Do depressed people get forcefully locked up in mental asylums?

[Adûnâi]

I'm just curious whether that's the case, depending on the locality and culture. I'm an autistic Ukrainian, and I heard that mentally insane people get psychotropic drugs forced onto them... But also, I have heard that "mental health should not be stigmatised". So which one is it?

I'd ask on Reddit, but I'm pretty sure a bunch of the words I've just said are triggering for a billion little ideology currents, hence why I'm asking here.

 

[NumbItAll]

Yes if you say the wrong words to the wrong person you can be involuntarily committed (imprisoned) at great personal cost (in the US) and possibly be given a cocktail of dangerous psychiatric drugs. Because they care so much. Many such cases documented on this forum. I know that, around here at least, you can usually escape after 72 hours if you play along and act like they are helping you. Luckily I have never been forced into one of those prisons, but I know multiple people who have, and they are just normal, functioning people.

The War on Suicide Is Making Things Worse

While intended to help, institutionalizing people against their will does more harm than good. Psychiatric coercion is dehumanizing.

www.madinamerica.com

 

[Adûnâi]

Yes if you say the wrong words to the wrong person you can be involuntarily committed (imprisoned) at great personal cost (in the US) and possibly be given a cocktail of dangerous psychiatric drugs.

But what is the overall Reddit talk about "mental health stigma" then? What does it even mean? Is it really about drugs? Because it is also my impression that people who refuse drugs are stigmatised in the modern West?

(To clarify, I've never had the chance to encounter any kind of this trash.)

 

[SketchedOut]

not depressed people, but people who are suicidal. or at least the ones that say it out loud from my experience.

i've been in a psych ward less than a month ago. it's not that bad, but it does feel like a prison sometimes. i was lucky enough to be able to keep my phone and my laptop, couldn't charge them in my room but eventually i learned how to work around that. i was put on some new meds there, i now take quetiapine. not sure what counts as psychotropic drugs, but these were helping me back when i was in the psych ward. not anymore though. the people there were actually quite nice to talk to, at least some of them. the nurses were kinda ass sometimes but oh well.

don't get me wrong, i'm glad i'm out of there, but not all psych wards are hell on earth. and i feel like people forget that pretty often. they just want to keep you safe, even if you wish otherwise. in the worst case though, as @NumbItAll said already, just play along with them and you'll get released in a couple days.

 

[Adûnâi]

it does feel like a prison sometimes. i was lucky enough to be able to keep my phone and my laptop

See, nothing of the sort has ever happened in my sheltered life, I have no idea how I would react. Of course, I would probably transition to a "martyr" mode and just become detached, like waiting for the killing blow. Because in my normal life, I don't even let my mom look at me, and nobody would ever touch my personal belongings such as the phone.

you'll get released in a couple days.

Yeah, sleeping with a bunch of unknown men in a BDSM dungeon sounds fun, yikes. (I'm using BDSM here in a bad way, even though I like it, but it's a figure of speech.)

 

[SketchedOut]

Yeah, sleeping with a bunch of unknown men in a BDSM dungeon sounds fun, yikes. (I'm using BDSM here in a bad way, even though I like it, but it's a figure of speech.)

oh, it's not like that. when i was there i had a room that was entirely my own, including a private bathroom and everything. there were rooms for 2, but like. one other person isn't that bad, and if you can, you could just ask if you could have your own room i'd assume.

 

[NumbItAll]

But what is the overall Reddit talk about "mental health stigma" then? What does it even mean? Is it really about drugs? Because it is also my impression that people who refuse drugs are stigmatised in the modern West?

(To clarify, I've never had the chance to encounter any kind of this trash.)

I'm not sure since I haven't seen those posts in context, but it is true that Western cultures are obsessed with the disease model for mental health, which involves diagnosing and medicating people en masse.

 

[Adûnâi]

I'm not sure since I haven't seen those posts in context, but it is true that Western cultures are obsessed with the disease model for mental health, which involves diagnosing and medicating people en masse.

Exactly, even though it's literally not proven? Anyway, I'm not trying to ask loaded questions about psychiatry, I was just trying to ask whether my shot in the dark is true about "removing the stigma" having the other side of "stigmatising the refusal to take psychotropic drugs".

Because again, I have never tried even coffee in my entire life, all those people talking about ritalin or adderall confuse me.