One of the challenges faced by people who have a mental illness — such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or ADHD or the like — is that not too many people will talk to you about “curing” the condition. (Except snake-oil salesmen, who will claim they can cure your bipolar disorder with their amazing technique or CD.) In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a professional who talks openly about “cures” for mental illness.
For instance, Pete Quily (twitter: petequily) drives the point home with a recent set of twitters:
If someone on twitter saying he/she can “Cure #ADHD” with their snake oil/brain machine, donkey ride, miracle ebook etc. Realize 2 things: 1. They’re spammers. 2.They’re ignorant, liars or both. You don’t cure #ADHD, you learn to manage it more effectively.
Really? It got me to thinking why we don’t talk about “curing” mental disorders.
What we have instead of cures are a bunch of treatments. Most of which work pretty well, to varying degrees. But to most people seeking mental health assistance, treatments can take a frustratingly long period of time before finding one that works. For instance, finding the right medication can take months. And finding the right, experienced therapist you feel comfortable working with can also take months (even longer if the “good” therapists have waiting lists).
Once in treatment, your physician or psychologist rarely mentions the word “cure.” Cure is what doctors do for a broken wrist or scurvy. Set the wrist or give the patient a vitamin C shot, and voila! Done. Treating mental illness rarely results in a “cure,” per se. What it does result in is a person feeling better, getting better, and eventually no longer needing treatment (in most cases). But even then, rarely will a professional say, “Yes, you’re cured of your depression.”
Why is that? Why is there such a reluctance to invoke this magical word? I mean, cure literally means, “recovery or relief from a disease,” so if someone has recovered or has found relief from depression, why not say the person has been cured?
I think our reluctance comes from the belief that mental illness is far more recurring than most diseases in many people’s lives. If you have a bout of depression or a depressive episode, that doesn’t stop the depression from coming back at some later time (even if successfully treated). Whereas once you’ve treated a broken wrist, it’s not going to return (unless you break it again); once you’ve treated scurvy, it too won’t return if you prod the patient into drinking more orange juice or eating an orange once in awhile.
Depression, on the other hand, like most mental illness, knows no boundaries. It will come and go as it pleases in our lives, even if we’ve successfully treated one episode of it. There seems to be little rhyme nor reason to when a mental disorder strikes, who it will strike (outside of genetic predispositions for some of them), and how deep or long the episode will last.
To Pete Quily’s claim that one does not “cure” ADHD (attention deficit disorder), there are certainly many good treatment options for ADHD that minimize its impact in a person’s life. I’m not sure I’d call that a “cure” either, but I wonder at how demotivating it must be for someone to hear that a mental disorder — like ADHD, depression, or bipolar disorder — is not typically “cured,” but rather just treated in varying degrees of intensity for the rest of one’s life. But what accounts for the discrepancy in prevalence rates between childhood ADHD (5.29%) and adult ADHD (4.40%) — a 0.9% difference? If not being “cured,” then children seem to be doing something that makes them less likely to receive an adult ADHD diagnosis.
Professionals have a term for this “non-curing” of mental illness, too… Instead of removing the diagnosis from the chart at the end of treatment, they often place the phrase, “In remission” onto the end of the diagnosis instead. It’s good to hedge your bets, because you see, even when you are “cured” of your mental illness, nobody will come out and actually say it.
Naturally professionals can’t lie to people and tell them depression or ADHD or any other disorder can be readily cured. They cannot. In virtually every instance, treatment for a mental disorder takes time, effort, and money. And even treatment takes 3 to 4 months, in most cases and for most disorders, before one starts feeling any sort of relief.
Which brings me back to the question — how do you cure mental illness? The answer — you don’t. You help people understand what it is, learn and engage new ways of coping with its symptoms, and help them do the best they can with the resources they have available. Right now, there’s no “cure” for mental illness. I hope within my lifetime, I can answer this question in a very different way.
88 comments
The article was excellent, well-written, and explained thoroughly the differences between the concepts of “cure” and “remission.”
You might have included an analogy often used: diabetes. Persons suffering with diabetes can usually live near-normal lives, but their disease is not cured in any sense. Miss a dose of insulin, or, in milder cases, gain too much weight, and diabetes comes back.
BTW: my own depression, in complete remission for over 5 years now; generalized anxiety disorder, under control via medication, but not in remission (if I stop taking meds, it comes back, 100%–my doc and I have tried stopping meds several times over the years).
John
Sorry but my diabetes was cured according to my physician when I lost alot of weight. I have been off medications for almost a year.
My daughter is following some DVD/workbook set to work on her social anxiety, and I’ve noticed major improvements in her behavior. I think that by the time you’re my age (54), that sort of cognitive/behavioral programming is far less effective.
My daughter is following some DVD/workbook set to work on her social anxiety, and I’ve noticed major improvements in her behavior. I think that by the time you’re my age (54), that sort of cognitive/behavioral programming is far less effective.
P.S. – Sorry, forgot to tell you great post!
Good god, man, ADHD a “mental illness?” What tripe. Conventionally, it’s considered a disorder, but Ed Hallowell, MD and Peter Jensen, MD, in their latest collaborative effort (Superparenting for ADD)have said it’s a trait. As much as ‘experts’ try to insist, according to the NIH, no pathology exists to identify ADHD. This would strongly uphold the notion that it’s a trait like being left or right handed. One of the greatest limits we place on human beings is the label mentally ill. But ADHD is not a mental illness. That’s total rubbish.
As a PhD myself, and former educator with a child who has the ADHD trait, we’ve used cognitive skill building techniques (Play Attention — http://www.playattention.com) and ADHD Nanny. We modified our parenting techniques as well. Low and behold, we’ve made incredible significant improvement for our son, Alex. Would I call these techniques and strategies ‘cures?’ No. Are they strategies that improve his quality of life? Yes. Is he mentally ill? He was never more mentally ill than someone who was born left handed or with crooked teeth. You don’t cure a trait. You can work with it to make vast improvements. That’s a fact. It’s neuroplasticity. Calling someone with the ADHD trait mentally ill is not only ridiculous (Dr. Hallowell is labeled ADHD — I doubt he considers himself mentally ill), it’s also enervates the person labeled. It’s more than past time to stop this label.
Number one!
If you do not suffer ADHD then do not presume to understand the wirings of it!
If you have a PhD in psychology then you understand that cognitive behavioral disorders exist and are ignorant to think otherwise! There is frequency of abnormal behavior then you can’t sit and tell me black when I say white everytime!
I suffer ADHD and no amount of parents in the world can possibly help me without medications! My parents drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes while I was in the womb and as an infant!
I have heard many children say they use to be ADHD but grew out of it. No if you do not have it into adulthood you never had it! If you can live life off of medication you never had it!
ADHD is not tolerated in this world it’s abnormal and the sooner people jump aboard the perfect truth and quit being a stick in the mud like every scientist, the sooner we can commit to researching cures and honing energy to curing children and making them feel like a human being for once without growing up alone and rejected by a chemical imbalance of the brain! You can’t sit and be so ignorant as to tell me cat scans of the brain show no difference in brain structure and spectrographic imaging of the chemical levels in the brain of abnormal and say nothings wrong! How dare you!
For the last thirty years, there has been a movement of people with psychiatric disabilities that emphasizes the idea of “recovery” from mental illness. Recovery doesn’t mean a 12-step program – although many people with psychiatric disabilities do have co-occurring addictions and find 12-step programs useful – recovery is a holistic notion aimed at self-determination and at living the best life one can as a productive member of a community.
As one who has been able to successfully taper off of what was an original psych med cocktail of 4 down to 1 ( I will be completely off this year or next), I am speechless at this doom and gloom article. Talk about stigma and sentencing someone to life imprisonment with no possibility for parole.
By the way, I have nothing to sell and I am not a scientologist. Anyway, I was one who was essentially given the message I needed to be on meds for life. Hmm, I had other ideas, especially in light of dealing with horrific side effects, including a hearing loss.
I decided I would learn self CBT to deal with the ups and downs of life that everyone deals with. The only difference between me and someone else was I didn’t initially have good coping techniques and thus ended on meds. It wasn’t because I have an incurable mental illness and to imply otherwise is doing a huge disservice.
Think about the implications of your article regarding someone with a label getting a job and health insurance. I am still stunned at what has been written.
There are many people like me who reject this labeling and stigma and we have gone med free. Unfortunately, there will never be any studies because of articles like this and psychiatry’s beliefs, that once diagnosed, never undiagnosed, to quote Philip Dawdy’s psychiatrist, in reference to when he asked about his BP label.
AA
Mr. Glennon,
Do you think they should wait for the pathology before treating alzheimers too? Maybe it too is a trait and not an illness.
I have a mental illness and I accept that and take medication daily. As long as the ignorance exists concerning mental illness, so will the stigma.
Jude the biofeedback program called Wild Divine is fantastic at any age.
Hi John,
so a mention but no link?
Keep in mind I only have 140 characters to work with in Twitter. My initial draft for the tweet was
1. They’re spammers. 2.They’re ignorant, liars or both. You don’t cure #ADHD, you learn to manage it more effectively and turn it into an asset
but there wasn’t enough space, so I cut out the last 6 words.
Given that my blog is called Adult ADD Strengths I thought it wouldn’t be a problem leaving them out.
One of the thing we Adult ADHD coaches do is to teach our clients how to manage some of the negatives of having ADHD so they can focus more on the positives of ADHD. In fact I have a whole category of them on my blog.
Many people with ADHD make their living by identifying and focusing on those strengths. Creativity is impulsivity done right. Hyperactivity channeled correctly gives you extra energy and staying power.
I’ve never heard of anyone with ADHD paying for a course to teach them how to be creative, often the problem is limiting it.
“To Pete Quily’s claim that one does not “cure†ADHD (attention deficit disorder), there are certainly many good treatment options for ADHD that minimize its impact in a person’s life.”
So on one hand you’re saying I’m claiming one does not “cure” ADHD and later you say “how do you cure mental illness? The answer — you don’t”
So are you saying I’m making a claim or a statement of fact?
I agree there are many good treatment options for ADHD, and I most certainly did not imply there weren’t. I make my living doing one of those options, ADHD coaching. One of my most popular posts on my blog is called top ten ways to manage adult ADHD.
The reason I did those 2 tweets is that there are many modern snake oil salespeople on twitter who claim there product/service cure’s ADHD. I encourage people to type in ADHD as a keyword into twitter search and see how many people are trying to take advantage of people with ADHD and scam them. There are a few ADHD coaches and therapists tweeting about ADHD that are offering legitimate useful services for people with ADHD, but often it seems they’re outnumbered by dishonest internet marketers who’ll say anything to push their product/service/ebook etc often using fear based marketing.
Often they demonize ADHD medication as a way of trying to legitimize their snake oil/ 4 step process because it’s “drug free”. They take advantage of people with ADHD many of whom who buy into the stigma against ADHD and ADHD medication to such a degree that they’d almost pay any price and are often fleeced. Leaving them no better at dealing with their ADHD but a lot poorer.
There are some people out there with ADHD who’ve spent a lot of time, money and effort to successfully learn how to manage ADHD and wouldn’t want to cure it even if they could because they’ve been able to structure their life so that they consider having ADHD to be mainly a strength or a gift. There are billionaires who credit having ADHD as being part of their success.
I hope more people with ADHD learn how to manage it more effectively and can move in the direction where it’s more of a strength than a challenge, it’s not easy, but it’s worth the effort.
You cannot cure depression until you psychologically change your mind set through Positive Psychology. I went through a major depression for eleven to thirteen years, in and out of mental hospitals, with analytic, behaviorist, cognitive-behaviorist and humanistic techniques taught to me. It was not until Dr. Doug Caldwell (whom I became a desciple of) taught me Positive Psychology’s short, positive, in the present reaffirmations (“mantras” that I later learned what they were from wisdom traditions), but He taight small individual problems whereas I went the “female” equivalent of global in asking for a change in my mind set and perception of my core being. I am now going after at least a masters in psychology and possibly a doctorate in psychology so that I can teach what I learned and document through experiments its validity. I am in the process of writing a book about my experience to explain my poem about my conversion from major depression to my first level of happiness. I will then write a second book about the different levels of consciousness in relationship to happiness. I also hope to bring back the “classical” definition of psychology as my philosophy professor has challenged me to do. Patti
Thanks for the great article. I like that way that you point out that “cures” are rare when it comes to mental illness.
These exact same issues (including those of suppressing creativity) are used in reference to other disorders too, notably bipolar disorder. It can’t be “cured” but you can live in “recovery” by “managing symptoms.”
Dr. Grohol,
You seem to be taking for granted that the medical metaphors of “illness,” “disease,” “cure,” “treatment,” etc. are descriptive of “the way things are,” rather than useful (but limited) ways to understand the complex, multi-dimensional problems we face as human beings.
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a thousand more times: This disease model of understanding mental “illnesses” is no where near adequate to make sense of human experience and problems of living. Putting “illness” in quotes doesn’t deny the very real suffering people face. Nor does it deny the obvious truth that all subjective experience–of health, balance, normal emotions, or profound dysfunction and pathology–is anchored in the brain and physical organism. But the convention of using medical disease/treatment language to talk about our problems is still just that—a convention. It’s useful in some ways and terribly limiting in other ways.
Maybe trying to find a “cure” for mental “illnesses” is a little like trying to find heaven by building a really big ladder, or trying to mend a broken heart with needle and thread. Maybe psychological problems are “like” diseases is some ways, and thus it can be useful to talk about diagnosis and treatment, but they aren’t actually diseases, in the sense that cancer or small pox are disease. Psychiatric and psychological “treatments” like meds and therapies may help–and of course do often help–, but this doesn’t mean they’re helpful because a presumed disease is being treated. Why is this assumed?
Neuroplasticity, biofeedback, the placebo effect, the efficacy of talk therapy, —all stuff you write about in this blog—can not be contained within the disease model/brain disorder philosophy of mental health. Yet, whenever you get philosophical and talk on a fundamental level about the work that you do, your use of language seems to imply some basic assumptions, assumptions I would love to hear you explicitly articulate one day.
My take is that psychologists and psychiatrists will continue to chase “cures” and other ghosts until they acknowledge and develop integrative theoretical perspectives that take into account the multiple dimensions of human life. Integrative perspectives already exist, but they don’t get a significant “buy in” from either leaders in the field or the general public, for a variety of reasons. Another discussion!
I look forward to your aforementioned “Groholian Philosophy of Psychology” piece…
Bravo. This is an area as a long time urban Mental Health post graduate Social Worker have been struggling with especially with my unwanted foray into the world of the severely mentally ill with several years of extreme symptoms of either Bi Polar of Psychotic Depression. I can’t be cured and will need multiple and sometimes dangerous meds for the rest of my life. My contern that this category of illness falls under chronic diseasse which is so so much better than in the past for all of this dieases that fall into the arena.What I find appalling is the lack of motivation to find a cure. This is difficult, we have cancer efforts galore and still many types are uncurable. Our brains and our metabolism which I think will be the system that will yield a cure for mental illness and other chronic diseases are complex and we still know so little. I also feel the Pharm industry is content with this type of medication treatment. As of yet, there are no carrots hanging in front of them to actively push for a cure. We also are competing with so many other worthwhile medical causes. Maybe we need a human genome like project – a cure for all and not for some.
i believe depression will only return if the root cause was not treated, suppose that a person had poor coping abilities that resulted in depression, after this person is treated another trigger will result in depression because the problem is still in his coping abilities not brain chemicals, if this person understood this fact and worked on it depression will never return back
I’m not at all sure I agree with the medical, disease model for mental disorders. In fact, I usually write about “mental disorders,” not “mental illness” on purpose, because I don’t view disorders as the same as a disease (and, in fact, science tends to back this up with the general failure to demonstrate any replicable finding on a specific brain function or chemical related to a specific disorder).
So no, I’m not a big fan of the disease model whatsoever.
But I am a fan of re-thinking our expectations and societal inclinations when it comes to the word “cure.” We shouldn’t always be looking for a “fix” or a “cure” or look at the world in such black and white ways. Virtually every mental disorder is a complex combination of factors, so “cure” is the wrong word to use or think about.
And yet, people do. People want to hear their depression can be cured. If it “remits” for 10 years, isn’t that a cure of sorts?
My English is not perfect, but I will try my best to explain about my experiences and how do I find cure about mental illness? I would like to share this for anyone try to find cure about this disorders.
I suffered Bipolar since I was 16 years. I didn’t know it was a disease until I had it. My life was controlled by this scary illness. Didn’t care about my life because I can’t control myself anymore. Lost all my friends, no hope, worthless , no purpose in life, pessimists, always angry over something etc…….. Ended up in mental hospital for treatment . Fortunately , I did get better with the help of all the nurses , doctors and my family support. I felt very graceful to received a lot of compassion and loving from mental health hospital and my lovely family.
My mood was up and down for ten years, i can’t control it . With medication and treatments, my bipolar was under the control temporarily. It doesn’t help cure to the root. It will come back if I stop with medication and let myself go. I was told I have to live with this illness for the rest of my life. I spend ten years studied about this illness based on the books and research. I concluded because of my chemical imbalance in my brain. Try to think positive, exercising, participating all different activity etc…. to keep myself stable and balanced. But all that, it’s just temporarily relieve from illness.
For another ten years, I’ve tried to find a cure for mental health. Finally, I did find a way to slowly cure my illness. It’s meditation of Buddhism. It’s a religion that help you find a happiness inside of you. It doesn’t happened overnight, I need learn why I’m suffering? It’s very complex and complicated to explain in concrete way. Studying Buddhism will explain why you have this illness, what’s cause you moody, depressed, anxiety, etc….
Once you understand the concept, you will realize that you could control all this if you are practicing Buddhism. Buddhism helps you to have a better life, you see this world in a different way. It took me ten years to master this meditation. Now I’m 36 years old, I feel very blessed to find the happiness in my life. No medication, no treatments, I haven’t experienced any symptoms of bipolar for more than ten years.
Everyday, my purpose of life is help everyone to have a better life. My life is dedicated to help other, help the world to be better place. Kindness, selfless, caring, forgiveness, giving will help you to feel better . I hope everyone that suffer from mental health, at least try to meditation Buddhism. Your mental health is in your hand.
In response to D McArthur’s statement: “Mr. Glennon,
Do you think they should wait for the pathology before treating alzheimers too? Maybe it too is a trait and not an illness.
I have a mental illness and I accept that and take medication daily. As long as the ignorance exists concerning mental illness, so will the stigma.”
There is pathology to Alzheimers. It can be seen in parts of the brain through fMRI and CAT scans (at least is detrimental effects). It is a true disease.
I’ll maintain that ADHD is most likely a heritable trait past from generation to generation. In some instances, ADHD-like symptoms may have some other etiology like trauma or toxins. So, when is a trait a mental illness? That’s the question. If it deteriorates the brain and causes death (Alzheimers), certainly. If you have diffused attention, NO!
If mental health is considered to be a continuum then any idea of cure doesn’t make sense. Can anyone ever really say they are in a condition of perfect mental health?
check thyroid with bipolar, it is more common than thought, and takes more than the standard tests. The treatment is much better than the anti psychotics, many fewer side effects.
It’s good to see this kind of discussion going on. Reframing the question changes the answers. I’ve long felt that dealing with chronic depression is a craft, much like knitting, that is perfected over time.
There’s a movement to take the stigma away from mental dis-ease (as they characterize it) and lots of big-name folks are behind it, among them founder Joe Pantoliano (from “The Sopranos”). They’ve made a documentary called “No Kidding, Me Too!”
They started doing screenings around the country this winter.
Here’s a link to the web site:
http://nkm2.org
BRIDGES, a course taught by Peer Specialists to others working toward mental wellness, is a recovery-directed program. It is not snake oil. It teaches people how to communicate with their psychiatrists when side effects of medication out-weigh the benefits. It helps with awareness of social skills necessary for finding jobs, and maneuverability through the government support systems that help maintain independence. Each of these issues is a step toward recovery. I prefer, “process of recovery,” to “remission.”
-E. Garner, Peer Specialist, BFA, MFA, Bi-Polar Disorder
Interesting article.
I have always wondered about ADHD in particular and whether it is a diagnosable disease/illness. I know many people who have ADHD and one of whom said the doctor told him he “grew out of it” and it only affected him as a child. So is ADHD a phase? I see it has been described as a trait; so can it be a temporary trait?
You forgot to add that the drug companies really don’t want to cure mental illness. They are making a big profit off the misery and suffering of others. Why cure it? There’s no profit in that.
In response to Dr. Grohol’s comment from May 26th, 2009 – wanting a cure – I think some of us think in terms of wanting science to be more constructive in finding ways to address the causes of depression, rather than merely treating the symptoms (known as the field of psychiatry). I don’t see anything black and white about that and can’t imagine any good reason why we “shouldn’t be” searching for that cure, diverting more resources to curing/finding the causes instead of focusing on treating symptoms. Not that the 2 are mutually exclusive, and research is obviously conducted for both ends, but your comment stated cure is the “wrong” word to use..
I believe it is sort of dismissive to classify seeking “cures” as “wrong”. I perceive strong implications from the language you use to describe how we “should” view mental disorders. Do people dismiss those who want to find an actual cure for cancer, rather than treating symptoms? I think NOT…It can be argued cancer is caused by several factors much like mental disorders-genetics, lifestyle, environment (and yes-even social support, attitude/optimism, etc. have been said to affect the disease progression) How is this fundamentally different from mental disorders? I don’t hear people dismissing those seeking a real cure for cancer in this manner. Maybe cancer will someday be cured by reversing the altering of the metabolism of cells; maybe someday mental disorders will be cured by altering the processes of brain neurotransmitters (no-not like the finding the needle in the haystack approach of today’s meds)…no one knows.
Many of us are initially given drugs to address the symptoms without the physician even searching for a cause such as thyroid and other endocrinological malfunctions, infections/Lyme, etc. This happens more than you think.
Just using the example of thyroid malfunction-if that alone can cause depression-who is to say depression is not all biological? As a non-scientist who only reads the views of scientists, I hold the opinion that it seems to not all be necessarily biological, but I would not state that in confidence because in reality-none of us know.
Maybe perception even in terms of depression-anxiety/how we view the world/relate to others is all biological…just look at autism or synesthesia, among other things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia. I mean if people can see sounds and hear colors, is that much different than psychosis except for the more intermittent nature of psychosis? Again, it seems nobody really knows for sure. Maybe mental disorders are a combination of genetic factors and-or from strutural changes to the brain resulting from childhood trauma, or both, but maybe not.
Of course ‘brain science’ is not simple. But when you said “Virtually every mental disorder is a complex combination of factors”, how do you know that for sure? And, btw, I mostly agree with you as any other human being with an opinion, although I would not state this strongly….I think it’s more appropriate to say, instead, the only thing current research can tell us at this point is that generally mental disorders are thought to be a complex combination of factors….
Main point (not so articulately expressed): It doesn’t sound black and white at all.
AND
I think recognizing what we DON’T know is just as important as knowing what we know!
Your opinion is valid as anyone else’s and I respect it–however, since you brought up black and white thinking, I perceive your opinion to be more black and white than the opinion of some of us who want that “cure”.
I hope we, as a society, can be open minded about this. This reminds me as far back as 9th grade (and this was many years ago) when an astute teacher of my Genetics 101 course once told me that some can argue “all that is possible in the future actually exists today”. What a wise thought. 😛
We have “Fight for a Cure” for breast cancer..why is it NOT wrong to think that way about breast cancer according to societal mores, but you – the owner of a mental health blog and Psych D. – assert it is wrong to think about mental illnesses in a similar manner?
Would you also tell the millions located throughout the country who are passionately running in Komen’s Races for the Cures that their thinking is black and white? That they should not ever think in terms of cures because it is wrong and instead, they should only be thinking in terms of how to manage and cope with cancer?
Much like depression, someone can get breast cancer once and never have a reoccurence, or be in remission only to have a subsequent relapse. Even if cured of breast cancer, one can still get skin cancer, brain cancer, pancreatic cancer…
So we have all the bumper stickers for finding a cure for breast cancer and autism…
And since you said:
“Depression, on the other hand, like most mental illness, knows no boundaries. It will come and go as it pleases in our lives, even if we’ve successfully treated one episode of it. There seems to be little rhyme nor reason to when a mental disorder strikes, who it will strike (outside of genetic predispositions for some of them), and how deep or long the episode will last.”
Umm, sounds just like cancer. In addition, depression also leads to impairments, even death (suicide) – just like cancer.
And you also said:
“But I am a fan of re-thinking our expectations and societal inclinations when it comes to the word “cure.†We shouldn’t always be looking for a “fix†or a “cure†or look at the world in such black and white ways. Virtually every mental disorder is a complex combination of factors, so “cure†is the wrong word to use or think about.”
Why isn’t “cure” the wrong word to think about cancer? Or autism? Are these illness not also a combination of factors?
So when you said:
“Why is that? Why is there such a reluctance to invoke this magical word? I mean, cure literally means, “recovery or relief from a disease,†so if someone has recovered or has found relief from depression, why not say the person has been cured?…I think our reluctance comes from the belief that mental illness is far more recurring than most diseases in many people’s lives.”
My thought was, no way…and especially after reading this article and your comment, it seems more likely “our reluctance” comes from the stigma STILL associated with mental illness – the belief that, despite some awareness of genetic and biological factors, mental illness is still somehow viewed as the result of an individual’s flaws or weaknessnes. People develop maladaptive patterns because they are somehow not as strong and able as others (no you did not say this directly). Those with mental illness are somehow less than others, but those with cancer are the unlucky, the unfortunate.
But how do you know that depression is not the result of the composition of brain structure or cognitive processes we are born with? Why is it NOT ok to seek a cure for mental illness, but it IS ok to seek a cure for cancer and autism?
Think about what you are saying – as the leader of Time’s 50 best websites of 2008 as you proudly display that on the top of the page. Perhaps some stigma lies in your very own unconsciousness. I feel what you have written has very negative connotations for those with mental disorders.
You said: “But I am a fan of re-thinking our expectations and societal inclinations when it comes to the word “cure.â€
Yeah, thanks, let’s go backwards….more toward the previous beliefs that the mentally disorded are possessed by demons. Let’s continue to encourage the seeking of cures for cancer, but reverse any trends towards hopes or initiatives to cure mental illnesses. I am so suprised you think we should rethink our expectations for finding a cure and that thinking about cures for mental illnesses are black and white.
While I’m more sure than not it was unintentional, the stigma is so apparent in reading between the lines of what you wrote.
I think your explanation is excellent. However, I do have a question about PTSD or DDNOS, since these are a result of trauma if a person is treated for them can these be considered cureable disorders?
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Thank-you for some straight talk about mental illness. I also hope for the day when there is a “cure” but in order to find a cure they first need to determine why mental illnesses happen. Theories about genetics, chemical imbalances and other “reasons” have not made treatment more successful, it is still time-consuming for many. Also for many patients, finding the quality care that can properly diagnose them is hard and then there are the expenses involved…not to sound hopeless but this is why so many people do not do well. The lack of success in treatment helps to make the stigma against the mentally ill so strong. Thank-you again for your insightful article.
Certain Mental illnesses are chronic. They may go into remission but recur. I have Schizo-affective disorder and have an understanding with my mental health professionals that it makes the most sense to practice preventative maintenance. I have tried to go off my meds and realized that the symptoms come back. This is not true of all mental illness.
There is no medical, clinical test or scientific fact that can prove that mental illness exists – Neither a chemical deficiency nor imbalance.
This is why there is no cure for something that does not exist.
Not everyone is gullible.
You folks can speak for yourselves.
Dr Grohol, I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and had undiagnosed PTSD in the 80s. I lost the rest of my teens to the diagnosis because I was forced into institutionalization. As a young adult I suffered incredibly until suicide attempt #6 when I had an out-of-body and near-death experience which inspired me to change my life.
I forswore a ‘normal’ life after that. I had to work of course, to pay the bills and keep a roof over ym head, but I chose not to pursue a career, a family or even romance. How could I? I had been diagnosed with incurable genetic diseases. But I refused to believe and accept that as my fate.
I spent what money I made working at a factory on training with a meditation master. I took up a lifestyle of meditating and practicing tai chi and yoga six hours a day, seven days a week. I had no stresses or commitments. I had no life other than my 9-to-5, and self-healing. I also had no insurance, no health care, no psychologists or psychiatrists. I was poor and I lived alone and had no family.
Despite all of those setbacks, I managed to heal myself. It took years. Not days. Not weeks. Not months. Years. After several years my mental health problems ceased to bother me. The volume of my suffering went from “I must die by my own hand because my life has no meaning except pain,” to “I love myself and my life and being alive and I am happy and not in pain and could not bear to think of hurting myself,” in just five years.
No therapy. No support group. No psych meds.
I am cured. It’s now been over fifteen years since I’ve suffered depression, mania, paranoia, racing thoughts, anxiety, PTSD flashbacks. All of my past suffering is gone like it had never happened in the first place and stolen seventeen years of my life.
I would love to have a team of scientists PET and MRI scan my brain and compare my brain scans to the PET scans done on Buddhist monks and to the PET scans done on people actively suffering from depression, mania, psychosis and intrusive voices. I am fairly certain of what we would see. My brain, diagnosed and destined to be diseased for life, should and probably would show cortical development on par with any nun or monk who has spent at least ten thousand hours in meditation. I would bet money on it.
I wrote an article about my recovery.
Meditation as a Cure for Mental Illness.
http://roguetaoist.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/meditation-as-a-cure-for-mental-illness/
I would welcome people’s thoughts on the subject.
Mental illness cannot be cured.Syndromes cannot be cured.Many and numerous diseases cannot be cured. Why is this ?
Is it because society has a way of insinuating that all diseases of the body and brain are down to medicine and neuroscience ?
Why is it that most people who suffer with this disease do not recognise that they have a soul and a spirit to take care of ?
We have Universities around the world that teach careers and prospects rather than truth.So when this strikes we do not recognise it as an affliction.
I am living proof,through will, discipline, determination, denial of all drugs and atrition that no “mere – man” can rid of mental illness.
Mental illness is a downhill spiral without God.
True freedom begins when we acknowledge that it is not the mind that is sick with chemical imbalances but rather is deficient of true knowledge and taken advantage of, whilst being gullible to a world of legalised ( and paid ) drug pushers.
You statement truly amazes me, if there was a such thing as “God” I would hold him accountable for this problem, nature causes these problems, a creator would not, say your god does exist, he would be an underachiever. I know in your heart you truly believe in your God, But there is no way I could respect this being.
I think that mental illness may cure by making them happy those who are mentaly ill. It is a deases which come by (thinking more),(by afraid of something),those who cant phase the problem they may become a mentally ill.
I wish yellow was still my favorite color and I could believe in dreams of the future that reality cannot sustain. I was “delusional” but that didn’t effect my life in any negative way that I can see,I didn’t tell anybody what pictures it took to keep me well, unless being socially retarded because I was a fruit tree and having to learn the jungle is considered negative. But I wasn’t in a rage because of the unfairness people caused by torturing me and I was not suicidal.
i have been mentally ill for a years. i never did drugs or i never took medicine for it and my life sucks. but by prayer and good thoghts, im trying to get cured that way. i have no friends, and very disfunctional family. my life has sucked my entire life, but im a tough ass person… what can i say? you can wonder all you want of what i’ve been throgh, but u will NEVER know, so dont even try
I am the same thing, m m, i have the same issues. Except, im what society calls today; ’emo’. I need to get out of this life and i know that im mental.. I just have never had anyone tell me… yet.
i dont know what is going on,idnt want to talk to anybody,i dont wish to go any where,,i just think about him all day nd night.i have a fear of his separation,this makes me crying all the day and night.i start living in my room in darkness no sound no light,,,just silence.what i can do to save my self
some of the preventive measures against mental illness are ; avoid too much stress, yoga or relaxation techniques would help. bound not to use drugs and beverages and have a balanced diet.
I believe that there is a cure for mental illness. Everything that has a start has an end. If something can be changed in one direction, it can be changed in the other direction. It’s the law of the universe. It’s our job to find out how. Weed out the root cause and put it right. There will be many different causes/triggers and many solutions. The step forward that is needed is to get the person stable enough to go searching for this root cause. This could be done using the methods used already. Rather than this being the end of their treatment, this should in my opinion be the beginning in resolving the underlying cause.
I accept that there is such a thing as mental illness. But I don’t accept that they are all incurable in all cases. That is ridiculous. In cultures in the world where this is seen as a spiritual problem/experience not a mental problem we see much more people fully recovering. I think the arrogance of the western scientific approach is outrageous when you compare it to more ‘ignorant’ cultures. We’re behind them on this so we should do whatever they are doing. I have heard about Scandinavian hospitals using very few drugs in the treatment of their patients and getting much better recovery results using talking and other holistic approaches.
Dear John,
It is true that doctors beleive that mental disease cannot be cured. but it is due o the lakc of understanding about enviromental and internal influences. for example a person can have a very strong internal influence and beleif and perception that is refining and discerning patterns to extend and develop ones own sense of purpose. were on the external some one can can have a number of issues. from to much fruits in a diet. to having a injury.
So mentla diseases are very understandble a person just has to be able to monitor a vast amount of causes. to cure the disease there must be put in place enough postive causes and sease enough negative causes. i beleive with the right understanding of a balnced holistic lifestyle. far beyond what lifestyle coachs are teaching mostly today there will be enough postive momentum and postive karma to keep a person from reaching lows. but on the other hand what is life without the full experience of being part of the so much more than we can ever individually feel. so i do believe compassion even if it causes temperary depression is the best emotion of all.
Blessing to your Health,
D’
I don’t agree that mental illness cannot be cured.
I suffered from severe depression for much of my life. In the late 90’s I finally found the right treatment – ECT. I’ve been depression-free for eleven years, even though I’ve had some tough times during those years.
Yes, mental illness can be cured!
Greg
Dear Greg God Bless you. I have a son who is needs people like you who are positive.Whats ETC?
Please say what are the easy way to cure the mental illness?
This person is my Mother ,She is suffering depression and strongly believe on superistitution .
I will say that depression, although believed by many people cannot be cured, can in fact be cured. I have the empirical evidence to back it up and the physical signs and symptoms to show proof that it works.
I challenge any researcher, practioner or health institution to take me up on this and I will prove them wrong,absolutely wrong. Yes I have a book, but the book is merely an introduction of my Unified Theory of Cognition (UTC). I am not an accredited writer or an academic or scholar, however I have researched this for personal reasons for twenty-five years and have conducted an independent two year study where the same results were observed in eight people.
Dear Dr. John,
I would like to say something about my wife,before 8 years we got married and having two kids,but her behaver is not normal,she is feeling less,no exitement,she dont know how to behave others,how to care to kids and family,she is unable to think about future life,she never confess , she never feel guilt if she did something wrong , as per her she is always right. too much angry,she like live alone she dont involve in social activities.no any positive thinking . she is unable to differentiate
between good and bad things,and so many things.may be she is half minded since birth. kindly please advise,if any treatment to cure my wife ?
Thanks
shameem
You know my cold used to come back year after year, but my MD have not once tried to tell me that I was prone to being sick for the rest of my life! This is how you teach helplessness to your patients. I didn’t believe that the common cold had no cure. So now I eat better, and I exercise outdoors in the winter, which most Americans do not do, and consequently I rarely if ever get sick–and when I do, I recover very quickly. A 24 hour cold, who knew? It is unfortunate that mainstream psychologists teach their patients that they are ill, rather than telling them that psychology has no cures to offer. And that is why you do not speak of cures. If MD’s said they had no cures, no one would visit them either.
My dad had schizoeffective disorder. My mom has bipolar. I’m not bitter, those illnesses shaped my life along with theirs. Still, it’s scary to realize how very like cancer mental illness is. One destroys people. One destroys who people are. But one has at least some funding for research and major national attention. You can’t do that with mental illness. No one has as much sympathy for them, and it’s the more difficult thing to cure. I hope to do my part to make the voice of the mentally ill heard too. I agree with the author in hoping, someday, to find a cure.
You are right when you say that patients may be devastated by the “no cure is possible” mindset. I was diagnosed with panic disorder, and spent some time googling it. It seemed like everything online, no matter how much hopeful information it contained, started with a statement like, “There is no cure for panic disorder. But many people can learn to live with it!” And yes, that was devastating. And I’m not sure it’s even accurate. I think that people don’t want to mention a cure because they’re afraid it might be taken as some sort of unfulfillable promise.
But I think people should be willing to go out on a limb and say, “Many people will tell you they have been cured. Many others like to say they are in remission, or are coping with their disease well. No matter how it is phrased, the truth is that most people with panic disorder are able to see vast improvement in their lives once they seek treatment.”
Im glad that there is treatment and a great deal of acceptance for mental illness. Iv recently joined a group in Hamilton NZ. There is a Lady in this group who makes me greatfull Im not to bad, and can manage very well with little intervention,one of our freinds is convinced that my freinds condition is from the devile and should get off all meds straight away. This attatude is still out there and strong as ever sadly. I would like to say thank you for having posts on the internet to help inform people that dont know any better
I enjoyed reading this for, you only talked about what you know. I would have been labeled as mental illness just a month ago. I helped myself. I realized things myself. Some have said well maybe you just grew up, but that is thier opinion. Only I know how I felt and only I could find how to cure myself by going off what I,myself, fully understood. So I wanted to understand more of what I didn’t know. I have spend many hours researching things I didn’t know. So know I know, I understood that the build up of my stress hormones due to not understanding. For thinking on what I don’t understand, if I had an panic attack and I got the gut feeling, I now know it was from not knowing what would happen, causing my brain to do what it does naturally, to release fight or flight syndrome. Building more and more from a lack of realizing I don’t know, basing my actions on the unknown thoughts of others. The amount of stress building in me was causing my hippocampus to shrink, I understand that now. Causing my actions to be based on unknown, creating more unknown, creating more stress hormones. I now know there is also another part of the nerveous system the will balance the stress hormone, only when my brain understands something. Oxytocin releases when the reaction is know, yet how would I ever know that if all people’s reactions were based on unknown. Lack of honest, unjudged, and selflessness caused me to believe no one could understand creating a imbalance in myself that the natural human body can’t substan forever, maybe causing a physical illness. I don’t know for sure, but I know it would make sense. I know from what caused my mental illness and I know how I fixed mine, because I understood. I have now taken the time for others to say hey your right I don’t understand, will you help me understand you more, what makes logic to you. Causing them to think for themselves, to cure themselves based on the bodies natural reaction. So what can I do to help more? Please let me know
My elder sister is suffering from mental depression, it’s been 1 year , I have absolutely no idea, how she developed this deseas.she was absolutely fine…she feels, somebody tlks bad about her all the time, she feels oneone is spying her, night she does not sleep, she developed insomnia and phobia … she was taken to psychiatric by her husband 6 months back,doc gave her heavy dose for sleeping which her body could not resist .. after taking the medicine, she was fine but few days back again I came to know same prob … pl suggest if there is any help from ur end ..thank you.
Mental illness is defined culturally, so perhaps the cure is in the definition.
My daughter had PANDAS OCD and was cured of all mental illness with IVIG treatment and tonsils out. How does that factor in to your theory? The psychologist and psychiatrist were quick to prescribe meds or CBT. It took the parents bringing together the mental and medical components before a correct diagnosis and treatment was discovered. Thanks to Dr. Swedo, Dr. Grant and Dr. Latimer, my child is cured from mental illness.