91–100 of 102 posts
The documentary mentioned about his bi-polar is available on Amazon (and without permission on Youtube) for anyone interested, it's a very good insight into bi-polar and depression, worth the 120 minutes: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808482/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Fry:_The_Secret_Life_of... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stephen-Frys-Secret-Manic-Depressive...
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Stephen Fry should speak for himself. People can have very good reasons to want to die. Reasons that are so good that, besides outweighing the value that their life has to them, still have enough oomph to carry one over the high doorstep of fear and pain that comes with taking one's own life. Life is not infinitely valuable. Its goods can be outweighed by bads. People who really just want to go should be respected an…
We don't have the full interview here for context, so I don't think either of us should be absolute on this, but I would guess that he's specifically speaking within the bounds of suicide rooted in mental illness. In fact, I would place very good odds that Stephen Fry would highlight the issues inherent in assisted suicide but still support it on the whole.
The documentary mentioned about his bi-polar is available on Amazon (and without permission on Youtube) for anyone interested, it's a very good insight into bi-polar and depression, worth the 120 minutes: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808482/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Fry:_The_Secret_Life_of... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stephen-Frys-Secret-Manic-Depressive...
When you use words like "bi-polar and depression" it gives the sense that this is a medical disease . And while speaking strictly, it is indeed a medical disease -- I want people to see the raw human factor in this. Depression, for example, in my experience, and from what I've seen -- often has a cause; a rational, explainable cause (that the sufferer often isn't aware of). When you treat someone's depression as a "m…
Grrr: door-stepped by the press this morning. Said all there was to be said in the podcast with [Richard K Herring] - intrusion makes 1 withdraw
to be expected, perhaps, but not really helpful.
The documentary mentioned about his bi-polar is available on Amazon (and without permission on Youtube) for anyone interested, it's a very good insight into bi-polar and depression, worth the 120 minutes: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808482/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Fry:_The_Secret_Life_of... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stephen-Frys-Secret-Manic-Depressive...
When you use words like "bi-polar and depression" it gives the sense that this is a medical disease . And while speaking strictly, it is indeed a medical disease -- I want people to see the raw human factor in this. Depression, for example, in my experience, and from what I've seen -- often has a cause; a rational, explainable cause (that the sufferer often isn't aware of). When you treat someone's depression as a "m…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you use words like "bi-polar and depression" it gives the sense that this is a medical disease . And while speaking strictly, it is indeed a medical disease -- I want people to see the raw human factor in this. Depression, for example, in my experience, and from what I've seen -- often has a cause; a rational, explainable cause (that the sufferer often isn't aware of). When you treat someone's depression as a "m…
Fry has Bipolar Disorder, diagnosed in England. This is a very different illness to depression. And depression has different forms. Yes, talking therapies are powerful. But you seem to be making the mistake that a talking therapy isn't affecting brain chemistry, or that drugs are inherently bad. Comments like yours are very frustrating. Do you talk about people ignoring the real human factor when we put a broken bone…
It is effectively treatable for most sufferers, of which a combination lithium-lamotrigine therapy is currently considered the treatment of choice. See http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=20732...
Talking therapies do not stop these kinds of mood swings, but they may be able to help people cope with the effects of mood swings. As importantly, they can help people follow their prescription, failure to do so being the #1 reason for these pharamceutical treatments to fail.
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Your comment is far more nuanced. You're reading the science. While I gently disagree with you I understand what you're saying, and I could fairly easily be persuaded that you're right. The comment I replied to had some worrying flags. It made blanket statements about meds; it suggested that depression has a "root cause". I took that to be a reference to classical psychotherapy -- some event happened a long time in t…
It's great when someone replies as thoughtfully as this, and I love your phrase "gently disagree". Would that more disagreements were of this kind. > Well, for something like bipolar disorder this feels like it's true. I agree. The open question is on what level these things are best to be understood. In some sense everything about us is biology, just as in some sense everything is physics. But we don't think of, say…
I think that might be why people cling to a biological model for mental health problems.
Obviously, we're not saying any of that. I say that there are powerful talking therapies; that these are evidence based and effective for many people; that medication may help although it's probably over-prescribed and it can have unpleasant side-effects; and that some people won't respond to any of that and may need electro-convulsive therapy or other severe interventions.
I agree that people tend to overstate the biological model, and that is a problem. It's a problem because, as you say, we don't know if it's true, and it's a problem because it steers people away from talking therapies.
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If I was one of your friends, would you have liked me to have just treated you as I normally do? If I had someone close who was dying, when I'm seeing them I think I'd just interact with them as I normally do (though accepting and recognising they are, in fact, dying), and not let the fact that they were dying to get in the way of our relationship. I rationalize this by thinking people don't want to feel being pitied…
For me this depends very much on who it is that's trying to help. If they've not experienced something similar to the mental health problems I'm suffering from it's usually best if they treat me as normal. The effort required to try and explain aspects of what I'm going through, usually with little success, is often far more detrimental than any benefit they could hope to provide. Being distracted from the problems,…
> On the other hand, I'm usually happy to be treated differently by people that have had similar experiences to me. I can often communicate to them in a sentence things which would take hours of conversation with somebody who'd not been there before.
I very much agree with both parts of what you've said here. I'm curious if & how you tend to balance between the two?
Generally when I'm having a bad time just having some casual distraction works fine, especially from someone who doesn't know what's wrong.
When I'm stuck in a rut, just having a few friends who can stop me bullshitting and keep me talking works wonders.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We don't have the full interview here for context, so I don't think either of us should be absolute on this, but I would guess that he's specifically speaking within the bounds of suicide rooted in mental illness. In fact, I would place very good odds that Stephen Fry would highlight the issues inherent in assisted suicide but still support it on the whole.
Full interview will appear here in a few days - http://www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/richard_herring_lst_podcast...