I sympathize with people’s concerns about forced institutionalization and treatment. I know that the medical community is no stranger to terrible practitioners who ignore your needs, I’ve experienced it myself. I’ve been in a mental ward myself, albeit voluntarily. I know there’s a long history of people deemed undesirable being put away in institutions indefinitely without recourse, and that’s obviously horrible.
But I can’t help but feel like getting rid of involuntary treatment and institutionalization would just replace one problem with another. Like it or not, some mentally ill people are a danger to themselves and others, as well as people so deep in that they can’t comprehend something’s not right and wont seek or consent to treatment themselves. And what are we supposed to do then? Just let them be to cause harm to themselves and others? Let a suicidal person kill themselves because they didn’t want to be treated? Just ignore people living with one foot out of reality because they aren’t seeking treatment?
Maybe this is news to you, but someone who is suicidal SHOULD be allowed to kill themselves if that's what they truly want.
People are so obsessed with the "right to live" but don't stop to consider tge fact that everyone should ALSO have the "right to die"
No system that disrespects bodily autonomy on an institutional level can help anyone's mental health. You start looking for more and more circumstances where it's justified to strip people of their rights. You're doing it right in this post.
'People who hurt others' is the strongest contender, but that's already illegal. Mentally ill people are not more likely to be violent. We do need a better system to deal with violent people, but that's a different conversation.
'People who hurt themselves' are exercising bodily autonomy. They do not need to be put in any kind of jail. Suicidal people are not criminals. Taking away what little control they have over their own life just makes shit worse for them.
'People who are living with one foot out of reality' and 'people who refuse treatment' aren't doing anything wrong. I experience psychosis. It's just a thing brains do, it's normal, and a vast majority of it is mundane and inconsequential. Even the "scary" version of psychosis does not need forced treatment. It needs compassion, understanding, and free access to helpful resources.
Forced medical treatment for psychosis is especially horrific, the medications they use for it have very severe, irreversible side effects that often end up making someone suffer more than the psychosis ever did in the first place.
