Mental health from both sides
Mental illness is very personal, and also very immediate. When it happens to you, it is all that there is, surrounding you, bending your thinking, affecting what you say to others. But those people that are listening to you are not always in the same place as you, even those who have experienced similar illnesses…
My teeth have been bothering me quite a lot recently. This isn’t unusual, and I’m never sure whether it falls within the realms of the neurotic, the slightly disconnected from reality or (most likely) the sadly realistic. I can hardly believe I’m eating chocolate buttons as I write this – rather than creating dissonance, it…
Evidence-based practice matters, and rigorous research is not only a thing of beauty but also necessary to find and validate further and better treatments, especially in psychiatry. But real people exist in a less ordered world, where things are often unclear. Diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, outcome – these are all islands, navigated by many, in boats…
Does it help, having a label or a diagnosis? Maybe it depends what it is, or how it was acquired. As a psychiatrist, I like to make a diagnosis; indeed, it feels sloppy not to try, and there is always the genuine hope that this will lead to better management. But I don’t do terribly…