tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post3594204921380517438..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: The Mental Health Profession is FailingStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-61963285455422448602018-06-11T10:48:15.409-07:002018-06-11T10:48:15.409-07:00I have been involved with psychiatry most of my li...I have been involved with psychiatry most of my life, ..either trying to access it, or trying to deal with what it refuses to do, or trying to deal with what it persists in doing. Note that it persists in doing whatever it gets paid for, and is paid mostly by the State for doing things that keep people from bothering politicians. It should be no surprise, psychiatry has been politicized for as long as this has been happening.<br /><br />An older brother of mine committed suicide, when he finally found there was no one in the State Hospital in Salem that he could dominate. He had spent the first 20 years of his life either trying to dominate me, or kill me, while the family insisted "That sort of thing doesn't happen in our family." As a result, psychiatric care simply was not available to me, or to him, until he tried to kill my younger brother as well, leaving a scar from hip to collar bone. Since the family was still in denial about his earlier attacks, he was committed voluntarily, the psychiatrists probed no further, and he was in and out of hospitals for the next 6 years, till he did kill someone, who ran his Portland, Oregon half-way house. <br /><br />Even then, after they finally read what I had told them about his attacks on me from the age of 7, he was allowed a one-day pass from Salem State Hospital. I went with Mother to take him to the Coast, to climb the Astoria Column, and when Mother was on the other side, he tried to throw me off the top of said column. When he seemed calm on the way home, I let Mother drive him from Portland to Salem, and after begging her to take him anywhere else than back there, he jumped from the car at 70 mph. He survived, and never was given a day-pass again. 7 years later, having run out of people to dominate, he hung himself when he succeeded in slipping between the boards and found he was on his ward without supervision.<br /><br />This behavior has more to do with how caregivers get paid than anything else. They don't get paid for making waves, (listening to "fables" from a younger brother to "tear a child away from his family"), but for calming them, and mostly they get paid by the State. <br /><br />Once US Psychiatry acknowledged that Asperger Syndrome exists in 1994, I was diagnosed by 2002. People isolated by ASDs are obvious targets for sociopaths like my brother. Once this, and the above history, was acknowledged, my Medicaid program *insisted* I needed psychological counseling, if I was to receive Medicaid, which continued for another 14 years. They could not afford to admit they were doing me no good, because "policy" demanded that they do it.<br /><br />This, and the underlying academic politics driving psychiatry's denial of the hereditary nature of ASDs, when it did not deny their existence altogether, is what has driven psychiatric care-giving to failure. It is demanded by their paymasters that they cure what they cannot, and ignore the diversions from industrial culture that they *can* do something about. To do otherwise in state-driven care leads to their own poverty.Tom Billingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09417750073130778880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-83784064348567766932018-06-11T05:30:40.577-07:002018-06-11T05:30:40.577-07:00Worked inpatient psychiatry for 11 years, outpatie...Worked inpatient psychiatry for 11 years, outpatient 4 years (not as a psychiatrist, but as nursing assistant, other administrative positions). Psychiatry has become almost exclusively medication management. After a diagnosis is obtained, medication is prescribed, and follow up consists almost entirely of making adjustments--if determined to be required--in dosage. There is no psychotherapy going on.Jeff Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17826755658213329360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-34907736100895928402018-06-11T05:12:10.277-07:002018-06-11T05:12:10.277-07:00There is a second possible problem with the Denmar...There is a second possible problem with the Denmark example. In addition to not knowing the therapeutic approaches we don't know (from the description excerpted here) whether the patients receiving therapy were self-selected or randomly assigned.<br />If self-selected, confounding problems are obvious. E.g., someone who truly believes their situation to be hopeless (or pointless) may be less likely to seek counseling and more likely to commit suicide.JustOneMinutehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16823001650326197645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-887536008756152322018-06-11T04:53:09.011-07:002018-06-11T04:53:09.011-07:00I wish "trying all your options" were an...I wish "trying all your options" were an option than more often came to mind in these cases. My experience has been more along the lines of "How can I make this incredible pain and frustration stop". <br />I cannot speak for everyone experiencing depression, but my case is (I believe) somewhat typical. The few people I know who are aware of my condition (I hide it fairly well) have a difficult time understanding that it is not "being seriously bummed out," nor is it something I can overcome by discussing it with them. Knowing there are others in similar straits helps a great deal, even though I feel badly for them as they do for me. I also helps when I occasionally communicate with them - yes, talking with people experiencing depression actually helps!<br />It also helps to consider the damage my death would cause those whom I love.<br />A sentiment I often hear (and occasionally feel) goes something like this: I haven't killed myself today, and that is victory enough.Steve Hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04663482232395633005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-69757999870587985312018-06-10T19:38:49.979-07:002018-06-10T19:38:49.979-07:00Stuart: For people who are suicidal, the prospect ...Stuart: For people who are suicidal, the prospect of receiving empathy from a female therapist is not going to be too appealing. It's going to feel offensive. Especially for men, but likely also for women.<br /><br />I really can't say I know whether this is true or false. Empathy can just means a willingness to listen to someone who is in pain, and who may have been told to "suck it up" for years, and that approach has stopped working. So there's a lack of agency, or believe anything can change for the better.<br /><br />I avoid affective empathy myself, giving or receiving, which basically means preferring to keep things impersonal and abstract. But that means my skills are untested when someone really needs something more personal from me. I'd not recommend suicide, but I'm open to imagining it, and exploring what problems can be solved by it, and then considering if the same problems can be solved in another way. It might be worth trying all your options, like saying "no" usually is better than killing yourself.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.com