Yeah now we just put them in institutions where they are forced treatments. The means change, not the ends. How come diagnosis have been increasing steadily for last half of century? Freedom is the only proper answer that takes account of individual choice. If you want to take experimental drugs to alter mental states then you should be allowed to do so. Nobody has the right to force one another.
Except it's not forced. At least not in the US. Mental health treatment is a voluntary process for anyone without the disability of minority (i.e. children) and even they have some surprising level of say once they age into the double-digits. If someone is actively suicidal, then they can be forced into hospitalization for as long as they are an immediate threat to themselves (which is normally 24-48 hours for people without insurance, up to a week with insurance if you want to stay). That's it. Even then, you can talk your way out of it. All you have to do is appear stable enough to get through the 4-hour intake/assessment process. If you are unable to hold out even 4 hours acting "normal", then it's possible that 48 hours of treatment to clear your head isn't the worst thing that can happen to you.
Unless you're a criminal deliberately using a disorder in court as an excuse for a crime, you're not going to be court ordered to treatment, and even then you have a legal right to choose your service provider (granted you can afford your choice).
Bottom line: people with mental illness usually desperately want help. They'll tell you when they are getting low on their meds, or when they need adjustments. It's like being legally blind, and able to see with glasses. They know they can't see. They know they need glasses. They find out the second they put the glasses on for the first time that the glasses are a game-changer. It's similar for the mentally ill. If you're not ill, I suppose it would be difficult to empathize.
However, yes. Those poor, poor mental patients in movies are super oppressed and something should be done about it!
As a side note, medical diagnoses in general have been on the rise. Cardiovascular diagnoses, neurological diagnoses, mental health diagnoses, skeletal/muscular diagnoses, ocular diagnoses, perinatal diagnoses, dermatological diagnoses.. I've run out of categories off the top of my head. The point is that as we become more advanced and more crowded, we increasingly likely to become ill in one way or another, and more aware of illness.
We do not know the effects of long term drugging of people.
Yes we do, and it's normally fucking rough. That's one of the problems that must be weighed. If someone's illness is so severe that they live crippled by their own minds, then some prefer to risk the liver damage. Further, those who are so severely ill that they must be on the heavy stuff long-term risk a slow, but early death anyway. It's not exactly an easy world for those unaided with a debilitating illness.
.. edit, it looks like Bronto addressed this too ...
Sure people may have been helped, but who is to say it was direct result of medications?
Double-blind studies, for one. Do you really think this stuff goes without research?! One of the first steps for testing psychiatric and addiction-related treatments is to compare the medication alone against medication with counseling, counseling alone, other medications, and no treatment at all.
There are no tests to verify illnesses and cures.
Of course there are tests. Like with many neurological diseases (MS, lupus, etc.), the physical tests are for eliminating other issues that could be causing the symptoms. Since the brain controls you, just about every test for anything brain-related is an elimination test.
And there are no cures for mental illnesses (nor neurological conditions), only treatments. Well, as far as I know there are no cures. Maybe someday, but at our current level of knowledge and experience, it looks impossible.
I suppose that if we keep pushing to learn more and build on what we have (rather than just throwing up our hands saying "give up, it's all bullshit") we'll continue to improve.
Edit:
@ higs, Bronto is right. I think you're thinking of Adderral. That's literally amphetamine salt. Funny too, among people who abuse amphetamines/meth, when sober, seem to have a much higher rate of ADHD symptoms than those without such addictions. It's called "self-medicating". Some people find that illicit drugs will relieve their mental health conditions, and are more likely to abuse it as a drug of choice. When regulated on medication (even non-amphetamine treatments) and provided with counseling, many find that their addictions melt away.
Of course, there are a lot of other factors at play when you're talking about co-occuring recovery -- how long they were immersed in a lifestyle of addiction, availability of drugs home/with peers, resilience, coping skills, social support, trauma history, socioeconomic class/access to treatment, and so on.
Thankfully my parents realized this very quickly and stopped the "medication".
