Let me share a little secret with you – I don’t agree with all mental health treatment. I don’t agree with all the decisions doctors make. I don’t like all the available treatments. I have had very bad experiences with some mental health treatments. I have had some very bad experiences with mental health care professionals.
But I still talk about them. And I still think they are right for some people.
Why?
Because my story isn’t your story.
You Are Not the User
When I worked at a fancy software company I designed software for a living. That means I made the decisions about how software looked and felt. What you saw on the screen and how it worked – that was me. And we had a saying at this company, “You are not the user.”
What this means is that my experience of software is not necessarily indicative of a user’s experience in general. I am a specific kind of user and I am not representative of users at large. I needed to put my brain into the brain of others in order to design software successfully. Because my experience and my opinion wasn’t necessarily the experience or opinion of others.
In other words, some people love the changes in Windows 7 and some people hate them. The trick is designing in a way that helps the most people.
The trick to treating people with mental illness is treating people in a way that will help the most people.
I Discuss Treatments I Don’t Like – Hypocritical?
Some people call me hypocritical because of this. For example, I hated electroconvulsive therapy. It was painful and arduous and memory-erasing and useless. Nevertheless, I still think it is a very important therapy for people in some circumstances to consider. It was hell for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be hell for everyone. In fact, I know the numbers, and the vast majority of people who undergo electroconvulsive therapy are going to experience a positive response. I didn’t. I just happen to be in the minority.
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nlike people who assume their experience is the same as everyone else’s, I am able to separate my own life’s experiences from the mental health treatment of others.
Unlike people who generalize their personal experience to everyone else, I am able to separate my own life’s experiences from the questions at hand. I am able to separate the fact that I had the worst side effects of my life on a certain antipsychotic with the fact that that particular antipsychotic is actually a really good choice for some people. I allow rationale and logic to guide my opinions and not my own personal experience.
Because mental health treatment is never about what works for one person, it’s about what works for people, statistically speaking. I’ve been through every med around and most of them have been useless, but this isn’t the experience of most people. Most people find medication that works. Most people get meaningfully better. Most people are successfully treated by doctors – no matter how vocal the group of people who haven’t been successfully treated are.
You Are Not the Patient
So when thinking about another person’s mental health treatment I remember very clearly that I am not the patient. Science guides my opinion more than my personal experience. Yes, of course my personal experience colors my opinions, but it’s not the predominant factor. But this doesn’t make me hypocritical, this makes me reasonable and logical.
You say that you don’t assume, your expedience is the same for others, but when you are saying others are, you are making an assumption. You are generalizing people who had negative experiencing. Many critics have never experienced the mental health feild first hand. Besides you advocate forced treatment which assumes you know what they’re experience is, and what they need.
I would argue that you aren’t guided by science, because you refuse to even read anything critical of psychiatry. Like many I think your opinions of the mental health system are faith based. I however don’t buy into that doctrine.
Natasha,
Once again, thanks for your valuable blog. It provides a dimension that is missing from healthcare.
Im not sure what your website is actually doing; I had one phyciatrist that gave me the right formula for me because I really felt lots better. Ive never found another doctor like him, so I got a good family practitioner who took over my prescribing of those meds, however, throughout some years that have gone , all of my medicsyions got changed through my medical insurance, changing all to be generic. Then one day I realized I was getting worse and worse and I had lost my hope: I was wiery and exhausted from fighting to keep the few extra pills in the bottle that the original perscriber would have me add a few days a month when I was feeling my worse, I lost that battle I can no longer do that and count on feeling a little better but dont have that one doctor, I literally dont know how to find him; then there is this constant fight going on about my getting my meds on time even though I ordered it, I have run into having to be off my medicing up to 16 days due to some different counting they alone are permitted to decide whilst I.go through extraordinary side effects from not having it, I ended up vomiting , having horrifying headaches which ultimately led me to admittance to a hospital. The worse fallout of all this is that our insurance is running the show by making a final call not to pay for a medicine where they give you what your doctor prescribed would be best for you. What is a person like me to do with this kind of a problem? it appears there is nobody on my side to really protect me. I was loosing my memory at one point from being on these stupid generics, when I dug my heels in and refused to accept generic antidepressants, I surely got better like I felt when I first got put on those meds. But during that impaired time when I felt I couldnt cope, I missed 3 doctors appts. Mainly due to my car malfunctioning, that was over the course of several winter months when my car wouldnt start and I felt left to the mercy of the doctors office because my husband checked and just couldnt get to where I could trust my vehicle to start ; the day I got a dismissal letter from my longtime doctor who I had continuing my prescriptions, I couldnt console myself I felt so punished and so misunderstood as a 58 yr. old helpless woman from all these problems now I await meeting a new physician after trying to get into see 3 others that were referred for me, and I do not have the medication I need up till that point, it felt awful to call my old doctor’s office, I surely wasnt expecting to be told that my doctor was out for the day, when I explained that I had called this medication in an entire 7 days ahead as not to run out, I was told the other office doctors would not call it in because I was “DISMISSED”; I hurt so bad inside because it disturbed my sleep so much without this medication, no matter how I was certain this drugstore was at fault because they offered me the courtesy of contacting my physician for me to get my medicine quicker, I could very well ser that I was the one that looked guilty for not calling it in myself to that doctor they said they would contact for me; so here I am missing several nights of sleep now having to suffer this alone, because I dont meet the new doctor till next month, I just wish I could get a better advocate to be helping me with this troublesome issue. I hope you can give some recommendations.
Dealing with a mental illness whether its your own or someone elses is all learning with successes along the way.
I have had good experiences that I did not realize. I too take the cocktail approach to medication and it works for me. Not everyone can physically cope with a formula’s side effects. Nor are they sufficiently warned, or trained to know what to expect from Rx drugs. I think what you are saying is: If you feel good about yourself, your earned it.
Today’s article makes a lot of sense.
It is very nice and interesting feedback, can help a lot of mental health professtionals to understand their patients, can help to improve the way services delivered,your writing is very informative and helpful to many, please keep and continue writing such an interesting topics
thank you
Ehab
Thanks for this, it’s so well balanced ( which I know is the point) and that is becoming an increasingly rare thing in the discussion of the treatment of mental illness. I have manic depression and have spent enough time in hospital whether under Section or voluntarily to have experienced pretty much all treatments. As it happens ect works well for me, meds not at all except for lithium. Lucky enough to have a wonderful consultant who listens to what I say and let’s me guide my own treatment . Shame there aren’t more like him instead of doctors trying to foist treatments on vulnerable people. You’ve got yourself a fan.
Hi Debs,
You’re welcome. :) I know how tough it is to find pieces that are well-balanced which is why I try my best to provide them.
Glad to have a new fan :)
Thanks.
– Natasha Tracy
Interesting article. When I refer people to serices I always make sure I tell them that there is more than one therapist, med, treatment out there so don’t give up if you try something that doesn’t work for you. I have found this so frustrating in my own life but am so grateful for those therapists etc that have had a positive effect on my wellness!
Hi Tara,
I understand the frustration the treatment merry-go-round leads to in a person’s life but I too am grateful when I find something that has a positive effect on my wellness.
– Natasha Tracy
I love your articles and writing. I share your viewpoint, and thank you, because you share that which may not work for you. I have also had many horrible experiences. The best psychiatrist I had told me this,” You can look at bipolar as a cancer, there is no cure. There are medications that may help the symptoms, but you are the guinea pig till we find the right combination for you.” Again thank you.
Hi Justina,
Thank-you.
It’s unfortunately true that we are guinea pigs. It’s just one of those unpleasant truths we have to accept.
– Natasha Tracy
your final sentence is EXACTLY the reason I read your blog and frequently refer others to it!
Thanks for all you contribute to the conversation.
xoxo
Thanks Judy. I like to think that’s why people keep coming back :)
– Natasha Tracy
Natasha,
Your post is eloquently written and to the point.
Warmly,
Herb
vnsdepression@gmail.com
http://www.vnstherapy-herb.blogspot.com
Thanks Herb, I appreciate that.
– Natasha
May I ask, what medication have you finally settled on?
Hi Graham,
I don’t like to talk about specifics but I’m on a cocktail that includes several classes of medications.
– Natasha