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last night i woke up at like 3am, thought “psych wards patients are like cats who are shut in the bathroom for being naughty”, and immediately went back to sleep

to add a bit more detail (hi @corasticot ) my ideas were:

– neurotypicals send you to psychiatric hospitals because youre a “threat” to yourself or the others but really, theyre tired of your bullshit. no owner seriously thinks shutting their cat away in the bathroom will make them understand why they shouldnt make a mess in the kitchen. at most they hope they figure it out and get too scared of the bathroom to do it ever again. no person will think in good faith that locking up a depressed/anxious/psychotic person will do anything else than scaring them to make them conceal their symptoms (im not talking expensive private clinics. some ppl have good experiences with them. im talking horrific state psychiatric hospitals where literally every “freak” get sent. youve got old ppl with dementia and a young adult with autism and depressed ppl and schizophrenic ppl in the same building like no big deal. with no therapy whatsoever)

– psychiatric hospitals look like big ass bathrooms, tiles floors everywhere, sanitizer, and white, no comfort

– naughty-cats-that-get-locked-in-bathrooms typically lament and yell behind the door until you free them. my psychiatric hospitals neighbors did that too and i was almost ready to do it too: you need attention from your owners/medical staff because youre lost and trapped

– btw, you get “locked up” in a psych ward like naughty cats 

– you’re super bored bc there is literally no enrichment/no activities. you’re ripped off all your possessions (they took my hairband and books away)

– you often dont know why youre there in the first place. do you think the cat that made a mess in the kitchen 5 hours ago knows why hes locked up in the bathroom? neither do most patients

thanks for coming to my ted talk and lets burn psychiatric institutions to the ground comrades

precision: NO im NOT anti psychiatric care & research. its quite the contrary. but as long as we will live in a capitalist society that deems you “useless” or “a threat” if you cant reach the productivity goals they set… prisons and psychiatric institutions will stay horrifyingly abusive. Why do you think the big stigmatisation of mentally ill people and the first “petites maisons” (in france) appeared approximately when capitalism started existing??? its NOT a coincidence. 

Sure, there are good people in psychiatric institutions. Empathetic people. Ive met some. They were incredibly sweet and generous. But their hands are tied, because Money, the State policies, and such, dont allow them to offer the care that mentally ill people NEED. 

Also: i mentioned cats AKA pets on purpose. Because medical staff is all-mighty. Youre literally at their mercy for anything. It’s not a caretaker/vulnerable person dynamic. It’s a power dynamic. They will threaten to sedate you if you disturb them. You dont have a say in what meds youre taking. You literally have to beg for basic necessities, such as your personal possessions, clean clothes, social contact… And they can refuse it. Its the ground for abuse, and at best unbalanced relationships. 

“But i had a good experience with a state institution!” The problem is that good experiences of state institutions for mental health are a accident. If – by miracle – you’re locked up in an humane hospital, with a caring staff, and everything is going well, its not the norm. And it takes an enormous mass of work from every member of the staff to achieve this, because everything about the way hospitals work makes it easier to torture patients than to take good care of them. And you shouldnt have to play russian roulette about your mental health. 

Noticed how i talked about state institutions? it’s on purpose. Sure, there are people who have good experiences with psychiatry, because they got sent to private clinics they could afford.

But the problem is… most people can’t afford private clinics. State hospitals are free here. I’m not gonna pay 2,000€ to have care because!!!!! i cant afford it!!!!!! and im not poor. Im white, and middle-class. MOST PEOPLE CANT AFFORD IT. 

guess what? the root problem is capitalism. Because care for people who might not even become “productive”, and medical care in general, is considered useless. Illness is supposed to be a “temporary problem”. And if its not…… you better have money for that. Not to mention the deep stigma around mental illnesses there is.