Seeing mental illness everywhere

[Jules A]

It seems like I see characteristics of mental illness everywhere. Maybe its because in our line of work we are geared toward assessing people's behaviors? My patient's parents for example, who as we all know are often in bad shape themselves, but OMG even on the message boards there are times when I'm thinking to myself: "ewww weee I can think of a few meds that might help you with that off the wall thinking/coping pattern". :uhoh21:

[DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP]

.I think they have tried to put a halt to the excessive giving now...

... we can always hope!!

Happy Holidays, :reindeer:

Diane

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I've asked drug reps how they can feel ok giving the docs all the gifts and food. I was told they are required to do patient education and they have chosen to do it through the doctors's offices.... take that as you want!

[DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP]

I've asked drug reps how they can feel ok giving the docs all the gifts and food. I was told they are required to do patient education and they have chosen to do it through the doctors's offices....

I agree that medication education is important. But I do NOT agree that it should be accompanied by gifts and such by drug reps. Skip the gifts/lunches/dinners, etc and reduce the costs of medications. Period.

We don't give our patients free gifts when we counsel them about new medications.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

You're preaching to the choir here!

[aloevera]

has anyone else noticed that the drug reps all look like models?????

all I have seen are under 30, very attractive and wearing short skirts, too.....

[DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP]

You're preaching to the choir here!

You're right. My bad.

[DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP]

has anyone else noticed that the drug reps all look like models?????

all I have seen are under 30, very attractive and wearing short skirts, too.....

Yup, unfortunately in our society, "sex sells."

Ridiculous.

[thegreenmile]

Mental Health -vs- Mental Illness is a continuum

Health--------------------:redbeathe------------------------Illness

We all ride this continuum. It's the duration, frequency and intensity of our symptoms that places us somewhere on this illustration, hence, a major shift to the right indicates the need for intervention so we dont weigh too heavy on the illness side too long or too often. Severity of occurances also are a determining factor. It's a balancing act.

[aloevera]

in all seriousness, now we know that we are too quick to label someone with a "mental illness"....people are people and we all have various personalities, traits and idiosyncrasies (sp??) if one has a temper, are we to label "intermittant anger disorder"??? if one is promiscuous, are we to label "borderline"????

if one is able to get by with 2-3 hrs. sleep/night, are we to label "bi'polar"????

I know there is a fine line between some disorders and most of the people I know.....if we really look and are looking for, we could label just about everyone with a disorder...!!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE.....

[Hygiene Queen]

Hey... we're ALL nuts, at the end the of the day...

It's how we handle it that matters!

Cheers!

[aloevera]

"Be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble"

"Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others"

I just love the optimist creed.....my son has this on his desk....

[DavidLCPCCSADC]

My fear is that we may be guilty of "trivializing" real CMI while at the same time discounting the genuine pain & sufferring of many of our patients. Granted there are some valid points here about the med-reps, over-use of Rx meds, etc....

However, comparing legit major depression with someone that is full of entitlment issues, generally unhappy about the world, or whose personality is such that they set themselves up for repeated rejection is unfair. Comparing the 1% of the population with schizophrenia with folks that are simply eccentric and outside the typical social norms is also unfair. Perhaps it would be more fair to talk about the general "crazyneses" of others without the reference to mental illness. But let's keep in mind how many patients would gladly exchange their real world of mental illness for the eccentrities of those so-called normal folk.