Why do people say certain mental illnesses are a choice?

[thetwilightzone]

Specifically depression? I don't doubt that some claims from people regarding mental illnesses are overexaggerated but why is it hard to believe that the brain can lack the ability to make adequate chemicals for perservering through life?

We can accept that people can be born without fear or conscience due to abnormalities in their limbic system (psychopaths)

 

[worldexploder]

For lack of better words, it's because these people are stupid. They think we have true free will and ignore the fact that the brain is a physical organ that controls our actions and how we feel.

 

[Lra888]

People who haven't experienced severe depression themselves cannot understand how excruciatingly painful/ how impossible it is to have a normal life. They observe the person and judge them as being lazy or unmotivated. This is acceptable because our society is based on productivity and constant struggle to survive. People are selected for jobs based on how successfully they can present themselves as being eager (desperate even) to constantly serve and exert themselves mentally and physically. Depressed people don't/can't fit into that scheme.

 

[thetwilightzone]

People who haven't experienced severe depression themselves cannot understand how excruciatingly painful/ how impossible it is to have a normal life. They observe the person and judge them as being lazy or unmotivated. This is acceptable because our society is based on productivity and constant struggle to survive. People are selected for jobs based on how successfully they can present themselves as being eager (desperate even) to constantly serve and exert themselves mentally and physically. Depressed people don't fit into that scheme.

Then I have a question, why doesn't society offer euthanasia for people who have proven to be unproductive for a consistent period of time (unemployed, depressed, in poverty)? Would it not be a 'win-win' situation? The person gets to die and doesn't have to struggle while the economy isn't burdened.

 

[Help_Me]

Simply cause they are ok, and they never suffered a mental disorder. It's easy to judge without actual knowledge of problem)

 

[Lra888]

Then I have a question, why doesn't society offer euthanasia for people who have proven to be unproductive for a consistent period of time (unemployed, depressed, in poverty)? Would it not be a 'win-win' situation? The person gets to die and doesn't have to struggle while the economy isn't burdened.

I think because mental illness/ social services is an economy itself. The pharmaceutical industry makes billions. Look at the cost of medical treatment in America - an incredible markup: a simple trip to the dr or hospital is always 100's or 1000's of dollars.

 

[Lra888]

I think because mental illness/ social services is an economy itself. The pharmaceutical industry makes billions. Look at the cost of medical treatment in America - an incredible markup: a simple trip to the dr or hospital is always 100's or 1000's of dollars.

Plus they don't care if depressed people are given welfare/the bare minimum to survive. In the grand scheme that's nothing to them. It isolates these people and contains the problem.

 

[millefeui]

It is weird. In the case of anxiety, what I suffer from, I don't think no one in their right mind would EVER choose to have it. It is such an excruciating thing.

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

I think people by and large cling to their sense of illusory control because the notion of anything bad happening to them is too frightening to bear. I see this time and time again with my own family. They really struggle to comprehend mental illness, or my physical health complications. My mother is a health nut and has always erroneously believed she can stave off just about anything unpleasant with enough tomatoes and broccoli. And when I talk about my problems with her, I'm always made to feel that it's all my fault for not having enough fight or discipline in me. It's a persistent and very annoying inference that I always pick up on.

I'm not sure where this type of thing originates from, but I suspect it's part of this whole happy go lucky, roll up your sleeves and kick the world's ass nonsense that we're consistently spoon fed. It's like a mandatory bullshit pep talk we all receive from a very early age.

 

[Threads]

TL:DR Because of the ignorance and stigma regarding mental illness.

The western educational system fails tremendously to address these issues early on. Corpocracy and consumerism work best when society is turbulent and divided. The absolute lack of not only affordable, but accessible mental healthcare in the West is also part of the reason. There is far more profitability for the pharmaceutical industry to have psychiatrists pushing medication than accessible and affordable therapy and outpatient mental health treatments.

 

[Jen Erik]

Specifically depression?

In the U.S., this attitude that it's a choice seems strongly correlated to that whole "pick yourself up by your bootstraps and work harder" blather.

Edited to add more words

 

[Rollo]

Specifically depression? I don't doubt that some claims from people regarding mental illnesses are overexaggerated but why is it hard to believe that the brain can lack the ability to make adequate chemicals for perservering through life?

We can accept that people can be born without fear or conscience due to abnormalities in their limbic system (psychopaths)

Well even if it's possible how would one find it out? Whether for him specifically it's realated to choice or is naturally embedded? Besides there seems to be no consensus as to what constitute 'abnormality in limbic system'. Like you're saying being born with no fear is abnormality. But in reality it's always people who have issues with fear, not with fearlessness, that believe it to be some defect of their brain.

 

[Trashcan]

They have no empathy. They haven't experienced something such as clinical depression and think that their experiences apply to everyone. Or they had a temporary situational depression, such as from a break up, and think that since they got over it, everyone can. They fail to acknowledge that their depression was situational and temporary while ours are not. But these people have little empathy and believe that their situation applies to everyone.