Can mental disorders worsen without treatment?

First of all there is all kinds of mental disorders. I know i have bipolar and ADD and yes without my meds for treatment it is terrible and sometimes with my meds it is also. So depending on what is going on and all treatment varies from maybe just therapy to both meds and therapy. Hope this helps some Kitty..

Well, I know that the ones we think of as 'character disorders', substance abuse, fits of rage and aggression, gambling addictions, inability to delay self-gratification, chronic lying, and so forth, can get worse if untreated, because the repetition of the behaviors creates 'synapses' (I'm using that term metaphorically here) so that the subject will begin to turn more and more automatically (without thinking)to the destructive behavior the more it is repeated.

These types can be treated by 'talk therapy', and only work if the person is willing to look at his/her behavior and recognize the problem. Otherwise he/she will just deny and blame others.

As for other disorders, it would entirely depend on the disorder. Many disorders can be best handled by teaching coping strategies to those who deal with them. So in such cases, treatment benefits the overall situation, even if the disorder itself is hard or impossible to treat.

If the disorder has been diagnosed, best to look it up by its accepted name e.g. 'bipolar' rather than 'manic depressive'.

If the disorder has not been professionally diagnosed, the information you may find on the internet may not be at all helpful.

Do you mean, if a person has a mental disorder and does not get treatment, will it stay at the same level or will it worsen over time?
I’m sure it depends on the type of disorder, but I believe that mental are often like physical diseases in that they can worsen without treatment -whether the treatment is psychological or medicinal.

Yes...I meant like if you were to get an infection and without any treatment it would spread and worsen...I had wondered if depression, bi-polar, OCD, etc...would do the same.

Thanks!

The general answer is, yes they can Kitty. It doesn't mean that is the case though in all circumstances.

A lot depends on the disorder itself, and the individual concerned. If a person has any concerns, then I really think it is best to seek professional advice.

I can only address the issue of depression which I , in the past, have struggled with.

The problem with severe depression, is that your perception of reality becomes so skewed, that without at least someone to talk things over with, one can have no idea that,

a) There is a problem in the first place and,
b) That it is treatable.

People that suffer from depression sometimes only need counselling. Others need medication and some, a combination of both.

One doctor described depression as an insidious disease to me. And that really encapsulates what it is.
In my opinion it is a sneaky, quiet disease that stalks those who might be prone to it.

The person with depression sometimes never recogises just how dark their thinking has become until things reach a crisis point.

I don't want to frighten you unnecessarily, but I want to give you this example from my personal life:

My best friend took her own life 5 years ago. She was very clearly suffering from depression, and to make matters worse drank regularly, ( I'm sure you will know that alcohol is a depressant in itself).

She refused to seek help. She was an articulate, highly respected professional, who thought she knew better than those in the medical profession.

I honestly don't think her depression would have got better by itself, and her lifestyle probably made it worse.
Now, I am not saying that every person that goes through depression will end up in her situation.
However, I am saying, why take that risk?

Depression and many other mental disorders are treatable. It takes time and perseverance, but there is help out there.

One sad thing I will add about my friend is that after she died, I was tidying up and clearing out her house.
When I opened her bathroom cabinet I found a container of Zoloft ( a common anti-depressant).

She had filled the perscriptiion only two days before she died. So, while she had finally decided to seek help, after all these years of struggling, she hadn't even given the meds a chance to start to do their job.

Thanks dg....I'm sorry about your friend...How sad.

There is reason to think that people who take anti-depressants for the first time should be monitored fairly closely. There have been a number of suicides which follow shortly on taking anti-depressants for the first time. As it happens, most of them were young people; but obviously more informantion is needed.

Thanks Kitty, it actually feels like a long time ago now. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.


I agree babs. But I wouldn't want what happened to my friend to put people off seeking the help they need, and if necessary taking anti-depressants.

A further thing that was explained to me is that sometimes anti-depressants are to the person who is depressed, what insulin is to the diabetic. They are an absolutely necessary medication.

There is a stigma attached to mental illness that makes many people refuse the help they need, and it shouldn't be that way.

As for my friend, who was almost 50, she had threatened suicide many times to the group of people that cared for her and loved her.

To say her death was inevitable may sound harsh, but I really feel in hindsight that it was.

I know about the risks associated with such medications and especially the studies done regarding teens.

Yet, I still feel I would give somebody the same advice, if they feel they might have a problem, go talk to someone.
And if you think someone you know has a problem with depression then encourage that person to seek help.

Kitty i know my condition has gotten worse over the years. I don't know why maybe its a result of my childhood and all kinda catching up with me in so many ways. This will sound odd i know but ive had years and years of therapy and i know now that some things back then i thought were dreams were not they were real.Also i used to havent for a year or so but i used to be able mentally to go to a space where no one can hurt me or touch me in a way that would hurt me i could stay there for hours. Latley i havent been able to do that or needed to maybe. I used to like going there because there wasn't any pain involved while i was there. An escape my therapist say route for me. So everyones level of disorder is different than the other person and i think some levels of mental disorder are just normal everyday life trials we go through and tend to go away and not need to be treated but, other things do. Espically Bipolar and add and ocd..

Dancegirl im very sorry to hear about your friend and i can understand her in so many ways.

No matter if you are treated or not many mental/emotional ills can worsen due to circumstances/situations or just due to a matter of time.

Chemical imbalances can worsen even when treated due to many factors, including (but not limited too): diet, exercises changes, old age...

quote:

old age

I heard that!