
My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward - theoutlander
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/lovely-wife-psych-ward-95567/?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits
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emptytheory
Some people can manage being under a lot of stress. Some people can't. It
sucks that you can't take preventative measures--such as eliminating the
stressful environment indefinitely--if you suspect serious psychological harm.

~~~
Broken_Hippo
I think you misunderstand mental illness. While it is true that mental illness
does come out in times of stress and a stressful environment doesn't help out,
stress doesn't cause it except in select illnesses. (and even then, stress
doesn't actually cause it).

I do agree with preventative measures, and there are some that can be taken,
but this includes things like regular psychological screenings and physicals
since some mental illnesses have biological markers: teaching people warning
signs: teaching coping skills early on and making sure medication and real
help are available to those that need it. A society with some empathy helps as
well. But those are a long long way off and I'm not sure of the effectiveness
of such things as a preventative measure: these might simply be a tool to
catch mental illness early. Still positive but hardly preventative.

And the stress bit is a little misleading. My exhusband had schizophrenia and
was on disability for it. Some days, it was ok. I worked, he did stuff around
the house and took care of the dogs. Some days, the stress of having to shower
was too much. It was impossible to eliminate the stress enough since so much
of it was misreactions to very low stress levels. Unmedicated, it was all he
could do to get the voices to give him mental peace - this led him to a
suicide attempt. luckily, after that he always had the option to check himself
into the hospital and go somewhere safe if it got to much for him (and I had
the option to call and get him there if needed). Medicated, the voices were
less, but didn't go away. He took his medication out of fear of things most of
the time (most... ).

~~~
emptytheory
I don't deny there's a genetic component and I don't believe stress is the
single cause. I'm not well read on mental illness. But in the context of this
story, stress was a cause (or trigger, whatever you want to call it) for a
certain kind of behavior. It didn't seem like Giulia had any problems before
her job.

"Some days, the stress of having to shower was too much. It was impossible to
eliminate the stress enough since so much of it was misreactions to very low
stress levels."

That's sad.

