Here's Kent R. again, responding to some comments to his post of yesterday. These issues are live ones here, and I strongly encourage continued dialogue on them.

I don't take medications or the mental health system frivolously at all. But in my experience the mental health system in the United States is much more likely to be a source of harm than of help. (Though, as I think I indicated in my story, I see that it also has some possibility for good). In some ways, I am lucky to have survived psychiatric treatment at all, since many people who have had encounters with psychiatry similar to mine have not. Their stories are seldom told.

Both the opponents of psychiatry as well as its proponents are often very passionate about their views. Usually I avoid expressing such extreme passion - I try very hard to be logical about things. That doesn't mean that I haven't thought very seriously about the things I speak of, or that I don't feel very strongly about some of them. I don't really believe in the medical model that modern psychiatry presents, but I don't object to other people believing that way themselves - because I strongly believe in the right of people to make their own decisions and take responsibility for the consequences of their decisions. Most people seem to have some kind of psychological problems, and I don't see such a sharp line between crazy and sane, but rather more of a continuum of different degrees of severity.

It's just that the overall bad of the system seems to so outweigh the good that I think it is something more to avoid than to seek out. I know some people have had very positive experiences with the mental health system. They may have never seen its evil side, but that doesn't mean such a side doesn't exist. Is it courage to run towards something that you have seen do great damage, or stupidity? When you have had a lot of experience running from a monster that is often destructive, you aren't likely to ever turn to that monster for assistance.