With all due respect, I would like to make certain points clear to you and the intended readers.

Well, with all due respect, I would to make certain points clear to you and the intended readers.

 

You call psychiatric medications an "artificial" fix for mental illness. So by extension wouldn't insulin be an "artificial" fix for diabetes? Chemotherapy an "artificial" fix for cancer? Anti-hypertensives an "artificial fix for blood pressure? In all fields of medicine, not just psychiatry, we augment a person's natural physiology with some outside agent.

First of all, it's obviously incompatible to equate such physically somatic (bodily) disorders as diabetes, cancers, blood pressure etc which are closely associated with metabolic, homeostasis, abnormal physical growth disorders to mental disorders which are in turn caused by such totally invisible / unobservable elements of perceptions, senses, proprioceptions, feelings, thoughts, psychological and other cognitive factors that are 'running' in one's mind. 

Next, the difference here is that whilst one has got no choice but to take those medications for sure to fix all those diabetes, cancers, blood pressure and other somatic (bodily) disorders due to the substantial / total lack of one's natural controls over them, one to a certain extent, do have certain controls over what one wishes to think and the thoughts that they wish to form in their minds in terms of mental disorders. And that's exactly the main reason why psychotherapies, counselling / talk therapies / cognitive behavioural therapies can be effective in improving the mental conditions and moods of the ones troubled by mental disorders, by cognitively influencing the related individuals to think optimistically and positively rather than pessimistically and negatively.

Maybe someday we'll have a miracle "cure" for everything but unfortunately today that's not true and the best we can do is control the symptoms and hopefully improve our patients quality of life.

 

Well, by saying miracle "cure", I believe that you are referring to all the external aides of medication and probably non-medication efforts of psychotherapy / counselling etc. Unfortunately, the related law of nature for one's cognition is such that nothing and no one could ultimately and permanently direct and dictate the thinking process that runs in the brains / minds of the persons troubled by mental disorders / anybodies other than the very persons / they themselves. This is to say,  since it's the ones having mental disorders are the ones who are actually suffering from such illnesses, which arise from negative perceptions, negative feelings and negative thoughts formed in their own brains / minds (instead of other people's brains / minds), it would eventually necessitate they themselves to put in their very own self- efforts, having received both external medicational and interpersonal helps from the others, to exercise self-controls and self-disciplines on their own to direct their own brains for self-reasonings, self-introspections and self-rationalisings.

the best we can do is control the symptoms and hopefully improve our patients quality of life.

Next, by saying 'control the symptoms' , well, if you actually mean that to be achieved partly instead of solely and substantially by means of medications, then close monitorings and extensive precautionary measures against their potentially disastrous side effects would certainly and definitely be needed to ensure that your patients will eventually be having an improved quality of life.

This is largely due to the fact that medications for mental disorders are just like double-edged swords whereby on one hand they are extremely effective than anything else, though in a totally artificial rather than natural way, in bringing such symptoms of mental disorders like deep feelings of depressions, dejections, sadness, violent emotional outbursts, intense suicidal thoughts etc under control so as to enable the related patients to calm down and control one's mood and temper ; whilst on the other hand, the downsides of their potential neurological, neuromuscular and eventually, neuro-degenerative side effects (such as Parkinsonism, which is one of the Extrapyramidal Symptoms) are simply direly disastrous.

In such a connection, it's worthy to take note that sole / heavy and over-reliance upon such medictions to deal with mental disorders to the point of sheer abuse would just serve to get the mental states and brain conditions of the mentally-illed ones to get progressively deteriorating from bad to worse in the end. And in such a scenario, the ideal / goal of improved quality of life for these people certainly would not be achieved at all.

And in regards to the cognitive therapies I agree that in certain patients (and I stress certain patients) they can be very helpful but overall haven't been proven to be more effective than medications in the long term management (not cure) of mental illness.

Yup, medications are far more effective and fastly efficient than anything else in helping the persons troubled with mental disorders to get their mental conditions under control. However, it is again worthy to take note that that effecient 'healing mechanism' is actually artificially achieved through the blockings of nerve impulses  / interferences of the synaptic acitvities of the neurons / mood regulators, which in turn serve to block all those negative perceptions, feelings, senses, thoughts and then the resultant negative behaviours. However, since such a healing mechanism is totally not a genuine one, the so-called 'curative benefits' are thus not permanent in the sense that such benefits would just 'disapper' totally with the lapse of the effective period of each dosage of such medications.

'And in regards to the cognitive therapies I agree that in certain patients (and I stress certain patients) they can be very helpful but overall haven't been proven to be more effective than medications in the long term management (not cure) of mental illness.'

You are absolutely right on this very point. Nevertheless, such psychotherapy efforts as cognitive therapies, counselling, emotional, moral and other interactive supports etc, these factors are actually included in the first place to complement the artificial use of medications in achieving holisitc healings for mental disorders.

Whilst the ideas are such that, when medications could almost immediately bring the largely uncontrollable symptoms of mental disorders under control without achieving any genuine permanent sustainable healings for such disorders, psychotherapies, cognitive therapies etc which are targeted at inducing positive perceptions, feelings and thoughts in the ones having the mental disorders, so as to enable them to get their mental conditions improved in a genuine way, such non-medicational efforts would gradually and slowly exert positive cognitive influences on those having mental disorders to enable them to think optimistically and positively.

And in terms of psychotherapies / cognitive therapies,  since they are something aimed at delivering permanent, sustainable and genuince rather than short-lived and yet artificial healings for mental disorders, tremendous patiences would thus take a longer way in getting such goals gradually and slowly achieved step-by-step. In such a connection, it would certainly worth the mentally-illed one's while to undertake such efforts for their mental health cares, especially in terms of getting permanent, sustainable and genuine healings for their mental conditions.  

 

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