Mental awareness

Erick​(sub male) • Feb 22, 2020

@SimplyLaura--

Just because you are not using my name, your remarks are no less ad hominum.

I am not "willfully contrarian." As Harry Truman said, "I don't give 'em hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they THINK it's hell."

Nor am I condescending. I mean, no more than you are. (I remember you now. You once also presumed to criticize me in a condescending way because you thought I didn't know anything about lesbians.)

When people openly discuss the merits and the deficiencies of various psychiatric theories, it does not make psychiatry "inaccessible" to anyone, or "increase the shame" of anyone. It simply makes people better informed.

I think the typical mental health professional does indeed "throw their hats in one direction." (Though I must admit I haven't heard that metaphor before. I'm trying to picture a person doing that.)

The reason that pills have largely replaced the talking cure is not because of any concern for "best practices," but because pills are cheaper. Which is better for the racketeers who run the psychiatric industry and who profit from it. As for "mental health funding," there isn't enough money in the entire galaxy to provide the talking cure for everyone who might like it. (I see from your profile that you're a Trump hater. So you probably like the idea of a gigantic welfare state, and aren't concerned about who will pay for it.)

No therapist I ever went to ever recognized that I was the expert in my situation. As Szasz famously said: "Psychiatry is the only business in which the customer is always wrong."

Sure "meds work." They "work" in exactly the same way that a double martini works. But people who drink martinis don't make the claim that they are doing so to "correct a martini imbalance." Unless they are joking.

Knitting and crossword puzzles helped me a lot. Actually, with me it was Martin Gardner puzzles. But that kind of activity was certainly not "destructive."

Psychiatric professionals are very much "the authorities." Don't ever doubt that. They are filthy rich, socially very influential, and have enormous and extraordinary judicial and police power over the lives of ordinary people.

Practically everyone in the world says they do what they do to be "helpful." That doesn't make it so. If you were to take the gargantuan amounts of money out of the psychiatric industry, how many of those "helping" professionals would stick around because of their altruism, and how many would find something more lucrative to do?

If the "narrative" that psychiatrists are "pill pushers working for the man" is a true narrative, then we should say so, whether the narrative is "harmful" to the pill pushers or not.

You say you personally have "checked your ego at the door."... OK.

It doesn't matter how "palatable" something is if it is not true. But in this case, I did not object to the citations from that click-bait website. In fact, I pointed out that the citations support my argument.

But as I've already said, believe what you want to.

Best wishes.

Erick​(sub male) • Feb 22, 2020

Hi, Master Bear--

Well, I've never been called "unsafe" before. Not sure what that means, but it sounds bad. Apparently it's even worse than being "wrong." (I don't think you're unsafe, for what that's worth to you.)

simplylaura​(sub female){djinni} • Feb 22, 2020

Whatever Erick. You are dangerous. I agree with Master Bear 110% and standby my expertise, experience, and opinion.

Erick​(sub male) • Feb 22, 2020

Thank you, SimplyLaura.

"Dangerous." I like that.

You made my day.

simplylaura​(sub female){djinni} • Feb 22, 2020

Happy to facilitate that for you. Hope it serves you well on your quest to be someone's "submissive" and get laid. You needn't return the well wishes as I have no struggles in that department.

Erick​(sub male) • Feb 23, 2020

I will return the good wishes anyway. You are--I think--at least as opinionated as I am, so you know that we do not always have to be blushing wallflowers in order to be sexual submissives.

sweet november​(sub female) • Feb 23, 2020

This is a huge topic.

It can begin in early childhood development when the brain and neurotransmitter are developing.

Trauma and fear, abuse and genetics play a part.

Xanax saved my life. I had some sort of breakdown about 10 years ago that I wanted to jump in front of a train. NOT because I was suicidal but because I couldn't stop rocking and my heart rate wouldn't go down, no sleep for 2 weeks could barely breathe, Etc.

Went to a doctor that treated me like dirt....
I advocated for myself (even in this traumatic state) and went to a different doctor. I must have looked crazy as I was sitting there, in his office, rocking and crying and pulling my hair. Trying to breathe! The doc kept saying and describing what a panic attack is and that's what I'm having.

I yelled "I KNOW I AM HAVING A PANIC ATTACK AND I KNOW WHAT IS" and then said sorry for yelling and began crying again.
He put me on 8 mg of Xanax per day and it didn't even touch me until about 2 weeks from then.

So..my mom came down to help. She hugged me, made me eat, take walks and kept saying "let the medicine work" cuz I was fighting it. I felt like I was a "drug seeker".

I am off of Xanax now but did find, through trial and error an anti depressant that seems to help.
Since they CANNOT measure the chemicals in the brain, it is hit and miss.
I often wonder if it is just a placebo effect. Who knows.

But I can't afford insurance now, since the Affordable Care Act (ironic) so I have basically done my own therapy. And my doc helps. He only charges me $30 a visit.

A true God-send compassionate soul.

As far as mental health workers...nope .. Won't go. Not when I went to a psychiatrist right after I was prescribed 8 mg of Xanax and in the entire 15 whole min of him seeing me and looking at my chart, he told me that I should be knocked out from the much Xanax. I said maybe but I am not. (Was he blind)?

I interned at a psychiatric facility and have seen both great and horrible mental health professionals.

I grew tired of seeing children having meds shoved in their bodies then adjusted then new meds.
Seriously...dangerous on a growing brain.
Mental health care, unless one can afford the best, really sucks.
In my opinion.

There are a few in the public sector that care but they leave quickly once they realize that they have too big of a caseload.

CBT therapy is not the end all of all therapies. People can try it and if it doesn't work...don't feel like a failure, try something else.

And listen to the advice about exercise and hugs, laughter and even a pet...

I think people should research the medicines they put in their body. And if they can do it without medicine that's a good thing.

This all depends on the diagnosis.


I stand by my stance that the brain is an organ and I hate the term " mental illness".

But I understand that is how it is referred to.

Also...one never knows what someone is going through so be kind. Pick kindness.

All views on this are great and thoughtful, minus the pettiness of a couple posters.

This isn't a who is right who is wrong subject. Because...nobody has the one absolute answer to even one mental health illness. Let alone all of them.

sweet november​(sub female) • Feb 23, 2020

You work in the mental health field and say something like that to a person? Eeek.

simplylaura​(sub female){djinni} • Feb 23, 2020

As he's repeatedly stated he doesn't believe in the "mental health field" and quite frankly I can't stand him. Just cause one works in the field doesn't mean you have to suffer assholes. Eek.

Erick​(sub male) • Feb 23, 2020

Some Tips For Polite Conduct On THE CAGE:

"Unless you've negotiated it, name calling and humiliation is NOT okay, not in chat, not in private mails, not in BOND, our instant messenger. Not everyone in to BDSM enjoys it and you shouldn't assume they do.

Heated conversations and debates are all welcome and encouraged, but make sure to attack an opinion, not a person. "