What’s the deal with the Anti-Psychiatry Movement?

I have ADHD and bipolar. My experience is that therapist aim to make you less of a nuisance to normal people first, and only try to help you second. The medication I got made me docile, but didn't ease any of the symptoms; I just suffered in silence, but at least people around me wasn't bothered by me. I know there are therapists with different approach (for example Gabor Mate's books helped me feel so much better). But most of the field don't treat you as a human who needs help -- they treat you as a problem that needs a solution.

[@MolecularMachine]

"make you less of a nuisance to normal people first" THIS THIS THIS!!!!!! This is why I hate therapists so much! They're not interested in improving your life, they're interested in making you stop being a problem!

[@daintycaked]

My ADHD has inhibited me socially. My bipolar compounded and I stop treating others with respect when I'm not taking my meds. I'm sorry you've had these experiences.... There are a lot of bad docs out there, and unfortunately it's all about finding the right fit. My old psyc had complaints on social media about being an asshole, to be frank. But I liked him and he liked me. I haven't read Gabor Mate but I'll be looking him up. I am very much on the neurodiversity movement as well. However, I know that not everyone in my field thinks the way that I do and are still caught up on looking at neurodiversity as something to be fixed.

[@Ann963]

🔥

[@matthewatwood8641]

They aren't trying to help you at all, they are just trying to make money off of you. No psychiatrist genuinely cares about helping you unless they are extremely naive. You are a dollar sign to them, & they know that what they are doing is probably going to hurt you really badly. They know that they ruin people's lives. You do know that they aren't legitimately doctors right? A lot of doctors say that. They go to medical school all right and they get the degree, and they do residency as a psychiatrist, but they're not real doctors. Just grifters.

[@Voldemorts_Mom]

Holy shit that's exactly what my psychoatrist did and why i loved my psychologist so much because she actually wanted to help ME

[@no-rp5fj]

I would never have considered myself “anti-psychiatry” before I tried getting mental health care myself. Too often I’ve had completely inappropriate and dangerous medication combinations given to me without proper warning and with very poor or no care when it’s ended badly. I’ve also been pressured into taking medication with the threat of forced institutionalization, and when I ended up getting institutionalized I realized that the only psych ward in my area is actively a very physically dangerous place to be, with rampant abuse from staff and no protection from other patients. I left injured and traumatized, with mental health professionals holding the threat of returning me over my head to get me to take or do what they wanted. I remember talking to friends who were struggling and realizing that I could not recommend that they see a psychologist or therapist (which I often had done in the past) without feeling like I was also putting them in physical danger. I know there are places and people who are not this way! There is also good data supporting the use of talk therapy and various medications. I just can’t consider myself “pro-psychiatry” while it continues to be so so dangerous to so many people, especially those who are rural, low-income, psychotic, non-white, etc.

[@AvaToccoRodriguez]

You put this In words far more eloquent than me and captured how I often feel.

[@thatautodidact2371]

I have a very similar story. Condolences for the traumas you experienced in mental health care.

[@LillyP-xs5qe]

don't you "love" when the awful meds they give you have nasty side effects, so you complain about it, and they just shove more pills on you to deal with a side effects, and more pills to deal with side effects of the pills to treat the side effects, and they never stop to think if the awful pills that started at all are even needed for you, when you beg to be treated like a human being instead of being shoved pilled down your throat to get you behave, and they just laugh in your face and shove more pills on you? speaking from personal experince.

[@SonoftheWest316]

I am in a rural white area in Canada and i'll tell you I am actually unable to get help without going around public health which I cannot afford to do. Infact being white is a disadvantage as the majority of our public health workers are not white and hold a racism cultivated over decades by our education system.

[@thatautodidact2371]

@@SonoftheWest316 At least now you have a teeny tiny, not full insight on what BIPOC people experience in general no matter where they are. That can help to have compassion and assist in correcting how the systemic classism and racism negatively effects everyone.

[@derekpmoore]

My gf was misdiagnosed by psychiatrists when her cognitive symptoms were the result of life-long undiagnosed health conditions: celiac disease and epilepsy. Jumping to conclusions when someone has psychosis does ruin lives.

[@b0g_dyke]

Same! I have epilepsy and it was looked over as psychosis

[@Hollyucinogen]

I have a different disease that's in the same category as Celiac's (Hashimoto's Thyroiditis), and the #1 best thing that you can do for it is to stop eating gluten. I was also misdiagnosed as anxious, depressed, and psychotic because of some of the symptoms of it; when in reality, I just needed to stop eating gluten. Controversial opinion, maybe(?), but I don't even think that psychiatry is a real science. Anti-psychotics don't actually treat psychosis, they just make people shut up and be more compliant. That's why they give them to people with autism, too.

[@notmyrealaccount8564]

@@Hollyucinogen Similar thing happened to me. I had undiagnosed Hashimoto’s which was misdiagnosed as mental illness for well over ten years. That’s why I have a hatred for doctors and mental health professionals who are supposed to be there to help you when you need it, not destroy your life and ‘treat’ you like it’s a punishment. It’s ridiculous that someone can write something about you in a short appointment, usually behind your back, that is used by doctors to justify ignoring you and not testing you for an actual physical illness because they think you are just crazy and a hypochondriac or something.

[@demoncorejunior]

when i was diagnosed with celiac disease, it was by a psychiatrist because it was causing me very extreme anxiety and depression. when i asked if i should eat a sandwich with gluten bread because i finally felt hungry, they said to go right ahead!! they also refused to treat the anxiety symptoms with medication, instead telling me to visualize my panic as a shape. when i stopped eating gluten and my intestines healed, my debilitating anxiety resolved. no thanks to the psychiatrists i first sought help from! (i do have a different psych now who is much more invested in listening to me, the patient. the prior people i saw were condescending and kept telling me what i needed to do that was contrary to what i was asking for help with)

[@SentientNebula]

​@@demoncorejuniorwow lucky you. That's a physical illness though, sorry you got a tummy ache I guess

[@headfullofdreams6083]

My experience: Sorry to disappoint, I got nothing. After my second suicide attempt at the age of 14, I thought to myself "maybe I need help with my mental state". By the time I finally got someone to speak to as an individual, I was almost 18. She did not match my needs at all, but I couldn't switch because this was already an exception to an exception, you'd have to switch to a different org entirely, blah blah blah. When I overcame my fears and my personal feelings towards this individual to report that I was hearing things that couldn't be real, I was told not to worry about it and that it happens to everyone. I stopped showing up after that and learned to self-manage. The mental healthcare system is near impossible to navigate when you actually have mental illness. It's like building a hospital without elevators and wheelchair ramps. What are we doing?

[@saltiestsiren]

You can always switch your therapists. At least in North America. Of course if you're in a rural area it's harder to access more options. It's a pain in the ass though. Switching I mean.

[@headfullofdreams6083]

@@saltiestsiren I live in the Netherlands, but I guess your point still applies. The problem was that if I were to switch, I I'd have to switch from youth care to adult care since I was about to turn 18. The org I was working with was youth care only, so that'd mean getting back on the wait list, only this time having to arrange everything myself because I was a legal adult and my parents couldn't do it for me anymore. Mentally, that wasn't something I could deal with. Being autistic, I already have a lot of trouble with formal communication. The fear of writing an email and then missing some unwritten rule that'll ruin everything makes me freeze up to the point where I can't write the email. Not to mention phone calls (I'd add that phone calls are already less than ideal when you're using your eyes to verify which sounds are real and which ones aren't, but I get that that's not a problem a lot of people have). But that's not all; during my teenage years on the wait list I got taken off the list a couple times because my situation was deemed "not urgent enough", because my mom was "not ready to support me through the process" (wtf?) and other stupid reasons like that. The wait list wasn't just waiting, it was a constant fight, which is very draining. That's all on top of everything else that was happening in my life at that time, and combined with the fact I didn't know how much longer I'd have to fight to get the help I needed if I had to go back to the wait list. I know that theoretically I could've switched, but theory doesn't always translate to reality. Something that's "tricky" or "annoying" to other people can be completely impossible to do for me, due to my mental illness. It's stupid that that's the exact things that I need to do in order to get help for my mental illness. That's kind of the point I was making.

[@tiffloo5457]

you should try again! (ik there are probloms that stops you to and all things)

[@headfullofdreams6083]

@@tiffloo5457 Please take this in the nicest way possible, because I'm not trying to be rude. If you know I can't do it, why are you telling me to do it? Like I'm not seeing any solutions to the problems, so how am I supposed to succeed this time? It feels a bit pointless to waste the little energy that I have on something I know won't work and might just make it all worse.

[@narutouzumaki2157]

​@@headfullofdreams6083he's not a problem solver but wants to feel good that he helped someone, like most of the normies, So he just wants you to say thank you and move on.

[@robgordon001]

Where do I sign up? I'm 70 years old, and was correctly diagnosed and successfully treated for ADHD a little more than three years ago at a community clinic in San Diego. Then, my psychiatrist left that organization under mysterious circumstances, and a guy I have never met outside of a 10-minute online meeting fraudulently claimed he was "my psychiatrist". In our one meeting, he claimed I was, "under investigation by law enforcement" (I wasn't) so I ended the meeting and sent a letter banning him from my further access to my medical records. It didn't work - instead, he filled my medical records with the most outrageous lies I have ever read in my life, and took out a restraining order where he claimed I had made violent threats - which I have never done in my life. The courts believed him almost without question, and I lost my most basic American rights for three full years because of the pathological liar in the psychiatric profession.

[@wmdkitty]

Sure, buddy. Sure.

[@davidcrawford9026]

That's what happens. People have been trained to believe them when they're no more than equivalent to chiropractors, but being able to jail and control people without restrictions or regards for their rights is awfully useful

[@jameshughes3014]

This is terrible. I would not believe you if something similar had not happened to me. Some people take these jobs just so they can have power over others

[@robgordon001]

What do you mean@@wmdkitty? Are you saying you don't believe me? Why"

[@robgordon001]

Thank you@@davidcrawford9026 - people do believe them almost no matter what they say. In my case, I can't even get people to believe this lying psychopath was never "my psychiatrist". Right now, the man who had been my real psychiatrist - a great guy who was totally honest, is being charged by the California Attorney General with "gross negligence" because of outright lies this guy put in my psychiatric records, along with a suicide they are blaming him for. The profession of psychiatry has a liar problem.

[@sammylincroft]

I was forcibly hospitalized for suicidal ideation. The reason for the depression was severe chronic illness that due to the hospitalization was pathologized as mental illness delaying my care by over a year with likely lifelong consequences of delayed treatment. The abuse of power by hospital staff left me with long term trauma and I have been in therapy ever since, a significant proportion of which would never have been necessary if I had not been hospitalized. I have been on and off antidepressants. They have not helped me and coming off was extremely difficult. I am a strong proponent of treating all mental illness but I am also deeply against the imbalance of power given to psychiatrists and psychologists. I will never forget being told, as a priviledged white rich college student with a perfect GPA and no history of mental illness besides telling 1 school psychologist I felt suicidal, "I can make it so that you never see your boyfriend or family again. I can take away your freedom. I can do whatever I like. You will not tell me how to proceed with your treatment." All in response to asking that I be allowed to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. I will never forget my first time passing out being because of innapropriate overmedication. Mental health treatment is important but mental health practicioners must first do no harm. Even if a hospitalization is relatively benign simply imprisoning someone with no legal recourse is a terrifying reality with the potential to traumatize. Especially for somone like myself who is high functioning autistic and stuggles to present myself "correctly." The way institutionalization is used to this day, and the threat of it, terrifies me more than anything else. I used to have a needle phobia, the more I engaged with medicine for my chronic illness the less phobia of needles and medical settings I have. The more I have engaged with psychiatry the more it terrifies me. I still encourage many people to seek help because I understand mental illness kills and there are evidence based treatments that work. But I also tell all those same people to never ever fully trust someone with so much power over you. Psychiatry is not your friend. It is a tool that sometimes we have no other alternative but to use. Someday I hope psychiatrists will truely stop doing harm and work with clients on equal footing. I also think that for the vast majority of mental illness there is a much larger social aspect better supported by peer support networks than by traditional psychiatry. In the same way that lung cancer needed to be first adressed by adressing smoking and air quality and then treating those for whom that is not enough. We should fix societal problems first and then only medicate and mentally treat those whose problems can't be fixed with stable housing or help making friends.

[@claesyoungberg1695]

What an amazing response! Thank you! I can sympathize with your traumas caused by interaction with the mental health system. It seemed to me during my experiences that almost all of the psychiatric professionals I encountered seemed generally to be well intentioned. However, that didn't prevent them from prescribing medications that turned out to be much more harmful than they were helpful.

[@TOM_NIX]

I am so sorry that you had to go through this, after reading all stories of miss treat in psychiatric hospitals, I rather kill myself than be "seeking help" from anyone related to the field without regard to how dire my situation is.

[@namedrop721]

You are more on the right track than you will ever know. Those of us who are not rich white stable family’d college kids know never to admit we are suicidal lest we be locked up exactly like you were-and never get help Thank you for sharing your experience and how bad it can get for even a privileged and relatively uncomplicated case. I know many stories like yours and most don’t have a happy ending.

[@ShatteringWind]

May I ask which chronic illness you have?

[@autolycuse2554]

Very well put!

[@TheCALMInstitute]

I was very pro-psychiatry until my partner and I needed it. In my case, I got prescribed an SSRI that gave me flat affect and low libido, destroying my relationship. In response, my partner became depressed, and got prescribed duloxetine. She now has a very rare form of colon cancer caused by it. I went through months of hell to get off mine, my partner is still struggling. After seeing an endocrinologist I discovered I had a tumor that had wrecked my production of testosterone, which was easily treated. The simplest blood work or diagnostic work would have seen both of us get better care and healed. Instead, we’re divorced. All because of the PHQ9 being cheaper than proper bloodwork in a for profit healthcare system.

[@yaakarkad]

Yeah, a lot of psychiatry lacks a holistic understanding of the body, how drugs react with an individual body, etc. Did they inform you of the effects the drug could have? Or was it almost an after-thought for them?

[@virtualgambit577]

This is very similar to what happened to me as a teenager. Psychiatry often ignores other physiological explanations for cognitive or emotional issues. And the drugs they prescribe for these issues can have long-term consequences, all to treat an issue not even addressed by the drug. Psychiatry needs to be scrutinized and testing for other factors like hormones should be required before prescribing psychiatric medications. I’m so sorry this happened to you.

[@IshtarNike]

That does sound awful. Why do you think it caused the cancer? Is that a known side effect?

[@juliahart8593]

That's really concerning. My psychiatrist requires annual bloodwork before he even prescribes something, and, to be honest, everyone should require that.

[@crimsonrose]

Isn’t flat affect a sign that you were overmedicated?

[@markjackson1989]

One thing that bothered me. I went to my college nurse due to a rise in blood pressure and a panic attack. She kept pressuring SSRIs, and talking about inappropriate things like errections. I expressed discomfort... and it's like "no" was an answer she never heard and just kept spouting out odd talking points. Here's the best part: she told me SSRIs had ZERO side effects, were completely safe, and could be stopped and started at any time with zero issues. What she didn't tell me was that she was lying through her teeth. SSRIs contain a black box warning, the most extreme cautionary warning a medication can have.

[@kathrineici9811]

“Zero side effects” jfc When I started them as a kid they told me a bunch of possible side effects and why they happen- like digestive issues because serotonin effects your gut

[@gernottiefenbrunner172]

Most psychiatrists don't seem to understand the concept of side effects. Or that medications that clearly say not to be mixed with each other, are not to be mixed with each other.

[@Aboguaboga]

All psychiatric medications has the possibility for severe side effects. If a doctor doesn’t warn you of the side effects be aware. Ik you specifically might have not known at the time but this comment is meant as a reminder for anyone who stumbles across it

[@Xiph1980]

My mother being against psychiatry and modern medical science in general, and rubbing that off on me over the years, almost killed me. Took a heavy depression in my late thirties where I was already planning how to end it, to finally knock on my doc's door. Later got diagnosed with adhd, and now half a decade later I can finally say I've been depression-free for the first time in my life! Still have childhood trauma's to deal with, most I actually can't remember anymore, which will not be easy to say the least, but I'm still here, and would not have been had I not entered that psychologist's office.

[@tmtb80]

Big difference between psychiatrist and psychiatrist.

[@zimzob]

@@tmtb80you mean psychiatrist vs psychologist? If my understanding is correct, it appears to me the former is an outgrowth of medical professionals operating within penal institutions , the latter descends from philosophy applied to a materialist framework of the modern bourgeoisie of industrial society. just started this video and glad to see he’s covering all that and has an earlier video I’ll have to watch now 😂

[@tmtb80]

@@zimzob yeah. That's right. Now adays, it is also about how they get paid. What kind of a doctor only gets paid if he gives out a diagnosis that requires medication. Then, has a patient for life. A patient that they don't have to know anything about (not even blood pressure!) or how the meds are working. 15 minutes every 3-4 months simply to refill the prescription....answer: psychiatrist!!!! They say on average in the US, it takes 7 minutes to get a diagnosis from a psychiatrist . Psychologists treat patients. They can take a long time to diagnose a patient however often don't.

[@Gil3490]

Dude did you go to a psychologist or a psychiatrist? FFS...

[@Padraigp]

In you're late thirties you were making your own choices. Maybe blaming your parents isn't the solution? Every parent makes their choices for their children when they are children. After that you make your own choices in life. Can't blame your mother for your choices as an adult.

[@victoriajankowski1197]

I spent years telling my Dr.s we where treating a lifestyle not a disease, to be clear I have mental health issues, but its hard to treat anxiety when trying to detangle 'the disease' from actually being housing and food insecurity, abusive relationships and financial instability. Is it really paranoia if the world is actually out to get you? It's nice to finally see actual science exploring what I was calling 'shit life syndrome' since the late 90s, under other names of course.

[@butasimpleidiotwizard]

This is why I studied community work! That's what community work organisations are supposed to do, give you resources and support to help you get out of shitty situations and have more security, safety, and freedom, instead of focusing on what is wrong with *you* we focus on what you can do and how to make the system work with what you can do, find ways around things, loopholes, advocacy, etc. I don't think psychology or psychiatry do much at all if you don't have that kind of support and most people in the most severe mental health situations don't have that support.

[@TheSaival]

The fact that serotonin theory of depression was criticised since 1970 and it took the professional psychiatry field 50 years to finally say that "yeah it might not be right" is why we need an antipsychiatry movement.

[@scarecrowprowler]

Serotonin is mostly in the gut (some study said), so antidepressants do something else to the brain. And why do you need to take it for so long if depression is episodic and mostly about how you feel and not why you feel that way? Say what you will about Peter Breggin but he explained very well in a deleted video that feeling euphoric from being on antidepressants is a warning sign. How do you live in reality and feel euphoric without reason, it is like a fantasy and a denial of reality. Something along those lines. Jungs shadow comes to mind. I am not against medicine but they do not work as insulin for diabetics. You only count as ill when you have serious thoughts about ending it all. (Side note is that psychology is a pseudo science, and is very complicated. Many critics are probably pointing at this circumstance.)

[@Foxtrox7616]

​@@scarecrowprowler psychology is definitely not a pseudoscience, but it *can* be if used as such

[@SchwarzesSchaefle]

I'm from Germany so keep that in mind. I was taken to psychiatrists as a child by my parents for being "difficult" but I don't really remember that. As a teen I was bullied mercilessly, developed anxiety, depression and self-harming behaviours that led me to quit school. After sitting at home for a few years, my parents had enough and forced me to "get help" and my GP sent me to a clinic that assesses mentally ill people FOR the unemployment office. So my first experience was with therapists and psychiatrists whose job it was to evaluate how useful I am for capitalism and to make me as economically exploitable as possible. All I wanted, was to be "like my peers" - go to uni, travel, have a boyfriend what have you. Being in an institution full of people with diverse sets of issues, after being sheltered for many years, was traumatic in itself. Having my every thought, feeling and behaviour scrutinized by adults in positions of power and authority (therapists) while first being denied medication (despite citing academic papers to my psychiatrists...) and then having dosages adjusted without asking for my consent first, was further traumatic. I felt like I was being blamed for the bullying and the sense of "being a loser" that the kids had installed in me, was only reinforced by that machinery. I had other patients tell me of their "psychiatric careers" -how many hospitalizations, how many medications tried, how many years in therapy and realized if I wanted the "normal" life of my peers, I had to get out. So I played along, got assessed as able to work full-time, somehow pushed through an apprenticeship while not attending my mandated (by the unemployment office) therapy sessions, lost weight and did other things to boost my self-esteem and at age 22 returned to school (a "normal" school not linked to any therapy conditions) to get a GED. I am currently finishing my MA at a renowned university, I've travelled alone and lived abroad and while I still haven't had a proper boyfriend (for many years I felt I had to "become mentally healthy" first, before "burdening someone with my pathology", so I was voluntarily celibate), I have dated. I still struggle with the trauma from those years of forced therapy and each time I complain to one of my middle-class humanities-educated peers about...anything, they will ask if "I'm in therapy" and act surprised at the negative response - after all, it has "really changed their life!". I am quite openly anti-psych, however I do not want to abolish therapy or medications - they should be available to those who find them useful, but I demand the right to live a life where I will no longer be exposed to psychoanalytic or behavioral theories, therapies or any other type of discourse that robs me of my humanity and makes me question my every experience. I am still working on believing, truly, within my heart that I am normal and that I am okay and that I do not need to change in other to be allowed to live a full, happy and healthy life. I don't need to be declared "sane" in order to date, work, travel or do anything else. I can just do all that. I hope that in the future, no young person who is exhibiting "symptoms of psychopathology", which are completely normal human reactions to certain life occurences, will be forced into treatment with unhealthy power dynamics, but will instead be asked what THEY want out of life and be given the support they need to achieve THEIR goals and not those of society. I've achieved my goals for the most part, but it would have been much easier if the psych sciences had never entered my life and most importantly my mind. For the future - please keep them out of my mind. Thank you.

[@Puer_luminis]

It was really healing reading your story. I come from Germany myself and my first run in with „the system“ was due to bullying. I strongly relate to feeling unheard by your own peers who all seem to love therapy. It makes for a lonely experience. Currently I am in a place in my life where I draw boundaries around that topic very broadly when meeting new people. I am glad to have been without treatment for 7 years now and just as you did, have been living my life despite of it all. Honestly the biggest flex these days is being mentally stable and happy. And an even bigger flex when you did it all by yourself.

[@stevekaylor5606]

@@Puer_luminis Has Germany brought back Tiergarten 4?!

[@xandersbrain]

pre video thoughts: in my experience psychiatrists love more than anything to tell you you're experiencing something you're not, and to tell you you're not experiencing something you are. if you're trying to seek more help? you're being dramatic, you just have some anxiety, you're just fishing for a diagnosis for attention. if you're trying to live your life? you're severely ill, you can't be trusted with autonomy, you don't know what's best for yourself, you need more meds, more treatment, less freedom.

[@gernottiefenbrunner172]

My psychiatrist alternated between "you clearly need twice as much of the same meds that aren't working" and "you're just some junkie manipulating me for more substance" That said, he did also prescribe something that makes me sleep more than 20min at a time, without me asking for that.

[@HenrikBSWE]

I had a very traumatic childhood and tried to get help the first time at around 17, when I was very depressed, had developed severe daily panic attacks and suicidal thought. My first psychiatrist told me "It can't be that bad since you haven't killed yourself" and put me on SNRI's. They didn't help me, and since I was angry and already lived on my own I quit on my own and used drugs to manage my problems. I became psychotic after years of self neglect and heavy drug use and tried to get help again, and failed. So, I stopped using drugs at 23 and spent a few years as a responsible adult. I was still hearing voices, had panic attacks and was paranoid, but I pretended not to be and spent my days working while doing breath exercises. I didn't have any time to care for myself because I had other family members to care for. By 30 I was exhausted, and my family members didn't need me as much anymore. The last 8 years I've spent trying to get help within the Swedish mental health system. They have made me take a bunch of drugs, anti psychotics, mood stabilizers, anti depressants. Being heavy medicated and suicidal I stopped paying my bills, stopped seeing friends. Became more and more isolated until I started doing drugs again. If sad, do some subs, if anxious some xanor, if tired some speed. Need to sleep? Hasch. And so on. Doing drugs made me able to reconnect with some friends and family, again. And I became an addict, again. The last six months I've slowly taken myself of all medication and all drugs, and now I've been completely sober for a few weeks. I'm 38 now and trying to manage myself by learning more about trauma and by doing meditation. I'm waiting to get tested for autism, which I'm pretty certain is the root problem in combination with trauma from childhood abuse and neglect. I'm not anti-psychiatry, but I'm very angry and resentful towards the psychiatric system in Sweden which only seem to believe medication.

[@misspat7555]

My late husband was diagnosed schizophrenic, then schizoaffective, then bipolar shortly before he died from esophageal cancer brought on by chronic acid reflux probably brought on by decades of heavy psychiatric medication. Pretty sure now he was AuDHD/depressive like me, but with that side of OCD I have been spared. Psychiatrists tend not to consider autism as a main underlying cause of trouble because there is no medication specifically for it, I suspect. 🤔

[@fahqslut]

I’m very sorry to hear of your story and I can very much relate. Unfortunately doctors are human (at least for now) and we humans make mistakes. It sucks that those mistakes involve health. I urge you to not give up though! Therapy is so beneficial and sometimes it takes finding the RIGHT kind. Sometimes it’s medication alone. Sometimes it’s psychotherapy and medication together. It really just takes finding the right balance for YOU. I understand you’re dealing with particular insurance issues and that certainly doesn’t make it easy on you. It’s like that in the states too! For instance, you could engage in psychotherapy that specifically deals with correcting incorrect or dysfunctional thought processes. Or many others. It’s a journey and I wish you the best of luck. Personally I wouldn’t have worked through my depression, anxiety, PTSD, anxiety and adhd symptoms without my amazing therapist. Tried medication but I’m extremely sensitive to drugs so that was a no go for me!

[@unetherized]

Being diagnosed as autistic was one of the best things for my life. I had to work really hard to get myself a professional assessment at the age of 24, after years of being bounced between psychiatrists and therapists and meds that did noticeable harm without noticeable good. A supportive community, learning how to love and embrace and work with the uniqueness of my mind - rather than trying and failing to be like others - has been a miracle. So much pain and distress and actual insanity resulted from me trying to force myself into a "healthy neurotypical" box that doesn't fit me. I had so many symptoms, from excruciating migraines to ringing ears and hallucinations, that I somehow do not have anymore, for several years. Doctors told me that wasnt possible, but in my experience it is somehow true. I really feel the "treatment" I was getting, and the environment I was in, made me sick. May not be true for everybody. But I think a healthy person can be made extremely ill by a bad situation and taking in the wrong substances. Don't give up on yourself. I needed to find people who could relate to me, who had shared my challenges and found solutions that worked for them. There's a lot of hope, and you aren't alone!

[@AnMuiren]

I'm Black, 67 years old, and had various diagnosis early in life related to social and cognitive development, and eventually autism in my 20s. Along the way, I have faced blatant racism, anti-LGBTQ, and therapeutic recommendation that conforming to Eurocentric and Neoliberal values were necessary for my health, even by the Black psychologist and psychiatrist I was "treated" by. Dozens of times I have been told that psychology has no opinion of race, and regardless, there is nothing I can do to about the racism of others. I have absolutely no hope of ever finding therapeutic support. I'm not anti-Psychiatry, I am estranged from an APA that cooperated in state sponsored scientific racism, pathologized LGBTQ+ expressing and identity, the gatekeeping and medicalization of women and gender as a whole. It is far easier to break something than to build or repair, and to this day, the APA has no commitment to invest in bringing about the sea change necessary to make and amends and heal the harm of the past and present.

[@souxcasa]

The medicalisation of women is bizarre and profoundly unethical. I'm being treated currently like I have mental health issue when what I have is neurodivergent issue that are going untreated and treating me likes it's mental health is making my mental health poor

[@deepwaters7242]

This breaks my heart to hear. I'm a student who wants to either go into research or orthomolecular psychiatry (alternatives to pharmaceutical choices) and my choices are based off of stories like yours. White Women's Tears changed me (I am one) and it's horrible much scientific studies are based off of hetero cis white folks, usually men. Good science can't be based on one demographic. We need to be better. For the record, my psychiatrist is a brilliant Nigerian woman and she takes poor people insurance. She's the best I've ever had! They are out there, and need to be boosted. So many people won't seek therapy because the therapists they've been exposed to are clueless about their experiences as minorities and use research based on limited demographics. It isn't fair and it needs to change.

[@MC-tl5bf]

❤

[@blackswan1983]

​@@souxcasawe often have our pain ignored and untreated as well

[@blackswan1983]

the good thing is that you don't need psychiatry for being black, gay, or autistic. maybe a support group run by peers is more appropriate.

[@SurprisedPika666]

No one truly is anti-psychiatry. Most of us have been hurt by malpractice and weak science. We don't hate medication. We just won't blindly follow the "experts" anymore.

[@saltiestsiren]

Some "anti-psychiatrists" are indeed anti-psych-medications. Some don't even think mental illness is a thing, or that diagnoses are completely useless and the DSM should just be dumped in the garbage. But I think this is a minority representation.

[@stldiva76]

Unfortunately, there are people who are. My father doesn't believe in it, you just need Jesus or something in his inaccurate and dangerous opinion.

[@AlluminaOnyxia]

I agree. Very few of the people being labeled as such are against any ethical, good science based, fallacy disrupting, patient quality of life improvement centered organization. My pushback, however, is that "no one is" statement. There definitely are some people who are against improving others lives. Sometimes they get a degree in fields of service to those vulnerable people too. Because of that industries serving the vulnerable have something to prove. The rest of us are not anti or pro anything but finding and doing what helps us all.

[@jawad2685]

⁠​⁠@@stldiva76I don’t think it’s a dangerous opinion on its own, but it definitely is when there are other factors at play. One is that most corporations exploit people and other resources, which causes mental/physical stress, pollution, etc. and that can lead to mental illness and disease. I’m not a Christian but if everyone followed the actually ways of Jesus, maybe people wouldn’t be over-exerted to the point of needing psychiatry/medication, but that’s not the case, and people and the environment are suffering as a result. Following Jesus may ease some of the pain but until the people who uphold the current structure stop the exploitation, there will likely always be more stress than healing. That’s just my opinion. It might not matter

[@nehriim3748]

Sadly, there are people who truly are. I've been recently told by someone that psychiatry is harmful and one should try alternative ways like crystal healing instead. Every issue has its extreme sides.

[@juliana.x0x0]

Punitive psychology is also commonly used to get famous people into conservatorships (Britney spears, bam Margera, many others) to gain control over them and to manage their finances. It's insidious.

[@AliciaGuitar]

It happens to non famous ppl too by others who want power over them to abuse them. If you have another disability that makes you even MORE vulnerable to this because you get a little disability check to take away.

[@AliciaGuitar]

It happens to non famous ppl too by others who want power over them to abuse them. If you have another disability that makes you even MORE vulnerable to this because you get a little disability check to take away.

[@juliana.x0x0]

@@AliciaGuitar absolutely. It can happen to anyone who has something someone else wants consistent access to and control over.

[@mayamayy-jc9ym]

Britney Spears is not normal, and will never be. Her children complain about her erratic behavior. She has innapropriate behavior in front of cameras. She once hurt herself badly trying to dance with kitchen knives.

[@stevekaylor5606]

@@juliana.x0x0 Doris Duke - the Poor, Little Rich Girl !

[@harmonymoxham1719]

I have mixed feelings about psychiatrists and psychologists. I have autism, ADHD, Depression and Anxiety. I have some psychologists spend the entire sessions telling me about a PhD they wanted to do (rather then actually talking to me about my needs as the actual patient in the room). Others give advice that is completely horrific, like telling me that I should forgive my abusive dad while implying it is my fault that he is abusing me. Bear in mind I was 12 at this point and doctors are a mandated reporter of abuse where I live. My current psychiatrist and psychologist most likely saved my life. It has been a mixed bag. Essentially, mental health professionals who are actually empathetic and good at their jobs are amazing, others are so bad you wonder why they even bother.

[@thepeculiarmaple]

I had a psychiatirist that did this SAME EXACT thing.....told me about her family life, and how her family was doing, meanwhile was reporting my abuse to her and you know what? Never once told me whether it was abuse or not, and also she kept telling me "you should really listen to your parents, though, they love you so much!" and "Do your chores, even if you dont want to. Shes your parents." I DID my chores. My abuser literally had my therapist convinced in her sessions that I didnt do anything around the house, and that I never did chores....all I did was homework and chores, I barely had time to draw unless she was asleep and not yelling at me.... I was being HEAVILY abused, at one point I was on medications I didnt even need. So why?Also, she told me she "reported my abuse"....yeah, well what was done about that??? I also feel like she fed into my religious delusions, due to being christian....and she violated HIPPA over and over again and shared things in her sessions with my stepmom!!

[@dontmindmeimjustchilling]

DUDE SAME!! The amount of times I've felt like IM the therapist during sessions is insane. One time a therapist on zoom took me around his apartment and asked for my 'feminine opinion' on his decorations. That was the last time I ever went to therapy, and if I can be real my life has improved so much. I was in therapy for several years because I thought it was the 'good thing to do' but ive realized now that being made to recount my most truamatic experiences over and over again while someone takes notes and adds commentary was actually a net negative on my overall mental health

[@harmonymoxham1719]

@@thepeculiarmaple I'm sorry you went through that but I can also relate so hard. It takes so long to realise you aren't the problem in abusive relationships, especially when the dr is gaslighting you.

[@Oh.its.multiple]

I'm pro-psychiatry as long as it's practiced appropriately.. and I've been in inappropriate psych situations for years to the point of giving up and cancelling myself several times, thinking I was "untreatable". Misdiagnosed, neglected as a 11-17 yo teen in a mental hospital, SA'd by fellow patients & the nurses who should've cared for me, over-medicated with 3 different types of anti psychotics simultaneously to the point I now suffer from permanent coordination and nerve damage (which doesn't go well with type 1 diabetes (DX when I was 9) and multiple ketoacidosis due to the meds..). I'm now 27. I finally found a lovely psychologist and psychiatrist who diagnosed me properly and after 16 years of mistreatment, I'm finally reacting positively to the appropriate treatment and psychotherapy. No more medicine, no longer inpatient, but given real life tools to help cope with my cPTSD, anxiety & dissociative disorder. Good psych workers help people and value them. Bad ones just like to use people for their own benefit. And it's always a mystery whether the next psych is one of the good or bad ones 😅

[@juliana.x0x0]

Holy smokes, you've just described my experiences to a T! I'm just a handful of years older but was also misdiagnosed, inappropriately and overmedicated, involuntarily committed to abusive psych hospitals, and teen years full of trying to delete my own existence. I also have an amazing therapist now and have been working through the cptsd and baggage sloooowwwwwlyyyy. So so so sorry you've experienced a similar horror. The damage done by that is incomprehensible...wouldn't wish it upon anyone. ❤

[@juliana.x0x0]

Dang I've got the dissociative disorder and anxiety (and major depression) as well. It's scary to see others having gone down the same track...it's scary to wonder how many others have been through the same thing, it's probably not as uncommon as we would like to think.

[@souxcasa]

Medicine as a whole but particularly mental health and psychiatry give a doctor/practitioner an incredible amount of control over another person. It's no wonder it attracts sociopaths and narcissistic sadists. There's not enough vetting through personality testing to stop these types of people getting that control that they then abuse

[@hedgeyes6411]

How do you make a living, out of curiosity? I've been in a bad way for over a decade and my primary concern has always been affording food & shelter. Being physically/psychologically disabled makes me unemployable, in my experience.

[@juliana.x0x0]

@@hedgeyes6411 I'm sure your reply is not directed at me, but it sounds like you might qualify for disability benefits? I mention this because I have cPTSD among other issues and have very similar experiences to OP. It's taken a while to understand why I had such a hard time in the world when I was ignoring my mental health, and finally decided to invest some time into helping myself get better. I am now on a sort of temporary disability for this period of time to get myself to be a fully functional and productive member of society, to pursue my passions and leave this world a better place.

[@cy9894]

My opinion before watching the vid. As a person of color. There’s an 80 percent chance doctors won’t listen to me. And as a women there’s a 80 percent chance they won’t listen to me. It’s exhausting. I’ve had nurses complain to my face about my presence while I’m facing a heavy mental issue. And if they do listen to me there’s no guarantee that they will give me the same level of care.

[@blankname5177]

This! But I am a man of color.

[@sandrahbradley1511]

This was my experience my input, and concerns were totally dismissed by the doctor I was seeing I didn't like being treated that way so I decided to make lifestyle changes for myself I feel better for doing it, see a doctor when needed.

[@ValariaJet]

I'm a baby-faced white woman and I have no end of trouble getting doctors to listen. I can't imagine how hard others have it. I spent all of my teenage years with undiagnosed chronic pain and I would get told it was "just anxiety". I was anxious BECAUSE no one would listen.

[@ValariaJet]

@@Aspiring-Hobo Being the victim of medical negligence makes you the victim? Insightful. Next up, people who can read have a "literate mentality"? Or people who write two word comments have a "need a hobby mentality"?

[@gernottiefenbrunner172]

When it comes to psychiatrists specifically, I feel like as a white man you still have an 80% chance they won't listen to you. That profession just really isn't good at listening in general.

[@broniajelmanowa]

very strange to hear that "nobody proudly identifies as anti-psychiatry" since my personal run-ins with the term all had to do with people who stated quite plainly and openly that their views were anti-psychiatry. sure all of them had very different ideas of what it really meant to them so that part i can entirely agree with, but it's definitely not the case that everyone who holds anti-psychiatry type views is oblivious to it or finds the term derogatory

[@Pushing_Pixels]

All of the openly anti-psychiatry people I've met were either mentally ill people with little insight, who rejected their diagnosis, or mentally ill people who had a bad response to a medication or a bad interaction with an individual psychiatrist and immediately gave up on the whole idea, or Scientologists.

[@linuxramblingproductions8554]

@johnwhite5212what are your main issues with it?

[@brandonburns5365]

​@@linuxramblingproductions8554it's pseudo science in my opinion. Propped up by big pharma

[@darkstarr984]

Yeah, my first encounter with anti-psychiatry is a lot of people who have been genuinely harmed by psychiatry and are deeply involved, using the term for themselves.

[@fleurboisvert8816]

Agreed; I am anti-psychiatry and am aligned the hearing voices, mad pride/studies, neurodiversity and critical psychiatry movements

[@ryn2844]

I do feel that psychiatry puts too much of the blame for the mental health effects of systemic issues (like homophobia, ableism, poverty etc) on the shoulders of the patient suffering, but it's not like they can do anything else. If I'm suffering from minority stress and I'm coming to them for help, it's not like telling me 'no actually you're reacting in a totally normal and expected way to a shitty situation and it's the world that needs to change' is going to actually help me function better. It doesn't matter if 'madness is a sane reaction to an insane world' if it doesn't help me cope with said insane world. So yeah, that puts psychiatry (and me) in a difficult position. There's no easy solution there. That said, I've also ended up with PTSD because licensed therapists put me through conversion therapy, and (at a separate organization) it took me three years of asking before I was finally sent for an autism diagnosis (and got it) and I was given incorrect diagnoses and harmful treatments before that, so y'know, some easy solutions for improving the field do exist. Too many practitioners suck at their jobs.

[@kingfisher9553]

Not anti-psychiatry. Have a great therapist right now, but have also had shitty ones in the past. The first therapist I ever had tried to convince me that an affair with him would be better than therapy. I disagreed. The therapist who saw my brother, who had severe learning disabilities, undiagnosed autism, and serious health issues, told my mother my brother was "using food to control his parents." The school counselor called in a therapist who said my brother "had problems with female teachers." In fact, my brother was autistic. Furthermore, my brother's dyslexia was the kind where the words seemed to run off the edge of the paper. His health issues were so severe that he only healed after figuring out for himself which foods he could digest (four out of five of my mother's children have severe digestion problems - something she, an RN, eventually realized and she became a nutritionist in addition to an RN). He wasn't diagnosed with autism until he was in his 40s -- and that diagnosis literally saved his life. Thankfully, all those years ago, my father had disagreed with all these early "professional diagnoses." He cut a square in an index card that only showed five characters at a time and with that my brother "captured" the letters before they could get away and taught himself to read. Thanks for nothing schools and medical and mental health professionals. My brother eventually became the editor of a successful zine. He also got Irlen lenses. Just a few of the many stories I could tell from personal and personally observed events. What the psychiatric culture has done over the years is shocking and, despite your comment that they were merely a sign of the times, unforgivable. And, many of the various therapists still in practice seem to be in a cult where the DSM is their bible (and, like all good cultists, reinterpret the "scriptures" every few years but do not apologize for past savagery and arrogance -- the therapist version of "the light of God get's brighter and brighter as the people are ready to hear it" -- thereby maintaining their "authority" and the new DSM as "still the word of God."). Not that long ago those with autism were diagnosed with many mental illnesses, improperly medicated, and shamed or even involuntarily committed if they noted the medications either didn't work or made things worse. Women, who "couldn't get autism" until very recently, were particularly savagely treated and misdiagnosed. The "community" of psychiatrists/therapists has a lot to answer for and a big dollop of humility is in order.

[@jolenec9231]

Oh my God this is the best written and most comprehensive explanation of the problem I have ever heard. This helps me understand my own life Thank you so much.

[@Inkinhart]

I'm glad your brother has parents who advocated for him! The only reason I'm still here is my mother who advocated for me - I was misdiagnosed as bipolar 1 when I was 11, and it took an inpatient stint and a particularly astute psychiatrist to get my actual autism diagnosis when I was 15 (and even she missed the massive case of ADHD). I'm not even 30 yet, and yet my autism was overlooked despite referrals to educational psychologists since I was 5, all because "girls can't have autism".

[@Pushing_Pixels]

Starts with "Not anti-psychiatry.". Then follows with a string of negative anecdotal stories about people who could've been either psychiatrists or psychologists (no distinction is made) ruining people's lives, before segueing into a paragraph long anti-psychiatry screed that lurches from one anti-psychiatry talking point to the next. The screed conflates therapists with "psychiatric culture", claiming they are a cult worshipping the "DSM Bible", even though the majority of therapists are psychologists; a completely different profession that doesn't use the DSM. It also tries to present the entire field of mental health as one monolithic cultural entity, following a single set of commands, as though there aren't multiple disciplines involved with entirely different approaches and perspectives. The monolithic entity is then condemned for every historic misdeed or mistake perpetrated in the name of mental health treatment, as if the people working in the field today are personally responsible for them and must atone for the Original Sin of their forebears. I think you need to stop lying and admit that this comment was intended to be anti-psychiatry all along. Your comment reads like it could've been lifted straight from a Scientology brochure, and that's because large parts of it almost certainly were.

[@LillyP-xs5qe]

you forgot being gay and asexual was in the DSM, and only recently they removed kinks from it, I was treated by shrinks who though that me being kink and having fetishes was something to "cure", they also bragged they can "cure" gayness.

[@DannyD-lr5yg]

Psychiatry has almost nothing to do with therapists though. You can be anti-psychiatry, and still appreciate your great therapist. A therapist is not a psychiatrist.

[@sparklefairykitten]

My main thought is this: Is the person being medicated because it makes them feel better and live a more functional life? Or is it to make things easier for other people, to make them less "high maintanence", or to make them fit better into neurotypical society, no matter what it does to them?

[@ruby12320]

It helped me live a normal life. I understand that sometimes we try to.medicate normal, but best not to paint a broad brush on the entire subject. You have to gaslight yourself a bit to believe someone with debilitating OCD who washes their hands so much it bleeds is society trying to make better for neuro typicals

[@sparklefairykitten]

@@ruby12320 That fits what I meant about having a more functional life. In many cases that is what medication does for people as it does for you (and for me!). But I have also heard of many cases of people who were forced, coerced, or simply pressured to take meds that made them feel worse, or who were given meds that made them appear to behave more neurotypically but didn't actually make them more functional and didn't address the root cause of the dysfunction, only the surface-level symptoms. I think it's a balancing act and it's very complicated, there's no easy answer.

[@robertsteinbach7325]

For me the meds allow me to have a way more functional life, once the right meds were found, and not just to placate others. I still don't "fit in" with the "typicals" and never will. I have autism and depression and maybe ADHD, and not just because "the world of psychology" says I have it, my school days screams it. I don't ever want to go back to the days where I close myself from the world again.

[@ogatodomago]

agreed and also hello fellow trekkie 🖖🏻

[@buchelaruzit]

yeah, and is the person _choosing_ to get medicated (in order to have a better life), or are they being medicated by someone else deciding it

[@juliana.x0x0]

Not anti psychiatry, but I had it weaponized against me in my youth. My mother is a narcissist and I was the scapegoat, and acted out as a result. I was put on probably 60 or more anti depressants, anti psychotics, and many others, in random combinations, only to be taken off and put on another mix of meds. I was diagnosed with adhd, bipolar, odd, and many others. I was involuntarily committed to many psych hospitals. As an adult I see a therapist religiously, and I do not fit the criteria for any of those except adhd (and CPTSD). I had a mistrust of medications for a long time because of those experiences.

[@devkergirl2025]

I'm sorry hun, I have an almost identical background so I understand the lack of trust. I'm still weird around therapists even the ones I went to as an adult who helped me unpack the psychiatric abuse and misdiagnosises.

[@therabbithat]

As stigmatising as it may be to good enough parents whose kids innately have BP or ADHD etc to begin with, the first thing has got to be to rule out trauma. And meds work better with therapy even when there is no abuse, neglect or trauma, so they should always get therapy too

[@cpro6508]

:/ i have the same experience except cant afford a therapist rn but im so happy i got out of that household...im sorry you went through this too

[@supercommie]

Sounds like a nightmare. I am sorry.

[@genericamerican7574]

I watched a friend go through a similar situation growing up. It was rough. The institutions would lock her up as long as the insurance would pay. To be fair you have to take many medications because usually everyone doesn’t have the same reaction. My opinion on kids being diagnosed is that the parents should have to get psychological evaluations too.

[@notmyrealaccount8564]

I think I’m becoming more and more anti-psychiatry when I try to process what happened to me. I don’t really care about whether or not there’s objective testing for diagnoses because there’s medical conditions like that too. What I do have a problem with is the whole system, from the doctors to the therapists etc that claim to help people when in reality they harm a lot of people, a lot like cops really. They get away with it too because the people they harm are either too unwell to do anything about it or not seen as worthy witnesses compared to the word of a ‘doctor’ so I had no way to fight back against being misdiagnosed as being mentally ill after I tried to get help for what I now know was Hashimoto’s/hypothyroidism combined with ADHD. I had no idea what was causing my problems so I stupidly thought I could trust the doctor to help me. I was wrong and I was sent down a decades long path of being given SSRIs and antipsychotics and not being listened to when I said something wasn’t right and the more I protested the more angry they got and the less they bothered to do for me. They are often very arrogant people who have no real interest in you or being inquisitive about what you are going through so if you don’t get better after the first few attempts or prescriptions then they start becoming hostile and blame you for not getting better. They will label you permanently too so even if you went elsewhere they will still treat you the same way. Even the supposed good ones didn’t bother to say to themselves ‘hey this patient isn’t getting any better, maybe it’s not mental illness after all?’ Instead I just collected more and more (mis)diagnoses and became a ‘difficult’ or ‘complicated’ patient when all I needed was thyroid hormone and stimulants.

[@stevekaylor5606]

Too busy with Labeling and neurotoxic drugs - to bother with holistic care!

[@Authentistic-ism]

Discovering pharmacogenetics helped reel me back away from anti-psychiatry. Turns out i have actual genetic reasons that some meds don't work prescribed the same way as to other people with different phenotypes. I felt so gaslit for years before getting the lab test that told me this.

[@qynoi42]

I have a friend who was like that. Her results showed why the usual medications weren't working. She's done a lot of research and finally found something that helps some but it was a huge struggle getting there.

[@sorcerousfang]

I really hope the use of genetic testing to help match appropriate meds becomes more common. I react more strongly to a lot of common meds, and finally found a doctor that knew about a genetic test that looked at phenotypes in various categories, and it turns out I'm just not designed to process a lot of things well. I'm lucky that I currently don't need to be on anything for my depression and anxiety, but if that changes, I now have a list of things that are more likely to work, and a list of things that I absolutely should not put in my body.

[@dontmindmeimjustchilling]

How can they claim to know what specific configuration of phenotypes causes depression, when the root cause of depression isn't even known just in general? As a science barely know anyhting about our genetics really. Yes we've mapped the genome and there are a few configurations that are better understood, but more broadly we have not a clue

[@qynoi42]

@@dontmindmeimjustchilling It's not so much about knowing a cause of depression, just which drugs you're likely to have a good outcome with. Mostly told my friend that she's sensitive to certain meds and no to others.

[@AlluminaOnyxia]

​@@dontmindmeimjustchilling They definitely know what the prescription is supposed to do. The scientists who come up with it log the exceptions and atypical reactions. However, the scientists are not the pharmaceutical companies. Marketing is not going to talk about those circumstances seriously. Most doctors don't know the "atypical" symptoms and side effects of medications that they prescribe at all. Then when patients come to them with side effects that are well documented they are waved off. Some doctors seem to believe that "uncommon" is synonymous with impossible.

[@dontmindmeimjustchilling]

i lost all trust in the industry of psychiatry after being taken to 'sad people jail' (as i call it) because I called a hotline to help me find a therapist, but apparently I said some of the 'forbidden words' according to psychiatry, and before I knew it several police officers were at my door where I was forced into an abulance (which they charged me $3000 for) taken into the hospital byy one of the police officers, was checked in, searched, made to get into a hospital gown, then dumped in a room (straight up like jail). I had to endure 8-9 hours in a hospital where not only did I receieve zero care, I was treated like a criminal by the psych nurses who kept screaming at everyybody and just treated us like we were absolute garbage, and the other patients I was with in this hospital/prison hallway were all in varying degrees of illness. A few like me where just having a hard time and were doing everything we could to not be imprisoned within the hospital and being unable to leave, people who were freshly bleeding from hurting themselves, and people who were in complete psychosis screaming, yelling, repeating the same phrases over and over, and (i didnt see this but was told) they would also sometimes smeer their shit all over the wall. After nine hours of waiting, I spoke to a doctor, who spoke with a cadence just like yours (not hating, but its the truth), and he spoke at me a list of generic questions and then said 'Ok, you can go home.' and that was it. Fucking awful experience. Im open minded about psychology in theory, but in practice its almost entirely wishy-washy quackery. As an example, can you or any other practicing or 'experimental' psychologist, tell me exactly how SSRI's work? No, you literally cannot. And I would say SSRI's are the foundation of modern psychiatry. So you guys don't even know how it works, but are so confident in saying its safe and 'benign,.' which was the exact word they told me, and Im willing to bet anyone taking SSRI's reading this was probably told the exact same word. And I cant even get started on psychiatry being wielded as a method of bureaucratizing egenics, via the institutionalisation of LGBT people, as well as black civil rights activists by diagnosing any group who was against the corporate/governmental hogemity as schizophrenic.

[@Tinyvalkyrie410]

I don’t think the fact that the way SSRIs work is unknown is a reasonable way to dismiss it. We also don’t know how anesthetics work, but they are the foundation of surgery. Unfortunately, there are no ways to test a lot of this stuff in a double blinded way that is moral. So we have to do the best we can with an incomplete model. Many people need these meds and have good responses.

[@astrahcat1212]

Completely agree with what you've written, and by the way SSRIs and Benzos are dangerous drugs.

[@guul66]

I have autism, depression, anxiety disorders, attention problems. I consider myself disabled in the sense that I cannot do as much as the average person and everything takes me more effort. I've been on meds for a few years. I've had some good psychiatrist and some bad ones. I feel very tense about the power dynamic, a psychiatrist can shut my own worries down if they do not feel like properly addressing them. Furthermore I am concerned psychiatry is like a bandaid. Many of my problems have a societal basis, but psychiatry tries to fix me, treats me as the problem, rather than addressing the fact that society is not built in a way that works for people like me.

[@minni_sung9437]

Autism is such a pain to have while trying to get help. Therapists have jumped on my words being wrong and me not being 100% clear or nuanced instead of trying to help with what im talking about. Its so dismissive.

[@SarahMarie-j2n]

So we'll said.

[@katzrantz]

I've got ADHD, Major Depressive Disorder, and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. I've benefited greatly from the meds, but because I got fed up with the ADHD meds as a teenager (bloody puberty), all the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy I did over the following 30 odd years didn't really click. When I decided to try ADHD meds again, the parts of CBT that I remembered suddenly hit me. Also now I feel things in real time instead of it not clicking in my head, and that's made me realise I have to stop and feel things to process them. The difference in how grief feels on the ADHD meds is staggering, I can't just push through it like I did before I was on any meds for anything. It's all up front I'm my conscious mind now. For me, I think that's increased my humanity, because now I can cry when I'm sad.

[@pouuuuul]

Hello thanks for sharing your experience. Im pretty much the same here, may I ask what ADHD med are u on? Or what kind? Hope you're better now, stay strong💪

[@BL-sd2qw]

I have diagnosed cortico-subcortical brain atrophy from the drugs the doctors gave for years without informed consent due to a misdiagnosis. Yes, the neurologist admitted it was due to the drugs. And they gave me the misdiagnosis because my abusers convinced the doctors that me talking about the abuse was me being crazy. No doctor took accountability. Also, people should research "neurodiversity paradigm" and "decolonial psychology" more often.

[@fleurboisvert8816]

Yes and the hearing voices, mad pride/studies, critical psychiatry and psychiatiac survivors movements.

[@BL-sd2qw]

@@fleurboisvert8816 Yes

[@kogorun]

@BL-sd2qw Did you actually contact your old doctors to talk about this?

[@ShatteringWind]

Which drugs were these?

[@BL-sd2qw]

@@kogorun Yes. They neurologist told me "well, we gotta treat these illnesses, you know?" (Referring to the misdiagnosis they gave me for complaining about my family abusing me and my family convincing the doctors that I was making it up and "crazy"). Then, he told me to "eat healthy, study and exercise", and sent me home. The rest of the doctors started gaslighting me hard about this and the other symptoms caused by those drugs.

[@johnindermuehle7632]

Can't begin to describe how disheartening it is to go to 3 different psychiatrists and have each one tell you something completely different. The second psychiatrist told me that the first psychiatrist was completely wrong and the medication they had prescribed me was useless. The third psychiatrist said the same thing about the second. Nobody knows what they're doing.

[@jessebaughman8682]

Pre-video opinion: I've done several years of therapy and antidepressants. I've done some reading on the topic and I've worked entry-level jobs in the social work field for close to a decade now. Therapy has done wonders for me. Antidepressants do their job but with many unwanted side-effects. I often feel unheard or invalidated by psychiatrists who seem to push SSRIs no matter how I complain about their side-effects or express interest in alternatives. I understand that psychiatrists mainly prescribe medication and run diagnoses, they don't necessarily offer counseling or sympathy like a therapist, but I still feel frustrated with what I perceive to be poor bedside manner on the behalf of my psychiatrists. I wish they were a little better with active listening and a bit more tactful whenever they disagree with their patients. As a professional, my main concern with the mental health industry is how it can be used to enforce normative behavior or even operate as an extension of policing. I've worked in public spaces like libraries where the head of staff expressed interest in humanistic and social work-focused alternatives to security, but in many ways still wanted to police behavior of unhoused people. My therapist once emphasized to me the idiom: "connect, don't correct" -- meaning that one overcomes conflict within oneself or with others by seeking common ground first. Much of the social work I've done has been managed by leaders who seem more interested in correcting behavior without making vital connections. I'm vaguely familiar with the work of people like R.D. Laing, Michel Foucault, Deleuze & Guittari, and while it may seem muddled in high-faluting philosophical obscurantism, I think that it may have something very real to offer people like me who want to do social work without enforcing and upholding a capitalist police state.

[@sashabrown1796]

30000%

[@Padraigp]

You sound like a smart and kind and thoughtful person. Thats Mt diagnosis. Too sane for this mad world perhaps.

[@wildfireswildfires6792]

If you managed to find any meaning to Deleuze, you have my utmost admiration. I have no clue on how it relates to mental health either. But I must admit that the one key moment of understanding I had that helped my recovery was brought by a fantasy book written by one of his disciples, so who knows ?

[@rab3ar]

​@@wildfireswildfires6792 What's the book?

[@wildfireswildfires6792]

@@rab3ar it's french, I don't know if it's been translated. "La Horde du Contrevent" par Alain Damasio. The author himself is a despicable full of himself man. I met him several times and he's only interested in high philosophical debates. He speaks of ZAD, which are movements to occupy territories and protect them from construction projects. He talks but I'm not convinced he ever participated. He wasn't in the least interested in my experience of his book. The book won an award, it's also full of philosophy and grammatical stuff which I didn't care much for. If it's been translated, the people who did the job deserved applaud cause all the poetry stuff and grammar would be very hard. A bit like translating Lewis Carroll in his time. Anyway, his depiction of the characters and their relationship was what convinced me love existed for real and not just in books because no one could invent that level of details and intimacy. It's a really good story I could talk about it for hours

[@Pferdefanny]

Thank you for voicing these valid concerns from the therapist POV. I myself have been involved in peer support, wrote my masters thesis in social work using a critical lense to look at the mental health system and have been voicing exactly this at every chance I get. It's so validating to see this view on KZbin 🎉

[@trala8911]

My feelings are complicated. I was on antidepressants from 17 to 30. I came off them around the age of 31, because I was having a lot of issues with dizziness and balence, and my doctors wanted to see if it would help. It didn’t, because those issues turned out to be caused by MS, however, to my surprise, all of my drug cravings disappeared. I had been addicted to drugs since I was… 17. My doctors are currently trying to push me to go back on antidepressants, because I am indeed depressed. But none of them have any explanation for my experience with craving, so there’s not a chance in hell.

[@baugkelly]

Not anti-psych at all (on meds and in therapy), but one thing this video seems to miss is the roots and legacy of eugenics in psychiatry pre-1950s and the eugenicists/fascists/nazis that influenced psychiatry as it exists from the 1950s on. This is not to say that everyone who studied and practiced psych were eugenicists or attempting to recreate their practices, but I think it important not to ignore where a lot of our understanding and perspective in psychiatry comes from. (edit: changed psychology to psychiatry)

[@buchelaruzit]

yeah, and those roots (and more general ableism, with for example what even is seen as/ counts as a disorder) are still very much influencial and present in the shape of psychiatry today, and these criticisms of psychiatry as an institution/practice is precisely what "anti-psychiatry" refers to as a movement NOT to be confused with scientology people who are just against psychiatry as a consequence of not believing in science in general. i'm anti-psych and still want to go on meds and obviously think therapy is good in theory.

[@psilocin6739]

Imo, some of the problem is that creating and selling (psychiatric) drugs is a business. I think that leads to skewing test results and down playing side effects. The reason I think that is because I've been stuck on an SSRI for over a decade because the withdrawal symptoms are too severe and long lasting to get off. I know these drugs help people but I have only experienced the negative side effects. These drugs have their place, I just wish i knew what I was getting into.

[@mothification_]

absolutely, i have a similar issue. i stopped taking a specific medication about a year ago and have not functioned right since, and i'm afraid that having been on so many ssris/snris since very young ages have made it so i couldn't function without them. nobody told me or my family that was a possibility either.

[@jameshughes3014]

And the people responsible for testing and assessing the usefulness of the drugs are the people who make and sell the drugs. The FDA helps but the majority of it is done by the companies themselves. I think that should be different

[@janetnash8588]

@@jameshughes3014 The FDA receives funding from the drug companies! They are not regulating them. That is why we need RFK jr as POTUS. He will clean up the regulatory agencies a pharma corruption! he knows who the dirty players are. They are afraid iof him so they censor and slander him.

[@saturationstation1446]

fun fact - roughly 80% of all well off college educated eurocentric people have an illegal prescription to dextroamphetamine. which functions like meth but slightly less intense and with a shorter duration of efficacy. carries the same dangerous side effects tho, like near guaranteed psychosis with prolonged use or too high of a dose or prolonged loss of sleep and a unquenchable thirst to constantly be doing activities but no capacity for your cells to produce enough ATP to prevent your body from having to break down muscle mass to keep your organs functioning..

[@psilocin6739]

@@saturationstation1446 At least ADD meds work, and doesn't have the physical withdrawal. I agree that it's not ideal for everyone but for me it was much easier to stop taking when compared to SSRIs.

[@liacrow]

My biggest concern is with issues of consent. Sometimes, in theory, a treatment may be offered and accepted on a consensual basis and be recorded as such, but in practise it's not. For example, as someone on disability, if my doctor prescribes something I'm not comfortable with, which may be inappropriate, or even harmful, I have to then consider how refusing treatment will affect my disability case -- do I risk a potentially harmful treatment, or do I risk homelessness? Other times I've seen an approach where one is offered one treatment, but also told that if they refuse, a more harsh treatment will be mandated. And can people with less education or ability to make critical decisions be considered to have freely consented to something they do not understand? Second, it has been my experience that medicine in general but psychiatry in particular often tries to over-treat the natural symptoms of living under terrible material conditions. Sometimes, all one really needs is food, housing, or a friend -- and maybe a therapist to help talk them through at the same time -- but the former things cannot be prescribed, covered, and picked up at the pharmacy, so treatment is offered instead. You can't hug pills, eat magnets, or shelter yourself by tapping your chest. Overall, I think we are privileged to live in an era where we have psychiatric and psychological treatments that are effective for a number of conditions and circumstances, but there's still a lot of snake oil being mixed in spite of the good faith of those peddling it.

[@ruby12320]

The issue is that psychiatric and mental health issues can be caused by lack of shelter etc When a doctor prescribe metformin for T2D, no one shits on them even tho the issue can be solved with good diet and exercise. Yet when mental health issues can arise from external factors , suddenly they are seen as the bad guys .Psychiatrist don't claim to solve this major socioeconomic issues but for.some reason people go to them expecting them to.

[@liacrow]

@@ruby12320 Yes, that is true as well. As for the "some reason," some examples of what I've seen is one being required to seek psychiatric treatment (such as with disability), or one going to a psychiatrist seeking partial relief and the psychiatrist getting overzealous in their attempt to eliminate symptoms.

[@truffleandrosalie]

The coercion is SO real in psychiatry, also medicine more broadly. It's almost as though these systems were set up to maintain the absolute 🗑️ status quo.

[@seanodwyer4322]

the demons forced injections on me in new zealand and failed too tell me off side effects off all their drugs/ chemicals.- Side effects made me violent and suicidal- Victim- Sean o' Dwyer.- 136- 140 Hobson Street.- Auckland City. 1010.- New Zealand.- South pacific.''

[@Minakie]

My issue is not with psychotherapy but with psychiatrists. I am so fed up with psychiatrists who, after talking to me for 5 to 10 minutes quickly jump to wanting me to "just take some pills", not because I need them, but because they are trying to use pills as a way to send patients "on their way" and not actually having to sit down with the person, talk to them, and do psychotherapy. Every single psychiatrist I saw wanted me to "just take some pills". They didn't care that I had a history of having paradoxical reactions to different pills in the past, nor did they care that I couldn't afford to buy pills. As soon as I'd made clear that pills wouldn't be an option for me, they were done with me. I have no opinion on psychotherapy, simply because I never had any. I am currently diagnosed with ADHD, ASD, generalized anxiety, depression, and PTSD. And yet, I was refused therapy by psychiatrists over and over again. Because some of them have gotten used to relying on pills to the point that's all they know what to do - write you a prescription. It makes me wonder if they even know how to practice psychotherapy anymore. Luckily, psychologists are also a thing, because that was the only way I could find people who would actually sit down, listen, and try to help me out without writing me a prescription - by going to people who couldn't legally do so. Psychiatry is an important science and people struggling with mental illness need psychiatrists... I just wish more of them would actually do their job.

[@MorganChaos]

That kind of is their job, though. A few psychistrists do offer psychotherapy but generally, if you're seeking talk therapy you go to a psychologist, and if you're seeking meds you go to a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who may or may not have extensive training with talk therapy. They refused it because they're not the provider for it, not because they just didn't wanna.

[@Minakie]

​@@MorganChaos Prescribing pills are part of a psychiatrist's job, but it's not their only job. It's fine to give pills to someone with a diagnosis, especially if it's something they are already taking and they just need a new prescription because the pills they have are running out. But that is not the experience I've had. My problem is not with the pills, they help a lot of people. My problem is that I would walk into an office, say "I'm having trouble focusing" and in less than a minute they'd go "Sounds like you have ADHD, here's some pills" without ever having collected any anamnesis history or done any kind of differential diagnosis. Every single psychiatrist I saw not only prescribed me pills without doing that but they also prescribed things that would actually make my symptoms worse if I had taken them. Pills are not a joke. If you give someone a pill for the wrong condition, you can literally be putting that person's life at risk. Yet not all psychiatrists are doing their due diligence before they prescribe the pills. If you read the papers inside the pillboxes, those papers will advise against prescribing such pills without a proper anamnesis and diagnosis. But that is not being done. If you go to the hospital and say you can't breathe, they won't just send you home with an inhaler. They will first pinpoint if you can't breathe because you're having a panic attack, because there's something wrong with your lungs, or if it's because there's something wrong with your heart. If you walk into a hospital and they put a cask on your leg without it being broken simply because you said "my leg hurts", that is not acceptable. And, in my opinion, having a psychiatrist prescribe you ADHD meds just because you walk into their office and say "I'm having a hard time focusing" shouldn't be acceptable either. And yet, that happened to me over and over. If you can't do a diagnosis yourself for whatever reason, then at least have the decency to first refer the person to someone who can. 🤷🏻‍♀

[@velevetyy]

@@MorganChaos to do their job properly requires a holistic view of a patient, and some level of giving AF and time to know a patient.

[@fahqslut]

A psychiatrist deals with the medication portion mostly, yes. If you aren’t pleased with their treatment you should seek out another bc you totally can and should. It sounds like, however, you’re leaning towards maybe wanting psychotherapy which can identify your goals in therapy whether they be behavioral, cognitive, both or many others approaches. Medication can compliment said therapy or not used at all! Really it just takes the right professionals to listen, empathize and strategize with you on what is best. ❤ Don’t give up 😉

[@petergriffin680]

Sounds like you’re looking for a therapist not a psychiatrist

[@emmilittlemuffin]

I’ve been burnt BAD by medication by a psychiatrist who threw me on 19 different meds within an 18 month period, leading to me losing a kidney, being on dialysis, developing absence seizures, and being held long term in psych wards. Once I was away from him and my parents were able to pursue legal action, I found out a) I had a horrible hormone imbalance, and b) I don’t have bipolar disorder. I have complex PTSD from CSA, an anxiety and panic disorder, severe compulsion and rumination OCD, combination presenting ADHD, and I’m on the autism spectrum. Definitely took a long bout with an AMAZING psychiatrist to determine each thing that was not going right for me neurologically, but he was always so kind and truly allowed me to make a lot of choices as a minor, including letting me research my options, choose if the side effects outweighed the benefits or not, etc. Cognitive behavioral therapy and the medications I ended up on (a few used off label for atypical symptoms) has kept me alive. I never felt more in control of my brain and the OCD jury living inside of it or my panic disorder than when I found the perfect combination of medication and the right therapist.

[@3bugsinatrenchcoat]

i'm an anarchist (though likely not in the way you're thinking!) and a victim of a load of medical and therapist abuse, and i'm unsurprised that i almost completely agree with you. the system needs change, but slow change is our only option -- you can never trust a hippie, as they say. getting rid of asylums is what made inpatient as terrible as it is today. we desperately need reform. i've been in therapy regularly since the age of four, and i've had nearly 2 dozen therapists in the years since. i've never had a good one; i've never made progress; drugs have never really helped (they probably could, i'm not anti-drug -- but i know myself, and i can't take them safely). i wasn't told what side effects there would be when i was given SSRIs and anti-psychotics in inpatient stays when i was 12 years old. nobody asked my parents for consent. i watched the kids who refused get sedated and beaten and i gave up on trying to get real help. this should be a lie. nobody deserves this. current practices need to be questioned, but it's also important to note that they do help immensely. i would've given myself sepsis if i wasn't involuntarily hospitalized in high school. i would feel entirely alone in my insanity if i hadn't met my ridiculous, lovely roommates in that psych ward. i wanted nothing more than to stay there forever, no matter how horrible it was, because it was still better than how i was living. psychiatric treatment has changed and saved my life, but it's also caused me immense amounts of pain. it's a very nuanced and complicated thing, and i think you've addressed it well.

[@EllyCatfox]

Thank you. I have a similar history and relationship to these problems as you do. I've directly had thousands stolen from those in the industry, in the system. I've seen a lot more harm than good coming from psychiatry, medication, the way that we hurt the people in the system and let abuse keep going on in the background or even in plain sight. Etc. It's only been meditation, gender affirming care, standing up for myself, magic mushrooms, and marijuana that have saved my life. Never have the psych meds been very helpful. The system needs to either burn or be completely redone from the ground up and I live every day to be the best version of myself so that I can fight and stand against the oppression.

[@corenisveryconfused]

Getting rid of asylums was more than essential. De-institutionalization was supposed to go along with funding community care- local, state and federal government has all worked to squirm out of funding that community care since the start and that's were the failure was- not in getting rid of asylums.

[@corenisveryconfused]

@@nony_mation Asylums are about as extreme a form of segregation from the community as you can get. They are a horrible idea for similar reasons prisons are, abuse thrives in places out of sight.

[@3bugsinatrenchcoat]

@@corenisveryconfused you're both right. asylums were an inhumane, inadequate, and undesirable form of care -- but we don't have anything better right now. america is not equipped to handle any community care because it is incredibly hard to have any sort of community at all. we need to dismantle a lot of systems first if we want to fix that. there is no way to have good, consistent community care _right now._ i'm not even saying we should bring asylums back -- even as someone who begged not to have to go home from psych wards (because i had no community. nobody to go home to) -- but we can't deny that the removal of asylums was an influence on how mental health care looks today.

[@Shinigami13133]

​@citrinedreaming I assume coren is talking about the initial form of asylum where mentally unwell people were simply siloed off from the rest of society and not really provided any medical attention.

[@autismion]

I'm 28 and was diagnosed with level 2 autism spectrum disorder and persistent depressive disorder. Psychiatrists couldn't diagnose me, a psychologist did. A psychiatrist prescribed me abilify at one point, thankfully I only took it for maybe 2 or 3 days. Doctors and psychiatrists prescribed me SSRIs which have been shown to be ineffective for autistic people. Why would I spend time and money going back when I have no faith in the system?

[@kathrineici9811]

There are levels now? What level is aspergers?

[@jguenther3049]

To a man who only owns a hammer, every problem is a nail.

[@autismion]

@@kathrineici9811 With the DSM 5, the term Asperger's got dropped due to Hans Asperger arguably being a Nazi collaborator, and due to similarities between autism and Asperger's found from research if I remember right. It can be equivalent to level 1, sometimes 2. I was also diagnosed with Asperger's as a child.

[@kathrineici9811]

@@autismion Interesting, and weird that they don’t want use anything from the bad bads even if it provides a useful structure, and they use plenty of other stuff left behind by the bad bads.

[@unclassedmedia]

as a 'service user' myself it feels like psychiatry is in it's early stages, I don't doubt it's the best we have, but I don't take it as gospel, however I do trust the drugs as they work for me, and are given in good faith.

[@jolenec9231]

I believe we will look back someday and realize this was the dark age .

[@snowmonster42]

​@@jolenec9231I think so too, but I'm not sure you can really skip the beginning of anything. You can either stop or try to get better. It's not surprising that there is disagreement on which is best.

[@MorganChaos]

@@jolenec9231 True, but this is gonna be the dark age of a lot of things. Every science has a dark age when it's new. As stated, you can't skip the beginning.

[@janetnash8588]

They work for you NOW but you will not be able to get off of them easily and as time goes by you will begin to realize, like the rest of us, that you were "chemically spellbound" and that they have destroyed your life when. there were healthy alternatives..

[@Shinigami13133]

The problem is when medication isn't given in good faith.

[@ashleymerrell]

I'm currently dealing with SSRI withdrawal and it has been debilitating me to the point that I could lose my job. The lack of awareness, research, and understanding from doctors about brain zaps is despicable and leads me to believe many of them have never gone through it themselves. I will never touch an SSRI again, and I'm considering finding another doctor over this.

[@_Chessa_]

I also had terrible brain zaps. It got better after 5 months cold Turkey on 100 mg of Zoloft. My psychiatrist said zero side effects or withdrawals. Then he fled the country.

[@derekpmoore]

Always find a new doctor. You want a diversity of opinions about your problems, not one person’s continued guessing.

[@samdafoe4817]

there is also risk of psychosis. brain zaps aren't the worst. lol

[@woodhousii2445]

I was diagnosed with emotional behavioral disorder NOS and ADHD at 4, depression at 10, schizophrenia at 14, changed to schizoaffective bipolar and PTSD at 15. Here's my (and my family's) story. Before any of my immediate family was born, my paternal great grandpa was... "Quirky", aka delusional and had hallucinations, and my great grandma refused to get him help, because it meant institutionalization or lobotomy. She never told her kids (my paternal grandpa) about it, they simply divorced when the kids were old enough to work. This is still all I will ever know about my great grandpa. My grandpa had his first psychotic break in his 20s or 30s (all I know is my grandma saying he's been insane for a long time, which is why she divorced him) and hid it well enough until his 50s where he was institutionalized and diagnosed "early onset dementia without Alzheimer's features" or something along those lines, he used to call my dad up all the time talking about the mafia and how my mother was poisoning him. My father had his first break in his 20s as well after the birth of my older brother and the death of his brother, but he didn't get treatment until his 30s well after my mother divorced him when I was 3. For a long time I didn't know a single thing about him besides what my mother told me, "he's abusive, he's evil, he's crazy, he's a terrible person" (my mother got diagnosed with BPD recently, so I don't even know if those were lies or not), but one thing she did teach us was that he was schizophrenic. And then there's me. I was a shy kid, never trusted anybody, didn't play, didn't socialize, took a long time to start speaking, and... Held a very negative view of schizophrenia all the way until I was diagnosed. I was put on ADHD meds at 4, 20mg of adderall, the same age I was diagnosed. I began hallucinating full visible dead and bleeding people because of them and I had paranoia of being followed and watched. My mother did warn the psychiatrist that schizophrenia ran in the family, but my psychiatrist just raised the dose higher, this time 30mg of Ritalin, and put me on risperidone, 5mg... I hallucinated even worse, had crying fits from the delusions, but I was completely and utterly zombified. Why was I zombified on "such a low/starter dose"? Because I was a maybe 60lb F O U R (4) year old. Since the hallucinations and delusions didn't stop, and my mother insisting that I had schizophrenia, the doctor ensured my mother "children can't have schizophrenia" and diagnosed me emotional behavioral disorder NOS, switched me to Vyvanse at 25mg, and switched my risperidone to a common antidepressant I can't remember the name of (Prozac?). Of course, I was perfectly happy then, absolutely off the walls running around, wandering around, all that, so the SCHOOL system said they were going to call CPS because they didn't believe my parents were giving me my medications... Which meant they were the ones dishing out my medications to me and I missed the doses I was supposed to take before bed. Thankfully, we ended up moving when I turned 10, and the new school never threatened CPS or demanded proof I'm taking my meds, so on my own account, I quit my own meds. I went unmedicated aside from taking a different antidepressant (genuinely can't begin to guess the name) around 12-13. I completely forgot I had any mental illness other than obviously having attention problems, fidgeting more than everyone else, severe anxiety that I thought was normal, and frequent nightmares and bedwetting, and a lack of awareness that I didn't fit in with others (mostly because I didn't have the urge to socialize with anyone). Then... the teenage years hit. My brother was experimenting with dr*gs, weed, LSD, computer duster, m*th, all of the dr*gs that were said to be bad in dare, and I did them too. We got past computer duster and weed, my brother got into worse drugs, new years swung around at 14 and they had some "high quality acid" that turned out to be NBOME, or fake bitter acid that makes even the most mentally stable freak out. New years 2015, I was 14 years old, we took the fake acid, all 6 of us. People became manifestations of my mental illness, my brother was ADHD, his friends sister was depression, his best friend was anxiety, his best friends gf was PTSD... And his friend was schizophrenia. I was only diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, and depression. The TV was talking to me, the music was about me, the universe was going to collapse if I made the wrong move. Sure, a bad trip is a bad trip, but the bad trip didn't end after 12, 24, 48 hours, a week, 2 weeks, a month, 5 months, a year, 2 years, 4 years. 4 years is what it took to START recovering, dozens of different combinations of meds, 20 hospitalizations, 4 different hospitals, 3 different states, countless amounts of doctors, and 3, going on 4, disability applications. From 10th to 12th grade, I missed an average of 100 days per year, had a 0.0gpa, and just barely graduated through GED while experiencing active psychosis What could've been diagnosed at age 4, what I could've been properly medicated for, what didn't take a genius to figure out. 14 to roughly 18 were all a delusional mess, I'm 23 now. I still act like a 14 year old because... I'm still there. I should still be a kid.

[@rdallas81]

How can a child be diagnosed with such a range of ailments when the brain and body aren't even developed yet? But able to portray a normal person online-

[@rdallas81]

Way too young to be on meth (adhd meds). No wonder you were seeing shit.

[@woodhousii2445]

@@rdallas81 well, because I was not a normal kid. I wandered around, I went non verbal, I ran back and forth, I wetted the bed at too late an age, I refused to listen to authority, I sucked my thumb all the way up to 3rd grade, it was very clear something was wrong, just that it was labeled "ADHD", and I was tested for autism twice. Also I come across as a normal person because, shocker, medications, therapy, and self therapy do in fact help. If I quit my meds for just 3 days, I obviously wouldn't be able to talk like this, as younger "actually I'm cured now" me found out time and time again.

[@woodhousii2445]

Oh, and I used to elope a lot, a whole lot, from school. Usually to go back home. I used to spit on people, hide in small spaces, cry when overwhelmed, draw very unsettling pictures for a kid to draw, talk to people that weren't there, and regress into an imaginary world (that I still draw, write, and dream about to this day), and refused to interact with others.

[@darrellprice7014]

I was a social worker and a community organizer for 30 years in the disability rights movement. I became familiar with a group called themselves psychiatric survivors. I have long been diagnosed with major depression driven mainly I think by pain management issues from cerebral palsy and age. Through the psychiatric survivors and I once attend a presentation from a psychiatrist who was diagnosed with schizophrenia decades after he began his practice. He was able to demonstrate and intended to stress in a very practical way the limitations of medication alone, while not dismissing their benefits especially in more severe cases such as bipolar or psychotic features. But treatment generally offers poor compensation for social pressures like stigma, and discrimination. But the real conundrum with phenomenal like stigma is that it's not a rational response. It may well be learned but it's still something that's almost reflexive. A desire to hide from factors such as randomness decay. Such reactions are perfectly understandable but not necessarily healthy

[@dementedfairy7373]

some people do identify as antipsychiatry. I personally do. there are still deleuzo guatarrian antipsychiatry psychoanalysts out here and it's not accurate to say all modern criticisms of psychiatry are "antipsychiatry" as a theoretical practice. I am a schizophrenic essayist and there is a wide gap btwn what someone like me believes and someone criticizing psychiatry from the angle of knowing nothing about it. my psychiatric record is 22 years old, which is only 2years shorter than my entire life. when I say "medicine for adhd is inappropriately given to many children", I am not skeptical of the same things that someone who knows nothing about the effects of stimulants on young children with adhd (one of the groups of ppl most likely to develop schizophrenia, such as myself) and seen how years long prescriptions of adderall, for instance, have destroyed certain motor controls in patients who use them long term. while I appreciate the context of the video, I think you are sorely mistaken to imply the practice of antipsychiatry in this way has shifted to a kind of reactionary criticism of psychiatry.

[@ParadymShiftVegan]

I was asked to write a comment. I was suffering a lot and going nowhere but downhill with my mental health. I didn't know what was wrong, but it had been going on for so long. it was normal to me. eventually, some other people told me I should probably get help. I took a look at my life which was completely non-functional and only getting worse and figured they were probably right. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and offered therapy and medication. I took both the therapy and the medication, and with them both. I was able to live a relatively normal life again, which has felt amazing. however, right now I am at a point where I lost my government provided health insurance and I'm now unable to pay for my medications.

[@ParadymShiftVegan]

nor am I able to pay for therapy.

[@dilaudum1075]

I sometimes think medicating dissatisfaction away may not be a good idea at the societal level, and that thought did take me to some anti-psychiatry websites back in the day. Very happy you decided to tackle this topic!

[@TropicOfGemini]

i get where you’re coming from for sure - but severe depression is far beyond dissatisfaction. it’s a complex issue though and i go back and forth

[@denofpigs2575]

​​@@TropicOfGeminiIt being dissatisfaction or not still has no bearing on his opinion. Medicating it away innately is dodging the problem. You can only dodge a problem for so long before you get tired. And it's only gained traction all the while. As a collective, dodging a problem is disastrous. And I have my doubts the situation will improve on the coming years.

[@Despoina_Nyx]

@@denofpigs2575 Tell that to anyone suffering from CPTSD or normal PTSD suffering with suicidal ideation due to their heavy depression.... Tell me how I'm dodging the problem when my brain tells me, not screams at me to kill myself sometimes days on end and at the very least prozac helps me crawl out of that hole so I can start functioning again. There can be overmedication yeah, and in the US a heavy financial incentive for psychiatrist. But ffs the medication helps people in some cases, just because it's abuse by arseholes doesn't mean people should just be left out suffering on their own heads. And now you have idiots like the the narcotics agency trying to push ADHD medication as some drug problem, making tons of people with ADHD worry about them just losing the medication that helps them. Don't conflate the actual abuses of the field to just eliminate it and leaving people to fend for themselves.

[@amazinggrapes3045]

You should think that more than sometimes lol

[@lepercolony8214]

​@@denofpigs2575 Yeah if there's anything an unmedicated, severely depressed person is up for, it's active revolutionary struggle.

[@moonyeast]

i've had good experiences in therapy at university with therapists-in-training. i'm also really fortunate to have tolerated ssri and snri pretty well, and they have done wonders for my mental health and relationships. i used to suffer from constant feelings of anger, paranoia, and dissociation, which made me antagonize and avoid everyone around me. now, im quite stable and much happier. i might have altered sleep and zero libido but i'm single and i work flexible hours, so no one suffers, luckily.

[@Doomroar]

Yes please do make a video on how schizophrenia became a black illness, and a video on punitive psychiatry And engagement (comments) is absolutely something the algorithm checks for

[@ruenvedder5921]

yeah that put me off and lowered my trust, why did he say that lol

[@KD-_-]

When I think of schizophrenia as a layman and try to conjure a typical image I think of white men with personal conspiracy theories about how the government is shrinking their dong and trying to replace them with other races.

[@helonelunede5217]

I'd be so interested in how schizophrenia became a black illness, seconding this

[@dragoncultist5730]

​@@ruenvedder5921 it shouldn't lol, there's a history behind it

[@thatautodidact2371]

psychiatry failed me personally. It works for plenty of other people but now when seeking mental health care I need to make sure I don't get signed up with a psychiatrist. The appointments are 15 minutes tops. I've had psychiatrists spend 40 minutes with me and try to rediagnose my conditions that were identified during extended psychiatric hospital stays. When I reported the feeling of elation being unnatural I was told that would be normal when one was depressed for a while that happiness would feel abnormal. It was NOT happiness that I was experiencing, it was medicinally induced mania from the medications I was on. less than 2 months of reporting feeling like the meds weren't doing the right thing I was in the ICU for an attempted sui that I had not planned, had not felt suicidal, etc. The behavior was out of the blue for me as much as it was out of the blue for everyone around me. The medications also gave me means as well as motives. I have never attempted sui while off of medications no matter how deeply I was suffering. I have a complex PTSD disorder, I have a dissociative disorder. Dissociative Disorders are not something generally understood by any of the psychiatrists I have seen. (I've been to more than 7 over the course of a decade due to insurance and other reasons). Psychiatrists do not listen to my reports, they do not interpret words the same way I use them. They do not have the time nor the wherewithall to learn my longterm patterns. Psychiatry in my experience is a LOT of guess work. Even though tests exist to know how your body might metabilize certain medictions, there are tests that can identify associated biomarkers to certain mental illnesses. Yet testing is not a routine part of psychiatry. I've been through 13 different medications. Early on low-dose antidepressants did help. But when someone has unstable living and unstable insurance it seems reckless and unethical to prescribe medications that have discontinuation syndrome. I had to experience cold-turkey medication cut offs due to unstable living, income, and insurance changes. I was not able to wean off becuase the insurance would not pay for me to see the pyshciatrist to get those instructions. I know psychiatry will kill me. The only reason it hasn't is because I lived close enough to life-saving hospitals. I also no longer trust psychiatric hospitals after 6 psych hospitalizations including 2 voluntary. The negligence, abuse, and lack of help is astounding and should be criminal. Patients rights complaints result in nothing but being shamed, dismissed, and disappointed. 3/4 psychiatric hospitals do not have any programs that help the individual with the particular issues that send them to the psychiatric hospital. It is a place to trial medications and have less autonomy than most had in childhood. There is no one-to-one counseling, and I've only been to one that had a trauma program which genuinely was helpful because it targeted what I was going through and provided helpful insight and coping skills specific to childhood and long-term trauma. No other psychward had anything nearly as helpful or insightful. A lot of the information provided would be outdated such as left-right brain theory. The hospital psychiatrists won't take no for an answer. The nurses refuse to be compassionate when you have had negative experiences with certain medications. The behavioral techs spend more time in their phones and ignoring patients than they do providing the services supposedly part of their job according to the welcome pamphlets. I had even warned a psychiatrist to never prescribe me benzos because of my propensity to abuse them and use them as a sui method. So mood stabilizers and antidepressants were tried. Which (for me) unsurprisingly increased my suicidality. After a few sessions I asked her for benzos to help with anxiety. Despite my warnings earlier on she did so with no hesitation. The benzos were immediately abused. I do not struggle so deeply with suicidality, planning, motive, means when off of these medications. I do not struggle so deeply with mental illness when I am in a safe and supportive environment. I lived with many people who were abusive or otherwise negatively impacted my mental health. Instead of counseling on domestic violence and partner abuse, instead of counseling on how to find it within myself to get housing assistance, to find independent living, to end harmful and abusive relationships. I was handed pills. Pills the drove me over the edge and sent me into the ICU. I'm so glad it works for some people but psychiatry needs to be more honest, transparent, and there NEEDS to be some sort of testing on the compatibility, safety, and effectivness of certain medications instead of trialing it like us patients are some kind of goddamn guinea pigs. I'm disillusioned from experience. At 18 I knew I could legally see a therapist without my mom's permission because she denied me the care, refused me the care, and would have sabotaged it. In fact when she learned I had been seein a psychiatrist and therapist without telling her I was slapped and kicked out of the house. Yet for over a decade I KEPT GOING, I KEPT TRYING. I kept engaging with the process, with psychiatry. Anything to take me out of the suffering caused by extended childhood traumas and unhealthy family dynamics that carried on into unhealthy living and romantic dynamics into adulthood. I will never engage with psychiatry again. It almost was and will be the death of me. No one listens when you say "I have no suicide plan unless you prescribe me [medication], then I *will* overdose on them." they hear "I have a suicide plan" and immediately attempt to medicate and/or ship me to a psychward which will release me with at least one pill bottle of exactly the means I need. I have a lower IQ and a learning disorder from the attempted sui while under psychiatric supervision. I have a double-astigmatism caused by medication prescribed to me. My vocabulary is weaker, my frustration tolerance is lower, my cognition is less than it was, my math skills are almost entirely gone after the medication induced mania episode. However my general practice doctor is able to prescribe adderall which is a major benefit to me and despite being labeled as one of the drugs most likely to be abused I have never had the incentive to abuse any drugs that *work* as intended. Also it's really cute (fucked up) that doctor's call withdrawal "discontinuation syndrome" to try to separate it from street drugs. It's not withdrawal cause it's not addiction. It's your brain depending on the chemicals. When addiction is dependency on a substance. It's cute, real cute semantics.

[@derekpmoore]

Malpractice is where the criminal element can come in

[@thatautodidact2371]

@@derekpmoore It's not criminal until it's convicted and if one can't pursue convicting a medical authority or even initiating those things. A lot of "crimes" are only prohibitory to those who don't have the finances to pay the fees or hire a lawyer. These psychiatrists and services are never seen as criminal, treated, as such, convicted as such, and rarely able to be even investigated under suspicion of such. A lot of abuses and neglect that happen seem criminal but are not able to be corrected or punished by the stipulations of hte law.

[@derekpmoore]

@@thatautodidact2371 yes; I just meant that’s the angle people have to lobby for and sue for, etc.

[@thatautodidact2371]

@@derekpmoore oooh, thanks for the clarification!

[@coraljones537]

pre-video opinion: I've been in therapy more of my life than I haven't. I've been through the system of diagnosing and triaging, private therapy, government funded therapy, therapy provided through charities. Every single time they have suggested medication first, even when I specified that I wanted to try really tackling the root cause, whether that's trauma, working through current events, practicing calming techniques etc. It was a very frustrating experience, it wasn't until my anxiety got to the point where I couldn't even get out of bed, drink water etc without having panic attacks that I gave SSRIs a go, honestly didn't even stick with them long enough to see the results unfortunately as they gave me panic attacks themselves. But finally I found a good therapist who helped me work through the root causes and triggers to finally start seeing some improvement. A few years down the line I can confidently say my anxiety is minor if there at all. In my case, medication wasn't the solution and I could've gotten better sooner (in my opinion) if I had been listened to and supported with my case individually. I think medication isn't bad but definitely shouldn't be pushed so hard. The patients will know what's right for them, listen to them.

[@drno87]

My aunt was a nurse at a psychiatric hospital. She'd say that some of the craziest people there were the psychiatrists.

[@Plinfut]

Psychotherapy did wonders for depression, low self-esteem and similar issues. Cognitive behavioral therapy for physical pain and anxiety, not so much. That feels like "we don't know what to do about it, but this way we can make some money".

[@wrongname2702]

I do hate that CBT is considered a gold standard for all mental disorders. We have so many more modalities like DBT, EMDR, brain spotting, values therapy, parts therapy, and ACT that also have merit and should be utilized more than just CBT double-think. I found EMDR is super helpful, whereas mindfulness exercises are actively harmful to me because I feel like I'm in my head constantly and mindfulness feels bad like I'm failing at it.

[@crimsonrose]

The reason why CBT is pushed is that it has the most solid evidence behind it. That being said, context etc could be investigated in its use.

[@Filius_Solis_777]

Off-label promotion refers to the sale of medications for uses outside of the approved indication. In these cases, medications are prescribed for a variety of symptoms that are not directly related to the purpose for which they were originally developed. This expands the use of the drug, resulting in increased sales. A notable example is Johnson & Johnson, which was forced to pay a legal settlement of 2.2 billion dollars for promoting Risperdal and Invega for unapproved uses, that is, off-label.

[@mystechry]

I am from Germany and got my Psychology Master last year. However I am very hesitant to go the official route and do the Psychotherapy training (which lasts up to 5 more years). One of the reasons is that I think I do not like the institutionalization and how diagnoses are classified out. Do we really need different diagnoses and therapy manuals for depression, anxiety and all other comorbidities? Is there not very often the same issues involved that cause the suffering (either a physiological issue or severe bad things happening in a patient's life). In my opinion that whole diagnosis system takes the very wrong approach by classifying the symptoms and trying to put them into different boxes. Behavioral therapy is 80% or 90% the same between a wide array of different comorbidities. So why do we need to classify those different and have different treatment manuals for them? It is absolutely crucial as a first stem in my opinion to check for physiological reasons first, then for circumstances and then for inner misbelief. In that order. And then diagnose on what caused the suffering. I know this is just a quick writing of mine without deeply fleshing out the arguments. However I hope that you still get the idea behind it.

[@kingfisher9553]

There are several very good counselors on KZbin who share your concerns and have gone in a different direction -- less reliant on authoritative definitions published in tomes and more tailored to the individual. Check out Dr. K (Healthy Gamer) coaching system, Patrick Tehan's focus on CPTSD, and Alex Howard.

[@mystechry]

@@kingfisher9553 Thanks :) The issue is that here in Germany only Psychotherapists with an official training will be paid by our health care system. So it'll be a lot harder to find clients if you choose an alternate way. It 100% makes sense to prevent all the nonsense and bad therapy, and to ensure some level of quality. It still makes it a it harder if one wants to choose an alternative route.

[@MorganChaos]

I agree that someone who needs therapy doesn't necessarily need a formal diagnosis. But that 10-20% that's different is different for a reason -- affirming the feelings of someone with anxiety (especially a more severe form like OCD) can do a LOT of harm, while affirming the feelings of someone dealing with trauma is extremely important. And yes, tons and tons of mental illness is caused by a physiological reason, but it takes a lot of training to sort one reason from another, especially when all you have to go on is what the patient reports as symptoms. For example, ADHD and C-PTSD can present as identical while having pretty much opposite treatment plans (that is, one is mostly treated with therapy while the other is mostly treated with meds).

[@mystechry]

@@MorganChaos I agree. Those 10-20% I am talking about was mainly directed towards therapy manuals. Most of the (K)VT manuals contain largely the same concepts (psychoeducation, learning step by step healthy behavior, face what you fear/avoid). So would it not make sense to have one manual that adapts towards different diagnoses? Do we really need to treat behavior patterns in science and therapy as if they were absolutely different from each other if most of the therapy and behavior patterns are alike and most of the time they are comorbidity anyways. For me that huge rate of comorbidity is a strong indicator that there is something at the bottom of it all that we did not discover yet and that we should focus onto that common element instead of individual diagnoses.

[@Dark89Avenger]

As a clinical psychologist myself, I must say, you are totally wrong about everything and here is why : " Do we really need different diagnoses and therapy manuals for depression, anxiety and all other comorbidities? Is there not very often the same issues involved that cause the suffering (either a physiological issue or severe bad things happening in a patient's life)." No, there is not. There is a ton of different reasons for depression, anxiety and pretty much every other syndrome you could possibly think of - exogenic, endogenic, psychogenic. Each requires a different approach. Not to mention, that in each of those groups, they are sub groups,. For example, a patient could have endogenic depression F 33, organic affective disorder or depression caused by psychological factors. Sometimes they are even mixed together. For each of those, the approaches is different and they manifest in different ways. But they are different types of endogenic depression, different types of organic depression and so on and so on. Also the comorbidities you mention, could drastically change the "expression" of the nosological unit, and thus also changing the approach, and treatment and also the prognosis. "It is absolutely crucial as a first stem in my opinion to check for physiological reasons first, then for circumstances and then for inner misbelief. In that order. And then diagnose on what caused the suffering." The problem is that most psychologists don't understand a thing about psychopathology, neurology and psychiatry and more often that not, do more harm than good. Also : "However I am very hesitant to go the official route and do the Psychotherapy training" Why is this the official route ? Why do you think that CBT is the only valuable way of doing therapy ? WHy do you think there is only one/you could use only one approach ? You and everyone in that field should learn and reductionism always leads to stupidity.

[@capresti3537]

Dr. Thomas Szasz was absolutely right about psychiatry it is neither a science nor a legitimate branch of medicine. Psychiatry is built on arbitrary labels and subjective judgments, not objective, evidence based practices. The field relies on pseudoscience and harmful treatments that often do more harm than good. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is also completely correct in their critique of psychiatry. The undeniable truth is that psychiatry has long been a tool for control, profit, and the pathologization of normal human experiences. There’s no escaping the facts. The truth about psychiatry is clear, no matter how much the industry tries to obscure it

[@meganhammer7857]

I'm autistic, and being diagnosed in adulthood was an absolutely crucial turning point in my life. Up to that point I just thought I was failing as a person in some nebulous way, but having a label and the language to describe my symptoms, as well as access to support, has saved me. I'm also on psychiatric medication, and it's no miracle cure but at the same time I have no doubts that I'm better off with it than without. Also, doctors are legally required to warn you about potential adverse effects of treatment. If you had something happen that you weren't sufficiently warned about, you can take legal action against that doctor.

[@ladyjulbug]

I feel like the treatments can sometimes do way more harm than good, and there isn't a real long lasting solution that can come in pill form.

[@Mango_Dave]

As a retired software developer, database designer, who sees the world the systems perspective ... I find "counseling" (my preferred term, from Deanna Troi) FANTASTIC. I have seen a counselor roughly 2 years on5 years off after an initial spiral out of control diagnosed as depression (now long controlled), some were couples counselors. Some helped me analyze a several month situation., some were life coaches, some taught me a new insight or skill, some got me thru a period of overwhelming stress where I could not get out of bed, others where I was putting off what I knew I needed to do and stayed with me I till I did.. Each time we started with the end in mind. Each session we asked about progress, and it was fun to gain a new skill. It's embarrassing to think how naive and untrained I was at the beginning of all this. I remember, 40 years ago, my mom saying "we don't belive in psychiatry" and my replying "its not a religion"

[@nocturnalsingularity3138]

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder sometime around my senior year of highschool. (The real bipolar. Not that whole "i can be laughing one second and beating you up the next" plague i notice most believe equals bipolar) I'm 35 now, been hospitalized 3times due to my bipolar. I have been on evey relevant medication there is, and have a very cliche bipolar disorder opinion of them all. I hate them. I'm not myself on antipsychotics. I struggled for many years trying to find the right medication for me, and got very close with invaga. but nothing i took, n no one i saw could make me right, and whole at the same time. After i lost my health insurance in my mid 20s, I found myself in a very tight place. I've always put my feelings into writing, and with no way to regulate my impending moods, i took to poetry, and story telling. I also found a forgotten desire to learn. I did all i could to understand things, to accept the way i felt, and who i was. I stopped feeling shameful and embraced whatever state of mind i find myself in. I've been unmedicated for some time now, so I regularly have this underlying depression that is almost always there. I find myself manic or hypomanic from time to time too, but for some reason I have not experienced anything close to what i used to feel. I don't believe that this is do to my change in perspective, but it does help. Don't get me wrong, I believe in psychiatry and medication. I definitely DO NOT advise anyone with a mental health disorder to discard these very necessary recovery tools. But i think it is important to remember that doctors, and medications are just that, tools to help us on our road to wherever. They really are not there to cure all, and most do not realize, they really can't. Our mental health comes from within ourselves, therefore,it is likely so does our cure. I for one do not mind who i am, I don't mind feeling sadness because I can turn it into something beautiful. It is within that depression that i truly discovered that everything has its own style of beauty and it is what makes me feel whole. find a way to accept and understand yourself and you might find yourself okay.

[@Hjac94]

Thank you for sharing, beautifully written. Wish you all the best

[@jameshughes3014]

Psychiatry and psychology should not be conflated. After over 30 years of incorrect diagnoses from psychiatrists, the wrong meds, and being gaslit by my doctors into thinking I was the problem while the drugs made me sick without benefit.. it's hard not to be against psychiatry. I'd like to be able to tell friends in crisis that they should seek help, but I can only tell them to get a therapist and avoid psychiatrists.

[@souxcasa]

Therapists can do just as much damage. It's not the profession it's the people and too many of them are control freaks

[@Spfnym]

Psychology is like THE field where there's a replication crisis. Surely therapists can sometimes help, but I'd understand if someone doesn't think that money sink is for them.

[@jameshughes3014]

@@souxcasa I believe they can do terrible damage. People do need to be careful, maybe we need advocates, who's job it is to help those in need find and assess therapists. but psychological damage can be recovered from. No one recovers from a labotomy. Psychiatric drugs can cause permanent damage or death. Any drug can, if prescribed wrong. And when meds are prescribed in mass by nurses instead of doctors, or by doctors with not much experience, bad things happen

[@jameshughes3014]

@@Spfnym I agree. my thing is though... If therapy doesn't help, at least you didn't end up with terrible side effects

[@kwahujakquai6726]

I agree that psychiatry and psychology not be equated. Mental health disorders have far to much nuance to be treated from simply one area of specialization. Neurology and endocrinology should also be considered with treatment. Basing a diagnoses upon observations of behaviors, an/or upon an individual's own interpretation of their own emotions, feelings, affect, and mood, (especially since most people lack insight into the reasons WHY they are experiencing what they are feeling) isn't sufficient.

[@antonjoubert6980]

Worst mistake of my life was trusting ssri's a psychiatrist prescribed, after years Im still dependant on it to sleep, get crippling anxiety attacks after a few days off (I literally can't sleep) which I never had before becoming dependant on it.

[@felixmervamee7834]

How do I feel about medication? I've pondered this question for a long time over my life, and its answers have changed over the years. What I think right now may not even be close to the final take. When I was in my late teens, my opinion was based solely on vocabulary. See, I didn't believe in "mental illness", it felt like an oxymoron: either you had a physical ailment, so it wasn't mental, so sure meds are fine, or you've developed some kind of hurtful reasoning and thought pattern independent of your body, and in principle, you should only reason your way out of it. That's all. In parallel, I've always steered clear of drugs of all kinds. Reason was, I saw people change the way they were, acted, and everything. I didn't want to be someone else. Who's to say I would even come back to me? This led me to a very strong stance against psychiatric medication, in the fear of losing my identity, or relying on an external element to be myself. It's hurt me a lot, I think, throughout my 20s as anxiety and depression did their worst. It's only in my early 30s that I've realised a new conception of identity, and accepted the use of antidepressants and anxiolytics as a bridge gap whilst therapy does its mending job. And I have met others who rely on medication to function for an indefinite amount of time, which reassured me in their prolonged use for such cases. So my answer today is: yeah, I'm fine with medication, given a strict frame, a project, a system. And a good doctor. They have to be complementary to another approach, too. So yeah, I kinda get the sentiment of anti psychiatry on a personal level. But... I wouldn't subscribe to it.

[@Peadeymclovin]

I'm not against therapy or progressive changes in mental health, but it does irk me when my insurance (me) pays for an hour with a psychiatrist just for her to write me a prescription for an ADHD medicine I did ask for and an anti-depressant I explicitly did NOT imply wanting

[@TadanoCandy]

I tried therapy and antidepressants to help me with depression. Therapy did nothing for me because I already knew everything they told me, and they can’t force me to put into practice those things I already know (in fact, the reason I was depressed was because I knew the things I should do, but I had no energy to do them). Antidepressants, on the other hand, had a mixed effect. The first one I was prescribed didn’t do anything for me, but the second one helped me greatly, to the point that I was practically depression-free in like 2 weeks. I would say that I’m not anti-psychiatry, but I’m anti-psychotherapy for people like me, who won’t benefit from it, but which therapists are going to encourage to attend therapy so they can charge us for it.

[@MiryssaRayne]

Quitting lexapro was the best decision I’ve ever made. I can’t remember years of my life because of it. I do truly think it’s just a bandaid for societal and capitalistic issues

[@davidcrawford9026]

Therapy ruined my life

[@TropicOfGemini]

i’m so sorry to hear that. i really hope things improve for you very soon. if you don’t mind me asking, what about it made it so harmful to you? i wanna be a psychologist and hearing this kinda thing makes me wanna know what NOT to do. thank you in advance and no pressure to reply, i know these kinds of things are very personal.

[@TSPage]

@@TropicOfGeminias someone not qualified but highly invested. I would highly recommend some form of practice (on yourself) around dissolving ego. A lot of problems arise when you “know the answer” and you actually don’t. If you don’t dig deep enough with another person and you give them a diagnosis that feels very wrong, it could be the most isolating thing someone can experience. Would also recommend using trauma informed methods of therapy + do additional research on eastern ideas like meditation and mindfulness. A human is much more a cluster of symptoms, be skeptical of what is actually a “pathology” of the mind vs an adaptation formed from the scars of something you AND them don’t understand.

[@nanmcgowen]

You need to check out the history of our field and the terrible damage being done by medications and the almost complete lack of transparency and informed consent about medications in our field. It’s unconscionable and that is my experience and has affected the way I practice for certain. The effects of big pharma on funding what are perceived by the public to be watchdog entities that are there for patient protection and safety but in fact is funded by pharma and govt entities with CLEAR CONFLICTS OF INTEREST along with the insurance industry. DO YOU LISTEN TO YOUR CLIENTS?

[@jawnvaljawn]

pre-video opinion: like a lot of stuff in psychology, I think that this ideology is applicable sometimes but not all the time. if you're struggling with OCD, schizophrenia, or some other disorder that is purely within your brain, then yeah I'd say that psychiatry is necessary. but sometimes the struggles of someone with ADHD, depression, PTSD, etc can't be resolved with a pill bc the cause of the struggle isn't caused by that disorder, just exacerbated by it. you can medicate someone for depression but if the cause of their depression is loneliness, medication won't create new friends for them. if the cause is systemic racism, medication won't force people to treat them and their peers with respect. I'm also highly skeptical of forcing someone into a living situation against their will where they will be treated as subhuman, as is often the case with outpatient clinics (I think that's the term?). the patients staying there are going to deal with an extreme power imbalance between themselves and the staff. I don't trust staff to not abuse that trust, and I don't trust the criminal justice system to give justice to the survivors of that abuse.

[@3bugsinatrenchcoat]

i think you mean inpatient; outpatient would be things like talk therapy, where patients aren't living in the hospital.

[@LiamSierakowskiHatrickPatrick]

Nothing is purely in a person's brain, the brain is nothing without its environment, it requires input to exist. We can change how the brain translates the input through therapy, but addresses the input which is causing the symptoms takes better governance. A considerable amount of mental health problems and diagnosis is caused due to making the environment we're existing in uninhabitable for people. Mental health is deeply intertwined with the environment. While therapy can change how the brain processes input, addressing the root cause through better governance and a supportive environment is crucial. Uninhabitable environments significantly contribute to mental health issues.

[@sophcw]

FYI, none of those conditions you listed are "just in the brain"! Everything is more complicated than that.

[@katherinestahl7641]

I completely agree with external factors needing to be addressed. I have also found my personal experience to be that taking antidepressants gave me enough of a boost of energy so that I could start making changes and moving my life in a direction to improve things. So for me they were really a game changer. Everyone is different though and should be treated accordingly.

[@eelnoops5200]

It's about the fact that there is no quantifiable measure of mental health. What are you measuring that demonstrates a psychiatric drug or treatment is effective? If a person has HIV and takes medication for that, we know it is effective because pathologists can literally count the copies of the HIV virus in the blood decreasing until they cannot be found at all. It occured to me when I was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer and my oncologist ordered a lab that measured the amount of serotonin in my blood. What?!? That can be measured? Then why on earth didn't my psychiatrist order such labs since they were prescribing drugs (SSRIs) to treat depression with the explanation that I was depressed because I didn't have enough serotonin, and needed to take a drug that would prevent the reabsorption of serotonin with net result of adequate serotonin levels, and a sense of wellbeing and joy I have spent thousands of dollars and untold hours pursuing an adequate level of serotonin, the whole time assuming there was no way to measure this hypothesis that I was, "chemically imbalanced," specifically lacking serotonin. Turns out, I was living in a constant state of serotonin syndrome. Serotonin was wreaking havoc on my GI track and has dangerously exhausted my heart muscles Left to my own biological means, I generally have 700% more serotonin than a normal individual. The chemical imbalance was a lie. No one truly understands how these drugs work. There is no quantifiable measure that is universally understood and agreed upon. That is why I wholeheartedly affirm that the practice of psychiatry is synonymous with selling snake oil. It doesn't work, and has largely served merely to fatten the wallets of the pharmaceutical industry, and has not produced a single replicable positive impact.

[@moonshoes8931]

I was put on antipsychotics and I still feel the lasting effects even after quitting! I was literally force injected in the psyche ward, and every psychiatrist I've had pushed pills.

[@Midwestemoisme]

hey goofy, that’s what a psychiatrist does lol they recommend you medication if they think you need it

[@moonshoes8931]

@@Midwestemoisme what they think someone needs is not always what someone may need. that medication ended up having bad side effects. also i had no agency in the decision, it was literally forced on me BY FORCE.

[@Midwestemoisme]

@@moonshoes8931 for any person who isn’t admitted to a psych ward, you try a medication prescribed by the psych, if the side effects are much to drastic, the next visit you ask to try another medication. Sorry you got treated badly but lots of people see good results from psychiatric treatment. Unfortunately every med isn’t gonna work for everyone

[@certifiedcyclepath]

I am so sorry you went through that. I too was hospitalized and forced to witness the injections you talk about, theyre entirely inhumane and I feel terrible for everyone who’s had to endure that violent experience. Don’t listen to the dude replying to you, theyre replying to a lot of people’s personal experiences acting dismissive and holier than thou.

[@Midwestemoisme]

@@certifiedcyclepath don’t try and convince people not to seek psychiatric help dummy

[@toniagreenwell7151]

I went into the Dr’s office at 16 with a headache. Prozac had just come out. Instead of finding out why I had a headache (massive sinus infection that needed surgery), I had been given Prozac and told I was depressed. I started having suicidal ideation…they didn’t know that could happen to teens. It forever altered my brain. Until I got a minimalistic and holistic team, I had been a revolving door psych patient…medicating me often to toxicity. I have later been diagnosed as on the autism spectrum. I do well with small amounts of OCD and sleep medication, so I am not for anti psychiatry…I’m anti overmedicating people for normal emotions, and treating the actual underlying traumas.

[@teethsv4824]

I have severe ocd and bpd. Whilst I hate being on medication (ruminating on it triggers me a lot) I know and remember how miserable and unable to function I am without medication. If it weren’t for medication I would still take take 2 hours to leave my room. And be unable to leave my house.

[@scrabalites]

I used to go to a therapist. Then I realized it was useless to go; one time, they sent me to the emergency room psych ward, which I can promise you was the wrong move, it made the problem worse. It was then clear that they had too much power over me, and in order to keep them from using it on me that way again I would have had to lie, making it worthless. In general, I do not trust people who are explicitly trained to manipulate you as a matter of course.

[@megt9171]

here are my thoughts, as you asked for them: psychiatry, like the rest of the medical establishment, is very vulnerable to status quo bias and bigotries present in broader society. We see this in the pathologisation of homosexuality for example, or the disproportionate atribution of womens pain to mental health conditions rather than physical ones. Psychiatry inparticular has a long history of pathologizing anyone whos thoughts or mode of existance thretents the status quo. As a trans autistic person i have to fight the medical (including mental health) establishment almost constantly. This is made worse by the power imbalances present in the doctor / paitent relationship. I am not confident that a framework can exist for psychiatry to help people. I know that sometimes things like medication can help a persons work in a different way that may be more helpfull to them in that spesific context, i am not against the aplication of science to help people with mental health. But the pathologization of people is profoundly destructive, and serves to defend the status quo. Why adress the rsing rates of depression as wealth inequality rises and people have to work more and enjoy their work less, when you could instead call the problem an individual mental health issue? We need to fix the systems in which we live, and the mental health establishment makes this harder, by situating the problem in the mind of the individual suffering, rather than being atleast mostly social in nature. Particularly in the UK where i live, mental health services are underfunded to the point that they cant help people, they just shunt them into mass CBT classes and considder the case closed and the problem solved. The power imbalance, and the refusal to agknowlage the flaws in commonly used methods like CBT, and the nature of seeing the problem as personal and mental rather than social combine with the other problems mentioned in the video to make a profoundly destructive instituion.

[@ruby12320]

But the thing is rising rates in homelessness can lead to mental health issues. Yes we should address the roots of these issues but that shouldn't be the job of mental health professionals. I don't expect my therapist to fix my homelessness but if I develop PTSD due to that I expect them to address that Docs prescribe metformin for people even tho you could root the issue to lack of access to fresh produce and increasing food desserts, yet no one shits of endos for constantly prescribing meta formin. Yet mental health providers are always tasked to "fix the root issue" which is such an impossible task. If you having issues with homelessness a social worker and policy maker is better to talk to, not a therapist or psychiatrist

[@megt9171]

@ruby12320 I agree, a mental health professional is not well suited to fixing the root of the issue, that's my point. Mental health professionals perpetuate a harmfull society by "painting over" the cracks in the foundation. Which makes it harder to address the overall problem. They are esstually agents of the status quo, saying we should change ourselves to suit the society that is killing us rather than changing the society. That's the key issue

[@viki2133]

In the Middle Ages, “doctors” healed people by bloodletting. Eventually, doctors came to know better and their practices have improved to the point that they do more good than bad. I believe the same applies to psychiatry, where the field is still somewhat young and new and proper practices are still emerging and replacing less effective ones. Psychiatry is slowly, but surely, maturing. As for the general societal issues, that’s for the politicians to solve.

[@leilap2495]

I had a therapist push me to try Zoloft while I was pregnant. I’m so glad I didn’t, because when I tried it years later, it was the opposite of what I needed, it felt slowing, numbing, life essence sucking; depressing! I since was appropriately assessed, diagnosed, and treated, but it was really hard to come by! We need much more access to neuropsychological testing.

[@voidilitesingularis]

I've been told Zoloft is a very hit-or-miss medication; it either works or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, it tends to put the person taking it in a far worse state than they would have been not taking it.

[@maebh98]

I won't say Psychiatrists ruined my life, but they came close to ending it many times. I've only ever attempted s on, and I feel because of, the various drugs that they put me on. It really felt like they were just randomly trying to find some that work. I lost faith after medication number 11 and suiçide attempt number 3. Only after I got off the medication was I able to make actual breakthroughs in therapy and eventually make a full recovery.

[@BriLikesSynths]

my anti-psychiatry stems partially from my own encounters with the system (it's a nightmare factory), and partially from prison abolition politics. I recommend checking out the piece "Burn Down The Psych Ward" on anarchist library

[@miriw9214]

I have massively benifited from therapy, particularly EMDR but I have also been burned before. I was almost misdiagnosed and mismedicated for ADHD when what I really have is CPTSD, entirely different and not typically meditated. The fact that this all happened on a half an hour zoom call when it could have severely negatively impacted my life shows how little time is put into getting to know an individual and how easily pills are thrown at people. There's also something to be said about the fact that all the care I have recieved via the NHS was rushed and damaging, particularly CAHMS, whereas whenever I've paid privately I have felt genuinely listened to and supported. So unfortunately a lot of that is to do with underfunding and understaffing of the national health service.

[@veganphilosopher1975]

Ok, coming back. Not an unbiased analysis but i think you gave a good analysis of both sides of the issue. I have had both positive and negative experiences in psychiatry and therapy. My bias is that i believe I've suffered more than benefitted from the field. At the end of the day however i believe the aim of psychiatry is noble and the criticisms should be used as a grounds to improve it as opposed to completely demonizing it

[@amazinggrapes3045]

The aim of psychiatry is to make people as exploitable as possible by making them well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society

[@LeeshthePeach]

Really appreciate this nuanced perspective! As a dance/movement therapist who worked in a psychiatric hospitalization unit, I am very versed with navigating the grey area. I heard so often that my therapy groups (strengths-based, body-based, community building, encouraging patient agency) were the best part of their hospitalization, which was often a very traumatizing experience. Half of our work was about processing the trauma of being involuntarily hospitalized, then half was about what actually brought them in. From this patient feedback, I am so glad I could help lessen the trauma of hospitalization, but I just wish it had not been so traumatizing to begin with :( I really respected our team at the hospital and think most people were doing their best to limit trauma but involuntary hospitalization just inherently causes trauma due to lack of patient choice. And then many of the other issues I saw came from under-funding and under-staffing. I myself left because the pay was absolutely terrible and was not worth how stressful and dangerous the job was. I really respect all the experiences people have shared in the comments of their hospital experience and my heart goes out to you as you navigate healing from this trauma. I think preventative care is the answer, so fewer people need to get to the point of crisis to get help.

[@AlsoSunflowerBrains]

Opinion before watching: I am not anti-psychiatry, though I do identify and agree with some of what they're saying. I, like many others, have had negative experiences with psychiatry-related things; whether that's a mental hospital, psychiatrist, therapist or whatever. It is an issue that so many folk in the healthcare/psychiatry field are incredibly biased and/or don't know the more up-to-date information. It can be an awful feeling to be given some label without much communication or all, and having medication with awful side-effects thrown at you. Sometimes people don't listen to their patients, believing this label given to them make them less able to make any important decision. It's horrible when people who are already in a vulnerable state only get more hurt by those who were supposed to help. HOWEVER, awful people and mistreatment can be found everywhere nowadays. It's not exactly fair to abolish an entire field of healthcare because there is still more to learn. Medication can, and has been proven to help many! Same goes with many forms of therapy! This science is still generally new, so it's only going to get better from here, as long as we don't give up and get rid of psychiatry.

[@SarahMarie-j2n]

I think to a large degree we need to stop diagnosing symptoms & start looking at the whole person & their whole life & geting to the root of problems & solving them, rather than just funding big pharma to provide bandaid solutions for people who are genuinely suffering

[@FEARLovingGirl]

My thoughts on psychotherapy and psychiatry: I feel like almost everyone has some form of mental health issue and A LOT of people would benefit from therapy. It helps to understand oneself. And then there are some individuals who would benefit from medication as well, but in general I feel like you should give therapy a chance first in order to get to the root of the issue. Sometimes however medication is the only way for therapy to be effective for a patient. As a registered nurse I worked in an emergency unit and treated a lot of people who had attempted suicide and still they weren't taken seriously by the psychiatry department. This might just be an issue here in Sweden, but my god is it hard to get help for any mental health issue.

[@scarecrowprowler]

Yes, I am aware of this. The irony is that some of those who don't take suicidal people seriously want others who are NOT depressed to take antidepressants, when they have other problems.

[@dmtdreamz7706]

Enlightenment is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. So the bad news is that you don't have parachute, but the good news is that you discover there is no ground. And then you're just endlessly falling and you never reach the ground. So in a sense, what i'm asking you to do is to jump. And you don't want to jump. You're saying, I'm scared. I'm too scared to jump. And I'm saying, jump. God is telling you, jump, jump into infinite love and it's going to be great. But you're like, what if I kill myself and what if something else happens? I don't know. You just jump into infinite love. Take the leap of faith and you'll discover infinite love. And you're too scared to do it. But then eventually when you do it, then you're just going to discover that there's no ground. You're endlessly falling forever and it's great. But yeah, taking that leap is really difficult. It requires you to face your death. So of course, everybody is too afraid to do it. People are just to scared.

[@H3rmon861]

One thing I found really sad about this video is how much of it is defined by "big figures". Critics about psychiatry are only legitimate or worth considering when it comes from an old white scholar who writes a book about it, while then and now, there are so many individual stories of people who went through horrible abuse and they are just swept under rug. This video somewhat alluded to that in the later half but most of it was omitted and I find that tragic. Like criticism is only valid when it is said by someone who look like members of the criticized institution. I’ve heard so many horror stories from a distant relative who got hospitalized for multiple years because of a shitty partner to an SA incident that happened while that person committed but never got any repercussion because she was called crazy that I can’t help but feel very annoyed at this. Just feels like psychiatry and psychotherapy has this "we can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs" mentality where they can being incredibly negligent and violently mess up at their job but it’s fine since other people have been helped by it.

[@saltiestsiren]

Anecdotes can't define a field of scientific study. Psychologists should study the harm done by psychiatry and how that affects patient's future prognoses and their biases. The reason they don't is because it's not seen as profitable by the institutes that grant the money to conduct this research. And so the money is hard to obtain.

[@cynthiab3548]

Now 75, Been depressed since early childhood. Tried dozens of meds and ECT and what is called therapy. No help at all. I hate psychiatry.

[@trentlytle7289]

I just wonder how much social stress from money impacts overall mental health. Maybe giving people money instead of making them pay for meds would change things

[@BossDrSample]

I was abused in an institution while trying to get help and shelter from an abusive situation

[@mardomacfleno2474]

When I was 9 years old a psychiatrist convinced my parents to force feed me amphetamines for 7 years, essentially stealing my childhood by making me tweaked out of my mind the whole 7 years. The same thing happened to many of my friends and some had it even worse. On top of them amphetamines they were experimented on with antidepressants and mood stabilizers that almost always made their moods worse and more erratic.

[@rdallas81]

Shame. A for profit. Those doctors market drugs for profit. They get kickbacks. I seen it. You are merely a means for them to guarantee they make 100,000 to 500,000 dollars per year. Making them wealthy and you an addict. Watch a movie called A SCANNER DARKLY. I think it's on KZbin

[@cerealfish9037]

I strongly believe it’s abuse to force someone to get psychiatric treatment. You can’t change someone that doesn’t want help. It also prevents people from seeking help. I felt like I had to walk on eggshells with healthcare providers while getting my self harm and suicidal ideation addressed. The punishment for misspeaking or over sharing is incarceration in a psych ward. Therapy and medication have really helped me, but I shouldn’t have to risk my autonomy for healthcare.

[@AJ-fh8ng]

I trained last year at the Philadelphia Association, the school started by RD laing. Was great! Please note RD laing's community house program did not die when they left Kingsley Hall. They still have two houses in London, to this day! PA therapists have always been open about how they may have their own issues, that they are also working through. And let's face it--that may be true of psychiatrists and psychologists more generally. Laing's school made a crucial intervention, by saying caring professionals really needed to look towards themselves.....

[@admetus3018]

I've always been open to the idea of being medicated and/or attending therapy. In high school, I expressed interest in therapy as I believed I was experiencing suicidal ideation and depression. My mother, who also takes similar meds to today, at the time turned me away from that and told me I was fine. Fast forward, I was about to turn 20 and I was in the US Army. In my short time with the army, I witnessed one person commit suicide, and two other "battle buddies" attempt suicide. Because of that when I came home, I experienced(and still experience), intense nightmares, waking up feeling like I'm there again. I dream about bullets flying past me and watching someone take their own life again and again. For a while, I turned to weed because it silenced my dreams/nightmares, but took a toll on my mental health in other ways. While today I still suffer from nightmares and PTSD, I am medicated and for the most part, I'm living a much better life. I truly believe if it wasn't for these meds and therapy, I most likely would've taken my life too. Not to say I don't struggle still, but the struggle isn't being fought with no help.

[@Mulejaw]

You make excellent points. I agree wholeheartedly with your take on meds and therapy.Too many people understandably resort to alcohol and substances to dull the horrible pain associated to mental illness but as soon as you mention meds that often can help in profound ways, folks get all freaked out. Enough of the fear mongering. I do think meds in many cases are over prescribed for the same reason folks get antibiotics prescribed for a common cold but there are millions who actually suffer deeply and meds can be life savers. Good on you and wishing you all the best

[@momorganro]

I take medication and have regular sessions with a psychiatrist, which has helped me a lot. Parents and fiancé though have a lot of anti medication anxiety, kinda pisses me off sometimes. I’ve also been victim to medical neglect/malpractice, but that’s happens in any field not just psychiatry or psychology

[@thenerdgirl1]

I have asked a few therapists/counsellors/psychiatrists over the years if they help people. Not once have they responded to that question. I don't think they do. I think they waste time and cause harm. I hate to think of everyone is malicious but why does increased funding in psychiatry not improve outcomes? Why aren't people getting better? I started getting better once I left gaslighting professionals and cleaned up my diet. When I was on meds I just got worse and worse. And I've never had vitamins make me worse. Just saying...

[@Alexis_Auto-matix]

Very interesting video. Thank you I have two things to say. 1. Yes please, I'd be very interested to see a video on the history of schizophrenia. 2. This video led me asking, what would mental health/illness and treatment look like in a society with universal basic income? Could you maybe discuss it in a future video? Looking forward to watching more of your work.

[@hannahowen1801]

I would also be interested to see a video on what mental health treatment would look like with universal basic income.

[@WylliamJudd]

2:40 - Here's how I feel about psychiatry. My life has been dramatically improved since I got on Lexapro. I feel that I am in more direct touch with my free will than I was before medication. The reason I suffer from anxiety is definitely related to how much stress and pressure I experience in my life, and I do worry about whether Lexapro is just letting me take on too much pressure in a superhuman way almost like performance enhancing drugs. On the other hand, there are no negative side effects for me personally. One side effect is that my body is warmer than it used to be, but that's a positive side effect for me where my body used to run too cold. Being able to do more and take on more and worry less is generally a good thing.

[@rdallas81]

You're giving the drug way too much credit. The drug is your excuse. You're actually the super person. When you figure that out, it will change your life.