Remember Bush wanting to psych test every American?

[undergroundpanther]

Climate change deniers have been having a field day with a recent report of the first known case of a patient diagnosed with "climate change delusion".

The 17-year-old man believed that, due to climate change, his own consumption of water could run supplies dry, leading to the deaths of millions of people. He became suicidal, tried to stop drinking, and had been obsessively checking for leaking taps at home to prevent this happening. The case was reported in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2008/07/patient-suffered-from-climate-change.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt16_head_Climate%20'illness'

[madeline_con]

1. The poor kid needs help.

And of course Limpball is going to poke fun, the fat fuck!

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Fascinating. This sounds like some new kind of anorexia. n/t

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. Or OCD.

Seems similar to people who develop a phobia about germs. It has to start with being exposed to information about the effect of germs.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. Definitely.

It sounds real. Far be it for me to "Frist-diagnose" him, but it doesn't sound fake, much less anything to laugh at.

[napoleon_in_rags]

3. Wow and it gets blamed on belief in climate change?

By the same logic we could easily rule out ot the existence of the CIA, FBI and police a far more common subject of delusion in the mentally ill.

[ColbertWatcher]

7. LOL, good point. n/t

[Cobalt-60]

4. 20 years from now he might be right on

The Republicans and their masters have seriously - and I suggest deliberately -
damaged the environment.

[undergroundpanther]

8. saddest thing is

The assholes will use his case to justify themselves.
The right wing will use it to deny that things are wrong with the climate and pollution hurts us all.
And meanwhile this poor guy refuses water because he dosen't want OTHERS to suffer thirst too.
Maybe it is a "novel form of anorexia" or OCD.

Or maybe he does not want the future corporate america and the water barons want to impose on us.Fears it and is aware of how powerless and alone he is in changing it, he just couldn't cope with it.And it comes out as 'symptoms'.

I don't want that future either.I myself can't do much to stop the corporate pigs or the water barons or stop people from driving..
If people were as scared of the truth and the future we all are being pushed into, as he is,(symptoms or no symptoms) I doubt things would stay the same as they are now for very long.

I am sad for the guy. Maybe he is aware and too sensitized to the issue to not be labeled"mentally ill" by the ministers of what is"normal" this culture of control? The label "mentally ill"comes with stigma, stigma that will forever have others dismissing your fears,conclusions,thoughts and ideas.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. Or maybe he's mentally ill.

People who put a stigma on mental illness are the ones with the problem.

Perhaps if people understood psychology a little better, there wouldn't be stigmas on people suffering from real diseases.

I hope the guy gets the help he needs from the medical professionals using science.

FYI, Wikip*dia has an interesting article on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorexia_%28symptom%29">anorexia

[undergroundpanther]

10. Umm

There is NO blood test,brain scan or physical evidence mental illness is a organic or PHYSICAL problem or"illness".Psychiatry has a DISMAL cure rate.

It can help some. But some it does nothing and some, it makes worse.



The fact is you dismiss this guy as mentally ill right off the bat and prefer to write him off because he shows"symptoms".That dismissal of what he might be trying to express through his problems is precisely why stigma has such staying power.



psychiatrist Donald W. Goodwin, M.D., discusses the definition of disease and concludes, "Diseases are something people see doctors for. ... Physicians are consulted about the problem of alcoholism and therefore alcoholism becomes, by this definition, a disease" (Ballantine Books, 1988, p. 61). Accepting this definition, if for some reason people consulted physicians about how to get the economy out of recession or how to solve a disagreement with one's mate or a bordering nation, these problems would also qualify as disease. But clearly this is not what is meant by "disease". In his discussion of the definition of disease, Dr. Goodwin acknowledges there is "a narrow definition of disease that requires the presence of a biological abnormality" (ibid). In this pamphlet I will show that there are no biological abnormalities responsible for so-called "mental illness, mental disease, or mental disorder" and that therefore mental illness has no biological existence. Perhaps more importantly, however, I will show that mental illness also has no non-biological existence - except in the sense that the term is used to indicate disapproval of some aspect of a person's mentality.

In 1992 a panel of experts assembled by the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment concluded: "Many questions remain about the biology of mental disorders. In fact, research has yet to identify specific biological causes for any of these disorders. ... Mental disorders are classified on the basis of symptoms because there are as yet no biological markers or laboratory tests for them." (The Biology of Mental Disorders, U.S. Gov't Printing Office, 1992, pp. 13-14, 46-47). In his book The Essential Guide to Psychiatric Drugs, Columbia University psychiatry professor Jack M. Gorman, M.D., said "We really do not know what causes any psychiatric illness." (St. Martin's Press, 1990, p. 316).


......... Calling disapproved thinking, emotions, or behavior a mental illness might be excusable if mental illness was a useful myth, but it isn't. Rather than helping us deal with troubled or troublesome persons, the myth of mental illness distracts us from the real problems that need to be faced. Rather than being caused by a "chemical imbalance" or other biological problem, the nonconformity, misbehavior, and emotional reactions we call mental illness are the result of difficulties people have getting their needs met and the behavior some people have learned during their lifetimes. .........

Read more and THINK before you REACT.
http://www.atomilk.net/psyche.html

Shyness is now called a mental illness...Should shy people take meds to stop being shy? WTF???
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2007/10/lane.html

[ColbertWatcher]

11. Why do say "dismiss this guy as mentally ill"?

I didn't say that I am a doctor.

Nor did I "dismiss" the poor guy.

I merely said that he might have a mental illness.

[undergroundpanther]

12. He might

Be expressing something,about himself,about how the world is to HIM,,what he fears the world is becoming..he might be expressing a very real social and environmental problem that many people are in DENIAL about and haven't changed a damn thing...Easy to call mental illness on this guy..But it's harder to look at the grand scale ignorance around the issues of water rights,global climate changes and complain about his disliked "symptoms" rather than what they might be pointing at or expressing about the world.
http://www.soultravel.se/2007/0802-fake-patient/index.shtml
Too many are too obedient to restrain greedy water barons,that will someday as soon as they can get away with it charge people for every drop of water they drink.Which means no money and you can die of thirst..And what if his"disease" is from people ignoring his pointing out of the sickness of culture that lets itself be manipulated and used this way?..This guy's behavior could be pointing out this widespread denial of the dangers we as a species face if WE don't fucking change..soon. And maybe his fear is a dilemma because no one bothers to do anything to restrain the greedy pigs that buy up the necessities of life and seek to control us through our need for sustenance,like water.
Educate yourself,maybe he isn't so"mentally ill"Maybe he is acting out a future scenario that could really come to pass,he is just more aware of it,scared and feeling more helpless than most in denial ever feel,so he maybe does not drink because maybe he is so upset by it all.Could be.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/business.html
http://www.worldwaterwars.com/
http://projects.publicintegrity.org/water/

If this situation does not bother you at all,
I wonder what is wrong with you?

[ColbertWatcher]

13. What you described is what I linked to: the Wikip*dia page for anorexia. n/t

[bean fidhleir]

14. While it's true that much of what's called "mental illness" boils down to disapproved behavior

...it grossly overstates the case to say that "mental illness has no biological existence". People who are spontaneously hallucinating and delusional definitely have something going on in their heads that's not usual. We don't know what that something is because we have no way to watch their brain operate. It's not because it's imaginary or the result of choices that put them crosswise to social expectation. There really is something abnormal going on.

In my early teens, I spent several anguished days and nights watching my mother gradually sink into a spectacular, full-strength psychosis with visual and auditory hallucinations (a combination that's quite rare). It was uncanny, terrifying, and as real as a road accident.

[undergroundpanther]

16. than how come

There is no test to show an abnormality,to determine"mental illness",no diagnostic tools beyond a 'shrinks opinion.. So how come the anti psychotics only mask symptoms,they mask it because if they stop taking it they'll go psychotic,so the people taking them must take it forever,It is very profit driven because it never resolves the underlying problem,which very well might be our type of culture.

There was a study done asking why tribal communities with strong ties are cured of schizoprenia?Why? What do they have in India that is missing here?

http://www.templeton-cambridge.org/fellows/vedantam/publications/culture_and_mind-_psychiatrys_missing_diagnosis.part_2.html


In nineteenth-century America slaves had a tendency to run away from their owners. This risk also carried a psychiatric diagnosis, ‘drapetomania’. So slaves who absconded were not seen as men trying to be free, but as mentally sick, irresponsible entities. This labelling process, which preceded DSM-4 by a long time, was a nifty form of invalidation, making a mental invalid out of a social in-valid.
http://human-nature.com/free-associations/risk.html

Learn the HISTORY of bio psychiatry before you rush to defend it.
http://human-nature.com/free-associations/engel2.html
http://www.medsfree.com/Environment.htm

Also I know there are a few physical factors that could cause hallucinations, like taking certain drugs, an injury to the brain , but all these things ,the cause, can be found..But thereis no physical evidence that justifies..These numbers.. In the United States 7.2 per 1,000,have or will be diagnosed with schizoprenia This means that a city of 3 million people will have over 21,000 individuals suffering from schizophrenia.WTF?
http://www.schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm

You'd think with that many people,the"professionals" would have FOUND a real concrete bodily CAUSE for mental illness by now don'tcha think?
Psychiatry's Lack of Insight: Four Double-Binds That Place Patients in a Living Nightmare
http://www.successfulschizophrenia.org/articles/dblbinds.html
perception issues
http://www.successfulschizophrenia.org/stories/lefave11percep.html

But,Mental illness is so much like another stigmatized issue,weight gain,.Both nobody really knows (or wants to admit)why certain things happen to people.So the offending people are drugged to make them appear normal so they can be 'managed' and they get stigmatized for it.Be it diets that don't work or pills that mask the causes.

http://human-nature.com/free-associations/puget.html
http://www.successfulschizophrenia.org/articles/ndlisten.html
http://www.successfulschizophrenia.org/

...Man is a discarded experiment like the mammals, like the saurians, like fire, like sparks that fly upward, like troubles when there is no mind to experience them.
Wilfred Bion

[bean fidhleir]

17. There're no tests yet because we're just not that far along yet

We might never be far enough along, since in a way we're trying to open a box using the tools inside the box. The brain is wonderful, but awfully fragile and complex beyond imagining. We don't even understand the basic elements of memory yet, let alone how decisions are reached or emotions work.

And you won't catch me defending psychiatrists. The DSM is a mediaeval hotch-potch of the real, the political, and the surreal. Any group that can keep a straight face while concocting a jaw-dropping label like "Oppositional Defiant Disorder" has more problems than one.

But just because most psychiatrists have no idea what they're doing doesn't mean there aren't people who can most accurately be described as sick in the head.

[MiniMe]

15. Can we start with him?