You have nailed it.
If psychiatry were honest and upfront about its capabilities and what it was actually doing, then fine, you have informed consumers of services who are cognizant of and know what the treatment can and can’t do, what short and long term effects it has, and so on.
The problem is, they lie about what they know and don’t know, they are in cahoots with the drug companies to use drugs which are largely untested in the long term, have known short-term dangerous side effects about which neither drug company nor psychiatrist are especially forthcoming, and they are not informing the patient or their family about any of this.
And that is my entire beef with psychiatry.
If a medical doctor said he wanted to give you chemotherapy to correct your heartburn, you’d sue for malpractice once you found out that it’s used only for cancer treatments.
Psychiatrists say they’ll give you “this” drug to help with bipolar, but not inform you that while on it you may experience manic episodes that may well be violent towards yourself and others, if you take it long term you will likely suffer from tardive diskinesia, if you stop taking it you may be more inclined to commit suicide, and so on. Depakote has been implicated in causing Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Zyprexa has been implicated in causing diabetes. Anyone who wants to argue that point will have to explain the man in the recent Depakote vs. Zyprexa trial who started with a blood sugar of 84 and died during the trial, on Zyprexa, with a blood sugar of 843. I don’t know any doctors who, when starting patients on any of these drugs, do a full workup of blood and other tests and keep testing over the duration of time the patient is on the drug(s).
Tell me, why do you suppose every school shooter was recently on or was still on psychiatric drugs at the time they committed their crimes, and why is that hushed up ?
IMO the profession of psychiatry has a lot of blood and wrecked lives on its hands for which it refuses to take responsibility.
I don’t know any doctors who, when starting patients on any of these drugs, do a full workup of blood and other tests and keep testing over the duration of time the patient is on the drug(s).
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Is this your personal experience or from the basis of your research? Over the last 12 years, my mom has had 3 psychiatrists. The full blood workup was the first thing each one of them did, and each one of them, without prompting, made themselves available to us, the patient’s family. Once a year, or at the onset of a manic episode (everyone of which was the result of her stopping the meds), bloodwork was done. We were kept fully informed at each change in the cocktail, what we could expect, what could happen, so forth and so on.
I am no cheerleader for psychiatrists. I don’t doubt for a minute that some are engaging in research on their patients. But the ones with whom I’ve had actual, first hand contact with, are nothing like the people you describe.
Anyway, the civil discussion back and forth has been appreciated.