is psychiatry a fake science?

[Jextin]

been reading a lot of these articles lately and i feel like i strongly agree with them as i was stuck in the system for many years and when i decided to stop therapy and meds and find my own way i feel like i have improved 100 times more, yeah i still have issues but not nearly as bad.

I strongly agree with these articles because for the most part i have witnessed it first hand

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/...ry-a-scam/

http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2012/0...e-science/

Regardless of how real it is, I do agree that psychiatry didn't become a 330 billion dollar industry by helping people, and I have been hospitalzied many times and have seen patients leave the hospital in much worse condition than when they were admitted after giving heavy loads of drugs.

But the question remains, if psychiatry is a scam, what is causing the symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and all the other conditions?

---

Also I would like to add, when I was in college as a Psych major one of my professors would talk to me on the side and she would heavily emphasize that she didn't support medications and that you can get all the benefits of any antidepressant on the market + more just by changing your diet or activity level without the negative effects that literally poison your body.

[bladevalant546]

It is less that psychiatry is a scam and more about the lack of funding and study into neurology. There also and issues the fact that each person brain is different. I take Wellburtrin and with out it my mind will cascade into obvious (literally), I find with my dabbling in psychology, psychotherapy, neurology I have found very hard evidence that most of the issues lie with in the neuro transmitters and how our brains are processing information. The issue is we do not fully understand what is occurring. This is why SSRIs and what not work, but we fully do not understand why different ones work for certain people.

I think denial of this field and neglect it still receiving is hurting people. Depression and bipolar disorders are hurting a lot of people, and depression is proving to be a fatal disease. I have no doubt diet and exercise and OMG society has a lot to do with it. But since exercise can be hard when you have to work 40 hours a week, a good diet is stupid expensive in comparison to "bad" food, and then you have society that blames the victim, wants you to be a wage slave? Yea no wonder we have psychological issues. There are various factors, all of them effect how our brain neurons fire.

[Chad32]

Part of the problem is that people look down on the mentally ill, as well as look down on people seeking help. Society would rather shun them or lock them up than actually help them, and the US has privatized prisons that have quotas to fill, so they're eager to just put you in a cell.

[TaraJo]

Psychiatry is tricky because it's the closest science comes to abstract ideas like our own consciousness.

That being said, yes, there are absolutely psychiatrical findings and there's undoubtedly science behind it. I mean, the NFL has been doing a tremendous amount of work over the past few years studying the effect concussions have on long term mental health and the research being done isn't just guess work; it's psychiatry.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Psychiatry is tricky because it's the closest science comes to abstract ideas like our own consciousness.

That being said, yes, there are absolutely psychiatrical findings and there's undoubtedly science behind it. I mean, the NFL has been doing a tremendous amount of work over the past few years studying the effect concussions have on long term mental health and the research being done isn't just guess work; it's psychiatry.

Got to concur with the latter part.

There's been a lot of work here too in the UK on concussions in sports players (ruggers and football specifically) and it would appear there is a growing amount of data on the negative consequences on sustained concussions and the impact it can have on one's 'self'.

[Thumpalumpacus]

No, it's a real science, it just has much more uncertainty than most because 1) the brain is by far the most complex organ in the body, and 2) winkling out the connection between material disorders in the brain and cognitive or behavioral difficulties is very difficult.

[Violet]

But the question remains, if psychiatry is a scam, what is causing the symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and all the other conditions?

That the medical institution of psychiatry is often far more interested in continuous therapy than in curing conditions does not mean that existence of psychiatry is not sometimes the best answer for a given individual.

Dreaming has a lot in common with schizophrenia.

Also I would like to add, when I was in college as a Psych major one of my professors would talk to me on the side and she would heavily emphasize that she didn't support medications and that you can get all the benefits of any antidepressant on the market + more just by changing your diet or activity level without the negative effects that literally poison your body.

Not all of the benefits... but some of them make an impact. The use of such medications in a transitory period can sometimes give people the boost they need to begin a more holistic method of care for themselves and their bodies...

But sometimes there really is nothing for it but brute force.

[Minimalist]

Now "psychology." That's something else.

[Violet]

I have no doubt diet and exercise and OMG society has a lot to do with it. But since exercise can be hard when you have to work 40 hours a week, a good diet is stupid expensive in comparison to "bad" food, and then you have society that blames the victim, wants you to be a wage slave? Yea no wonder we have psychological issues. There are various factors, all of them effect how our brain neurons fire.

If instead of healthcare for after the point when we are already sick we had healthcare for the prevention of becoming sick in the first place... then most of those afflicted in even a largely benign sense wouldn't need to force their head to adapt through medication.

It'd take a hell of a lot to get to that point from where we are, though.

---

Now "psychology." That's something else.

* Violet snorts.

'Hello sir, how many mental disorders and/or illnesses are you currently suffering from or have in the past been afflicted by?'

[Minimalist]

I thought it was "why did your mom not like you best?"