Melancholia versus nervous illness

E

Earthcircle

Well-known member
dottie said:
yeah. aren't those archaic terms that have been replaced by "anxiety" and "depression"?
Click to expand...

No. The categories are different. Neurasthenia and melancholia are both syndromes each of which can involve anxiety and negative affect. Roughly speaking, one is neurotic depression while the other is psychotic depression. However, they don't seem to be on the same spectrum as they respond to different treatments. A big mistake was to take treatments for melancholia, such as antidepressants, and try to apply them to neurasthenics. Furthermore, there is evidently a biological test for melancholia: the dexamethasone suppression test.
 
Kiwong

Kiwong

Well-known member
Earthcircle said:
I haven't made myself clear. Look, I'm 48 years old. I first sought help when I was ten, and was receiving help on a regular basis when I was 15. Now I have tried pretty much everything by now. I know a lot about CBT, and ... you name it. I feel that the mental health professions have really let me down, and I need a new paradigm.
Click to expand...

You know a lot abouth the role thoughts can play in anxiety and depression, but are you putting what you know into practice?
 
E

Earthcircle

Well-known member
Kiwong said:
You know a lot abouth the role thoughts can play in anxiety and depression, but are you putting what you know into practice?
Click to expand...

Trying to monitor the contents of one's mind, catching oneself in the act of having a maladaptive thought and then replacing with an adaptive thought, seems pretty crazy to me. It would certainly be stressful. I know, though, that not all CBT fits that description, e.g. the CBT for OCD does not, at least not as described in Foa's book Stop Obsessing. I give my mind the gift of freedom; I think whatever I think.
 
Kiwong

Kiwong

Well-known member
Earthcircle said:
Trying to monitor the contents of one's mind, catching oneself in the act of having a maladaptive thought and then replacing with an adaptive thought, seems pretty crazy to me. It would certainly be stressful. I know, though, that not all CBT fits that description, e.g. the CBT for OCD does not, at least not as described in Foa's book Stop Obsessing. I give my mind the gift of freedom; I think whatever I think.
Click to expand...

Isn't it even more stressful to react to words and comments with sensitivity and defensiveness to criticisms that aren't even real? It seems to me to that some of your thinking is causing you stress when it is unnecessary.

It happens to me I will think someone has said something critical about me, and it isn't even true. I get worked up about something that isn't even real. That's not freedom, that makes me feel unwell.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top