That title sounds daunting. I promise I'm not here to attack anyone. ☺️
I do, however, feel the need to address the characterization of anxiety and depression as diseases, and the sense that these so-called diseases require medication.
I do not suffer from depression, so I will skew this discussion towards anxiety - it will be up to depression sufferers to decide if it applies to them.
Before going any further, I want to stress the fact that this post is not an accusation, nor is it in any way, shape or form meant to override recommendations by your respective health care practitioners. Some people very much do need to take medications for various things, and to simply ignore the advice of doctors is both dangerous and reckless. The people I want to address here primarily are the ones who are considering medication or who have recently been "diagnosed" and plotting their course.
The physical and psychological effects of anxiety are very, very real. Having suffered through two severe bouts of anxiety I can certainly attest to that fact myself. The problem, in my view, is that we tend to ignore the cause of the anxiety and head straight for a diagnosis and a cure. This can be counterproductive, and I'll explain why.
As human beings we seek answers to why things are not as we believe they should be. People are very complex, emotional animals. We are also incredibly introspective and imaginative, and sometimes we paint ourselves into a corner with choices we've made. Societally, there are pressures to be certain ways, achieve certain things and even have certain tastes.
When we fail to be as happy as we think we should be, or as well-off financially, or as good-looking or whatever - we look for reasons. We're already sad about it, and we gradually become stressed, and finally distraught. What I'm getting at here, is that no one just "catches anxiety disease" during a make out session on a Tinder date. It's not a disease. We gradually become anxiety sufferers due to circumstance, traumas (physical, sexual or mental) or personality traits.
Calling it a disease is - in a way - giving in to it. It becomes an excuse, or, in our minds, a scientific reason for our state of being. Now that we have this "disease" we have explanations for why no one loves us, why we don't take care of ourselves, why we can't succeed in life - it's all very handy. Don't feel like going to work today? No problem, you have a disease. Perfectly reasonable for you to talk yourself out of doing things. Likewise, taking medication further validates this attitude that we have a disease. Medications are for diseases. My doctor prescribed medication, therefore I have a disease. Not necessarily. Many medications treat symptoms. Such is the case for anxiety and its accompanying medications.
By now, some of you are livid and hovering over your keyboards or phones to rip me a new one. I get it. I'd be mad too - "someone is on the internet pretending to know what's it like like to be ME. Well he's NOT me, he has no idea."
But I do. And I'm not here to call you lazy, or an excuse maker, or a piece of shit...because to do so would be to call myself those things. I stayed home from work countless times because either a) I was literally convinced I was about to die or b) I was so exhausted from thinking I was going to die the day before, that I could not drag my carcass out of bed.
I'm not saying anxiety isn't real. It VERY much is. I just think calling it a disease and reaching out for pharmaceutical help as a first measure is a slippery slope if you're looking for recovery. The physical pain is real. The emotional pain is real - it's all real. But it's not a disease. It's a state of being. It's a habit. It's a way of interpreting every bit of data your brain receives and it's not helping you.
I'm pulling for you. You've got this. It's hard as hell, I know. But I promise you that it gets better - WAY better. As soon as you take control of your own mind the rest cures itself. You do not have a chemical imbalance that can be "cured" with meds. Medication *may* put you into a more relaxed state so you can more easily manage your life, but it's not a solution. Until you realize the ball is in your court to address what caused your anxiety and deal with THAT, everything is a Band-Aid.
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o2G2o
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The stock we put in those labels does affect us though, and our attitudes towards our own issues. You could argue that calling anxiety a disease may be helpful to some people, but I personally can't think of a case where it would be.
I believe that talk therapy is a necessity for anxiety, depression, and any other mental health problem. I believe that meds without therapy is a big mistake, because you need to try to train your brain to think more healthily.
However, I also believe meds can be a necessity, for many people, under various different circumstances. My brother has bipolar disorder and he needs his meds to stay healthy. The bipolar is never going to go away. Mental health problems in some cases really are a chemical/physical problem. Those people need their meds like a diabetic needs insulin.
Oh 100%! Bipolar disorder is absolutely a prime example of what I meant by people needing medication for certain things, and I'm not anti-medicine in the slightest (generally speaking)! I just think that anxiety is a special beast and needs a different approach as opposed to something like bipolar disorder, when many seem to want to lump those into one category.
I haven't read your other replies yet but I can't imagine that anyone could be livid and hovering over their keyboards in anger over your post! It makes perfect common sense.I think you expressed yourself very compassionately and I agree with what you said. Personally also I think there are several other factors which link in with anxiety.
One thing is expecting to be happy or "perfect" all the time. That is not reasonable. We all get anxious and distressed and sometimes life isn't great; every day doesn't have to be a blast in my opinion. Life is very much about "getting on with it".
Another is social media; it can raise anxiety levels.
Anxiety seems to be very much a thing ( I was going to say "disease" but I mean that loosely) of the times we are now living in.
So in short I'd like to thank you for your post and I'm glad that you have found ways to recover from your difficulties.
I absolutely agree re: social media. Young people are too concerned with self image already and social media makes it 40000 times worse. I also agree that not every day is a beach vacation in Bali as Instagram would have us believe!
That's true, I just feel like young people are especially self-conscious to begin with as well as being more active on social media, but yup anyone could be affected. I guess as you get older it can even be worse in some ways because you realize certain things are behind you now and you can't get a do-over.
I've always seen disease as having a physical cause, not just physical symptoms. If anxiety is a disease, so is fear of spiders. Seeing a spider could give someone extreme life or death anxiety, but take away the spider and the "disease" goes away - that doesn't compute for me. I realize anxiety can't be cured "instantly" by removing something, but it's still gradual removal of fears and retraining of the mind so I really hesitate to even call it a "condition" (though I could accept that term).
According to Wikipedia (I know, I know) basically anything wrong with a person is a disease. After reading a few sections on there, I've come to the conclusion that having a piece of broccoli stuck in your teeth is technically a disease. All this to say, you're 100% right. Anxiety meets the extremely loose definition of a disease, as does having an itchy armpit for 3 or 4 seconds, or sneezing. THANKS A LOT, MEDICINE.
Well I don't know what to call real diseases anymore. Do we have any suggestions?
I'm going to look at that after I'm done some work stuff I've gotta do, but in the meantime I'm going to classify mental disorders as "software" issues, and actual medical diseases as "hardware" issues. If you've ever had a laptop with a software issue, you know it can easily be worse than a faulty hard drive or a loose cable. Reprogramming can fix it though.
I'd call a true chemical imbalance a hardware issue.
I personally was never comfortable calling anxiety a disease, in the same sense that diabetes is a disease. I think disorder is a better term. To consider it a disease, with the attitude "Well, I'll just have to take meds for life, I guess.", is not the right approach. Meds are necessary when symptoms are very bad, and things are not under control. But yes, we should have an attitude of using meds only as needed for anxiety. Hopefully, we can reach the point of not using them at all.
Why, hello there, so nice to be thought of these days! Mine are low-dose (2 mg) and white, but I only take them on the now (thankfully) rare occasion I experience an epileptic aura. Otherwise, I'm plodding along in my quest for wellness and goodness, and I wish you good days ahead, as well. 😺
I've tried Valium a few times. It definitely works, but I better get on the couch fast, because I'm gonna be there a long time! I usually use Ativan, myself.
I would never call anxiety or depression a disease, but I would say it's an illness. Most of us do recommend counselling to find and deal with the root causes - I know I do. I also know meds help me so I will carry on taking them, but each to their own.
I think a huge amount depends on your age and how long you have lived with something. I use a mixture of meds and self knowledge to manage my illness, but someone very young wouldn't necessarily have those techniques to hand yet. This is where we can help.
I have also found that there isn't always a complete 'cure' but at the end of the day you have to find a way to live with your condition the same as you do with a physical one.
I do think too many people think you have always got to be happy and bubbly and are never allowed to be just sad, tired, or totally hacked off. And if anyone ever uses the term 'perfect' in relation to their life or a relationship I see red flags. x
After suffering for 2 years with anxiety/ mood disorder horrendously.. .. I have experienced every physical and mental symptom from head to toe... I have to disagree about it not being a chemical imbalance,..
Mine is caused through my thyroid hormones not being stable and the fact I'm still trying to find the right dose of T3 and T4 meds... before my levels went haywire I was happy never suffered with anxiety and lived a great life, there was no trigger no death no substantial event to set it off...
Unlike so many poor people that suffer and cannot get out of bed or even the house daily.. I'm lucky enough to be strong enough to push myself every second of the day to act normal when im dying inside, iv masked it that well that even my partner of 16 years does not think I suffer, even though I tell him how I feel, he thinks I'm lying because I act so normal...
I strongly believe that everyone should get their hormones tested including thyroid hormones when they are suffering...
I'm glad you brought this up because in my haste I totally glossed over this issue of anxiety being caused by something medical. I don't tend to think of anxiety as a symptom of something else because I didn't experience it that way personally, but you're absolutely right, and I should have qualified my post by saying that you should ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS rule out every possible medical reason (to a point) for the way you are feeling before doing anything else.
I'm gonna have to go back and rename my post "If your situation is almost identical to mine, then..." 😬
What you say is true, o2G2o, particularly about spending more time trying to cure the symptoms rather than the cause. We need to put more emphasis on cause solving.
As I quoted from Claire Weekes elsewhere: "Depression isn't the world, it's you". Same goes for anxiety.
When I went to my family doctor (whom I like, by the way, and whom I feel is young and forward-thinking) he spent all of 2 minutes diagnosing me with anxiety and already had his prescription pad out. It made me realize how defunct the system really is and how unprepared doctors are to actually deal with it. The extent of their training seems to be "I dunno...pills?"
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