Can you be anti-psych and still believe in psychiatry?

Strange question I know, but I'm in limbo somehow.

Ok... I am very anti certain aspects of psychiatry. I think mental illness is often ill-defined and misdiagnosed. I think psychitric drugs are handed out far too often, to people who don't neccessarily need them, and that alternative methods of treatment are not used anywhere near enough. I believe that certain disorders are being used as an excuse, by the sufferers, by psychiatry, and by society and that many of those disorders are often little more than human nature in its various guises. I believe forced treatment is wrong (I do struggle with that one though, since forced treatment did save my mother's life and probably mine and my brother's as a result) and I feel that more information on medication and alternatives to it should be freely available to all.

But... I do also believe that mental illness exists (ok - maybe not illness as such, but I do believe that some people's brains work differently to others, and that those differences are rooted in the physical. I believe that the schizophrenia that I have is a real condition; it is there, my brain messes up the information it has to work with - I don't call that an illness particularly but nor do I subscribe to the theory it is not real. It is. And after over ten years of trying, I still can't switch it off like some claim to be able to do.) I believe that in the right situation, with the right support and understanding, that that 'difference' could be no more of a problem than my lazy eye, or my husband's limp - that a physical difference such as schizophrenia seems to me to be is not neccessarily something that needs to be treated much of the time, so much as accepted and understood. I also believe though that the culture and society in which I live makes that impossible, and that as a result, I need help to live with this and to be accpeted - and that for me ritght now, medication offers some of that help. I don't think that that neccessarily means that psychiatry is evil, or that I am a failure. I think it is trying to offer me help as best it can; psychiatry in this case is trying to be what society can't - it's inadequate and misguided but at least it's trying.

I do not think all psychiatry is evil. I think that whatever its' limitations, most of the people I've been invlved with (keyworkers, psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists and so on) are acting on the best intentions; most that I've met really do care. They just operate within an inadequate system, with poorly deifned parameters, and they are bound to fail in many caeses because they are trying to offer the help, support and understanding sopciety should be offering. Psychiatry cannot put right what is wrong with an entire culture (I think it thinks it can at times... psychiatry can be very arrogant - but then so can most people-driven machines). But that does not mean that everything to do with psychiatry is wrong, or corrupt, or evil, or malicious in intent.

The anti-psych posters think I'm pro-psych. The pro-psych posters think I'm anti-psych. It seems that you can't be on either side and look at it from both - and see merits in both. I feel absolutely alone; that the way I see things doesn't fit with any other. (Although I've kind of got used to that by now! )

So, how many other people have the same kind of view? How many of you can actually identify with both sides? How many people here feel that they are neither anti nor pro psych - or, like me, a bit of both?

another thread designed to invite people to stir up people who've been harmed by bio-psychiarty!

this thread should be moved.

No, it's not at all. I'm still coming to terms with what happened to me in hospital. I have terrible memories of ECT and still feel the after-effects. I am spending my life fighting weight gain, akasthesia and feeling like there are no answers at all. I asked about med-free recovery and was told it probably isn't an option in my situation.

I really hoped to find some support here; but it seems that only happens if you denounce psychiatry completely, which I can't do.

I don't post on schziophrenia.com any more; they are so pro-psych I find it soul-destroying.

But I don't know that this place is really much better; at least there weren't all these faceless people posting as guest there. At least I had a feeling I knew who was talking to me.

So that's all this was - just asking if anyone else in here feels the same. Guest 1 - you obviously don't. But don't assume you know my story, or what harm I have or have not suffered, since you plainly don;t.

It seems clear what this forum is for, discussing Anti-Psychiatry for people who have been harmed by Psychiatry.

\"Anti-Psych Forum
Open discussion about the Anti-Psychiatry Movement and related topics. This includes the opposition to forced treatment and hospitalization as well as the belief that Psychiatric Medication does more harm than good. Please note that these topics are controversial and therefore this forum may offend some people. This is not the belief of Psych Forums or Get Mental Help and this forum was posted to offer a safe place to discuss these beliefs.
Moderator fomori4hire\"

Not, oh well, Psychiatry is not all bad, it has its good points.

Isme wrote:But I don't know that this place is really much better; at least there weren't all these faceless people posting as guest there. At least I had a feeling I knew who was talking to me.

posting anonymously?

did you see in the news where those yahoo.com executives traced the contact details of chinese disedents and gave the details to the chinese government? those poor barstards are probably already dead.

paranoid? bet your ass I am!

i don't want any asshole shrink finding out where i am and dragging me back to a hospital to torture and punish me more.

Soteria is the best example of treatment. Second, psychiatrists should give safe pseudo drugs and don't tell their patients.

Anonymous wrote:

Isme wrote:But I don't know that this place is really much better; at least there weren't all these faceless people posting as guest there. At least I had a feeling I knew who was talking to me.

posting anonymously?

did you see in the news where those yahoo.com executives traced the contact details of chinese disedents and gave the details to the chinese government? those poor barstards are probably already dead.

paranoid? bet your ass I am!

i don't want any asshole shrink finding out where i am and dragging me back to a hospital to torture and punish me more.

No, I didn't see that. I don't read or listen to news much, sorry. Can't cope with all teh subliminal stuff they broadcast at the same time. News is propaganda much of the time; they're not brainwashing me that way. You could still sign a name though. Wouldn't need to be your name at all, and there'd still be no way to trace you because you wouldn't be logged in.

I just have a problem with anonimity in some cases - I find it hard to trust people. But reading your post, I can see your reasons, and I respect that.

Last guest - the more I read about Soteria, the more I wish that there was still a place like that for us. I suppose what I want to try and do is ceate my own soteria in my life, if that's possible.

So... it looks like I'm pretty much on my own here then. I'm not pro-psych enough for most, adn not anti-psych enough for here.

My problem is that most of the good help I *am* getting is via psychiatry. So how do I equate tyhat with condemning it outright? It's hard to throw it back at them when I am getting some benefit.

I do respect that there are polenty of people who have had no benefit at all; who have experienced only harm. I'm honestly verry sorry that they have; nobosdy should have to go through what some have suffered at the hands of any branch of medicine (or pseudo-medicine). I have a really close friend who was crippled by a surgeon who carried out a procedure on this friend he should never have attempted. He acted through arrogance and ignorance and my friend can't walk now. Friend has seen other consultants who were appalled at what this man has done. I suppose the way my friend feels is akin to how I feel; I was damaged, and I will never let anyone do that to me agaihn. Nor will my friend. But my friend also recognises the good in those who *are* helping my friend now. I guess that's how I feel. I hate what psychiatry is, and what it does; but I also have to recognise the fact that within it, at least in my life, there are some good people who are teaching me better ways to deal with this. It would be wrong of me to condemn them for that. If that means I am not welcome to post here, that the harm I suffered is not valid or that I don't qualify to have my voice heard too, then so be it. I will not condemn those who do hear my voice, and validate itt.

Psychiatry just has no hard evidence for me to be believeing in it at the moment.They have a long way to go before understanding how the brain works yet before giving and forcing mind altering chemical treatments on people.

Lets look at just a few points why not to believe Psychiatrists.

1) They don't know how the drugs work or their effects

Q How do Psychiatric drugs work

Royal College of Psychiatrists

We don't know for certain, but we think that......

blah.....blah......blah

2) They don't know whether Mental Disorders are just Psychological or actual Medical conditions.

I do think that some Mental Disorders have a physical element but the troubling thing is that Psychiatry does not have the answers
or treatment.It's still very much a trial and error thing

"We are going in there [the brain] with the equivalent of a bulldozer to knock down roads and tear up rail lines and pull down telegraph exchanges. You have to ask, do we know enough to play these kinds of games with other people's brains?"

Paul Mullen
Professor of Forensic Psychiatry
Australia (1999)

Interesting question.

Can you be anti-psych and still believe in psychiatry? Yes. I think the *concept* of psychiatry and the benefits it can potentially offer is quite valid. However, while the concept may be valid and useful, psychiatry's understanding of human behavior is so convoluted and distorted, that the real world application of their distorted knowledge is harmful at worst and generally useless at best. There are exceptions, of course, but relatively few.

Yes Isme, it seems we have similar points of view.

Where does this put me in terms of this forum? I dunno. The way I see it, most of the other forums - specifically the people in them - wouldn't need a place like this if shrinks did their job. I imagine that's an anti-psych perspective but since I've only recently begun reading here, I can only guess.