The Mislabeling of Mental Health in our Mental Healthcare System

Understanding Negative Emotions

Have you ever been told you have ADHD? Or maybe someone has labeled you with a particular mental illness; you then took medication for that illness, and it didn’t work, so the doctors tried other drugs, but nothing seems to fix your issues. So what should you do? First and foremost, I am not a medical doctor, but identifying negative emotions or words can be a step in the right direction. Be open and honest with yourself. Instead of trying to escape from these temporal emotions, be open and honest and say yes! I feel this way, but it will be okay, and eventually, I will feel normal again. Also, you may not even have ADHD, but you might suffer from not having the right help in a classroom, and with the right help and moral support, you can achieve great things.

The Unfortunate Truth About Our Mental Health System

Unfortunately, our mental health system is flawed, and there are other alternatives to these medications. However, in our society, we rather sedate the problem rather than converse about it. I once watched a video that Dr. Peter Breggin was in, and he made a statement that stood out to me. He said that when people complain about mental illness, pharmaceutical companies treat human beings like animals at the zoo by sedating them and not addressing the real problem. Since these medications add more problems than help these individuals, these people become caged off from real answers.

Breggin Was Right about Guilt and Shame

In his book Guilt Shame and Anxiety, Peter Breggin said, “Guilt, shame, and anxiety do not motivate positive reform. At best, they exhaust us; at worst, they drive us toward negative feelings and actions that harm and alienate other people. Reason, sound ethics, and love motivate actions that genuinely improve our own lives and the lives of others.” I think Mr. Breggin hit it on the nail, and I would like to add to what he said by saying If you want to see positive changes in your life, look deep within and challenge these negative emotions with sound logic and sound ethics!