Psychiatry is not a science, just look up the Rosenhan experiment. Mental health/illness is very real and important. But psychiatry is healthcare, not an actual science.
It really is funny to me how offended people get when I tell them that psychiatry is not a real science. It is like they don't understand English and assume I am saying that mental illness isn't real or that mental health isn't important.
The question the experiment wanted to address was, once you’ve been labeled with a psychiatric condition, how do you prove yourself “healthy”? Or how can you disprove a label once it has been attached to you by a mental health "professional"?
During the Rosenhan experiment the participants pretended to be having hallucinations to get themselves admitted to a mental hospital. Basically they picked "pseudopatients" (healthy individuals) to try to get themselves admitted to mental hospitals. And then they started acting normally again in the hospitals to see how long it would take the hospitals to release them. The pseudopatients remained hospitalized for an average of 19 days, with some staying as long as 52 days.
So when I tell people psychiatry is not a science and they get offended I tell them to look up this experiment. Of course, there are quite a few articles arguing that there were inconsistencies or saying it cannot be trusted. It makes sense that a society that worships psychiatry would be desperate to cling to and justify the horrors and stigma that these mental hospitals create. The barriers they create that make it even harder for people struggling to build a life worth living for themselves.
And the worst part? They talk all of the time about how we need to de-stigmatize mental health and mental illness, all the while these mental health "professionals" are the VERY REASON mental illness is so stigmatized.
People want to live in their false reality, their comfortable lie that cruel and unusual treatment of psych patients in hospitals is a thing of the past. It's not.
I am confused about your idea that mental health professionals are the reason mental illness is so stigmatised. Could you explain it?
@Mysticochan What I mean by that is the horrible abuse and mistreatment that goes on in this hospitals AND the unbalanced often unchecked amount of power these mental health professionals has makes the stigma around mental health worse. Someone who has been forcibly hospitalized and then mistreated further in the hospital is going to be hesitant to seek help which isn't good but it makes sense since they have been harmed by the mental health professionals in the past. Also the unbalanced and often unchecked power. Things like forced ECT (Electroshock therapy) still existing and people I met who didn't need to be in the hospital but were kept there much longer than they needed because "The doctor said so". And people will often say "Well there are laws and procedures, the psychiatrists have to go to court to force medication or ECT on someone or to keep someone." But I experienced these court proceedings first hand because they happened to me, and what most people don't realize unless they have experienced it is that it is mostly for show. To check off the box and say they did something. But it is very hard for a patient facing forced treatment or hospitalization to win in court against a doctor because of the bias or stigma, everything that patient says is viewed through the lens of "this person is crazy" and the doctor is viewed as "oh they are a doctor, everything they say is true". Also I was misdiagnosed with BPD and have been fighting for quite a bit to get it off my chart but it is surprisingly hard to update mental health diagnosis even with the word of my most recent psychiatrist. But somehow the word of a doctor who saw me once five years ago holds more weight that both a more recent doctor and my experience and word combined. Also the way that psych nurses especially are online, I see a lot of them in online spaces talking about the patients with such infantilization and talking bad about these patients they are taking care of, or even talking in support of trying people to beds and locking them in rooms. Obviously it is sometimes necessary for safety, but the way some of these nurses talk about it online is just sickening as someone who has PTSD from that (I was often tied to beds or locked in a room due to having PTSD or panic attacks I could not control) And I guess just the way these nurses talk about people with mental illness in this dehumanizing manner, making them broken objects instead of people. Hopefully this helps clear up what I meant, feel free to ask any other questions you have :)
@Mysticochan And obviously mental health professionals aren't THE sole reason mental health is stigmatized, but they are a pretty big reason.
@rachelrae2003 thank you for your detailed explanation.
I haven't thought about hospitals. I was thinking about my experience with mental health professionals. Now, I see your point. I avoided going to a mental health-related clinic all the time, and now I can tell why I am scared to go there, thanks to your explanation.
Misdiagnosing is extremely harmful, and unfortunately, I also had some experience with it.
@Mysticochan Yes it is very harmful, I am sorry you have had experience with it. If you are struggling with your mental health though, don't struggle in silence. There are other options than mental hospitals like therapy and outpatient visits with a psychiatrist to help you get meds. If you have meds that work for you it can help a lot. I am very sensitive to meds so they don't work for me and I have tried many, but that is okay. I am glad that other people are able to get meds that help. Therapy is also really helpful as well! And it is important to have a good support system. So just make sure you aren't fighting alone or in silence. 🫂🫂
@rachelrae2003 I agree with the support system. I have a person I can talk to, even though I struggle to talk to him about it.
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