A great article about why you should avoid psychiatry

[Final Escape]

They Call This “Help”: One Man’s Tears and the Horrors of Canadian Institutional Psychiatry

I am an inmate of St. Joseph’s Psychiatric Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario. Although I am still trapped in the intricate web of the forensic “mental health” system, I consider myself a psychiatric survivor. After all, I’ve made it this far, but I realize that more time is needed before I’m finally...

behaviorismandmentalhealth.com

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[Broken Chimera]

That's not the first story I heard like that so I'm not surprised. Mental hospitals are a joke because unlike jail you don't have a set time-frame to leave. You're looked at as a moron who doesn't know anything even if you prove you know more than the people working there. What really bothers me is that you come out worse than you go in I rarely see people heal after going through that.

What's also disturbing is that you don't have a set time-frame to leave. Like the article said, you can be held indefinitely, even if you follow all the rules. I truly believe that it's a system set up to lock people up without cause and deprive people of their rights. Until mainstream realizes the damage psychiatry causes the system will never change.

 

[Final Escape]

I consider myself very fortunate because I do have a severe case of borderline personality disorder. I began to be drugged by age 24 which is almost late. Most people begin to get drugged as children these days. I began to get drugged around 2000. I didn't put it together that the first abortion I had at 24 was a precipitating event that really set off my mental health issues. I was very suicidal afterwards but I tried to deny my pain or that abortion was what really wounded emotionally. I mean I was already wounded from childhood but abortion just added new trauma. I was in denial how angry and upset I was about it and just tried to forget but I couldn't. Then it led to more abortions bc I was just irresponsible and out of control with the bpd. I was getting knocked up by guys who were not goin to be able to provide or willing to participate if I had my kids. Anyway, so I could have easily ended up in this situation because I was very reckless. I suspect I didn't because I have the acting in borderline instead of the very obvious outwardly acting type. I didn't get into altercations much with people where I would go to jail. But yea this could happen to just about anyone.

 

[Broken Chimera]

Sorry to hear that. I didn't start on meds until mid twenties but I needed help much sooner. I learned quickly how much damage they can cause in such a short time. MDD isn't nearly as bad as what they did to me. But I'm really sorry about what you've been through.

 

[Final Escape]

I'm sure I'm common, we live in a very corrupt satanic system. Most doctors are complicit in causing harm these days instead of promoting life and good health.

 

[Jean4]

My opinion. It is extremely dangerous (and discriminatory) to insult an entire field due to a bad experience from a stranger.

I took my cat to get neutered. He almost died. Guess all vets are bad. We should also say anesthesia is bad, as well as neutering and vets.

When I was working in the hospital, in ICU, there was a person who died after taking an aspirin. Guess we should get rid of aspirin.

It appears almost every week a food such as lettuce is being recalled. Should we give it up?

Every single medication on this planet can had side effects. Every single food can. You only hear about the problems.

I was a social worker in my previous life. Been one since the 80's. I have prescribed to people more meds than I can count. Nobody had an issue.

Why am I here today? The meds I am on. Took a while, like any other meds to get it right.

By the way. In the past 3 years, they still have not gotten my asthma meds right. Some of the ones I tried put me into the hospital. Do I blame the meds? No. Do I blame my docs? Heck no.

Why? I believe everyone's biological composition it different, and one med that can save someone's life, may interact differently in another.

Doctor's know what a clinical trial has determined what a medication does in the majority of people. However, you may be the one in a million who develop a side effect they have listed in the small print.

Are psych meds bad? No. No different than anything else. The consumer needs to do research, read side effects and determine if the possible risk outweighs the possible benefits.

Just because my cat almost died from being neutered, and even if he did.... I still think my vet is the best in the world, and I will continue to get my cats neutered.

It's time to take my meds too. ;)

I'm sure I'm common, we live in a very corrupt satanic system. Most doctors are complicit in causing harm these days instead of promoting life and good health.

Then you are dealing with the wrong doctors. You choose who you associate with. Choose the right ones. I can call up my docs 24/7 and say I am going to kill myself. They won't hospitalize me, and will tell me what to do to stop. They also will help me die when medically that time comes.

As a social worker, I personally did not help people live. I helped people die. As well as all the doctors, nurses and religious people I worked with since the 80's.

And I am not unusual. ;)

 

[Sensei]

I'm with Jean4. Does psychiatry help everyone everywhere? Of course not. Psychology and neurobiology are very complex phenomena. However, statistics clearly show that the majority is helped by psychiatry and that psychiatric care works well in many countries To categorically say that all psychiatry always is bad is neither true nor constructive.

 

[Final Escape]

I can only remember being helped by doctors for things like contact dermatitis, dental cleanings or certain dental work although dentists can harm u too with amalgam fillings that contain mercury, curable std, ring worm, a bad cold, very minor shit like this, but when it came to a serious thing like a thyroid disorder or mental health issues I was more harmed than helped. Oh and the abortionists assume that because u want an abortion that this isn't harmful to u or in your best interest especially in the longterm. Most women getting abortions are not really thinking about how this will impact them in other ways or down the road. Yea veterinarians have little reason to cause health harm to animals because animals are not people. There's no political reasons to harm animals since they have little power compared to us in the eyes of government. I'm not saying meds can't make u feel good especially like the ADD drugs and the benzodiazepines, but they really are not a great long term solution and they do harm the brains people over time and cause dependency. Most psychiatry is fraudulent but like psychotherapy or non medicated forms of therapy are probably safe as long as the therapist is not a narcissist or psychopath. I have been helped by a private care doctor with the hormone replacement, but that's considered like a specialty treatment not covered by health insurance.

 

[NonsenseTrash]

I'm with @Jean4 and @Sensei. Psychiatry and neurobiology is a vastly growing field as well. New treatments are being created constantly. One thing may not work for someone 10 years ago, but there's a lot more being developed now.

Dependency is mentioned as a negative of psychiatry. However, if it is needed to keep living, then why stop. A diabetic wouldnt stop their insulin for being dependent on it.
Some meds do cause harm for being on it a long time, but thats many meds out there, not just psych meds.

 

[Jean4]

I can only remember being helped by doctors for things like contact dermatitis, dental cleanings or certain dental work although dentists can harm u too with amalgam fillings that contain mercury, curable std, ring worm, a bad cold, very minor shit like this, but when it came to a serious thing like a thyroid disorder or mental health issues I was more harmed than helped. Oh and the abortionists assume that because u want an abortion that this isn't harmful to u or in your best interest especially in the longterm. Most women getting abortions are not really thinking about how this will impact them in other ways or down the road. Yea veterinarians have little reason to cause health harm to animals because animals are not people. There's no political reasons to harm animals since they have little power compared to us in the eyes of government. I'm not saying meds can't make u feel good especially like the ADD drugs and the benzodiazepines, but they really are not a great long term solution and they do harm the brains people over time and cause dependency. Most psychiatry is fraudulent but like psychotherapy or non medicated forms of therapy are probably safe as long as the therapist is not a narcissist or psychopath.

No offense.

How much research did you do on these doctors? Did you research them? Read about their history, education etc? Did you ask for referrals? Did you read reviews? My guess is no.

People research a hotel they go to prior to a holiday more than they research someone who is going to medically treat them and see if something as simple as the doctor's belief is medically.

For example. Every single doctor I use believes not only in traditional meds as well as holistic and uses both. I didn't choose a doctor who strictly believe in one method or another.

I take responsibility for my treatment. I don't blindly agree with something. If a doc wants to start a new med, I research the med and ask questions.

I am responsible for my treatment and the choices I make. The doc just gives the recommendation and writes the prescriptions and monitors.

Ultimately, it is my choice. If I take a med, that after researching all statistical data shows it should help me, I will try it. If it doesn't work, I don't blame the doc or the med. I realize things happen.

 

[Broken Chimera]

My main point was about mental hospitals and how they don't help, but ok. All I can say is if the meds work for you, good. What I'm saying is that they try different things and it's hit or miss. I've been through it so I know. And after listening to Peter Breggin I'm not letting them experiment on me again. I have problems from what was done to me and will have them for the foreseeable future.

And don't get me started on the other drugs. I watched someone go from 1 to 3 to over 10 meds and the person still died.

 

[Amorphous Blob]

It's not a good idea to generalise from anecdotal experiences. "Look I did got into harvard without studying! Why can't you" for an example. Also, that person went in on very different circumstances to a general psych ward. They were dodging a prison sentence and would of been under a different type of programme, was shaking my heas reading that link and am inclined to agree they probably do have a few personailty disorders as one their psychiatrists told them if they geneeally behave how it was written

 

[BlueWidow]

No offense.

How much research did you do on these doctors? Did you research them? Read about their history, education etc? Did you ask for referrals? Did you read reviews? My guess is no.

People research a hotel they go to prior to a holiday more than they research someone who is going to medically treat them and see if something as simple as the doctor's belief is medically.

For example. Every single doctor I use believes not only in traditional meds as well as holistic and uses both. I didn't choose a doctor who strictly believe in one method or another.

I take responsibility for my treatment. I don't blindly agree with something. If a doc wants to start a new med, I research the med and ask questions.

I am responsible for my treatment and the choices I make. The doc just gives the recommendation and writes the prescriptions and monitors.

Ultimately, it is my choice. If I take a med, that after researching all statistical data shows it should help me, I will try it. If it doesn't work, I don't blame the doc or the med. I realize things happen.

Well, I was a teenager and made a ward of the court and I was given no choice. I was placed in and out of the hospital over and over again at the whim of doctors, therapists, caseworkers, and judges. I didn't have any rights. I was force-fed drugs that did horrible things to me. Things I probably don't even know about that are probably still affecting me to this day since I was only a teenager at the time. I suppose all that's my fault. Well, it is my fault because I should've just killed myself instead of being stupid enough to ask for help and thinking I might actually get it.
Same with my thyroid. I've spent 25 years begging every doctor I know to help me with it but none of them will. I guess that's my fault too, even though I've gone to every type of doctor there is. Yes, I agree the natural doctors are much better than the conventional medical doctors, but they don't accept insurance in a lot of places and they're very expensive. I wasted $20,000 on natural doctors and I didn't get $20,000 worth of help from them. And they aren't all perfect either. As far as I'm concerned, I've done everything under the sun that I could possibly do to try to get help. And yet people still blame me and say I just didn't see enough doctors or do enough research or whatever. I wish one of you could walk in my shoes for just one day. It's easy to sit there and judge when you've actually found doctors that will help you.

I'm happy for all the people that have found doctors who really do help them and all the people that psychiatry helps and so forth. But that's unfortunately not the case for all of us. Some of us, no matter how hard we try, for some reason it just never works. And I'm so sick of being told that I didn't try hard enough and being blamed for my problems and made to feel like my attitude toward doctors isn't justified when you haven't had my experiences.
Again, not all doctors are bad and not all psychiatry is bad and not all thyroid doctors are bad, I suppose. You're probably right. I probably do deserve to be treated like shit, kept on the lowest dose of medicine that they can keep me on so that I barely function, and constantly called a hypochondriac and a liar and a drug seeker. Maybe I don't deserve any help. My dad was probably right. I probably am just a worthless waste of space.

 

[ArtsyDrawer]

There are two issues with this article.
The first is that it's one guy's bad experience. I mean "bad" doesn't begin to cover it, but I can't think of a better word right now. One guy's bad experience doesn't mean the entire industry is bad.
I too went through the system, and I believe it made me unearth the epilepsy I didn't know I could develop.
Second, and it's a little more nationalist, admittedly, this happened in the US - the land of the private prison system.
I wouldn't be surprised to know mental institution over there is private too.
Because of this, rehabilitation seems to be not just less likely, but unwanted entirely. As a business owner, you don't want to run out of clients, and keeping them restrained and fucked up on various drugs makes it easier on the short run. Admittedly, I don't know shit about that place where he got locked in, so I just assume it's private.
Also, he got himself an NCR note, so I'm not too surprised about the diagnosis about some personality disorder to keep him in. I'm betting it's like 90% to keep him in to drip a few pennies more into the owner's account, and 10% because they're thinking "here we have somebody declared not criminally accountable, but he's also being a model patient. Something here ain't right."

 

[TAW122]

@Final Escape Thanks for sharing the article, and I will give my two cents. I will say that I do lean more towards the anti-psych angle, but I would say that there are some people who do benefit from the system, just not me or others. There are some that do over-exaggerate the conditions in order to keep a patient or to hold them longer than they normally would. Yes, that is indeed a problem. For me, while I never been in the mental health system (involuntarily or voluntarily), I have been to therapists, counselors, and mental health professionals so I can share some of my experiences.

Most of what the article said is pretty much spot on about psychiatric treatment. It does corroborate with the stories I hear on reddit, through various online articles, forums, and more. While my anecdotes mostly focus on therapists and counselors, it does have some overlap in regards to the industry and treatment of patients. As someone who has been to no less than 10 mental health professionals in his life, I would say that at best, they haven't been helpful for me and doesn't really address the problems that I'm facing. At worst, I have had times where I get the incriminating, damning question of "harm to self or others". I have NEVER mentioned about hurting others or being suicidal, yet in at least a few of my sessions with various mental health professionals. Nothing came out of it, but the fact that they would even try to probe and question me in that manner (rather uncomfortably) is unsettling to me. Yes, I know why they do it, and it's mainly for liability and protection purposes, they don't want to get into legal trouble for failing to inform/report various behaviors and from that perspective I can understand it.

Therefore, I have decided that I don't wish to seek this kind of "help" because there is simply no help for my situation. Even if there was, the chance of finding it would be laborious and I certainly don't have the time, money, and patience to find someone that "might" solve my problem. Instead, I have made my decision that I don't want 'help' and instead, I just want to CTB and not ever worry about this stupid life anymore and be finally free of suffering.

@BlueWidow I'm sorry to hear about your suffering and all the years wasted on trying to get "better". Yes, most of society and people out there just don't understand nor do they wish to understand. I believe it is indeed cognitive dissonance along with laziness and just parroting off cliches and whatever mainstream or their peers say oftenly mindlessly. I hope you are able to find peace one way or another.

@Jean4 While I'm generally anti-psychiatry and what not, I do respect the fact that some people find them helpful and have found solutions through them. In fact, in some countries around the world, there may even be psychiatrists and mental health professionals who respect the choice to CTB (though far and few, difficult to find.). The only gripe that I have with society is how they aggressively advocate for mental health, especially without considering all the angles and factors or the fact that some people (myself included) do not find them useful and sometimes could be dangerous (risk of being involuntarily committed, held, treated against one's will, then billed for it). Then of course, most people have this false assumption that there is 'help' for everyone and that it exists (not universally true -- sometimes there is NO help or solutions), and that the person didn't try hard enough or find the right person, (a.k.a. blaming the patient, victim).

 

[BlueWidow]

@Final Escape Thanks for sharing the article, and I will give my two cents. I will say that I do lean more towards the anti-psych angle, but I would say that there are some people who do benefit from the system, just not me or others. There are some that do over-exaggerate the conditions in order to keep a patient or to hold them longer than they normally would. Yes, that is indeed a problem. For me, while I never been in the mental health system (involuntarily or voluntarily), I have been to therapists, counselors, and mental health professionals so I can share some of my experiences.

Most of what the article said is pretty much spot on about psychiatric treatment. It does corroborate with the stories I hear on reddit, through various online articles, forums, and more. While my anecdotes mostly focus on therapists and counselors, it does have some overlap in regards to the industry and treatment of patients. As someone who has been to no less than 10 mental health professionals in his life, I would say that at best, they haven't been helpful for me and doesn't really address the problems that I'm facing. At worst, I have had times where I get the incriminating, damning question of "harm to self or others". I have NEVER mentioned about hurting others or being suicidal, yet in at least a few of my sessions with various mental health professionals. Nothing came out of it, but the fact that they would even try to probe and question me in that manner (rather uncomfortably) is unsettling to me. Yes, I know why they do it, and it's mainly for liability and protection purposes, they don't want to get into legal trouble for failing to inform/report various behaviors and from that perspective I can understand it.

Therefore, I have decided that I don't wish to seek this kind of "help" because there is simply no help for my situation. Even if there was, the chance of finding it would be laborious and I certainly don't have the time, money, and patience to find someone that "might" solve my problem. Instead, I have made my decision that I don't want 'help' and instead, I just want to CTB and not ever worry about this stupid life anymore and be finally free of suffering.

@BlueWidow I'm sorry to hear about your suffering and all the years wasted on trying to get "better". Yes, most of society and people out there just don't understand nor do they wish to understand. I believe it is indeed cognitive dissonance along with laziness and just parroting off cliches and whatever mainstream or their peers say oftenly mindlessly. I hope you are able to find peace one way or another.

@Jean4 While I'm generally anti-psychiatry and what not, I do respect the fact that some people find them helpful and have found solutions through them. In fact, in some countries around the world, there may even be psychiatrists and mental health professionals who respect the choice to CTB (though far and few, difficult to find.). The only gripe that I have with society is how they aggressively advocate for mental health, especially without considering all the angles and factors or the fact that some people (myself included) do not find them useful and sometimes could be dangerous (risk of being involuntarily committed, held, treated against one's will, then billed for it). Then of course, most people have this false assumption that there is 'help' for everyone and that it exists (not universally true -- sometimes there is NO help or solutions), and that the person didn't try hard enough or find the right person, (a.k.a. blaming the patient, victim).

Yes, Thank you for acknowledging that not everyone gets help, no matter how hard they want it or how hard they try to find it. You did a much better job of articulating it than I did, probably because this is a very personal issue to me and I get very upset because I feel like people are accusing me of things and attacking me and blaming the problem on me and acting like I haven't tried and tried and tried to get help when that's all I've done for the last 25 years. It's just infuriating!

I'm certainly not saying that no one ever gets helped by the system and I would never discourage people from trying to get help before they decide to ctb. I would say that ctb is a last resort, not a first resort.

Everyone should make a serious attempt to get help. For some people, that may take longer than others. In my case, I would've stopped years ago if not for my husband. I continued to seek help, even though I had long since decided that it was in vain, for him. I continued to seek help for him even though I didn't expect to get any. But I thought maybe I would be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, I wasn't. Therefore, after his passing, I decided I was done seeking help. I think 25 years of seeking help and not getting any real help, is more than enough to justify both the opinion I have of doctors, as well as my decision to stop seeking help. And when I'm discussing doctors and how horrible they are, I'm not necessarily discussing all doctors everywhere. I am discussing the ones I've come in contact with. I have no knowledge of a doctor that I haven't come in contact with, so I can't really discuss that doctor intelligently. But I can tell you all kinds of things about the doctors that I've encountered. When I complain on this board about doctors, I am only complaining about the ones that I have had encounters with, personally. The horrific things that they have said and done to me. That's what I'm discussing. And no one has a right to tell me that my opinions are not justified because you weren't there to see how I was being treated. And I would never do that to another person- telling them they hadn't tried hard enough, or that all their problems are their own fault and that they deserve to feel the way they feel, and they deserve to be treated like crap. Which is basically what some people on this board have told me and what many people in real life have told me. That it's obviously all my fault and I deserve the doctors treating me like crap and not giving me the help that I need. I would've thought that at least on this board people would be a little more sympathetic or empathetic or something, but perhaps not. I mean I've encountered a lot of kindred spirits on here in this regard who feel the same way I do about doctors and who have had many of the same experiences I have. But I've also encountered many people who have the exact same attitude as all the people I've encountered in my real life who always want to blame me and say I haven't tried hard enough. I haven't done my research, I haven't given it enough time or effort, I just don't want to get well, and I'm faking it because I want attention, etc.

 

[Final Escape]

@Final Escape Thanks for sharing the article, and I will give my two cents. I will say that I do lean more towards the anti-psych angle, but I would say that there are some people who do benefit from the system, just not me or others. There are some that do over-exaggerate the conditions in order to keep a patient or to hold them longer than they normally would. Yes, that is indeed a problem. For me, while I never been in the mental health system (involuntarily or voluntarily), I have been to therapists, counselors, and mental health professionals so I can share some of my experiences.

Most of what the article said is pretty much spot on about psychiatric treatment. It does corroborate with the stories I hear on reddit, through various online articles, forums, and more. While my anecdotes mostly focus on therapists and counselors, it does have some overlap in regards to the industry and treatment of patients. As someone who has been to no less than 10 mental health professionals in his life, I would say that at best, they haven't been helpful for me and doesn't really address the problems that I'm facing. At worst, I have had times where I get the incriminating, damning question of "harm to self or others". I have NEVER mentioned about hurting others or being suicidal, yet in at least a few of my sessions with various mental health professionals. Nothing came out of it, but the fact that they would even try to probe and question me in that manner (rather uncomfortably) is unsettling to me. Yes, I know why they do it, and it's mainly for liability and protection purposes, they don't want to get into legal trouble for failing to inform/report various behaviors and from that perspective I can understand it.

Therefore, I have decided that I don't wish to seek this kind of "help" because there is simply no help for my situation. Even if there was, the chance of finding it would be laborious and I certainly don't have the time, money, and patience to find someone that "might" solve my problem. Instead, I have made my decision that I don't want 'help' and instead, I just want to CTB and not ever worry about this stupid life anymore and be finally free of suffering.

@BlueWidow I'm sorry to hear about your suffering and all the years wasted on trying to get "better". Yes, most of society and people out there just don't understand nor do they wish to understand. I believe it is indeed cognitive dissonance along with laziness and just parroting off cliches and whatever mainstream or their peers say oftenly mindlessly. I hope you are able to find peace one way or another.

@Jean4 While I'm generally anti-psychiatry and what not, I do respect the fact that some people find them helpful and have found solutions through them. In fact, in some countries around the world, there may even be psychiatrists and mental health professionals who respect the choice to CTB (though far and few, difficult to find.). The only gripe that I have with society is how they aggressively advocate for mental health, especially without considering all the angles and factors or the fact that some people (myself included) do not find them useful and sometimes could be dangerous (risk of being involuntarily committed, held, treated against one's will, then billed for it). Then of course, most people have this false assumption that there is 'help' for everyone and that it exists (not universally true -- sometimes there is NO help or solutions), and that the person didn't try hard enough or find the right person, (a.k.a. blaming the patient, victim).

You're so smart and well spoken :)