horsefacts on Warpcast

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horsefacts pfp

@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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@horsefacts.eth

2) Mental disorders are comorbid with metabolic dysfunction. If you have heart disease or diabetes, you’re likely to get depressed. If you’re depressed you might get heart disease or diabetes. Who cares about the direction of causality here!? Both are bad! “Metabolic syndrome” has become a good explanation for obesity, diabetes, and CVD. We should take its associations with mental symptoms seriously, too.   3) If we frame mental disorders as metabolic dysfunction of the brain, there are pretty good explanations for why existing treatments work via metabolic pathways. And things that improve metabolic health (exercise, diet, sleep, avoiding drugs, reducing stress) all probably improve mental health. Almost banal, but true!

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@promptrotator.eth

I wonder how much of the “dsm as scripture” is downstream of the prerogatives of power i.e. foucault’s madness and civilization. power and profit over individual health as the main focus.

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christin pfp

thank you for sharing @horsefacts.eth , i would have never come across this book otherwise. I agree from research and personal experience that we conflate circumstantial and psychological depression with physiological causes of depression. I've self-gaslighted on this topic for decades despite being a neuroscientist!

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@bluelizardo.eth

true, all these issues stem from glitches in similar structures, which is why a lot of them get treated with the same meds. Like, SSRIs are used for anxiety, depression, PTSD, and so on, all because they boost serotonin in the brain. But why do we get different disorders? It comes down to the specific genes a person has and how their body reacts to that deficiency or overall brain structure. And if you're curious about the placebo effect, yep, it’s got a major impact, no denying that

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tldr (tim reilly)

I’m v grateful you highlighted this. If I had just looked at the title I would have interpreted “Energy” in its sense of new-age yogic magic and ignored the book entirely. Realizing it’s referring to metabolism as an underlying (yet unrecognized) cause of many related mental illnesses — I’ll be reading!

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Kiraa♡ pfp

bookmarked, i agree with all the points. especially 2. as a nursing student, we know that dysfunctions are connected with mental health and vice versa. that’s why we have the right interventions for all these, i promise we take the associations with mental health seriously. mental health does more damage to the human body than people think. aiming towards creating an awareness for this

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BrixBountyFarm 🎩

Have had this on the shelf since the spring to read and pass along to a friend. Good to hear an endorsement.

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zenxosa◼️Ⓜ️🎩

It’s amazing how the human works and responds to trauma I think this also covers DID-that feeling of being more than one person, or that different parts of oneself are at odds with each other.

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depatchedmode pfp

Added to my list. My crazy anecdote about this is that starting on medication for ~depression ended up reactivating nerves I damaged during a spinal fracture and has led to the slow thawing of whole body chronic pain. And, recent studies have shown SSRIs work to boost neuroplasticity, so clinical effects may have less to do with their direct effects on seratonin lifecycle than initially thought. We know very little!

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H3sam pfp

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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Dilek pfp

Depression is an ambiguous term used for many different conditions and experiences. It is important to first distinguish between mourning, melancholia and other depressive states; then to understand the functions of the patients's symptoms in the context of their history, taking into account their uniqueness. Otherwise, treatment will be incomplete; especially if it is treated as physical disease. Yes it will restore their functionality but will not cure what made them depressed.

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Mgxie 🧚 pfp

This was very insightful I sometimes wonder if we are just at the early stage of understanding how the brain actually works …

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Dan pfp

Firstly, i’d like to say you did a really good job putting this together I agree with your points There’s always this question we ask patients when they come to the hospital, ‘’ do you have a support system ‘’, because without this whatever treatment being given to the patient might not be effective. who’s gonna be there with you through your recovery?. When a patient falls sick, and isn’t responding to treatment on time, it very easy for such patient to fall into depression quickly which in turn can lead to other comorbidity but when a support system is there, it’s unlikely There’s a lot that can be said on mental disorders, but that’s not my field I’d give the book a read, thanks for this

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Rafaello.base.eth

Was really good read Bless

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@blackkhammer.eth

As a psychology major, thank you for putting the my wayy

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