I agree with you about the mental health stigma.
people with mental illness are not statistically more likely to commit a violent crime they are more likely to be the victim of violence or hurt themselves
it is just a story to take the blame off of guns and make the country feel like they have a tangible problem that they can pretend they are going to fix “mental health“
the truth is a greater societal problem, hopelessness and disconnection that is not mental illness but a societal malaise
which requires admitting something is fundamentally wrong with the American way of life, doesn’t have a clear answer and makes a bad sound bite…
a different topic is women using antidepressants
as a woman who is bipolar 1 and as many times as I have gotten off that final med unfortunately it really is accurate I need lithium or a mood stabilizer and occasional antipsychotic
I got my associates in psychology and then switched to social work and child development and drug treatment classes (

)
what shocked me was that time and again these womens drs did not give them the advice to come off of their medications
and their children went through withdrawals on par with hard drugs
one of the worst was a child coming off of Effexor
the mom could not take the discomfort of the Effexor withdrawal and yet could not make the mental leap to understand if that if it was is too uncomfortable for her, who could express her feelings and knew what was going on.. then what did she think her child will go through?
I’ll tell you: the child went through hell
no sleeping, 2 years old and still not sleeping, shaking constantly when first born going through extreme withdrawal; inconsolable, stiffening his body and screaming, hypertonic, nonstop bloody noses, allergies to everything, on the autism spectrum, violent outburst, sensory issues I have been working with this family for 12 years.
she ended up quitting Effexor after she had the baby, which made me even more angry, she could do it for herself but now her kid?
its times like that when I have to bite my lip
but it is not her fault
her DR said it was fine and even though I could gently guide her towards tapering off people take the advice they want to hear
her Dr is the one who these moms believe and I cant light them up with fear esp not 13yrs ago when my only real facts were my gut instincts and knowing that these drugs were on the list of teratogens level c
I often wonder as the rates of autism continue to explode how many people are taking drugs from their GP’s who dont have complete educations on the medications have a fiscal incentive to prescribe and the parents don’t want to face the discomfort on coming off. It took me months to clean my system out before I got pregnant because I was on a cocktail of medications all which were know teratogens with effects ranging from cleft palate to facial malformation and that is before they even started to ponder what playing with this crucial chemical messengers to the brain during the formation of a child’s neurons and brain matter is being formed
if a potential mom to be can’t go through the discomfort of coming off the those medications then maybe having a biological child is not a good idea
I know this is an unpopular take but why should a parents desire for procreation matter more then the quality of that child’s life?
until the medication and medical establishment stops being a money making profits will always be over people