Drugs or Therapy?

[Zapurdead]

Do you think that people with mental disorders get any help from therapists? I personally believe that the only way to truly cure a seriously mentally disturbed person is to give them drugs, which I believe is the better alternative to being put in an asylum, or hurting something else.
For example, Seung-Hui Cho had a mental problem and received therapy, passing as healthy, but he wasn't.

Drugs? Therapy? Discuss.

[SitarFreak]

Personally, I say drugs. Most mental disorders are caused by things like imbalances of chemicals in the brain, or extreme trama, like the PTSD. I think therapy helps, but drugs are more effective, and probably cost less. And also, if someone is put into therapy, they could easily snap back into their previous state after passing as "cured"

Oh, and sorry for getting you banned.

[The Brown Cow]

Both.

You need to treat both the chemical imbalance and the mental problems. Taking pills without coming to terms with the past trauma/poor self-esteem/etc will only lead to a relapse when attempting to ease off medication. Therapy without treatment of physical problems adds unnecessary difficulty to the process.

[Sperry]

Going to agree with the both here.

Mental disorders/conditions/whatever tend to require medication to alleviate certain symptoms. I've got a number of mentally "unstable" friends [specific disorders seem irrelevant here], and although a lot of them think medication doesn't do a darn bit of good, they are always worse off when they're off their meds.

Therapy is necessary to understand, accept, and cope with the disability. It also helps make the medication more useful, because they're more likely to take it when they need to if they actually understand why.

[Woolfenstien]

Both, but more on the therapy side.

What are we classing as a 'mental disorder' here? Depression, a learning disability, or schizophrenia? You're being very vague.

[DarkReality]

Therapy only works as long as the recipient WANTS to be helped. A sociopathic psychokiller will hardly succumb to therapy. And what mental disorders are we talking about here? Sociopaths and misdiagnosed ADD? Down's syndrome and other genetic disorders? Or schizophrenia and depression? It sort of varies from disorder to disorder.

I just read Woolfy's post as well. Whoops.

I'd say therapy is enough to help someone in cases like schizophrenia or depression, assuming it's competent therapy. But drugs usually make the process much quicker and much easier when administered for exactly that reason. I think drugs in general should only be used as supplements to make the entire process of healing quicker and less painful to all involved parties.

[LIME!]

It really depends on the person as to which will help more. I would say most would be helped more by drugs than a therapist. I say this because most mental illnesses are caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and drugs can usually help to somewhat stabilize these imbalances. I'm not ruling out therapy, I just think most of it is a waste of time for the those with a disorder.

[Robotdeath]

I have ADD, and I turned out fine. I took drugs for a while and then quit.

For mild mental disorders, I'd say drugs are the max you need. Therapy may help, but it's usually a waste of money.

It really depends on the disorder.

[Matt]

I have ADD, and I turned out fine. I took drugs for a while and then quit.

For mild mental disorders, I'd say drugs are the max you need. Therapy may help, but it's usually a waste of money.

It really depends on the disorder.
You stopped taking the drugs yet you still have it. That is unless you meant to say "I had ADD"

I would like to say drugs would be more effective. Scratch that, drugs ARE more effective when the person wont listen to reason or refuses to cooperate to alternative methods of curing.

[¿CRAZYØ¿]

I would like to say drugs would be more effective. Scratch that, drugs ARE more effective when the person wont listen to reason or refuses to cooperate to alternative methods of curing.
So you expect a person who won't talk to anyone about their problems to be fine with taking drugs for their problem? I seriously doubt most people would be okay with that.

I'm gonna have to say both on this one. And I'm gonna lean towards therapy. Drugs only in extreme cases.

[Blastedt]

I have ADHD, and while the pills help, they aren't really needed. Willpower is the main element.

[DarkReality]

ADHD can come in varying strengths. In many (I daresay the "real" as opposed to the misdiagnosed) cases, people suffering from attention deficit are incapable of filtering the stimuli they receive from the outside world. Drugs are a necessity lest they spend all their willpower on just not going crazy. And I imagine that's pretty exhausting. We're talking about hearing every sound around you and attempting to pay attention to all of them at the same time.

Not that I want to step on your toes, I don't know if you really have ADHD or an overzealous doctor, but there are cases in which drugs are absolutely necessary to lead a half-way decent life.

I would like to say drugs would be more effective. Scratch that, drugs ARE more effective when the person wont listen to reason or refuses to cooperate to alternative methods of curing.

That's right. Screw free will when we can tell others what's best for them -_-

If someone's capable of refusing drugs and not an obvious danger to himself or others, then it's not exactly our right to force them onto him or her.

[The Brown Cow]

Therapy only works as long as the recipient WANTS to be helped. A sociopathic psychokiller will hardly succumb to therapy.
Unless you're forcing pills down his throat, he's not going to succumb to medication either if he doesn't want to be helped.

I have clinical depression, and I can tell you that both the medication and the therapy are very helpful.

[Sperry]

You stopped taking the drugs yet you still have it. That is unless you meant to say "I had ADD"

I would like to say drugs would be more effective. Scratch that, drugs ARE more effective when the person wont listen to reason or refuses to cooperate to alternative methods of curing.Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't ADD one of the many mental disorders that isn't "cured"? Take; for example, Autism. Autistic adults are usually quite capable people, but before they learn to cope; have one heck of a struggle with it.

[Blastedt]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't ADD one of the many mental disorders that isn't "cured"? Take; for example, Autism. Autistic adults are usually quite capable people, but before they learn to cope; have one heck of a struggle with it.
You are correct.

[Robotdeath]

You stopped taking the drugs yet you still have it. That is unless you meant to say "I had ADD"
I do still have it. I just stopped taking drugs for it. I have sufficient willpower to control it.

What's wrong with that?

[Vagrant]

Depends on what condition they have.

If they're psychotic, it's more inclined to be a chemical imbalance, in which case it would be best to use drugs, followed by therapy.

If it's emotional problems, I would recommend therapy first, then see if it's possibly a chemical imbalance.