Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 21:29:41 +1000 From: Ria Strong Subject: What is "mental illness"? To: Multiple recipients of list MADNESS Mental distress, in all its forms, is a bio-psycho-socio-spiritual= condition. ----- For every human born, there is a specific set of traumas=20 that will trigger any one of a large set of =93mental illnesses=94 ----- What the system (medical model, biopsychiatry, etc) would have us believe: "People Who-ness is a neurobiological brain disorder (NBD). It results from genetically-caused chemical imbalances in the brain." It's not that simple (are you listening,biopsychiatrists???). People Who-ness has biological aspects, but it's not just a NBD. What is it, then? What are the factors involved? I identify the following. Some may directly 'cause' mood swings, fears, voices and visions. Others are better thought of as contributing and/or compounding factors. Biological factors: =B7 genetic vulnerability =B7 neurochemistry =B7 "chemical imbalances in the brain"; =B7 "neurochemical changes in reaction to [stressor]" =B7 drug use / abuse =B7 hypothyroidism =B7 allergies =B7 gluten intolerance =B7 vitamin and/or mineral deficiencies =B7 chemical toxicity =B7 brain injury =B7 infections (bacterial, viral, fungal) =B7 (physical) pain =B7 etc Psychological factors: =B7 physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse =B7 other forms of trauma =B7 stress =B7 low self-esteem =B7 grief =B7 loneliness =B7 etc Sociological factors =B7 poverty =B7 unemployment =B7 homelessness =B7 isolation =B7 stigma =B7 prejudice=20 =B7 discrimination =B7 racism =B7 sexism =B7 etc Spiritual factors: =B7 a need to find meaning in life =B7 etc Obviously, for each Person Who, the mix of factors involved is different. ----- Biological, psychological, sociological and spiritual factors=20 constantly impact on each other-- they just can't be separated. ----- IMHO, biopsychiatrists are partially right. Biological factors must be involved in "mental illness"-- thoughts and feelings are basically neurochemical processes. Far too many biopsychiatrists, however, "know" they are completely right. That biological factors are everything. That nothing else really matters at all. And that we crazyfolk shouldn't be listened to when we tell them otherwise. We're ignorant, you see, coz we don't have the right letters after our= names. And, of course, we're crazy... ----- Biological factors are involved in every human experience. The question is whether it makes sense to explain those experiences in biological terms. If I appreciate a piece of music or a beautiful sunset there are neurochemical processes going on, but describing the experience in those terms would be a pointless exercise. When trying to make sense of my experiences of madness I have found the neurochemical explanation to be totally meaningless and counter-productive. The idea that doctors believe such an important episode of my life was just symptoms of disease resulting from a broken brain fills me with horror. At the extreme, cases of attribution to biochemistry can be likened to attributing the sobbing of a wife mourning the loss of her husband for fifty years to a change in her biochemistry. And if one were able to take samples from her (blood, brain tissue, etc.) at the time of the loss and shock of mourning, one likely would find changes in biochemistry. But to attribute this to biochemistry would be heinous. Yet this is precisely what psychology/psychiatry is attempting to do more and more. ----- Among the Plains Indians, for example, religious leaders were EXPECTED to hallucinate. If they didn't have visions and weren't somewhat eccentric,they didn't become, by tribal consensus, shamans or advisors. The same held true of war leaders. Young men with ambitions of becoming great braves were EXPECTED to trek into the wilderness, experience self-induced hallucinations and return to the tribe with insights to share...insights directly derived from three or four days without food or sleep. The visions of their leaders were incorporated into the whole tribal ethos. In WASP America, people who have visions are imprisoned and shamed, forced to live like refugees and divested of credibility or influence. The very traits valued among the Plains tribes are known and loathed in American culture as "psychosis" and "delusional thinking." In India, there are Sufi mystics who self-induce psychosis. They are regarded as holy people and given community support. They are not excluded, incarcerated, driven out or forced into hiding and isolation. Their communities support them and consider housing, feeding and learning from them to be a great honor. In parts of South America, people still practice cultic goddess religions that involve transcendent states, known to Americans as "psychosis." These altered states of mind are times of learning for the experiencers, who are never mistreated or punished for valuing an alternate consciousness. Instead, they are supported and encouraged by their fellow experiencers. In America, any kind of transcendent experience is mechanically labeled, ascribed to disease and assaulted with numbing drugs. This narrow, impoverished, Calvinistic, judgmental, autocratic, police-state culture simply lacks referents for altered states of consciousness...thereby nurturing gross intolerance for differences, assuring the psychiatric profession a pool of victims to dominate, exploit, stigmatize and disenfranchise. So, yes, some c-s-x people are saying that whether altered states are viewed as "disease" or valuable cultural experience definitely depends on the context. And we are saying that psychiatrists are in the barbaric vanguard of the culturally impoverished. Because confining, degrading, drugging and devaluing the consciousness of a person in stressful crisis is nothing short of barbaric. It isn't medicine. It's torture endorsed by bigotry. By attempting to force that person into "normalcy," mental health workers are basically sending the message that whole chunks of human experience are invalid, unwholesome, unreal (to whom?), inconsequential and subject to medico/police intervention. I agree that: =B7 neurochemical changes are associated with People Who-ness (these may be either primary or secondary) =B7 structural brain changes are associated with *some* People Who-ness (again, these may be primary or secondary) I don't agree that People Who-ness is just a brain disease. I believe that the physical brain (neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones etc) and the mind (thoughts, feelings, memories etc) are interconnected-- so interconnected that they are inseperable. That which affects the brain affects the mind. That which affects the mind affects the brain (chemically, at least). Some People Who-ness may start (spontaneously) in the brain-- either as a chemical problem, or (less often) as a structural one. Not all People Who-ness does. For many of us, moods, fears, voices and visions (and the neurochemical changes associated with them) are triggered by external events. Some people may have an inborn disease, of course-- but most of us don't. An inborn vulnerability, maybe-- but not a disease per se. It's just not that simple. ----- There is no mental illness. Its an invented category useful for social control. It's a misnomer. There is no mental illness. The DSMIV is an attempt to categorize as diseases behaviors that express internal crisis. The behaviors are functions of neurochemical processes, o.k. The neurochemical processes are, for the most part, triggered by environmental stressors. In some people, who are different but not necessarily crazy or violent or morally inept or incurably diseased, the neurochemical processes deviate from some arbitrary standard that cannot even be measured. Meaning: the taxonomy of psychiatry is an artificial contruct.=20 ----- People are people are people ! =3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D Ria Strong (tapestry@netlink.com.au) "You can't stop the birds from singing..."=20 =3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D-=3D