Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created our Mental Health Crisis

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Allen & Unwin Australia’s leading independent publisher of smart fiction and non-fiction, published in the UK through Atlantic Books.

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And unfortunately, the balance of political understanding and developed organization is NOT very favorable at this time to those on the “Left” who grasp the necessity for humanity to move well beyond the oppressive nature of a class based capitalist society. The central thesis of this book is that mental health is too "medicalized" and low-grade anxiety and depression are conceptualized as chemical imbalances within an individual's brain, rather than understandable, rational reactions to living in a very stressful world. Why would this be so? In Davies' view, the medical establishment does this because it exists in neoliberal capitalism—which is all about individual responsibility, productivity, and buying products to solve all of your problems. As a helper myself, I decided, there has to be a way to heal without functioning as their empathy (by rendering my clients disable). I want them to keep their empathy and still heal. I empower them to keep their empathy and heal with it with me or with them alone. Compartiendo gran parte de sus tesis, creo que a veces peca de hablar desde un plano demasiado teórico y poco material. Es cierto que inevitablemente la superestructura determina nuestros valores, cómo nos sentimos y nuestras expectativas, pero frente a la gran crisis de salud mental que estamos viviendo es necesario poner en marcha medidas que ayuden a prevenir, intervenir y paliar la situación. Trascender el modelo biomédico y apostar por recursos psicosociales desde los servicios públicos (sanidad, educación, servicios sociales...). Es importante hacer análisis macro, pero también poner en marcha medidas tangentes y urgentes.This is the first book I've read that examines mental health in a sociopolitical context, and it was a breath of fresh air. Last year, I had a video appointment with my new primary care doctor because I was dealing with burnout and depression from severe job stress. Five minutes into the call, the doctor told me she would write me a prescription for antidepressants. I'd never met this doctor before, she didn't know anything about my life or the circumstances that led me to feel depressed and burned out—yet she was happy to give me a prescription for psychiatric drugs within minutes. As medicalisation and commodification have occurred apace, they have also hastened the widespread depoliticisation of distress

Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created our Mental Health Crisis

The evidence behind this claim comes from research undertaken by Professor Martin Harrow and published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Harrow’s research showed that many psychiatric drugs when taken long term harm the people they purported to help (p.44). Davies interviewed another researcher, Robert Whittaker, who having seen Harrow’s work engaged in a study to look at the effects of psychiatric drug use on many major mental illnesses. Whittaker showed that in aggregate people who continue to take psychiatric drugs do much worse in the long term than those who stop them (pp.49-50). Using studies, interviews with experts and detailed analysis, the book explores how mental health outcomes have flatlined since the 1980s as our mental health sector has primarily developed over that period to serve economic outcomes, but at the expense of providing the health services people both need and want.

Thank you for putting words things I notice in healing business in therapy that did not make sense.

Politics of Distress: A Discussion With Dr. James Davies The Politics of Distress: A Discussion With Dr. James Davies

The doctor and shrink looking at each other both know they are often telling lies that greatly hurt people. James Davies sendiri ternyata seorang psikiater berbasis di UK. Sedated adalah buku yang ia susun untuk mengkritisi bagaimana pemerintah UK malah memperparah kondisi mental manusia di sana.Someone Else, When I read your post, I think of those ad infinitum pictures—pictures within pictures within pictures within pictures, etc. I think, that could be one probable visual description of psychatry, etc.: never-ending cruelty, abuse, and stupidity. Thank you. Tras una investigación concienciduda sobre el estado de la salud mental en Reino Unido, Davies desmenuza con datos y evidencias de dónde viene la actual crisis de salud mental y cómo se está abordando desde los diferentes gobiernos. The book looks at how people who have aspirations and dreams and what they might buy can influence their personality, for example an interesting experiment was carried out in people who drove high status, expensive cars and low status cars and the people who drove shiny, expensive, high costing cars were more likely to not stop for a pedestrian that was trying to cross the road and show less consideration for others. In my own personal experience I feel that this is often true and that people in low status cars are less likely to cut up in front of people or stop when you are trying to cross a road as opposed to people who might have a nice shiny Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Audi. Dr James Davies graduated from the University of Oxford in 2006 with a PhD in social and medical anthropology. He is now a Reader in social anthropology and mental health at the University of Roehampton. Our suffering is now being blamed on us, not the circumstances of our lives. We are in this way objectified as simply a tool to help the accumulation of profits for the pharmaceutical companies. It is no accident that the profits of pharmaceutical corporations have mushroomed since the 1980s. Therapy for capital’s benefit

Sedated – Atlantic Books Sedated – Atlantic Books

More than 20 per cent of adults take a psychiatric drug each year in Britain alone–over a 500 per cent increase since 1980. Despite this ‘prescription epidemic’, the prevalence of mental illnesses, from the least to most severe, has simultaneously risen. Many of us will be familiar with the statistics often quoted by organisations such as Mind, like ‘1 in 4 people are diagnosed with a mental illness of some kind in England each year’ and ‘the overall number of people reporting mental health problems have been going up.’ [1] When pointed out, this does appear to be a contradiction, for which there are two possible explanations. The first is that we are indeed in the midst of what some have labelled a mental health ‘crisis’. The second is that the problem (and thus the solutions to the problem) have actually been misinterpreted. Firstly, reform has to start with ourselves…until we have more accommodating political arrangements in our economy, reform will be significantly hobbled.” If I am not mentally “resilient”, I might need all kinds of support, until I become stronger, and if I do not become a superhero, physically or emotionally, this should not be held against me. A psych label will ALWAYS be held against you, and only held against you by the very people who are in people services. Because I've never read any psychological or psychiatric literature that actually bothers to situate mental health care within the culture context in which its practice, this book was a thrill to read. Other books I've read on this subject treat mental health as separate and distinct from the socioeconomic context in which it appears. Sedated, on the other hand blends together a compelling critique of the mental health industry, politicians, drug companies, and neoliberalism.No doubt, they wanted to murder a person that was distressed by 9/11/2001, and stands against the never ending wars that, that distressing event has created. Oh, because distress caused by a distressing event, is distress caused by a “chemical imbalance” in one person’s brain? WTF! They don’t seem to know much of anything about the banking and monetary systems, which most definitely need reform. Their primary actual societal function is covering up child abuse and rape, for the mainstream paternalistic religions, which most definitely need reform. Not to mention, they cover up easily recognized medical mistakes, for a big Pharma misinformed – and all too often, incompetent, and honestly downright murderous – medical industry. Oh, and they want to steal everything from us artists who speak the truth, through our history recording artwork, and based upon our many years of research into all these corrupt industries. I assure you it is not all doom and gloom, rather it is sobering and incredibly enlightening! It has certainly helped shaped my own thoughts and feelings. Firstly, our sector has depoliticised suffering: conceptualising suffering in ways that protect the current economy from criticism – i.e. reframing suffering as rooted in individual rather than social causes, thus favouring self over social and economic reform.