Biological Approach | INFJ Forum

Biological Approach

Raccoon Love

Raccoon Love

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Sep 20, 2009
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Do you believe the biological approach is a good way to treat psychological disorders? would you consider this approach to be better or worst than other approaches? about the same? Have you ever been prescribed with medication? Would you prescribed someone medication? under what circumstances..

Personally although I believe this does hold some truth as biological processes in our body are crucial to our overall behavior I belive that other factors such as subconscious processes, actually talking the person out of their condition are better, as medication can only last for some long and have demonstrated to have considerable side effects..
 
Well that depends on the sort of mental illness you are talking about. There are several disorders that would be difficult to treat otherwise.

But if you are talking about something were recovery were possible without the use of drugs I would avoid taking them. Meds can screw a person up as much as they can help them. I think they are overused but the most annoying part is that its the lazy way out. People who take meds and don't need them, don't want to put in the work required to truly recover.
:m027:
 
I think if the person is in a bad state (or in emergency), medication will be necessary as support, and this while the person is undergoing mental/emotional therapy. I think a lot of illnesses can be cured by improving the soul.

I have been on medication long time ago but only because my body was not strong enough to support itself. I would die without the medication.


Anyway, you really don't want to be paying medical bills for the rest of your life.
 
I don't think medication should ever be prescribed indefinitely, or without psychotherapy. Medication should be prescribed when a patients condition is bad enough that they are unable to benefit from the therapy, or if their life is in danger. Using medication to put the patient in a temporary better state of mind can allow them to work through their problems on a deeper and more permanent level than the medication itself provides.

This being said a non-medicated approach to psychotherapy is the best one and should be used whenever possible. All medication is addictive and adding an addiction on top of a disorder will only make it worse, so when medication is prescribed the patients intake and mental health must be very closely monitored.
I have never been prescribed anything but at certain points in my life this would have been more beneficial than my intake of recreational drugs, I just don't work well with seeing a psychiatrist. I have friends who have been on antidepressants and I have seen this go both ways.
 
For some conditions, the only means you have to treat them is with medication. However, an eclectic approach usually works best which is generally why the APA advocates biopsychosocial.
 
I think that there are a few cases where people have biological imbalances, but it's extremely overblown. I might make the following analogy:

I'm sure that there are a few (very few) people out there who have some disorder where their bodies don't absorb water, but that is rare. Much more commonly, if someone is thirsty... they just need to drink more water and, after a period of time without the water, they start to suffer from dehydration.

When I see someone on body or mind altering medications, I tend to think that it would be like a normal but dehydrated person going into a doctor's office and asking for a pill that reduces dehydration symptoms. It alleviates the symptoms, but it doesn't do anything fix the problem.

Sometimes it bothers me when I think of people who I see taking all sorts of medications for depression, anxiety, sadness, and worry. I've seen a lot of people on multiple medications for two or more of those things, many of my own family members included. Sometimes I wonder if the problems with themselves that they should work to correct are being ignored, and are being simply masked by the pills.

Instead of getting a pill to make you feel less sad, worried, depressed, or anxious... why not ponder it for a bit, try to figure out what is making you feel that way, and make a change in your life that will allow you to achieve pleasure... rather than just avoiding pain by using medication.

It's not my place to tell people how to live their lives, but I think there are an awful lot of people who die after a life primarily composed of avoiding living.

:m119:

Oh well, worrying about that is no way to spend life either.

[youtube]1Xhdy9zBEws[/youtube]

:m015:
 
Raccoon Love said:
Do you believe the biological approach is a good way to treat psychological disorders? would you consider this approach to be better or worst than other approaches? about the same? Have you ever been prescribed with medication? Would you prescribed someone medication? under what circumstances..

Personally although I believe this does hold some truth as biological processes in our body are crucial to our overall behavior I belive that other factors such as subconscious processes, actually talking the person out of their condition are better, as medication can only last for some long and have demonstrated to have considerable side effects..
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Yes, I believe the biological approach is a good way to treat psych disorders. The biological approach does NOT have to include pills. In fact, I'd rather it not include them.
 
Raccoon Love said:
Do you believe the biological approach is a good way to treat psychological disorders? would you consider this approach to be better or worst than other approaches? about the same? Have you ever been prescribed with medication? Would you prescribed someone medication? under what circumstances..

Personally although I believe this does hold some truth as biological processes in our body are crucial to our overall behavior I belive that other factors such as subconscious processes, actually talking the person out of their condition are better, as medication can only last for some long and have demonstrated to have considerable side effects..
Click to expand...

Hi 'coon. I actually became a "believer" in the biological/illness side of mental illness when I experienced first-hand how crazy postpartum hormones and sleep deprivation can make a person. Mental illnesses truly are physically-based illnesses, although they are complicated and not well understood. I've never personally been prescribed medication, but medication can be appropriate. I'm a bit suspicious of the meds, because I think the processes that lead to psychological disorders are not well enough understood to treat really effectively that way; so you wind up with a hit-or-miss approach, and side effects, and yes, talking and cognitive therapy are important as well. I've always thought things like hypnosis are powerful and under-used tools in treating some kinds of mental illnesses. :nod:
 
just sayin

Jungian Psychology includes the body as part of the four elements of the psyche. Any good psychoanalytical therapy is going to include a chemical option. Whenever you are dealing with troubling or debilitating psychic issues ( and I do not mean esp here) you are well advised to include talking therapy on a regular, like weekly, basis.
 
using drugs -any drugs, whether natural or synthetic- is playing russian roulette with your body's natural chemical balance. your body is a system, it has failsafes, sure, but there's no guarantee those failsafes will always work. introducing new ingredients into the system is risking havoc. honestly, the drug companies test these drugs only to a limited extent, and they have not tested YOUR body, so who knows what kind of long term impacts they're going to have.
that being said, alternative non-chemical treatments, such as therapy, have their own issues too. they're expensive, time consuming, of limited benefit to most people, and can raise your expectations to an unreasonable degree once you're finished with them. medication is at least faster, and in the short term, usually more reliable.
i guess you have to weigh the pros and cons of your own individual situation before deciding which route to take. neither is perfect; both have their flaws, but imo either one is better than doing nothing, than letting your mental illness fester and destroy your lifes' potential. probably the best choice would be a combination of both, in moderation.
 
I'm always surprised by how casually regarded "meds" seem to be in the USA. Even calling them "meds" seems like sugarcoating, they're drugs plain and simple.
 
Considering that my depression, anxiety, and so on aren't triggered by any thought process in my head that I can notice (my mind is normally blank when it happens), I very much doubt therapy would do me any good. I did try a therapist for a while, but it was a waste of time. I recently found out I have a vitamin D deficiency (no clue how long it's been like that), so that could at least be contributing to it. I'll be seeing a neurologist at some point too, so who knows...
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Eric86 said:
Considering that my depression, anxiety, and so on aren't triggered by any thought process in my head that I can notice (my mind is normally blank when it happens), I very much doubt therapy would do me any good. I did try a therapist for a while, but it was a waste of time. I recently found out I have a vitamin D deficiency (no clue how long it's been like that), so that could at least be contributing to it. I'll be seeing a neurologist at some point too, so who knows...
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Good luck, I hope everything works out great for you..

:hug:
 
Thanks. I've been taking a high-level supplement (one 50,000 IU pill per week for four weeks, possibly continuing at one per month after that), and maybe next week after I take the last one I'll have it checked again.
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I am so against the use of antipsychotics in 95% of all cases. I am willing to be that if a doctor/psychologist were to fully analyze me, I would be told to be on some kind of mood pill. The thing is though, they do more harm then good in my opinion. Neurotransmitter levels are so unbelieveable sensitve to the smallest changes in anything that the thought of giving something to alter them should raise warning flags. In itself these drugs can interact in their own way, in an unexpected way from what would be predicted by its chemical structre.

It is kind of ironic though, I will try to find the root cause to any kind of mood issue based on neurotransmitter levels (I do this with myself), but I would never take or want to take anything to change them. With effort, one can in effect will them into levels that make things managable.
 
Raccoon Love said:
Do you believe the biological approach is a good way to treat psychological disorders? would you consider this approach to be better or worst than other approaches? about the same? Have you ever been prescribed with medication? Would you prescribed someone medication? under what circumstances..
Click to expand...

I think that an approach of medication and therapy is the best way to treat psychological disorders. I think that the best approach deals with problems that a person faces on every level of being (and treats them accordingly).

Personally although I believe this does hold some truth as biological processes in our body are crucial to our overall behavior I belive that other factors such as subconscious processes, actually talking the person out of their condition are better, as medication can only last for some long and have demonstrated to have considerable side effects..
Click to expand...

Medication will not resolve all of the problems that a person with a psychological disorder faces. Therapy with medication alone is probably more common than medication and counseling because counseling sessions can be expensive. The other problems with medication are the side effect profile and how the drug is metabolized (if at all) in the body. Genetics can also play a part in the side effect profile (and toxicity) of some drugs.

Did you have a certain medication or psychologic disorder in mind when you posted the op? I was wondering since you metioned the side effects towards the end of your post.
 
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