A thread for people to learn some more about mental illness

Sherry? I'd be the opposite of euphoric....., violently I'll!

I was on Valium for three years. They came after Librium. I think in the end they were making my panic attacks worse. I came off them (very slowly) because I wanted to have another child. I so thank God for today's ssri's.

Many moving stories bravely told but I wonder if anyone has actually learned anything about mental illness – or just about depression which seems the main focus – that they didn't already know. Just curious.

I read, years ago now, that schizophrenia is the only mental illness regarded in the psychiatric profession, as true madness. I wonder if that still stands today.

falconbird I have found GransNet to be invaluable to my ability to cope with the loneliness of widowhood. Being able to communicate with other people who understand, has literally saved my sanity. There has even been occasions when I have laughed out loud........ something I thought I'd never do again.

And that there are markers in the urine of sufferers. The only mental illness will physical manifestations.

That's lovely, nannieroz. Keep smiling

Well, that's something I've learned from this thread then jingl (and to absent)

Although having googled it seems that from one small study it was found that 47% of the schizophrenic patients tested had evidence of DMT in their urine, so not an infallible guide.

No, I don't think I have learnt anything new, but that doesn't matter except about the markers in the urine which is interesting.

And perhaps that six sherries was an exaggeration as I have never drunk six sherries in one go.

I did read it quite a long time ago now. About fifty years actually. So they have probably changed their minds about it several times since then.

I don't think DMT would have been discovered then.

Whe I was a small child, I had a recurring dream a lot like this picture of a DMT trip

I was ahead of my time obviously.

Although there was a weird animal right in the centre of mine.

I think there were connections with a Rupert Bear annual.

I don't remember that at all and I used to work in a psychiatric clinic but that was about a hundred years ago.

Or a story about Bluebeard.

That looks like the pictures that used to come up when I used my kaleidescope as a child! I wish I'd kept that, it was so much better than the flimsy things you can get these days.

I did hate that Bluebeard story...

So did I. But I can't remember it now! Will google.

OMG!!! No wonder I had bad dreams. I knew there was a room in it somewhere. That's brought it all back!

I haven't dared to google it, but when I was little and stayed with my granny my bedroom had a great big wardrobe in it, and I know I associated that with the Room...

Yep! I can believe that! I think I had blotted that story out.

Not a story for children.

jingl and Ana I didn't know about the urine thing but it is a bit of a random fact (if it is a fact, given that it is quite an old piece of research). I am not sure it goes anywhere towards helping me understand more about mental illness(es) –any more than the rest of this thread.

This thread has helped me to understand how mental illness can manifest itself though, absent. I have never suffered (apart from a very short bout of PND that was nothing like anything on here!) and now have an insight of how it can affect people.

Are some people more susceptible? Is it part of our physical make-up or just as a result of life experiences? Or both? GK mentioned her serotonin levels - is that all it is?

I could write a book about schizophrenia as a close family member suffered from it. It is a horrible, incurable and frightening disease. I can never think of depression as a mental illness after witnessing years and years of this type of insanity.

I don't mean that depression isn't a mental illness though.