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Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

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Re: Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

#261

Post by hirvi74 »

jrowen wrote: post #198
thewebguyd wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I need lots of forced, external structure Me as well, which is a really "fun" time when my specific blend of neurodivergence also causes me to immediately resent said authority and external structure and view it as removing my agency. What I've learned as I've gotten older is just how much of our struggle comes down to our social model of disability. A lot of these "symptoms" are only disorders because we've built…

It's a lot harder to change the shape of the hole. But I do agree that there is too much emphasis on the pathology of it. I think therapy needs a major rebranding and it shouldn't be seen as something that we do to "fix" "broken" people. It should just be about more deeply understanding ourselves as individuals, and understanding the world around us (particularly other people), so that we may navigate it better. I sa…

> I think therapy needs a major rebranding and it shouldn't be seen as something that we do to "fix" "broken" people.

I feel like that is more of a cultural impression. I am not certain modern therapy ever truly endorsed such claims. Take the "chemical imbalance" explanation of mental illness. Many people believe and use that explanation, but mainstream psychiatry never supported nor endorsed the hypothesis.

> It should just be about more deeply understanding ourselves as individuals, and understanding the world around us (particularly other people), so that we may navigate it better.

That is also the fundamental issue I have with therapy as a whole. I understand myself very well -- perhaps too well. I also understand the world around me. More importantly, I understand the world and I are very incompatible. When one realizes such, there is little that can be done.

> It's about giving you the tools to handle what you can't change.

People perpetually parrot that statement. However, every time I ask for examples, it seems no one ever has an answer. I do not discount that therapy can sometimes help with conditions that people find themselves in, however, I think therapy is quite ineffective for conditions that people have.

I personally think therapy as an institution has and uncanny amount of resemblances to religious faith and institutions -- predominately in public perception. Much like religion, therapy seems to be most effective for those that you truly believe it will be effective.

Re: Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

#262

Post by grayhatter »

joe_the_user wrote: post #211
grvdrm wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for this reply. I thought the parent comment was blunt, and perhaps honest. But perhaps it could have added some positive and constructive commentary rather than saying what not to do. I hardly think these things are so binary anyways.

I would say "get (professional) help!" is advice that always sounds good and can be good for X percent of people and not so good for the rest. I am part of project that offers food and resources to unhoused people outside the usual state and regulated private agencies and without conditions. So by that fact I see many people who the mental health system fails to help for one reason or another. I can't tell you what p…

[flagged]

Re: Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

#263

Post by yobutdude »

astrange wrote: post #245
yobutdude wrote: post #134

26% of social psychology is reproducible Roughly 50% of cognitive psychology is reproducible Worse or barely as good as a coin toss Here's a psychiatrist arguing Americans have become addicted to therapy and lost their nerve for normal irrational aspects of reality: https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2024/02/how-we-... Therapy is just the new religion; used to ostracize and denigrate and demonize people who…

Therapists have specific techniques and programs that work. Well, some of them do anyway. If you have a real serious issue like PTSD or BPD it can be mostly fixed with the right sort of therapy. It's like saying you only work with a personal trainer at the gym because you don't have a friend to go with. Sort of true sort of not.

Sure and that's the cohort that benefits from the 26% and 50% reproducible science. I grew up around the types that truly need the help in rural America. Saw many people truly benefit.

The other 74% and 50% is nonsense like Myers-Briggs and non-formal language use means someone is a dysregulated nonce; just modern phrenology. Often but not always peddled by rich kids who got a degree and decided everyone who isn't rich like them fits some definition they memorized in the DSM. And they charge money to tell them so; win win.

Frameworks in the DSM are also barely reliable. Inter-rater scores suggest descriptions for anxiety only fit like 23% of the time. I forget the exact number, it's in the low or middle 20s. Descriptions for a diagnosis of depressive disorder are only accurate 30-some percent of the time.

When looked into the primary contributors to DSM are big pharma employees. Zero conflict of interest

Re: Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

#264

Post by thin_carapace »

pibaker wrote: post #132
brightball wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

What's going on with all the open proselytizing on HN these days? I don't remember seeing them five years ago but now in every thread about personal struggles there is someone trying to convert people. Always to the same religion, too. Edit: some people have replied saying why religion is helpful. Ok. But that doesn't answer my question of why is it showing up so much on HN lately.

probably because society does not provide a manual on behaviour and ethics but religion does? and more people nowadays are getting sick of how the 2 default human values of pleasure/pain are systematically used against them? and once you join a community its nice to add new members? regardless as to any of those answers it's been acceptable to openly proselytize atheism on the internet forever, bit hypocritical not to allow other religions to do the same.

Re: Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

#265

Post by ButlerianJihad »

hirvi74 wrote: post #261
jrowen wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a lot harder to change the shape of the hole. But I do agree that there is too much emphasis on the pathology of it. I think therapy needs a major rebranding and it shouldn't be seen as something that we do to "fix" "broken" people. It should just be about more deeply understanding ourselves as individuals, and understanding the world around us (particularly other people), so that we may navigate it better. I sa…

> I think therapy needs a major rebranding and it shouldn't be seen as something that we do to "fix" "broken" people. I feel like that is more of a cultural impression. I am not certain modern therapy ever truly endorsed such claims. Take the "chemical imbalance" explanation of mental illness. Many people believe and use that explanation, but mainstream psychiatry never supported nor endorsed the hypothesis. > It sho…

> mainstream psychiatry never supported nor endorsed

Oh, but they most certainly do!

The Chemical Imbalance issue was always the first and last and best explanation from the lips of the psychologists, psychiatrists, pharmacists, researchers, friends and family. All who unanimously urged me and others to take medications that would somehow magically resolve these imbalances and thus put me and my mind on the straight-and-narrow. And that was the be-all, end-all of treatment. Correct the imbalance and inherit the kingdom, unambiguously!

It still is. The myths continue unabated. Don't try and make it past-tense! Nobody can tell them that it’s junk science. It sells pills and it sells hospital admissions and it sells followup visits. How could it possibly be wrong?

Sometimes in my medical questionnaires, I write "lithium deficiency" or "fluoride deficiency" to remind those fucking superstitious zealots about their idiotic pseudoscientific religion that they mindlessly follow. Jesus never wanted this. In fact, Jesus warned about these false prophets and magicians.

It has fueled DSM diagnoses, it has fueled prescriptions and insurance payments, and it has driven hospital-based rehabilitation like no other therapy before or after it.

Re: Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

#266

Post by fragmede »

fapjacks wrote: post #254
feoren wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Turns out I have ADHD You just magically found this out when the Mental Health Diagnosis Fairy visited you one night? You spent thousands of dollars for a neuropsych evaluation where the result was 40% reality, 40% chance, and 20% how the evaluator was feeling that day? You self-diagnosed by reading Reddit threads? You somehow magically found the one psychiatrist who is willing to talk about ADHD without immediatel…

No, I actually like this reply, because it's true in its essentials. You can find someone to tell you what you want to hear, but it's not going to pay the rent. And actual help needs to come from within, and no one has a magic wand or a one-weird-trick to actually help you. In the meantime, you have to pay the rent. Work sucks to varying degrees, and we all need coping mechanisms. Waving a flag with some acronym is n…

"some acronym" gets you access to medication which helps with the doing of the work which gets you money so you can pay rent tho

Re: Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

#267

Post by Aeolun »

nvarsj wrote: post #216
busymom0 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> talking to a psychiatrist Would you mind sharing what solutions they recommended for you to try? Also any meds?

Yep - meds. Tried a bunch and duloxetine is making a massive difference for me. On them for 4 months so far. Also picked up therapy yet again but tbh I never found therapy to really solve things - it helps me understand myself better at a logical level but the underlying anxiety / depression (including suicidal ideation) has never really gone away until the meds. I'd say right now I'm feeling quite content with life,…

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Re: Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

#268

Post by joe_the_user »

grayhatter wrote: post #262
joe_the_user wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say "get (professional) help!" is advice that always sounds good and can be good for X percent of people and not so good for the rest. I am part of project that offers food and resources to unhoused people outside the usual state and regulated private agencies and without conditions. So by that fact I see many people who the mental health system fails to help for one reason or another. I can't tell you what p…

[flagged]

Now to be "that asshole" why unhoused instead of homeless?

@dang, flagging. HN standards are basic civility, starting a comment with "I'll be an asshole" is clearly creating a pretext for violating HN standards.

I mean, "unhoused" is considered a more polite term among the people I work with, it just basic politeness, there is no other distinction I know about. I don't feel a need to respond to the rest of your argument when you start things that way, though I'll say they put a lie to your initial congratulations and are only tangentially related to the topic at hand ("You mentioned the unhoused there, well let me tell you about the unhoused...")

Re: Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

#269

Post by fragmede »

SoftTalker wrote: post #155
corytheboyd wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pretty much every day I feel that tickling of “what the hell did I just do?” but I don’t care. I put 15 years into my tech career. I am good at building software, and I will not let this ridiculous “resume gap” problem stop me from taking a break for my mental health. any tech employer that wouldn’t want me because of it is a place I wouldn’t want to work anyway. also, to be honest, I’m writing more code now than I e…

We won't need many software developers in another few years time anyway. Cooks are nowhere close to being replaced by technology.

The French have ridiculously good microwave food, but you still need someone/something to take it out and serve it to people.

Re: Prioritize mental health, and why communication is so important

#270

Post by cindyllm »

sp1nningaway wrote: post #259
jrowen wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> HN comments are _NOT_ going to help debugging your mental state. Nice paradox you've created there. > People here have trouble agreeing on engineering, product and business practices they specialise in. They are _NOT_ going to guide you in the right direction on mental health topics. I don't know that that follows logically. Whatever people they might reach out to in the real world -- be they friends, relatives, th…

>> HN comments are _NOT_ going to help debugging your mental state. > Nice paradox you've created there. This is a "...and don't call me Shirley" level of logical interpretation of what they're saying. They are pointing out that "just try harder" is NOT going to work. This resonated with me as I spent my whole life telling myself some version of OP's "stop making stupid mistakes" daily, and then castigating myself wh…

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