Paul Minot, MD
@PaulMinotMD
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39 years of psychiatric practice; affiliated with MaineGeneral Health and Tufts University School of Medicine; hell-bent on reforming psychiatry.
Waterville, ME
Joined December 2017
I've been practicing psychiatry for 38 years. I love my job, my peers, and my patients. But I've come to the conclusion that I'm participating in the biggest intellectual scam of this era. We claim to be a science, but have no understanding how thought or behavior is generated./1.
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successful in redefining what it means to be a human being. Meanwhile, 20 years of peak psychiatry has resulted in a 30% increase of suicide in the United States--and American psychiatry has absolutely nothing constructive to say about it. Please tell me what I've missed.
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Many billions of dollars are spent each year in an industry built on a corrupt body of pseudoscience, cultivated and exploited by monied interests for decades. This scientific fraud has been more successful than any other of our day. Our diagnoses are contrived by our guild, /2.
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the APA, with the collaboration of monied interests--and are so unrelated to actual science that they are copyrighted and published to profit that organization. In the process of selling a corporatist, medication-oriented model of treatment, psychiatry has been stunningly /3.
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I was interested in pursuing child psychiatry until doing my rotation in residency. I discovered that many of the children were saner than the parents--but the parents had already identified the child as the problem, and we're not at all interested in looking at themselves. I.
Therapy doesn’t harm children because it coddles them. Therapy harms kids because:.- it colludes with dysfunctional parents to scapegoat them.- it blames them for not adapting to a school system that’s bad for them.
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The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing. -Socrates.
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On the news yesterday saw a psychologist going on about the “rise in mental health disorders” associated with the COVID-19. Although sympathetic toward the stress the pandemic is causing, I can’t abide the pathologizing of healthy human feelings associated with this real-world.
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@SaltedJosh @freekev22 @briantylercohen @OccupyDemocrats Living in Maine for the past 18 years. IMO Collins is toast. Her opposition here is hella fired up!.
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In other medical specialties, diseases are discovered, and then remedies are found. In psychiatry remedies are devised, and "disorders" are concocted with the collusion of Big Pharma. This isn't at all science, which is the study of nature. It's the marketing of technologies.
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While writing my book, it struck me that psychiatry's knowledge base is a house of cards--diagnoses that can't be objectively verified, a black hole where physiological understanding ought to be, and treatments that are more effective at generating income than improving lives.
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The chemical imbalance myth is modern psychiatry’s original sin. It is an unsubstantiated lie that was invented to sell drugs and promote treatment compliance. Now it has become an endemic piece of misinformation that is accepted as truth by much of the general public.
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Modern psychiatry's treatment model is fully invested in its conviction that the remedy for emotional pain or instability is medication--with no apparent belief in emotional growth, or regard for it. The advent of pediatric bipolar disorder in the 2000s exposed this lunacy.
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I'm sick of seeing defenders of contemporary psychiatric practice sticking its thoughtful critics with the label "Antipsychiatry"--equating us with a rather wacky movement in the Sixties, and the even wackier Church of Scientology. Defenders of the psychiatric faith love to.
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Rather than resisting the label "antipsychiatry," I've decided to embrace it. It originated with shrinks who brought civil rights to commitment law. It now seems to apply to anyone who cares more about the wellbeing of patients than the hurt feelings of psychiatrists.
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This is so on point! Modern psychiatry seems to be based on the assumption that human misery is a biological affliction, rather than a natural consequence of life. This simplistic view conveniently allows us to move products--rather than taking the time and trouble to move minds.
There is an endemic lack of empathy & understanding in the mental health system at large. For anything but the most normal kind of suffering, we feel the need to centre genetics and biochemistry to explain it. We can't imagine—or wont admit—the terrible experiences people endure.
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I get it. Drug research needs the DSM. Big Pharma needs the DSM. Insurance companies need the DSM. But patients don't need the DSM. IMO a half-baked diagnosis is as dangerous as any medication. Because it has the power to damage one's self-conception--especially in the young.
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Sooner or later mainstream psychiatry is going to have to quit fighting so damn hard to protect its public reputation and bottom line--and instead acknowledge just how much of mainstream psychiatric practice is bullshit. I want it to be sooner, not later.
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Thanks to all who boosted my recent tweet thread! It's a condensed version of the introductory paragraphs in my completed book: Science or Sales Pitch? Psychiatry's Mindless Treatment Model. I'm shopping for an agent--so jumping from 2700 to 10.4K followers is Christmas in July!.
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As tortured as our relationship to science is, diagnosis may be psychiatry's least scientific undertaking, almost devoid of any objective evidence--and thus vulnerable to corruption not only by corporate money, but by ego, indiscipline, and insensitivity.
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If psychiatric medications are so damned effective, why do we see so much polypharmacy? It appears to me that psychiatrists who do so are grasping at straws--with little faith that any one of these medications will actually do the the job they're supposed to do.
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I contend that in adolescents, it's not only the medications that can increase the risk of suicide. The diagnosis may do so as well, by contributing to the patient's poor self-image. It would be wise to let adolescent patients know just how flimsy a psychiatric "diagnosis" is.
Study finds increased risk of suicidal behaviour in younger people starting antidepressants. No effect either way in older people. Consistent with RCTs. There is no evidence that antidepressants prevent suicide.
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Amen, a hundred times over!!! Depression sometimes means that life is trying to tell us something. I have personally experienced this, at several junctures in my life. I am so glad to see this coming into the conversation!
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As much as it pains me to say it, this is the absolute truth. Academic psychiatry, and medicine in general, is a corporate tool. Psychiatry is particularly vulnerable because its physiology is largely unknown--hence it is more vulnerable to pseudoscience than other specialties.
U.S. doctors are trained in academic departments. American universities are corporate institutions with corporate objectives and rules. The tacit goal of MD training is to make compliant corporate members. If corporations call psychiatrists prescribers, they become prescribers.
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This is the kind of bullshit that most offends me. Not only are you medicating a child, you’re labeling him/her for life. Cannot children be “normal variants” until they have a choice, AND a mature nervous system?.
1500+ under-5s in England prescribed antidepressants during past 5 years. Member of @RCPsych reacts: “The number of children and young people with anxiety and depression is increasing. We want them to get the support they need.”.
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I believe in the scientific method. I believe in wisdom. And I believe in primum non nocere--first, do no harm. Each of these is based on the presumption of ignorance. Psychiatry fails all these tests, because it doggedly resists acknowledging its profound ignorance of the mind.
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I thought I wanted to be a child psychiatrist until my rotation in training. I learned that parents were so often the culprits--but also in control of the treatment process. My greatest strength is candor. Practicing child psychiatry demands too much dancing around the truth.
I am vehemently against referring to any child or adolescent as mentally ill.
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In other medical specialties, diagnoses are discovered. In psychiatry, they're mostly invented.
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Psychiatric medications are being used as a substitute for wisdom and personal growth, in a treatment model that doesn't account for the possibility of either.
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Amen. Entirely consistent with my view of my profession. Psychiatry's corruption thrives in the vacuum of our ignorance about our chosen organ system. We don't know what thoughts are, so we pretend patients don't have any. But psychiatrists clearly love their own.
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One of my concerns is that psychiatry today discourages us from exercising wisdom--which originated in a past world full of more acute pain than today's, promoting acceptance and resilience. Much of what used to be called "life" is now a "disorder"--which can thus be monetized.
@PaulMinotMD Does it reflect a wish to escape pain of life in socially masked & protected distancing?.Is self-medication (directly or indirectly) seeking to numb & limit consciousness against fear, of pain, of loss?.Addressing the problem where it is, reveals to release the 'lie' we hide in?.
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I believe that psychiatry should rein in its use of medications, and offer wisdom as a valid treatment option. Because what is wisdom but the application of reason to regulate our emotions? .Unfortunately such a treatment model would take time--and attract no Big Pharma largesse.
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At long last I’m launching my new website, Straight Talk Psychiatry. In doing so I’m declaring war on the prevailing biological model of psychiatry—because its science is ignorant and corrupt; its treatment model insensitive and dehumanizing; its worldview stupid and spiritually.
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Let's make it clear: "Bipolar disorder" is just a clinical buzzword for any sort of mood instability psychiatrists want to treat. Seizure medications are often prescribed--blunt instruments defined by their suppression of nerve hyperactivity, also used for pain and anxiety.
Historically bipolar or manic depressive illness was rare. Around 85% of documented cases were single episodes. Now this label is attached to any & all mood dysregulation w/ people placed on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs FOR LIFE. Don't even get me started on Bipolar II.
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Good Lord, when psychiatrists started making up diagnoses, I bet they never imagined how enthusiastically the public would embrace them! Who knew pseudoscience would be so infectious?.
Part 4 of series on neurodiversity suggests 'differently wired brains is the new chemical imbalance' and unpicks the consequences of the conflation of 'disorder' and 'identity'
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This is the dehumanizing model of psychiatric treatment that I simply abhor--reducing our thoughts and feelings into a chemical stew that just needs seasoning. So lazy, inhumane, and demonstrably ineffective. Makes a lot of dough for Big Pharma, though.
The only conversation you'll ever have with your psychiatrist is about drugs. There's only one boring old conversation every time. Is this drug working for you? .Should we increase/decrease the dose? .Do you want to try this latest, greatest drug? .We may need to add this.
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We're caught up in the system like everyone else is. Doctors aren't taught to think for themselves. They're expected to carry out standard practices, on the assumption that professional leaders know better than they do. And the vagaries of psychiatry contribute to our insecurity.
@PaulMinotMD How can u love ur peers knowning all the iatrogenic harm they have caused?.
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Amen to this--ESPECIALLY since the DSM's psychiatric diagnoses happen to be artifacts invented by our trade association to market drugs and treatment. They are so phony and unscientific that they are COPYRIGHTED by the APA to maximize profits. In short, a scam.
"A psychiatric diagnosis. contains a narrative about what progress or recovery should look like. dictating a person’s sense of self. intruding so deeply into their identity that it may be difficult to imagine an alternative way of being".
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No surprise here. Doctors are herd animals. The most secure manner of practice is to adhere to the conventional "standards of care"--whether or not they are supported by science, have a convincing record of success, or makes common sense.
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By definition, science is the study of nature. In the past fifty years we've gained a lot of scientific knowledge about the brain--but we still don't know how thought or behavior is generated! Hence the knowledge we've gained has limited value in psychiatric treatment.
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I was in psychiatric residency from 1981 to 1985, during the biological revolution. I can assure you that we were glibly encouraged to liken depression to diabetes, and to cite the chemical imbalance myth to encourage medication compliance. These "folk" were academic physicians.
The thing to understand about “chemical imbalance” narrative is that it is primarily a folk model of mental disorders. It arose as an offshoot of the monoamine hypothesis, but in the hands of pharma & the cultural power of their advertising machinery, it became a viral meme. /1.
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Psychiatric medications can change us to some degree, but they conveniently (for Big Pharma) foster dependence on pharmaceutical products. Modern psychiatry completely ignores the existence of the mind--treating the brain like it was some complicated gland. IMO the mind is the.
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More evidence that our profession is too financially, intellectually, and emotionally invested in the status quo to have an actual scientific debate about our current treatment model.
Its incredible that #RCPsychIC has had a talk by R.Murray & a session ‘The Antidepressant Wars’ (Glyn Lewis, on photo) about Critical Psychiatry & the decisive serotonin ☔️ review without having anyone from CPN or the ☔️ review authors being able to represent their point of view.
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To anybody who might have missed me, for a couple of months I've thrown myself into completion of a book: Science or Sales Pitch? Psychiatry's Mindless Treatment Model. I've turned it over to a developmental editor, and will soon be seeking an agent. Feeling good about it! 😌.
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Physiologically speaking, what is a thought? Psychiatry has no clue, no real scientific understanding of its focus--the generation of thought, emotions, and behavior. It is this fundamental ignorance that drives our profession toward today’s corrupt pseudoscience.
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Some psychiatrists here on Twitter have no idea at all what I am advocating. I absolutely love my job. That's why I'm dedicated to improving it. My chief complaints can be boiled down to this:. The brain-mind is so much more mysterious and complex than my profession.
@PaulMinotMD Those who advocate for the abolition of the entire profession of psychiatry, argue for defunding mental health services, and demonise those of us who know how valuable psychiatry can be, are literally anti-psychiatry.
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Let's get this straight. Classic manic-depressive disorder was identified by Emil Kraepelin in the late 19th century, after years of observing asylum admissions. He was motivated to differentiate it from schizophrenia, to provide family members a reliable prognostic picture. /1.
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This a BRILLIANT characterization of modern psychiatric diagnosis. I couldn't have said it better.
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I am shocked, SHOCKED to find corruption in pharmaceutical testing!.
"Psychiatric drugs are reported to be about 50% more effective in clinical trials funded by the drug’s manufacturer than when trials of the same drug are sponsored by other groups, new research shows".
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I highly suspect that most psychiatrists would be more reluctant to see their own children on psych meds than they would other people’s children. Probably because they recognize that our treatment is based more on a kind of vanity and corruption, rather than love and reason.
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Apologies for my inactivity here, but I'm no good at multitasking--and my focus nowadays is on finishing my damn book!!! .I'm closing in on completion. My current (and maybe last) title is:.MINDLESS AND THOUGHTLESS.Psychiatry's Record of Failure, and a Scientific Case for Wisdom.
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The greatest folly of modern psychiatry is that when a fellow human being is psychiatrically hospitalized--in what may be their darkest hour--it never crosses our minds that the right conversation, initiated at the right time, might have the capacity to change one’s life forever.
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"The mental health crisis continues to grow. Rates of depression, suicide, anxiety disorders, PTSD and substance use disorders have increased in recent years and mental disorders are now the leading cause of disability throughout the world.". The source?.
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This is the Preface of my book in progress:. I entered the practice of psychiatry for the best of all possible reasons–because I love working with psychiatric patients. I generally hate watching reality shows on television, because they tend to be garish and exploitative. But it.
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@thesoulmother What should be the stock answer for nearly every question regarding brain- mind pathophysiology should be: "We don't know." Because we don't know what the physiology of thought is. And if we don't know normal physiology, what can we possibly know about pathophysiology?.
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to sympathize with someone, or justify providing emotional support. This is just the sort of bullshit that biological psychiatry peddles to make people think that feelings are an illness, and medical intervention is the answer.
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The Center for Disease Control released its original 17-year study in 2018, documenting a 30% increase in suicide from 1999-2016. The APA response was crickets. This followup 20-year study (1999 to 2019) confirmed a 35% increase. Read it and weep.
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My concerns as well. I think a diagnosis can be just as dangerous as a medication--and even more in the young.
We are experiencing a pathologized generation. Told distraction & boredom is ADHD, Sadness is Depression, feeling good is mania, worry/fear is an anxiety disorder. Decease stigma means take these drugs. Completely lost site of what it means to be human.
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@jill_d35 Such despicable behavior by my peers provides me motivation for my efforts. If psychiatry was really based on science, it would welcome critique. But instead it's an intellectual cult. It's incredible how vain and unethical someone in an allegedly healing profession can be.
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This conforms to my view of ADHD as well. Succeeding in modern life makes peculiar demands on us human beings. I believe that what we call ADHD is a natural variant. In a native environment, being distractible would be an asset--being alert to peripheral noises would make us.
@DrAnnieHickox @SameiHuda @PaulMinotMD Let’s stir things up a bit. I don’t think my ADHD is a “disorder”, yet I very gladly use pills which I think about as “adaptogens” (not actually that different to caffeine. Just …more effective).
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Amen. I rant on this point all the time.
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and dysphoria all have their purpose. We SHOULD be anxious about catching this virus. We SHOULD grieve when a loved one dies. Going through trauma is not PTSD—which is the pathological persistence of fear long after the threat is gone. We don’t need to DIAGNOSE someone in order.
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If I’m interpreting it right, this study suggests hospitalization does more harm than good. We seem to be able to identify those at risk—but after hospitalization, their self-harm escalates to self-destruction. Doesn’t say much for our current model of treatment, does it?.
NEW: Risk of suicide following hospital presentation for self-harm is very high immediately following hospital discharge: finding from an observational study spanning 16 years and including almost 50,000 people from 5 English hospitals @TheLancetPsych
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@RobertaSchell If you mean conversational cursing and selective personal divulgence, I heartily agree. Profanity is the language of emotional identification. Patients feel better sharing their own feelings with a real person. And certain traits identified as "professional" are highly overrated.
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Dr. Legedin alerted me in 11/19 that he was going to be a whistle blower on improprieties he observed. This appears to be an administrative response, and I’m glad he taking it public. Good luck, Evgeny.
I have requested that my Interim Orders Tribunal hearing on 27/05/2020 take place in public. The IOT of Medical Practitioners Tribunal may impose an interim order suspending my registration for 18 months. Nature of case: misconduct. Reason: Patient safety and public interest. RT!.
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Can we all please agree that bad science is bad? Science is a cruel, demanding process, because it is the arbiter of consensual truth. “Chemical imbalance” is an unproven supposition held up by some psychiatrists as science. It is no more proven science than “penis envy” was.
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The greatest folly of modern biological psychiatry is that when a fellow human being is psychiatrically hospitalized, in what may be the darkest hour of their life, we squander a precious therapeutic opportunity.
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It is far more important to know what sort of person the disease has, than to know what sort of disease the person has. --Hippocrates. This quote makes modern psychiatry look like a bad joke.
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If we were grading the degree of physiological understanding that each of the medical specialties has of their target system, most would merit an A or B, in my admittedly dubious opinion. But psychiatry would get an F, or at best a D--because WE DON'T KNOW WHAT A THOUGHT IS!.
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There is no greater distortion in modern psychiatry than the prevailing wisdom surrounding our understanding and treatment of depression. The reasons for this are simple: Depression is an endemic fact of life, as common as dirt, and nobody likes it--.
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Know what bugs me? Nowadays, if you go to a psychiatrist in the wake of a personal crisis, it is quite likely that you will LEARN NOTHING from that experience.
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I’m very happy with my job and its benefits; but I cannot neglect the evidence that our truths are wilting in the face of scientific scrutiny, the cures we peddle aren’t doing that much curing--and our model of care is a cravenly simplistic answer to a thousand eternal questions.
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threat. We have fallen into this twisted trap of believing life should ALWAYS be safe, convenient, and pleasant—which is why when we go through divorce, death, or growing pains we ascribe our negative feelings as a mental disorder that requires intervention. Grief, pain, anxiety,.
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As a science, and as a clinical practice, psychiatry should regard critical scrutiny as an ethical and clinical necessity. However it is instead responded to as an attack--not because it is bad for the profession, but because it is bad for business, and it bruises some egos.
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Many psychiatrists embrace the biological model, yet lament that there is indeed corporatist corruption of the model. But they don’t acknowledge that the dominance of the biological model is entirely the product of such economic forces. It’s a corporatist pipe dream.
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I just released a new video, entitled "Science vs. Psychiatry"--in which I review the scientific method, to remind viewers just how demanding the term "scientific" is--and to make clear how corrupt and UNscientific psychiatry is today. via @YouTube.
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I try to get to know patients, and let them know me. The most consistent benefit I offer to patients is just being someone out there that knows their shit, their personal struggle. I wonder how many psychiatrists ever even consider that prospect. I hope it's more than I think.
2/ The facts are straightorward. Meaningful psychotherapy requires a meaningful therapist-patient relationship, and time. Time is money. Society has made decisions, financially driven, not to invest in that. There is no bypass.
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Looks like the phony "chemical imbalance"--NEVER based on any good science--is finally blowing up. Psychiatrists have known it's bullshit for decades, but haven't spent any of that time debunking this convenient untruth.
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@MrEnt92 @WWEDanielBryan “Only a person with socialism beliefs can form a biased opinion”??? Your logic and grammar both indicate that you’re incapable of critical thinking. So don’t worry about this program—you’re outside of the target population.
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Absolute agreement with Dr. McFillin here. Instructing people to focus on "mental health" is an effective way of generating public worry about themselves and loved ones, and thus generating business. (OMG, what if you're depressed and you don't know it???!!!). Scientifically.
I am sure this is an unpopular opinion in American culture & many will not understand this: I don't recommend people "focus on your mental health". I actually think that is horrible advice. Who knows what I am talking about?.
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Absolutely true. The difference between psychiatry and other medical specialties is that there are many things not entirely understood about somatic physiology--while psychiatry has ZERO understanding of the physiology of thought. Just meditate on that fact. Cutting edge, baby!.
@SeanGilligan20 @PaulMinotMD I would say psychiatry has been the cutting edge of what has become a general trend in medicine.
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I’d like to add that I was going into child psych, until I figured out that parents were in control, not the patients. And more often then not the parents were the real problem, but invested in blaming their kid. So I could never be truly honest. THAT’S why I only treat adults.
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For those wondering about my recent low profile, I've been busy writing a book--about halfway done. The working title is:. Where's the Wisdom in Psychiatry?.Abuse of Science, and Neglect of Reason. I'm about to put together a book proposal. Can anybody recommend an agent?.
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My latest video proposes that SSRIs relieve symptoms by CREATING a chemical imbalance--mimicking the refractory period of sexual response (aka afterglow). The evidence supporting it was hiding in plain sight. Has psychiatry been playing dumb all this time?.
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Biological psychiatry’s worst offense is the heedless manner in which children are often diagnosed and medicated. The contributions of development and parenting are incalculable; intervention defines the child’s identity for life; and there’s no such thing as willful consent.
7yr old on Seroquel. Ronda Storms said prescribed drugs have replaced talk therapy and are over-prescribed to subdue unruly children. The measure would require an independent review before psychiatric drugs can be administered to children 10 or younger.
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I prescribe meds every day. I don't think they're useless, but I think they're highly overrated. The CDC's documentation of a 35% increase in suicide from 1999 to 2021--a period of peak psychiatry--disturbs me greatly. And even more so when the APA, and American psychiatry at.
@PaulMinotMD So I’ll give you a vignette. A mishmash of various people in my practice. Middle aged man, high conflict household constant fighting. Grumpy and annoying everyone can see. Working all hours of a day plus kids activities and spouse demands. Refuses therapy since “no time”, which.
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Psychiatry claims to have a thorough understanding of brain function--but has NO credible explanation for the phenomena of memory or thought! When pressed they fall back on "neuroplasticity," a hypothesis proposed 75 years ago by neuropsychologist Donald Hebb. It certainly.
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I don't think that psychiatric medications are useless. I just think that many psychiatrists are reckless in their use of them nowadays--and ignorant in their failure to explore psychosocial issues that contribute to psychiatric symptomatology.
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I must sadly agree with you, Roger. Modern psychiatry exploits psychological distress to market products that may or may not help patients, but are certain to generate profits. How else can you explain suppression of the CDC Suicide Study? It would have been bad for business.
The rise in psychiatric drug prescriptions correlates w/ the declining physical & mental health of Western Society. The idea of a quick easy fix to escape the pain & solve the problems of living has been manufactured & sold to us.
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You know why “mood disorders” are such an economic boon for psychiatric treatment providers?. Because everybody has them. Because everybody at some time has feelings they wish they weren’t having.
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If you were in the business of plastic surgery, how could you expand the market for your services? Well, you might try convincing everybody that they're ugly. That pretty much sums up psychiatry's business plan nowadays, doesn't it?.
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Some psychiatrists on Twitter have applied that label to me already. The way I see it, if I'm antipsychiatry, then antipsychiatry must be OK! Nowadays it seems to be nothing but an epithet hurled to shame us for having profoundly critical thoughts about our current model of care.
@PaulMinotMD Antipsychiatry professionals make spurious complaints and threaten legal action to silence criticism of ideas. They spread misinformation. They think discussing their problematic attitudes on race is unprofessional. You sure you want to associate with that? 🤔.
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IMO, ADHD and autism are normal variants in the genetic pool, defined by unnatural social expectations. E.g., ADHD is actually advantageous for hunting. But in what NATURAL state would 25 children be expected to sit still and listen to someone speaking in front of them?.
Why are there so many young people who don’t fit typical social norms identifying as autistic now? It appears it has morphed into an identity that is similar to ADHD? In fact, they are being lumped together. We are living in odd times. how did this happen?.
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100% right. Psychiatry doesn't even remember what science really is--the rigorous study of nature. Psychiatry nowadays is driven by technology and commerce, and "science" is a sales pitch.
@JDaviesPhD I don’t think the average person on the street really grasps the scientific hollowness / lack of rigour behind the concept of a ‘mental disorder’ as found in the DSM. They are told that it’s what ‘The Science’ says, and we must therefore ‘believe’ it.
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I'm being a racist too. And for that matter, anybody else who maintains a critical view of modern psychiatric practice is a racist too, by association. Is Twitter turning into Tik Tok? I come here for intellectual discussions, not cat fights. I'm checking out of this convo.
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Amen, Roger. What's disturbingly absent from modern psychiatry is ANY sort of guiding philosophy. Modern psychiatry is blatantly anti-philosophical. Our mission seems to be the production of sham diseases (aka "disorders")--not coincidentally by our trade association, the APA--to.
Every emotion is designed to serve you. for at least a time period. Understanding that emotion is a gift & not a burden (or worse a symptom) is necessary for our personal growth & transformation. This is mental health.
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What Dr. Lynch said goes for me as well. Contemporary psychiatry refuses to examine its failures, which are becoming increasingly obvious.
As long as societies subscribe to psychiatry's deluded notions of "mental illness", and fail to honour & address what is ACTUALLY occurring - e.g. wounding/trauma; overwhelm; distress; heartbreak in many forms-suicide & major distress will continue #shameonyoupsychiatry.
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Other medical specialties have diagnoses defined by physical findings--not contrived by a trade association. Other organ systems have nothing comparable to thought or the mind--avenues of treatment that are disregarded by psychiatry in its rush to medication.
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effectively used to squash human emotions, so psychiatrists don't have to bother exploring them like they used to. Patients understand that they have this alleged illness with no hope of working through such feelings, and need to be on medication for the rest of their life. /4.
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All efforts to diagnose and treat psychiatric disorders are persistently challenged by the boundless ambiguities of our field. Modern psychiatry's biggest failure is its stubborn refusal to acknowledge those ambiguities, choosing instead to deny their existence.
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I agree completely. It repulses me that so many colleagues are too vain and cowardly to consider the possibility that our model of care MIGHT just be pretty damned fucked up. Evidence? The 2 largest studies ever—CDC and STAR*D—are the most damning. Our future is going to hurt.
@kenjaques Many of them call harmed patients and clinician critics "anti-psychiatry", "Scientologists", etc. and then block them. Incredible cowardice. Mostly minor players in the field who feel propped up by defending any criticism of addictive meds and the lack of efficacy of ADs.
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