Mental health: Why does everyone have to be categorised, treated, medicated and cured these days?

Question

What happened to the days of taking people as they were. Hyperactive people now have ADHD and need medication and therapy. Miserable people are now depressed or bipolar and need to be medicated and have therapy. Shy people now suffer from anxiety and need to be medicated and have therapy. Is this all neccesary. If we didn't name these problems would they need to be treated?

Answer 1

uhhh.. HELLO. before i got medicated and therapy i was horrible. i would have nervous break downs. i overdoesed i was so depressed, then i got help. and im A LOT better now. i dont know what id do if i didnt have my medication. and some people even get off medication once they do good for a long period of time. and if people are really stupid and selfish and immature they dont except that help.  

Answer 2

you are right..these people shouldn't want to be productive and happy and have good healthy relationships..how dare they??

Answer 3

To make money off of fooling people into thinking that all their problems are solved through taking a pill.    Society has a quick fix and easy way to fix the problem: buy something and be a good little consumer and you'll be okay.  

Answer 4

no one will always agree on the same thing. that's just life. not perfect by far.. God is however.

Answer 5

Well, people have come a long way, and they're getting weaker, that's my opinion; A long time ago people were alot stronger and allergies weren't that common, but after everyone has become so sanitary etc. our immune systems aren't as strong and then we develop disorders and such easier than we did before. Blame it on the "neat freaks."

Answer 6

Why should people be miserable? Why should people be doomed to commit suicide?

And anxiety is not "being shy." Anxiety is an incapacitating nervousness that decreases a person's quality of life.

I agree with you that people are over-diagnosed and over-medicated. But making a blanket statement that all mental health services are stupid is ignorant.

I'm bipolar, and I would have destroyed my life if I hadn't gone into therapy. I used to cut myself and think about suicide, and then go into mania where I became violent and cared only about myself. I wanted to have my life back. Are you saying that I should have just been left to languish with a disordered mind?

And for the record, there are lots of ways to deal with mental illness. Not everyone need to be medicated- I'm not, technically. I take Omega-3 supplements to help stabilize my mood and go to therapy. Omega-3 is just fish oil - you can buy it in the vitamin isle of the supermarket, and it has proven mood stabilizing benefits. And therapy is a way of learning coping skills. But if I were in crisis, would I consider a course of medication? Yeah. I'd rather be medicated than dead.

But if someone who is having their life torn apart by a mental disorder decides to be medicated, who are you to tell them they shouldn't?

Mental illness is not new, and it did not start with the invention of psychology. People have ALWAYS suffered from mental illness. Even ancient civilizations have records of the mentally ill.