Thank you, Phil, both for posting this article and for sharing your thoughts on the issue of the seriously mentally ill having disproportionately short lifespans. I can say that for a lot of the time I've spent struggling with the symptoms of what's probably schizophrenia, I too tended to see the idea that I might die younger than most as being something to be welcomed. Depending on how well I'll ultimately respond to treatment, I might not see the idea of dying younger than most as something to be welcomed and might instead hope to defy that statistic, but certainly the statistics themselves are something not to be ignored. I also do think that there's a lot of truth to the comment that you quoted, and without a doubt, I think that serious mental illnesses can have devastating effects on the lives of both those who suffer from the illnesses and those around them, especially when treatment responses are weak to nonexistent. The hope, of course, is that treatment can halt the extent to which disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression can act as "erasers." Do the treatments that are available for serious mental illnesses do this? I'd say that they do sometimes, but not in enough cases.
Tomatheus
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this signature | Show by default | Change to hide (next time)Has long-standing difficulties with energy and concentration, as well as psychotic and cognitive symptoms
Taking Abilify & supplements including vitamins B3 & D3