Mad in America

I find the ancient language of Gaelic empowering and to have more meaning than Modern English, for example. Gaelic has more depth and complexity, and is imbued with elements of the otherworld and the supernatural in a far greater way than most modern European languages.

My name is Sonia and I have decided to leave this testimony both because I hope it can help people who have problems similar to those I have had, and because I hope it helps those with sincerity and without giving labels, in the medical field it tries to help people who have these manifestations.

I participated in the meeting of the mental health pool last week and I thought I would write down here a few thoughts that were raised by the issues and discussions at the meeting. I could have highlighted them there as well, but maybe I can express myself better by writing. And these things would have taken a moderate amount of meeting time as well.

Complex PTSD and dissociative symptoms can arise as a result of repetitive developmental trauma or neglect and persistent social stress due to bullying, discrimination, political violence or the sadness of being separated from family and country as a refugee.

But there are far more external factors that affect our mental health that are ignored by psychiatry! Feeling safe is something that significantly affects our mental health.

"I began to go through the process of constructing my crazy and neurodiverse identity and to relate to people who were going through the same multiple segregation as me. And so, in this complex and laborious process,I found myself faced with the challenge of bonding emotionally from another place, different from the one learned, different from the one taught"

Free and informed consent means that you have the opportunity to say “yes” or “no”, that you receive correct and comprehensive information about the possible benefits and harms of medication and that you have access to good treatment even if you do not want it. chooses not to take any medication. In current mental health care, none of these three conditions are fully met.

In practice as well as research and advocacy work, we meet people daily who describe side effects but also the lack of alternatives to psychotropic drugs. People who call for support in tapering off and answers to questions about how prescribed medication affects their everyday life and well-being.

It is not "pill shame" that is the problem, as the Norwegian Psychiatric Association claims. The problem is that patients in psychiatry often cannot say no to medication, even when the medication does not work for them. Medicines that do not have a good effect and that cause serious side effects are for many the only treatment they receive.

Today, a quarter of the population consumes psychotropic drugs. Sick leave due to mental illness does not decrease, but increases. Pharmaceutical companies continue to produce old and new medicines non-stop, which psychiatrists prescribe, also non-stop.

My experience of the family has not been a good one. Whilst on the surface things appear relatively happy, in private there is an emotional void where there should be a meaningful family bond.

Real progress has been made on behalf of those rejected and forgotten about through the establishment of self-help groups where we make time for each other and attentive listening is paramount.

In the article, the author reports and contextualizes the exaggerated use of psychotropic drugs in CPR (Center of permanence for repatriation), highlighting how this widespread practice is in reality only the tip of the iceberg of a much broader phenomenon, characterized by the disregard of the psychophysical, cultural and social aspects of the health of immigrants in general.

"Despite this frenzy of medicine, I haven't gotten rid of my psychotic symptoms, my depression has been found to be treatment-resistant and chronic, and I still don't sleep well."

Through dissociation you protect yourself from the intense chaos that is going on in your body, from what is too much to deal with right now. We're checking out.

In the last ten years, the number of children up to 17 years old taking antidepressants has increased by 190 per cent. In its latest review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child criticises Sweden for these levels and recommends the government to ensure that antidepressants are only prescribed to children when strictly medically justified.

Psychiatry's challenge is that the medical model generates more of the same, without missing results arousing particular curiosity. What we need is a present health service that is able to listen to what people say about their life challenges.

"It changed my life to learn about this whole world of human rights, of people with psychosocial disabilities, and then educate society that we exist - and that we have the right to live, to express ourselves as we are, not to be ashamed and to have a place in society."

“The acceptability, tolerability, and estimated effect sizes on key clinical outcomes are promising and encourage further investigation of probiotics as an add-on treatment for people with MDD in a definitive efficacy trial.”

"This piece is fuelled by an interaction with a psychiatrist that wanted to put me on extra medication because I openly told him that I hear voices, that I consider helpful guidance. I felt judged and a lack of understanding, lack of open-mindedness – and anger. I also felt threatened. I had never met this doctor before and I felt he did it out of fear."