“I thought everyone understood that ‘mental health’ was just a theory”
Dr Jess reflects on how many people don’t realise that ‘mental health’ is just a theoretical construct…
It’s Monday, so let’s kick off with a big dose of ‘fuck the system!’
I love this quote. It’s true for so many things in life.
We don’t notice we are trapped in poverty until we attempt to climb out of it and realise we can’t afford to.
We don’t realise we are trapped in a class system until we are spoken to like we are useless or thick.
We don’t know we can’t challenge the status quo until we are ridiculed for asking questions.
We don’t notice we are being controlled until we think something different.
We don’t realise we are in a patriarchy until we are subjected to misogynistic abuse and no one gives a shit.
We don’t realise we are surrounded by racism until we are suddenly confronted by it - and we realise it was there all along a whilst we are being told, ‘its so much better these days’.
For me, personally, lots of those are true - but the one that is very relevant to me is about my discipline and my training as a psychologist.
I didn’t know I was going to upset so many systems and so many people by questioning psychiatry. I thought critical thinking was the heart of academia. I thought we were supposed to pull apart the norms and narratives and explore whether they are useful, helpful, ethical, accurate and evidence-based.
When I was younger, I didn’t know that my discipline was wrapped up in expectations, lies, myths, norms and, let’s face it… dogma.
When I was silent about the issues of oppression, abuse and corruption in psychology and psychiatry - I never noticed anything. I never noticed how defensive everyone was. I never realised how dangerous speaking out could be.
Why would I? I didn’t notice my chains because I was sitting still, doing what I was told, believing what I was fed.
I didn’t challenge what we are all taught for fun - or for attention - or for clout.
I just listened, I learned, I studied - but things just weren’t adding up for me.
It seemed obvious to me that distress and trauma was all around us. People were sick, poor, abused, downtrodden, exploited, lied to, controlled, crushed, held in a state of fear and rage, and no one was helping them. They became ‘depressed’ and ‘anxious’. They started harming themselves and ending their lives. Some of them see things or hear things. Some of them begin believing things other people find untrue or unreal.
I observed these experiences all around me, in family, friends, colleagues, strangers. Men on the bus. Women at the hair salon. Kids at school.
One thing was obvious: trauma and distress was the norm, and no one really noticed.
One thing was troubling me though: why had we categorised these people as ‘mentally disordered’, and why were we medicating them for an illness we had never proven they had? Or indeed, an illness we have never even proves to exist?
I started asking questions. I started reading. I started exploring data. I smelled a rat.
I weighed up what good comes from convincing people they are mentally disordered. That they have one of 541 made up mental disorders - none of which have a single diagnostic test.
I noticed that the medical model of mental health (our most dominant model), was capable of making billions of dollars every year from selling medications as miracle cures for illnesses we can’t even test for.
I noticed that people were being told by their doctors that they had a ‘brain chemical imbalance’ causing their ‘depression’ and ’anxiety disorder’ - but no one seemed to find it odd that there was no test for this ‘chemical imbalance in the brain’. No one had ever been tested, it was just a myth, a lie, retold and retold to millions of people before prescribing them a drug that falsely claimed to ‘rebalance serotonin in the brain’.
I noticed that women and girls being raped and abused were trying to disclose what was happening to them, but instead were being labelled with BPD, EUPD and Bipolar.
I saw that Black and South Asian people were being heavily diagnosed with schizophrenia and mania (which has always been the case in a racist system).
I realised that the legal system (both criminal and family court) were using psychiatry to mean whatever they wanted. In the exact same trial, mental health could be used to discredit the victim AND defend the suspect. Wild.
When I started speaking on these things, the backlash was like nothing I could have ever imagined. I thought feminism caused backlash - but nothing could prepare me for how wedded professionals are to the medical model of mental health and to psychiatry as some sort of religion.
I was abused every single day. I was threatened. I was mocked. I was lied about. I was reported and investigated repeatedly for absolutely nothing (and thankfully, I was found to have done nothing wrong over and over again).
A psychiatrist bought a blonde wig and dressed up as me, put on a stupid voice, made me out to be a thick bimbo and filmed himself pretending to be me.
Several women wrote to newspapers to attempt to get fake stories printed about me, claiming I was dangerous.
I was stalked online for years. A psychologist created offensive posts and polls about me from behind an anonymous account until I found out who he was and reported him to the NHS.
I got an anonymous email telling me I was on a list of targeted professionals, and warned me that I could be killed.
I didn’t know this was going to happen to me.
I genuinely thought everyone understood that the medical model was just a theory. That ‘mental health’ was just an idea. A social construct. A descriptor.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
And that’s perfectly ok… as long as everyone knows that, and readily admits it.
The medical model of mental health - the belief that ‘mental illnesses’ reside in the brain, caused by ‘chemical imbalances’ and ‘genetics’ and ‘the way the brain is wired’ (spare me!) - it’s just one theory of human distress. There are several others including social models, trauma models, total anti-pathology models (like me), and even mixtures of models such as the biopsychosocial model from the 1970s.
The lens we see human suffering through totally changes the way we treat people, the way we help them (or don’t help them at all).
If psychiatry and psychology were honest with the millions of patients using those services, and clearly said, ‘Mental disorders are just one theory, and we can’t prove you have one (or don’t have one) - we also don’t know how these medications work, and they have several uncomfortable and unpleasant side effects. They might make you feel worse than before. They work for some people, but studies have shown that placebo outperforms many of them. Most of them have never been proven to be ‘psychiatric’ in nature, and lots of them are just sedatives that cause dependency. If you would prefer, we can approach your distress and your feelings using a less medical lens - and focus on supporting you instead of diagnosing you’ - then I would have much MUCH less to argue with.
However, the prevailing narrative is, ‘Mental illness is the same as physical illness like diabetes and cancer. If you take these pills, it will help you.’
It shocks me every time a professional admits that they were never taught that there were any alternative thoughts about mental disorders - and they believed they were ‘proven’ and ‘settled science’.
I hadn’t realised this was a thing.
I hadn’t realised I was causing so much disruption by speaking about these issues - I thought they were common knowledge.
But I guess, you don’t notice your chains until you try to move. And ‘those who do not move, do not notice their chains’.
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Vibrant piece by Jessica.Keep writing,please!💚
As a psychology student in America, all of your statements regarding psychiatry is true. It is not safe to challenge the norm. I am surrounded by psychiatric theories and many are medicated with the harmful medications. I used to be medicated by the psychiatric drugs and even prior to taking them, something always seemed off.
The idea that mental illnesses are the same as physical illnesses is still a lie that is believed and spread.
Jessica, thank you for sharing truth and revealing where the chains and cracks are. I agree it must be changed if not completely dismantled.
I challenge the status quo here in America and am happy to do so.