Mental Health and Healing
Why psychoactive drugs are not the answer
In England, people who are experiencing highs, lows, and disturbed states of mind are often sectioned by psychiatrists and confined to psychiatric wards. Doctors have the power to section people under the Mental Health Act and make them take medication by force. I have spent a lot of time considering whether or not this is a helpful way to treat people experiencing disturbed states of mind.
Individuals can be sectioned when psychiatrists determine that they are a danger to themselves or others. They are usually sectioned through an assessment of whether or not they are mentally stable. You can see a psychiatrist for only half an hour and on that basis they can confine you to a psychiatric ward for months (in some cases years), though there is generally a weekly assessment of ‘progress’ a patient is making while on a ward, and doctors have the power to discharge you when they see fit. This is usually only done when they are satisfied patients are ‘complying’ with medication.
The utilisation of forced medication is based on the chemical imbalance myth. Patients are deemed to have an illness that is often described as a brain disorder. This materialistic view of the human person usually means they are not treated with the compassion that is necessary for true healing to take place. Instead, there is a faith that while patients are unlikely to ever be cured, medication will leave them in a state which is stable enough for them to live a life in the community without them causing too many problems.
But is it really true that these brain disorders exist, and if not, is the mental health system genuinely helping patients in the best possible way?
Individuals develop mental problems for many reasons, but they are almost always the result of a lack of loving relationships in their lives. What can medication do to heal broken relationships and contribute to true healing? While medication can and does have a stabilising effect in people, it is arguably not the best way to help people in their mental distress, because it doesn’t address the root of their problems which is usually broken relationships or spiritual darkness.
I wonder what it would be like if counselling was prioritised as the main intervention for mental distress, rather than medication? Counselling is able to transform lives in a way that medication cannot. So why isn’t it the primary remedy used by health services to treat mental distress on psychiatric wards? It’s because of the brain disorder myth. While psychiatrists may acknowledge that a holistic approach to treatment is good, this usually doesn’t play out in the reality of the health system, where counselling is in short supply and waiting lists are painfully long.
As a person who has faith in the sovereignty of God, I know that complete healing is always possible. God can heal any and all mental distress. This is the truth, and it does not accord with the brain disorder myth, which mistakenly characterises human beings as intrinsically broken.
What would it be like if within a few hours of an admission to psychiatric hospital, a person were able to see a counsellor and/or a chaplain; if they had someone to talk with who will empathise with them and pray for them, rather than a scenario where they are left to the loneliness of being locked on a ward with others who are agitated because of the experience of being confined and being forced to take medications which are unpleasant and damaging their bodies?