have written this list because of the untrue and damaging nonsense which some people spread all over the internet about psychology and psychiatry. (For more information, see Vicky’s post on the same subject.)

I am not denying that there are abuses of power in the psych system. I am not saying that drugs harm no-one. I am not saying that drugs help everyone (as a matter of fact, I don’t believe that dugs ALONE are particularly useful.) I am not saying that mentally ill people don’t know what’s good for them (I know what is good for me – that’s why I’m opposed to the anti-psych movement.)
However, my experience of the psych system has been overwhelmingly helpful. So was the experience of Sofia (not her real name) who was an inpatient for two years after becoming anorexic and severely depressed as a result of being abused. It helped Vicky live with her severe anxiety problems. It has helped many other people I know. Even Danni, who has come into contact with bigoted and abusive professionals, has benefited from being in hospital and from medication and has never denied this.

1.If a doctor misreads an autistic person’s pacing, flapping and general inability to sit still as a symptom of anxiety disorder, because s/he has seen people who have this disorder do this dozens of times previously, s/he is horribly judgemental and incompetent for assuming this one person is like those dozens of others. If a patient decides on the basis of one bad experience with a psychologist/ psychiatrist that the entire psych system is nothing but an evil, drug-dispensing torture machine and all people who use drugs and/or therapy to deal with metal distress don’t know what’s good for them, s/he is being perfectly fair and rational for judging all those thousands of people on the basis of one psych.

2.Some medications have truly horrific side-effects. This means that you should not take any pills that have any side-effects. Yes, that includes the one that stopped you wanting to kill yourself but made you constipated for the first week.

3.Total strangers on the internet know more about your past and why you are ill than you, your therapist, your family doctor, your parents and closest friends. They also know more about biochemistry and the effects of medication than your therapist, your family doctor, any doctors, nurses or medical students who happen to be your friends/relatives, the scientists who work for drug companies and any friends who claim to have benefited in any way from medication.

4. All doctors deliberately seek out and prescribe drugs you are allergic to and which don’t treat any of the symptoms you actually have. The fact they haven’t prescribed penicillin for my depression yet must be an oversight on their part.

5. Suggesting that extreme stress caused by say, bullying or abuse can lead to chemical imbalances in the brain is wrong. It is ignoring that bullying is wrong and reducing the victim’s problems to purely biological ones. In order to stop this heinous immorality, all depressed people who have been bullied or abused should have their medication take away. For the same reason, people whose bones were broken by bullies or who have contracted syphilis as the result of sexual abuse should not be given medical treatment, because it reduces their problems to purely biological ones.

6. It’s legitimate for an adult to claim they’ve been in hospital for most of their life, when “most of their life” is less than two years (provided they join in the psychologist-bashing, and the people-who-voluntarily-accept-help-from-psychologists-bashing.)

7. The fact that Van Gogh and Sylvia Plath were mentally ill means metal illness should be celebrated. Similarly, AIDS should be celebrated because many famous people have died from it.

8. Anyone who dissuades you from deliberately injuring yourself or killing yourself is depriving you of a civil right.

 

9. Making websites filled with unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about drug companies is proof of how sane you are and how you don’t need psychiatric help.

10. Saying all of the above to vulnerable people on the internet will do them less harm than half an hour with a blood-sucking psychiatrist.