Remedial Psych 101

I have opinions about certain things. About many things. I think hundreds of busses should have been waiting at southern borders ready to move immediately into areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, if not in the area beforehand to remove mandatory evacuees. I believe that no matter how good looking and fit she is, there is a time early in life when a woman needs to stop baring her midriff; for men, there is NEVER a good time to start. I also believe the consumption of lame alcoholic beverages, namely Smirnoff Ice and Zima, should be done in the privacy of your own home, much like removing nose hairs and treating your corns. But there are few things on which I have such firm opinions as I do on narrow-minded views of mental health.

As of late, I’ve been reading an increasing number of fellow blogger (mostly blogette) accounts of struggles with anxiety and depression. Most of these writers have friends, family and significant others who think their problems are simple mind-over-matter issues.

Don’t go on medication for that; it’ll change your personality. Well I sure as hell hope it will. She can’t get out of bed everyday, hasn’t washed her hair in a week, snaps at her loved ones over white vs. wheat bread, and can’t concentrate on her TPS reports at work. I do hope these prescribed meds make her more level headed so she can work on getting back to being the person you knew and loved.

There’s no reason for you to air our dirty laundry. The effectiveness of both “talk” cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychotropic medication has been demonstrated repeatedly in the literature, as have the sometimes-devastating effects of letting these illnesses go untreated. But she does have to talk about what she is experiencing to get help. Besides, your loved one already keeps a blog and tells 300 of us everything about her daily life and yours. You’ll get over her seeing just one doctor.

You should be able to think your way out of this. If you can’t, you are weak. Hear ye, hear ye, people who do not understand the struggle. Asking someone who suffers from a psychological disorder to snap out of it is akin to performing surgery on your own genitals. How is “helping” yourself out of a clinical depression any different than resetting your forearm after it has snapped in half? You could probably do it, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Person, but it sure would be easier if you had someone to help you, wouldn’t it? The very resilient Lance Armstrong didn’t think his multiple cancers away, did he? You wouldn’t direct the people of New Orleans just to swim out of town, would you?

Views such as these take us back to the ill-conceived eras of Bedlam and lobotomies. Instead of empowering the people you love, these opinions – and that is all they are – undermine what efforts those with an illness have made thus far, whether they be telling you they have a problem, or even more difficult, seeking external help for it.

Help in the best way you can. Enlighten yourself by exploring empathy and what the literature says about the many effective treatments now available for those who are suffering. If that doesn’t suit you, it might be best just to hole up with your Zima and keep your opinions to yourself.