THB some mental disease make one actually feel good

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Week 14

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That’s a lot of daft craftiness.

Motion: THB some mental disease make one actually feel good
Role: PM (gov.)

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The situation in mental health is not so good right now. Young people fall prey to all kinds of mental afflictions; and the message from the field is that more experts and therapists should be available to stem the tide of ADHD, depression and insomnia. There are some disease such as schizophrenia which in likelihood would never feel good among its bearers, what with the delusions, sensory overloads and voices in the head. The question goes, are there any slight or severe forms mental disease that can be enjoyable? You do not have to grab your copy of ICD-11 to join and take part in this discussion. Merely use your commonsensical point of view, please.

Alcoholism
I believe that some forms of alcoholism may be fully enjoyable. It is known that some writers write under the influence and may even produce a string of notable works that way. Cratefuls of claret or red wine 🍷 might be their go-to alcohol, but it could also be something else, as it is a bit of a cliché. Civil servants have been known to drink during the day in the 1970’s. It was the duty of their secretaries to keep outsiders at bay while they were too drunk to function socially.

The thing about alcohol is that it gives a golden or silvery lining to an otherwise grey everyday experience. If boring things may be experienced drunk, they are more tolerable. The problem is not the rush but the hangover. Over time and with age, hangovers become worse and worse. To this we must add a physique that can tolerate the carcinogenic qualities of alcohol; that bodies do not develop cancers due to the presence of alcohol in them. Successful alcoholics who can manage their hangovers have a good chance of enjoying life while inebriated.

Bipolar Disorder: Manic Nirvana
Another disease that must feel good is the flip side of the depression coin: mania. Being a maniac. When manic, a person may feel several of the following feelings: exuberance, love, megalomania, omnipotency, power tripping, rush of blood to the head and wanderlust. Those feelings are those of an overheated mind, but they would nevertheless feel good for the “sufferer”. Other typical symptoms of mania are brainwaves, desire to move about, insomnia, scant hunger and thirst for intoxicants. If a person can handle his of her manic impulses and weave a coherent fabric out of the life of a maniac, in the way some artists can handle it, the general, overarching feeling is wellbeing.

Codependency
There are several standards for codependency, but my definition would be this: a person gives just one person in his or her life 5 functional roles: that person is a best friend, family, love interest, only friend and relative. When we normally source those people from different circles, a codependent person sources them from one person.

Again, codependency could potentially be very enjoyable. I began to experiment with my GF and started calling her far more often than I would have done in the past – just for the heck of it. 3 calls a day. Sometimes I made her call me back. We could chat for an hour at a time. I felt loved, and the feeling was mutual. It was not all roses. Sometimes I got angry and argued. But the process as a whole was pleasant. Now, it could get even better. Let’s posit I was being bombarded with another female person with similar intentions and purposes. Constant calls and messaging, jealousy, reaffirmation. It could be potentially very enjoyable and I might feel the loving sentiment in it, provided that the woman in question respected my boundaries and did not overdo her attachment and attention. My hypothesis is that I would actually enjoy a codependent, overattached girlfriend.

What seems to be the case is that we have a naive, narrow, simplistic view of derangement. Mental troubles are dismissed out of hand as destructive, negative and unenjoyable. I have tried to prove that at least three of them are downright pleasant or a mixed blessing. So, the challenge of the future would seem to be such that we cannot always cure our mental disease but sometimes we do not even want to. We’re better off with them.

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Perustelu(t)/puolustelu(t). Alustan aiheen vaatimalla pontevuudella. Annan toverilleni mahdollisuuden jatkaa samoin suuntaviivoin ja tarjoan hänelle omaksi näkökulmaksi esimerkiksi anoreksiaa, jonka kokijat useinkin näkevät sairautensa miellyttävänä ja tavoiteltavana. II tiimin jäsenet joutuvat sitten keksimään väittelyn uudelleen ja vaihtamaan sen suuntaa jollakin tavalla. 

THB whatever infrastructure we have built, it should not be dismantled

 

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Week 41

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Delapidated, rundown mental asylums should be repaired for today’s use in the Love It or List It manner.

Motion: THB whatever infrastructure we have built, it should not be dismantled
Role: Deputy PM (gov.)

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People write now about the mental-health crisis that seems to take a toll on the young in particular. Many of them are in a limbo where they cannot land work, establish a family or even graduate from school due to ailing mental health. Recently, this has been dealt with at least by daily Helsingin Sanomat, Mieli reg. ass. and MTV and Seura weekly. At the same time, a middle-aged psychiatrist took the life of his own wife, before Christmas last year, and made an attempt on his blended family before that and is now awaiting a well-deserved trial in custody. So, it seems not even professionals in the field are safe from self-inflicted harm.

1 % of the Population
Back in the good old sixties, it was estimated that one per cent of Finns fell victim to schizophrenia. The new nation required a working network of mental asylums. Characteristically, they were drawn by architects of the era in a neo-classical style, usually resulting in a dark brown, light brown or white building. It can be that the vernacular words for involuntary psychiatric care, such as loony bin, shrink or white room can be traced back to this era. In the USA, the era gave rise to such movies and novels as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

In those days, the reasons and repercussions of psych-care were quite different from today. From a layman’s point of view, I would say that the main reasons for the high incidence of schizophrenia – then – was a lingering PTSD from World War II coupled with the depopulation and economic restructuring of the countryside. Small farms were no longer profitable, and those who stayed on them might have found life intolerable. In the US, a similar wave of schizophrenia could have been, theoretically, been born out of the Double Whammy of the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the rapid dilapidation of the so-called Rust Belt, when car and other metal industrial manufacturing along with primary production of, say, coal was no longer profitable, with the advent of cheaper imports.

In the 80’s Through 00’s, It Was Torn Down
When the acute phase of schizophrenia was over in Finland, the network of mental asylums was phased out. The last few patients were more probably burnt-out hippies or newer victims of imported drugs, and other people who had grown up in not-so-good families. The major downturn was the depression that hit the country about 30 years ago, in 1991–1994. Budgets were slashed, so running big buildings with their heating, maintenance, meals, meds, provisions, salaried physicians and wage-earning staff was probably deemed too expensive in comparison with the then net benefit.

What is noteworthy is that the criteria for a person to be taken into care/custody nonetheless seem to stem from our past. So that a person may be taken into custody, (s)he needs to be: a) delusional and out of touch with reality, b) criminal, hostile, violent and a threat to society and c) prone to recurring relapses. These guidelines stem directly from how the major wave of schizophrenics behaved while still among civilians in society. Today, these preconditions preclude people from getting care. Because people of today are not delusional and destructive towards their neighbours, they are often denied care, even when they are self-harming and suicidal. Anxiety, depression and mood swings are not enough to admit to care. People do not seem to understand this, nor their partners, kith and kin. They complain about the system, when they should complain about its standards.

Our Network of State-Run, Stately Sanatoria Should Have Been Preserved for Today
Today, people do not suffer from schizophrenia but a slew of other mental illnesses and mood disorders. They are, among others, alcoholism, anorexia, anxiety, bipolarity, binge-eating, bulimia, drugs, panic attacks, self-harm and suicide attempts. ADHD is not a mental illness, but its medication could be prescribed in care. The same goes for some other neuropsychiatric conditions. My point here is: What infrastructure we built for aggressive psychotic people in the past should now be in the use of otherwise affected and afflicted victims of neurological, neurotic and psychological conditions.

What’s more, the net amount of patients might still be roughly the same. If one per cent were psychotic, that would amount to 55,000 people, 55K, by today’s census. It is easy to imagine that a similar figure would surface if we tallied the number of people who are currently in psychotherapy or rehab, waiting in line for psychotherapy or rehab or who are mentally ill by their own admission. That number is an average one whole year’s worth of births, but it would span all the age groups that are not in retirement or school, with an emphasis on the young. If and when our existing mental asylums could harbour most or all of them, the conclusion cannot be anything else than that those fine buildings should have been kept as they once were – safe havens for convalescence.

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Perustelu(t)/puolustelu(t). Vien keskustelua mielenterveydestä eteenpäin puhumalla niistä virheistä, joita asioista päättävät ovat tehneet. Oppositio ei ole aseeton vaan se voi ottaa esimerkeiksi useita asioita, joiden parhaat päivät on jo nähty ja joiden purkamiselle ei ole mitään esteitä.