Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2014-01-12 03:39 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2014-01-12 03:39 pm
[ SECRET POST #2567 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2567 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Tumblr and/or social justice in and of themselves aren't fandoms, unfortunately.
Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 077 secrets from Secret Submission Post #367.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Re: More power to you.
(Anonymous) 2014-01-13 07:30 am (UTC)(link)Re: More power to you.
And I think it's admirable that you don't think there are any dead-end patients. I guess I don't think there are dead-end patients either, but… well, there's a difference between "not being a dead end" and "being fully functional and able to integrate seamlessly back into society." I guess my feeling is that even for people who are on treatment that actually works, depending on the problem, the treatment might only be enough to get them to be functional in the most essential of ways… that it might not make them "normal," at least how society would define it. Might not ever be enough for that.
You are the one who said there is "help for anyone and anything out there." You also are the one who made the broad claim that with proper help, all problems can just "go away." But if psychiatry is your profession, you should know that the goal isn't to make problems disappear, it's to allow people to live their lives as functionally as possible. Part of that should be supporting those who talk about their own coping strategies without getting all paternalistic and butting in with your more formal medical options. Online, the people you talk to are not your patients, and can never be unless you get them to disclose a lot more than would be healthy to share on a public forum for all to see. Don't just assume that people don't know what they are talking about, or have given up without trying a lot of options… anyone who is talking about coping strategies is already someone who is healthy enough not to have given up altogether, just by the very fact that they are doing things on their own which help ameliorate the problems they face.
My statement that some problems are not amenable to treatment doesn't come from a place of ignorance, or lack of experience of my own in trying to help those with severe psychiatric problems… I have seen firsthand the kind of problems that cause people to end up homeless and on drugs or alcohol. Someone who starts out illiterate and poor is maybe not going to come to the concept of treatment in their lives until it really is too late… people who have destroyed their livers with alcohol (maybe taken in part to drive away depression!) can't really get their livers back, and people who have gotten their skulls bashed in by thugs while living on the streets aren't going to recover the parts of their brains that were damaged. Untreated psychiatric problems can sometimes lead to specific kinds of dead ends, facilitating incurable physical problems that will only complicate and frustrate attempts to treat the underlying issues.
But taking a step back, even for people who are more fortunate in their lives and who are actively seeking treatment for their problems… it's hard to say that everyone will feel perfectly normal and undamaged, even if their treatments have been a rousing success.
Respecting people's lived experience is so important. Even healed cuts can leave scars. I think it is quite clear that psychiatric illness can leave scars too, even when it's been as healed by therapy as is possible. Someone who crawls out of anxiety to have it appropriately managed still might end up waking up to a world where they remain unemployed and friendless, and those are completely separate problems that psychiatry is simply not equipped to address, let alone cure. You can help people hang on and teach them tools to help restore themselves to society, but the problems themselves? You can't give people jobs. You can't force people to be their friends. Life still happens even for people who are mentally well, and life can bring terrible challenges and losses at times. This is what I mean about things not being fully amenable to treatment.
I'm sorry that this conversation has left you with a bad taste in your mouth. But I think the most healthy stance for medical professionals to take is one of optimistic realism, not one where you make promises you might not be able to deliver on. Even if you are fully confident that you can 100% fix the people who come to you for help, do you promise them that their problems will be cured if they just stick with you, or do you give them a more guarded but realistic forecast, predicting that ongoing treatment should help them to cope with their lives better, giving them better tools to enjoy their lives more? I suspect it's more the latter. In which case, shouldn't that be your stance online as well? Remember that the people who come to you in your clinic are coming to you, and if you similarly restrict yourself online to those who "come you you" by specifically asking for advice, you will probably get a much warmer and more grateful reception for the informed advice you are qualified to give.