There's Nothing Wrong With Any of Us

I am mentally interesting (:

There is a huge step from understanding labels and meds not being perfect... to claim a thing like schizophrenia does not exist because schizophrenia is just someone having other thoughts than you and you should just accept his thoughts.

No. I will not accept that someone feels tortured day in day out because of a stalker that is not real!

Oh, tomato... (Trying to avoid the auto-censor, I will use the word tomato in place of the most common vulgar slang for sexual intercourse.)

I was able to stomach the first essay – does mental illness exist – but just barely. The author(s) seems to want to present his case in a series of scholarly essays and yet, even only having read the first essay, his arguments fade into a kind of tautological word salad and he resorts to sarcasm as criticism so often that any validity of his argument(s) quickly become a row of fallen straw men ready for the torch.

Even before the first essay, in the author's attempt to establish credibility, he's reaching. He is a lawyer who has attended a series of symposiums and "other programs". He lets us know that he is not just giving his opinion but rather the opinions of the most "credible witnesses against psychiatry" that he could find. He tells us that he has previously published his essays as "pamphlets," telling in itself. The day of the pamphleteer passed decades ago.

Telling, too, is his mode of dissemination. Anyone can purchase web server access, often for less than $5 a month. Websites run the gamut between the credible to the, well, sites maintained by nutcases. (I can use the word because I am one.)

Finally, the author is just a lawyer with an opinion and a website. No reputable publication would print his essays and there's no chance of a peer review because he has no peers. He's a monkey with a manual typewriter on a solitary island. It's easy to feel sorry for the man and perfectly justified to wonder exactly why he started this bizarre crusade.

My opinion.

Finally someone addressing the actual essays!

I had wondered an few times about the fact that the author is a lawyer - not so much for the easy ad-hom of the liar lawyer stereotype, but because his profession implies he's trained in presenting cases and making convincing arguments.

The thing I mainly wish someone would do is fact check all these super-recent studies claiming that there's zero evidence for biological causes of mental illness. However, I looked into this more and it seems what modern anti-psych believes is that mental issues are psychological in nature. The result of trauma or other dysfunction in life, rather than neurological anomalies. That's plausible, actually, I think that's really the older view of it.

Ramsay draws mostly from popular antipsychiatry authors of the past, and possibly from experience - I think there was mention that he has represented people suing for abuse by psychiatric professionals. Of course he's seeing the bad. And if his citations about meds being harmful are more accurate, that needs to get out. But it bugs me that there's no mention or even allusion of people who get treated voluntarily. Involuntary treatment seems like a worthy issue to discuss, hopefully without disregarding the actual experiences of people.

I'm not sure if people realized the thread title was meant to be snide, referencing the claims that mental illness doesn't exist. That's the biggest issue I have here, with these essays - the potential contrast with real life experience.

He's probably a secret church of Scientology member. Thy do that stuff all the time

If everybody has at least one mental "disorder", then can that really be considered disorder at all? Then who's to decide what's "normal" human behavior and emotions, and "abnormal" human behavior and emotions? If everybody is weird, then nobody is weird. It's that simple.

Aside from very serious mental issues like hallucinations, schizophrenia and the like, most people's issues, and even suicidal tendencies, seem to stem from some very basic mis-education from their formative years of their own worth, what's "normal" and "not normal". EVERYBODY'S mental health could be vastly improved with basic self-esteem and gratitude learning.

The biggest problem almost all of humanity faces is growing up in societies where high self-esteem is discouraged, everybody's compared to one another, and everybody's behavior is policed and controlled. That would drive ANYONE to be insane and miserable.

Some really good thoughts posted here.

Who better to weigh in on this subject than those saddled with the labels that claim there is indeed something wrong with us.

I've talked about how the DSM has gone from a thin pamphlet with a few dozen mental disorders to nearly 1,000 pages and about 350 mental disorders. How did this happen? My guess is that psychiatry has selective attention. I will explain. When a person goes to a psychiatrist (or psychologist) and says that something is causing them suffering or an inability to function in ordinary life, the psychiatrist makes an educated guess as to what it is and consults the DSM. The DSM has a checklist for each mental disorder. Usually it goes something like this: If you present 5 (or more) of the 9 symptoms listed, then you get a diagnosis of that mental disorder.

I talked about selective attention being a concern of mine, and here's what I mean: If the psychiatrist is focusing exclusively on the 9 symptoms, and ignoring all of the "normal" behavior," is the diagnosis accurate?

The essay sounds oddly Darwinian in that it implies the mentally healthy in society will be most successful while the mentally ill are, essentially, better off dead as their "choice" to be "moody" inhibits success and therefore allow them to become the fodder that mentally healthy people overtake on the road to success.

Honestly --- whether or not a person wants to live as a product of their diagnosis is their own choice, as is the choice to be medicated. I've learned first hand about the perils of medication from an ex --- although her own conditions were not "moods" but legitimate mental illness that prevented normal functioning (including severe OCD). As with many, she had to switch medications a number of times to find the right "fit". For that reason, even if I receive a proper diagnosis, I will prefer going unmedicated.

This is going to sound naive and possibly ignorant, but I think what certain individuals perceive as mental illness can be treated with greater understanding and interpersonal communication. Friends, support networks, significant others. In some cases, therapists or social workers that put helping others above their paycheck. Any indication from the rest of the human race that this place called Earth isn't perpetually miserable and cutthroat. A sign that the individual's existence is meaningful and special in spite of the seven billion surrounding them. Compassion isn't weakness. Individuals genuinely helping other individuals, without asking for anything ulterior, shouldn't hold any detriment to one's own personal successes or failures. But who knows.

I don't think there's any right or wrong answer here. While medication has helped many stay out of institutions, overcome past trauma and function in society, other times legitimate mental illness is bastardized to the extent that it reinforces the stigmas others are trying to erase. Is it one's environment or one's predisposition at birth? Is it one's past or present? Is it stubbornness or coincidence? Medication or meditation? Sick or weak? Legitimate concern or pathological lies?

I doubt this debate will ever go away or what I should believe, so I'll keep asking questions and finding out more about everything I can.

Psychiatry says that 1% of the population are psychopaths, but 4% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are psychopaths (this is according to Ron Johnson, a Certified Psychopath Spotter).

Agree? Disagree?

i consider myself to be a lifer on my meds. i've gone through no meds to meds on and off. usually i am better on the meds, but i still something could be done to help with my severe depression. i've tried several hobbies, relationships etc. and i get sick of them quickly. then i get depressed again. i think there are trigger days for me like death of family members and friends that do cause the depression and i struggle to get through those days. i just wish i could be put on some meds to help alleviate my grief and sadness. does anyone know of a med that could take the edge off? i hate diazapam i'm on so far along with 8 other meds for other conditions. thank you in advance if anyone reads this.

Have you tried hydroxyzine? It's an anti-histamine, but it has an anxiolytic effect.

thank you kindness, i will talk to my doctor when i see her about it.

kindness, would this be addictive. i mean the anti-hystimine?

No, it's not addictive like benzodiazepines are.

Try this: go to YouTube and search "binaural beats for anxiety and panic attacks." Get comfortable, close your eyes, and listen to it while you're focusing on your breathing (deep breaths in and out).

It works for me.

will do!!!!!

tried it it is so cool. i love the water in the background and the coolest colors, i thought i was hypnotised or hallucinating!!!Thanks

You have to listen to the binaural beats everyday (not just once), so you need to schedule it into your day. I recommend listening as early in the day as possible.

Do you mean you don't believe I could be tortured by the hallucinations I had about a man stalking me? It turned out he wasn't real but the hallucinations tortured me unbearably.

The DSM. The industry driven Manual, some call it a Bible.

When we start talking and saying stuff using the words from the book like that's what our life's all about, I believe that this book will be a disservice to us all human kind. Whether someone has severe/mild cases of MI, aside from the book, how each of us that has some concerns surrounding the subject of psychiatry, patients alike included, can not be ignorant of how we conduct our selves in each of our lives.

I didn't read the whole essay. I haven't been able to read all the replies either.

Any sort of manuals, a good text books, things like that limit us. Big issues right here, maybe how we see ourselves, and to try to help.

"There's Nothing Wrong With Any of Us", to that, I say, "Are you KITTEN ME?" with the most serious face I could muster.

Have you ever considered listening to relaxation tapes or self-esteem affirmations? I wonder what effect it would have if you listened to this video every day for just a week:

Of course that people can be tortured by delusion. And I do not understand why not treat when the person is suffering.