Mental Illness: Psychiatry vs. Science

Mental illness is something that has been taken more seriously in the past decade. The only cases that were taken seriously, or acted upon were those where the patients were so crazy that they had to reside in a psychiatric hospital or nursing home, kept in a straight jacket. Now, even mild forms of mental illness like depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder are taken very seriously as a result of the increased rates of suicide. In fact, most college campuses have counseling centers as well as medical doctors for mental health to aid students with signs of depression. They even counsel students who are stressed over academics or personal issues who do not have signs of depression. Why has mental illness increased in seriousness? It is because of studies in both scientific and psychiatric fields that helped people realize the seriousness and reality of mental illness, specifically depression.

Some people believe that mental illness is a myth, like Michael Cornwall. He thinks that depression and the way people deal with their emotions is just another thing that makes humans unique from one another. Some people cut as a result of sadness, some people cry, some people consult in violence. Cornwall seems to think that these things are nothing but coping mechanisms, and every copes in different ways for different situations. He thinks that forced medication and permanent residence in mental hospitals are violations of human rights. However, science has since proven that brain connections and hormone levels are off balance in people that have been diagnosed with depression, and that medication improves the hormone imbalances lessening the symptoms. People with this condition find it hard to function. They feel tired, sad, and pessimistic about almost everything in life. Science also proves that some people develop depression without any reason at all. They have great, happy lives and randomly develop depression. Science has linked this to several different factors. The size of the hippocampus part of the brain surprisingly contributes, as well as nerve cells in the brain. For example, some nerve receptors may be over sensitive or insensitive to a certain neurotransmitter, making the reaction to be excessive or inadequate. Antidepressants are designed to provide a balance of the receptors. A deficiency of certain vitamins are factors as well, like B12. Endocrine disorders can contribute as well, because the endocrine releases hormones and if the endocrine is not working properly, it can cause too little or too much of a certain hormone being released causing off balances in the body, leading up to depression. However, some people that are diagnosed with situational depression. In other words, a traumatic event has happened in their lives to cause them to get upset and they can no recover quickly enough, so they get trapped in their feelings of despair. In these cases, psychiatrists focus on the specific reason why someone has come to develop depression and find a way to train the patient’s brain to cope with the event that caused it as well as events in the future to prevent them from developing depression again.

Some people develop depression as a result of events like a major loss (death of a family member) or a traumatic event (being in a bad car accident.) When things like this happen to people, it is easier for them to recover from depression than those who develop it from biological causes. This is because most of the time these people learn to cope with it and move on after consulting with a counselor for several weeks. The role of a psychiatrist in these situations is to meet with the patient weekly to track their progress and analyze their change in mood to see if what they are doing is helping to reduce, and eventually eliminate, their depression. Psychiatrists are good at noticing when someone is lying or hiding their true feelings, so they are there to provide the proper care and medications if needed. Anxiety can also be a result of situational events. For example, someone who has been lied to by numerous people that they trusted could develop social anxiety. They are more likely to constantly think that no one is honest with them. Another example is male who was rapped or molested as a child, so they do not like people standing behind them. In these situations, counseling would most likely help with their anxiety more than medication would.

Psychiatry is more understanding with the way people respond to depression more than science is. Science would argue that the way that people react is a result of their genes or chemical balances in their brain, while psychiatry says that it is just the way a person deals with things. In fact, a study found a link between mental illness and smoking. The results showed that almost half of those who are diagnosed with depression smoke tobacco. Coming from someone who is currently dealing with depression, believe that this is because when someone is depressed or unhappy with their life, they are likely to do destructive things to their body, like smoking, drinking, cutting, and develop eating disorders. These things provide temporary relief to the person, which only worsens the next event, and since those who smoked after being diagnosed with depression have higher quitting rates than any other group, it only provides psychiatry with another reason to say that people's reactions to their depression is not science based.

Ultimately, science and psychiatry agree that depression can be a cause of biological factors like hormonal imbalances. They especially agree that those who commit homicide are mentally ill. However, science fails to agree with psychiatry when psychiatrists argue that some cases are strictly situational. They also disagree when it comes to treatment. Psychiatry thinks that a lot of healing starts with visiting a counselor and that most of the healing is a result of that while medications only aid in the process and acts almost as a placebo effect, while science thinks that you must start with what could be medically wrong and talking with a counselor or friend only helps somewhat with the healing process. So in conclusion, terms of depression between both fields are very similar, it is just the way that the patients are treated where there is differences. Both sides also agree that the brain is an extremely powerful organ and if someone thinks that one thing will help and another thing will not, they have to receive whatever treatment they believe will help or else they will never recover.

Works Cited:

Lasser, Karen, et al. "Smoking and mental illness: a population-based prevalence study." Jama 284.20 (2000): 2606-2610.

Foucault, Michel, and Hubert Dreyfus. "Mental illness and psychology." (2008).

Szasz, Thomas. Myth of mental illness. Vol. 15. New York, 1961.

Jorm, A. F. "Mental health literacy: Public knowledge and beliefs about." British Journal of Psychiatry 177 (2000): 396-401.

Dobson, Velma, and Bruce D. Sales. "The science of infanticide and mental illness." Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 6.4 (2000): 1098.

Horwitz, Allan V. Creating mental illness. University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Cornwall, Michael. "I Don't Believe in Mental Illness, Do You? - Mad In America." Mad In America. N.p., 19 Mar. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2016. <http://www.madinamerica.com/2012/03/i-dont-believe-in-mental-illness-do-you/>.