Mental Disorders

My counselor told me that I'm one of seven kids in the school that have been formally diagnosed with depression. This is in a school of about 700, and yet about 400 students would claim to have it, and act all mopey and upset only when it serves the purpose of getting them out of class, or when it will get them the most attention. I ignore it now, because I've become used to hearing people describing their "depression", which is usually caused by a bad breakup, or the fact that their parents wouldn't let them take the car to the drive-in. What they don't understand is that the growing fad is making it really hard for the kids who actually have the disease to get anyone to take them seriously. It doesn't just go for mental disorders either, but the physical ones. You can't imagine how many kids in marching band claim to have respiratory problems so they don't have to run in the morning, so that the ones that really do, like Ashley, who has severe athsma, are forced to run under the pretense that they're just trying to get out of doing a few laps. Of course, after she passed out on the track they believed her, but still...

^ That's where I'm coming from - claiming to have something you don't have and don't understand, not only makes you look like an attention-seeking moron, but makes life that much harder for those who genuinely do suffer from an illness. Your point about asthma/respiratory illness was a really good one, and goes to show what it's like for kids who really do have an illness or disorder that seems to be a fad amongst teenagers today.
I for one, was not proud of the fact that I was screwed up, medicated, and suffering from something that nobody except my doctor understood. No way in hell would I have gone around using it as an excuse to get out of things or get away with things, or to garner sympathy from my peers. It was embarrassing. I mean, if you're a bedwetter at the age of 16, would you announce that to your friends in the hope that they give you some pity for it and boost your ego? Hell no, you'd go to any lengths to cover it up. That's how I was with my depression - if people asked me why I hadn't been at school all week, I'd come up with some story about severe tonsillitis or that I'd gone to visit a cousin in another town who'd just had a baby - I wasn't going to flash my injured wrists around and swoon about how I just wanted to die.

^exactly , but people are naturally ran on attention, so whatever it takes. do you know how many kids i know try to act "emo" to try to be cool? they act depressed then they cut or whatever, so now people look at me, cause i look how i do and think,"oh, another cutter with depression who can't be hapy at al." they don't know, but because other people pretend to be like this they think that's what it is. but i was wondering is there anything you can do while your pregnant to help your unborn child not be defoemed other then not smoke, do drugs or drink while your pregnant?

^ I tend to disagree - the kids who 'run on attention' are lacking something in their lives that makes them seek it from their peers. Or maybe times are changing, because when I was in school, you did your best to just blend in and not be called out on anything - it was embarrassing to have a teacher ask you for an answer to a question. It was embarrassing to wear clothes that weren't bought at Rush or JayJays, because that's what everyone else was wearing. It was embarrassing to be a really bad student, and embarrassing to be a really good student, because that made you either dumb or a stuck-up show-off.
The kids who wanted attention and sought it from their peers by acting out, dressing up or lying about things, were usually the kids who came from bad families or had parents who paid zero attention to them, so they craved that attention from other people -and it always backfired on them.
I think half of this acting/dressing emo thing is the same thing - trying to blend in with what everyone else is doing. It's not individual anymore, it's not different - dressing 'normal' and doing well in school is unusual. Kids are acting 'emo' or claiming to have mental illnesses in order to fit in and be accepted by others.

...and I'm not sure what relevance it has to the topic, but deformities, retardation etc in babies can be caused by so much more than just drinking/smoking/drugs - you have to take vitamins and eat certain foods while avoiding other foods (eg eat plenty of red meat for iron, but you can't eat certain seafood or soft serve icecream because of the risk of listeria/mercury poisoning etc) to ensure you're giving the baby all the necessary vitamins and minerals they need to grow certain bits and pieces, you can't be around certain environments like industries or where there are fumes from things like paint or exhaust as the fumes can be detrimental (eg lead fumes from certain paints can cause severe retardation, so if you work in, say, a car detailing place you have to quit because of the fumes), age is also a factor in disabilites - as you get older, your genes start to mutate so when you're 21, your risk of giving birth to a child with Down Syndrome is something like 1 in 3000, if you have a baby at 40 your risk of having a Down Syndrome baby is more like 1 in 250... I never knew how complicated everything was until I got pregnant and started reading all the books about what to do and what not to do.
That being said, you can still do all the right things like avoid smoking, alcohol, take all your vitamins etc, and still have a baby that is deformed or disabled. Some people are just really unlucky.

^ oh okay, thanks. but wait isn't just a game of chance in away then?

^ Pretty much, yeah. You just improve your chances of things going well by doing all the right things.

...anyway, this should probably be more of a PM conversation Let's leave it there and continue with the topic at hand (feel free to PM me if you have any more questions )

Haha, disorders are high in my family.

I won't go into mine, but I live with an Autistic brother at home. It's like not even having a sibbling really...at least I never really saw him as mine. It sounds cruel, but I always had a negative look at him compared to friends who tell me I am being heartless and to give him a break. My brother knows right from wrong, and although he is sevearly diabled, he knows he can take advantage of people assuming he doesn't. At the same time, I used to have to beat up kids that made fun of him XD I don't know if anyone else here lives under simmiler circumstances, but I would be really happy to know that I am not alone.

The Rumor.:

Autism is a physical illness that effects the brain connections. It's not technically a mental disorder, because a mental disorder is something in the mind...whereas autism is in the physical brain matter.
What happens is that there are lots of connections in your brain. And where someone else's brain would just go from point A to point B, that connection isn't intact in an autistic person, so their brains have to figure paths round the broken connection.
I'm pretty sure it's a developmental disorder. It definitely isn't in the same category as things like anorexia or depression. it's also incurable, you can manage it...but never ever get rid of it.

Autism can lead to many mental disorders such as depression because the person feels different from the world and wants to belong but doesn't feel like they do.

What are your thoughts on mental disorders?

Hmm...I think that most can be cured if people actually tried to help. I think that a lot of people don't take them seriously enough.

What's the worst one in your opinion?

Depression. And, even if you take pills for it, it has been proven to sometimes make suicidal thoughts worse in a lot of w*ys.

Do you think we can ever cure some?
Yes, I think we could if we actually tried.

Hmm... I really like what people have to say about MDs, I've learned quite a bit of information from this. My Health textbook states that schizophrenia is one of the, if not THE, most serious of mental ailments. But I should also note that... my Health textbook states that music is a time-waster. I'm not kidding. It's pathetic. I know that a few of the symptoms of schizophrenia are intense paranoia, and all sorts of hallucinations. I definitely want to learn more about it, though.

Depression is NOT a mental disorder. I believe that people just have to have a name for everything and filed depression under the same catagory as seeing people that aren't there or not being able to comprehend properly. Depression is just happiness reversed, and it can be cured.

herbonestructure15:

Depression is NOT a mental disorder. I believe that people just have to have a name for everything and filed depression under the same catagory as seeing people that aren't there or not being able to comprehend properly. Depression is just happiness reversed, and it can be cured.

Depression is a mental disorder. Sadness is happiness reversed, depression is a serious mental disorder that needs to be dealt with immediately.
When dealing with health issues like depression, it's important to categorize so it's easier to give/receive help.

I think that mental disorders can't be cured, but their symptoms can be relieved, therefore making it seem like they have been cured, and I think for a lot of people this is enough. Unfortunately, some people come off meds and just end up where they came from.

I don't think you can really have an opinion on mental disorders, they are there, and they need to be dealt with. I also think that if you think someone you know is ill, then get then help, because they might hurt themselves, or someone else. Don't do what my mom did, and pretend it wasn't there, and that it would all go away in the morning. I think people need to understand that a person who mentally ill isn't 'wrong', they probably aren't going to kill you, and maybe, they might actually be a very nice person to get to know.

Depression is a mental illness, but I think because so many people say 'Oh, I'm feeling depressed' when actually they mean 'I'm feeling sad/upset' it gets shown negatively. People think of it as being soft. My head of year said that now we live in a 'nanny state' where if you 'can't cope, and you're just being stupid and weak' you get 'put on happy pills' and 'it all goes away'. She told the entire year, that 'Depression is a farce, and anybody that is depressed is weak, and needs a kick up the backside', ands unfortunately, my mom agrees with her. Unfortunately, a lot of people feel like that, and I think we need to remove the stigma associated with mental illness. It's basically the same as having a dodgy heart ('you are 'broken' and you take medication, and you get better'), only it can't be seen, so people don't understand.

Well, I think that the huan brain has the capibillity to cure it, we just need to firgure out how to tell the brain that that is not how the person should be. However, in some cases it may be benificial. Due to my having OCD, for example, I work harder than "normal people" because of it, and my work quality is usually much better, although taking 10 hours (literally) to do an assignment that should take 10 minutes may seem tedious. It also helps me clean my room better, because I will say it's dirty when most "normal" people say it's clean, and my room tends to be cleaner than most peoples, and I take extra time to dust/disenfect places most people don't even know they have! So my room is more clean amd the air I would hope is more pure than someone who only dusts where they see. And I never get sick because I wash my hands every two seconds. There can also be a good side to depression. See, if it wern't for my depression, I problly wouldn't got in to poetry/ writing, or most of the music I listen to, and would problly be a drone who never thinks for myself, like most americain teens. As for the others, I don't have, but I'll bet that there are good parts of them too, it all depends, is the glass half empty, or half full?

i saw an incredibly interesting article on the internet about schizophrenia. it says that theres a possibility that some schizophrenics are the way they are because of a type of parasite in their mind, a parasite that is commonly found in rats. in rats the parasite makes the rat 'give up' its fear of cats (become mentally unstable) so that the rat will go to the cat and the cat will eat it (the parasite's breeding ground is in a cat's stomach)

its thought about half of the ppl in the world have this, but minor symptoms of the parasite only show up in some, major symptoms being even more rare. the major symptoms being schizophrenia

heres the article, its long but wayyyy worth the read if ur interested

edit: ignore, i hit the wrong button D=

i very much hate my ocd and anxiety. i have mild ocd and a bad case of generalised anxiety disorder, and recently been diagnosed with health anxiety. i hate it so much. most of the time, it reduces me to tears. i worry bout so many silly things, and do things that make me feel better, which are silly. its horrible. i really hate it. i would do anything to be 'normal'. i hate being how i am. honestly, i do. as much as i hate it though, its still something i couldnt wish upon anybody else.
to me, it feels like my mind is working overload. i hate it. i cannot focus on school work or any other things, but school work is one of the main ones that is a problem.

EeVie !:

heres the article, its long but wayyyy worth the read if ur interested

I can't read it, it's all screwed up on my screen... =(

^^^ aww crap, im not sure why its not working