Posted by Christ_empowered on July 26, 2014, at 13:34:25
In reply to Re: 'mental illness' or..something else..., posted by baseball55 on July 25, 2014, at 20:21:32
There's social class issues in psychiatry. Personally, when I was a misfit from what I've heard referred to as a "rinky dink, middle class family," I was mistreated.
Now my people are higher on the totem pole and they're behind me. Suddenly, I'm "in recovery from severe mental illness" and "surprisingly intelligent" (I say "surprisingly" because, wow...ECT, uppers, downers...wow...)...
..part of that is social class. If I were poor and/or didn't have my people behind me (or if they were poor, working class, possibly even middle class), this situation would be a whole lot different.
What I've found is that the same docs who really let you have it when you're down and out can sometimes be compassionate when you have people behind you with some clout.
The same public mental health place I go to that routinely orders and then handles "court orders" has chosen to leave me alone, since I now have "sufficient insight" to manage my problems with voluntary, oral medication. Read: ne'er do wells from more affluent families don't generally deal with court orders.
Ugh. Maybe I'm bitter because of previous treatment, lol. Did I tell you that back then they either underestimated my IQ by at least 10 points, or my IQ has shot up above what I started with? My best guess is that, despite everything, God has seen fit to restore my intellectual abilities (not a genius or whatever, just...smart), and now that I have my people behind me, docs are more willing to provide the kind of psychiatric treatment that everyone needs...
...accurate assessment, fairly accurate diagnosis, tolerable treatment, and some empathy.
"pill pushers" are mostly for people lower on the totem pole, although some are cash only Elvis doctors (happens both in psychiatry and pain management, as best I can tell).
Anyway...that's the end of my rant for now. LOL.
poster:Christ_empowered
thread:1068682
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140717/msgs/1068799.html