The Psychology and Mental Health Thread

[Lord_James]

So, I was browsing the forum this evening, and I noticed there wasn't a thread dedicated to psychology! It's a pretty interesting field of study, if not being difficult to study (cause humans are weird) and mired in controversy (thanks, Stanford University). But in also being a very interesting discipline, it's also pretty friggin important to keep track of your mental health. I'm posting below part of a convo from the gun control thread, where we talked about depression (and suicide). Sorry to start off so morbid, but that is the only psychological discussion I know of on here; hopefully someone else knows of some studies about other psychological tendencies of humans, preferably not so macabre. 

 

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Suicide is most certainly a mental health issue, with depression being a very common factor in it, but that is simply a precursor. The tipping point is essentially the feeling of being backed into a corner with only one way out. If there are other ways to get away from what is causing your problems, most people with take them. It's only when they feel that all other solutions are exhausted that they decide to rage quit, and who can blame them?

 

But this is just an anecdotal example from my own experience, it most certainly varies from person to person and their own circumstances.

 

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So part of the discussion around suicide has to do with the fact that a lot of them (around 90%, by some estimates) are by people who will be perfectly fine a few years later.

 

The second issue is that it's now known that in a lot of cases the point of being suicidal is less like a state of being and more like a mental valley you pass through. So there have been studies that show that delays of a few minutes can prevent a lot of suicides.

 

Taken together, there is now a strong case that doing anything to materially delay a suicide attempt results in you saving productive, healthy lives. So the fine distinctions start to become important.

 

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Full disclosure; I had a suicidal person in the family this year, and it conformed to the backed-into-a-corner hypothesis. It also ended with a proper attempt that was foiled by delay, and the person has since recovered and is back to normal.

 

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Full disclosure; I've been dealing with suicidal depression for 16 years now. I've got a decent handle on it by now, and I can confirm that it is a mental valley that you have to get to the other side of. Once you know and understand that, it is much easier to recognize those cycles and see yourself to the other side (no, not that other side). It's nice to see other people confirm the backed into a corner hypothesis.

 

Spoiler

It does feel more and more like being backed into a corner, and personally, it doesn't seem like a valley at all, just a slow, steady decline into the abyss, though that might just be my experience. Unfortunately, the antidepressant I have been prescribed doesn't seem to help: before I was prescribed, my depression felt like wading through a swamp (annoyingly slow, bogged down, and occasionally stopping to pull your boot out of the mud), not ideal, but bearable, and not painful to continue moving; but after the prescription, it feels like that swamp has dried up, and has turned into a rocky, dry, and excessively hot desert. Sharp rocks liter the path, and I have no shoes, and there is no shade to escape from the scorching sun. It hurts to move forward as I am aware of my pain, and I've started to forget daily household chores... I've since stopped taking the pill, and feel myself returning to the swamp, but I can still feel the pain of the desert. 

 

and before I forget, I'm putting this in open discussion as I don't think it goes in the bioscience subforum, but I could be completely wrong. 

[Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect]

We check enough DSM-6 boxes to earn a closet full of straight jackets around here. 

[Donward]

I just assumed this entire forum was a mental health thread and have acted accordingly. 

[Xoon]

One thing I have been thinking about is how to help a suicidal person if they are actively been bought down by a close relatively like a parent or spouse, when you have no way to removing said individual. 

On the pure mental, how ever much one tries to help the suicidal person, it is undone by the significant other, since they are more important in life then yourself. 

 

For every plus you give to the person, they give them a bigger minus. And considering negatives are usually stronger than positives for the same action, you are working at a loss.