Questions about Fundies and Depression

[raineymott]

I don't know what other fundies think of depression...my dad thinks it's just selfishness. He thinks the root of all mental disorders is just selfishness. So none of us were allowed to be depressed in his house. Read: we were not allowed to SHOW we were depressed. He was though...funny.

Anyway, he had never met anybody with chronic depression or something else like that, so he could say it was all just selfishness and could be cured by doing stuff for other people. (Of course he had never met a woman beaten by her husband, so he also said abused women should stay with their husbands because obviously they weren't loving him enough.)

[dirtyhippiegirl]

I'd had a few bouts of depression, all of which had identifiable biochemical causes and were treated successfully with the lowest therapeutic doses of medication, which I was weaned off later.

Well, to be fair, *all* emotions have identifiable biochemical causes.

I just finished Crazy Like Us, which talks about how the globalization of the Western perspective (the hard-line biochemical model) on mental illness is eroding traditional expressions of emotion and even mental illness in other cultures - how homogenizing mental illness (through the DSM) and its treatment (through pills and talk therapy) can actually make things worse for people who suffer from mental illness. He had a very interesting argument that the biochemical model of mental illness has actually increased stigma against mental illness sufferers, both in the West and in non-West countries that have adopted the biochemical model as a basis for diagnosis and treatment.

[dianapavelovna]

I think alot of the more extreme ones don't. Remember the lady who drown her 5 kids in the bathtub? She had serious diagnosed mental illness (I don't remember whether it was bipolar or mild schitzophrenia or what it was), the husband had the whole family in an old schoolbus converted into an RV, and they had gone back into a house because she was getting worse and needed help, which she didn't get. Its early and I can't remember many of the details sorry!

Someone else mentioned her downthread, but you're thinking of Andrea Yates. She had severe PPD with psychotic features. They were told by her psychiatrist to stop having children after she gave birth to her fourth, but hubby vetoed that. The 10th anniversary of the murders was earlier this week. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archi ... 11_5023577

And considering how unseriously our society in general takes mental health and particularly, depression, I'd be shocked if it was addressed by fundies in anything other than prayer.

[Hane]

Regarding Catholic teachings about suicide--From the Roman Catholic Catechism published in 1998 under John Paul II:

"Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives."

The Catholic Church, as an institution, has never opposed psychological counseling or psychiatric care. But, as a wise pastor once told me, "Some of these crazy old zealots made up their own religion" (referring to the BSC nun who made my mom's life a living hell in grade school).

[kpmom]

I just re-read Steve's Dad's Corner from 7/2000 entitled "We've Reveresed a Bad Decision", where he talks about why he originally had a vasectomy, and why he later had it reversed.

Before having the vasectomy, he states they went to the medical community re. Teri's depression , but they "had no answers for us.". Not sure exactly what that means.

I would love to know more about if they took any steps to see that Teri would not be overwhelmed by future pregnancies, and what would those steps be?

It sounds like Steve was "convicted" that they shouldn't take family planning into their own hands, and, boom, everything was fine after that. Even by his own admission Teri had "severe depression".

[emmiedahl]

1) Because I don't have a prescriber, insurance coverage, or any sort of feasible/reliable access to low cost mental health care, or the money to purchase anything that is prescribed. My partner, who HAS insurance and prescription coverage, pays over a dollar per pill that has to be taken daily, and we can't afford that as it is!

2) Because I studied botany in college and think plants are fucking awesome! :) A lot of medications are developed from plants (and animals!). Willow bark is what we got aspirin from, after all. There's some documentation and people actually do get certified in this realm of treatment, like naturopathy.

I think extremes on both sides are bad. One one extreme you have Biggie Pharma, refusing to get sunshine, exercise, or eat properly and expecting pills and surgeries and treatments to change his life. On the other hand, you have Hippy Von Hippy who treats everything with a smelly green mixture from an unmarked bottle filled with boiled weeds from the backyard. Happy mediums!!!!

1. Sometimes the herbs are just as expensive or almost as much.

2. I agree, plants are awesome. Most of our drugs are based on a process that scientists observed in plants! Nature is fantabulous. But when you use an herbal product, you don't even know what dosage you are really getting. Maybe it is 5%, maybe 50%. Maybe only 2% of that is the isomer that actual works. Maybe it's a therapeutic dose, maybe not. Maybe it does lifelong damage to your cells; who knows, no one has really studied it in a scientific manner. There are too many maybes. I'll take things like slippery elm bark tea for a sore throat. That works by coating your throat and you can feel the difference.

I agree with happy mediums. Lifestyle is so important in your health. But I won't even go there with most herbal remedies.