Mental illness : Sat Jan 26, 2013 7:04 pm  

Is it becoming more prevalent?

Mrs Dally is going to go to counselling (again)
Miss Dally 1 used to have alot of input from child pyscotherapy
Miss Dally 2 has had a bit of counselling and has OCD
The vet even suggested the cat have a behavioual expert to assess her
My business partner is seeing a shrink.

Mrs Dally has posited I am the common link. Could this be the case, rather than a more general increase?

Re: Mental illness : Sat Jan 26, 2013 7:31 pm  

You're the common link in an increase in the nations instances of poor mental health?

Could be.

Personally I believe that you are responsible for your own mental health, accepting that some conditions are very difficult to overcome and indeed may be insurmountable.

Re: Mental illness : Sat Jan 26, 2013 7:36 pm  

Most amazing opening post ever.

But is he serious?!! The mind boggles...

Re: Mental illness : Sat Jan 26, 2013 8:49 pm  

Sandra The Terrorist wrote: Personally I believe that you are responsible for your own mental health, accepting that some conditions are very difficult to overcome and indeed may be insurmountable. That might be the case in general wellbeing terms i.e feeling 'happy,' 'satisfied' or 'stressed' for example, but having worked in and around mental health for a number of years, your second point is an important one; it certainly isn't the case when you're dealing with some of the serious mental health problems, which can occur without warning and be absolutely devastating to individuals and the people around them. The opening post is uncomfortably revelatory - that aside, if it was a genuine question, there's some useful information here.

Sandra The Terrorist wrote: Personally I believe that you are responsible for your own mental health, accepting that some conditions are very difficult to overcome and indeed may be insurmountable. That might be the case in general wellbeing terms i.e feeling 'happy,' 'satisfied' or 'stressed' for example, but having worked in and around mental health for a number of years, your second point is an important one; it certainly isn't the case when you're dealing with some of the serious mental health problems, which can occur without warning and be absolutely devastating to individuals and the people around them. The opening post is uncomfortably revelatory - that aside, if it was a genuine question, there's some useful information here.

Re: Mental illness : Sat Jan 26, 2013 8:53 pm  

It is becoming more prevalent. YES.

I said to someone the other day, we weren't designed to handle the stresses that we experience in this day and age. Apart from the terrible stress of war all we're meant to do is hunt, forage and reproduce. Even with death we were far more used to seeing things being slaughtered as people would kiil their own animals or view others being butchered. Now we are more sanitised in western cultures as that gets done elsewhere.

To Dally, it sounds like there has been issues with anxiety if wifey, Miss D 1 and 2 have counselling and OCD is a more extreme form of anxiety. Go and do a genogram of your family and see if there's. If could be a nurtured reason for their anxiety. It really is none of our businesses, but think about it. Also if you were in the old bill. You would have had a far greater amount of stress to handle than is normal. So you cold have issues with anxiety that the family pick up on.

Re: Mental illness : Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:10 pm  

Rooster Booster wrote:

It is becoming more prevalent. YES.

I said to someone the other day, we weren't designed to handle the stresses that we experience in this day and age. Apart from the terrible stress of war all we're meant to do is hunt, forage and reproduce. Even with death we were far more used to seeing things being slaughtered as people would kiil their own animals or view others being butchered. Now we are more sanitised in western cultures as that gets done elsewhere.

More prevalent, or just easier to report on ?

We're now two generations on from the last generation that was REALLY affected by war in this country, of course that doesn't minimise those serving in the Armed Forces, but for the rest of us conflict and the trauma that comes with it is something that is viewed purely on TV, we certainly don't still build air raid shelters in our gardens and spend most nights awake in our beds waiting for sirens.

Two generations ago our families were exposed to stress that most of us can't understand, not just from conflict but from poverty, no employment protection and very patchy health care, their jobs were of a far more manual basis and far more dangerous for that.

So is the big difference the fact that that generation and all that went before would be far less likely to speak to even their partners about their anxieties let alone anyone medical, especially when the reaction from the medical world would often be to send them away for "treatment" that may be for a very long time ?

Re: Mental illness : Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:11 pm  

It's certainly the case that as the stigma of mental health problems has reduced, people are more likely to speak to a professional and said professional is more likely to diagnose; such that they are now the no 1 reason for absence from work, and account for more incapacity benefit (or whatever it's called now) claimants than anything else.

I do think it's important however, to distinguish between things like stress, anxiety and depression, and much more serious conditions like schizophrenia, bi-polar and the like.

Re: Mental illness : Sat Jan 26, 2013 10:35 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

More prevalent, or just easier to report on ?

We're now two generations on from the last generation that was REALLY affected by war in this country, of course that doesn't minimise those serving in the Armed Forces, but for the rest of us conflict and the trauma that comes with it is something that is viewed purely on TV, we certainly don't still build air raid shelters in our gardens and spend most nights awake in our beds waiting for sirens.

Two generations ago our families were exposed to stress that most of us can't understand, not just from conflict but from poverty, no employment protection and very patchy health care, their jobs were of a far more manual basis and far more dangerous for that.

So is the big difference the fact that that generation and all that went before would be far less likely to speak to even their partners about their anxieties let alone anyone medical, especially when the reaction from the medical world would often be to send them away for "treatment" that may be for a very long time ?

Good point.

yeah, it could be very well the fact that there is less stigma and more people talk about which looks like mental illness has increased. I, personally suspect and can only talk from my own viewpoint through my readings and education as a counsellor thay it is more prevalent. I also feel there is far more stress in the world and technology has played a small part in that. Technology has made things quick, so there is an expectation that things SHOULD be done quicker. This is a large factor in the increase in stress, in my opinion.

bren2k wrote:

I do think it's important however, to distinguish between things like stress, anxiety and depression, and much more serious conditions like schizophrenia, bi-polar and the like.

Very true however the former can develop into the more serious conditions.

Re: Mental illness : Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:16 am  

Durham Giant is the expert, and can diagnose too.

I would add more, but am quite mad, so there's no sledgehammer.

Re: Mental illness : Sun Jan 27, 2013 8:40 am  

Rooster Booster wrote:

Good point.

yeah, it could be very well the fact that there is less stigma and more people talk about which looks like mental illness has increased. I, personally suspect and can only talk from my own viewpoint through my readings and education as a counsellor thay it is more prevalent. I also feel there is far more stress in the world and technology has played a small part in that. Technology has made things quick, so there is an expectation that things SHOULD be done quicker. This is a large factor in the increase in stress, in my opinion.

You know, when I was a kid in the 1960s it was the dawn of a new technology era with men leaving the earth to drift around in space and talk of them going to the moon any day soon - and all of this would benefit the rest of the world, our lives would be made so much simpler by machines and robots and we would have so much more leisure time to spend being happy, it was going to be wonderful life.

What they didn't say was that the use of machines and robots would actually make us all work harder, that didn't come into the equation at all, nor did the prospect that if you got rid of hard physical labouring work then the work that replaced it would be mentally challenging in a way that physical labour never was.

And yet, thats what happened.