Ofocurse I agree on 1, 2 and 3, one of the main points I would like to make is that in instance, as we do not have any way to surely determine condition and best cure, that every Psychiatrist giving a diagnosis and a med would be obligated to explain that there is a possibility that the meds might work, and that they also might not, and properly explain risks associated with the therapy, rather than acting like they are giving out relatively safe drugs or that they actually KNOW whats going on rather than guessing.
I know of people that are given Benzos on a endless refill with instructions give to take as needed. Never mind potential physical and psychological addiction, or the fact that in absence of warning about the risks associated with the drug, parents will use their Xanax to calm children, although ofcourse I recognise a high degree of guilt in the parents as well.
What I'm trying to say is that Psychiatry is now where surgery was in 1900 or something like that, and they should act like it.
I don't support the statement that gives title to this thread BTW, I have first hand witnessed 3 people I know progress from regular young adults with maybe a few small quirks into full blown schizophrenia with hallucinations, another friend had horrible crippling anxiety and ended up dead from Benzo+Heroin OD at 23, and I have many other examples but there is no way that I am saying that there is a need for a working psychiatry.
Given the current state of advancement of the science behind psychiatry, I honestly find it revolting that some drugs that might work better than others in some cases are not used as the patent expired or well, just because there is no way that something that might actually work in a short amount of time is preferred to something that needs to be taken for extended periods of time due to increased economical returns.
See, I agree with every single thing you just wrote there, especially the bolded part at the end.
I want to try a number of drugs psychiatrists either won't prescribe or can't prescribe because they are illegal and as such if I want to try something experimental I have to do what others here do which is try RCs or whatever but truth is I have so far been too worried of side effects to try any old RC and I also don't understand how bitcoin and the deep net work or know enough about side effects.
I want to try Ketamine, but while there are some clinics for it, none take insurance and cost an arm and a leg.
I want high CBD/low THC strains of weed cause I get too anxious from regular weed, and just one state over from me in NJ they prescribe it for GAD and OCD which I have, but not in NY where I am, so I can't.
I am sick and tired of trying SSRIs that take weeks or months to POSSIBLY find out if they work. It seems that the only things they'll prescribe that take effect quickly are benzos, which yes, I take Klonopin, but it has some side effects I don't like. There seems to be a perception in most of psychiatry that if something works quickly then it is ineffective, yet I really want to just take a drug, have it kick in fast and know whether or not it works or if it has side effects so I don't have to wait.
Problem is that most of those drugs are more abusable or can have recreational uses, but so fucking what right? We should be allowed to make that choice for ourselves.
I mean, I believe in ALL drugs, literally ALL of them being legal for 18 and over so long as if it is going to mess with your coordination you aren't driving a car.
I think in a perfect world pretty much all doctors along with psychiatrists would act as HEALTH ADVISORS and not be able to tell you what drugs you can and can't have access to, and you should be able to get whatever drug you want, and then you go to them and they explain to you why they do or don't think that drug is a good idea, and EXACTLY WHY, and what drugs they'd recommend, and why.
I know legally that sounds like a mess, but it wouldn't need to be. If you were trying a drug that was dangerous and they told you they didn't recommend it, they could just have you sign something that they sign also saying that they do NOT recommend you take that drug and that they are not responsible for any negative effects or death on your part, scan it through their computer and BOOM! It's in the system that they DO NOT agree you should take it.
Then they put that past you and tell you everything you want to know, the good the bad and the ugly, about what could happen if you try to use Gabpentin + 4-ACO-DMT + Ketamine + Vortoxetine etc etc...(those are things I want to try LOL) for you depression and anxiety.
Of course, we'll never live in that world.
I also agree with you that psychiatry is like 1900s medicine, but that's just unfortunate. Even then they had SOME cures and it was better off than 1800s medicine or no medicine at all...but TOTALLY, psychiatry is not very advanced.
Every psychiatrist or neurologist I have seen made mistakes:
1st one was an ASSHOLE...HUGE ASSHOLE many years back.
Would NOT prescribe me benzos for my social anxiety and flat out told me it was because he was afraid I'd get into a car-accident from them and he'd get sued and when I responded by saying "well, what about my dying in that car accident as opposed to you just losing your license?" he gave me a sick sadistic little smile as if to say "well...ACTUALLY I DON'T care as much about you dying as my license."
I would tell him I had eye-contact anxiety and felt like people were staring at me, which is getting to be a well-known form of social anxiety which my Klonopin works very well for.
Instead of thinking I had GAD, Social anxiety and OCD, he was convinced I had paranoid schizophrenia.
I'd say I worried that people might be talking about me because they thought I was looking at them weird due to my eye contact phobia and then he said "so, do you also think they are following you in their cars?" and I'm like "NO...I'm not crazy" and he just gave me a sick twisted smile like he was really trying to prove to me and himself that I was not just socially anxious but paranoid.
He prescribed me Risperdal which is an anti-psychotic which is very dangerous and can lead to tardive diskonesia which is a dangerous condition. It did NOTHING for me. He gave me Buspar which some people say helps them but did NOTHING for me.
I said I thought MAYBE I could lower my Prozac....and he lowered it WAY too fast and I got 4 months of insomnia from SSRI WD, then had a panic attack cause he wouldn't give me Klonopin.
I left him and went to see another guy who gave me Klonopin, but then was about to take it away cause "we are only supposed to use it short term till SSRIs take effect" and while I know that's a common line of thinking, I think it is unfair not to let someone keep taking Klonopin if that's all that will work.
So I left that guy and went to see a neurologist who prescribed Klonopin.
Things went well with him for a while but some complicated shit went down which would take too long to get into so instead of being a man and talking to me face to face and tapering me HIMSELF off Klonopin or even referring me to another psychiatrist, he cut me off cold turkey leaving it in "good faith" that I'd find a hospital.
I found one, where I went to a day-program where I could come and go as I pleased for 3 weeks. T
There I saw a SUPER incompetent psychiatrist who gave me NO taper to my Klonopin, told me "it tapers itself cause it is long acting" and just said "divide up what little you have left and take a little less each day for a week"....that was his idea of a taper.
SOMEHOW I had COMPLETELY Asymptomatic WD...meaning ZERO Klonopin WD from taking 1.5mgs a day for years, which I still have NO IDEA HOW I got so lucky....but I know it was pure luck.
So both my former neurologist and the hospitals' psychiatrist fucked up COMPLETELY with the Klonopin and it is sheer luck I didn't have a grand-mal seizure and they'd BOTH be to blame if I did.
They gave me another psychiatrist who refused to give me Klonopin because of the situation and when I told him my anxiety had come back and wanted it he said "well, I understand, but WE DON'T WANT YOU TO HURT YOURSELF" LOL.....as if I didn't know the ins-and outs of Klonopin after taking it for a decade.
I then had no access to Klonopin for 9 months so my social anxiety returned and FINALLY I found a new doctor who gave me Klonopin.
Now this doctor is the opposite, asks no questions and gives me whatever I want, but will NEVER meet with me in person, responds to NOTHING other than refills of pills. I have tried to make appointments with him for like 9 months to talk about wanting to try new meds but he won't respond to anything regarding an office visit and only refilling pills which basically means to me "listen, I'm just your drug dealer, I don't have time to be your doctor LOL".
So now I need to find a new psychiatrist who will both prescribe what I want, be willing to meet with me, and not cut me off from meds and be open minded.
That's hard to find. There always seems to be SOMETHING wrong with them.
I have also had certain of these doctors not admit to certain dangers that I KNEW FOR A FACT were associated with certain meds when I actually believe they knew those dangers existed but just didn't want me to ask about it because it would complicate things.
So yeah....psychiatry has a LOT of problems, but that being said, I am VERY lucky to even have anyone be willing to prescribe me Klonopin which helps my anxiety even with all of the associated risks, and someone who is willing to consider different options and believe I have issues that need addressing.
I took more issue with the idea of mental illness being a myth, or the idea that psychiatry is completely useless and evil, which I now see you don't really believe.
I also haven't PERSONALLY experienced being hospitalized and in my case whenever something went bad with a doctor I was able to find another, and because of that and the way laws work in the U.S. where USUALLY you must be a danger to yourself or others to be forcefully hospitalized, I kind of doubted how frequently it happens, but I believe the OP that it happens more in Canada than in the U.S., and truth is, I bet it happens more often in the U.S. than I am aware of.
I just so far have been able to avoid presenting myself as dangerous to anyone (cause I'm not) and I take the attitude with these doctors that I am going to be respectful, but then if they mistreat me I am basically like "I'm the customer, and the customer is always right, and I'll find a new doctor."
So far I have been "ok", but I would not say I'm happy overall, and would rather have an Ayahuasca shaman hahahah.
But I can't, cause I take SSRIs, and I'm not quite willing to taper off them and travel to the Amazon and find a shaman now lol...
But...it's a work in progress as a field, and i believe it has a lot to offer, and just that it is more in its' infancy at this point.
Truth be told, if it weren't for drug laws and they could prescribe psychedelics and other drugs legally and were willing to do so I bet we'd have a lot more progress in the field.
I recently saw a documentary on a guy who tried every psychiatric med out there for his depression and was going to kill himself but went to Peru and got an Ayahuasca ceremony and finally got better.
I wish they'd prescribe psychedelics here....maybe at somepoint I'll try out the online RC thing...
Anyways, I guess we agree on most of this stuff now.