> All the generic "there is hope" and "antidepressants really work" and "go to therapy" talk that tends to surround mental illness discussion really bugs me because virtually nobody acknowledges the damage that's done when these things fail (and they fail frequently).
Exactly.
When highly suicidal last year my reasoning was that I'd tried so many therapies (medication, talking, multiple practitioners) without success that I cannot be fixed and it's time to leave.
The typical suicide response ("call a crisis line" or "talk to your GP") is reasonable, but many suicidal people are far beyond that. For them the community sends around the Police to lock you up in a ward (ie "you're now scheduled") and many of those people - myself included - find it the most horrific experience of their law-abiding lifetime and understandably double down on getting away before they're unconscionably locked up again.
In a nutshell the mental health system often destroys the last hope someone had by imposing punitive sanctions with minimal insight or empathy. Have a read of a random selection of non-custodial suicide case studies at http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Pages/findings.aspx and judge for yourself.
The real issue here is how to better supervise the delivery of psychology and psychiatry programs so ineffective solutions for a specific person are gracefully transitioned into something else before all hope is lost. A severely depressed person isn't well-equipped to assess treatment and practitioners are too incentivized (or perhaps imprudent) to self-regulate their ineffectiveness.
Exactly.
When highly suicidal last year my reasoning was that I'd tried so many therapies (medication, talking, multiple practitioners) without success that I cannot be fixed and it's time to leave.
The typical suicide response ("call a crisis line" or "talk to your GP") is reasonable, but many suicidal people are far beyond that. For them the community sends around the Police to lock you up in a ward (ie "you're now scheduled") and many of those people - myself included - find it the most horrific experience of their law-abiding lifetime and understandably double down on getting away before they're unconscionably locked up again.
In a nutshell the mental health system often destroys the last hope someone had by imposing punitive sanctions with minimal insight or empathy. Have a read of a random selection of non-custodial suicide case studies at http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/Pages/findings.aspx and judge for yourself.
The real issue here is how to better supervise the delivery of psychology and psychiatry programs so ineffective solutions for a specific person are gracefully transitioned into something else before all hope is lost. A severely depressed person isn't well-equipped to assess treatment and practitioners are too incentivized (or perhaps imprudent) to self-regulate their ineffectiveness.