About mental illness?

[TheDailyCarbuncle]

Why do people think about mental illness and physical illness so differently? People seem to accept that physical illness is somewhat inevitable - everyone gets sick sometimes - but don't seem to think that way about mental illness. They seem to think it can be or should be totally avoidable somehow and if you don't avoid it then there must be an identifiable reason for that.

AIBU to think mental illness is not really any different to physical illness, in that it can strike you even if you do everything 'right'? And by that token, that it's possible to treat mental illness and recover fully (and perhaps relapse and recover again)?

I see certain posters have never heard of trauma.

i have mental illness caused by massive, prolonged childhood trauma. i am also apparently the wrong sort of mental to benefit from any treatment except meds upon meds upon meds.

you know PTSD? like soldiers get from going to war? i have that from being a child. not sure how i would have healthily eaten my way out of that.

i also have arthritis and a fucked thyroid and no immune system. are those within my power to fix? nope, and neither is my mental illness.

@PixieRabbit
Oops! Prior to being ill! Bloody auto correct!

Fuck me there is some ignorance on this thread

I think you might find the biopsychosocial model interesting, if you go a bit more in depth its shows how and why mental and physical illness are intertwined. Not exactly what you're talking about but thought it may interest you

Trauma in childhood contributes to onset of physical illness, too. There have been studies that show this in relation to type 1 diabetes.

All kinds of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are also associated with higher rates of physical and mental illness through the lifespan.

There is a much closer relationship between trauma and physical and mental health than is widely understood. The science is new and has many miles to go.

Genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger.

@Graphista OCD is linked to strep. Look into it. Right now the focus is on kids, but ... they grow up. : )

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5780272/

Isnt PANDAS a bit of a dodgy diagnosis?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/19/bad-news-is-were-dying-earlier-in-britain-down-to-shit-life-syndrome

Xenia I was coincidentally speaking to someone about this the other day. I am in the line of work where I have to do this type of training regularly so went on the ACEs course and mentioned that I have five myself and had a bit of a rubbish start in life and we were talking about what might makes some people more perceptible to certain things.

'Genetics loads the gun, environment pulls / enhances the trigger'

both my kids are autistic. It isnt environment, but genetics.
However, the wrong environment makes their symptoms worse.

I have a close friend with paranoid schizoaffective bipolar
He is 70. Fit as a flea. Started age 17. Genetic.
But wrong environment worsens it for him too

My understanding is there's as yet no conclusive evidence that PANDAS exists.

Correlation =/= causation

Strep infection is VERY common in children if it were the cause I think we'd be seeing much more cases.

There's a desperation in attributing mental illness to a physical cause, because then it's not the persons "fault" but we need instead to change perceptions of mental illness being the sufferers personal failing.

It's not a character flaw! It's ILLNESS.