[ebzZzZ (OP)]

"Madness need not be regarded as an illness. Why shouldn't it be seen as a sudden - more or less sudden - change of character"
 - Ludwig Wittgenstein

and to quote Richard P Bentall in his book "Madness Explained"

"I will address the suggestion that psychosis should be seen as just part and parcel of human variation, rather than as an illness. This claim, in its strongest form, suggests that the attribution of mental illness, either to individuals or to particular types of behaviour, is arbitary rather than scientific, and that psychotic people are eccentrics who are misunderstood and victimized by society"

after all isn't a dilusion simply a different view to other people. the person with the dilusion could describe the view of the people saying they are dilusional, as dilusional. it's simply a different view. it's how they got to that view that matters. and that all boils down to the persons perception of their world.

Isn't it about time we started teaching people how to maintain a healthy perception, and by that i mean teaching children how to think healthily. we teach children to brush their teeth, language, maths etc., why don't we teach healthy thinking and social skills? We haven't evoloved to live in the selfish society we live in today isn't it about time we started giving people the tools they need to live in this society at a young age. with the sky rocketing rates of depression i think it's about time.

And here's the biggy, maybe alot of the people who are put in mental institutions for mental illness shouldn't really be there, and are made the way they are simply because they are told there is something biologically wrong with them? these questions need to be answered. but thats going to be very hard when the repercussions are that we have been locking people up who don't need to be. how would you feel if one day someone came along when you had a different idea and locked you up? you wouldn't be very happy would you. too many people are not open to change, how you deal with change is how your life will be. change is everything, and it's about time we changed alot.

Why do i say this, because i have induced alot of the symptoms of mental illness in my self by drug use, for fun.

It's time we accepted people are different and stop making people think there is something wrong with them because they are different. it's not healthy for people. we are our experiences, so we are bound to be different.

EbzZzZ

[Ylide]

Insanity is a minority of one.  

I don't know where you're from, but most folks around here (Denver, Colorado, USA) don't get up in arms if they think someone is a little loopy.  The only time anything is done to the mentally ill is if they're a threat to themselves or others.  You see, about 15-20 years ago, President Reagan removed Federal funding for mental institutions and Federal guidelines for mental hygiene laws.  This resulted in a huge flux of the mentally ill being released into the streets of America.  (Consquently raising our homeless population as well)  We've since become rather tolerant of those who are a little messed up as long as they don't pose a threat to us.  

However, you have to keep in mind that delusional and psychotic people DO have the potential to harm others without reason or provocation.  As such, while I don't feel they need to be locked up, they certainly need to be medicated.  

You say you've induced symptoms of mental illness through drug use.  Can you be specific?  What symptoms are you presenting and what drugs did you use?  Hallucinogens have quite a high potential for making you feel crazy and having a long term alteration of perception.  There's even a diagnosed condition for the anxiety and perception changes that accompany it, but I can't remember the name...it's a similar biological condition to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  



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[dkv]

I classify mental illness into 3 categories:
1.Inability to rationalize.
2.Inability to relationalize.
3.Inability to recall.

Terms like Mental Disorder or Madness  can be disastrous.
The behaviours are appropriate or inapproriate with respect environment.
When I say Mental Disorder I exactly mean a unexpected behaviour not found generally in relevant society.
These diseases are natural.
Sometimes we fail to relate the new world with old.
Sometimes we fail to rationalize the meaning of life and effort.
Sometimes we fail to recall. This is a mental(or health) problem because ability to recall is crucial to resolve many 'disorders' relative to an environment.

I propose a relative scale to measure such disorders.
I will try to classify the given list under "relative mental health".The intensity varies from 1-10.

Disorders of Childhood & Adolescence
In general there is No need rationalize exceptionally therefore
these problem have relational roots.
However we can not ignore the rational aspects ... on lenient scale we can test the ability to distinguish colors or objects.
Memory should also tested. But relative to average children of his or her age.



- Disruptive Behavior Disorders -
- Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
- Mood Disorders (Unipolar in most cases)
- Anxiety Disorders

All the above disorders are mainly due relational aspects. The child is not being grown in a healthy environment.
===========================
Disorders of Adulthood
Here all relational, rational and memory attributes are expected.
We measure all the three factors rational apptitude ,relational apptitude and memory relative to an average adult.

- Anxiety Disorders -
- Mood Disorders (Unipolar and Bipolar)
- Personality Disorders
- Schizophrenic Disorders
--
- Eating Disorders (Anorexia & Bulimia Nervosa)
- Disorders of Impulsive Control (eg Substance Use Disorders)
- Stress Disorders (Acute Stress Disorder, PTSD, Dissociative & Conversion Disorders)

Less score in any of the 3 produces greater anxiety at this age if the environment is competetive or highly comptetive.
======================


In old age the rational prespective and memory suffers.
We score all three but give greater weightage to Relational aspects.
If a old person claims some new disorder then most probably we need to check the relational roots.

We try to be consistent with age. All the three aspects need not absolutely
perfect ...we measure them on the scale of 1-10 of mental health on three accounts - relational , rational and memory.

[another_someone]

I don't know where you're from, but most folks around here (Denver, Colorado, USA) don't get up in arms if they think someone is a little loopy.  The only time anything is done to the mentally ill is if they're a threat to themselves or others.  You see, about 15-20 years ago, President Reagan removed Federal funding for mental institutions and Federal guidelines for mental hygiene laws.  This resulted in a huge flux of the mentally ill being released into the streets of America.  (Consquently raising our homeless population as well)  We've since become rather tolerant of those who are a little messed up as long as they don't pose a threat to us. 

However, you have to keep in mind that delusional and psychotic people DO have the potential to harm others without reason or provocation.  As such, while I don't feel they need to be locked up, they certainly need to be medicated. 

Over here, we had the same happen around the same time, and it was called 'care in the community' - except that there was no care in the community, and the consequences were not much different to that which you have observed.

That is not to say that a lot of people in the past were locked up in asylums merely because they were inconvenient (often young girls who fell pregnant, and were rejected by their family); but we have gone from one extreme to the other.