I have little respect for psychologist, and am convinced that if folks worked a little harder and had less time to feel sorry for themselves the psychologist would be without jobs.
What experience with mental illness do you have to lead you to this conclusion?
I have lost friends to mental illness; people who were simply unable to cope. One starved herself to death, trying to cope. Another bled to death, trying to find a way to cope. How much harder should they have tried? Some people work way too hard as a way of coping. See below. Others end up dealing with repeated physical illness that defies diagnosis. Some become simply unable to sleep, which causes all kinds of unpleasant physical effects. It is real. It does happen. And fixing it is not weakness. Yes, there are people who use psychology as an excuse for poor performance or weakness. There are always people who misuse or overuse any tool. Doesn't make the tool bad. Psychology is a tool. It is useful and productive for people with mental illness.
One thing I learned as a kid has served me in good stead: Don't judge someone until you are standing in his shoes. You cannot possibly know what stresses a person has either innately, through biology, or has developed through various difficult experiences.
At the time I was experiencing problems with mental illness, I was teaching for four hours a day, taking classes for about four hours a day, studying and doing homework and research, prepping for classes and grading papers a minimum of six hours a day, commuting two hours a day, attending judo class six hours a week, running another several hours a week, and working in the university library fifteen hours a week. Weekends were spent doing more schoolwork. Sunday through Friday I left home at 7.00 am and got home at 10.30 or 11 pm, when I would start working on other things. How much *less* time do you think I should have spent sitting around "feeling sorry for myself"?
Also, I didn't feel sorry for myself. A lot of people who have mental illness don't. They sometimes feel overwhelmed. I've talked a lot of people through crises such as Grandpa mentioned when they felt like they couldn't get through the night. Some people experience it as panic, a fight/flight reaction that is over-intense beyond all reasons and brought on by a stimulus other than physical threat. That is a common response to PTSD--which has existed for a long, long time, it's just changed names a couple times.
A lot of people seek out the services of a psychologist or psychiatrist not because they feel sorry for themselves but because they feel like they are letting other people down. A friend of mine who is currently in counseling went because after several tragedies in her life, she felt that her grief and distraction were affecting her parenting skills and abilities.
Some people start seeing a psychologist because their feelings of self-hatred become so intense they are worried that they will not be able to prevent accidentally harming themselves. Happened to a relative of mine.
I recall some Psy majors when I was in college, and I thought they were all crazy.
Most psych majors do not become psychologists. It's a popular major for future social workers, marketing people, lawyers, and dilettantes who want what they perceive as an easy major. A few go on grad school, get their MS and their PhD and then are psychologists.
If I judged historians based on the history majors I met when I was studying history, I'd think historians were a bunch of morons. Most history majors become um, unemployed, or alternatively, law students like me. A good friend is a historian; much smarter than the vast majority of history majors I've even met.
I have not changed my mind. People do not want to take responsibility for their actions so alcoholism is a disease, for example, and it is not the drunks fault that he got drunk and killed someone.
I don't think you understand the disease model. People who do destructive things have to deal with the consequences of those actions. Sometimes people do self-destructive things for years on their own; often a psychologist will simply point out what thing they are doing that are destructive so they can stop. Seeing a psychologist is not necessarily a sweet and cuddly experience. More often it's a conversation of the ways one f-ed up this week. That one has an illness does not make it ok to behave badly or hurt people.
I agree that the mentally ill should not have free access to firearms,
Why?
but I am not sure who can make that determination in many cases.
I share your concern. Your comments on mental illness and psychologists seem to indicate that you think that going to a psychologist makes one mentally ill. That is not the case. Some people see a counselor but do not have a mental illness--they may be trying to simply improve an area of performance. This is not uncommon among athletes. I am currently in this category; I see a counseling intern in an attempt to improve my networking skills and my non-academic professional performance. Some people are obviously mentally ill and do not see a counselor or therapist or psychologist at all, often because they cannot afford it, and often out of the conviction that psychologists are useless.
The law, unfortunately, in some states and in some cases, makes no clear distinction between the first category and someone in treatment for suicidal of homocidal tendencies. And people in the second category are generally *officially* restricted, but without documentation of some kind, there's no record demonstrating that they have a mental illness.
Hence, disincentive to treatment.
Folks being mentally unbalanced and killing someone is something that we will have to live with as long as the world exists.
I agree with you there. Sometimes people kill because they are evil. Sometimes because it is a means to achieve and end they desire. Sometimes because they are nuts. We should all these people the same until they have actually done something wrong, and then they should be punished.
That fine philosopher, Larry the Cable Guy, commented that guns don't kill people, husbands who come home early do. Perhaps we should prohibit cuckolded spouses from gun possession? People who are deeply in debt may be strongly motivated to commit armed robbery, perhaps anyone with a net worth under $10,000 should be prohibited from gun possession?
That makes about as much sense as prohibited gun ownership to someone suffering from severe depression, who may (or may not) have a strong motivation for killing themselves.
Some cases are obvious, but many are not.
I agree, but probably not in the way you think. Someone who shows up at a mental hospital because he feel like he needs to be confined because he cannot control his desire to kill someone (or himself) should not be allowed to possess a gun. Or a knife, or a car, or a shoelace, or a piece of glass. Until he is under control enough to leave the hospital. When he is well enough to take possession of his car, his home (full of dangerous implements), and resume normal life, he should once again be able to possess his guns.
We cannot prevent evil. We can only react to it. Mental illness is not evil. Physically hurting or killing other people is evil. We should not punish people because of the crimes we think they might commit.
