General Discussion

But there certainly were severely depressed people locked up in psych hospitals in the old days.
The crippling kind where they cannot get out of bed and or make frequent suicide attempts.

Yes but the difference is that your friend has short stays in the hospital to stabilize her
and she quickly returned to home. She is not locked up for life.

Psych meds changed things tremendously. People no longer had to have long stays in the hospital
and could function normally.

When I started in practice, there was only first generation psych drugs but it was wonderful.
It was like a miracle to see the severely mentally ill return to normal in such a quick period of time
with meds.

23% of the US have some sort of mental illness.
But only 6% have serious mental illness.

The rates seem high but it is due to the fact Americans now accept depression and mental illness
as medical problems and are not ashamed to seek treatment.

In 40 years of clinical practice I only saw ONE case of medication induced suicidal thoughts.
That was a young man on Accutane for his acne. I called his dermatologist right away
and insisted he be taken off the medication asap. The doc did so and the young man was fine.

Please note that I was a therapist and did not prescribe meds and obviously believed in talking
therapy as beneficial. But I fully admit that psych meds are a wonderful thing.

I do agree that kids may be overmedicated today.
But on the other hand I have seen seriously suicidal three year olds.
And psychotic 10 year olds.
They need meds.

I think it is easy for lay people to denigrate mental health treatment, but they
are not the ones who have to try to help mentally people in clinics and hospitals.
It is heartbreaking to see seriously ill patients but then a miracle to see them
able to function normally after being treated with medication. It is a miracle of modern medicine.