«When psychiatrists lament that over half of depressed people are “treatment-resistant,” Tsao stresses, they do not consider that it is a strenuous aversion to being told that one’s existential grievances are irrational, a mere result of a pathological neurochemical imbalance, that discourages many people from seeking medical help.»
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Why anthropologists should politicize mental illnesses (via alohanico) (via igather)
This. I favour a social-biological-political model of mental health. Also I favour people considering why ‘depression’ is a buzzword but grief remains taboo.
Is it because grieving takes time? It it because grieving requires that we afford dignity to the people, cultures, causes and perceptions of self that we’re constantly losing in contemporary, competitive, mobile life - but remain nonetheless valued -sekritly, just to myself and tumblr - by this ‘moving on’ emotional host?
20 years ago, having bi-polar made me weird, made me demographically abnormal and unspeakable. I find it hard to believe that something has happened in 20 years to make masses of people suddenly acquire a fairly rare, hereditary condition [Bi-polar being a more up and down extension of depression]. What is still remaining taboo but masked with pills for the ‘treatment resistant’?
(via materialworld)