Those with depression deserve hopeful outlook
Jim Schlosser’s column on depression (“Speaking out to help others keep 'black dog’ of depression at bay,” March 2) highlighted tragedies of our mental health system. The first tragedy is that Mike Weaver has suffered with depression for 20 years.
I want to personally apologize to Mr. Weaver and the thousands of other psychiatric consumers who had one of my colleagues snuff all hope for recovery by forecasting a lifetime of depression. We, as mental health providers, are supposed to be purveyors of hope, not despondency.
Another tragedy is Schlosser’s propagation of the chemical imbalance theory. No biological tests exist to measure brain chemicals for diagnostic purposes to know if imbalances exist. (Unless verifiable proof is given, don’t accept these falsehoods.)
Moreover, evidence suggests that psychiatric medications cause withdrawal syndromes and increase the potential for relapse.
Research confirms the third tragedy. Psychiatry’s disease model has increased stigma toward the suffering. The disease model results in the general public believing that psychiatric consumers, with a brain disease, are dangerous and unpredictable.
Finally, I’m sorry that the general public and mental health consumers are flooded with misinformation and misnomers by media and my professional colleagues. It’s time that we tell the truth, validate the suffering of others, listen empathetically, and restore hope of recovery in our fellow humans.
Dr. Thomas L. Murray Jr.
Greensboro
The writer is director of counseling and disability services at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Comments (5)
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This also applies to children who've been lied to and told they have a.d.d. or a.d.h.d.
Though this may apply in some cases, I believe the majority of these kids are simply spoiled and rude. I've never met a farm kid who had either one of these problems. They get up, get the milk, haul the wood and are genuinely content with the simpler things in life.
As for the other mega-brats and their fragile, unearned self-esteem... manners and discipline are not being taught or applied. And that's because their parents really don't love them. They're unwilling to suffer through what it would take to give the proper emotional support while denying their child the usual instant gratification. Ritalin ain't love.
Posted on March 5, 2009 6:21 AM
Well said, Molene !
Posted on March 5, 2009 1:18 PM
Unfortunately, mental health care is one thing that ole' Bev is cutting the budget on. Guess that's so she can give herself a nice bonus.
The mental health system is already cut to it's limits, and with more people experiencing depression due to job and home loss where are these people to turn.
Molene, I grew up a farm kid, milking cows, slopping hogs, cleaning the barn and taking care of the horses and chickens, and have had ADD all my life. My son is also afflicted with it and so are a couple of my sister's kids, You can say what you want but I know that ADD is quite real, and possibly in the genetic make up.
Granted some kids are rude, spoiled brats that have never been taught. But unless you haven't been there don't judge.
Do you suppose these unloved kids, you speak of, should have been aborted? Then we wouldn't have them around to have to deal with.
Posted on March 5, 2009 1:26 PM
ADD and ADHD are real, but grossly overdiagnosed.
I wish Dr. Murray took private patients. Sounds like he's one of the few good ones in the pysch field. Too many shrinks are glorified drug dealers these days. None of them actually want to talk to their patients anymore.
Depression is treatable. It is serious. Psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are better approaches to most patients with most mental health issues. But insurance won't pay for it, but will pay for drugs--the easy and ineffective way out.
Posted on March 5, 2009 8:51 PM
Thanks to those who responded to my letter to the editor. I appreciate the dialogue and hope that it continues.
Let me clarify some points made by the respondents. Psychiatric diagnoses are not real in the sense that there is an identified pathogenesis for the great majority of psychiatric diagnoses--this includes schizophrenia and bipolar. What are "real" are the symptoms, which we collectively label as a disorder.
There is virtually no psychiatric diagnosis that one can see under a microscope or differentially diagnose with brain scans. Yet, those within my profession confuse consumers with pictures of brain scans or emphasis on "chemical imbalances."
For those with symptoms typical of ADHD, there are many other problems that can present similarly to ADHD (e.g., Depression, Anxiety, sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, etc.). However, too often mental health professionals do not probe more into these other possibilities.
In addition, behavioral problems in children do not occur in isolation. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, I have recognized that childrens' behavior often serves as a barometer for emotional disruptions experienced at home and/or school life. I have also found that many gifted children are diagnosed with ADHD because they are bored and thus easily distracted.
For parents who want to seek an alternative to the predominant treatment of ADHD, I recommend seeing Dr. Boze Ravenel, a pediatrician in High Point who has recently written a book on ADHD that's quite controversial.
I left private practice because there is an unspoken reality about mental health service delivery--the only way to make money is to keep people coming back. I work from the perspective that I want my clients to feel competent that they can live life more fully in the shortest amount of time. This is antithetical to private practice.
The one thing that I want to move away from is the idea of blaming the clients. I don't believe children are inherently bad or client's inherently defective or diseased. But the current Psychopharmaceutical Industrial Complex is specifically designed that in order to receive services, one must accept the label of a diseased brain (i.e., be given a psychiatric diagnosis) to which medication is often the "first line of defense."
Although I no longer serve private clients, I am open to coming to speak to small groups or organizations who want a different, albeit controversial, perspective on the problems inherent in the mental health field that turns the tables on the profession. We as professional mental health providers have lost our humility and must privilege the heroism found in every client.
Sincerely,
Dr. Tom Murray (murrayt@uncsa.edu)
Posted on March 6, 2009 8:36 AM