BluMac81
Member
I want to put this out there, because for long I have seen quite the clash of viewpoints on the effectiveness of formal types of psychiatric treatment especially between standard society and the psychiatric medical community. David Baxter, I've seen you post numerous amounts of helpful articles on this site, maybe you could help clear this up?
Obviously there seems to be essentially two main types of treatment for mental disorders: drugs (psychiatry) and therapy (psycology). Granted there are some other rarely used forms of treatment (like electro-shock therapy) that can be the exception, but for the purpose of this post I'd like to focus on the main methods of treatment.
I have been dealing with anxiety/panic, and depression since I was a child. I had severe seperation anxiety as a child, then as an adult more panicy/delusional states that I get in (that mostly deal with sleep...aka psycophysiolgical insomnia), and social anxiety / depression through all those times. I've been on about 10 different SSRI's through various times including: paxil, zoloft, celexa, etc., as well as a few anti-psychotics. I've been through some CBT therapy, and some ACT therapy as well. The drugs have not helped at all, I stuck with Celexa for a long time because it was the one drug that didn't give me any bad side effects... but, still didn't help the anxiety/depression either. As far as the therapy goes, it is true that after a session and getting things out, I felt better momentarily, but the same issues came back regularly. So for the last few months, I've given up hope for treatment, stopped taking celexa, and stopped going to therapy. Things did not get any worse from stoping either, nor did they get any better.
So now I stand ready to start therapy again, and open-minded when it comes to taking different medications, with a psychologist and psychiatrist appointment scheduled. But I find myself lacking in any faith or hope that either will help me get over this. I've come to the point of thinking that maybe everyone else feels this way too and that I'm just being a baby about dealing with it... which of course does wonders for my self-esteem (sarcasm).
So getting back on the main topic at hand, do the treatment methods of psychiatric medication and therapy really do anything at all to help mental illness for the long term? Are there any facts that can back it up? I know of several people dealing with the same issues that take medications that don't do anything (yet their doctors insist they keep taking them), and that express the same viewpoint as me when it comes to therapy, having realized that it is merely a 'painkiller' of sorts for mental disorders and has no lasting effects. Are there any options that I have yet to consider? Is there any hope that this treatment can truly help someone for the long term? Does at least some of the medical community realize the failure of treatment of mental disorders and are they at least searching for new methods of treatment beyond the standard manipulation of serotonin/dopamine and psycological altering of perceptions?
I'll be interested in your thoughts on the subject, everyone.
-Matt
Obviously there seems to be essentially two main types of treatment for mental disorders: drugs (psychiatry) and therapy (psycology). Granted there are some other rarely used forms of treatment (like electro-shock therapy) that can be the exception, but for the purpose of this post I'd like to focus on the main methods of treatment.
I have been dealing with anxiety/panic, and depression since I was a child. I had severe seperation anxiety as a child, then as an adult more panicy/delusional states that I get in (that mostly deal with sleep...aka psycophysiolgical insomnia), and social anxiety / depression through all those times. I've been on about 10 different SSRI's through various times including: paxil, zoloft, celexa, etc., as well as a few anti-psychotics. I've been through some CBT therapy, and some ACT therapy as well. The drugs have not helped at all, I stuck with Celexa for a long time because it was the one drug that didn't give me any bad side effects... but, still didn't help the anxiety/depression either. As far as the therapy goes, it is true that after a session and getting things out, I felt better momentarily, but the same issues came back regularly. So for the last few months, I've given up hope for treatment, stopped taking celexa, and stopped going to therapy. Things did not get any worse from stoping either, nor did they get any better.
So now I stand ready to start therapy again, and open-minded when it comes to taking different medications, with a psychologist and psychiatrist appointment scheduled. But I find myself lacking in any faith or hope that either will help me get over this. I've come to the point of thinking that maybe everyone else feels this way too and that I'm just being a baby about dealing with it... which of course does wonders for my self-esteem (sarcasm).
So getting back on the main topic at hand, do the treatment methods of psychiatric medication and therapy really do anything at all to help mental illness for the long term? Are there any facts that can back it up? I know of several people dealing with the same issues that take medications that don't do anything (yet their doctors insist they keep taking them), and that express the same viewpoint as me when it comes to therapy, having realized that it is merely a 'painkiller' of sorts for mental disorders and has no lasting effects. Are there any options that I have yet to consider? Is there any hope that this treatment can truly help someone for the long term? Does at least some of the medical community realize the failure of treatment of mental disorders and are they at least searching for new methods of treatment beyond the standard manipulation of serotonin/dopamine and psycological altering of perceptions?
I'll be interested in your thoughts on the subject, everyone.
-Matt
