Unfortunately true.
It’s a bit unfair to compare something life threatening to something not immediately life threatening.
Also, psychiatric care is really just a nice way of saying, “mind-altering drugs”.
Not life threatening? You’ve clearly never experienced or known someone with a severe mental illness. Up to 90% of people who commit suicide have a mental illness.
Eating disorders, mood disorders, anxiety and self harm have many life threatening effects on the body, e.g. malnutrition, gastrointestinal complications, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, risk of wounds becoming infected, nerve damage. People struggling to get the mental health care they need find themselves in ER’s, jail cells and psychiatric hospitals for their immediate safety.
The risk of this can be minimised with proper treatment, which can consist of medication but also includes psychotherapy, occupational and social work, emergency care and other treatments as appropriate for each patient.
Kidney patients can be kept alive on dialysis for years while awaiting a transplant.
Also, your “mind-altering drugs”? These are part of why I can go to school, have an internship, maintain friendships, and be a reasonably responsible family member. Meds are a complement to therapy and make it work better. Honestly, if I were not taking prescribed medication, I would probably be taking some “mind-altering drugs” that had worse side effects than dry mouth.
Mental illness is in part both caused and reflected by physical/chemical disturbances in the brain. In physical illness, medication is often used to aleviate symptoms or address causes. Psychotropic drugs do the same thing. They are a medical response to a medical problem.
People need to stop thinking mental illness isn’t serious
They also need to stop thinking psychiatric drugs are all useless.
Bolded for A+ commentary, this bullshit that physical medical issues are more valid than psychological medical issues needs to end now.
Also, depression raises the risk or osteoporosis, making even young adults exponentially more likely to get osteoporosis BECAUSE IT LITERALLY LOWERS YOUR BONE MASS.
Can we please stop acting like mental illness isn’t serious?
Can we please stop acting like mental illness is less valid than physical illness?
CAN WE PLEASE STOP ACTING LIKE MENTAL ILLNESS DOESN’T CAUSE DEATH AND SERIOUS PHYSICAL COMPLICATIONS?CAN WE PLEASE STOP ACTING LIKE MENTAL ILLNESS IS ONLY IN THE BRAIN EVEN THOUGH IT SHOWS UP IN THE BODY?
CAN WE PLEASE STOP ACTING LIKE MENTAL ILLNESS DOESN’T REQUIRE TREATMENT?
CAN WE PLEASE JUST RECOGNIZE THAT MENTAL ILLNESS IS VERY REAL, AND SERIOUS, THAT NEEDS TREATMENT TO GET BETTER… AND STOP ACTING LIKE IT’S A COP-OUT (BECAUSE IT’S NOT).
Society literally pushes people to AVOID treatment (and use it only as a last resort), while we stress early intervention for physical illnesses – and then tells people they’re weak because it got worse because they didn’t seek treatment – even though all of science has proven it exists an REQUIRES TREATMENT TO GET BETTER.
All you people who think it’s not serious, who think it doesn’t need treatment, who think that therapy and medication are unnecessary… need to go do some damned research because your ignorance is an astounding example of societal BRAINWASHING.
Friendly reminder I almost died of paranoia, When I get in a really bad state my body shakes, I throw up and my heard pounds rapidly.
I had to go to the E.R, and when they couldn’t ‘find a cause’ for it they said I was faking it and sent me home.