If you have a brain chemistry disorder, do you want a cure?

I will go so far as to say hells yes. And no, it’s too boring to talk about…all i know is i am not going to let it get in the way of having fun on my Florida Keys trip!

I’m bipolar. What I have now is treatment. If someone offered me a cure, I’d take it in a heartbeat.

Sorry, but if someone tried to cure my Aspergers, I would try to cure their oxygen dependency. I don’t suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it! There was a time not too long ago (less than 50 years) when I would be considered “mentally ill” and possibly institutionalized even though I am fully capable of living independently and not any more of a danger to society than the average person on the street.

Besides, how do w define mental illness? Is speaking out against the government a mental illness that requires mandatory treatment? That depends on who is in charge.

I have what is considered a mild case of depression. I take medication that is of dubious value. I would love for it to be cured. By definition depression is not much fun.

I guess it’s going to depend on who’s doing the defining of “disorder” and what the “cure” entails.

I don’t think (looking out from inside my own head) that I have any particular “disorder”. On the other hand, there are some things about myself that could stand a change:
I’m the world’s worst housekeeper;
I hoard like a pack rat (in fact, pack rats say that they “hoard like @WasCy”);
It could be said that I’m lazy (but really, I suffer from “laziness syndrome”);
I hate to exercise;
I’m not particularly sociable – that is, I don’t go out of my way to make friends.

But it all seems to work for me. If I became a neat housekeeper with tons of friends and exercised like a madman and did projects all of the time, I’d be a different person, and I like who I am. (I’m not alone in that, believe it or not.)

So I’d have to say “no” on the face of things, but I’m willing to entertain a sales proposal.

Perhaps if you define “disorder” more narrowly you’ll get different responses to the Q. Betcha so.

@WasCy No definitions. You are actually addressing the issue I am asking about. Surprise, surprise!

It’s a good question. On one hand, it would be great to cure those whose disorders render them incapable of functioning in society… the extreme cases of paranoid schizophrenia, dementia, PTSD, bipolar…etc. Statistics show that 25% of the homeless are severely mentally ill, although they make up only 5% of the general population. Society should do everything possible to give these people the ability to lead “normal” lives.

On the other hand, who decides what’s ‘normal”? Who decides when a person has crossed the line and needs to be “cured”? Also, many of histories greatest artists and thinkers would qualify as mentally ill. Do we want to “cure” the next DaVinci?

@GladysMensch That is partly why I answered the way I did. Where would we be today without Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, or Bill Gates?

A cure? Naw, I love being depressed. It’s awesome. :P

I had chronic depression for decades and yes, I’d definitely want a cure. Especially if it came back.

I have MDD, chronic PTSD, and OCD. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda.

Yes, I want a cure. I don’t like anything about it.

OH YES! As much as I would like to see a cure for cancer and aids!!!!!!!

For a couple of them, yes.

It seems that opinions vary based on the illness, so a blanket answer won’t cut it :/

My son & husband wouldn’t be the geniuses they are without their Asperger’s/Autism. Along with their disorders comes anxiety and some other issues…but I can’t imagine “curing” them of their brilliance.

My brother is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and he has often expressed a wish to be like everyone else. I think that means he would like a cure.

To those above who point out a number of people who are famous geniuses, I do not believe it is because of their condition. I’m sure there are many more examples of genius that aren’t accompanied by a mental disorder, and I know for a fact there are many, many more people who have a mental disorder and are not geniuses.

@YARNLADY : Thank you.

I know very little about this subject, but I did come to suspect maybe my brain isn’t all that alright. Still, I may whine and moan and piss about, but whatever is going on with me, if anything, is something that’s been a part of me and my life, and I’m not fond of the idea of medication used to change this.
Compared to people with badass mental disorders, I prolly wouldn’t say that if I had one, or, if what I may have was extremely severe. Still, I did alarming stuff before that a cure may have prevented. Or maybe it was just me. I just don’t like the idea of my perceptions, views or moods changing according to something that isn’t familiar with me. That’s what I understand medication to do, but I might be very wrong.

@YARNLADY I know you didn’t intend to offend, but you did. However, we have seen each other often enough over the years that I consider you a friend, so I won’t bite your head off. Instead, I am going to tell you where you went wrong and kindly ask that you don’t do it again. And I am going to do so in public so that others may learn a little something.

Have you ever heard the old saying, “The cure is worse than the disease.”? Apparently you think that medical science knows everything about the human brain, knows how to cure everything, and you disavow the existence of things such as side effects. To my mind, any intelligent person already knows that when doctors mess around with a person’s brain, they do all sorts of harm.
So what you said tells me that either you are stupid, or that you are willfully ignorant; it’s something so obvious that unintentional ignorance isn’t possible. I know you too well to think you are an idiot, so that leaves willful ignorance; something I find highly offensive.

You are correct that my AS doesn’t make me a genius, but trying to cure it may well turn me into a moron (and I use that word in the purest clinical sense).

I disagree with your presumption, @jerv, that when doctors mess around with a person’s brain, they do all sorts of harm. I won’t deny that that is sometimes true, but not universally, not “usually” and almost never “with intent”. Doctors are doing all kinds of things with brains these days to improve the quality of life of the person with the brain.

I thought that most intelligent people already realized that.

If I have a disorder (or which I’m unaware I have but is entirely possible), I’d like it cured. Assuming it isn’t beneficial actually, just misunderstood.

@WasCy I’ll remember that next time a bottle of prescription pills makes me want to kill myself, or makes me so emotionally numb that I cannot enjoy life, or so spacey that I cannot do things like drive :/

True, it sometimes works, but my experience is that it is rare. I know a lot of people who have needed meds, not a single one who hasn’t had problems as a direct result, and many who were actually worse off with the “cure” than with the original affliction.

@jerv I have no idea where these words come from, but it certainly isn’t from me. Apparently you think that medical science knows everything about the human brain, knows how to cure everything, and you disavow the existence of things such as side effects. To my mind, any intelligent person already knows that when doctors mess around with a person’s brain, they do all sorts of harm. Show me where I have supposedly disavowed the existence of such things as side effects.

Please don’t put words in my mouth, especially when you start with what I apparently think which is so far off base. I hate it when people tell me what I am thinking when it has absolutely nothing to do with what I have actually said.

Doctors have done all sorts of good with people’s brains. I have read of severe epilepsy being treated by minor brain surgery, and medication. Your statements can refer to a small segment of the population, and are not the main stream of todays medicine.

@YARNLADY Maybe I read a bit too much into your answer, but that is what your words said to me, and the reaction I had. And it is the fact that I know you well enough to know that you probably didn’t mean what I read that made me try to be nice about it and try to tell you that you as nicely as I can that you unintentionally hit a nerve.

As for “small segment”, I think I have a big enough sample size that my life would have to be chock full of statistical anomalies in order for you to be universally correct. Now, those that have as adverse a reaction as I do may be a relatively small percentage (my observations are that it’s only about 20–30%, or around 1-in-4), which some may consider “a small segment” even though I don’t.

@jerv : I for one am grateful for the good that doctors and modern pharmaceuticals can do for me. Quite frankly, I’d be dead without the medication I take for my bipolar disorder.

Does anyone find there’s a difference between then and now? The first time, it was like what @hawaii_jake just said for me. There is a real good chance I’d be dead without the meds I got.

But it’s different now. I’ve been through the episodes and I know what is happening. I also have all kinds of tools at my disposal that I didn’t have before. I am confident that I can work with it so it won’t kill me. I also feel like my edgy crazy self that I was before I got depressed and before I got diagnosed. I also know that I need intensity in my life and that it doesn’t matter whether I’m medicated or not. I need those ups and downs. I will make them happen if they don’t show up on their own. I’ll just create problems.

I don’t mind. I realize that it is important in my life to have some instability. Some kind of craziness.

If I weren’t on my meds, it might be easier for these things to happen. My mind feels like someone scooting a chair across it when what I really want is to run across it on a dog sled. Mush!

@wundayatta : I have a disease that will kill me if I stop the treatment. It’s like having cancer: I would quickly die without the radiation and chemotherapy. It’s also like diabetes: I would die without the insulin.

This disease centers in my brain, and there lies its greatest threat. It’s the only disease I can readily think of that can convince me I don’t need the treatment. I have seen that other side, the untreated side of me, and it is a horrendous sight which I will at all costs avoid.

I ran out of my medication one time. I had moved between states and was not yet plugged into the new state’s mental health system. I knew I was running out and did what I thought was my best to wean myself off them as slowly as I could.

I had outrageous highs when I thought I could almost fly, and I had terrifying lows when I wailed uncontrollably and wished desperately to end it all. And then the hallucinations came. They were simple ones thankfully. They weren’t elaborate or terribly frightening, but I recognized them for what they were.

I was lucky and had a friend in the area whom I called and was directed to the nearest help. My condition warranted hospitalization, and I’m glad that I got it.

And I have continuing help now. I have regular visits to a psychiatrist, a caseworker, and a therapist. I have Medicare for my prescription drug needs and hospitalization should that become necessary again. I have medication to keep me stable.

I am not telling you what to do, @wundayatta. I don’t want to take any of your freedom away from you. I have shared a very personal story to illustrate my experience, strength, and hope. I merely suggest that you think very long and very hard before you try to tackle this disease without the medication that is available. This is not a disease to be trifled with. It wants to kill you.

@hawaii_jake My case is quite different from yours. I’m Bipolar II for one thing. I don’t get those high highs and paranoia or hallucinations. I just get to feel smart for a while. And since I’d know what was going on this time, I’d just enjoy it instead of worrying about it.

Depression—I can do without that, unless I can’t. There are times when, as crazy as it sounds, I need to be depressed. When I’m stable for too long, I need something intense to happen, and if it can’t be happy, then I’ll take depressed, weird as that may sound. I’m not the only one I know who does this.

A lot of us, I think, make trouble for ourselves—medicated or not.

I think I could be fine without medication. A number of people in my group do without medication, and they survive. I think if you took this need for intensity away from me, I’d be a zombie. And I’d soon be dead. In other words, it’s a part of me. It’s not just a manifestation of the disorder. It’s a problematic part of me. But it’s me.