#biomedical approach (derogatory)

[headspace-hotel]

Sometimes i'm really struck by the tendency of psychology and psychiatry to "other" experiences that aren't part of a strict set of cultural assumptions.

Like

this is from a book called In This Body by Servando Z. Hinojosa, and it's about Maya spirituality—though my use of the word "spirituality" probably is itself "othering" and reflective of a cultural bias—anyway

i was really hit hard by the tendency of outsiders to shove this condition into either a "physical illness" or "mental illness" box, when it's obviously both. and it's both in a way that I feel should be familiar to anyone diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety.

Like before I was medicated for anxiety, I was sleepy, fatigued, and nauseated basically all the time. And when I've gone through periods of depression, I get COLD. Physically cold, in a way that just doesn't go away. The description of the lump in the stomach also struck me because I recently read a book where veterans with PTSD described a similar feeling of a physical lump or blockage in their abdomens. Like as I was reading this I was like "Yes, I know this."

It's so fucking wild that physical symptoms in response to a "mental" illness are seen as so exotic for people in """western""" frameworks, because we feel these things too, we just learn to think about them differently. In a lot of ways I feel like medicine without the idea of mind-body dualism is the better approach.

#random #anthropology #medicine #psychology #psychiatry #culture #emotions #biomedical approach (derogatory)