Venting Is anyone else becoming skeptical of psychiatry?

[ggetout33]

I am autistic, ADHD, and diagnosed with severe depression.

My personal stance is that mental illnesses do exist, and should be taken seriously. However I'm slowly becoming increasingly skeptical of the effectiveness of the drugs that are prescribed to treat said illnesses. In my personal experience, meds, whether they treat the intended illness or not, often come with serious side effects that are just as problematic as the illness I intended to have treated. To the point where the medication becomes not worth taking.

And when these side effects are brought up (which I often do), I am either prescribed a different medication that causes similar side effects (that also make me get off that drug) or in a few cases I'm prescribed a different drug in hopes of countering the other's side effects. But ultimately nowhere near being "normal". In terms of treating my mental health, this has been the case for roughly 4 years at this point.

In recent times, I've been on a combination of Adderall and Bupropion, to treat ADD and Depression respectively. I do feel more focused and calm while on them, but they totally kill my boners. I basically cannot get it up to save my life despite being 22 and trying to get in shape. I brought it up with my doctor and we discussed the possibility of trying Viagra in hopes of countering the ED I get from my ADD meds.

The option is available to me, but I'm just so annoyed with psychiatry in general. And I don't see any real end to this cycle. I'm annoyed because I (and many others I imagine) are promised to have my mental ailments treated so that I can be normal, and have my fucked-up brain under control. But I try drug after drug after drug that ultimately goes nowhere, nothing I want to take long-term because every drug comes with so many bad side effects.

When the truth is, the only real "cure" (or treatment) is either death or to have never been born with said mental illness in the first place.

If I were to ask to take Viagra, I know that more likely than not it would just come with more side effects that probably screw up some other part of my body, or more likely counteract the ADD meds themselves and render them pointless. I just can't win because my body's "natural function" is dysfunctional as fuck. And it fights all the time to stay dysfunctional, no matter how I feel. I'm an atheist but I think that if there is a God, he would want me to suffer because that would mean he intentionally gave me these bad genes and afflicted me with these mental disorders I struggle with daily. When he could've made me neurotypical and perfectly genetically healthy.

I just don't see a point in trying, I never feel enough and this industry probably took hundreds if not thousands out of me yet I'm still ADD, I'm still autistic, still depressed, and no hope of ever being the same level as a NT. I feel like I should CTB since my brain wants to be this way.

I tried looking online for alternative treatments, nothing but cope for misdiagnosed people (just eat a supplement and meditate bro). Try going on Reddit, the basement dwellers all say to do cocaine.

 

[Lulzacruel]

speaking as a hotline worker here

most researches know that most people suffer from at least one side effect from a drug no matter what

very rare to be either really sick from drugs or to be perfectly okay especially with antipsychs tho

ssri are different as most experience tolerable side effects

it is impossible to predict how a brain will react to any drug... really. any one that tells you the opposite is either lying and a grifter or someone listening to a grifter

i honestly feel for you but the only really option for you is to either take experimental trials for treatment-resistant depression as we call it or try alternative stuff and hope it doesnt fuck you up since again, we cant predict effects on the brain in advance like shrooms or mdma therapy which have shown promising results in actual trials.

 

[P@in]

Honestly, psychiatry is a gamble.

In the 20th century homosexuality was considered a mental disease (and they tried to cure people out of being gay, lol). Now it's not.
Things are always changing and it's 100% right to be skeptical about it.

I heard a story about my far sibling that had headaches, and one of the psychiatric pills actually helped him (after many years of trying to find a cure).

In my own experience, as i suffer from a neurological problem that causes me chronic pains in my neck and back, I was sent to psychotherapists that in few minutes decided that I have psychosomatic pains, even tho I had EMG checks before that showed "nerve pain" and they thought I might have herniated discs (but that wasn't the case after an MRI check).
Anyways, I took the pills they prescribed for half a year at least, even tho I was sure it's likely BS... 0 effect.

I feel like it's an easy way for doctors to disclaim of responsibility. They don't really care.

 

[Hollowman]

Run from them as fast as you can.

 

[Already Gone6]

Lol I've been skeptical. For some time now. As a lot of people are. For some people it works. But some people are millionaires too so idk.

Psychiatry has only aided in my continued suffering. Psychiatrists think I'm joking when I bring up euthanasia and suicide only like every single appointment. They are gonna find out though. :)

 

[jbear824]

(US dweller here, so this is from a USA perspective)

Yes, but not because I don't believe in psychology/psychiatry. I skeptical because our mental health system is built to support capitalism. The whole point is to treat you until you're well enough to become part of the machine. A wage slave like everyone else. They just want to sell drugs because our entire healthcare system is for profit. Which idk how our society even views that as ethical.

I don't feel the mental health system is actually there to help people live happier more fulfilling lives, but to just turn you into a productive asset. I can't count how many times I've heard "work gives you meaning" in clinical settings, it's disgusting. how work is pushed on the mentally ill as a cure for your problems.

I'm also skeptical because of how many providers will abandon their patients for more money. How can you trust your provider when they might drop you like a hot potato for a slightly bigger check?

The whole system is fucked, and failing everyone who needs it. All in the name of dollars.

 

[ggetout33]

most researches know that most people suffer from at least one side effect from a drug no matter what

Well I would understand if these meds didn't do something as a bad as make it impossible for me to get a boner while on them.

Why isn't there anything that would help me be normal without risking such severe side effects? Why do I have to gamble and be disappointed again and again and again?

 

[lachrymost]

Yep. I'm really scared that the drugs are so over prescribed, the efficacy so exaggerated, and the side effects so downplayed by prescribers that psychiatry is a net negative. The more I read about it the more I come to believe this. My life was ruined by psych drugs and I'm not sure if I'd rather believe I'm just an outlier who happened to get screwed over, or if I'm a victim to something systemically oppressive. Either way is impossible to cope with. Regardless of what I would like to believe, I'm trying to find out what's true. I spend a lot of time arguing with psychiatrists on X and asking them questions.

I don't understand why the American Psychiatric Association put so much effort into propagandizing chemical imbalance theory, but then when it was getting scientific scrutiny they didn't really try to correct the record. I don't understand why my country, Canada, has finally admitted that patients should be warned about the risk of life-long sexual dysfunction following SSRI use, but has done nothing to ensure this happens. The European Medicines Agency has admitted it too, but no others have. SSRIs can cause permanent anhedonia, too. Why aren't we warned that we may take a pill to be less miserable and end up being physiologically incapable of feeling another positive emotion again! Why was I involved with psychiatry for about fourteen years and never warned about akathisia and protracted withdrawal? Why do psychiatrists still deny that ECT can cause brain damage when the manufacturers of ECT machines admit it can?

Why did a psychiatrist try to prescribe me antipsychotics, which can cause a permanent movement disorder, to treat depression when I said I wasn't depressed anymore and my only complaint was that my antidepressant had been giving me debilitating fatigue for seven years and I had only just realized it?

Why the hell is the world like this? Why the hell did lobotomies come to exist and win the Nobel prize?

 

[spinningmyself]

I know I have depression and my daughter thinks I may have some kind of bi polar thing going on but I will never go to a doctor for anything. All they want to do is put you on pills, doesn't matter if it helps and if it doesn't help they just want to add more? It's just crazy! Then you get lifelong side effects and they want you to take something else for that. It will just be an endless cycle, no thank you! I would like to know why are there so many inactive ingredients in all of these medications they push on people? What it all comes down to is just making sure everyone stays on some kind of medication for their whole life. It is just about the money it makes not about really helping people. I mean hey if you can't pay for your meds they don't care if it means you will die without just that you can't pay for it.

 

[conflagration]

I have similar experience with meds and psychiatry. Currently I am on max dose of mirtazapine, which was prescribed for me for insomnia and depression. Initially it was working but now I am waking up after 4 hours and cannot fall back to sleep again. And I am unable to stop taking it because withdrawals are unbearable. So I am stuck on maximal dose of med which is not working anymore, but e.g. it causes me nightime eating. I wish I have never started taking them.

 

[Lulzacruel]

Well I would understand if these meds didn't do something as a bad as make it impossible for me to get a boner while on them.

Why isn't there anything that would help me be normal without risking such severe side effects? Why do I have to gamble and be disappointed again and again and again?

because literally everything that fucks with your brain has side effects, we have no idea if you are the one that will get a boner or not on the med

its sad, but there are really researchers albeit a small amount that want to help those with PSSD.

i cant really speak much as someone who only has knowledge by listening to more qualified co-workers, so i cant elaborate further since i dont want to spread misinformation

 

[NoLoveNoHope]

I'm already pretty skeptical, I've tried to have conversations on getting off my medication with no luck and what feels like purposeful stalling. I eventually had enough and went cold turkey off my meds a while ago since I didn't feel like I was going to have any assistance with the withdrawals. I'm not sure if I made the correct decision but at least I'm off them.

I really don't trust the industry since I never got anything from it except losing a lot of money. I don't want to play a balancing act of different drugs. I just want to feel like I'll be okay for the next while. I'd rather be off my medication and depressed than depressed with medication. Not to mention the balancing act to have the most minimal chance of ever getting warded to the point I can barely tell the truth out of fear. I honestly don't think it's worth it in my case and it's definitely played up by a lot of people. It isn't an easy fix to a difficult problem, you don't 'get help' and get better - most of the time you barely make any progress.

It just felt like a losing battle to me so I left. I don't miss it personally, it became more of an inconvenience than a positive.

 

[Ampsvx123]

So long as the data comes from rightless folks with stockholm syndrome, There is no possibility to prove their effectiveness.
It takes a fool to eat rotten apples on their dailies, because some prisoners somewhere, earned their freedom by telling their captors, it was dear food!

 

[Homo erectus]

So long as the data comes from rightless folks with stockholm syndrome, There is no possibility to prove their effectiveness.
It takes a fool to eat rotten apples on their dailies, because some prisoners somewhere, earned their freedom by telling their captors, it was dear food!

It is very modernist way of thinking that a pill can solve a problem, like a rudder can steer a ship.

 

[Meditation guide]

I actually despise psychiatrists. Without going into the reasons too much, one ruined my life by "experimenting" on me with 12 different drugs for depression. It turns out that when I finally was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and treated for it my depression went away like a miracle.

 

[Winterreise]

Psychiatry is a slow camp. I wish DNA tests one day could speed it up

 

[GeriatricGoblin]

I am autistic, ADHD, and diagnosed with severe depression.

My personal stance is that mental illnesses do exist, and should be taken seriously. However I'm slowly becoming increasingly skeptical of the effectiveness of the drugs that are prescribed to treat said illnesses. In my personal experience, meds, whether they treat the intended illness or not, often come with serious side effects that are just as problematic as the illness I intended to have treated. To the point where the medication becomes not worth taking.

And when these side effects are brought up (which I often do), I am either prescribed a different medication that causes similar side effects (that also make me get off that drug) or in a few cases I'm prescribed a different drug in hopes of countering the other's side effects. But ultimately nowhere near being "normal". In terms of treating my mental health, this has been the case for roughly 4 years at this point.

In recent times, I've been on a combination of Adderall and Bupropion, to treat ADD and Depression respectively. I do feel more focused and calm while on them, but they totally kill my boners. I basically cannot get it up to save my life despite being 22 and trying to get in shape. I brought it up with my doctor and we discussed the possibility of trying Viagra in hopes of countering the ED I get from my ADD meds.

The option is available to me, but I'm just so annoyed with psychiatry in general. And I don't see any real end to this cycle. I'm annoyed because I (and many others I imagine) are promised to have my mental ailments treated so that I can be normal, and have my fucked-up brain under control. But I try drug after drug after drug that ultimately goes nowhere, nothing I want to take long-term because every drug comes with so many bad side effects.

When the truth is, the only real "cure" (or treatment) is either death or to have never been born with said mental illness in the first place.

If I were to ask to take Viagra, I know that more likely than not it would just come with more side effects that probably screw up some other part of my body, or more likely counteract the ADD meds themselves and render them pointless. I just can't win because my body's "natural function" is dysfunctional as fuck. And it fights all the time to stay dysfunctional, no matter how I feel. I'm an atheist but I think that if there is a God, he would want me to suffer because that would mean he intentionally gave me these bad genes and afflicted me with these mental disorders I struggle with daily. When he could've made me neurotypical and perfectly genetically healthy.

I just don't see a point in trying, I never feel enough and this industry probably took hundreds if not thousands out of me yet I'm still ADD, I'm still autistic, still depressed, and no hope of ever being the same level as a NT. I feel like I should CTB since my brain wants to be this way.

I tried looking online for alternative treatments, nothing but cope for misdiagnosed people (just eat a supplement and meditate bro). Try going on Reddit, the basement dwellers all say to do cocaine.

I think modern healthcare and especially mental healthcare is pretty much clueless, and useless a lot of the time. Remember when depression got treated with just electroshocking ppl? How barbaric! That clearly doesn't work! Well out modern treatments aren't really any better than that they just sound less "barbaric". SSRIs don't really work any better than placebos according to meta studies I've read. Most CBT I've been to is just some guy sitting there saying mhm and giving generic advice sometimes. Most common diagnoses are a poor attempt at categorizing "problematic" people who cannot be usefully categorized, because it's way more complex than that.

I'm personally diagnosed with Autism and Depression, but I think my symptoms are explained by various social traumas from my shitty childhood. Look into Complex PTSD. I don't think I'm born depressed at all, I just cannot be happ because my brain is extremely anxious and mistrusting and negative towards myself and others due to my horrible experiences in childhood. And I wasn't raped. I was mostly just neglected, refused help, judged, insulted, bullied. It's the contempt, the neglect, the abandonment, the judgement, the lack of support, the lack of interest, the unpredictable mood swings, the conditional love, the lack of any friends. Those things fuck you up really, really bad in the right combination . It doesn't have to be rape or being beaten black and blue.

 

[ggetout33]

UPDATE 9/20/2023:

I stopped taking my medications the day after I originally wrote this and started L-Thyrosine and a few gummies as substitutes. My erection issues have mostly subsided though I will say that part of it could also be my obesity and the fact I'm not a teenager pumped full of hormones anymore. I'm honestly completely done with psychiatry as an institution and my trust in that specific area of science has greatly diminished. To me, it's nothing more than snake oil. Which sucks because for years I really wanted to believe if I'd just found the right medication I could live like a neurotypical, and have the life I should've had if my brain wasn't so disorganized and malformed.

I don't condone their beliefs, but I can honestly say I might understand where people come from when they say they don't really trust these sorts of institutions. I'll still get my vaccine shots and what not. But I legit think more often than not, people do put their trust in a system that ultimately fails them, and possibly leaves them with permanent life-altering disabilities (if antipsychiatry is anything to go by).

The only exception I would make is finding a therapy that doesn't involve pills, or any similar "medication" for that matter. I still look for that but nothing concrete has come up yet. Apologies if it's a bit too tinfoil-hatty but it might be because the psychiatric industry is so hellbent on getting people depending on pills since that's where the money's at. From a capitalist standpoint, permanently curing someone would net you less profit than if you were to keep them dependent on treatments until they draw their last breath. And capitalism's number one goal is profit, even if it means other people suffer.

I would even go a step further and say that a lot of anti-suicide propaganda these days is rooted in capitalism. I've said this before but: if you're dead, capitalism can't leech off of you. Only exception would be AI if you're a singer or something. But as far as you as a physical being is concerned, capitalism can't do shit. So if people find an easy way to CTB, that will mean less workers for the capitalist machine.

To be clear, I'm not advocating that everyone just throw away their pills just because I wasn't lucky. If it works for you, great. I'm strictly writing from my own personal experience.