Mental Health and the Medicalisation of Mental Health

[ThisBigSky]

Just wondering, having been watching and reading some of Derek Summerfield's work over the weekend, has anyone else experienced being on multiple types of mental health medication and, for me at least, reflecting back on it and realising that pharmaceutical medication was never going to be the resolution?

Summerfield touches a lot of exporting of mental health globally, and this may be my issue (I didn't grow up in the UK with the societal norms of the UK) so I am wondering about the experience of others?

Should we (the UK) be offering other first line treatments rather than pharmaceuticals, and if you were, were these successful or did you / do you take medication as well?

If we change our society will the mental health we experience change as well?

havent read other post so sorry if repeated.

pills are suppose to go in hand with therapy, as I was told repeatedly by a psych. I was taking the pills but waiting, waiting & waiting for the therapy.. so I was running around manic that the drugs sent me with no therapy to manage, cope or other help techniques.
cbt didn't help after all the wait and now im no longer allowed any further therapy because ive had therapy. IAPT or IMPART don't want to know. nhs are struggling I never complain about them but I feel let down right now.

My depression is/was caused by out of balance chemicals due to PCOS. No amount of therapy could have made that better

Corythatwas Yes I do. Plenty. Children from sadly chaotic and seriously dysfunctional families medicated rather than treating the cause of the problem.

That's bloody fantastic if drugs are all you need, Polka. There are thousands out there who have things such as CPTSD etc who desperately need therapy and are just sidelined time and time again. Who are isolated, facing issues such as housing etc with no hope. Some of them end up on the streets.

Crumbs I think that is what Summerfield is getting at - well, part of it at least. And also the fact that there is a tendency to overmedicate or to be over reliant on medication in situations where it is not needed.

Cory I am in North West London - i don't have many friends with teenage children, so my cohort is pretty small, but I do see that many are in therapy / counselling - way more than were in my teenage cohort. This does make me feel uneasy - what is going wrong in our societes that we've seen a huge increase in children and young people attending therapies to the point, that here at least, it's almost seen as "the norm".

I have some longer replies - thank you to everyone for the posts - I am cooking dinner but want to respond to a few of you later. Please can someone share the psychosis / suppressed immunity study for me (or PM). I would be really interest to read this.

mirror sending you love; I could have written your post two years ago (my two year anniversary of tertiary services is actually this week).

I take anti psychotics (Aripiprazole 25mg) for Psychosis & paranoia; & anti depressants (venlafaxine mr 300mg) for major Recurrent Depressive disorder.

I feel that they work very well. I now only get minor symptoms. In fact I think the meds have saved my life.

I see a Psychiatrist 3 monthly & has access to the crisis team & CMHT.

I did have psychotherapy but wasn't properly medicated at the time so I wasn't in a good place to appreciate & work at it.

Therapy is something you have to be well enough for to be able to work hard at it, for it to be able to work.
So that's where meds come in.

My meds mean that I can work a 30 hour week, run a house, function well & have a good social life with friends & family.

When I had Psychosis I thought that people wanted me dead, among other beliefs. No amount of talking therapy would have stopped me thinking that.

Now I'm fairly well I'm doing a course run by the 'Recovery Education Centre' called 'understanding unusual experiences' which is a way of looking at & coping with Psychosis.

I'm also going to do some cbt to help me get less stressed out. The psychiatrist is arranging it.

In fact I also take anti epileptic drugs which aren't very effective as I had a big tonic clinic seizure 2 weeks ago.
Strangely I feel quite 'high' & less down - my psychiatrist says having a seizure has the same effect on the brain as ECT therapy has!

I take anti psychotics and mood stabilizers. They work. I tried therapy before. It did nothing. For me, meds were life changing.

It's the medical model of mental illness.

A more holistic view is expensive though - mental health can be made worse by poverty, poor accommodation, unsupportive employers if employed or by being unemployed if not and mental illness can lead to all of the above. None of that is going to get fixed anytime soon.

Care in the Community is a great idea but not as a cheap option - CMHTs need proper funding, Crisis Teams as well. If as a result of community services being properly funded we need less inpatient beds then great, but it needs to be that way round. We've lost inpatient beds despite the old unit sometimes having occupancy above 100%, while most of our CMHTs are swamped.

Must be a postcode lottery, then Crumbs. Round here incredibly difficult to get medication even for a child/teen who is harming themselves, unable to access education and at risk of suicide, especially if they are not perceived as a risk to others.

I think it should be a case by case basis.
Therapy and cbt does not work for everyone.
I also dont think age should come into it, if a doc didnt recognise as a teenager how ill i was an put me on medication then i wouldnt be here.
Medication has changed my life and keeps me stable.
It's the difference between anxiety and full blown depression.

Full blown depression sufferer here - meds tipped me over the edge, it wasn't picked up by a crisis team refusing to accept any responsibility at all, and my life is now utterly destroyed. My arguement is that there is an over-reliance possibly on the meds working, a belief that they are a panacea and in my case because of that utter faith in them the fact that they were making me worse wasn't picked up. I was told to take a bubble bath.

I think it depends on the doctor, some will rely on other treatments before medication when you can then be worse, and others rely on tablets.
As a teenager i was told there was no need to be down.

Teenagers who feel a bit anxious or sad are given drugs and being labelled with mental health issues for life instead of being told it’s normal to feel sad sometimes and anxiety tends to be a symptom of teenage years

What rubbish. Do you now claim to work in mental health? Do you have any idea of what camhs services are like at the moment? Your snide comments are an insult.

No meds for teens here either, not until other things have failed. The bar for medication in young people is set high, as it should be. DD1 was offered talking therapies as a first port of call but ended up not needing them.

I was never able to get CAMHS for my son and a friend of mine has tried to get them involved with her child for years.