Friday 29 July 2011

What's wrong with the treatment of schizophrenics in the UK?

One of my relatives is a GP who did a psychiatric rotation (there are
many doctors in my family). A black-skiinned schziophrenic was brought
in by the police. He'd been at risk to himself because he was trying to
align himself with lines of longditude and latitude (his delusion) but
this was putting him in the path of cars. He had come off his
medication. She did what any UK psychiatrist would do: detained him and
drugged him. This was because the risk was placed on her. The police
needed this person 'treated' which is why he was brought to a
psychiatric facility. His delusion alone was enough for her, based on
her psychiatric training, to incarcerate and forcibly drug this person.
She spoke to me shortly after this had happened. I told her I didn't
care about his delusion. It might be true and I didn't have the
knowledge to know whether his delusion was right or wrong. I asked her
if the man was ok, i.e. how was his well being (the new word for
positive mental health). She didn't know. That wasn't something she'd
been trained to ask or consider.

The drugs she put him on are not proven to actively cease the delusions
and hallucinations. They are behavioural modification and suppression
and essentially chemical restraint. I would guess the drugs made him
unhappy which s why he stopped taking them. I know the drugs will cause
illness and unpleasant side effects and contribute to an early death. It
is, perhaps, better than leaving him to be run over or imprisoned by
the criminal justice system but enforcing the lesser of two evils is not
the job of doctors.

Sadly their profession has stopped thinking outside the box. They have
an easy solution: drugs. Just like I do. I and psychiatrist are both
fucking idiots in this respect.

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We It comes in part from an appreciation that no one can truly sign their own work. Everything is many influences coming together to the one moment where a work exists. The other is a begrudging acceptance that my work was never my own. There is another consciousness or non-corporeal entity that helps and harms me in everything I do. I am not I because of this force or entity. I am "we"