Thank you for this article. I have a question though about the first point, “autonomy and self-determination”.
What will happen when a person chooses to end their suffering for good and is found out to be preparing therefor? Will their decision-making capacity and refusal of “help” even matter? Will those who do not perceive said suffering get to decide that the person has to live through their pain for the former’s emotional benefit? “Intensive individual support” doesn’t answer the question to me.
Yes, in the name of evidence-based medicine, they’re giving the person even more reasons to end it.
What is particularly evil is charging a suicidal person for an involuntary hospitalization and treatment. Involuntary hospitalization may traumatize patients and clearly doesn’t always help.
‘The medications are safe and the doctors mean well.’
Why would they say this?
a) They don’t care.
b) Patient is seen as an idiot.
c) They’re naive, unintelligent and poorly trained.
d) Defence reaction because they feel caught.
Any other possibilities?
“It wasn’t until Steve was admitted to the hospital for multi-organ failure that a gastroenterologist set him on the path to deprescribe his psychiatric medications.”
Psychiatry seriously damages medicine’s reputation. I wonder why there are no real consequences.
Why does the suggestion that suicide must be prevented at any cost go unquestioned in most of the mental health industry? Is it allowed to even ask such a question?
Suicide prevention is mostly motivated by selfish desires: to cover your ass; to feel good; so you can boast about “saving lives”; to prevent losing a person that you believe “belongs to you”, who in a sense you consider as a possession.
When a person experiences constant, unrelievable and unbearable pain, as is the case with some mental health patients, suicide can make a lot of sense because it ends the constant, unbearable suffering. I’m not suggesting that it should be done in these cases; I’m simply saying that people should have the freedom to do it without intervention, and even receive assistance, should they so desire. How does this not make sense?
Also, I see a risk of trading suicide for decades of silent suffering. Therefore, the suicide rate is a very crude and potentially misleading indicator of the mental well-being of a society.
“One would be: intervene and identify early. And we should begin with screening: in schools, colleges, primary care settings, workplace. In individuals who are identified as having symptoms or in incipient stages or at imminent risk, referrals could be made to specialized programs for mood, anxiety, psychotic disorders, that had an array of different services that are evidence based and known to help.”
I find this highly disturbing.
In my view, some psychiatrists dream of psychiatry establishing a “moral dictatorship”, a totalitarian system. They believe psychiatry’s benevolence is only limited by its power. They aren’t aware of the fact that they have self-interests which in times conflict with their patients’ self-interests, not to mention the role of interests of other parties like relatives or society. They are blind to the limits of their knowledge and to the fact that they at times make mistakes, huge mistakes.
They haven’t learned from history. There have already been attempts to build moral dictatorships.
They should also check whether the person is rational and wants to be “saved”. If the person is rational and doesn’t want to be saved, no coercion should be exercised. I think forcing a person to exist is unethical.
The other question is whether the psychiatrist would want to suicide if they were in the position of the suicidal patient. Treating a patient worse (limiting their freedom) than you would like to be treated in the patient’s position is unethical, too.
“love is the most powerful evidence-based treatment”
Since a stay in a psychiatric hospital can be damaging or unhelpful, I have wondered whether even a fetish clinic may produce better results in the short term in some cases. Of course, actual love is a different thing entirely.
Regarding monitoring mental wellbeing of society. A reduction in suicide rates does not necessarily indicate higher wellbeing. It is possible that aggressive suicide prevention simply makes suffering less visible.
“‘In the last year, we’ve helped first responders quickly reach around 3,500 people globally who needed help,’ Mr. Zuckerberg wrote”
Should Mr. Zuckerberg ever decide life doesn’t make sense for him anymore, will he get help too, or will he insist he has the right to end it? Obviously, he is unwilling to leave that decision to users of his platform when it is about their lives.
> Evidence That More Psychiatry Means More Suicide
Don’t challenge psychiatry lest they use drugs, electricity and confinement to safe spaces to make people unable to kill themselves.
“As a result, individuals with mental illnesses disproportionately experience poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and unsafe housing and face structural and societal stigma.”
Why are they denied euthanasia when they’re otherwise treated so badly?
Thank you for this article. I have a question though about the first point, “autonomy and self-determination”.
What will happen when a person chooses to end their suffering for good and is found out to be preparing therefor? Will their decision-making capacity and refusal of “help” even matter? Will those who do not perceive said suffering get to decide that the person has to live through their pain for the former’s emotional benefit? “Intensive individual support” doesn’t answer the question to me.
Yes, in the name of evidence-based medicine, they’re giving the person even more reasons to end it.
What is particularly evil is charging a suicidal person for an involuntary hospitalization and treatment. Involuntary hospitalization may traumatize patients and clearly doesn’t always help.
‘The medications are safe and the doctors mean well.’
Why would they say this?
a) They don’t care.
b) Patient is seen as an idiot.
c) They’re naive, unintelligent and poorly trained.
d) Defence reaction because they feel caught.
Any other possibilities?
“It wasn’t until Steve was admitted to the hospital for multi-organ failure that a gastroenterologist set him on the path to deprescribe his psychiatric medications.”
Psychiatry seriously damages medicine’s reputation. I wonder why there are no real consequences.
Why does the suggestion that suicide must be prevented at any cost go unquestioned in most of the mental health industry? Is it allowed to even ask such a question?
Suicide prevention is mostly motivated by selfish desires: to cover your ass; to feel good; so you can boast about “saving lives”; to prevent losing a person that you believe “belongs to you”, who in a sense you consider as a possession.
When a person experiences constant, unrelievable and unbearable pain, as is the case with some mental health patients, suicide can make a lot of sense because it ends the constant, unbearable suffering. I’m not suggesting that it should be done in these cases; I’m simply saying that people should have the freedom to do it without intervention, and even receive assistance, should they so desire. How does this not make sense?
Also, I see a risk of trading suicide for decades of silent suffering. Therefore, the suicide rate is a very crude and potentially misleading indicator of the mental well-being of a society.
“One would be: intervene and identify early. And we should begin with screening: in schools, colleges, primary care settings, workplace. In individuals who are identified as having symptoms or in incipient stages or at imminent risk, referrals could be made to specialized programs for mood, anxiety, psychotic disorders, that had an array of different services that are evidence based and known to help.”
I find this highly disturbing.
In my view, some psychiatrists dream of psychiatry establishing a “moral dictatorship”, a totalitarian system. They believe psychiatry’s benevolence is only limited by its power. They aren’t aware of the fact that they have self-interests which in times conflict with their patients’ self-interests, not to mention the role of interests of other parties like relatives or society. They are blind to the limits of their knowledge and to the fact that they at times make mistakes, huge mistakes.
They haven’t learned from history. There have already been attempts to build moral dictatorships.
They should also check whether the person is rational and wants to be “saved”. If the person is rational and doesn’t want to be saved, no coercion should be exercised. I think forcing a person to exist is unethical.
The other question is whether the psychiatrist would want to suicide if they were in the position of the suicidal patient. Treating a patient worse (limiting their freedom) than you would like to be treated in the patient’s position is unethical, too.
“love is the most powerful evidence-based treatment”
Since a stay in a psychiatric hospital can be damaging or unhelpful, I have wondered whether even a fetish clinic may produce better results in the short term in some cases. Of course, actual love is a different thing entirely.
Regarding monitoring mental wellbeing of society. A reduction in suicide rates does not necessarily indicate higher wellbeing. It is possible that aggressive suicide prevention simply makes suffering less visible.
“‘In the last year, we’ve helped first responders quickly reach around 3,500 people globally who needed help,’ Mr. Zuckerberg wrote”
Should Mr. Zuckerberg ever decide life doesn’t make sense for him anymore, will he get help too, or will he insist he has the right to end it? Obviously, he is unwilling to leave that decision to users of his platform when it is about their lives.
> Evidence That More Psychiatry Means More Suicide
Don’t challenge psychiatry lest they use drugs, electricity and confinement to safe spaces to make people unable to kill themselves.
“As a result, individuals with mental illnesses disproportionately experience poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and unsafe housing and face structural and societal stigma.”
Why are they denied euthanasia when they’re otherwise treated so badly?