I don't think the mission of "Mad in America" is bad. Everything is abused and has a room for improvement for it. But I wonder why they criticize the model on which psychiatry is based? Are they the ones performing neuropsychological experiments on the lab, disagreeing with the latest current findings of the top most psychiatrists and psychologists around the world? It's not to say psychiatry is not abused.

Of course psychiatry is abused, some psychiatrists misuse their authority for personal gain. But honestly, EVERYONE misuses their power. It's a fact. I remember the Stanford experiment where "the Lucifer effect" was described. You don't need to create a website telling people the current model of psychiatry is bad, for God's sake WE DO NOT KNOW enough about neural disorders to discard a model just because people think their disorder is incurable at the time. Emotions shouldn't come behind a model being discarded or not. If we go according to their logic, we would find ourselves thinking drinking fruit juice cures cancer.

Just because some MD doctors agree, it doesn't mean you should discard the whole model. Honestly if there IS a better model available, World Health Organization should be the one to try to implement it, not some non-profit organization. Cruel it may sound, but it's true.

In this article, the author is PURELY hospitalized due to LEGAL MISUSE OF POWERS NOT DONE BY PSYCHIATRISTS, psychiatrists are obviously not judges or cops to have such a power (I must add that the cops were the one who knocked her door). It's my first post I read there and I can make out it's calling for a change in legal system, again nothing against psychiatry, and psychiatrists did not give her mistreatment. It could very well be the case where a psychiatrist is forced to have her admitted. The author mentions she has a problem of "extreme anger", honestly, it's her own words about her own anger issues, why should psychiatrists overlook it? The only fault attributed to hospital staff I can find is that they took more time to legally process things.

Second, here is a ridiculous article. Here we've got the case of a child being forced into psychiatric care. I wonder why not? Why did she like it's a horror house and repetitively say "no, no, no, no"? That doesn't make sense.

It was her PEDIATRICIAN'S recommendation to have her in the inpatient care. So she's thinking she is the Einstein of medicine at that age and her self-suggested "feeling bad" was a result of her taking the prescribed Prozac. So Prozac must be bad. And also the pediatrician must be stupid to have her hospitalized. And her mother should also be stupid to listen to him. She mentioned infection yet forgot it could have affected her brain. It is never mentioned how she got the theory of hers where she describes "the antibiotics killed the good bacteria in my gut."

Anyway, so she refuses treatment while it is ordered by a doctor, so the only thing that legally could be done is to commit her involuntarily. Had she not resisted (her fault), she wouldn't have been given the dose of benzodiazepine. How is it related to rape? And how sexual assault in college is related to it?

If I were in the place of her, I wouldn't have resisted and would have been nice to the hospital staff. And I would have gladly left when my treatment is over. Simple as that. No need to write a blog about it.

For God's sake, I think that website is satire.

I don't mean doctors are the most nicest of people, but they're doing their job, which is to make people safe. You cannot overthrow the politics because there was torture a few centuries ago and it still is, you cannot overthrow medicine because it was abused in the past. Sure it can be still abused, but that very much depends upon the individual's mind, rather than their training or location. I have very positive experience with doctors, so much I want to become one. I cannot yell at them because they did not contact the police in my case, simply they have a reason and they won't tell me.

I had the opposite experience. I beg my psychiatrist to admit me while he doesn't. And I am not one of the more sane people in the planet. I am simply not a threat to other's around me, why should he waste his hospital's resources on me? The only itchy part is that he did not admit me even though I was having a breakdown and hearing voices and vomiting while eating. Enough people aren't diagnosed, I have a real case where my parents aren't diagnosed.

Again everything can be abused and it is not limited to psychiatry. It had a dark past, sure. It may still be abused, sure. People may have experienced horrible experiences, sure. But what they need to understand is psychiatrists are humans, their treatments vary because what is taught in med school changes and they have their own opinions to treat people. Again, I would be strongly against to remove psychiatrists of their power to commit people. And what could go wrong for five days? After five days, it's court who fails you, not psychiatrists. The more you resist, the harder diagnosing becomes.

The "pushing meds" is more attributed to pharmaceutical companies growing political power. In my opinion. You're a psychiatrist and you know about the system than I do. But there are shows like Mr.Robot which are creating more awareness, it all roots deep into politics and not medicine. People are cruel, they always have been, since the dawn of history. Look at terrorists, they behead people. It's more scary than prescribing your patient just to earn money... while I do agree that both are bad, but their extent varies.