Is psychiatry a way to get someone to appear "normal"?

I have been wondering if that is the case. I have heard about how meds often just make someone not act schizophrenic/ADHD/bipolar etc. They change behavior at the expense of the ability to think clearly and the person's physical health. And I think doing that will keep people from using their differences as strengths.

It is terrifying that there are people who prioritize looking normal over a neurodivergent person's well-being. But they exist, and it isn't limited to psychiatrists; they are just one of those people.

I will give you an example of what I mean. Autistics are often targets of those kinds of people. ABA therapists will coerce autistic children, and sometimes even autistic adults, into compliance. Even though that does not help them function. And sometimes autistic people are prescribed antipsychotics for aggression. This does not address the core problem with aggression, which is usually sensory overwhelm or having no other way to communicate. So autistics are then forced to endure pain, as they are too sedated to do anything to get away from it.

Yes, because they think if you don't act like them then you don't have a right to live your life. Instead of focusing on something impeding your functioning in daily life and how to ease some of that pain, they're focusing on how can they make you appear to be like everyone else as if that's going to make everything better. In reality there's nothing different about anyone because everyone's different. Even the so called "normal" people have patterns of behavior equivalent to those with "disorders". If we had enough doctors in the world everyone would have at least one diagnosis and at least five different pills to take. But society is society; keep the outcasts drugged up and they'll never be able to question anything.

IntellectualCat wrote:I have been wondering if that is the case. I have heard about how drugs often just make someone not act schizophrenic/ADHD/bipolar etc.

No, drugs make people acting very awkward. Everybody sees there is something major wrong with drugged people. Imagine you see someone walking like 90-years old, rocking back and forth like a zombie, unable to catch his breath, and he is not 90. He is in his 20's, drugged with antipsychotics.

Those drugs disable, they cause drug-induced disablement. Other names for it are chemical restraints. People who complained of hearing voices still are hearing voices! People who complained of bad mood still have a bad mood and much worse than before drugging! People who were too rowdy and annoyed others are still too rowdy and annoy others. Except that they are all now incredibly suffering, being drugged with a toxic, poisonous subtance which causes an incredible pain and suffering every second of being drugged. People who were healthy, active, and had a life are now zombies lying on their beds unable to do anything because they cannot breath and their muscles are all stiff, their body has involuntary rhytmic movement as the poisonous drug is attacking their central nervous system and damaging their brain.

Nobody appears normal, not even one of the victims, all of them are extremely disturbing to see and especially when on higher doses after they were protesting they do not want those drugs. They get drugged up to the max until they cannot even argue with anyone about anything.

Charlatans do it all purely for drug money. People appear normal only BEFORE drugging. After drugging, they are severely impaired, poisoned, helpless, defenseless, disabled, in a serious pain and suffering, in anguish, and gasping for air.

Is psychiatry a way to get someone to appear "normal"?


That's exactly it and it sort of works too , that is the scary part.

People on the make you flat and zombie like give you anhedoinia drugs look better to outside observers than they do in distress.

Outside observers who have never taken the drugs can't understand why someone would quit when they look so much 'better' drugged.


Anhedoinia is worse than mental distress. At least with mental distress you feel something.

I would say "normal" is what they try to advertise as an excuse to sell drugs, however in truth there is no such thing as normal. Everyone is different, no one can really define normal. Psychiatry is simply a conjecture. You are told to be acting like x rather then y, therefore you will be given z (pills) in hopes of acting like y.

A CONVERSATION with Prof Thomas Szasz... Like when he claims that there is no such thing as mental illness, it is just a way of stigmatizing behaviour that society does not want to live with. Or that psychiatry thrives on coercion and is replacing religion as a form of social control.


https://www.dcu.ie/news/dcutimes/spring_0408/p20-21.pdf

All kinds of writings come up when searching "psychiatry a form of social control".

Copy_Cat wrote:A CONVERSATION with Prof Thomas Szasz... Like when he claims that there is no such thing as mental illness, it is just a way of stigmatizing behaviour that society does not want to live with. Or that psychiatry thrives on coercion and is replacing religion as a form of social control.


https://www.dcu.ie/news/dcutimes/spring_0408/p20-21.pdf

All kinds of writings come up when searching "psychiatry a form of social control".

As much as I appreciated Szasz’s work, it is rather outdated.

I am sure that back in the 1960’s mental illness was indeed closer to myth. When I say that, I mean ‘diseases’ such as homosexuality were still ‘treatable’ back then. The need to intimidate and medicate people into conformity was also stronger then than it is now (the extent varying from place to place of course).

I do not think that psychiatry is a way to get people to appear ‘normal’, so much as it is a way to convince ‘normal’ people they are sick/special. Everyone has a diagnosis these days. Being mentally ill is the new normal in the 21st century.

Copy_Cat wrote:There is no such thing as mental illness, it is just a way of stigmatizing behavior that society does not want to live with. (Thomas Szasz)

Excellent job, Copy_Cat! This is the best explanation I have read, and the bottom of it! You are very good at quoting research.

Copy_Cat wrote:Psychiatry thrives on coercion and is replacing religion as a form of social control.

Excellent! You are so right!

Locking people up and forcing them to take poisons with restraining effects is not a way to alleviate emotional distress. When poisoned, people cannot think and are extremely gullible, believe everything, even believe that they are ill when they aren't, and that they are getting help when they aren't. In reality, they are healthy, and they are getting poisoned. When done, they are getting BSed to keep poisoning themselves as a condition of release. Horrible! It is a way of making drug money on restraining people who annoyed someone with their behavior.

Decry wrote:

Copy_Cat wrote:A CONVERSATION with Prof Thomas Szasz... Like when he claims that there is no such thing as mental illness, it is just a way of stigmatizing behaviour that society does not want to live with. Or that psychiatry thrives on coercion and is replacing religion as a form of social control.


https://www.dcu.ie/news/dcutimes/spring_0408/p20-21.pdf

All kinds of writings come up when searching "psychiatry a form of social control".

As much as I appreciated Szasz’s work, it is rather outdated.

I am sure that back in the 1960’s mental illness was indeed closer to myth. When I say that, I mean ‘diseases’ such as homosexuality were still ‘treatable’ back then. The need to intimidate and medicate people into conformity was also stronger then than it is now (the extent varying from place to place of course).

Yeah. During the time Thomas Szasz started publishing his ideas, brain imaging wasn't effective enough to show brain differences. But now it is. That said, the idea chemical imbalance is the cause of "mental illnesses" does not have much scientific support.

On the other hand, I can tell you that disabled neurodivergent people often get coerced into conformity even today in various ways. Trust me, it has happened to me.

-- Thu Aug 20, 2015 4:48 pm --

Copy_Cat wrote:Is psychiatry a way to get someone to appear "normal"?


That's exactly it and it sort of works too , that is the scary part.

People on the make you flat and zombie like give you anhedoinia drugs look better to outside observers than they do in distress.

Outside observers who have never taken the drugs can't understand why someone would quit when they look so much 'better' drugged.


Anhedoinia is worse than mental distress. At least with mental distress you feel something.

It seems to me that when people want others to be normal, they only care about a superficial appearance of normality. And some equate looking normal externally to being normal mentally. But really, their natural ways of acting have been suppressed in some way.

I often see people say to people that they have to continue to take their meds when they complain about the drug not working or complain about side effects. Like, really? Aren't there other options to help themselves?

When I was on Serequol my mom would make me go everywhere with her and was alot kinder to me because I just stared straight ahead with no emotions and didn't bother her. Now that I am off (most) of the drugs she complains that "I look mad." Today I was in a bad mood from trying to get off lorazapam and she brings up abillify as a "mood stabilizer"....It really never ends..
My mother isn't normal though actually. She's mentally ill and will never admit it. Bringing up my "flaws" and the damage from the halidol I was forced to take for 3 weeks probably makes her feel saner.