Blog
Today is World Mental Health Day - What is the truth?
Monday 10th October 2022
STC
For many many years I believed that people with mental health conditions or issues were caused by chemical imbalances in the brain or some sort of genetic link and they can be treated by a pill, tablet or some other prescribed medication. Not only did I believe that, but almost all profesionals around me subscribed to that theory.
Through my career in safeguarding I came across countless women and men that had been exploited, sexually assaulted, trafficked, abused, isolated and traumatised. GP's, doctors and nurses would come and go, but not without diagnosing them with a mental disorder of some capacity and authorising their medication. Often I would be part of panels, professionals meetings or other where their cases would be discussed where often these poor people were labelled as high risk, fragile, complex individuals, difficult to engage with and they were told on a regularly basis they have a disorder of the mind - But this is not what I could see.
What troubled me though was their reliance on high dosages of medication. They were convinced there was no escape from their chemical imbalance or gentic illness that they had been told they had, and they carried an acceptance their prescribed medication is the only outlet they have to manage their suffereing , trauma and depression.
Fact - Deppression is not caused by a brain chemical imbalance
Fact - Schizophrenia is not genetic
Unless I am mistaken we are yet to find a gene for mental health, yet millions of people all over the world on a daily basis are encouraged to take drugs they neither understand and may not need. Perhaps its time to consider an alternative to the medical model as we know it and head towards a human way of understanding our experiences and responses.
How different could the world be if we addressed trauma and suffereing rather than medicating the masses so they are unable to process what is or has happened to them??