Psychiatric Association Calls for Gay Marriage Recognition

Associated Press ^ | May 22, 2005 | Doug Gross

[Old Professer]

Grammatically unfocused, but most women will be more agreeable if you throw money and children their way.

[Old Professer]

...at present, the great majority of community psychiatrists are really psychopharmacologists.

Ain't THAT a fancy word for dope-dealers!?!

[Old Professer]

Gayness is a fashion, a license to indulge without retribution or recrimination, but most of all, especially today, a transitory condition.

[SeaBiscuit]

The APA can go to hell right along with the other APA which sold out to gay lobbyists over 30 years ago when they removed it as a mental disorder. Privately, you couldn't get a handful of psychiatrists to really agree to that decision. LOL, the APA or the APA, which is witch. ;-)

[Pharmboy]

Well, you could call the guy who sells crack, marijuana and heroin street psychopharmacologists, but the shrinks don't like to think of themselves like that.

Very few of the drugs they prescribe are either addictive or make you feel good (the exception are the amphetamine-like agents used for attention deficit disorder).

[Tuba-Dude]

I've come to favor psychology over psychiatry. Having depression, I've found that sitting down and talking out my problems, coming to some understanding or just having open ears that aren't overly critical work much better than downing a Zoloft in the morning. It's much more personal and less expensive, to boot. The "talking cure" is much more effective than most prescription meds, or at least it was for me.

Of course, living in the gray and gloomy, uber-fast paced Portland, OR area would drive anyone down after a bit. At least the weather and life in Norman (Oklahoma, where I'm studying this Fall) is more to my liking.

[Old Professer]

Still, the origins must be physiological by nature for this approach to have merit, which leads us back to the hard-wired argument for sexual identification which leads nowhere.

[DarkSavant]

My brother is a schizophrenic and went to a psychologist for a little while. His head is way up in the clouds and he would always talk to the psychologist about Chaos Theory, Particle Physics, Metaphysics, religion. All the big stuff. Problem was he got frustrated because he said she was more interested in turning into an easy to diagnose lab rat than have a discussion about the questions that tore apart his sanity.

On a lighter note, your tagline is HYSTERICAL!

[reg45]

They must be crazy!

[reg45]

we would have a lot of shrinks driving taxis.

An honest living for a change.

[Ghengis]

I was a member of the APA for over ten years.  It was (then) a wonderful organization that benefited its members greatly.

The APA that I wholly supported for all of those years would never have assumed this position on gay marriage.  Something must have changed.

[paltz]

How it all started:

The Kinky Report; Alfred Kinsey: The Left's Pervert Hero.

[DarkSavant]

Heh.

[vox_freedom]

"So,doctor, you think if I..."

Good one, LOL!!!

[vox_freedom]

homosexual "rights" ping

[Pharmboy]

Well...human behavior is so complex that it is difficult to reduce it to just hard wiring. A good rule of thumb is to believe that "off the chart" behavior that manifests itself very early on is more likely to be the result of faulty wiring, while the behavior that comes on later in life is driven more by genes/environmental interaction.

And, the extremes of environment are more likely to have a more pronounced effect than the average. For example, even the most dedicated genetic determinists will acknowledge that a child brought up under extreme social deprivation or beatings will be affected--no matter WHAT their genetic endowment.

[Pharmboy]

They seem to always go wrong on cue.

[Old Professer]

But these instances where deprivation and abuse obtain don't respond to drugs beyond the sensible, do they?

[Pharmboy]

Well, you raise an excellent point. But again, it depends on the genetic endowment. For example, schizophrenia is an excellent example. In identical twins, we know that if one twin manifests the clinical syndrome (e.g., auditory hallucinations, delusions, inability to discern reality from fantasy, social dysfunction) only about half the time will the other twin go the same route. The difference? Likely varying environmental experiences.

We also know that environmental stress will bring on the symptoms...but once the syndrome is seen, it will respond to drugs.

And again, some children will come out of absolutely dismal environments relatively unscathed, whereas other kids brought up with every convenience and ease will be thieves, killers or rapists.

But there is no reason to believe that severe anxiety disorders brought about by environmental stressors will not respond to medication. The brain chemistry is affected by experience and by its genetic potential. The best explanation I've seen says that our genes give us a range--and our environment puts us at a specific point within that range.

[Nick Danger]

As a gimmick, this is a good one. I can hardly wait for the next Democrat running for office to say, "My psychiatrist endorses my positions."

They could have billboards that say, "Vote for Joe. His psychiatrist says he's good guy."