Do we really know what we're doing?

[Rachel Baum]

The unit we just finished in psychology had to do with mental illnesses and how it affects the people around them and how we treat them.When I say mentally ill, I'm not talking about autistism and such. Mental illnesses range from things like depression, OCD, anxiety disorder, to multiple personality, bi-polar and so on. In the past, we would just lock them up in a mental hospital to be left for dead. Not such a good idea, right? Well fortunatly for these patients, things have changed. Now a days, instead of locking them up, we fill them up on medication. Now this solution, at first, may seem much more humane than locking them up, but when you look deeper into the situation, it really isn't that much better. Problems with these so-called "medications" include terrible side effects, not knowing if they will even help the patient, and you even run the risk of taking a medication that barely has any background check on it. What I mean by that is this: The medication a patient could be taking has had no testing done on it, which therefore makes you a guinea pig for it. Sounds safe, right? I don't think so. I'm not saying to do away with all the medication we have, I just think doctors need to take a closer look at what we are giving the patient before handing out to the masses and the people who are taking care of the mentally ill patient should look into the medication before accepting a random presctription from the doctor. So why would doctors hand out a prescription if they don't know what it will do? The answer: money. Yes, I know. Sounds selfish and untrue, right? Well whether you like it or not, it's true. The drug companies are making so much money now a days from these medications, so why should they stop prescribing them, even though they are only helping a fraction of the patienrs? To bad it's hurting the others. Harsh? I know. But it's the reality of the situation.

The one problem with treating the mentally ill is the fact that not one medication that we know of now will help every single person. Mental illness, rather than say, the flu, is harder to treat because mental illness has to do with the wiring of the brain; and everyone is wired differently. It's like trying to find the cure for cancer; everyones case is different, so there is no way or truly knowing if something would work or not.

I think this cartoon shows how people view the mentally ill. One person says something and it is blown way out of proportion by others. This cartoon isn't even accurate. The truth is that the mentally ill are LESS likely to hurt someone; they are just more unpredictable so they seem like they could potentially be more dangerous. If we truly want to help get rid of illnesses like bi-polar, schizophrenia, and depression, we need to be more accepting of these people. Maybe if we were more accepting of these people we would have less people with these diseases, because often times, mental diseases are triggered by the outside world. I know it seems like a daunting task, but maybe, just maybe, if we were more accepting, it would open up a whole new door of insights to how these people work and hopefully one day we will have a cure for all of it.

Now that everyone knows how i feel, what do you think about this? Say you have a child that has a mental illness. Would you give them medication not knowing what it may do? Or would you let it run its course and maybe get some therapy? I know it's hard to say now since you're not in the situation, but I would just like to know what other people think of this. Also, do you think giving out the untested medication is right or do you think we should do more to make sure it's safe?

[Alex Hepler]

I thought this was a very insightful unit in psychology. not only did it change some of my own views, it also caused me to reevaluate how lucky and normal I really am. And Romanos awesome!

[Evelyn Holy]

I think it's very common for people to blow a mental illness out of proportion. My parents, I know, wouldn't even believe me if I said I suspected myself or my brother to be suffering from one. I think parents just don't want to admit to it if their child is mentally ill. This makes it difficult to get the people who need help to get it, because they know society views them as mad and dangerous.

[Allison Dunnington]

We need to figure out dilemma quickly because now 1 out of every 110 kids is autistic, and pretty soon more kids than that will have autism.

[Tom Meyer]

I love it when the commercials for medications list the side effects... As for this topic, I feel that all the drug companies want is money. They couldn't give a crap whether or not the drugs are actually working

[Emily Fujii]

I think to start people should be more accepting of the mentally ill. That might make it easier for the people with the illness to accept treatment. As for the actual treatment itself, I think that all patients should have the choice of taking medication or choosing an alternative treatment. It should be the choice of the person who has the illness on how to "cure" their illness.

[Matt Krinke]

Mari and Kevin are right. The alternative treatments pros greatly outweigh the cons we face now.

[Kevin Gosiewski]

I agree with Mari. If the alternate treatment has less downsides shouldn't we always use them?

[Mari Saunes]

I think there should be alternative methods to treat people that are mentally ill! I remember reading about someone being treated to their illness by being around horses and working with them and stuff like that, it might sound weird but it actually helped this person alot.

[Matt Benson]

i dont think we should be giving them the medication also what about the thorazine shuffle some medication makes you heartless which is just as bad