Are There Other Options to Mental Hospitals?

20 years ago- I had a wonderful mother and then she was gone…why? What is this mental illness thing? Psychiatrists said she had to take medicine but I didn’t understand how this doctor could be so sure she should take prescription drugs when there was no test to prove why such drugs were necessary. Most of my family agreed with the doctor, out of fear I presumed. I did not agree with the doctor, so I began a journey to seek the truth.

In my 20s I would sit at my computer crying and looking for solutions to this problem. I wanted a mom who was healthy and well, but she had been diagnosed with a mental illness (which didn’t make sense when my dad seemed to be a major issue). They would argue, as couples sometimes do; she would get irately angry with him for various transgressions and exhibit “mania,” then be hauled off to a mental hospital. Being cuffed and then drugged never seemed like a humane option for any sort of discord or emotional trauma.

Are there other options to mental hospitals? Why wasn’t my mom doing well and why didn’t the medicine help her get better? It seemed I was the only one confused about this unproven drugging solution. I couldn’t understand why inhumane treatment was acceptable for mental health care. Care is about showing humanity, I always thought and so I set out to understand.

My mom was hospitalized over and over again in mental hospitals and she didn’t get better from it; she got worse. Psychiatric treatment took my mom’s life.

So I ask you…is there anyone out there that’s confused about the continuous drugging solution for mental health?

Do people notice the issue? That they go to the doctor to get help and then years later, their life is still awful because the psychotropic drug doesn’t work and perhaps makes conditions worse, not better?

I hope this terrible situation turns around soon. I’d like to help you and your loved ones to avoid getting caught in the drug scam and in the unfortunate mess of mental hospitals.

Much love,
Miriam