We are not robots. · Unlock Psych

We are not robots.

I’ve been to quite a large number of psychiatric hospitals in my life. I had my first experience of psychiatric incarceration at just 15 years old, that was 20 years ago. At one point, my insurance disclosed to me that I had had over 70 hospitalizations in my record. That was 2 years ago, I believe I have 80 or so now. Reflecting a lot on all these experiences—not just being a frequent flyer, but being held captive in these supposed safe havens where I was supposed to get "care"—I do feel that psychiatric hospitals are a cell.

It tells their patients, all these people who are diagnosed with mental illnesses, that they are wrong for having human experiences and the human emotions that go along with it, and that they need to be less emotional, less unique, less them because being who they are is disruptive and problematic and makes people uncomfortable. We are not robots. We are allowed to have complex feelings, grief, shame, anger, resentment, we are allowed to cry and numb our pain if that is what we need in the moment to survive the experience.

Here is what that reality actually looks like:

The Myth of Care: It is a medical facility, not a therapeutic one. It only does that one side of complex care, focusing purely on medication management rather than true therapeutic value.

Punishment as Treatment: It uses medication as a punishment and a threat. If you are perceived as too sick, noncompliant, aggressive, or even just loud, they will chemically restrain you. That is deeply traumatic: having multiple people hold you down as they come at you with a needle, pull down your pants of all things, and inject you there, taking away your ability to be present and aware as they disregard your autonomy.

Ignoring External Realities: None of our coping mechanisms are "good" or "bad"—they just are. We are surviving the best ways we know how. It’s not just a matter of willpower or being put into a locked ward for a week and being reprogrammed with toxic positivity while being talked down to. We need to look at the external sense of safety, not just the internal. Poverty, food insecurity, job insecurity, family stress, overwhelm with children, relationships, grief, peer pressure, and addiction are what cripple us.

You get taken away from any support system you may have had from a living situation that wasn't working for you for only a few days to a week or two, without any of your favorite things around to bring you comfort, in a cold, unfamiliar setting where you are judged constantly. Then you're often discharged back to the exact same situation that wasn't working for you with barely any resources that can make a significant impact. What was the point of all that?

The Psychological Conformity Unit has an intention to build these recovery robots out of us, yet it often doesn't even work; it just pushes out traumatized people because it was a system built broken. It's time to build safety nets outside of institutions.

Let's Unlock the Psych Ward Doors.

https://unlockpsych.com/

#UnlockPsych #AbolitionistPeerSupport #PeerPower #MentalHealthLiberation

2 comments

We are not robots.