Some diseases are still not accepted to be discussed: they are frightening. And mental disorders are record holders in this regard. It's time to change your attitude towards them.
Mental illness is one of the leading causes of disability. 4,044,210 - this is the absolute number of patients with mental disorders in Russia, as of 2015. And these are only official figures.
But we still have little idea of how one can get sick, and the word "psycho" is abusive. Mental illnesses and disorders are surrounded by myths. Partly because psychiatry lags behind other branches of medicine: we are just getting to the question of how the human brain works. Partly because of a difficult past and the phrase "punitive psychiatry."
So it's time to dispel some of the misconceptions about mental illness and disorder.
Myth 1. Strong people do not suffer from mental disorders
Fact: Psychiatric diagnoses are not made for weakness of character. Mental health can be shattered by malfunctioning and traumatic experiences.
"A normal person does not need psychotherapists." "Pull yourself together." "Look at the situation from the other side." "Do you really have a problem?" What a person with symptoms of mental disorder should not hear! And this attitude adds shame and guilt for being weak to the underlying disease.
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Mental illnesses are diseases like others. Someone has a predisposition to them simply because genes have been identified that way. And each of us has our own experience, our own problems and characteristics that lead to disorders.
The symptoms of mental illness are the body and mind's natural response to trauma. For example, a victim of domestic violence is suffering from depression, PTSD, or anxiety. Some people experience schizophrenia for the first time after stress. It is impossible to cure all this only by will and positive thinking.
Weakness or strength has nothing to do with it. On the contrary, a person who has to fight a mental disorder can be very strong.
Myth 2. Only adults suffer from mental disorders
Fact: One in five children has had an episode of mental illness at least once (according to the US National Institute of Mental Health).
Yes, children also get sick, and not only with a cold. And they often don't get the help they need because they don't pay attention to them. Children, just like adults, suffer from anxiety, depression and many other illnesses.
Myth 3. Psychotherapy is a waste of money
Fact: Psychotherapy combined with medication is an effective way to treat mental disorders.
In our country, psychotherapy is known more from films in which patients lie in front of doctors and answer silly questions. We are more likely to speak out to a friend, a dog, or suffer alone.
But psychotherapy is not a caricature, but a working method of treatment. It helps to understand the disease, to learn to live with it. In addition, psychotherapists teach patients special techniques that allow them to cope with the manifestations of the disease, recognize the signs of exacerbations and prevent them.
There are several areas in psychotherapy that have been shown to be effective. And to become a psychotherapist, you need a higher medical education and experience in psychiatry.
Myth 4. Mental disorders are incurable
Fact: Patients with mental health problems control their illness and recover at least partially.
For example, when a person goes to a doctor, the strength of his depression can be determined at 100%. After taking medications and regular psychotherapeutic consultations, this level drops to 60%. The patient gets better, he begins to comply with the regime and play sports, the level of depression reaches 40%.
If a person, after the improvements, does not stop monitoring his health, he will be able to achieve a conditional 20% depression, in which one can live without suffering. Even if the disease has brought you to a dispensary, this does not mean that you are tied to a medical facility forever: with persistent remission, visits to doctors become less frequent.
Can the disease get worse again? Without a doubt. But the patient will at least know what helps him and how to act for this.
Myth 5. People with mental illness cannot work
Fact: mental illness is different both in the strength of the effect on the patient, and in the mechanism of occurrence. Sometimes illness can ruin almost all areas of life, but not affect work.
Much depends on the diagnosis and the severity of the disease. A person who takes medications and controls the disease, professionally, can be in no way inferior to healthy colleagues. Therefore, one cannot equate all patients with incapacitated ones.
Indeed, there are certain types of work, for admission to which you need a psychiatrist's conclusion. This is work with toxic substances, at height, in law enforcement agencies, in the field of public transport. A complete list of contraindications is approved by the Government of the Russian Federation.
Since the list of diseases that require supervision by a psychiatrist is extensive, the restrictions apply only to people with severe, persistent, often exacerbated disorders, Dmitry Movchan notes. For example, schizophrenia, mental retardation, mood disorders, epilepsy, and so on. And anorexia, neuroses, anxiety-phobic disorders do not fall into this list of restrictions.
There are several more important aspects:
- Not all diseases and disorders lead to a ban on work. In fact, the psychiatrist must determine whether a person can work or not. And the diagnosis is not indicated in the certificate.
- Sometimes a ban is necessary. There is absolutely no need for a suicidal person to sit at the helm of an airplane or regular bus.
- Not everyone can demand a certificate from the dispensary: only the court, the military registration and enlistment office, personnel departments and selection committees in the institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the prosecutor's office or investigative bodies, if a criminal case is initiated.
- After recovery or steady improvement, some of the prohibitions can be removed.
Myth 6. There is no protection from mental illness
Fact: It 's not just genetics that affects mental health, but also the environment that can be influenced.
Some people have a hereditary predisposition to mental illness. And while genes can increase the risk of developing a disease, they do not always determine it.
Moreover, external factors influence the psyche. For example, alcohol or drugs, nicotine. And if all these factors acted on a pregnant woman, then the unborn child may not properly form the nervous tissue, and this will already lead to disorders. A separate story is stress and trauma.
So the minimum prevention of mental illness is possible: a healthy lifestyle and timely solution of psychological problems.
Myth 7. When contacting a psychiatrist, they will be registered, but I can't do anything
Fact: such a term as "accounting" does not even exist, according to the law of the Russian Federation "On psychiatric care and guarantees of citizens' rights during its provision."
By law, outpatient care (this is when a person is not admitted to the hospital) is of two types:
- Counseling supervision is when a person independently turns to a psychiatrist, undergoes treatment and is observed at his own request. It is no different from visiting any other doctor: therapist, urologist or ophthalmologist.
- Dispensary observation. Usually this kind of observation is called accounting. The decision on such registration is made by a commission of doctors. Patients with severe chronic mental illness are under dispensary supervision. Then there really are bans on driving, carrying and using weapons, admission to activities with dangerous and harmful factors.
But if there is no serious illness, then the issue of admission to the listed activities is decided at the time of the examination, that is, for this you need to undergo a psychiatric examination.
Hospitalization - treatment in a hospital - is only voluntary. If the patient is declared incompetent (by court decision), then with the consent of legal representatives. They can be forcibly hospitalized only if a person poses a danger to himself or others, or if he is completely helpless.
Myth 8. Treatment will turn a person into a vegetable
Fact: The idea of an evil psychiatrist who dreams of subduing a patient comes from films and folklore.
Once upon a time, at the beginning of the 20th century, lobotomy was a progressive method of treatment, for which the Nobel Prize was awarded. But now psychiatrists and psychotherapists have more safe remedies in their arsenal.
Medications cause side effects, and some medications have to be used all the time. But these are not prerequisites for treatment. It all depends on the diagnosis and how quickly the recovery is going. In any case, the treatment does less harm than the disease.