PSYCHIATRIC JERKY II
The conventional “Medical Model” approach to treating people experiencing extreme states of consciousness, the so-called “mentally ill”, is that of diagnostic labels from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual 5 (DSM) that stigmatizes people and puts them at risk of harm by others or themselves. The present model says that one’s neurological rmakeup is not “normal” if it doesn’t function in specific areas of the brain like everyone else’s does. Therefore, you have a disorder, an illness to be treated by the administration of medication, or even electro shock or some other invasive technique, that can sometimes be helpful or lead to lasting mental or physiological damage.
However, given that the medication today is not that of the past where the side effects were substantially debilitating, one can perhaps find that many of the psychiatricmedications of today work at relieving or settling down specific symptoms that are detrimental to the individual without horrible side effects. So yes, there can be a time and place for using Psychmeds to relieve someone’s intense suffering and allow one to be able to participate in non-invasive therapeutic sessions.
Also, there is no room in which neurodiversity can be looked at as an important contribution to a healthy diverse heterogeneous population where it should be, at times, embraced. Science has demonstrated that diversity within populations whether human, plant or animal is very healthy in ensuring the survival of the species.
The Medical Model premises neurological dysfunctions as the cause of a variety of mentaldisorders is suspect as many scientific studies have resulted in inclusive results. Especially, because there is difficulty discerning if a “neurological dysfunction” is a causation vs consequence of a particular “disorder”. Such as, are the high dopamine levels seen in people labeled as Schizophrenic a consequence of having the so-called disorder or is it the cause of it?
Regardless of causes and consequences and whether your brain has been pathologized because it’s not doing the same thing as everyone else’s, mentaldiversity should not be labelled as an illness, because is that really the case? Hmmm, interestingly people labelled as Schizophrenic, a diagnosis that many people are extremely afraid of having assigned to them or are equally afraid of someone that has Schizophrenia, are seen as unpredictable and dangerous thanks to the stigma forwarded by the new media, Hollywood and the medical community. When actually it has been demonstrated that people labelled as such, are in fact less risky to the general public then the average “normal” white male is.
Intriguing, in our culture “strange behaviors’ ‘, hearing voices and having hallucinations are symptoms that have been pathologized and given a grim prognosis with labels such as, psychosis and schizophrenia. Whereas, in some cultures these are signs that spiritual enlightenment is occurring or a new shaumn has presented themselves and, thus the person is embraced by the community and taken in by other shaumns that guide the person to become a powerful healer or visionary for their community. Or community care is given to people in mentaldistress by simply being there with them, or performing rituals guiding them through difficult times.
But what remains scary about the conventional androcentric psychiatric treatment world is that more often than not, if your behavior is at a point that it crosses social norms or your deemed a threat to one’s self or others, the police are called in usually they will restrain you and arrest you under the Mental Health Act. Which is then followed by hospital incarceration, forced medication and other possible problematic treatments if you don’t comply with the doctors orders. What’s missing from the treatment program is the need to understand and to address the root causes, such as family disfunction and abuse, and the social/political environment that contributes to the origins of trauma. An equally important factor that accounts for the number of repeat psychiatricward stays for many people, is that after a period of hospitalization and the administration of meds, people are spit back out into the dysfunctional society that impacted one’s mental wellbeing in the first place…so the cycle continues and return trips to the psych ward usually means new meds are administered or there are increased dosages of the current ones that the person is on.
To be continued in the next issue.
