The Medical Model of Psychiatry

“There are now nearly 6 million Americans disabled by mental illness, and this number increases by more than 400 people each day. A review of the scientific literature reveals that it is our drug-based paradigm of care that is fueling this epidemic. The drugs increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically ill, and induce new and more severe psychiatric symptoms in a significant percentage of patients.” Robert Whitaker

Our mental health care system based on the medical model, simply put, does not work for the majority of people, as can be seen in psychiatric hospitals with the same people returning periodically (known as the revolving door syndrome). It marginalizes and stigmatizes. What is worse is that we presume it is based on fact and sound scientific principles when in reality what has been exposed is that it is based rather on opinion and is scientifically unsound.

There is NO known physical test that can detect a ‘mental illness’.

There is NO known set of outcomes that follow a ‘mental illness’ diagnosis.

Yet the current mainstream mental health system continues to label peoples’ extreme states as pathological and medicates them accordingly.

The above is not unthinkable in itself were it not for the numerous detrimental outcomes of this approach.

Outcomes of the ‘illness’ system:

After receiving a psychiatric diagnosis, people are generally stripped of a hopeful future. They are told that they have a chemical imbalance that will require a lifelong dependency on psychiatric medications which may or may not alleviate their distressing symptoms.

Above this, they are more often than not stigmatized and marginalized, often by their own family and communities.

They are mostly not heard by the very people that are supposed to be caring for them within the mental health services. Side effects to medications are often over-looked or when queried told that it is better to accept these minor inconveniences than not to treat the disease. Most of the medications have serious side effects and risks which are not talked about nor explained. Furthermore, medication does not address the underlying psychological / social issues that may be accounting for the person’s distress and suffering. The medication simply masks these issues which then do not get dealt with, leaving people with life-long dependencies on these medications.

“By any measure, it is clear that people with mental illnesses are on the margin, actually not on the page at all. Dying decades earlier than the general population is testament enough about how those with mental illnesses have been marginalized.” Paolo del Vecchio (SAMHSA)