Video: Can I have your thoughts please.

[I am a cat]

I was on stumble upon and found this video on youtube about mental illness.

Its quite long.

But basically some mental health proffesionals are saying mental illness is not real, and there are actual psychiatrists that earn different amounts of money for different diagnosis's.

Its making me slightly paranoid.

Its diabolical.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II96QkZaz1E"]The Most SHOCKING Psychiatry Documentary EVER - YouTube[/ame]

[Epicene]

I didn't have time to watch the video so I'm not sure how extreme the cases mentioned were, but to some extent there is truth in the idea that mental illness isn't "real". Mental health diagnoses depend upon a cultural understanding of normal behaviour and experience, and it is not (at the moment) observable in the way that many physiological conditions are. That isn't to say that peoples' symptoms and suffering isn't real - just that the concept of mental illness is only one way of making sense of it. In the States in particular, many psychiatrists are paid by pharmaceutical industry but many also work in the field because they are compassionate people who want to make a difference. In the UK, the big pharma culture is not perpetuated by practitioners so much, though drugs prescribed will obviously be implicated in that kind of process.

Whilst it is terrifying to think that so many lives are affected by a culture promoting diagnosis and drugs, remember that this is often not the case in terms of individual psychiatrists. A good doctor, whether they work in physical or mental health, should be able to see the pros and cons of diagnosis and work with the patient to come to a shared understanding of what is going on for them.

[Cacoethes]

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and put on Clozapine when I was 15 years old. I have no doubt that psychiatrist had other motives for that because you just don't put 15 year olds on Clozapine.
So I think she was definitely getting something out of that. Was a private secure hospital as well, so even more likely.

I have no doubt that it happens that psychs give diagnoses and meds for some kind of financial reward, but I would imagine it's more the private sector than the NHS. I know personally that NHS psychs are very keen to keep me off meds.

[MissAnonymous]

This is a grey area, and it gets complicated when normal reactions and illness get defined as one or the other. There is an increasing array of diagnoses and I doubt very much that a person has 10 different mental health conditions, though there are psychiatrists out there who like to slap labels on their 'boxes'. In reality a person is multidimensional and their issues will be complex. Some normal reactions, I think if there is logic in something how ever unpleasant it is there will always be argument that its not purely illness. Psychotic experiences are not always negative, it can depend on their nature and the person who experiences them/how they react to it.

We are so complex and perception is everything, a woman going through child birth may be in agony and feel like they are dying of pain, another may mentally cope and see it as positive pain, symbolising an very special event. I guess that is a bit of a duff explanation but illness is perhaps too strong a word for some of the things people go through and 'emotional experience' might be a better phrase.

Part of the lag in understanding is because nobody else can view the mental images, beliefs and experiences of another and as a society I think there is a lot of shame, stigma and lack of understanding for someone else's experiences that are different to our own. It can b quite a skill to empathise but even more to not immediately feel the abnormal if someone sees things that you do not or hears things that you do not.

I have not seen the video but I would imagine that it pertains to private hospitals with corrupt staff that are trying to make money rather than help people.

To summarise, experiances are real, but the idea that certain experiances should b firmly classed as illness is not so. I dont believe psychiatric doctors in this country are paid for the illness they diagnose to treat but of course there are treatments that cost different amounts. Thankfully there is a separate regulated process that evaluates treatments, nice guidelines for example.