Today's final dispatch, from Kent R. Thanks to everyone for their participation.

I think some of what I said may have been mischaracterized slightly here. My original story about not taking drugs wasn't offered as a critique of psychiatry itself so much as a refutation of the claims by some powerful and well-funded groups that people with a psychiatric diagnosis must take some kind of medication pretty much forever, and must even be forced to do so if they don't take them voluntarily. I know that no system is perfect, but I think that systems with the power to force people to accept their treatments have more of a responsibility to do things right than systems that have no tools of force or coercion at their disposal.

I don't have a lot of time right now to get into a lot of details about the evils of psychiatry, so I'll just refer you to a couple of posts from another blog (Allison Hymes' "Charlottesville Prejudice Watch") that do get into some specifics about this issue:

In What Reality is an Increased Death Rate Evidence of Improved Treatment?”

Common Myths About the Commitment Process in Virginia and Elsewhere