@Empty1128: cure, fix, heal, make go away; these are all words that are symbolically hopeful but inaccurate in today's world when talking of mental illness.
people "manage their illness or symptoms", they "don't have their illness or symptoms flare up or happen again" and "lead productive lives", this is the new age way of thinking about being "cured" of ones mental illness.
the irony is that the science of psychiatry calls it a mental illness but they admit it is not a virus or disease like the flu or an infection is. they do not have a standard definition of what a mental illness actually is, you can go ahead and ask as many psychiatrists as you like. they all give the same answer: idk. no comment. some random answer. or they list symptoms of mental illness and say how it affects a person living their life and not accomplishing what they want.
my leg hurts and the doctor will tell me it's because the bone is broken. i have a fever and vomiting and the doctor will tell me it's because of the flu. my water breaks and the doctor will tell me to get to the hospital because i'm having a baby. what they can't really say is much about mental illness in general. the science of psychiatry is still very young. it wasn't until about 100 years ago psychiatry came out of the dark ages of locking people up, killing them, lobotomizing them, dangerous procedures and actually starting to understand the science of the mind. (i think it still takes a human touch and that science and logic should not forget the human condition in this aspect.)
they do however rely heavily on something called a DSM - The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders. they make new updated ones every year or so but most psychiatrists actually use the DSM-5 as the most popular go to. psychiatrists around the world use this manual actually. it's a boring read but useful information in there.
mental illness is caused by genetics like getting it from one of your parents genes, environment both physical and psychological, weak DNA and/or brain cells breaking down over time, stress, going through a traumatic experience and a few other factors are being looked into.
all very confusing isn't it?
what you said about "the doctor treated peoples symptoms with" is spot on, nice correction.
i actually did research into that doctor when @poisoned_veins first recommended niacin to everyone, she told us that is where she learned of the niacin from. he believed in using vitamins to help manage symptoms for people with mental illness. he also believes in a few other off the board ideas most psychiatrists and regular doctors don't subscribe to. he was effective in some ways and other ways he wasn't. i still believe that his ideas being more progressive would help further the science as a whole. talking things through, MRI's and psych meds only go so far as they do not work for everyone. (plus any one who suffers from invega knows this to be true for themselves.)
it's a lot to understand, i've condensed some of my life long knowledge in this post. take time to re-read it and further investigate for yourself. i've talked to many psychiatrists over the years, even ones that were not seeing me professionally, done much research in the library and on the net as well as talked with many people with mental illness.
interesting fact: did you know that psychiatrists give people with mental retardation psych meds to see if they help. i have not confirmed it yet by seeing it with my own eyes but i've been told both on the net and by two psychiatrists that two mentally retarded people were given the invega/xeplion injections. another was given the pill form. edit: i probably shouldn't leave this part on such a dark note so i'll let you know besides vitamins and other avenues of life there have been and are trials for treating some mental illness with drugs. like marijuana or marijuana derivatives for schizophrenia. lsd or acid and ecstasy/mdma is on the board for people with emotional mental illness and those with PTSD. even mushrooms (the psychedelic kind). i even heard once that cocaine was used or is being considered to be a trial for one of the mental illness diagnoses but can't prove that.
science is doing it's best and we were all wronged by it here. i've no doubt of that and i never advocate for or against the science of psychiatry. i only support what works and what finds out more of the truth.
hope this helped.
