-DOES ANYBODY HAVE AN ANSWER-?-

I really want an answer, I am not suggesting that people stop taking their medicine etc. and or getting the help they need.....

IF people with serious mental illness did nothing, would they be better off.... People with serious mental illness have years of pain and suffering and experimentation etc., if they deal with the mental health industry.... Please do not give me the exception to the above statement, give me what you think the majority of people with serious mental illness should do and why....

Ps, the above is meant to give you a voice in how you are treated by society because you are the ones with serious mental illness and are the ones that are suffering.....

I know what the answer is not. There was a very eccentric woman that was kind of bag lady like in a town I lived in for a wile but she was not homeless. She would dress in these wild outfits or costumes and just be out in town all day long doing whatever she did the way she liked to do it.

I think the worst thing that ever happends to an eccentric person like that is some well meaning person decides to get them "help" with there so called mental illness and all that goes with that.

This woman has "serious mental illness" as its defined does nothing and is better off, hell ya.

KINDNESSTHERAPY wrote:Please do not give me the exception to the above statement, give me what you think the majority of people with serious mental illness should do and why....

I think this is looking at things in the wrong way, why should we group "the majority of people with serious mental illness" into one category? Why can't individuals choose for themselves what is best for them?

-Cheze2- You have a good point in that people with mental illness should be able to decide for themselves what kind of treatment they want...

The problem with this idea is that -YOU- etc. don't stand a chance against the mental health industry and or the legal system and or society and or supposed mental health professionals etc. etc. etc....

KINDNESSTHERAPY wrote: IF people with serious mental illness did nothing, would they be better off....

In order to warrant a diagnosis, the symptoms must cause them some pain in some areas of their life, or at least some kinds of deficits. So I'd say no, and I'm sure they'd agree with me. Well, alot of them anyway.

What does that "doing something" look like though? Well... I think that it should be what the person undergoing the treatment is comfortable with. Whether it be adapting yourself and your enviroment to your ability to cope, or taking meds, or whatever that may be.

People with serious mental illness have years of pain and suffering and experimentation etc., if they deal with the mental health industry....

While an unfortunate side problem in treatment, it is the path that helps alot of people. Though its not for everyone. Despite what well meaning psychs will say.

Please do not give me the exception to the above statement, give me what you think the majority of people with serious mental illness should do and why....

Ps, the above is meant to give you a voice in how you are treated by society because you are the ones with serious mental illness and are the ones that are suffering.....

The majority of people should seek the type of help that most fits and is comfortable to them. They shouldn't be forced to undergo a treatment.

If you're a physical threat to yourself or others, or are so dysfunctional you can't function in society, stay on your meds. Otherwise I'm more a talk-therapy proponent.

Psychology > Psychiatry.

-Interesting-, good replies so far.....

Maybe I am interpreting wrongly what I learned in the past from clients who had serious mental illness. They almost universally gave me their -TRUE- opinions and this was very rare among people who had serious mental illness. They trusted almost nobody because if they told caregivers and or familly members and or supposed mental health professionals etc., this really personal information woud come back and bite them. They had been screwed by the system so ofton that they learned to -B S- and tell people what they wanted to hear. I WILL REPEAT THE ABOVE, people with serious mental illness almost always tell whatever story and or facts etc. that will make everybody happy and will not come back to bite them. If they told you the truth it would mean more meds and or medical expermentation and or confinement etc. etc. etc....

To me it depends entirely on the type of treatment we're talking about.

For a long time I've had great outpatient treatment that's really helped me get through - very supportive and not coercive. I wouldn't be alive without it. The meds have been a crapshoot. Some meds have made things worse, but I've definitely been on meds that have helped a lot.

On the other hand I'm absolutely against forced treatment, I basically think there's no evidence it helps, lots of evidence it harms and it should be banned period.

And I have definitely seen just enough of the dark side of the mental health system to get where you're coming from. The last time I was admitted to the hospital not only did it not help at all it made things worse. There was nothing supportive about it and though some of the staff were nice, others were definitely on power trips. I was totally "compliant" but I still ended up being lectured and threatened and patronized and grilled. At one point I was forced to stay up all night in an area without a bed and with a t.v. blaring just so they could constantly watch me. Sleep deprivation and mental illness? Not a great combination. And this was a private hospital with a good reputation.

I ended up lying and pretending I was better - first just to get some sleep and then to get out.

And I was not psychotic or schizophrenic or manic or disorganized. I basically was not a behavioral problem. So I can't imagine what it must be like if you are and you're in an even worse hospital and forced to be there to boot.

It struck me that the sicker you are, and the more you need help, the worse the treatment, which is just ass-backwards of how it should be.

-angelina4- A VERY GOOD COMMENT, you sound like you are half way home to full recevery which is very rare in the mental health industry....

it is impossible to have true insight into the self and what makes you tick being engulfed by the industry education to mythical definitions and the drugs that block the ability of self-realisation and true insight into their own nature and the nature of the world and social life....I aam seperating myself from them, treating them as a joke and on a path of healing that I couldn't possibly do under the influence of the antipsychotic that shuts down all self-reflections and learning wisdom to deal with a very sick world in its current evolutionary moment.,the elite in ppower waant to keep us down thats why schiz treatment is the way it is to agrivate emotional problems to get a diagnosis of someone dealing with the filth of the the world......take a step back to see things more objectivelly especially oneself when forced with the projections of mythical image of mental illness;s that one can never know the truth while being forced to have insight to an illness that doesn't say anything and is not accurate or insightfull....more people recover fully by going off antipsychotics then ones who stay on! psychiatry offers nothing for true recovery just the acceptence of drugs and treatment as a defect of the social ladder...... they wouldn't want a person seen as ill climbing that ladder when they get off the drugs and start setting goals in life again....don't know about the others but antipsychotics made for poor lifestyle habits and inability to set goals and have pride in self, they teach us not to be empowered and see ourselves as defective for the purpose of being a customer of the drug industry.

to give you an example, I can now feel joy and love, the illness the antipsychotic induces is worse then the feelings of empowerment to make social change and evolution of humanity to accord with the ancients.....to accord with the ancients opens one up to the potentials of mankind and the apparent psychosis is just a part of this realisation of social web and the universe knowing a light is at the end and spiritual evolution....unfortunately those spontaneosly on the path of the ancients didn't intend for the initiations into new way that is dramatic and maybe traumatising with scarry self=realisations experiences of the vast and immeasurable universe....they could be guided and nurtured treated with res[pect and that will dissolve the "symptoms" of alienation and difficulty presenting insight into triggers when no0thing they say is considered or respected coz the professional just discriminates the person as mentally ill and not worth the time to listen to.....we could teach them, but they won't listen they just listen to the drug industry,,,,they barely even want to listen to how the drugs effect [people instead believing the drug industry and make out the side effects as symp-toms, its rediculous...now I am proving myself right and taking ownership of my life which is vital for healing.....psychiatry doesn't do anybody any good if they go along with it and have insight they are so far from devine [path or realisation and evolution and truth, it is a lie....any intelligent and independent person won't have required insight into definitions of mental disease or be grouped according to quackery/

did I come close to having an answer??? its almost up to standard except long paragraphs and I not completely free yet to intellectualise the answer.......