Help! Does food help mental health problems?

[Dancing David]

ambermae

Thankyou for your posts and for opening this thread. I recently have been diagnosed with depression and given medication that doesnt seem to be touching me at all. as cautious as i am about self diagnosis on-line i cant help but notice the similarities between what im going through and the description of bpd provided by another poster.

Well it is a matter of degree in BPD, and really it is usually not a warranted diagonsis, but more of an impression.
There also has been some evidence of pituitary involvement in BPD.

Never thought about it before, i work in forensic mental health and work regularly with extreme cases of pd and other illness'. A great deal of my best and oldest friends seem to have a similar opinion to soapy sam. It is understandable to a degree as i have been extremely hard work to those around me and it leads to increased isolation and feelings of self loathing (in my case at least).

Anyways, just wanted to say thanks for sharing such a personal issue and thanks all you guys whove replied (even the thick one). It makes me feel better to know im not alone and remind me that these things are very real. Even people afflicted are not free of the stigma and disbelief associated with these conditions.

Thanks All.

Keep at it, the first medication may not be the one for you. I got lucky and responded to the first one they gave me. I even tried to wash out last year and my symptoms came back.

I have been there, good luck and best wishes.

have you taken the medicine for six weeks yet?

 

[Soapy Sam]

Soapy sam

I'm sorry if you find my Personality Disorder offensive and amusing. I can asure you it is not amusing to me.
If you know of any teenagers who repeatedly selfharm and attempt suicide i hope that you attempt to help them rather than find their situation amusing.

I also hope that neither you nor anyone in your familty has to live with the effects of a serious mental illness.

Ambermae, if you would go back to my post for a moment and read it carefully, you will observe that I mentioned neither offense nor amusement regarding "your" personality disorder. I do not find anything about your post offensive or amusing. Nor am I obliged to agree with all you say. That's the nature of a discussion board. However, I do apologise if I upset you. That's not my intent any more than it was yours.
I noted that I initially took the concept of "borderline personality disorder" as a joke diagnosis as I was reading your OP. It became apparent you were not joking, so I googled it and read the NIMH page and saw that it is an actal "disorder" as defined in DSM iv.

This does not mean I am obliged to accept it as correct.

The description on that page reads to me very like behaviour which most of us would associate with teenage years. It sounds very like mine, at least.

I am not convinced that BSD exists as such. That does not mean I doubt you have problems. Either you have, or you have not. if you had not, you would scarcely claim you had here- so I accept that you have been told this is the case and you accept this diagnosis as accurate. You will accept, I hope, that this does not constrain me to come to the same conclusion.

Everyone has personality problems, depending on definition- excessive shyness, aggressiveness, stupidity, insufficient aggressiveness, mood swings, a dozen others. Any one of these could be organic, experience related, a symptom of a stroke, neural damage from any cause, response to familial stress, even a cultural mismatch- immigrant kids in strange cultures have many problems which might not exist in the parent culture.

None of this in my opinion (And IANAD) makes it necessarily valid to throw a bag of behavioural characters together and call it a disease.

Where it can be proven that it helps to treat behaviour as a disease, there may be some justification in doing so. But cui bono? The "patient"? The family? The community?
Personally, I consider the creeping acceptance of behavioural modification- usually involving drug thereapy- to achieve some nebulous behavioural " norm",to be ethically as well as factually questionable.
That's my opinion. If you see it differently, fair enough. There is little so tedious as universal agreement.
You might( with some justification) respond that you have personal evidence, but if you said the same here about (for example) a chiropractic diagnosis, you would be inundated with accusations of anecdotal evidence and demands that you prove your case, simply because most posters here are sceptical of chiropractors. Quite why many posters are less sceptical of psychologists, puzzles me. Again , this may be a cultural difference in behaviour.

Re the dietary question. Do bear in mind that all responses here-whether they seem to agree with your opinions or disagree, whether they seem friendly or unfiendly, are matters of opinion. Those which appear the friendliest may not always be the most honest. And vice versa.
The person to ask is as always, your doctor.

 

[Dancing David]

So again, you think it is just a bunch of behaviors thrown in together, where did you get that data?

 

[23_Tauri]

........ Quite why many posters are less sceptical of psychologists, puzzles me. .....snip.....The person to ask is as always, your doctor.

So the medical doctor is always right, but psychologists (to whom a doctor might refer a patient and who in the UK are regulated by the Health Professions Council) should be treated with scepticism? Why does the medical doctor not attract the same degree of scepticism?

 

[bookitty]

This does not mean I am obliged to accept it as correct.

The description on that page reads to me very like behaviour which most of us would associate with teenage years. It sounds very like mine, at least.

I am not convinced that BSD exists as such. That does not mean I doubt you have problems. Either you have, or you have not. if you had not, you would scarcely claim you had here- so I accept that you have been told this is the case and you accept this diagnosis as accurate. You will accept, I hope, that this does not constrain me to come to the same conclusion.

And this is why so many people have difficulty accepting that they need treatment. This strange idea that mental health is not equivalent to physical health. If you have a physical medical condition, people will easily accept that you need medical care to cure or manage it. If you have a mental malady, some people will tell you that you just need to take care of it by yourself. That you are exaggerating or that "everyone" has the same problems.

This makes no sense. Both the malady and the treatment are well-documented, peer-reviewed and accepted in the medical community.

 

[Emet]

And this is why so many people have difficulty accepting that they need treatment. This strange idea that mental health is not equivalent to physical health. If you have a physical medical condition, people will easily accept that you need medical care to cure or manage it.

Well, I did say that "while attitudes about mental illness are improving in the US, there remains a lot of stigma and ignorance."

This is also why some who suffer from mental illness and know it will not discuss and share their experiences and pain with friends and loved ones.

The lack of empathy, compassion, and understanding remains strong.

 

[Ambermae]

Soapy sam

I am sorry if i took your post in a way that it was not meant, however this thread is about whether or not certain food can help with mental health issues or anything else for that matter and not about whether you believe PD's exist, which is not very helpful.

As for the dietary advice from other posters, i have already stated that i have no intention of giving up my meds and i will check all advice with both my GP and Psychiatrist.


ETA: I'm having a bad day and nothing i say is making sense!

 

[Ambermae]

Well, I did say that "while attitudes about mental illness are improving in the US, there remains a lot of stigma and ignorance."

This is also why some who suffer from mental illness and know it will not discuss and share their experiences and pain with friends and loved ones.

The lack of empathy, compassion, and understanding remains strong.

Which is why i am not ashamed of my mental health issues and openly discuss it. I hope that others will read this thread and not only take the advice to their doctors but hopefully they will see that they are not alone in suffering with these issues. As one brave poster has already done.

 

[Dancing David]

Well, I did say that "while attitudes about mental illness are improving in the US, there remains a lot of stigma and ignorance."

This is also why some who suffer from mental illness and know it will not discuss and share their experiences and pain with friends and loved ones.

The lack of empathy, compassion, and understanding remains strong.

It is a huge barrier to treatment, along with pruitan/protestant values (moral weakness) and the 'frontier farmer mentality' (stop yer belly achin). They all discourage dealing with those issues.