#anti psych stuff

[chamerionwrites]

A fun fact is that what “counts” (at least for the purposes of receiving a PTSD diagnosis) as a traumatic event has changed with each version of the DSM, and currently reads thus:

Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence in one (or more) of the following ways:

Directly experiencing the traumatic event(s).

Witnessing, in person, the event(s) as it occurred to others.

Learning that the traumatic event(s) occurred to a close family member or close friend. In cases of actual or threatened death of a family member or friend, the event(s) must have been violent or accidental.

Experiencing repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of traumatic event(s) (e.g., first responders collecting human remains; police officers repeatedly exposed to details of child abuse).

Insofar as I can tell this means that - definitionally speaking - you can get PTSD from learning that your friend was in a car accident*, but not from. Say. Severe bullying in childhood or in the workplace; witnessing the drawn-out death of a loved one from cancer; being raised in a cult that tries to control your every thought and emotion; verbally and/or emotionally abusive relationships; etc…..

*Obviously I’m not claiming that this can’t be traumatic - just that where we’re choosing to draw the boundaries here seems hilariously arbitrary.

[the-alarm-system]

SYSTEMPUNK

Systempunk: A term or Subculture surrounding the liberation of plurals and the critique of psychiatry. We're outspoken on how the psych community mistreats us and how we will force the breaking of the chains that continuously fakeclaim or harm us whenever we do something singlets/psychiatrist do not like. We have been silenced and told that if we are open, it is a sign of us lying. We have been forced to follow the strict guidelines of the dsm5 in order to avoid being told that our experiences are false. We have been forced into psychiatric wards and abused because we are not singlet. We have been the face of the liars for too long, plural liberation is something we must push. The future is plural.

ANTI ENDOS AND RADQUEERS DO NOT TOUCH.

Meaning of the flag:

Brown and Black: The POC-bodied systems who are put down by both the community and the society around them. POC-bodied systems who have had their diagnosis's rejected due to their race. POC-bodied systems who have a cultural origin or connection and are hurt because of it. POC-bodied systems who are appropriated by other systems and are not listened to. POC-bodied systems who are hurt by the white dominated psychiatric system. POC-bodied systems who deserve to be heard and understood.

Purple stripe: Endogenic Solidarity, allyship, love, liberation. Endogenic systems are continuously harmed by antis who remain uncritical of psychiatry, are against the liberation of plurals, and deny a plural future in order to push singlethood onto others. Endogenic systems are also used in a lot of fakeclaiming content made by singlets and psychiatrist despite the research that supports their existence. It's because singlet society hates plurals and hates any form of existence we have. Love your endogenic siblings. They are the diverse experiences of plurality, they have helped us through so much.

Yellow Stripe: Disordered and traumagenic system solidarity and liberation. Disordered systems are horribly abused by the psych system, we make up most of those hospitalized and we are put down as too crazy to make our own decisions. Even if our existence is from trauma or a disorder, we shouldn't be forced into a singlet cure, we deserve autonomy.

Pink stripe: Abolition of psychiatric wards used to abuse us, hide us away, and silence us. Our autonomy is stolen from them, we deserve resources that help us instead of force us into a place that fucking hates us.

White stripe: Psych-critical beliefs or Anti-psych beliefs, despite their differences we still stand together against the harms of the psychiatric system. ACAB included in this.

Barbed wire: Anti-fakeclaim culture, systems deserve to be believed. Pro-plural protection. Protect another no matter your beliefs, cops and psych wards fucking hate us and want us dead, protect those you love. protect the closeted, protect all systems.

Fangs: Fight for your existence, be loud about it, write essays, make art, do whatever you can. Force plural liberation down the throats of singlets. Force the future to be plural.

Ampersand: PLURAL PRIDE, PLURAL ACCEPTANCE, PLURAL LIBERATION, PLURAL HISTORY, PLURAL FUTURE

[whereserpentswalk]

When I say I want pysch meds to be less stigmatized I don't just mean people should be allowed to talk about the ways meds helped them, or talk about how they used to have depression and then meds cured them. People need to be allowed to talk about the way medication has harmed them and hurt them, about going off of meds, about the way the system forces meds onto people and doesn't care about their well beings, about side effects that most neurotypical people would find horrifying, about not wanting to be on meds, about being on meds but not magically becoming normal. The neurodivergent/mentally ill experience should not be watered down to make people comfortable, and especially not to make people comfortable with the largely neurotypical run medical system that often victimizes us as much as it helps us.

[girlcalledwhatsername]

This shouldn't even be need to be said but don't fucking report people who express being suicidal. I don't care how much you think you're doing it for someone's own good, it does NOT help us it only harms further

READ that AGAIN

You are ACTIVELY harming those people when you try to be a goody two-shoes and tell on them when they get suicidal

Don't fucking report them to social media app features that have the report for self harm option. Don't fucking call a suicide hotline on them. Don't fucking report them to therapists, paychiatrists, cops, controlling parents or partners

It does not matter how uncomfortable it makes you - this isn't ABOUT you - it doesn't matter how much it goes against your cute little saviour complex thinking you're being oh such a wonderful kind heroic person by "saving" someone from themself.

When you report a person to any of those places it heavily risks hospitalisation and incarceration. Where I live it's technically still a crime to attempt suicide, they never overturned the law. And if you think being in a ward might help them - do everyone a favour and go check out the actual conditions in the wards and talk to psych survivors about how they actually are. Otherwise shut up about things you have no experience with.

Everyone should have a right to autonomy, especially bodily autonomy, and you don't have to like what they do with their own body for you to know not to take that away from someone. It's not your place to judge, it's not okay to be moralistic about bodily autonomy suddenly because you can't handle the reality of mentally ill people.

And it's not fucking okay to lock us in and remove us from society just because our disorders are too fucking ugly for you to look at.

If you absolutely have to help just talk to a suicidal person if they're up to it, just ask them what will help, and if you can't do that then leave us the fuck alone you snitches

And don't come at me with the law, if you had to be an ally to mentally ill people, to queer people, to women, to any kind of marginalised people, historically a lot of it has always included standing against the law and with us.

STOP REPORTING US

[fenrichaita]

Can we talk about how psychiatry has a pattern of using treatments for mental illnesses and disorders that cause brain damage and then labeling the direct effects of that damage as "healing"

[sophieinwonderland]

Good psychology and psychiatry needs to acknowledge that culture isn't just spatial, but temporal

There was a whole generation that grew up on black and white TV. The technology of the time altered their dreams so that they dreamt in black and white. Many still do to this day.

But this culture that led to this situation is dead. Children will no longer be born into a world where their dreams will be influenced by only having access to black and white television.

Plural systems 40 years ago didn't have support networks. There was no internet, and no one wanted to talk about hearing voices or feeling like people in their head were taking control of their body.

With the advent of the internet, this culture too is dead, and it's for the best.

Now, systems have access to other systems. We have an environment where we won't be judged, or if we are, it won't affect our relationships with our friends or family outside of the internet until we're ready to come out. We're safe and can support each other. And when systems do come out, they can feel much more comfortable with themselves in doing so.

And this also goes for many DID and OSDD systems as well. The shame attached to many of the symptoms of DID is less pervasive because of community support.

But psychiatry isn't acknowledging that the culture of isolation of the 80s and 90s is largely dead now.

When older doctors see kids coming in who have self-diagnosed and aren't ashamed of themselves, they assume that the children of the internet age should be behaving like the children of past generations. But our own generation isn't that generation.

You're not fake just because you aren't ashamed of what you are and what you experience.

You're not fake because you don't act like the last generation of plurals who didn't have access to the support networks we do today.

And psychiatry HAS to keep up with the times. It has to acknowledge that it can't apply the same standards of the pre-internet era to the post-internet era, because our culture today is radically different from theirs.

And we also need to talk about the mental health crisis when it comes to dissociative disorders that led us here.

There is no mass number of people being misdiagnosed with dissociative disorders. In fact, many studies have shown that people dissociative disorders are more likely to be misdiagnosed with Schizophrenia, and the ones who end up correctly diagnosed have to spend an average of 6 years before getting the correct diagnosis.

For decades, experts have been estimating that the number of people with DID was actually close to 3% of the population. In the US, that's about 9 million people. That's an overwhelming number of mostly-undiagnosed DID systems when so many psychiatrists have been given zero training in treating it.

The shortage of healthcare isn't because of some group of boogeymen "fakers" who are stealing resources.

It's because our culture changed. More systems with dissociative disorders became aware of being systems and are seeking help they need. They don't feel shame at their symptoms like they once would have. And our psychiatric institutions have failed them.

This could have been avoided if more psychiatrists had been trained to diagnose and treat dissociative disorders because they knew that this was a problem.

Instead of acknowledging their own failings on this matter, they are doubling down and fakeclaiming systems publicly for not being ashamed enough of themselves, like "real" systems should be.

TikTokers are not responsible for a lack of resources for systems. A psychiatric institution that ignored all the warning and attempts to raise awareness about the true frequency of these disorders is.

[verdemint]

This might be a bit random BUT if u ever go to the louvre, the og eros and psyche (psyche revived by cupid’s kiss) by canova is there in a smaller and not that noticeable room, go look for it ‘cause its beautiful

(Also fuck the louvre, it was such a mess, worst museum of my life but the art they have locked up in that labyrinth is beautiful)

(obv fuck the louvre for stealing half of those beautiful things)

[kelzmuffinz]

life advice, never overdose on antidepressants and antipsychotics. BAD IDEA. i’m really getting down with the sickness rn 😃

[ghostcrows]

i hate that i now feel like im just trying to be quirky or something if i say i have adhd which by the way i still get furious that im not diagnosed officially because its been glaringly fucking obvious my whole life...and its just like i KNOW thats why i cant function normal but i catch myself like no it must just be because i suuuuuckkk...when i bring it up to therapists they act like im trying to get pills and nothing else theyre like well we'll get to that and then we never fucking do. im just mad

[chamerionwrites]

Can't decide if it's more dystopian that every other podcast is wall to wall with ads for one mental health service or another, or that most of these """services""" are transparently scammy and/or trying to steal your data

[the-alarm-system]

ANTI-PSYCHIATRY PLURAL FLAG

[Image ID: 6 Horizontal lines alternating between purple and pink. In the middle is a black circle with a white barrier that has a white ampersand in the middle.]

This flag is for plurals who fight for the abolition of psychiatry, an abusive weapon made to oppress the mad. This fight includes the rejection of the medicalization of plurality as systemhood clashes against the construct of the normal and sane formed by psychiatry in order to force us into "cure". We do not need cure, for our plurality is not a disease. We want mad liberation and plural liberation. Fuck Psychiatry, Abolish Psych Wards.

MAD STUDIES AND ANTI-PSYCHIATRY FOR BEGINNERS

ANTI ENDOS AND RADQUEERS DO NOT TOUCH

[faggotry-enjoyer]

remember: testosterone cypionate is prescribed as single-dose vials, but you can safely get multiple doses out of each as long as the vial was first opened less than four weeks ago. this is good and should be done. however! as far as your doctor and pharmacist are concerned, you are getting only a single dose from each vial. so you *are* running out and you *do* need that refill now, actually.

same principle applies for any controlled substance. don't take your adhd meds every day? as far as the doc is concerned, yes you do!

you can always stockpile your meds when possible, it's always morally correct. just watch the expiration dates and make sure to keep using the oldest first

[girlcalledwhatsername]

One of those "is it worth it" debates i find myself having with myself is about mental health related posts that may make good points otherwise but subscribe heavily to and reference and frame mental illness through the biomedical model and the widespread (but false) idea that a chemical imbalance causes these issues. Comprehensive explanation for this + resources here. (Also worth looking into this activist's work where she describes what paychiatric gaslighting looks like)

The thing is I do not want to spread that misinformation anymore. It was presented to me as fact despite there being little proof of it, for a long time in my life from psychology teachers to therapists to psychiatrists of course. Just treated as a natural fact when it was literally pseudoscience on the same level as most rudimentary psychoanalysis.

So I have to make the decision to either simply not reblog it and therefore not engage with the wider mental health discourse and let people be mistaken from what is possibly just an honest mistake as something that has been taught to us all so so largely, they very well might just honestly not know it not be true, and then by leaving it alone I am letting that myth perpetuate from well-meaning people...

Or...

I actually correct the person, get a bunch of people who find their worldview so suddenly challenged being angry about it and calling me anti science as often happens and get retraumatised over my experiences with Psychiatric abuse at large.

And although I mostly choose the former and simply don't engage it leaves me feeling uneasy because I know I was that person once who didn't think to question the validity of chemical imbalance theories and if someone had told me about it honestly it would have saved me a world of pain. But too many people are progressive only on the surface and hate to have to consider abolitionist approaches to oppressive systems, too many people genuinely believe a host of more stigmatised symptoms and disorders to be deserving of incarceration or erasure, and i have no way of knowing who these people would be. And this is why pop psychology and liberal mental health advocates have run the anti-psych movement into the shadows - a movement to which we owe every step of our liberation as mentally ill people.

So how do you make this a bigger conversation again?

Like. Tell me this isn't blatantly a mass misinformation campaign at this point

[linked here]

[fenrichaita]

Thinking about how like in so many discussions about how psychiatric diagnoses are understood by literal mental health professionals, you hear how so many of them are working from outdated ideas about "X'. And X is just, like, almost every mental health diagnosis.

Like. Do you think there may be a pattern here

[sophieinwonderland]

Imitated DID is essentially people parroting what they believe DID to be. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are faking, but that they are misinformed, likely experience a high degree of suggestibility and also likely are prone to fantasy and cognitive distortions. DID is not what the media portrays. If the dissociative symptoms are not causing a disruption to living, then it is not a dissociative disorder. Thinking you have alters is not a dissociative disorder.

Seeing yourself as being composed of many parts is fine and normal. People are not one-toned but multidimensional beings. Every person is a complex person. Everyone is free to choose how they wish to view and identify with themselves. Fitting the criteria for a dissociative disorder, however, is not a choice a person can make.

The issue with so-called Imitated DID is that it often DOES meet the diagnostic criteria.

I fully agree that simply being plural is not a disorder. Every disorder has a requirement of clinically significant distress or impairment and it's super important that this remains and is respected.

If you look at many of the cases of Imitated DID though, they seem like they do likely cause some level of distress or impairment and would need treatment, regardless of if the patient is ashamed of their alters or not.

Half of the paper that started the Imitated DID myth was dedicated to a Borderline/ASPD group.

And as I discussed before, they seemed biased against many of these patients. Their first case study, they seemed to doubt simply because she has a history of prostitution and an older boyfriend. And the above implies that drug and alcohol use somehow makes people more likely to be experiencing imitated DID.

There's also a level of ableism at play, suggesting people with these personality disorders are faking their DID symptoms because of these personality disorders.

Remember too that this is the title of that paper:

It is not subtle that the goal of inventing Imitated DID was creating a legal defense for doctors who are sued by patients for alleged misdiagnosis.

And that they're trying to paint the patients who sued their doctors as part of this "hard to detect" group made up of liars, druggies, and prostitutes who can't be trusted.

The underlying point is clearly that these patients can't be trusted in court.

By publishing this, any expert witness could cite this in court when a doctor is sued for malpractice by a patient with DID.

That's the real goal. That's the reason this whole theory was invented.

The concept of Imitated DID was malicious and ableist from the start!

[iliadicjasontodd]

most controversial aftg opinion that only developed in the years since i read due to my own writing and the research done for that is that andrew probably does actually have aspd. unintentionally on the writing’s part and obviously a lot is up for interpretation but in MY pov he is not really beating those allegations