tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post8686440425707078520..comments2024-03-18T03:28:36.581-04:00Comments on Shrink Rap: On Government Oversight and Caring for the SickestUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-81839009851887945192015-02-19T14:28:41.595-05:002015-02-19T14:28:41.595-05:00Very interesting perspective! Mental illness is c...Very interesting perspective! Mental illness is certainly a condition that people should seek professional help on, and the government should be willing to assist those who need it. Of course, the assistance should be monitored so no one abuses it, but everyone who needs assistance should get it.Valeriehttp://www.myrnayenter.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-63023915501061204422015-02-17T23:15:04.104-05:002015-02-17T23:15:04.104-05:00I agree with Dinah as well. What I was thinking wa...I agree with Dinah as well. What I was thinking was that by not offering treatment to the "worried well" that might actually result in more severe cases. People could deteriorate more rapidly. I don't have a problem with people who work full time, and want to continue supporting themselves, using their health insurance to maintain their mental health.Borderlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10583635462258613228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-23328047550870321962015-02-10T19:31:25.094-05:002015-02-10T19:31:25.094-05:00I think you should write a post about how best pra...I think you should write a post about how best practice does not equal standard of care....but should. Lnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-76487473151325647082015-02-10T10:54:02.761-05:002015-02-10T10:54:02.761-05:00It's odd to me that the loudest critics of SAM...It's odd to me that the loudest critics of SAMHSA seem to be completely oblivious to the stupidity that passes for mental health treatment in psychiatric hospitals. You want to see government waste, then sit through some groups in a psych hospital. During one group I was given a list of affirmations to read to a shatterproof mirror. I'm not kidding. This was part of my "treatment." <br /><br />So, they have these social workers who in some cases got their degree from a cracker jack box leading groups that are worthless, yet if you resist the stupidity it's a sign of your illness. I wouldn't participate in the groups telling me to read affirmations to my mirror so I was labeled non-compliant with treatment. Being non compliant with stupidity is not a sign of mental illness, it's a sign that the patient hasn't given up and has enough fight in them to resist that which isn't helpful.<br /><br />You want reform? Start with the psych hospitals. Stop with the stupid groups that no one is getting anything out of. You can save some money that way. Instead, encourage social activities which are actually helpful like playing cards, etc. <br /><br />Given the choice of drinking a smoothie or sitting through a stupid group where a social worker tells me that to get better I need to be compliant with reading affirmations to a mirror, well, let's just say I'll take the smoothie. <br /><br />P-K, proudly non-compliant with "group"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-80653597358334542342015-02-09T16:18:59.522-05:002015-02-09T16:18:59.522-05:00J : "...I agree with you, Dinah"....word...J : "...I agree with you, Dinah"....words rarely said here on Shrink rap. I'll take it. Glad you found help, and I'm sorry to hear it was so difficult. <br /><br />Anon: No offense meant to any religion, but the Quakers get their ideology through in more insidious ways. Maybe it's better to have everything out in the open. (--Sorry, years of kids in Quaker school...)Dinahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09227988351623862689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-42504441581391318942015-02-08T19:43:21.909-05:002015-02-08T19:43:21.909-05:00This is interesting. Personally, I would like to h...This is interesting. Personally, I would like to have the flow of my tax dollars to so called "mental health" completely stopped because I see "mental health", on its various incarnations, a "belief system" on par with religion. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, every dollar the federal government spends in "mental health" is a dollar spent proselytizing a belief system. I find this to be incompatible with the first amendment's establishment clause.<br /><br />With that said, and given the reality that government needs "mental health" to do social control, I rather have the SAMHSA/recovery types receiving the bulk of the money than the TAC/Torrey/Jaffe people. To make a religious analogy, if we lived in a country where we could not escape the imposition of Christianity as the state religion, I rather have that country promote the beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends (quakers) than the beliefs of the Middle Ages Roman Catholic Church and its Inquisition. <br /><br />So we will have a "civil war" as long as organized psychiatry continues to promote coercive psychiatry as part of their belief system.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-81878027721560410322015-02-08T14:22:51.253-05:002015-02-08T14:22:51.253-05:00Yes, for once I agree with you, Dinah. I am a life...Yes, for once I agree with you, Dinah. I am a lifelong sufferer of MDD, severe, recurrent, complete with dozens of medication sequences, years of therapy, 4 life-threatening suicide attempts and several hospitalizations. <br /><br />I have a PhD and work in a meaningful field. I support myself. I live independently. I have health insurance, I see a psychiatrist in private practice, I have friends and colleagues, many who know about my mental health, many who would be shocked. <br /><br />I view myself as a patient who falls between the cracks. Prior to finding my current shrink, following a voluntary hospitalization for suicidality, no shrink would agree to work with me because I was "too sick." However, I had a job and health insurance, so I could not qualify for any state or federal run programs. I have never been psychotic, violent, or engaged in criminal behavior. My mental illness is severe and often unremitting. But I couldn't get any treatment and I couldn't get well on my own. Torrey's system would drop me through the cracks. Why is my life worth less then anyone else's, why is my severe mental illness less worth treating then someone else's? Jnoreply@blogger.com