My Introduction to Psychology 11: Tom Cruise and Mental Health

My Introduction to Psychology 11: Tom Cruise and Mental Health.

Tom believes that anybody, including Brooke Shields---who had been obviously depressed after birth of her newborn child—should not take antidepressants nor psych-meds. In my view, Tom is half right and half wrong…Here are the two conflicting points of view.

Tom should not condemn every single psychiatric medication; some people would die or seriously injured when they don't seek a course of treatment, which may include taking antidepressants, untipsychotics like Haldol, and stimulants like Ritalin. When I was a student counselor, I treated children with hyper-activities and inattentiveness in a hospital setting. The hyperactivity of the children was so serious that they needed medical attention most of the time. Although Tom might read some journal articles of psychiatry, obviously his reading list is not comprehensive- maybe his neurological condition is less serious than those who I encountered in the hospital..Yes, there is a room for some improvement based on personal effort. But Tom pushed the envelope too far…Didn’t he learn the middle way?

Second, Tom’s frustration with psychiatry is, at least partially, understandable. Psychiatry (and clinical psychology, counseling…etc) has been dealing with unclear topics-- What are mental illnesses? What are the right treatments? (And, what's normal behaviors anyway?" How the medications and psychotherapy work? Almost all of these critical questions are answered ONLY by hypotheses. I repeat. As of today, most of mental illness are diagnosed WITHOUT hard-evidences, such as brain imageries and results of bloodworks. We don’t even track the hormonal levels of a psych patient on regular basis (unless the medication requires it for safety purposes). We diagnose and track the “progress” of patients simply by talking, physically examining (if you have medical background), and using paper-and-pencil tests (such as Beck Depression Inventories). I do not call the treatments “pseudo science”, but if I were a consumer, I will check where is the bases of a diagnosis and a course of treatment. Let’s go back to the common sense and the middle way…Tom…