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Mental Health - Isn't This The Real Issue?

Mental Health As a Country-wide Topic

  • yes - we should openly discuss and confront this as a country

    Votes: 42 84.0%
  • no - it should remain closeted and silent, like it's always been

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other - please explain

    Votes: 8 16.0%

  • Total voters
    50
You're completely correct.

However, maybe it's possible to cut down on the number of people who make a choice to take out as many people as possible just before they end their own life?

Maybe it's possible to cut down on the number of suicides overall?

Maybe it's possible to cut down on violence against others?

Maybe it's possible to cut down on alcohol and illegal drug dependence?

If every single man walking the planet gets a regular prostate exam and colonoscopy that won't stop some people from dying of prostate cancer, but it surely might cut down on the number that do.

Do you agree that there is a stigma in the USofA associated with mental health issues?

Perhaps it is possible to cut down on people doing stupid **** but at what price? And yes I have observed a certain amount of stigma among certain groups but things have improved considerably over how things were 40 years a go.

Im not at all pursuing better care for the mentally ill but I fear that it will resort to the old method of turning it into a witch hunt setting us back much further than 40 years.
 
Witch hunts are the result of fear.

If we remove the fear, and provide acceptance, acknowledgement, and above all else - HOPE - we'd move a long way from where we are today.

I don't see mental health care as an either/or scenario.

Again, if seeking guidance and help from a counselor, psychologist, sociologist, priest, or even just a family member was basically viewed as no different than seeing a dentist over a tooth ache our society would better off by magnitudes.

IMHO
 
I don't know about Medicare, but here (France) it depends on what sort of therapy you are seeking. If you consult a psychiatrist, it will be partially covered, especially since the cure will most likely involve prescription drugs. A psychoanalyst will have to be paid fully from your own pocket, but some of them do practice for free in a few dedicated centers - just don't expect to receive the same quality of care you would get if you pay.

Psychoanalysis is for those who have the time and are committed to get to the root of the issue that may last up to a decade. What about cognitive-behavioral therapy?
 
Psychoanalysis is for those who have the time and are committed to get to the root of the issue that may last up to a decade. What about cognitive-behavioral therapy?

Yea, what about it, and fast food?
 
There was some progress made for awhile with mental health after decades of abuse and abandonment. Then in the 70s politicians and govt in their quest to not raise taxs and to have funds to give to their friends and buddies started to close entire facilities as cost saving. Legions of mentally challenged individuals with no money no where to go where unleashed. Many became homeless, some became convicts and either way society PAID.
Mental health MUST be addressed for the populace..its not a special interest, its in the interest of us all.
 
I mean is that covered?

I suppose it is, since it is backed by most government agencies; but I don't really know: you'll probably need to ask someone who does.
 
Witch hunts are the result of fear.

If we remove the fear, and provide acceptance, acknowledgement, and above all else - HOPE - we'd move a long way from where we are today.

I don't see mental health care as an either/or scenario.

Again, if seeking guidance and help from a counselor, psychologist, sociologist, priest, or even just a family member was basically viewed as no different than seeing a dentist over a tooth ache our society would better off by magnitudes.

IMHO

''If you are poor..you are mad!''...but if you are rich you are ''delightfully eccentric''...
 
After thinking about this more and more I believe the core issue might be a complete feeling of hopelessness.

If you have some hope, you're not going to do something ridiculously rash. If you have hope you're willing to listen, or talk, or seek help.

It's only when all hope is lost that somebody will snap.

How can we as a society try to prevent people from feeling like all hope is lost?
 
After thinking about this more and more I believe the core issue might be a complete feeling of hopelessness.

If you have some hope, you're not going to do something ridiculously rash. If you have hope you're willing to listen, or talk, or seek help.

It's only when all hope is lost that somebody will snap.

How can we as a society try to prevent people from feeling like all hope is lost?
Eliminate all government assistance programs.
 
Eliminate all government assistance programs.

Is that sarcasm and a political jab at "socialism"? Or an honest suggestion from you?

What would that accomplish?

If somebody has lost their job and can't find another one, and they have a child or children to care for, and medical bills, and are on the verge of losing their house or apartment, and credit cards are starting to get maxed out.....how would having no safety net at all help with preventing a feeling of hopelessness?
 
Is that sarcasm and a political jab at "socialism"? Or an honest suggestion from you?

What would that accomplish?

If somebody has lost their job and can't find another one, and they have a child or children to care for, and medical bills, and are on the verge of losing their house or apartment, and credit cards are starting to get maxed out.....how would having no safety net at all help with preventing a feeling of hopelessness?

So the purpose of safety nets according to you is to avoid a feeling of hopelessness?
 
There's something weird about society. If you can see it in an x-ray it's real. If not, you must be lying, lazy, or both.

That's something that we must try to avoid.

But, the quantity of people who "think" in this manner is diminishing - quickly
IMO, we do not have nearly enough professionals in this field...and working with the human mind......a toughie to say the least...as I should know...
 
Mental illness has always had a stigma attached to it because people can't see into the minds of the mentally ill in order to completely understand it, whereas they can see the physical deterioration of cancer and other diseases of the body.

Then, people will have to grow closer with each other, become more open and honest..
I am proposing major societal changes.
Fear must be erased......easy to say...sounds great....but how ??
 
This, we need to get to a point where going to see a therapist is just like going to see a doctor because you have the flu. We need to de-stigmatize mental illness, period.

Absolutely, but how ?
To change an attitude...IMO, all but impossible....but we still have to try.
And, I'd never go to any doctor over the "flu".
Thay can do little and its way too expensive.
As would mental care be.....and "they" can do little, again....as I directly know
 
Why? Holmes in Colorado was getting mental health assistance. Lanza was also under mental health care. It wasn't stigmatized, it wasn't avoided, and it wasn't unavailable.
 
Is that sarcasm and a political jab at "socialism"? Or an honest suggestion from you?

What would that accomplish?

If somebody has lost their job and can't find another one, and they have a child or children to care for, and medical bills, and are on the verge of losing their house or apartment, and credit cards are starting to get maxed out.....how would having no safety net at all help with preventing a feeling of hopelessness?
Both, in a way.


The way I view things, someone dependent on government assistance has reached almost the lowest point they can, and in my mind relying on the government for sustenance or, frankly, anything at all, is a depressing situation that might make people feel all hope is lost, at least for them specifically.


But on the other hand it was also sarcasm, because I know that given the current economic situation here in the US and also in multiple other areas around the world, eliminating all government assistance would likely result in a bunch of dead people who rely on it.


Which returns to the serious, since that's a kind of catch-22 in a way.

We must support some people or they die (or other less permanent issues arise). But if we continue with those increasing (I think) costs of supporting people, our economy/country dies.



Or something like that, anyway.
Is how I see it.
 
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