The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I'm well aware that the field is very scientifically minded. In fact, that's the problem! It's too scientifically minded!
Science requires measurable outcomes. But human subjectivity can't be subjected to measurable outcomes. How can you quantify the value of a life, or a particular form of life?
I am personally unaware of any instance of someone visiting a (mainstream) mental health professional and being unable to walk away with at least something, whether that be a medical diagnosis of some sort and/or medication. It seems to me that virtually 100% of people who show up can at least get some SSRIs. How often do mental health professionals tell people "actually, there's nothing wrong with you and you don't need any treatment"? I'm sure it's happened before and I'm just ignorant. But it's incredibly striking that I cannot recall a single anecdote of this ever happening, meanwhile I can recall countless anecdotes of people getting prescribed SSRIs.
EDIT to try and lay my cards on the table a little more. I am perfectly aware that some people have very debilitating psychiatric conditions that prevent them from functioning, and modern medicine has produced at least some interventions that allow these people to begin functioning again, and it’s a real lifesaver in those cases, and that’s all great. I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is that large segments of society have been brainwashed into an almost cult like mentality that keeps them on the therapy treadmill for years because they’ve been lead to believe that any sort of pain or negative affect at all is pathological. No one ever sat them down and said “look, pain is a part of life kid, get used to it”.
High-quality care involves things like doing nothing, prescribing lifestyle interventions, and therapy as a first line and sometimes only line.
I know this happens. It really does, but -
Corporate medicine disincentivizes this - most physicians are owned now and most patients show up expecting medication and get mad if they are told to exercise to fix their mild depression.
The traditional model for mild to moderate pathology is that you sit down with a psychiatrist for 90-120 minutes, they get to know you, they talk through what you are experiencing and they try and address things without medication. Most physicians prefer this.
The current corporate model is that you show up, have a 20 minutes appointment, say you are depressed and want it fixed, and get prescribed Zoloft.
That absolutely does work for some people but it isn't great and it's something physicians don't have much control over and they do complain about.
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