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I'm going to nitpick
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<blockquote data-quote="Sara PA" data-source="post: 188249" data-attributes="member: 1498"><p>I've mentioned more than once that I have real issues with the term "mental health". What's a "mental", anyway? I have to say I like the "behavioral health" term better.</p><p></p><p>Once again I'm going to say that's there is a real need to start using words like "neurobiological" to define the conditions which many of our children have. And, those with neurobiological conditions and those with psychological issues have to be separated and treated by different methods. While the behaviors exhibited by people with neurobiological and psychological problems may look very much alike, the causes are very different. Someone "acting out" (another term I loath) may have schizophrenia -- clearly a neurobiological condition -- or may have been severely traumatized -- clearly a psychological condition. The treatments aren't and shouldn't be the same. But what happens is that too often the "acting out" is treated, not the condition that caused it. </p><p></p><p>I was listening to one of the NPR shows the other day when they were going through their mail. There was a letter from an irate mother of an autistic child who was outraged that one of the guest referred to autism as a "mental illness". Autism, she ranted, was a neurological condition, not a mental illness. I could only wonder what she thought ADHD/ADD, schizophrenia, bipolar, etc were? I could only wonder how she defined "mental illness" beyond "it's what <em>other</em> people have". I could only wonder how she felt about people identified as "mentally ill". </p><p></p><p>Epilepsy use to be a "mental illness". It's time for the other neurobiological disorders to get out of the area of psychology and into the area of neurology. It's time we start applying what we know about brains and brain development to these disorders. It's time we figure out how to diagnose them besides looking at how someone acts and making guesses. With the new research being done we're starting to get a handle on it; it's coming but far too slowly. Maybe we need less research on which existing drugs can be marketed to treat behaviors and more research done on what's going on in the brain and why.</p><p></p><p>When we start calling these disorders what they are -- neurobiological and psychological -- we won't need the euphemisms of "mental illness" or "behavioral health". When I was a baby, my grandfather had cancer. People didn't say "cancer" back then, they used euphemisms for it. That seems so old fashioned now but it's no different than using euphemisms for neurobiological and psychological conditions. Some day in the near future our terminology will seem old fashioned.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sara PA, post: 188249, member: 1498"] I've mentioned more than once that I have real issues with the term "mental health". What's a "mental", anyway? I have to say I like the "behavioral health" term better. Once again I'm going to say that's there is a real need to start using words like "neurobiological" to define the conditions which many of our children have. And, those with neurobiological conditions and those with psychological issues have to be separated and treated by different methods. While the behaviors exhibited by people with neurobiological and psychological problems may look very much alike, the causes are very different. Someone "acting out" (another term I loath) may have schizophrenia -- clearly a neurobiological condition -- or may have been severely traumatized -- clearly a psychological condition. The treatments aren't and shouldn't be the same. But what happens is that too often the "acting out" is treated, not the condition that caused it. I was listening to one of the NPR shows the other day when they were going through their mail. There was a letter from an irate mother of an autistic child who was outraged that one of the guest referred to autism as a "mental illness". Autism, she ranted, was a neurological condition, not a mental illness. I could only wonder what she thought ADHD/ADD, schizophrenia, bipolar, etc were? I could only wonder how she defined "mental illness" beyond "it's what [I]other[/I] people have". I could only wonder how she felt about people identified as "mentally ill". Epilepsy use to be a "mental illness". It's time for the other neurobiological disorders to get out of the area of psychology and into the area of neurology. It's time we start applying what we know about brains and brain development to these disorders. It's time we figure out how to diagnose them besides looking at how someone acts and making guesses. With the new research being done we're starting to get a handle on it; it's coming but far too slowly. Maybe we need less research on which existing drugs can be marketed to treat behaviors and more research done on what's going on in the brain and why. When we start calling these disorders what they are -- neurobiological and psychological -- we won't need the euphemisms of "mental illness" or "behavioral health". When I was a baby, my grandfather had cancer. People didn't say "cancer" back then, they used euphemisms for it. That seems so old fashioned now but it's no different than using euphemisms for neurobiological and psychological conditions. Some day in the near future our terminology will seem old fashioned. [/QUOTE]
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