15 May 07
Originally posted by ArrakI maybe able to offer insight. I'm not a doc but I do research on a clinic level. I'm sure you've heard that anti-depressant/anti-psychotic meds change your brains chemistry. At times throughout the day simple things you were once able to do without thinking about suddenly becomes more difficult and require much more thought than what you are used to. The meds take over your brains chemistry levels to correct the hormone chemical embalance being supplied to your brain. This doesn't make you "less smart". In certain clinical studies people that suffer from hypertension and anxiety show superhuman capabilities with faster reactions, hightened senses, and even the ability to think circles around average "normally balanced brains" however have a much greater chance of developing a cardiac infarction (heart attack). Similar is with some cases of bi-polar patients that your mind circles so fast that you can easily become depressed or happy your brain consuming all the seritonin within your brain. The meds you take controls your brains metabolism of certain hormones and soluables your brain secretes. You may never become occustomed to normal tasks such as playing chess or you may yet regain at least a portion of your capacity in time. Whats lost is a lot of cognitive thought i.e the ability to work out a math problem in your head instead of on paper without losing track. Perhaps you would lay awake at night able to close your eyes and watch your favorite movie and hear it out of visual and auditory memory until you fall asleep due to a hyper active visual cortex or super synaptic firing between your temporal fissure to your front lobe often mis-diagnosed as schyzzophreniah but recently discovered as actual epilepsy.
i was diagnosed with bi-polar a couple of years ago. for the first 2 years i didn't take meds. but for the last year i have been taking meds. i found that since being on meds my rating has dropped 100 points and i'm not able to play as much chess as i used to. which sucks, but i still enjoy it!
are their any professional, GM's or IM's or just really g ...[text shortened]... entally ill and play chess and whats your rating and wheather a not you take meds or not?
I'd recommend just plugging at it, you will have days that things are clear, others things like chess will be as clear as mud. Which ever the case dont ever think you are less intelligent since you started taking the meds. The brain is still majorly uncharted and is a resiliant organ system and in that statement, your brain will eventually evolve to peak an area of hightened senses to manage and compensate for the lack of stimulation it once had before the meds. Its just a theory and its untested. Take a blind person for example, complete loss of sight, increases hearing, touch, taste, and even smell to compensate for the lack of a single sense. The brain needs a certain amount of stimulation or you will for the lack of a better word, go nutts. Keep at it. You'll pull through.
15 May 07
Originally posted by Raven69Pending on the case and disorder and the time you've gone untreated sometimes; you're right meds are not the answer however in some cases it is wise never to recommend someone stop taking their meds. That can come back and bite you in a really bad way. In your case you've perhaps already developed in the course of your life the ability to compensate for your disorder whichever your case was. This "mentally ill" you mentioned is addressable by the compliment of the "normal" by the public and the uneducated (not saying you just people in general that label). Simple disorders such as a chemical imbalance doesn't make someone mentall ill. Their brains just dont work the same. Everyones chemistry is different there is no pill that can make everyones brain function the same. We're all just guinea pigs for temporary solutions.
Psychiatrists seem rather fond of trying to label people as "mentally ill", having one disorder or another....indeed, they tried to do the same to me, but no matter what they say, I refuse to take any meds!
My otb rating 2114...and should go up after my last tourney.
15 May 07
Originally posted by StarrmanHe can't: the doctors are plotting to kill him.
I've got a suggestion, crazy as it might seem, but how about you stop taking advice from the uneducated masses of the General forum and start seeking informed, qualified and expereinced people out from whom to gain more information/help?
16 May 07
Originally posted by ArrakisIncluding you, please tell me what qualifications you hold which enable you to consider yourself an informed and qualified person to advise others on the subject of mental health.
Isn't it amazing how all these people don't know what they are talking about!?
16 May 07
Originally posted by Starrmanobviously none...His 'advice' was sinister if nothing else.
Including you, please tell me what qualifications you hold which enable you to consider yourself an informed and qualified person to advise others on the subject of mental health.
19 May 07
Originally posted by StarrmanNaaaaa
I've got a suggestion, crazy as it might seem, but how about you stop taking advice from the uneducated masses of the General forum and start seeking informed, qualified and expereinced people out from whom to gain more information/help?