by Kelly Mastanduno

Created on: August 14, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

While mental illness is a very serious issue, the medical community treats it like more of a game, a money making one. I cannot speak for every doctor and every employee of every pharmaceutical company, but as a whole, patients who depend on modern medicine to help them achieve healthier and more productive lives, or even just to be able to live, are being severely taking advantage of in their quest for help from medical professionals.

Since medicine is such a popular trend in this country, it is as easy to stock a medicine cabinet full of dangerous pills, as it is to turn on the kitchen sink and get some tap water. This is the scariest and most dangerous in the mental health community. Drugs aimed to treat mental illnesses are a game of hit and miss, mixing chemicals and the human brain. It is like Russian roulette. Even though scientists developed these medications, the scientists themselves cannot predict the outcomes or consequences, nor can they control the side effects of experimenting with the human mind. Almost every drug prescribed for mental health patients has a very long list of very serious side effects. Many of these drugs also bring with them the potential of actually making the condition worse and ending a mild case of depression in suicide. Are these chances worth taking? Sometimes, but it is essential that the patient not be ignorant and place their minds haphazardly into the hands of a doctor with no questions asked. It is crucial to do the research on medications.

The first thing to look out for is in-patient and community based (sliding scale or free clinics) treatment centers. These centers have the primary concern of keeping the community of patients (they call them "consumers") quiet and complacent. Upon being admitted to an in-patient clinic, the first thing they do is medicate the patient. Anti-psychotics, strong medications labeled to treat such dangerous conditions as schizophrenia and dementia, are automatically given to every inpatient, regardless of their cause of admittance, and usually at dosages never meant to be given! Most meds are meant to be started at low levels such as 25 mg's, but treatment centers are commonly known to start patients at doses in the hundreds! These are insane, dangerous and inhumane practices! Moreover, the patient, usually being sick and not always in the state of mind to make good decisions, never knows better. Then there are consequences of severe side effects, addictions, withdrawals and the need

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