Being Gaslighted by Psychaitry

For those who don't know gaslighting is, it means tricking someone into thinking that they are crazy when they are not.

It's a topic I want to discuss. Being gaslighted by a psychiatrist or any other mental health professional is a conundrum. It puts the client in a catch-22, they either have to deal with the misdiagnoses or they disagree with the diagnoses only for it to be used against them as refusal to accept diagnoses is used as a sign of mental illness. It's a lose-lose situation that put the client in a defenseless position.

It kind of sucks that disagreement with a diagnoses is seen as symptom of mental illness because what if it is a misdiagnoses?

Another thing horrible about gaslighting is that it makes the victim look and feel crazy. So when the client gets gaslighted it makes mental health professionals treat them as if they are crazy. They give them psychiatric treatment to cure or manage the victim not realizing they are perpetuating the gaslighting making the victim even more lost and confuse. The whole time they just need to stop and leave the gasligthed victim alone.

"Uh, address the chair!"

"There isn't a chair, there's only a rock."

"Well call it a chair."

"Why not call it a rock?" - "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"


Misdiagnosis > gaslighting

HesDeltanCaptain wrote:"Uh, address the chair!"

"There isn't a chair, there's only a rock."

"Well call it a chair."

"Why not call it a rock?" - "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"


Misdiagnosis > gaslighting

?

Yes gaslightling is all to common, but no one seems to want to talk about it. Its probably happened with every psych I've ever talked to, being that my abusive mother told the drs I was 'psychotic' and I was just upset, as a trauma and abuse victim I do not consider myself to be mentally ill or have any symtoms of mental illness, just normal reactions to traumatic things, but indeed they drs always believed her and gaslighted me to the full. So I just 'played the game' don't know if that was the right way to go or not as im now permanently damaged my body from the drugs I wont even go into it ive written about it in earlier posts. But I just sat there and said whatever they want me to so I could get out of there or get off a CTO.

On another note, im having internet problems so I havnt had it on for last week or so and don't know how long itll last this time, im switching providers so hopefully i'll be back soon.

Id like to write more on this subject but gotta do things, so i'll check back in again later, I know its horrible and ppl need toknnow whats going on , im so glad there is more stuff going on towards this in the US but in Australia there is no awares ness that psychiatry can actually be harmful im so disappointed at this, I cant speak to anyone about it! they just don't understand, so just try to be strong and clever and get away from psychiatry as quickly as possible.

Devilock wrote: So I just 'played the game' don't know if that was the right way to go or not as im now permanently damaged my body from the drugs I wont even go into it ive written about it in earlier posts. But I just sat there and said whatever they want me to so I could get out of there or get off a CTO.

I'm sorry that has happened to you.
Same thing happened to me, or similar anyways. I just went along with it hoping that if I came off as "compliant" they would treat me a bit more decently and things would get better in the end anyways, but it didn't happen
By being more compliant I dug myself into a deeper grave. In other words, by not sharing my opinions or how I felt and acted like they wanted me to it only confirmed to their already bias. So then, whenever I did share my opinions and feeling that didn't confirm to them or acted different then they wanted, they box me back to being "non-compliant". It's a catch - 22

Devilock wrote:I know its horrible and ppl need toknnow whats going on , im so glad there is more stuff going on towards this in the US but in Australia there is no awares ness that psychiatry can actually be harmful im so disappointed at this, I cant speak to anyone about it!

Unfortunately it is very bad here in America. There are efforts to rid stigma in mental health but mainly ridding the stigma from receiving treatment and not the stigma that people who are diagnosed with mental illness experiences i.e. sanism. So people like you and me are left out of the movement. We are the one who are accused of stigmatizing mental health treatment for sharing our personal yet very real experience in treatment. The problem, atleast here in America, you are either seen as pro-psychiatry which is associated as sane, healthy and educated OR you are labelled as a scientologist/anti-psychiatry which is associated to insane, unhealthy and uneducated. There is no middle ground for people who has legitimate incidents in psychiatry to exclaim their negative experience, be taken seriously and work towards a productive solution. Psychiatry here has a strict "you're either with us or against us" mentality.

Falander wrote:

Devilock wrote: So I just 'played the game' don't know if that was the right way to go or not as im now permanently damaged my body from the drugs I wont even go into it ive written about it in earlier posts. But I just sat there and said whatever they want me to so I could get out of there or get off a CTO.

I'm sorry that has happened to you.
Same thing happened to me, or similar anyways. I just went along with it hoping that if I came off as "compliant" they would treat me a bit more decently and things would get better in the end anyways, but it didn't happen
By being more compliant I dug myself into a deeper grave. In other words, by not sharing my opinions or how I felt and acted like they wanted me to it only confirmed to their already bias. So then, whenever I did share my opinions and feeling that didn't confirm to them or acted different then they wanted, they box me back to being "non-compliant". It's a catch - 22

Devilock wrote:I know its horrible and ppl need toknnow whats going on , im so glad there is more stuff going on towards this in the US but in Australia there is no awares ness that psychiatry can actually be harmful im so disappointed at this, I cant speak to anyone about it!

Unfortunately it is very bad here in America. There are efforts to rid stigma in mental health but mainly ridding the stigma from receiving treatment and not the stigma that people who are diagnosed with mental illness experiences i.e. sanism. So people like you and me are left out of the movement. We are the one who are accused of stigmatizing mental health treatment for sharing our personal yet very real experience in treatment. The problem, atleast here in America, you are either seen as pro-psychiatry which is associated as sane, healthy and educated OR you are labelled as a scientologist/anti-psychiatry which is associated to insane, unhealthy and uneducated. There is no middle ground for people who has legitimate incidents in psychiatry to exclaim their negative experience, be taken seriously and work towards a productive solution. Psychiatry here has a strict "you're either with us or against us" mentality.

Which is ignorant and harmful. I only post on this anti-psych section of the forum but I am not totally anti-psych. I am simply against the mental health field because they can not diagnose anything they simply label people. Once the person is labeled they can then be subjected to force psychiatry, rape, torture, and become a tool for the criminals that have infiltrated the field because they see that it is not built off of facts, which in theory makes it easy to hide behind.

"Gaslighting" has another name, and like gaslighting, nobody wants to talk about it either.

One result of gaslighting is that many perfectly functional, mentally healthy people end up in the psychiatric system. Including professionals like doctors, scientists, engineers, lawyers.

The other name is "organized stalking." OS is described in a brief e-booklet at this link, for any who may be interested:

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EleanorW

If your own parents are professionals (in my case a Doctor and a nurse who used to work in a psyche ward)-and call you crazy-not willing or able to look at their own dysfunction(including alcohol,pornography addiction,anger,etc)....the child is powerless. when i attempted suicide as a teenager they committed me to a mental institution and my father told me i might be there for life. that led to me making another suicide attempt in the hospital because they were forcibly injecting me with thorazine which was making my muscles contort so i LOOKED crazy.There was an orderly working there who would say cruel things to me and seemed to enjoy putting me in restraints when i resisted the thorazine which felt like a chemical straight jacket. Talk about trauma-i felt that i was being tortured with my parents willing consent and this was going to be for the rest of my life.My parents had told me i was a bad child from an early age-i was the scapegoat among 5 children-and felt hated by my family. I felt i was now being torture for being so BAD. What a nightmare. But the mental "health" system is BIG business-supporting all the wealthy Doctors like my father.
That is just a tiny part of my story-that was over 40 years ago. I have to say i still struggle in life-but i take no drugs , live independently and am perfectly sane.

"That is just a tiny part of my story-that was over 40 years ago. I have to say i still struggle in life-but i take no drugs , live independently and am perfectly sane."

You are a HERO, Heather_55!

Heather_55 wrote:If your own parents are professionals (in my case a Doctor and a nurse who used to work in a psyche ward)-and call you crazy-not willing or able to look at their own dysfunction(including alcohol,pornography addiction,anger,etc)....the child is powerless. when i attempted suicide as a teenager they committed me to a mental institution and my father told me i might be there for life. that led to me making another suicide attempt in the hospital because they were forcibly injecting me with thorazine which was making my muscles contort so i LOOKED crazy.There was an orderly working there who would say cruel things to me and seemed to enjoy putting me in restraints when i resisted the thorazine which felt like a chemical straight jacket. Talk about trauma-i felt that i was being tortured with my parents willing consent and this was going to be for the rest of my life.My parents had told me i was a bad child from an early age-i was the scapegoat among 5 children-and felt hated by my family. I felt i was now being torture for being so BAD. What a nightmare. But the mental "health" system is BIG business-supporting all the wealthy Doctors like my father.
That is just a tiny part of my story-that was over 40 years ago. I have to say i still struggle in life-but i take no drugs , live independently and am perfectly sane.

I hate it when these type of paradoxical situation happens. When the treatment IS whats causes the problem but no one would listen to the patient because there is so much bias against them. They assume that because someone is a patient that his or her perception is always off and lacks any self awareness.

I'm sorry that happened to you and I am glad you are in a better place now.