H3sam on Warpcast

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@horsefacts.eth

This was very good. It rings true to my own experience with depression. Summary: 1) There is a lot of overlap in the symptoms of mental disorders that we label distinct: depression, ADHD, OCD, anxiety, bipolar, etc. Mental disorders are often comorbid with each other (if you have one you are more likely to have others). And drugs meant for one disorder often work on others. For example, antidepressants are often prescribed for anxiety, bipolar, and schizophrenia, not just depression. DSM haters know this one: psychiatry applies the medical gaze to taxonomize symptoms into “illnesses,” even though the symptoms are complex phenomena of mind not body, and the underlying physical illness is often not observable or understood. I was reminded here of Thomas Szasz, who famously said mental illness is a “myth” without an explanation of physical disease. Well, what if there *is* a coherent physical explanation?

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I completely agree with you on the first part of what you explained. Our psychiatry professor used to give a good point about psychiatric illnesses. He would say, "Don’t get too caught up in the names of the illnesses and labeling your patients. Those names are mostly used for medical research and statistical discussions. Mental illnesses exist on a spectrum and often overlap, and many times even the experts have disagreements in diagnosing them!" He also mentioned that the good thing about psychiatric illnesses is that the medications are often the same, and the treatments are based more on symptoms than on the names of the illnesses. That’s why two doctors might have different diagnoses for the same patient but end up prescribing the same treatment!

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@christin What’s your opinion as a neuroscientist?

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