I've just been to see my shrink
so I have Valium in my grubby little grasp and am therefore relatively (drug-induced) happy. However, leaflets in mental health institutions make me - appropriately I suppose - mad.

Example:

JUNE MENTAL HEALTH WORKSHOPS
Homeopathy one day workshop - how homeopathy can solve your physical and mental illnesses

What the cunting fuck? They're allowed to pin that to the wall in a mental health unit? Bad fucking science? Touted at vulnerable people? How am I supposed to trust the mental health professionals who allow make-believe stuff like that to be pinned to a noticeboard?

Yes. Water. Water with "memory". It'll cure ya - I saw it on the wall of a hospital.

*swallows more Valium*
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:15, 26 replies)

I have arguments
with my mother about homeopathy. Really annoys me.
(Bazongaloid, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:19, closed)

If they're making claims to cure illness
which to be the word "solve" sounds like they are, you can report them to, erm, someone. Bollocks, I forget who.

There's a law that says you can't make claims to cure stuff. Arse, look, go to badscience.net and have a look round, it'll be on there somewhere.

There are two schools of thought as far as I can see with this bollocks. Either the people who "prescribe" homeopathy believe it, in which case, they're daft and gullible. Or they don't in which case they;re a bunch of fradualent cunts making money off the back of the vunerable and the sick and frankly, hanging's too good for them.

I have NO time for alternative wafty bollocks like this and will happliy get shouty as fuck.
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:22, closed)

^
badscience is brilliant, isn't it? I haven't read it for a while - that's my evening's entertainment sorted (that, and dribbling in a zoned out diazepam trance).
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:26, closed)

There was another poster on the noticeboard there
that said "Train a woman and you train a society". That just made me want to vomit with it's tacky, clichéd awfulness.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:29, closed)

Badscience
is brilliant, makes my monday mornings
(Bazongaloid, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:30, closed)

Much as I hate homeopathy
and it's inclusion in the world of real medecine, there is an arguement that for SOME people for whom their mental health issues could be resolved with a placebo, to try it. It's got to be better than drugs. I still agree though. If water has a memory, then surely it remembers being pissed out of a few people more than some eentsy speck of kitten fluff.
( Madam Marlboro wonders if you've found her yet, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:32, closed)

Oh now
if it could remember kitten fluff, that would be the best thing ever.
(Bazongaloid, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:35, closed)

Mdme marlboro
Oh aye, I think the placebo effect is fascinating and shouldn't be discounted. What I object to is the dressing up of said effect and a nice long chat with a person willing to listen when you're il as some kind of mystical unicorn bollocks.

many people when they feel like shit would benefit from half an hour talking things through. What they dont benefit from is being charged 15.99 for sugar pills, dressed up in pseudoscientific clap trap.

sorry. i'll stop now.
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:38, closed)

Kick a Homeopath-o-quack right in the fuck
Trust me, you'll feel a lot better.
( Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:49, closed)

Does this
mean you're a homeophobe?
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 7 May 2008, 17:51, closed)

And
is a homeophone someone that sounds like a homeopath but means something else?
(Bazongaloid, Wed 7 May 2008, 17:54, closed)

Shit science
It's amazing the propaganda they're allowed to spout these days.

A more truthful poster would read:

Depressed? Suffer from a severe chemical imbalance which requires medication to stabilize? Fear not, because listening to lots of Bollocks will make you feel better. Fact.

Grr.

Edit - I do hope it's routine stuff and not a blip on the radar CHCB.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Wed 7 May 2008, 18:00, closed)

^
(entirely work-induced stress, but liable to tip the delicate mental balance blah de blah if it goes unchecked - cheers for askin', mate.)
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Wed 7 May 2008, 18:05, closed)

Homeopathy?
...has as much usefulness as a chocolate fireguard.

I'd be exceptionally surprised if it outperforms a placebo statistically other than through the obvious psychosomatic effects that a placebo would expect.

Give me my SSRIs and anti-psychotics anyday over that shit.

Assuming it was an NHS unit, CHCB, I'd strongly recommend complaining.

The quackery involved in homeopathy, reiki, angel-healing (I mean, WTF?!) is appalling.

More power to the elbow of Ben Goldacre (aka Bad Science)!.
(Eds Meds Mathskillz=1,Socialskillz=0, Wed 7 May 2008, 18:06, closed)

Having
lived with a housemate who has suffered with quite severe depression for 4 years now, I have heard some wonderful ideas that people come up with as "cures". The best one was my ex telling me "She should just think herself better, anyone can do it". FFS she's 19 and on venlafaxine and mirtazapine! If she could think herself better by now don't you think she'd have done it, you insensitive twat?! I have also been dragged (protesting loudly) to a "faith healing" where the guy in charge was claiming that people would wake up the next day and their depression would be gone so they should try coming off their medication, on their own, without their doctors' advice!! That is truly terrible and irresponsible. I do claim to be christian myself but when people like that start spouting rubbish like that it makes me sick and want nothing to do with what they call "christianity".
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Wed 7 May 2008, 18:16, closed)

The actual text on the leaflet
(I just found it online):


Emotional Well-Being with Homeopathy
Nicky Gibney
Learn how homeopathy can help re-balance your mind and emotions to help prevent mental and physical ill health.


Maybe I should spend £4 of my hard-earned cash to go along and heckle.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Wed 7 May 2008, 18:22, closed)

CHCB
Do it!

If I wasn;t 4000 miles away I'd come too!

You can ask them what exactly they mean by "rebalance your mind" means for a start.
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Wed 7 May 2008, 18:28, closed)

@CHCB et al.
Hi,

After reading this thread, I hope my reply does not seem too trollish and if it does, I apologise, but I've been meaning to say this for some time.

Your perception of the world is shaped by your thoughts. If you believe this, you will start thinking more positively and adopt a more positive attitude to life.

This is not something I'm parroting from one of those self-help books. Believe me, this works. I figured this out independently and tried it myself with success. Of course, thinking this way is not enough to solve the problems but it helps put yourself in the right perspective of mind to tackle them head on. Of course, do continue to take the medicines and advice that your mental health care institutions prescribe. My advice is not a substitute, but a complement.

I apologise in advance if this offends you or anyone else who has replied, but I just really wanted to get this off my chest. In fact, I will even offer my services as a punch-bag if this post has enraged anyone.

But really, I hope that you make it through this storm and come out all fresh and ready to tackle the world head on, no matter what method you use.

Good luck!

PS. This is not bollocks. Really, it's not.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Wed 7 May 2008, 18:49, closed)

^
"Your perception of the world is shaped by your thoughts. If you believe this, you will start thinking more positively and adopt a more positive attitude to life."

That's grand, if it works for you. I know that lithium works for me. Perhaps your method is some form of self-hypnosis that I can't access. I'm not saying it doesn't work for you, just that it doesn't for me. I'm not trolling back, either - it's cool that you have found a solution. Positive thinking unfortunately does not stop psychotic episodes or suicidal thoughts/attempts. Not for me, anyway. I only wish it did help, even just a little. I'll stick with the drugs.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Wed 7 May 2008, 18:58, closed)

@Rakky
I'm worried that if I do go and ask the probing questions I want to ask I'll end up feeling guilty about crushing people's hopes. Example: I (politely) emailed Barnardo's this week to complain about their door-to-door charity muggers disturbing my Bank Holiday peace. They emailed me back telling me their door-to-door fundraising helped n number of orphans last year, thus making me feel guilty for daring to mention what a shit way of fundraising it was (but not guilty enough to make me give them money).
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Wed 7 May 2008, 19:17, closed)

Perception vs drugs
Here is something I think I can speak knowledgeably about.

I don't think that the Lunatic Artist will be offended by my revealing that she has depression. I have had it as well, during my divorce that I went through while in engineering school, causing me to almost fail out. But there is a major difference here.

See, my depression was mainly situational. While I'm not exactly the happiest man in the world and never have been, I manage to get along pretty well and generally enjoy life. So once things settled down and my situation improved, my depression went away and I no longer needed the Wellbutrin.

She, on the other hand, has a chemical imbalance. It runs in her family- out of five siblings, only one seems to have dodged the depression bullet. Of the four who have it, one drinks 30 cups of coffee a day, one is in denial of any sort of problem, and the other two are on meds for it. She was on Effexor and some other stuff when I first met her, but when she quit her job and no longer had insurance the meds were costing her $700/month. So she made an appointment and got different meds- and that's when she first had a problem.

We got her off of absolutely everything- she got off of her psych meds, she stopped drinking, she stopped smoking weed, and for the first time in 20 years completely detoxed. She went straight for six months- and then it hit her, bigger and badder than ever, and she had to go to the hospital for a while.

It's been two years of all kinds of merry hell trying to find a combination that worked, but she seems to be doing well now with her current meds. But without them? I seriously think she might have followed through on the suicide threat.

For some it may be as easy as deciding to be happy, but for others it's a serious biological issue that cannot be dealt with by merely talking things out. She HAS to have those meds, or she becomes completely irrational and depressed to a very dangerous degree.

Homeopathy will not do it for her. Motivational speakers will not do it for her. Counseling sessions will not do it for her. Having me there beside her is not enough.

For people like her, those meds are saving lives.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 7 May 2008, 19:24, closed)

CHCB
True, I was being rather flip. :) You'll have to excuse me, it's only 1.30pm here and my day is dragging to say the least.

I try to engage believers in homeo nonsense as partly I find it interesting to see *how* people come by these beliefs. I would like to think that I would never go so far as to ridicule them to their face but would like to speak to them with reason and clarity. (*) However there's a large part of me that can't bear the fact that they claim that homeopathy can treat AIDS, prevent malaria, cure cancer. This goes beyond "wellness at work" and into the territory of putting people's lives in danger. If one unstable schizophrenic goes off their meds and puts their own or someone else's life in danger because someone told them that magic water could cure them, then I think that it's worth challenging.

(*) slagging them off on b3ta doesn;t count. That's catharsis.
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Wed 7 May 2008, 19:33, closed)

^
ha! You've just reminded me of another peeve - the word 'wellness'! I agree with you. I could just go along, sit at the back and scoff loudly...
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Wed 7 May 2008, 19:35, closed)

@CHCB
I'm glad you've found a solution that works for you. I wasn't trying to suggest a replacement, but just wanting to pass on a gem of wisdom. While positive thinking is not the silver-bullet that solves all problems, it has helped me get through my own rough times. I still have my moments where dark thoughts take over my mind, but have a knack of eventually getting myself out of them.

Hope you manage to get through this, be it with lithium, valium, positive thinking or whatever method you chose.

Re: heckling at homeopathy: It's good that you're aware you might end up crushing other people's hopes. Better just to e-mail your heckles thought provoking questions.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Wed 7 May 2008, 19:36, closed)

I've had depression on and off since I was 18.
Chemical imbalance etc although the last time was brought on by stress at work and bullying.

The drugs do work and I went to a counsellor. All I did was yap about my problems to her each time for an hour and it did me the world of good even though she said very little.

I've also had panic attacks which I'm coming to the end of. God! their annoying. What I'm trying to say is that shit happens. You take the drugs and then when your better you appreciate the good times so much more.

Hope you get better soon.
( girlinthehole, Wed 7 May 2008, 20:19, closed)

Fuck the lot of 'em
As someone who went to an ``alternative'' secondary school, I was subjected to homeopathic shite like this on an almost daily basis. ``This herbal tea/sugar water/mystical Amazonian dried herb/eye of newt will help cure your broken foot/ulcer/depression/chronic masturbation.'' Take those herbs and shove them up your arses, you phony and/or deluded bastards. This was a Waldorf/Steiner school, so we also had to listen to loads of crap about ``biodynamic'' farming. ``You have to stir the manure heap clockwise, except when there's a full moon, in which case it's counter-clockwise. then, you have to spread it with a special implement held at 45-degree angle from the moonbeams.'' fuck me.
(tuqueboy has been in a medically -induced coma since, Thu 8 May 2008, 3:18, closed)