I promised myself that I wasn’t going to get on here today–try to get some stuff done around here, but alas, I couldn’t pull myself away from this heartwrenching post.
Having worked in a state hospital, I can say that everything he wrote is true in my experience.
Some of you might recall the story of the new psychiatrist whom was bullied by the staff with more seniority. They wanted her to give a certain drug to a patient. She refused, saying that it was not warranted for this particular patients’ issues. She had also brought up other stuff that the staff did not want to face. She was compassionate towards the patients and had designed a terrific video on exploring their feelings and the circumstances surrounding them–to help them recognize patterns so they could deal with them better. And one day, when passing on the sidewalk, she related the bullying story to me, but was looking around the entire time to make sure no one saw us talking! incredible.
Another story–a nurse came to the hospital to give a talk to the staff and I was videotaping it. She related her own story of being locked away in a mental institution where she was catatonic (not speaking). One nurse, however, kept talking to her every day. She would encourage her and tell her that someday when she was ready, she would talk again. And she did.
Another story–there was a patient that um, for want of a better word, “got around”. The staff labeled her as a slut. I was thinking that she was probably sexually abused and this was the way she had been taught to connect with people. How is she supposed to know any different when she has been disrespected?
Freud was all about power and control. He and others appointed themselves as the “authority” by which they decided who was mentally ill. They decided that women were mentally ill by being “emotional”….and that I believe is where the misogyny against women started…or at least got its justification.
I think there are different degrees of mental illness–some are temporary, and some, I think, are incurable and the person will never get well.
It is an interesting take on the temporary mentally ill as being on the verge of a ethereal breakthrough–that they have been chosen as a medium to bring about a message.
Finally, heavy metal poisoning must be addressed here–physical causes of mental illness are all but ignored by the profit-driven Big Pharma hold over the mental health system…
It has been known for centuries that mercury poisoning leads to mental illness (mad hatter’s disease), and yet, is never brought up as a possible cause when there are blatant symptoms pointing towards it–sensitivity to light and noise, difficulty talking (autistic), sensitivity to chemicals, loss of IQ points, aching joints and muscles, anxiety, depression, memory loss…I could go on.
One last thing, and then I’m done–it has also been known that gluten intolerance and schizophrenia are linked…and yet I never read any of this until just recently. This has been known since WWII at least–and then got buried when Big Pharma discovered psychotropic drugs.
We need to take the profit factor out of the mental health profession if we truly want progress…