....yikes.

As someone who both is mentally ill (anxiety, adhd) and studied psychology, I was offended by Cahalan’s views. She holds the view of psychiatry that stops many people from seeking treatment—that psychiatrists don’t actually help, that treatment is “dangerous”, cold-hearted, and without actual care for the patients. This is NOT how mental health professionals are trained in the modern era.

Cahalan continuously uses the terms “madness” and “insanity” to refer to mental illness. If she had done any amount of research into actual modern mental health practices, she would know that these are not terms used anymore, as they are inaccurate and offensive. Cahalan seems to hold the view that being mentally ill is something to be afraid of, a view that makes me feel ASHAMED of having mental issues. Check yourself, lady. You’re no expert.

In my opinion, Cahalan is dangerously biased against psychiatry/psychology as a discipline, and is woefully unqualified to write about it as a result. I want to learn about this case, but I’ll take someone who actually knows something about mental health issues instead. She uses her own experience—which I agree was awful—to blast the entire mental health profession as somehow unreliable, badly managed, and prone to malpractice and rampant misdiagnosis—by insinuating that getting treatment for schizophrenia would have killed her, RATHER THAN HER ACTUAL BRAIN DISEASE.

Cahalan blames psychiatry for her problems, rather than the health system as a whole, which has been well documented as not taking women in particular seriously, and not always considering every option for diagnosis. Cahalan needs to realize that her experiences are NOT universal, and stop pushing this anti-psychiatry message.

—signed, Someone who has been greatly helped by psychiatry/psychology as a whole, and is very offended by Cahalan’s views