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Many pschiatrists are quacks who look for problems that aren’t there. However, only a fool would deny the existence of actual mental disorders. Anxiety and depression are real things. So are bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. So are ADHD, ADD, PDD, PTSD, etc.

They are over-diagnosed and often mis-diagnosed or imagined by doctors who want money. This does not negate their reality.

I do aggree that spiritual counseling is crucial, but God also uses doctors to help those with mental illness.

You said: “Besides, have you ever known or heard of anyone who was ever actually CURED by these people? Have you ever met or spoken to a “psychiatric professional”? Most of them are more mental than their patients.”

However, some psychiatrists really are worth their salt. I have bipolar disorder, and I am living a normal healthy life thanks to a good doctor. Really, it is thanks to God for providing me with a good doctor. Medicine saved my life—God saved my life through medicine. I work hard, I am a productive member of society, my husband is a pastor, and we both esteem conservative values.

There are bad psychiatrists and there are people seeking to take advantage of the system, but there really are those of us who need psychiatric care. I am furious with the abuse of the psychiatric healthcare system because it minimalizes those who really need help. “Mental Illness for Fun and Profit” is a problem, but not because mental illnesses are just made-up things. I aggree that the APA is full of dumb liberals but that doesn’t make all psychiatrists bad.

So before you say that the pychiatric industry is a joke, consider that the industry has been hijacked by liberals, not that psychiatry itself is bad. Mental illnesses are real, caused by brain deformation and/or neurotransmitter imbalance. They are somatic and neurological as well as psychological.

I guess what I’m asking is that you drop your blanket accusations without knowing all of the details. In answer to your questions: I have been cured through the aid of a psychiatrist. Yes, I have spoken to psychiatric professionals: some of them are good, some of them are bad, some of them need the help that they claim to offer. Some do more harm than good. But a good psychiatrist is a gift from God Himself to those who truly suffer from these illnesses.

By the way, I do own a gun. Don’t worry, I won’t be committing any mass murders. You are perfectly safe. :)

So...you disaggree that that I am not a threat to myself or others? LOL. You don’t even know me. You know nothing about my life, what I’ve been through.

I have a right to own a gun, just like you. This is America. I am not a second class citizen.

No, they don’t, any more than the blind have a right to be bus drivers.
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Comparing a bipolar person with a gun to a blind bus driver is a ridiculous thing to say. First of all, being a bus driver requires being able to see. Being a gun owner requires the ability to shoot straight and make good moral judgements. Are you saying that bipolar people cannot make good moral judgements?

I go to church. I am a faithful Christian. I work hard and I would NEVER shoot a person unless they were breaking into my house or trying to kill me. I am an American citizen.

The constitution does not say I have a right to drive a bus. It says I have a right to bear arms.

Do I not have a right to own a firearm because I am bipolar? Answer me.

Thank you, newheart. I appreciate your comments. Bipolar is largely considered to be one of the more dangerous and unpredictable disorders—but I have known enough of them to know that it doesn’t automatically mean you are a killer. And I am managing my illness very well.

Also, there are plenty of non-violent schizophrenics. Non-violent paranoid schizophrenics. Mainstream media paints mentally ill people as these horrible criminals, but that’s not the case for all of them. Just like a lot of ‘normal’ people commit crimes, so do a lot of mentally ill.

Thanks again for your thoughts, I appreciate them. Because that is exactly the slippery slope such a registry would create.

I am mentally ill. I have a diagnosis of bipolar. I work in a public place, own a car, and interact with people on a daily basis with no problems whatever. People with mental illnesses should not be segregated unless they are a threat to themselves or others, in which case they need to be hospitalized or locked up (such as for violent criminals).

I am sure I will be called over-sensitive, but of course I am sensitive to something that threatens my constitutional rights.

There is nothing valid in denying constitional rights under a blanket “you’re mentally ill” statement.

As I said in my comment, I am not a second class citizen. I am intelligent, hardworking, have a college degree which I earned all by myself, am poor enough to accept welfare but don’t because I want to stand on my own two feet.

I should not be denied the right to own a gun because I have a few neurotransmitters missing.

Nope, not a joke, though I assume you forgot your /s tag. :) I am bipolar and I have a right to own a firearm. I am not a threat to myself or others.

The irony is that this can have the negative effect that those with mental illnesses will avoid getting help so they will not lose their ability to buy guns.
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Absolutely—I just thought about that too.

This is just another piece joining the slew of others regarding mental health issues as it pertains to the shootings. I am absolutely steamed about this. As an American citizen who happens to have bipolar disorder, I refuse to be considered a second-class citizen because of my physiological condition. Yes, physiological as well as psychological, as bipolar is generally thought to be caused by a physiological lack of neurotransmitters. I am well treated and not violent.

Other recent articles posted to FR talk about how this is just a ploy to use mental illness as a ploy to take our guns. Not to mention, what about the families of mentally ill? So many people have harped on the mother of the Newtown shooter because she owned guns when her son had a mental illness.

Anyone remember that one case where they tried to hold the father of a bipolar (adult) son responsible because the son broke into his locked house--but the gun wasn't locked up?

You know, this sounds a lot like the mental hygiene stuff they tried in Germany a few decades ago...

I am NOT a second class citizen. Don't deny me my constitutional rights because I have an illness.

People who think that the democrats stand up for the disabled and whatnot are idiots.

Again, I am NOT a second class citizen. Don't take my rights, legislators. I should be able to defend myself like everyone else.

(at least I don't live in Minnesota)

Mark Steyn ping

I especially like “The Algae that ate Detroit.”

Not all Mcdees food is fattening. I like when restaurants list the cal. I can them make a informed decision on what I want to eat or not...just as I look at the labels on packages of food in stores.

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The problem isn’t that its useful. The problem is that the government is FORCING restaurants to do this. I’m all for a healthy lifestyle and being informed, but it’s not the goverment’s job to do that. If McD’s did this voluntarily, good for them. The problem is that the gov’s is forcing everyone to do this with obamacare.

Say yes to healthy. Say no to the nanny state.

What a jerk
He really needs a foot up his ass.

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unfortunately, a foot wouldn’t fit since his head is already up there.

What a bunch of.....oh never mind.

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*smirk*

woops. I did try a few titles but must need to hone my searching skills. My apologies for the redundancy.

Dear Romney:

In the words of Maxwell Smart, “Missed it by that much.”

Hey pookie—thanks for the toons today. I had to post the article about the vagina costumes....just to bizarre not to share with (foist upon?) the rest of FreeRepublic.

I look forward to your toons daily. :)

I searched under several keywords but couldn't find anything pertaining to this, so I hope this isn't redundant. I found the link thanks to one of Pookie's Toons...Thanks, Pookie--I never thought I would do a search with the keyword 'vaginacostume'.

Also, check out the bit on Moonbattery: http://moonbattery.com/?p=16544

And here's a quick link to Pookie's toons so you can see some fun commentary on the photos. http://www.therightreasons.net/index.php?/topic/42108-todays-toons-83012/ (I hope that my re-posting is okay with you, Pookie.)

So yeah. Who doesn't love pictures of vagina costumes at 10:30 in the morning????

I confess I did not write those, I got them in an email a while ago.

My family was in tears by the end of it.

Oh—I actually got those in an email from a friend, I didn’t write them. Wish I had, though. I agree, porcine would have been better. :)

My reason is simple. The child is ruined for the rest of their life. The rapist might as well killed them

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While I understand what you are saying—I have a friend that was raped repeatedly as a child by her stepfather—I don’t agree that being traumatized is the same thing as being killed. Though still haunted by it, she lives a happy life, works diligently in the church and has been an invaluable friend to me. I don’t think the rapist “might as well” kill the child, because even traumatized people can go on to live happy lives.

You are correct in saying that these offenders are incurable. That’s why I am in favor of the life without parole sentence.

However, I completely respect your reasoning and sentiments.

“When someone like me ... says, ‘I actually love this child. I actually see her as an extension of me,’ people view me suspiciously. They don’t see me as a legitimate rape victim.”

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I had a friend in college who was raped and got pregnant. She miscarried after about three months.

She said the miscarriage was like being raped all over again. She said she wanted to have that baby, so that a loving couple could adopt it and something good would have come out of her rape. The miscarriage devastated her.

Advising women to do away with the baby from a rape is like telling them to be raped all over again.

Akin was an idiot, but you are right about the media backlash. People are starting to point fingers at Romney and Ryan simply because they have associated with Akin at one point in the past. (GASP)

There are many things which may cause amenorrhea, the cessation of a woman’s menstrual cycle. Just a few:

Excessive exercising (it happens frequently to gymnasts)
Malnutrition (amenorrhea is frequent in anorexics)
Extremely low body weight/fat composition
Unusually high levels of stress
Certain infections
Abnormal hormonal balances
Cancer
Ovarian disease

Spam Haikus (For those who are rusty, haiku is an unrhymed Japanese lyric poem fixed three lines consisting of 5,7, and 5 syllables respectively.)

1.
Blue can of steel
What promise do you hold?
Salt flesh so ripe

2.
Can of metal, slick
Soft center, so cool, moistening
I yearn for your salt

3.
Twist, pull the sharp lid
Jerks and cuts me deeply but
Spam, aah, my poultice

4.
Silent, former pig
One communal awareness
Myriad pink bricks

5. Clad in metal, proud
No mere salt-curing for you
You are not bacon

6.
And who dares mock Spam?
You? You? You are not worthy
Of one rich pink fleck.

7.
Like some spongy rock
A granite, my piece of Spam
In sunlight on my plate.

8.
Little slab of meat
In a wash of clear jelly
Now I heat the pan

9. Oh tin of pink meat
I ponder what you may be:
Snout or ear or feet?

10.
In the cool morning
I fry up a slab of Spam
A dog barks next door

11.
Pink tender morsel
Glistening with salty gel
What the hell is it?

12.
Ears, snouts and innards
A homogeneous mass
Pass another slice

13.
Old man seeks doctor
“I eat Spam daily,” he says.
Angioplasty

14.
Highly unnatural
The tortured shape of this “food”
A small pink coffin

15.
Pink beefy temptress
I can no longer remain
Vegetarian

LOL!!! That is too funny. I used to do model rocketry all the time. My sister and I would stick little fisher-price people in the payload. I’m pretty sure a few grasshoppers took the expedition, too. And all of this was under my father’s watchful and exuberant eye. (He only had daughters—so the fact we liked rocketry was one of the only things that saved him from all of the barbie dolls lying around.) We asked my dad to put all kinds of wacky things in the payload, most of which he refused because of simple physics.

Putting a turtle on a ballon is pretty mild compared to lizards in a payload, if you think about the turbulence of it.

But it’s pretty clear that Disney-Pixar is a guilty party in this animal cruelty case. Where do you think they got the idea for ballons????? “Up” will be a banned movie soon.

I know it was cruel, but I can just see in my mind a very curious 9-year old doing an “experiment” without thinking of the consequences to the turtle. He may not have even believed the balloon could cary the turtle’s weight.

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That was my first thought, too. How many kids have done silly things to animals without thinking about how it might hurt them. My sister flushed her live fish down the toilet when she was little, and then bawled and bawled when it didn’t swim back. (She said she was putting him on the waterslide or something). This kid might have thought the turtle was going to have fun. Seriously, somewhere a little kid is watching the news and thinking... “They are coming for me and putting me in jail...”

As someone else mentioned, no one put a fire cracker in its shell or anything; this was non-malicious intent, if you ask me.

TSgt,

Oh, how I am so strongly tempted to agree with you. I am not a parent yet, but if my child were molested I could not honestly guarantee that I would not hunt the -——— down and hang him first by his man-parts, then hang him from the highest tree in the country.

However, I always worry about one thing: if the punishment for child rape is death, and the punishment for murder is death, what reason does the rapist have not to go ahead and dispose of the witness? May as well be hung for a goose as a gander, so to speak.

It is a hard question. Child rapists deserve nothing but a swift death. However, what good does it do the children when the rapist now has a better reason than ever to ‘finish the job’?

In an imperfect world, justice cannot always be fully carried out. Once the rapist has died in a prison cell, God will carry out the rest of that justice in a more fitting way than any mortal could devise.

IMHO.

I am genuinely curious to hear what your thoughts are on this line of reasoning. To be honest I haven’t heard many other arguments, and would be interested to hear any that you (or any FReepers) might have.

Oh, Bevis...and I thought you were so butch!
/monty python reference

In reality, there are precious few things the sexes do equally well.

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I am afraid I have to disaggree with you. I do not think that they do everything equally well, but there are a lot of things that men and women can do equally well.

I understand that there is a huge problem in America with an attack on male ability and a pervasive attitude of extreme feminism.

However, the solution to the problems with feminism is not to resort to the chauvinistic idea of “precious few” things that men and women can do equally well. The solution is for society to recognize that men and women are both good at a lot of things, but that men really truly are physically stronger with faster reaction times.
When it comes to mental acuity though, I think that the sexes have an equal capacity for being very intelligent.

I agree with you that feminism is a problem and that feminism seeks to emasculate society—but let’s not get carried away and say that men are superior to women at virtually everything.

So if men are better chefs, then they should do the cooking! :) Of course, I’m being facetious.

Women certainly are designed to raise children. I do not disaggree with that. Men are designed to protect and provide. I definitely think that women should stay at home with their children if they have them.

That being said, some women are better at cooking than some men, and vice-versa. Women’s skill set is not just limited to raising children, though that is a set that they have. Of course, some men are also very good at raising children, and it takes both a man and a woman to successfully raise children.

I do not agree with you, however, that every skill but raising children is “man’s domain.” Certainly there are skills that are distinctly masculine, but there are many things that both sexes can do equally well.

I understand your statement to mean that the only thing women are good at is raising children. Is that what you mean?

Hmmm...I didn’t know that the idea of women being better at multitasking had been pushed by feminists. I find that interesting. I have observed in my own life that men don’t multitask as well as women, but it’s definitely possible that I had a bad case of “confirmation bias.”

Of course, omitting multitasking now, my point still stands:women and men have different skill sets that they excel in.

What truly irritates me is the feminist thought that if women can’t perform at the same level of physical capacity of men, that somehow diminishes the accomplishment. For a woman, Ye’s record is amazing. That’s why she is judged against other women, not other men. That a man can swim faster than her doesn’t diminish her accomplishment.

I really like the author’s birds/fish comparison. Each has a specific talent set—which one is “better?” The answer—neither is better. It’s silly to quote Spongebob, but in one episode he says, “Everyone is best at something, but nobody is best at everything.” Quite a bit of wisdom for a ridiculous kids’ show.

Men are physcially stronger than women. But women are capable of juggling multiple tasks at once than men are, generally speaking. (Hmmm...ideal for someone who has to raise and nuture kids, don’t you think?) There are lots of things men are better at, and lots of things women are better at. That does not diminish either group’s accomplishment, but rather demonstrates that male and female are complementary, not equal.

It’s not an issue of what’s better, but an understanding of roles. You wouldn’t ask, “what’s better, a 60 degree angle or a 30 degree angle,” because the answer is, “who knows, but you won’t get a right angle without both of them.”

Deport gays?

What a great idea...but just the really obnoxious ones.

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Free Republic needs a ‘like’ button.

No offense to any Freepers but psychology and psychiatry may just be two of the most IMPRECISE “sciences” out there. Why should anyone believe this guy when it is obvious that his versions of reason and logic are clouded by his level of “higher learning”?

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I am inclined to agree with you. Unless restricted to treating mentally ill patients, psychology is pretty much bunk. Psychiatry, in the medical realm, is useful and necessary, but it is indeed imprecise. I am going to ‘come out’ here and admit that I have been diagnosed with bipolar-depression, generalized anxiety disorder, bulimia nervosa, and trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling). Psychiatry saved my life; without my doctors I would not be in the secure place that I am today. But—three years of medicine experimentation and titration—along with the fact that no combinations will work for the same people, and the fact that people are still not entirely sure how the medicine works, just that it does—indicates how imprecise the science is. Psychology is even more fuzzy, but I have benefited a lot from those who pioneered cognitive behavior therapy.

However, note that I say these things must be limited to the MEDICAL realm; when mixed with sociology, they immediately transform into bunk.

To sum up—medical use=good. Sociological use=total and complete bovine excrement.

Of course, sociology is pretty much bovine excrement anyway. :)

I agree with you; my first thought was, “pot, meet kettle.”

LOL I always shop at Walmart.

If Reid were to suggest tariffs on Chinese imports, a lot of people wouldn’t be able to shop at Wallyworld anymore. And let’s face it: Walmart is a successful entity. No wonder liberals hate it so much!

“It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to start shooting.”

Thought you were going for an unusual, poetic style, something unprecedented for our beloved unprecedented POtuS.

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No, I just made a really stupid communications error like our beloved POTUS.

Ooops. Proper format:

“Taxation without Representation!”
Nearly all have heard the phrase
Of much frustrated patriots
In revolutionary days.
“Don’t tread on me!” they cried,
When tax and tariff maimed their trade;
In protest they boycotted tea,
They fought against the British raid.
They were a nation uprising;
Their oppressors’ rule capsizing.

Ah, England, how much kinder was
Your injustice to us then
Than from this fracturing Republic
Turned totalitarian.
At what point in recent history
Would Patrick Henry cry for death,
While modern patriots idly stood,
Clamped their noses, held their breath,
And voted for the lesser of two evils?

Belonging to a group whose members are less likely to behave like criminal savages will be correspondingly punished.

The only reason black people are prone to behaving like 'criminal savages' is because of the blatant true racism of the liberal agenda. I firmly believe the black entitlement, white guilt behavior has destroyed the black population. Instead of treating them like equals, holding them to the same standards as whites, we treated them like 'special' and sort of turned them into spoiled kids. Affirmative Action DAMAGES blacks. A while back CA was considering abandoning homework for black kids, since giving homework to black kids is 'racist.'

The policy has the added advantage that it will generate resentment toward blacks, which is crucial in propping up an ideology that relies so heavily on the almost entirely imaginary specter of anti-black racism.

Proof that liberals are the racists here. They are the evil ones who traded white hoods for suits and ties and congressional offices.

I love the olympic gymnastics!! Do you have any idea how much talent that kind of movement takes? It’s amazing what those gymnasts can do.

A glimmer of hope for religious freedom?

Men can wear skirts to Oxford University exams

...years of vile anti-Scottish discrimination ends

actually it looked like one of them was white with blonde hair...not that that makes it any better.

According to the opposition, true freedom of religion “doesn’t give anyone the right to impose their beliefs on others.”

...except for liberals imposing their beliefs on conservatives.

A kiss-in? Seriously? That is not going to hurt Chick-fil-A in the slightest.

Though I personally find gay pda’s offensive, I’m squeamish about pda’s in general. I saw a dude and a chick tonguing each other in a car and just about gagged. I mean, a cute little peck, holding hands, hugging, that’s fine. But serious making out? It’s so gross to see that even with straight couples...

Must be that I’m sexually repressed.

But back to the 3rd—everyone should go in, buy Chick-fil-A again, and then say to the gay folks, “How does it feel to know that your kissing in public has absolutely NO bearing on this company’s earnings?”

Leftists love witch hunts.

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What??? No!!! It’s the right that loves witch hunts!!! After all, F&F issues were just one big right-wing RACIST WITCH HUNT!!!!!!!!
/s

That is actually where I found this article—one of my friends on FB shared it.