#abolish psychiatry

[psychabolition]

[bukesstuff]

Us queers should be aware of the dangers of psychiatry and know about how it's used to harm us but no we're actually promoting it because we don't like the way how others are queer and cannot handle the fact that not all of us are the same

[mayashwood]

I am still off my meds. I'm so fking off my meds lol.

Observations:

It's like having a migraine, only all the time, at the same time as having the flu, I'm constantly either sweating profusely or shivering or both, I'm dizzy, tying shoelaces is extremely difficult, I'm having mild visual and auditory hallucinations all the time, and sleep doesn't really exist as a separate state from unsleep any more, instead it's like the two have sort of melded into a constant waking nightmare where I drag this bag of flesh around for two days or so having panic attacks until it basically can't stand up or speak any more, then collapse into bed for a few hours to writhe and literally scream at the horrors I can no longer prevent from intruding into reality.

Critical Commentary:

While the experiences I'm having at the moment are markedly different from the way I experience reality (if you can call it that) when I'm on my meds, I honestly can't say that they're definitely objectively worse, being on my meds was kind of fucking shit too, I'd just been on them for over a decade, so I'd got used to it, and there was considerable pressure to accept that because, you know, stuff like my marriage and my job and the approval of society at large were so obviously contingent upon compliance, otherwise you're the BAD kind of mad person who won't do what they're told is good for them, so it's their own stupid fault they're mad.

Also, I just cold turkeyed a moderate dose of an SNRI I'd been on for 5 years, and a TeCA I'd been on since like 2013, things, I'm told, are bound to get kinda wild, and yeah, that checks out, but also its kinda fine, like with getting on the meds in the first place, you just have to find a place of acceptance that this is your new reality. At least with my meds set to the off position, there's a realistic hope that things might improve.

Verdict:

Look, I can't really be like: 10/10, would recommend, quit your meds cold turkey everybody (that feels irresponsible, you do you), but the feeling has been growing in me for years now that getting on these fucking drugs in the first place, which by the way, are just the least fun drugs I've ever done by a long shot, was a terrible lapse, motivated by cowardice in the face of the judgement of others, and the only drugs I ever really NEEDED to be on were weed and estrogen, and I know it's early doors, and I'm very used to having to make room for the possibility of failure in all my endeavours, but at this stage, I'm very happy with my choices.

Wish me luck.

[neuroticboyfriend]

why do you hate psychology /gen

The reasons are the mostly the same to why I hate psychiatry:

lack of autonomy for patients, general power imbalance between patient and provider

separation of the mind from the body

excessive focus on the individual to the point of blaming them

neglect of material/sociopolitical conditions

pathologization + stigmatization of human functioning/suffering and marginalized peoples existence (ex: turning things like gayness and an enslaved person's drive to be free into a disorder)

the subjectivity of diagnostic categories and how they're heavily biased to the view point of abled people

structurally works to control and oppress people under the guise of "helping them," works in tandem with the carceral system to insitutionalize and imprison people

relies on the belief that a provider can know a patients needs and wants better than the patient themself

the development of these practices have been founded on egregious human rights violations that continue to this day

none of these things are like a "bad apple" situation, none of it is a side effect. it's inherently built into psychiatry and psychology. it can't be reformed. similar situation to the police and criminal justice system. it requires abolishing, and any needed services it did provide need to be provided under a liberatory framework.

also if anyone is reading this and about to tack on with how their psych provider was wonderful actually blah blah blah consider: you are the exception, not the rule, and you likely have that due to some kind of privilege. you are not the focus here. be quiet, please. also that provider is still operating under an oppressive framework, and you have no idea how they've treated other clients.

[crippleprophet]

save me drugs.com

[exclamaquest]

Bitch the brain is meat that conducts electricity let's stop mystifying it and go learn some science

[tarrare-big-naturals]

Reblogging to add onto this because I know there will be some confused about the fact that this post exists in the replies:

Most hotlines in the USA are underneath the NSPL or National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (988), who has made it sometimes VERY clear that their goal is to be the ONLY lifeline in the US. It shouldn't have to be explained but, obviously, this is bad for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the insane medical costs and trauma of being forcefully admitted to a psych ward, and the heightened risk of being killed by a cop if you're BIPOC or neurodivergent. I don't want to taper off topic too much here (I actually made a post ages ago similar to the one OP is looking for, actually) but just know that while sources may say that 988 gets police involved in less that 3% of calls, that is still a LOT of people and an article published this year by Mad In America highlights how these interventions further traumatize people and ruin lives, both through personal stories and statistics. (The rate of suicide post involuntary hospitalization is over 100 times greater than the average.)

Spread warmlines. Abolish carceral care. Keep each other (and yourselves) safe.

hey where’s that post about how it’s important to be aware before recommending/calling suicide hotlines that They Will Call The Cops On You. i have it saved somewhere but i can’t find it & i want to reblog it today For No Particular Reason

[bioethicists]

psychiatrists do not provide access to medications. they selectively restrict access to medications. regardless of your personal relationship with your individual psychiatrist, the broader power structures in place are that psychiatrists are a barrier you must cross (again + again + again) to receive psychiatric medications. some people are shoved across this barrier against their will; some people are forbidden to ever cross it. but if you begin to understand this as a system of restricting access rather than providing access, you will understand that abolishing psychiatry would not destroy your access to medication, but instead make it easier.

before accusing me of trying to "take away your access to meds" through my activism or opinions, ask yourself this: who in your life, right now, has the power to restrict your access to psychiatric medication? why? what expectations do you have to meet in order to continue to access these medications? who enforces them? can you think of anything you might do or say that would cause you to lose access to these medications? have you ever had to pretend to be feeling or doing something differently in order to retain access to medications? have you ever had your medications arbitrarily changed against your will due to insurance, financial, or behavioral issues? have you ever had to 'prove' yourself in order to obtain specific medications (perhaps stimulants or opioids?)? has a provider ever threatened to take away your prescriptions in response to something you said or did? have you been told or do you believe that you need your access restricted because you "can't be trusted" or "lack insight"?

if want to find the people trying to limit your access to medication, i suggest starting with the provider name on your pill bottles.

[giritina]

I think sometimes about how so many people discourage labels and specificity and pathologizing anything about yourself and frame it as countercultural. Meanwhile, people in the mainstream will tell you the same. I think about this because I have talked with a lot of people about the schizophrenia spectrum who absorbed the idea that diagnosis doesn't matter, labels don't matter, just get help for who you are... and they felt empty and hopeless. The therapy wasn't working, the medicine wasn't working. Their symptoms didn't make them look different than other people on the outside, but on the inside, their experience was specific. The specificity is the only thing that gave them the chance to find any solace at all.

The DSM is flawed, but I question those that seem to want to abolish psychiatry and specificity and claim we're all experiencing one thing. We're all experiencing the trauma of the outside world. There's no reason for these words. Etc etc. There's clearly some scientific flaw in categorization when most people will walk out of a psych eval with a long list of disorders, but I resent those who say that the simple discomfort of seeing a long list is what's wrong there; that specificity, "pathology", is the enemy. When you have a word for a specific experience, you can research it, you can help it. If we name every bacteria, we can understand each one, but naming mental illnesses seems to make even mental health professionals uncomfortable. So many people deny us specificity. They hate it when we come and ask to be treated for X thing we suspect we have. They hate when we form an identity around our mental condition. They fold everything into one big name. Anxiety. Depression. CPTSD. Then we accept that and try to get help, and we feel nothing. We try to form an identity, and we're told that forming an identity around a diagnosis is pathologizing and wrong. Even some leftists want to tell you it's wrong. It's unnatural. There's no point to it.

Meanwhile, I always remember reading how people with schizophrenia spectrum illnesses seemed to benefit greatly from narrative therapy where they related and made community over their collective oppression. They used schizophrenia and ableism to unite and be more than an individual, but also to be something that really tangibly in the world at all. Disability theory brings us together, a refusal to view the self as any different from abled people often only isolates us.

(From Recovery of the Self in Psychosis)

[psychabolition]

You talk about getting rid of the psychiatric system. But what do you propose should be done instead? /gen

I'm going to tell you a story . I once knew someone called Tim. When I met him he had already spent most of his life in drug addiction treatment centres, psych wards and prisons until he later ended up in a forensic psych ward. After he did LSD he 'never came down from his bad trip' and got diagnosed w schizophrenia. This diagnosis +the addict - diagnosis justified so many fucking human rights violations - it got him locked up, drugged up, strip searched, his privacy violated on a daily basis, isolated away from society and everyone he knew because apparently he needed to be 'saved from this illness in his brain that makes him do/think/feel' things he otherwise wouldnt and because he needed to be 'punished' into being a 'functioning', 'productive' (read: profit-generating) member of 'society' (read: hegemonic cultural norms & forms.) This is what psychiatry does - it doesnt help, it locks us up and tortures us. I dont need to be able to name alternatives to this lol . This is the worst possible way of treating anyone ever. It would help immensely to literally just STOP doing this. Even 'sane' people would go insane in places like these.

So the alternative to acting like an absolute asshole towards people who struggle severely and who dont have a place in society would be to 1)not isolate them away from society and 2)not torture them 🙏 . It would be to get rid off the psychologists' individual and the psychiatric systems' general saviour complex that only results in abusing people bc they act like the people who are labelled as mentally ill are (=their minds/brains) responsible for at fault for their own struggles. Instead we could show solidarity with each other and try to built a world where everyone has a place in and is valued as a person and where the suffering/madness of an individual is not seen as an incentive to literally abuse and socially ostracize them.

And @ everyone dont come at me w 'not everyone has these experiences w psychiatry' - any time you talk about systemic criticism you have to look at the most marginalized experiences. When talking about police defunding/prison abolition we also talk about police brutality that black disabled poor people face . And yes not everyone has bad experiences w every single cop , still ACAB . ALSO dont come at me with 'I know there ar GOOD psychologists who Actually want to help' ,1) fuck their savior complex 2)what individuals motives are for joining this system of oppression isnt necessarily the purpose of a system. The purpose of a system is what it does. The police isnt there to protect us, psychiatry isnt there to help us. We only have each other.

So, what you can do right now to get rid off the psychiatric system in your community? How can we stop relying on this authoritarian system that abuses and incarcerates so many of us ??

I think its important to educate each other on our rights. Because then we have the knowledge on what not to say in a therapy session so we dont get incarcerated or what to do when we are questioned by cops/psychs to see if we are 'at risk' or what to do when we or friends of us are already incarcerated so they can get out of there as fast as possible. Also educating your friends/family on psychiatric propaganda helps - a common myth is that if you dont 'look for signs' and call the cops to institutionalize a friend they might kill themselves. All while institutionalization/incarceration increases the risk of suicide extremely. This is important to know so no one in our communities calls the cops on us when we're doing really bad. Also educating each other on the biomedical model so everyone understands that we dont have an illness that we need to be 'saved from' (depression for example) or 'punished for' (aspd, drug addiction) and that we (=our minds/brains) arent to blame for our struggles Etc.

If you know that youre sometimes in extreme mental distress/pain you could also make a crisis plan with friends so you dont need to rely on the psych system - like for example the plan could be that a friend calls in sick for work/university and then stays at your place for 3-4days and is there for you/drinks tea w you, goes for a walk together w you, smokes a joint with you together until you feel better and arent acutely suicidal anymore. (Its also best to include several people in this plan bc it can get really overwhelming for 1 person). You can als include things in the plan like asking your friends to take away all knives in your apartment if you want to. Or if its a more permanent 'crisis' then a plan on how to move together with friends to get away from your nuclear family/abusive partner (just as an example).

Access to medication, knowledge on how to get off of them if you dont want to take them anymore and freedom and proper education in your decision on taking, weaning off or on staying on medication is not given in the psych system. So how do we change that? A common reason for 'crisis' is trying to wean off of psychiatric drugs (a lot of people get suicidal or psychotic bc of the withdrawal for example - depends on the meds, dosis and since how long youve been taking them though). You could plan when to do this together w friends. Theres anti psych guidelines on how to do this safely - a lot of psychiatrists tell you that you need to stay on meds no matter if you want to or not and they often dont know how to wean off of them or think youre 'at risk' and incarcerate you if you mention that you want to stop taking your meds -this highly depends on how stigmatizing your diagnosis is (=schizophrenia/bipolar are good examples for highly stigmatized ones) or if youre sb who get racialized for example (bc then psychs immediatly perceive you as more of 'a risk'). You could make a plan for example where you ask your friends to stay w you through this by living at your apartment w you for a few days, cooking meals for you and keeping your apartment clean. And then another friend of you could come by each day after work (for example) and also be there since its probably a lot for one person. Also LYING to psychiatrists is always a good idea. For example when youre trans and want to access gender affirming care its important not to mention any diagnoses in general but especially diagnoses like autism, schizophrenia, psychosis or PDs and then literally lie about yourself if necessary. You always know who you are and what you need best. Also dont blindly trust your psych on what medications go well together - look it up yourself !!! Theres a 'drug interaction checker' online where you can see if it might be dangerous to take certain meds at the same time. Also READ on what side effects are possible - make a diary for when you start your medication on how youre feeling/doing . Some changes are awful but still hard to notice bc youre thinking that it could also be a 'normal' worsening of your mental state that you think you might also have without meds. Also depending on what physical conditions you have/had you cant take some medications without it being dangerous - READ the whole instruction paper thing that always comes with your meds and/or google it !!

Also literally just sharing/collecting tips on how to cope w different struggles + harm reduction guides (suicidality, drug addiction, ...) is very helpful. There is a lot of community sourced material already out there.

I understand that the reason most people are severely struggling is because they dont have a community (=like when you only have 1 partner or 1 friend ,because youre (still) legal property of your parents, because youre stuck in a nuclear family,...) and not only because psychiatry divides our communities by blaming us for our struggles and isolating and stigmatizing us. Building community and relying on each other is the only way to get rid off the psychiatric system in the end. If we already had a real community that we could rely on, all the psych wards would be empty and therapists wouldnt exist. This is not the first step, its the solution.

Als there are already alternative institutions (that are already in practice) that are a replacement for psychiatry.

This is probably the answer that youre looking for 😂. I dont really care about these kind of anti psych concepts and practices since they seem out of my reach atm. Ik that theres an anti psych house in berlin whos guiding principles are 1)community care /peer support 2)full autonomy for everyone there and its specifically for people who are running away from psychiatric violence.

Other alternatives that I havent really looked into yet are : bethel house , peer respites, new models of therapy

[the-alarm-system]

System Anarchist Flag

RADQUEERS AND ANTI ENDOS DO NOT TOUCH

[ID: A flag that is half red and half black that intersects diagonally, in the middle is a white ampersand within a black circle that has a white barrier]

For Pro-Endo systems that are anti-establishment, anti-prisons, and anti-psychiatry anarchist. We fight for plural liberation and the abolishment of the system.

RECLAIMED! SYSTEMARCHY FLAG

[ID: Horizontal lines going from black, to grey-toned red, to grey-toned blue, to grey-toned green, to black. In the middle is a white ampersand on a black circle with a white border]

This term was inspired by the relationship anarchy term/flag. The black represents anarchist values such as anti-hierarchy, anti-normativity, and system interdependence. The red represents passion and strength, blue represents loyalty and independence, green represents being outside the norm. This label is for those who may not follow traditional systemhood by doing things such as reject origin labels, reject system roles, have no solid rules, reject the use of the term "host", may not follow the common thoughts of functional multiplicity such as not rejecting amnesic barriers. Systemarchist believe that all headmates have the right to exist in any way they desire, all headmates are equal, and have a right to their own privacy, independence and personhood. Systemarchist believe that all forms of systemhood are valid even when they are chaotic or confusing. The way they preform systemhood are rejected by others and may be labeled as "anti-recovery" when it may be seen as productive by the system themselves. This label is anti-psych as psychiatry forces us within boxes that do not work for us. This label is pro-endo and pro-tulpa as everyone has the right to their autonomy. Those who follow this term can identify with the label "Systemarchist"

[koshercosplay]

just saw someone on instagram promote an event about how we should abolish psychiatry because it's a tool of the zionist project

let nobody say leftists are "too smart" to fall for conspiracy theories

[crippleprophet]

totally understand if you don’t have anything on hand and i’m gonna do some research myself but i was wondering if you have any reading recommendations about anti-psychiatry? really interested in the whole idea but haven’t done a lot of reading about it or anything

hmm i link a few resources & blogs in this ask (link 1), i definitely recommend checking out Mad in America in particular; of course, as a platform for a wide range of psych survivors’ experiences & opinions, i don’t agree with everything presented (including within specific articles i’ll rec), but it’s a great starting place for challenging & developing your own views & learning about our community.

specifically, this article (link 2) is a good starting place on diagnostic violence, especially as it pertains to systemic racism, and this one (link 3) is an amazing example of community knowledges as it pertains to tapering medications without approval of the medical system.

& then i’ll just cite some articles i’ve read, most of which are available online & all of which i’m happy to send pdfs of if you can’t find something & dm me! some of these aren’t directly about Madness & antipsych but are good starting places for unpacking related forms of oppression such as institutionalization.

The ethics of survivor research: Guidelines for the ethical conduct of research carried out by mental health service users and survivors by Alison Faulkner

R. Whitaker, ‘The case against antipsychotics: a review of their long-term effects’ (Mad in America, July 2016)

A. J. Withers, “Disability Divisions, Definitions, and Disablism: When Resisting Psychiatry is Oppressive” in Bonnie Burstow, Brenda A. LeFrançois, and Shaindl Diamond (eds), Psychiatry Disrupted: Theorizing Resistance and Crafting the (R)evolution (McGill-Queens University Press 2014)

Gerard Quinn, “Reflecting Will and Preference in Decision Making” [17 October 2016] Australian Guardianship and Administration Council 2016 Conference

Laing, J. (2017). Preventing violence, exploitation and abuse of persons with mental disabilities: Exploring the monitoring implications of Article 16 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 53, 27-38.

Sixty Years in the Institution by Thomas F Allen

K. Stegmayer, S. Walther, and P. van Harten, “Tardive dyskinesia associated with atypical antipsychotics: prevalence, mechanisms and management strategies” [2018] 32 CNS Drugs

S. Kasper and E. Resinger, “Cognitive effects and antipsychotic treatment” [2003] 28 Psychoneuroendocrinology

[dippersguidetotheunexplained]

we need to abolish psychiatry faster

[carnivorescarnival]

i am genuinely at the point where i think that if you believe in abolishing the police and abolishing prisons, you cannot remain neutral on the matter of psychiatry. i do not understand where this cognitive dissonance comes from. either you understand how institutional violence works or you don't.

[hyperlexichypatia]

How was it “always allowed” if you people’s goal is for there to be no more therapists? That makes no sense. Your whole deal makes no sense and is fucking scary to me. And I’m a leftist but everything you stand for is TOO MUCH. “Anti recovery” this and “substance abuse should be allowed actually” that. I’m broken and I want to be fixed. No amount of “community” from inexperienced everypeople is gonna fix that. You know who CAN fix that? A fucking doctor. Some fucking pills. My mind is a prison and I’m gonna get out of it the normal way thank you very much. Yes, the normal way should be free and come from people with real compassion who aren’t abusive. No, people should NOT be encouraged to just wallow in their symptoms as if it’s normal and just who they are. I hope you all get better in every sense of the word…

Who exactly do you think is stopping you from getting the medicine you believe will improve your quality of life?

Really, who?

Do you think it's psych abolitionists? No, we're the ones trying to break down the gatekeepers and barriers that are keeping you from accessing the drugs you choose. The ones you sneer at for saying "substance abuse should be allowed actually."

Psychiatric authority backed by government power: "People should be required to take the drugs we believe they need, but if they take drugs we don't believe they really need, that should be banned." Cognitive liberty advocates/psych abolitionists: "That's an incredibly oppressive policy. What drugs an individual chooses to take or not take should be xyr own choice, neither mandated nor prohibited by state power." You, gatekept by medication you want under the system you support: "Why would psych abolitionists do this to me?"

I know, I know. But it's not substance abuse! You want those pills for LEGITIMATE MEDICAL reasons, not like those OTHER people who want medications for ILLEGITIMATE reasons and are RUINING IT FOR EVERYONE -- Yeah. It doesn't matter. If you don't have a Permission Slip for a medicine, you can't get it. If you do have a Permission Slip, you can. If you have an Order Slip, you have to. "Legitimate medical reason" just means "with permission," while "substance abuse" just means "without permission."

I know, I know. "How dare you equate my desire for Legitimate Medical Medication with that Substance Abuser who just wants to get high! That's so offensive!" -- I'm not the one equating y'all. The government is. Medical authority is. Psychiatry is. Both you and party animal guy who wants to get high for "no medical reason" are people who face barriers, gatekeeping, and criminalization to accessing substances you want to access. Now, are you going to keep looking down on that partying, high-getting, "substance abuser" in order to lick the boot of the authorities denying bodily autonomy to you both? Or are you going to grow some class solidarity and oppose your actual enemy, the medical gatekeeping system?

As for "there to be no more therapists," actually the more common goal is for there to be no more therapists in power. Abolishing psychiatry wouldn't necessarily mean that in the post-psychiatry society there would be none of what are currently called "therapists," any more than religious freedom necessarily means that there are no clerics. They would just have no power. They would have no authority, except what an individual chooses to cede to them on a voluntary, individual, revocable, case-by-case basis.

If you assume that, without legal, cultural, economic, or medical authority pressuring or coercing people to defer to therapists, no one would do so... well, that's not an assumption that makes therapists sound very good, is it?