Abuse, Incompetence and lack of empathy in the mental health system.

[TuttiFrutti]

I think it would be interesting to hear people's stories and opinions on the mental health system, especially considering its possible variations across different countries.

Living in Québec, my personal encounters within the system have been pretty negative, with many professionals contributing little to my life and in a lot of cases, causing trauma.

I've been under the system's "care" since I was twelve, over half a decade ago. While I could list every instance of my experiences, I'll share a more recent one.

Over a year ago, I've had a forced hospitalization. A form of treatment that has never proved to be effective for individuals with mental illness. Despite attempting to lie my way out of it like I usually would, my psychiatrist's credibility and influence over me led to my admission. During the hospital stay. I could not wear clothes like other patients and wore a hospital robe until the last day, had two hours of sleep per night, was locked out of my bedroom for "exposure therapy" and had to be around teens who didn't like me, was mocked and gaslit by staff, the list goes on. It was incredibly distressing. I cried every single day. Though the hospitalization didn't last long, the ordeal left a lasting impact on me.

Reflecting on these the things that have happened to me over the years, I question the benefits of therapy and hospitalizations for other suffering individuals.

If you've faced similar things, I'm curious to know if you still engage with the mental health system and what influenced your decision.

 

[hexd]

i like to think of the mental health system simile to how the homeless are treated here in NY : instead of helping those in need, prevent them from doing anything "wrong"
homeless man sleeping outside your business? put spikes where they sleep. too many people jumping off a bridge? add a net, maybe higher rails. homeless people seeking shelter in small businesses ruins the experience? kick them out. too many people using helium to ctb? start mixing it with oxygen, that'll lower the suicide rates!

the reality is that the world doesn't want us to get "better" whatever better even means. its all a competition of numbers.

 

[brokeandbroken]

I think it would be interesting to hear people's stories and opinions on the mental health system, especially considering its possible variations across different countries.

Living in Québec, my personal encounters within the system have been pretty negative, with many professionals contributing little to my life and in a lot of cases, causing trauma.

I've been under the system's "care" since I was twelve, over half a decade ago. While I could list every instance of my experiences, I'll share a more recent one.

Over a year ago, I've had a forced hospitalization. A form of treatment that has never proved to be effective for individuals with mental illness. Despite attempting to lie my way out of it like I usually would, my psychiatrist's credibility and influence over me led to my admission. During the hospital stay. I could not wear clothes like other patients and wore a hospital robe until the last day, had two hours of sleep per night, was locked out of my bedroom for "exposure therapy" and had to be around teens who didn't like me, was mocked and gaslit by staff, the list goes on. It was incredibly distressing. I cried every single day. Though the hospitalization didn't last long, the ordeal left a lasting impact on me.

Reflecting on these the things that have happened to me over the years, I question the benefits of therapy and hospitalizations for other suffering individuals.

If you've faced similar things, I'm curious to know if you still engage with the mental health system and what influenced your decision.

I've spent quite a bit of time in hospital (psych ward). While there may be a few people who are good. In my experience the doctor's don't give a damn about you. In my last stay which was nearly 2 months. The "doctor" Glen Rebman came to the ward *twice* . I spent more days in the psych ward then the hours he was there by a large margin. Nurses like to go on power trips. Frankly they don't have to care, from what I saw in the ward they don't give a shit. If they don't like you, if they want to punish you for being there, whatever. All they have to do is say you are crazy and no one will give a shit the well is poisoned. Simply put after 4 tours of duty in psych wards in two countries... If you want to get better don't go the psych ward. The Hippocratic oath becomes null and void once you cross the threshold into the psych ward.

 

[UKscotty]

I live in the UK and the system is shocking. I would never blame the doctors and nurses I have met some amazing ones over the years.

Our government has spent 10 years cutting back services, cancelling suicide prevention services, and essentially doing nothing to reduce, but rather increase suicide rates.

I feel like our government is so pro-suicide that I am surprised the UN has not commented.

We have a number of charities but they are under massive pressure too and many cannot keep up with the demand.

 

[Sid19]

I think it would be interesting to hear people's stories and opinions on the mental health system, especially considering its possible variations across different countries.

Living in Québec, my personal encounters within the system have been pretty negative, with many professionals contributing little to my life and in a lot of cases, causing trauma.

I've been under the system's "care" since I was twelve, over half a decade ago. While I could list every instance of my experiences, I'll share a more recent one.

Over a year ago, I've had a forced hospitalization. A form of treatment that has never proved to be effective for individuals with mental illness. Despite attempting to lie my way out of it like I usually would, my psychiatrist's credibility and influence over me led to my admission. During the hospital stay. I could not wear clothes like other patients and wore a hospital robe until the last day, had two hours of sleep per night, was locked out of my bedroom for "exposure therapy" and had to be around teens who didn't like me, was mocked and gaslit by staff, the list goes on. It was incredibly distressing. I cried every single day. Though the hospitalization didn't last long, the ordeal left a lasting impact on me.

Reflecting on these the things that have happened to me over the years, I question the benefits of therapy and hospitalizations for other suffering individuals.

If you've faced similar things, I'm curious to know if you still engage with the mental health system and what influenced your decision.

I don't know if it makes you feel any better but here in my country there's no such thing as mental health. If you are depressed then you will be told get over it. Especially the lower and mid lower classes. It's a fucked up system and conservative mind people are running this country.

 

[LastLoveLetter]

I have written about this at length before, so just copying one of my responses here, though I've written much more on this subject. I feel this one sums up my views:

The mental health conglomerate is one of the most corrupt and cutthroat industries I have had the displeasure of dealing with as a patient. In fact, the health industry in general has inflicted far more harm than good - physically and psychologically - but I will focus on mental health here.

As someone with conditions that cannot be cured or treated with a plethora of pills, CBT workbooks or positive thinking, I have been treated like a pariah. I have been told that I am non-compliant, refuse to engage, do not try hard enough and reject treatment.

In reality, I have tried everything reasonably accessible to me. I have tried every antidepressant I can get my hands on. I am currently trialling medical cannabis as a final resort. I have tried CBT, DBT, counselling, psychotherapy and every talking therapy option offered where I live, along with any private alternatives I could afford.

I never attended with the expectation I can be easily "fixed." I understood that effort, time and work was a requirement on my part. I tried my best to be open-minded and receptive.

Yet each time, I was also confronted with the same pseudoscientific drivel. That being deeply traumatised is a choice. Being immobilised by illness is a choice. Being suicidal is a choice. I just need to adopt a better mindset. I just need to make better decisions. I just need to choose recovery. This rhetoric seeped its way into every modality. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy was regarded as a panacea, despite its shoddy foundations and inefficacy - it was like being subjected to glorified gaslighting and brainwashing.

Challenging and criticising these methods was tantamount to heresy. How dare you claim that therapy doesn't work for you? Don't you realise that you are the exception to the rule? Can't you see that it's all your fault? No-one ever admitted that the interventions offered were inadequate, that they could be obsolete, that they were ill-equipped to help me.

I am currently doing EMDR and being confronted with the exact same nonsense as all previous therapies - the therapist does not know the first thing about trauma, yet is muddling their way through another CBT-inspired script before they progress onto the processing stage. If I could only make some friends, get married and work full-time, everything would fall into place. I just need to push through my severe chronic pain, get over my physical and mental illnesses and get out into the world. It is absolutely absurd. I have left sessions simultaneously crying with disappointment and laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

The fact that it's socially acceptable for a therapist to blame their patient for their difficulties and place the onus entirely on patients to recover speaks volumes about psychiatry. Do we blame people with cancer for not being able to heal themselves? Do we blame people with asthma and tell them they are not trying hard enough to breathe air? Of course not. So why does the industry blame people with mental illnesses for not transforming into fully cured normies after swallowing some pills and summoning some magical mind power that everyone else apparently possesses to simply become more positive?

I am not opposed to all mental health treatments as a whole. However, I do reject an industry that abuses, gaslights, lies to and neglects its patients. I reject an industry that prescribes pills like Jelly Beans and then blames the patient if they do not work. I reject an industry that peddles pseudoscience and prioritises the narcissistic pride of its practitioners over the welfare of their patients.

My thoughts remain unchanged. If anything, my view of the healthcare system has only somehow managed to sink even lower over the last couple of years. They have not only caused damage and neglect in my situation. My local mental health services are responsible for a multitude of deaths after neglecting and outright abusing patients, and received little more than a slap on the wrist.

Currently, I refuse to deal with the mental health system after they basically treated me like a pest and left me with no support in the middle of a crisis last year, and heavily implied that I'm simply a lost cause with too much complex trauma. They have inflicted far more harm than good and went to great lengths to cover their tracks too, which I only discovered the full extent of when I requested my medical records. Corrupt to the rotten core.