What’s the solution to mental health conditions?
Hi, I want to start off by saying I’m kind of in the middle between being pro-psychiatry and anti-psychiatry. I’ve been on lots of different mental health conditions since I’ve been 16. Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Paxil, Abilify, Prozac, Zoloft, Amitriplyline, etc.
Abilify at a high dosage only helped me about 15%. Ativan did too, but I was given that once in the psych hospital because I was having a terrible mental breakdown. The other ones made my symptoms worse or stay the same. I’m diagnosed with depression, anxiety and BPD. I’ve tried CBT, DBT, psychotherapy and lots of other therapies to which none of them have helped me and some even made my symptoms worse.
I tell my psychiatrist this and she tells me you’ve been on so many medications and it’s really your choice what you want to try next. I tell her it doesn’t work or makes my symptoms worse and her solution is increasing the dosage which creates even more problems, or she suggests therapy even after being told it doesn’t help. She also told me it takes 10 months to a year for people to notice improvement in therapy. I don’t have the time, money, or patience to wait that long to find out if she’s right or not.
I’ve been institutionalized twice voluntarily, and once they managed to hold me three days involuntarily in Hawaii and released me a week later after I agreed to their treatment plan otherwise they said they’d take me to court and I would be held indefinitely up to three months. Which I don’t know how that was legal.
To say I don’t trust psychiatrists when their only solution is more medications or therapies is an understatement. I agree they help some people, but they definitely do not help all people. If anything they even damage some people and make their conditions worse than they already are.
I tried deliverance ministry too to help with my mental health and it helped contribute to nightmares and PTSD. Deliverance ministry is basically people casting demons out of you that they believe cause mental health conditions. It didn’t help at all, and really I don’t know a good solution.
I agree the meds aren’t helping me and obviously for you guys too. Deliverance ministry didn’t help and therapy didn’t either. So I’m stuck with trying to find a solution if it can’t be found in religion or psychiatry.
So, I would like to have a discussion about this. I hope I’m welcomed to ask this, because I do want solutions and to know what all of you think.