• Katrisia@lemmy.today
    41·
    6 hours ago

    How about the 1-2% that indeed have a ‘biological’ disorder? This supported by scientific evidence and characterized not only by being responsive to medication but, most importantly, unresponsive to talk therapy and other therapeutic psychological approaches as per their main symptoms. These would be psychotic, manic, and some severe depressive states (and their manifestations: delusions, catatonia, hypergraphia, etc.).
    While schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, being the two classic examples, might worsen because of the environment and of course are affected by lack of support among closed ones and other societal difficulties, the research suggests they’re highly genetic (BD is the most inheritable disorder today with ADHD, if you count it as a disorder) and biological. Give a stimulant to a euthymic patient and see how fast they get manic for weeks. That’s not psychological, that’s not a response to social problems. And yes, the genes might be triggered by stress (man-made or not), but the faulty biology gets a life of its own after that. The first psychotic episode might start after the stress of poverty; the rest might happen in a mansion. These are lifelong conditions that we only know how to keep at bay chemically, we don’t know how to get the genes or nervous system responses dormant again. The meme’s take is useful for the majority, but erases a vulnerable minority whose existence is not only real but needs not to be forgotten (especially after decades or centuries of fighting the “it’s demonic possession”, “it’s a family curse/God’s wrath/whatever”, " no such thing as madness", etc.).

      • loonsun@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        2 hours ago

        No, the meme is pretty dismissive as it’s a broadside shot on mental health treatment. It’s a meme. it’s inherently shallow and doesn’t disqualify anything. There are plenty of people who think they have ADHD but are just suffering from environmental effects, and there are plenty of ADHD people who suffer daily trying to exist (myself included). It’s clear that depression and anxiety have risen due to the environmental conditions but they are still conditions that need help and treatment. Just because working in a coal mine causes black lung doesn’t mean you can just either fix the mine or help the people, you have to do both at the same time.