Posted by baseball55 on December 5, 2017, at 16:02:54
In reply to what is being treated?, posted by Christ_empowered on December 4, 2017, at 21:04:15
I never read Szasz, but when I went to a psychiatrist for the first time at 49, I was pretty much a mess. It wasn't that "society" had deemed me "crazy." I needed and wanted help. When I started therapy, my (now ex-) husband went into this rant about the manufacture of mental illness, blah, blah, blah. I said to him - look, it's not like these guys are trolling the streets looking for patients. I went to him. I needed help.
Your situation, CE, was different. You were (placed/forced?, by whom?) into treatment when you were young (I assume?). Not talk therapy, but hospitalization.
I was hospitalized when I was young (14-16), but at a very enlightened state hospital in MA for children only. No forced treatment, lots of therapy and interaction with ward counselors. I needed help and got it.
> My official label/diagnosis is (apparently...) Bipolar I. My label/social role in the community is "Schizophrenic" or "uppity mental patient," LOL>
>
> This raises the question...
>
> what the shrinks treating? do the drugs really help? Is there proof that psychiatric treatment helps individuals, families, communities, society?
>
> I'm not trying to be obnoxious. I'm on 3 psych drugs now--Abilify, Wellbutrin, and trileptal. For this season of my life, treatment makes sense, it really does. But will it always? Especially with a tranquilizer in the mix, I'm hoping to -somehow- resolve my problems and move on. Or at least...drop the tranquilizer, lol.
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> But...seriously...do you think anyone's getting better in the world of mental health? And what are we treating? people? symptoms? diseases? disorders?
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> I'm not gung ho about antipsychiatry or "critical psychiatry," but...I do think they make valid points. I used to love Szasz, but now...oh man. What a hard right, uber-libertarian he was. Not my style, not these days...
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> Anyway...is psychiatry helping, hurting, or is it...just something that is, and has to be dealt with, a fact of life in modern cultures?
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> Thanks.
>
poster:baseball55
thread:1096185
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20161215/msgs/1096199.html