[babydawn]

I am reading a book right now called "And I Will Make Thee Whole." It is a book to help families who are having to deal with mental illness in any of its many forms. I strongly suggest reading it if any of you are dealing with any sort of mental illness, be it yourself, family member, or friend. It really helps to understand the illnesses and gives new light to some otherwise very sensitive subjects. It uses many quotes from Presidents of the Church and has personal life stories from several well known members of the Church. I must say that I cry everytime I read it, as I have a brother who suffers from schizophrenia and another one who doctors are still working to find an accurate diagnosis. One thing it stresses is that mental illness is an illness like any other. It is as much a physical condition as cancer and needs to be treated as such.
A counselor friend of mine just came from a conference in Utah and was told at this conference that BYU and the University of Utah are teaming up to do research on the brain regarding mental illness by use of advanced imaging....their preliminary findings are showing the brain of mental illness victims to be obviously different than those of a "normal" person's. Unfortunatly, she said it would be a good 10-20 years before extensive enough research can be done to publish their findings as fact.

[beth]

Hey Babydawn,
There are already MRI imaging results available for viewing in any recent textbook on psychology. These scans show distinct differences between the brains of schizophrenia sufferers and "normal" brains. It is yet unknown whether these differences are present at birth but they are definitely observable in adult brains. Sorry to hear your brother has the condition - any mental illness is a painful experience, much more so because of the stigma that sadly still goes with these types of illnesses. Best wishes, Beth

[writerchick]

It's too bad mental illness has the stigma that it has. When I suffered from post-partum depression, my mom was embarrassed that I had to see a psychiatrist, and I had to sit in a Stake Conference where the Stake President said he'd never been depressed a day in his life because he had faith in Christ. Well, I'm sure he meant well, but being in a depressed state anyway, I felt really crushed. Six weeks on an antidepressant cured me. Less time for healing than when I fractured my hand. I'm glad for my experience with mental illness, because I have so much more compassion for people who suffer from it. It's hard to understand how you can't just "snap out of it" unless you've been there. It really is an altered state that needs medical attention. That's why God gave us good doctors (and faith!).

[beth]

Originally Posted by writerchick

It's too bad mental illness has the stigma that it has. When I suffered from post-partum depression, my mom was embarrassed that I had to see a psychiatrist, and I had to sit in a Stake Conference where the Stake President said he'd never been depressed a day in his life because he had faith in Christ. Well, I'm sure he meant well, but being in a depressed state anyway, I felt really crushed. Six weeks on an antidepressant cured me. Less time for healing than when I fractured my hand. I'm glad for my experience with mental illness, because I have so much more compassion for people who suffer from it. It's hard to understand how you can't just "snap out of it" unless you've been there. It really is an altered state that needs medical attention. That's why God gave us good doctors (and faith!).

Good on you for speaking out about the stigma of mental illness. However, I would also like to reassure any readers who have been prescribed antidepressants due to either depression or anxiety that the above rate of recovery (ie 6 weeks) is very unusual. Antidepressants typically take at least 4 weeks to begin to "kick in" and between 6 to 8 weeks for full effect. The patient will commonly remain on that dosage for months or even years depending on inidividual circumstances. So please don't feel that something is wrong with you if you are not "cured" in 6 weeks. For articles on the stigma of mental illness, depression, anxiety, antidepressants, and coping with a breakdown, simply click on the Mental Health link below. Best wishes, Beth

[writerchick]

Originally Posted by beth

Good on you for speaking out about the stigma of mental illness. However, I would also like to reassure any readers who have been prescribed antidepressants due to either depression or anxiety that the above rate of recovery (ie 6 weeks) is very unusual. Antidepressants typically take at least 4 weeks to begin to "kick in" and between 6 to 8 weeks for full effect. The patient will commonly remain on that dosage for months or even years depending on inidividual circumstances. So please don't feel that something is wrong with you if you are not "cured" in 6 weeks. For articles on the stigma of mental illness, depression, anxiety, antidepressants, and coping with a breakdown, simply click on the Mental Health link below. Best wishes, Beth

I should have mentioned that it was an unusually fast recovery and that I stayed ont he medication much longer than the six weeks, even though it really was like waking up out of a bad dream one day. I had another experience with depression later in my life when I was on the medication for a couple of years and there was just a gradual shift for the better. So I didn't mean to put any false hope out there--just the idea that it was very much a chemical problem, obviously.