The following comic illustrates the cycle by which a person is subjected to forced and damaging "treatment" by being told they're too sick to make decisions for themselves, and upon speaking up about it later, gets told that either the previous diagnosis never could have applied or that they're too high-functioning to understand the plight of those (portrayed like the person was at the beginning of the comic) who need forced "treatment".
It is intended to illustrate the absurd claims that the people who speak out against the psychiatric system are either crazy and therefore sorely in need of the psychiatric system or a totally different and unique group of people compared to the people who are currently in the psychiatric system by force, or people who only speak out to create drama and get attention.
While this description shows the psychiatric system, it happens quite often among autistic people as well and is relevant to us. Each panel of the comic is explained below it for people who need or prefer text descriptions (and for people who can't make sense of my awkward attempts at cartooning that got combined with lack of a scanner).
Warning: This page contains a drawing of a woman in restraints.
Step 1: Diagnosis.
A woman stands in a room with a doctor, who tells her, "You clearly have severe, treatment-refractory schizophrenia. No question."
Step 2: Treatment.
The same woman is now tied to a bed. The doctor stands over her saying, "You're far too sick to make these decisions yourself. Once these drugs make you better you'll understand and thank me for forcing them on you.
Step 3: Discharge.
The woman now stands with her eyes closed looking zombie-like. The doctor hands her a prescription saying, "You can go home now. Here's your prescription.
Step 4: Detox.
The woman's hand is shown dumping a bottle of pills in the toilet.
[Note: Rapid withdrawal from psych drugs can be dangerous.]
Step 5: Attend scary conference to watch your doctor.
The woman sits in the audience at a conference. There is a banner saying "Nazis Against the Mentally Ill: The Nation's Voice on Mental Illness, CONFERENCE."
A projector screen shows a slide of a stereotypically crazy-looking woman, eerily similar to the woman who's been shown so far, with a knife in her hand. The caption on the slide reads: "SLIDE #46: Dangerous psychotic off her meds."
The woman's doctor is standing at the podium, saying, "...And I think we all can agree that people this sick need the compasion that forced medication can give them. Any questions?"
Step 6: Speak up and get shot down the usual way.
The woman stands up and says, "Yes. I was diagnosed with severe treatment-refractory schizophrenia, and all the forced drugs did to me was mess up my mind and body. I was only able to get a handle on my life by getting off them. Forcing them on me violated my rights."
The doctor replies by saying, "You don't sound schizophrenic, so you never would have been diagnosed by a real doctor, either that or you're so high functioning you don't understand the plight of the severely mentally ill. You do seem to like to cause trouble. Are you a borderline?"
[Note: Some pro-force doctors can get even nastier than this and scapegoat psych survivors for everything from homelessness to suicide. They can also turn it around, if the person looks weird enough, and make it sound like the person speaking up is paranoid and delusional and needs forced drugs.]
Copyright © A M Baggs, 2004
Acknowledgements: Thanks to The Antipsychiatry Coalition, whose website contains the exchange between an ex-patient and a pro-force psychiatrist that inspired this comic. The "Nazis Against the Mentally Ill" acrostic comes from a friend who habitually refers to NAMI that way.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to point out to Uta Frith that some autistic people are capable of reading and even writing comics. I read in one of her books that we uniformly aren't, which was news to me.
Warning: Links or categories marked with (*) may provoke flashbacks or other unpleasantness in people who have been in institutional and forced-psychiatric situations, and should be read (or not read) with that in mind. I can't guarantee that I found everything, but I try.
Onsite Links
My Writing
- Comic: Life Stages of a Psych Survivor (*)
- Outposts In Our Heads: The Intangible Horrors of Institutions, That Must Not Be Forgotten (*)
- This Is What Your "Treatments" Do To Us (*)
- Why It's So Hard To Write Directly About My Life (*)