Anti-Psychiatry: What do you think of it?

I agree with this point of view. There are many different antipsych positions and some of them are more nuanced than others. My own view is that psychiatry is akin to a false flag operation that flies under the cover of medicine but doesn't meet standards of diagnoses based on objective, reproducible tests.

It wasn't that long ago that homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder. That is just one example. Another is that the diagnosis of the mass killer in Norway was first paranoid schizophrenia and after a public outcry he was re-diagnosed with a personality disorder. These are examples of how fungible expert psychiatric diagnoses are.

In my own case my diagnoses have also changed over the years.

Another factor is that the medications used to treat one ailment are also used to treat other, supposedly distinct ones. That would be like taking heart medication for a liver problem. It is also prima facie evidence that the distinct diagnoses that we have now are probably not going to hold up in the final analysis.

For instance, there's a lot of genetic overlap in susceptibility to the schizophrenias, and schizoaffective disorder as well as bipolar 1 disorder.

As well there are a number of psychiatrists who criticisize the entire diagnostic category of bipolar II, on the bases essentially of what does it mean to have bipolar without mania.

In fact I wish there was more self-criticism and reflection within psychiatry. The whole thing seems at times as if it is built on a house of cards.

I highly recommend Robert Whitaker's brilliant expose of the psychiatry biz "Anatomy of an Epidemic". One of the most important health books I've read.

He is not anti-psychiatry, he is a respected investigative journalist who methodically makes the case for an industry that is deeply corrupt and pathological. It made me sick to read about it.

My only personal experience with psychiatry has been indirect, via the compulsive and unthinking pushing of psych drugs by physicians. Some of it has involved coercion and intimidation.

There are other whistle blowers and critics who are not anti, but rather are thoughtful, intelligent, and highly credible... David Healy, Peter Breggin, Joanna Moncrieff to name a few.

Oh, and if the lynchpin of psychiatry is that we all have brain chemistry disorders that must be fixed with drugs, then surely after several decades of research, that hypothesis would have been validated. It has not, and yet the mass drugging of society continues. What more is there to say? Plus, as Whitaker makes clear, mental illness is now epidemic, and it became that way in lockstep with the proliferation of pharma brain drugs.

I don't like anti-psychiatry. Meds really help me. I can understand they may not work for some people but I hate when people say I shouldn't be on meds. I've tried a few herbs and I've found meds to be much more effective for me.

A website dedicated to “rethinking” psychiatric care.
https://www.madinamerica.com

I think of them as any other doctor. I need my appendix removed I go to a surgeon who has studied how best that can be done. There are good surgeons, ok surgeons, wise surgeons. Surgeons that don't have a lot of complications, some that do. Some surgeons have great bed side manner, some don't. Some one likes as a person, some you just want them to perform the operation& get it over with. If I don't know what's wrong & just feel awful. Then I may have to have tests, some trial and error or elimination processes. Psychiatrists have studied how a person can operate successfully in the world.

Interesting thread. Informative with many opinions, views, pros and cons. With that said, after reading all this, I have decided to NOT see a shrink or a therapist. I will continue on continuing on because I don't think I need to see one. Yes, I had a bad childhood. My life sucks right now and has been bad for a couple of years. Death of loved ones, feeling so alone, disappointments galore, becoming homeless at my age, trying to survive in this world the way it is now, world news and current local news, and all the awful things that seem to be par for the course now...and yet I am still here dealing with it like I have always done. I have my up days..and my down days. Sometimes one will wake up and look in the mirror and see themselves as "oh crap. You look awful today" and some days you look pretty darn good. And some days the mirror laughs at you.
Yes, I have thought of offing myself, but I don't think of that as a mental illness. It's a matter of opinion and beliefs. Who the heck wants to live forever? I darn sure don't. Why? Because when the day comes that I can't wipe my own hiney and have to depend on some stranger in a state run home for the elderly...that is the day I choose to not accept that fate. Sort of like when you have to consider your pet's quality of life and you show it mercy by sending it off to Rainbow Bridge because there IS NO quality of life. We show more mercy to animals in that situation than we do human beings. That is not suicidal. That is choice and mine to make...not some government agency that chooses how I should live in such a situation as described above.

Lately, I have had a rough time. I lost my house, lost my companion animal, I feel very much alone. I have battled breast cancer. I rent a room in a hoarder's home but have no other place to go. No family to speak of. The loneliness is the worst. But, I deal with it best I can. I don't want to be on drugs and I don't really want to talk to some man or woman about things that cannot change what is going on in my life right now as I type. I will deal with it like I always have. Ups..and downs. Day by day. And here...I can talk about it without being made fun of, with people who may or may not understand but from what I have seen..will support me when I need to talk about it... when I need it.

So I thank everyone that has posted for this enlightenment I have found since joining this board. It's been a great help in deciding what to do..shrink or no shrink. My answer to my own question is...no. No shrink.

"Antidepressant drugs in depression might beneficial in the short term, but worsen the progression of the disease in the long term, by increasing the biochemical vulnerability to depression… Use of antidepressant drugs may propel the illness to a more malignant and treatment unresponsive course." -- Psychiatrist Giovanni Fava

This to me is emblematic. It reveals the Orwellian truth... there are no verifiable chemical disorders behind so called mental illness, people are drugged as if there were, then over time they develop imbalanced chemistry and altered physiology (i.e. pathology) as a result of the drugs, for which they will likely be given more or different drugs, and on it goes forever, and the biz enjoys stellar customer retention.

This is the same industry that prescribes Adderall to toddlers.

Yes - this is also a good book on this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctoring-M.../dp/0141023694

I would take it a bit further -- built on a pack of lies. The tricky part is that many of the lies are lies of omission. That hypothesis about psychological suffering being the result of simple chemical glitches, never really panned out. But they continue dispensing the pills and hope nobody notices. And the psychiatrists still refer to this as "treatment" and still pretend they are practicing medicine. It's fun to pretend!

I couldn't have said it better. Thank you.