urban area; anyone who thinks that “Psychiatry is valueless” is welcome to come spend a day at work with me. I’ll put the over/under at ten minutes before they realize how incredibly naive they were.

I am not naive. I have received various psychiatric diagnoses in my life, several of which you mentioned above. I was informed that I would need to take medication for the rest of my life, in order to have a semblance of “normalcy,” much as you describe above.

I am currently 100% symptom-free and medication-free.

There is an actual cure for so-called “schizophrenia.” Psychiatry doesn’t have it, but that fact does not make it any less real.

 

[Love4All]

. . . it would be safe to say that the poster that said Psychiatry is value less may have been speaking tongue in cheek. There is value in all of medicine. There is less value in some things than others.

I was speaking earnestly and literally. There is no value whatsoever to Psychiatry. Psychiatry per se is not medicine. It is the attempt of medical science to treat conditions that are in fact spiritual, not medical.

 

[Love4All]

Evil spiritual forces can change my mind and create all types of mental malice.

That is correct.

Pray the Rosary!

 

[Love4All]

Only if you let them.

That is not the truth. Demons are far more powerful than human beings. Those in states of torment by demons would much rather not allow them, but they are in fact overpowered. No one chooses this. God allows it, and prayer removes it.

What is needed is much prayer and fasting on the part of the Catholic priesthood and hierarchy.

Matthew {17:14} And when he had arrived at the multitude, a man approached him, falling to his knees before him, saying: “Lord, take pity on my son, for he is an epileptic, and he suffers harm. For he frequently falls into fire, and often also into water.
{17:15} And I brought him to your disciples, but they were not able to cure him.”
{17:16} Then Jesus responded by saying: “What an unbelieving and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I endure you? Bring him here to me.”
{17:17} And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon went out of him, and the boy was cured from that hour.
{17:18} Then the disciples approached Jesus privately and said, “Why were we unable to cast him out?”
{17:19} Jesus said to them: “Because of your unbelief. Amen I say to you, certainly, if you will have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move. And nothing will be impossible for you.
{17:20} But this kind is not cast out, except through prayer and fasting.”

 

[Love4All]

I don’t think it is valueless but it is a very vague science as this article points out. Sure you can treat symptoms and make people into living zombies, but you aren’t figuring out why they have these symptoms, or what caused them.

That’s all that mental health professionals do these days - drug people up. At one time, they actually cut pieces of brain out of them. I don’t know if they still use electroshock therapy or water therapy, but in any case all of these measures were/are to try to stop the symptoms, not to explain how or why or what made these people so dysfunctional in the first place, no to even cure them of their “disease”.

That’s correct. They do the very best they can possibly do, and it doesn’t heal the patient. This is assuming good faith, of course, but let’s assume good faith. The very best they can do, isn’t enough. It doesn’t even scratch the surface.

 

[Love4All]

I think the truth will be a hard pill to swallow. I believe it’s all controlled by ‘spiritual forces.’

You are right on! You have experience with these things, as do I.

 

[Robert_Sock]

You are right on! You have experience with these things, as do I.

I do appreciate your contributions to this thread!

 

[Dakota_Roberts]

I’m saying Satan can activate these ‘hot cognitions’ through temptation. Nothing about it is incompatible with Catholicism.

Concupiscence…

I meant useless. Detrimental, in fact.

Actually it can be quite useful for people dealing with PTSD and other psychological traumas.

That is not the truth. Demons are far more powerful than human beings. Those in states of torment by demons would much rather not allow them, but they are in fact overpowered. No one chooses this. God allows it, and prayer removes it.

What is needed is much prayer and fasting on the part of the Catholic priesthood and hierarchy.

Matthew {17:14} And when he had arrived at the multitude, a man approached him, falling to his knees before him, saying: “Lord, take pity on my son, for he is an epileptic, and he suffers harm. For he frequently falls into fire, and often also into water.
{17:15} And I brought him to your disciples, but they were not able to cure him.”
{17:16} Then Jesus responded by saying: “What an unbelieving and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I endure you? Bring him here to me.”
{17:17} And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon went out of him, and the boy was cured from that hour.
{17:18} Then the disciples approached Jesus privately and said, “Why were we unable to cast him out?”
{17:19} Jesus said to them: “Because of your unbelief. Amen I say to you, certainly, if you will have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move. And nothing will be impossible for you.
{17:20} But this kind is not cast out, except through prayer and fasting.”

Most translations I’ve seen use demented, lunatic et al. i.e. madness caused by possession.

 

[Christine85]

I have to put my 2 cents in here, as someone who was involuntarily committed to an asylum soon after my conversion, I can tell you they did not encourage my beliefs in there. They did not listen when I asked for a Priest, they mocked how I wanted to be a nun , and later told me not to read the Bible daily and got angry at me for doing a religious puzzle of the inside of a Church… so had they been a bit nicer in encouraging me about God things may not have been so bad, but they did not seem to do that for me, and I have heard similar stories from others about the discouragement of spiritual matters from the psychiatry system. Oh and they also would not let me go to the Chapel.
It is very sad.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Concupiscence…

OK, concupiscence.

 

[CatholicGeek1]

Psychiatry is based on the fallacy that “schizophrenia,” “bipolar,” “clinical depression,” etc., are medical diagnoses. They are not.

The human spirit is intimately connected with the human body, of course, so it is possible to affect the spirit by manipulating the chemistry of the brain. And that is Psychiatry’s “solution” to the human conditions labeled as “schizophrenia,” “depression,” “bi-polar,” etc.

If Psychiatry were able to actually eradicate the root cause of any of these conditions, then I would agree, it would have value. But that is not the case.

The conditions are spiritual, and a physician treats the body. Psychiatrists are physicians, not priests.

Jesus did not prescribe Thorazine, rather He cast out demons.

The solution to so-called “psychiatric illnesses” is not physical, but spiritual.

No, the solution in the vast majority of cases is medicine. There are medical causes for 99% of these illnesses. There is demonic possession but it is very rare. That is why the Catholic Church will only allow exorcism when all other medical options have been exhausted.

 

[CatholicGeek1]

Keep in mind that I am not making the assertion about either Neurology or Pharmacology.

Neurology studies the brain and nervous system. Asked to show you what he studies, a neurologist can.

Pharmacology studies chemical compounds, and their effects on said nervous system. Asked to produce samples of the subject matter of his chosen specialty, a pharmacologist, likewise, can.

Psychiatry studies, what, exactly? Can a psychiatrist show you what it is he is studying? What is the real entity a psychiatrist deals with that is not covered by either neurology or pharmacology?

Can a theologian show you what he studies?

 

[cheezey]

I have to put my 2 cents in here, as someone who was involuntarily committed to an asylum soon after my conversion, I can tell you they did not encourage my beliefs in there. They did not listen when I asked for a Priest, they mocked how I wanted to be a nun , and later told me not to read the Bible daily and got angry at me for doing a religious puzzle of the inside of a Church… so had they been a bit nicer in encouraging me about God things may not have been so bad, but they did not seem to do that for me, and I have heard similar stories from others about the discouragement of spiritual matters from the psychiatry system. Oh and they also would not let me go to the Chapel.
It is very sad.

Wow. I am so sorry you went through this.
God bless you.

 

[CopticChristian]

I was speaking earnestly and literally. There is no value whatsoever to Psychiatry. Psychiatry per se is not medicine. It is the attempt of medical science to treat conditions that are in fact spiritual, not medical.

Then you should realize that you speak for yourself and to conclude that Psychiatry is not medicine is to deny that the History of medicine includes the history of Psychiatry.

You may say that in your opinion, in your experience that knowing that Psychiatry sprung from the practice and history of medicine that Psychiatry in your experience has no value and is not medicine.

You may also say that in your opinion, based on your experience that Psychiatry is the attemtp to treat conditions that you see, in your opinion, in your experience what you believe to be spiritual and not medical.

This would be accurate.

 

[CHRISTINE77]

I have to put my 2 cents in here, as someone who was involuntarily committed to an asylum soon after my conversion, I can tell you they did not encourage my beliefs in there. They did not listen when I asked for a Priest, they mocked how I wanted to be a nun , and later told me not to read the Bible daily and got angry at me for doing a religious puzzle of the inside of a Church… so had they been a bit nicer in encouraging me about God things may not have been so bad, but they did not seem to do that for me, and I have heard similar stories from others about the discouragement of spiritual matters from the psychiatry system. Oh and they also would not let me go to the Chapel.
It is very sad.

Yes psychiatry and psychology are secular, to an extreme. They want to explain problems in terms of sexuality, upbringing and other experiences. They frown on anything religious. Very soul-sucking practices.

 

[Daluz]

Before I meet my wife, i believed that Psychiatry was worthless. My wife is an MFT, and works with many clients that have all sorts of issue. A lot of it is related to behavior issue due to bad upbringing.

I have learned a lot about this field, and while there are bad thing that happen, just like most field of work has its bad, there are a lot of good things as well. Do people get prescribe medication more than they should be, that is possible. Some really do need it, and as I now have friends that are bi-polar, without their medication they would fall back into bad patterns as I have seen when they stop taking medication. Is bi-polar caused by chemical imbalance in the brain or spiritual influence I do not know, maybe one or the other or maybe a combination.

Is the DSM worthless, I think some parts might be, but for the most part I think it helps get people the help they need, not everything in the DSM is related to medication.

Last thing, just like you can get a bad doctor who should not be in that field, you can get some bad as well in the Psychiatry field. There are plently of people who are out to make money and not care about the people they are supposed to help.