@louis What is?
Its hard for me to respond to that because i wasnt there, we just have your opinion. While i completely believe it is an honest opinion you hold, its still tricky on a few accounts.
For example if i take everything at face value then it sounds like you just had some really shitty doctors. From what I know of UK healthcare that is no surprise your system is horrific and you will have a hard time finding qualified doctors in general.
If that is the case that is not an argument against psychiatry it is only an arguments against unqualified psychiatrists. Which i agree are likely to do more harm than good.
The other side of the coin is that depending on the nature of your mental health its hard to gauge what sort of mental health issues you have and if that prevents you or not from being objective about your own treatment. Not saying this applies to you, I dont know you. But it is common for many with mental illness.
I once helped someone I cared about who as he got older developed Paranoid Schizophrenia rather severely. When untreated he couldn't sleep, believed people were beaming thoughts in his head, telling him to kill himself, i would often find him just crying in his room alone due to all the stress.
Despite this he refused treatment of any kind. He felt everyone was part of some grand conspiracy, doctors, me, everyone, so he naturally refused. Ultimately i told him the only way i would continue to help him is if he was getting treatment, otherwise he had to go back and live with his parents. This was enough for him to seek his treatment and take medication.
The thing is on medication he gave me a huge hug and cried as he told me how much happier he was and how grateful he was to me for forcing it on him in his otherwise incoherent state. Thing is after a few weeks he told me he was stopping the medication as he didnt feel he actually needed, he thought he was healthy again and the meds just "made him tired". So he went off of it and back to his old self in a few days.
The thing is when he isn't on the meds he would say things that sound similar, that it was all horrible and just part of the torture and "mind games" of the conspiracy. Despite the fact that clearly when he was on it and rational he felt it was helpful.
Long story short its hard to know without knowing someones mental health history if that may not apply or not.
I beleive you. I have had some pretty horrific expiernce in American hospitals (not so much mental health but id imagine they can be pretty shitty too).
But i maintain my point, the issue you had was shitty doctors, not so much the whole principle of mental health, treatment and medication, just the more specific case of how it applied to you.
I'd also agree that we should strive to make sure that doesnt happen. We need to make sure we have well trained, high quality psychiatrists. That is so critical.
Sadly I find that is a fairly universal problem with all single-payer healthcare. You get severly underpaid healthcare workers who need to diagnose you in 10 minutes and are paid so low no one wants to enter the industry either.
Dont get me wrong I'm not arguing for a purely free-market healthcare system either. I have a pretty solid solution IMO that is neither of these.
PArtly, but i agree a politician isnt likely to do a very good job fixing anything. We do admittedly have pretty shitty politicians in the USA.
That was my whole point with single-payer. It doesnt work (that is just the government throwing money at something). As I said, just as a pure free market doesnt work.
You can have neither of these in several potential systems.
While I stand by the point that medication and therapy when done right and with the proper care are overall more beneficial than harmful I did want to share this image just for the lols and to lighten the mood a little.
this is basically how you guys see pharmacists :)
I've been to many a Psychiatrist. Not one has ever suggested to me a drug.
The reason its so common is because if someone is severe enough to seek mental health there is a good chance they need something more than just talk to cope with their symptoms.
Its exactly the same as the following silly argument: "Isn't it weird that most people who go to see a surgeon wind up getting one of the 20 surgeries that doctor performs".. Well duh, thats probably why most people went to see said doctor, to get treatment, so lets not be surprised that they... get treatment.
If we use the opinions of licensed therapists to sway us. Then why THIS licensed therapist you linked? Why not one fromt he vast majority who are more educated (not just licensed therapy but actual psychologists who need much more training)? Seems like a overly cherry picked source with minimal credentials...
I checked myself in each time when I realised I was getting out of control. It was only after all that that I realised how bad it was for me. The people were nice enough but the treatment wasn't what I needed. I've had to manage myself. I needed help because I was depressed, suicidal and attempting self-harm although it wasn't permanent with scars.
The meds were given to me by the GP. It was only meant to be temporary but it turned into over a year. I mentioned even being suicidal on them. It didn't help me and put me out of pocket. When I mentioned it wasn't working, the dose was put up. No one put me on anything else. Honestly, lifestyle changes have been the best for me... and I think a good support network would have worked. It's hard to have these in the modern day.