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“Engage” refers to the psychiatric condition of “amok”, which involves homicidal and suicidal behavior. The condition is poorly understood and under-recognized, with little treatment available. Other facts about psychiatry are also mentioned.
The phrase “engage” might conjure thoughts of a zany Jim Carrey movie or the wacky antics of a comedy troupe, but it actually refers to a very unfunny medical condition.
In an article for the Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Dr. Manuel St. Martin explains that today few people outside the psychiatric community are aware that “amok” is a “bona fide, albeit antiquated, psychiatric condition.”
While in common usage “freaking out” typically refers to an individual who causes havoc while acting irrationally, in psychiatry it “describes the homicidal and subsequent suicidal behavior of mentally unstable individuals that results in more deaths and injuries to others ”, St. says Martino.
One of the author’s main points in the article is to show that although the term “running around” originated some 200 years ago as an explanation of behavior among some members of isolated tribes on remote islands, it has now been observed in the societies of Worldwide . St. Martin also points out that still today little is understood about the people who suffer from this condition, nor is much done in terms of recognition and treatments that can help prevent the episodes of violence that follow.
The Complex World of Psychiatry:
On average, it takes 10 years to diagnose bipolar disorder because it can occur at different points in life, has symptoms similar to other illnesses, and can come and go for unexplained reasons.
In the United States alone, at least 16% of the population will experience major depressive disorder in their lifetime.
There are 170 times more psychiatrists in high-income countries than in low-income ones.
