/r/Antipsychiatry
Discussion + counterprogramming against coercive psychiatry and the mental health industrial complex.
We think many psych diagnoses do not meet basic medical standards. We think many popular interventions can be more harmful than helpful. Survivor-led, but all are welcome here.
Welcome to r/antipsychiatry!
We acknowledge that even short-term use of psychiatric drugs can cause permanent damage, and we oppose the involuntary use of psychiatric drugs in all circumstances.
We oppose the power imbalances inherent in the mental health system.
We support self-ownership of your body; an informed person can use drugs if they feel they need to.
We believe that:
The specific definitions of, or criteria for, hundreds of current psychiatric diagnoses or disorders are vague & arbitrary, leaving too much room for opinions and interpretations to meet basic scientific standards.
Prevailing psychiatric treatments are ultimately far more damaging than helpful to patients.
Rules:
No spam. Repetitive posts may be deleted.
No personal attacks or submissions where the purpose is to name & insult another redditor.
No brigading other subreddits. Don't send visitors where they are not wanted.
No advocating assault or torture.
Do not ask for medical advice. Do not give medical advice.
Otherwise, we want to maximize free speech and encourage debating.
Provider Directories:
Licensed psych workers who MAY be able to help with psych drug withdrawal, or may have reformist views. Beware of any promoting their own quack therapy.
Interesting Subreddits:
More links:
fda.gov/medwatch for the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting Program
We're unaffiliated:
/r/Antipsychiatry
Is there ever a third position in left-right discourse? If we were to superimpose modern political ideology upon the ancient Roman’s, what would fit them best? If anything at all? How and why is there a reality for us to inhabit? Oh my god! I have main character syndrome, society is on fire. Has anybody here been assaulted by school-staffers once or more than once, and have they gotten away with it? I feel utterly helpless and perplexed. I need an awakening to higher consciousness. Is fashion always or constantly changing? Or bound to change! I hate being bullied by family and peers, because of the fact that I failed in following the status quo. I wasn’t aware that hairstyle carried political meaning. Is it true that left has gone far left or the right has gone far right, can both be true! I’m worried that I’ve become too far left! I don’t know what to be and how to align myself! I hate being alive and falling short of social expectations. We live only to suffer, and if death is opposite to life, and life is suffering, than death must be opposite to suffering, same as before we were born, were born, we live, we die, and I was born confused, lived confused and will die confused. I hate being here, and I’m afraid to admit that feeling. Everybody is a jerk. I’m ruined. Neoliberals and conservatives are everywhere, and America is really right wing? Are most doctors right wing? Is every psychologist and psychiatrist a fraud? Is every residential and behavioral health unit of a hospital an insurance fraud?
So ever since I’ve been baker acted I’ve taken medication. When I took antidepressants they would just numb me up and give me insomnia, make me sleepy or tired. When I took antipsychotics they made me gain weight and retarded. I went from 200 6’2 to 300 and I am now pre diabetic because of this bullshit. They also made me crave more and more of them. They also turned me into a drug addict because of the cravings. I ended up doing cocaine at the age of 17 because I was more unstable than usual ever was without them. The meds also made me more suicidal and want to kill myself. Whenever I told my psychiatrist that weed was helping he kept telling me I was a drug addict and that it does nothing for me for depression and anxiety. He even baker acted me once for testing positive for thc and cursing at him because he said it did not help me at all. After I got done baker acted I turned 18 and stopped going to him and taking meds. Now I am still 18 and I just sneak carts and pens into my house. I have never had any mental breakdown or depression and anxiety and suicidal thoughts thoughts ever since.
Lord, I pray for those who have been condemn in our society and judged unjustly by psychiatrist who cause harm on those in mental wards or clinics I pray that all my brothers and sisters in Christ forgive those who cause them harm and know as the church of Christ we speak in one voice in one mind and we stand together in mental health. No weapon against me will prosper and we as Christians pull each other out of the pit of despair and glorify our God anything is possible with God to those who are struggling with permanent brain damage I stand with you all and I will do anything in the power of christ to speak for all people in the name of Love. Amen
Hello guys I've recently was on antipsychotics to say the least it damaged my brain and now i have blurry vision and slight sexual dysfunction. Is thc better then cbd?? is there any miracle drug ive also tried GAbA and it work alot as well for my cocentration.
It's sad that your ability to pass as someone aligned with the values of the dominant culture, or any traditional culture, is so sacred to "brain doctors" that it's prioritized over so many other things the brains do.
Apparently, having less drive for your hobbies, a lower sex drive, a harder time expressing your opinions, an inability to express negative emotions at all, fewer highs in life, crappy memory, a constant state of being at a loss for words, and an unrecognizable personality is a small price to pay for being able to "live a normal life" in an increasingly unaccommodating world.
This is what happens when you put people in each others' faces more, replace cubes and actual offices with open plan computer labs where an innocent stim habit can be enough to have HR called on you, make cars increasingly unaffordable, and convince the world to slowly undo the work towards accepting nonstandard behavior by prioritizing "soft skills" and "emotional intelligence."
I think EQ is bullshit as it is biased against nonstandard natural expressions of emotions and an inability to fully internalize your culture's values, much like how an IQ test might fault someone who doesn't have exactly the same perspective on analogies, who uses too many fragments on a language skills section, etc.
Just as an SAT test could hypothetically give a high score to someone who can't define "ain't" and genuinely gets confused by singular indefinite "they", those EQ tests could give "good emotional intelligence" to the person who reads anger in the uncoordinated stomp-walker, indifference in the person who didn't make eye contact while listening to you, and happiness in the person constantly watching themselves to do what most people would consider a habit.
In my experience, antipsychotics for autism were not medication. Sure, they are treated as medication by insurance plans, but to put it as politely as I can, they were substances – blocker drugs. They didn't treat me. They put me in a fucking chemical straitjacket. They morphed me. They made me sit through dinners with people I didn't like in the slightest. I could feel "emotionally constipated" on them.
And manners are seen as literally "correct behavior" by these people.
Lose a friend? Your dose will be upped, and you'll get a lecture about how it's not good to offend people. Risperidone will have you soullessly sing kumbayah with the next person you don't really get along with! Withdrawn? That's not part of a lady's character! Too loud? Swear at all? We can't have that! This should make you act better!
Dunno about you, but I've never had a doc sit me down with images of my brain saying "Here's your chemical deficiency, and this is the SPECIFIC medication we have for treating THAT EXACT deficiency." ... It's all guesswork... AT BEST it's guesswork, it's usually more contrived than that.
Wasn’t it heavily stigmatized and the conditions were terrible. But by the 1960s, the rebellion happened and now the whole world is woke.
someone who wants told me they were my friend told me they wanted to see me in a hospital medicated and forced into therapy every single day. I believe that person to have been an every day sadist someone who got off on someone being terribly unhappy it gave them pleasure to see me unhappy. nothing To do with sex--It was that this much older person could not be happy unless someone else was suffering. He enjoyed my suffering, and I could see it, and I called him on it and he became extremely angry.
He refused to see me except alone and in My Home with no one else around to protect me.
That is the kind of religious person we need to be cautious about approaching and connecting with
The Cobenfy trials showed a very high drop out rate for reasons we don’t know yet. Is it a game changer we do not yet know. But I found it very disturbing advertisment were they almost promised to eradicate homelessness among the schizophrenic population. Compliance has always been a problem among that part of the population.. Do any of you think that it will change. When I look back in time all the promises was made 30 years ago when the big pharmaceutical companies promised an all round treatment. A promise they couldn’t keep. Youngsters and grannies what do you think.
https://youtu.be/HbtjgL_FtZk?si=wHGALpTVwG_wjsDz Hope it's ok to post here
I subscribed in november 2022 and have seen how this supposed antipsychiatry subreddit evolved, and there's really few antipsychiatry people in here. How the fuck have this happened? Don't know, government trolls infiltrating, propaganda brainwashed people, censorship? I don't know, but I feel that there's is no place left for survivers or people struggling with this demonic institution called psychiatry supported by familly abusers and taxes. Try to make a google research, almost zero articles and most are desinformation. People wake up.
I don't want to be on them again but I'm struggling SO much. The holidays are just an incredibly INCREDIBLY hard time, and I have no support from anyone, professional or not. I am incredibly alone. And I really really really don't want to be found dead at a usual impulsive action.
If not, what are these things and how to deal with them without meds?
But he went through multiple meds, changing meds every 3-4 months, multiple attempts (he had told me a very concerning goodbye at the elevator and then attempted), even ECT (electroshock to the brain), and he looked like a zombie for a long time. After 3 years of all that, I now see him around genuinely smiling and happy, his family also says he's way better and they even opened their business this summer and he worked after years.
Makes me sceptical.
Is it possible that the risperdal that caused me insomnia gave me audible hallucinations? I woke up every 1-2 hrs for months, almost a year especially when I was tapering. I got on the smallest dose of Caplyta and entirely off risperdal. I am now finally sleeping. Last night I slept through the whole night and my hallucinations are gone this morning. I also feel completely normal physically and mentally. I'm just curious if the voices could be from sleep deprivation
I got (and still have) severe pssd from taking zoloft for 2 months. Just before this my girlfriend at the time (we were very much in love) was taking zoloft and tercian(antipsychotic). Suddenly out of the blue she broke up with me, literally nothing had happened between us we were both very happy then she broke up with me without ever explaining why.
Afterwards she got back with her ex who had cheated on her 5 times in the past and surprise surprise he treated her like shit again. I realise now that her decisions where definitely because of the psychiatric chemicals.
Now I'm single with pssd, she's single as well and now says she doesn't believe in love anymore, that it doesn't exist. All thanks to sertraline this molecule from hell.
I only get aching in my head I don't know if that's a withdrawal? But I don't get these weird withdrawals effects that people get when they've been cold turkey off them
I just came across with this comment on Reddit. What do you think about it?
If you had diabetes, would you be anti-insulin? If you had severe hypothyroidism, would you not take thyroid replacement hormone? If you have a chronic brain disorder, what is wrong with taking medication to treat it and why would doing so be on a different plane than treating any other chronic condition? Why would treating a mental health condition be viewed as any different than treating a physiological health condition?
In MKultra, first they tried to break the patient’s mind. They did this by giving the test subjects lots of electric shocks and giving them copious amounts of LSD. After their minds were broken, they were forced to listen to 100s of repetitive, brainwashing audioclips so they can be reprogrammed.
In the modern era, we now have psych meds. SSRIs and antipsychotics. You ever wonder why you get brainzaps from SSRIs? It’s because SSRIs are literally ECT in pill form. So are antipsychotics. Perhaps something similar happens with antipsychotics. Both of these “treatments” are also neurotoxic. They literally kill your brain cells. Psychiatry is fundamentally designed to weaken, disempower and neuter the individual and their mind. Making them docile, unthinking and submissive. They’re called shrinks for a reason. Have you ever looked into psych ward discharge suicide statistics? Most go on to kill themselves after discharge for an understandable reason. They all felt violated.
Psychiatry is just MKultra with extra steps. After they break your mind with psych meds, then they coerce you into “therapies” (aka brainwashing) such as CBT, DBT etc. since your mind is weakened, it’s easier to manipulate and its more suggestible. Ever wonder why it’s heavily recommended to do psych meds and the brainwashing therapy simultaneously? Many “therapists” will coerce you into this psych med pipeline. The psych meds make it easier for you to get trained and conditioned again like a dog being trained. They do this by putting your mind in a state of pure ignorance via psych meds. What makes this evil worse is the copious amount of side effects the individual has to burden.
Even after all of these so called solutions and psych meds and therapies, deep down your soul knows there’s something wrong and that nothing hasn’t changed that much. Study MKultra and you’ll find a lot of scary parallels to psychiatry.
Well this was a bitter pill to swallow tbh. (No pun intended) Realising i was just another lab rat in the so called system lol.
There is a vast record number of people who are overly worldly or their intelligence is limited to that of the physical, I have nicknamed these people profane insane because the vast majority of reality is not a physical existence less than 99% or shall I say 99.9% of reality is ethereal, AKA spiritual, but the physical reality is so fucking thick and strong, it deludes and confuses people to make them think this is all there is.
TRUST ME THIS POST BELONGS IN ANTIPSYCHIATRY
the reason why I'm posting is here is cuz it's not just me it's a record number of other people too who get called this evil fucking word that will never leave us alone no word is schizophrenia, abducted by aliens and tell your story it's schizophrenia, have a religious moment with God or a God or a goddess of any religion in the world I'm not going to be specific I'll keep it vague because it can happen to any of us, you're now being called schizophrenia, and they're fucking serious.
have a very prophetic or spiritual experience schizophrenia, are you psychic or have any ESP at all and you're explaining things and expressing things that go beyond the normal person, schizophrenia.
are you a genius who understands things with great leaps and bounds that are far beyond the intelligence of anyone around you but now you two will be labeled schizophrenia. it doesn't matter if you even show your work your work cannot be intellijized, your work is unintelligible, your intelligence is not capable or compatible with your intelligence, you are Beyond them.
even if you put it in super simple terms like of a child they're still not going to be able to put two and two together and you even brought it down to the sense of a common man or woman and even they can't get it at this point you are literally an actual Genius. stupid people will always call you mentally ill and they'll mean it with their goddamn stupid hearts.
if schizophrenic of your spiritual your schizophrenia if you have an alien experience even if there's scars are marked on your body because of those alien of interaction, your schizophrenic of your religious your schizophrenic of your spiritual your schizophrenic if you have paranormal problems and if you film it it's fake ( for whatever Reason ) your schizophrenic, if you're even so much as wiser than the common public if you're a wisdom is deeper even by a little bit, you will be called schizophrenic you'll be told that you've gone off the deep end or that you lost your mind even if you're perfectly sound and perfectly sane like all the other examples you get here they're not bad people and they're definitely not fucking crazy, they're definitely going to call you mentally ill schizophrenic delusional they're going to sit they're going to save you see Spirit sings paranormal beings I just it's all parragholia, it's evil.
it's deception and it's a deeply deeply Wicked, I don't care if you disagree I don't care if this community gives me 1 trillion fucking downloads I don't give a fuck of your opposed to middle finger I know this is fucking evil it's completely merciless there's no faith there's no open-mindedness there's no chance if you are anything in the public that's not acceptable you're not allowed to be social you're not allowed to speak you're not allowed to grow you are made into a fucking social pariah, you are turned into a fucking outcast !
there's nowhere to go you can't go on any Fringe website to where you can talk about this extremely deep things your greatness you're special you're awesomeness has been given a middle finger by the general public and you didn't do anything wrong. you're only crying with greater intelligence, or greater wisdom.
OR JUST HAVING A FUCKING EXPERIENCE AS HARD AS FUCK TO PROVE !
if you are in my shoes then I want to let you know that you're not a dumb person you're a good person you're a wise person you're a spiritual person you're an intelligent person, and you had very special experiences.
and the people on the internet a lot of them are not going to show any social Mercy, they're not going to give you any fucking Mercy, they're just going to be dicks.
they're going to take your knowledge your experience or whatever you went through and they're going to treat like a belief or an opinion and they're going to see you as if something severely defective.
now I know this is fighting words but they're the ones that are fucked up and this is honesty.
there's nothing you can do with the general public I just want to make people aware that if you had any special experiences or traumatic experiences that I want to let you know that you're not crazy, I'm sorry the aliens kind of fuck you up with the night sometimes they do that sometimes people come off the alien ship or they get abducted and it's traumatic but sometimes people have a spiritual experience and it turns out being a demon or something and it's Ultra traumatic for them and they explain how weird and wild this story was and everyone thinks every every bit of that sentence is a schizophrenic hallucination 😡 it's utterly Wicked. someone's being honest someone speaking the truth someone's telling a true word from word and the people around you are too close-minded and I think it might be an ego thing or a pride thing but they're too close-minded to listen to someone who experience real shit.
I have nothing but the deepest of condones, to anyone that wants some hardcore shit, if you want to talk about something please fucking DM me anytime I may not be on but I swear to God I'll get back to you.
and anyone that had the ability to read his entire thing whether or not you're an atheist I'm not trying to start a fight but I do want to say thank you, I wasn't going to say a religious thing to start a fight but I was going to say it but I was like that might be inappropriate but I don't know I'm back and forth I just got into I just got I just basically got the social shit kicked out of me for talking about a spiritual experience and I was being an ultra serious as fuck and not trying to fuck around with the details at all and I got called schizo again, and I see other people having it down and it's just it's too much to fucking bear. it's beyond overwhelming this just fucking word is so God damn evil, now I know why black people get so offended and so hurt and so pissed off when the race is inward is casted at them.
🙁
Anyway, I don't make this too long even though I made it like a 30 minute read.
Been on meds for the last 14 years and this is damaging more. When I look back I thought I was way good then I visit psych first day than now.
Hey everyone !! I’m a 24F , just got diagnosed for the first time of BP depression ( the doc didn’t further explain this is the only information I have). He prescribed Invega AKA paliperidone ER 3mg without letting me know and handed the prescription directly to my parents. Prior to this I was living and studying alone in London so I had my own GP and psychiatric support they only prescribed me antidepressants and sometimes benzodiazepines. I’m more than willing to be on medication but the right one with my consent at the very least…. This psychiatrist met me only once, spoke to my parents beforehand, and wrongfully diagnosed me based on more of my parents’ statement than mine. Imposed certain key words on me such as “manic episode” “anger outburst” “hyper-sensitivity” etc on me during our consultation while I never mentioned anything related. More of my extreme social anxiety, self-isolation, and depression. After he mentioned bipolar I was like ok yah maybe I do have this since none of the SSRI or SNRI seemed to work on me noted I’ve tried a plethora of them. I feel extremely discouraged and tbf angered by how unprofessional the doc is. As I did some research paliperidone has 99% negative reviews and some are quite extreme with people claiming the side effects almost “killed them”. The ones that stood out are heart-related issues and weight gain. Both I need to avoid. :///
Antipsychotics make people not feel emotions, have parkinsonism, have cognitive decline, problems with memory, make people unable to have any higher intelectual functions, make them unable to function on their own, to work and to live normally.
And weirdly, because of that people stop taking antipsychotics... How normal and rational of them.
But then it is ok to lock someone in mental hospital only because "he doesnt take meds" and only because of that alone he is an immediate danger to himself or others... Because "crazy person" is like a serial killer that is only safe to be around if medicated until he is barely concious of reality...
Make this make sense.
I tapered off all my psych meds (invega and propanolol) about ten months ago, but I'm having difficulty reading books. I had anhedonia and emotional blunting pretty bad and I thought that was why I couldn't read, but they've faded quite a bit. I had ECT and I know that can have some bad side effects on memory, but it's not a memory thing, it's concentration. I try to get cozy and read, but after two pages or so, I just completely zone out. I have tried shorter books and comic books, but that doesn't work either.
I still see my psychiatrist every few months to make sure I'm not having any bad withdrawal symptoms, and I told her about my troubles reading, but she just asks me why I can't read and tells me I seem to be getting better. I really don't want to take anymore pills but I don't know what can be causing this? I've always been a pretty voracious reader before I was taking psych meds and during, but not after. I use to write a lot too, but with the reading problems, I just feel so uninspired.
In case you aren't aware, the Lacey Fletcher case is a pretty infamous case of homicide where a woman was found melted into a couch at her family home, apparently due to years of immobility. I just wanted to highlight some aspects of the case as they relate to abuse, psychiatry, and willful ignorance of community members and authorities.
There are a number of things that stand out to me:
Being pulled out of school. Being at school represents a form of autonomy, because children see and learn about others (and others learn about them), and they are exposed to different family structures. Removing a child from this environment allows for isolation and normalization of abuse and dysfunction, resulting in a much lower chance of flight/escape.
Diagnosis of "severe autism" and antipsychotic prescription. It seems like the parents might have played up aspects of Lacey's "difficulties" in order to get the tranquilizing drugs they wanted to control her with. Lacey had friends, played on sports teams, and wasn't having major issues with school attendance. If she had some massive developmental disability, surely it would have presented long before middle/high school? People don't tend to suddenly lose major functioning ability without a reason.
The failure of literally anybody to notice Lacey's absence in life. Surely someone should have checked in on the family? Supposedly Lacey developed agoraphobia; she stopped being seen outside at all at some point. Why did no one seem to ask about her? What were the parents telling people, and what was really happening in that house?
The state of her body when it was found. Surely the parents would have tried to care for her at all? Apparently not. Be aware if you look into this that it is incredibly disturbing. Parts of her were seemingly taken care of while others suffered unbelievable amounts of deterioration.
The whole thing just seems to reek of long running abuse, quite possibly of a sexual nature and involving members of the community. The most disturbing part is how the parents tried to play the "oh poor us" card by appealing to Lacey's diagnoses, as if Lacey wasn't a highly functional girl until she got pulled out of school.
Another thing that really disturbs me about this case is the sheer number of people willing to just believe the psych doctor. Sure, they don't condone her death, but they also keep suggesting implicitly that she was doing it to herself, and I just don't believe that. There are too many red flags for major abuse
Thoughts?
This post is going to be long , i have a history of sexually child abuse. as i move in teen age i started experience sad and isolated. Once i move into high school i started expereince diffuculty in studies and that build so much stress ( i was 16 that time) and felt suicidal , i went to psychiatrist they prescribed me medicine i remaember they prescribed a benzodiazapene ( Bromazepam) ,, antipsychotic (Quetiapine) and there is another medicine which i dont remember, within a months i felt better ,but i dont know what made me better that time the medicine because i left the previous institute and joined a new institute where teachers are excellent and fortunately i made a best friend. Things going well until i was in university 3rd year(i was 21 that time) and i was struggling in university but now the stress level was too high i became suicidal again, went to psychiatry again ,they prescriebed me antidepressants (citalopram and imiprimine) right after two months i got my first manic attack ,then they put me on lithium carbonate,risp and other medicine, after that i was again in depress state for three years although i was on prescribe meds, then i skipped the prescribied mediciine and took citalopram and imiprimine my self ,again went to manic episode i know mania is bad but energy level i liked that. then again put on lithium and other medicine , next year i manage to secure a job oalthough my academic record badly impacted i just passed with very low cgpa. within span of 7 years i switched 6 jobs, my last job where i stay long is 3 years. during that job period i got marriaed but it lasted 6 months after marriage i started depressed again and i was emotionally numb or detached. One day due to anger burst i gave her divorce and i belived this is due to long term use of SSRI (ESCITALOPRAM) I was on it from 2016 till 2021. After divorce i left my job duae to this trauma. i m totally lost, dysfunctional i am socially withdrawn and isolated. i am stiell on meds but they are not effective anymore. My question is am i bipolar or that two manic episode is antidepressant induce mania ? i was on only escitalopram 10mg for five years but did not experience manic. i wrote enough and now what else should i write.