Correct, but I'm not a doctor nor do I have any experience dealing with other mental illnesses. Thus I can't speak of what it's like to have those other illnesses.

Okay, well be sure to emphasize that in your talk. You have an extremely rich source of data for your talk - your own personal experience.

Be sure to emphasise that in your talk, and avoid trying to generalise your own experience to other people with mental illness, or more generally to what is or is not known about mental illness.

Good post from dr meh. Covered pretty much everything I was going to offer.

Surely it can be tough for an officer to identify whether or not someone may be suffering from a mental illness especially when entering into a possible dangerous situation. I think it can help to have some idea of signs to look out for and then remembering to be aware of that possibility when entering into conflict.

It's important for cops to realize that a mentally ill person who finds themselves in a bad situation is a victim of circumstance. The cops should be thinking about helping instead of policing when encountering someone exhibiting those signs.

also, FTP

What parts of the treatment process need the most improvement? As a patient, how does this answer compare to what professionals think?

Fwiw, I have been sick in the past. This type of thing should someday be a congressional hearing involving the executive people of medicine. I would gladly speak.

This is a really good question that I'm not prepared for. I'll relate my worst treatment experience as example:

Some things happened in my personal life that made me want to hurt myself. I called my psychiatrist and said "I'm coming in to Mass General for a psych evaluation." and he replied "ok I'll tell them you're coming." I got there and everything went smoothly. They arranged an ambulance to take me to a nearby mental hospital sometime in the late evening.

When I got to the hospital, they took me to a waiting room, where I waited for several hours. Then a doctor came to talk to me. It took just a short conversation before he agreed that I needed to be admitted for acute depression.

I was admitted and shown to an unlocked room in a locked facililty. It was now morning and I was quite tired so I took a nap.

When I woke up, there was a different doctor in my room that wanted to talk to me. I told my story again and he decided to increase my daily dose of abilify from 10mg to 20mg to combat the depression.

The next day, I had to tell my story again to a different doctor as the one that I had met the day before was now on a weeks vacation for the fourth of July, which was coming up in a few days.

The next day, I had to tell my story again to a different doctor as the one that I had met the day before was merely a temporary fill in.

The next day, I didn't see a doctor as none came to visit me. I became very frustrated with my treatment. Besides the new medication dose, nothing was done to help me with my depression. It seemed that they were much more concerned with the safety of the other patients, judging by the nature of their questions. The questions they were asking had nothing to do with depression and everything to do with psychosis, which I was not suffering from at the time. Basically, I got the psychosis treatment when I needed treatment for depression.

I became even more frustrated and when I woke up the next morning, after taking my meds, I went to the nurse's station. "I'd like to request discharge." I said. The nurse replied "oh no, you can't do that." I got very angry inside because I know that requesting discharge is well within my rights as a patient. So I said, "I have the right to request discharge." and she said, "but you're not ready." I then replied, "I'd like to speak to a doctor." and then she came with the discharge papers.

Days passed, and I saw fill in doctor after fill in doctor, none of which had the authority to grant discharge. Finally, about a week and a half after I took the trip to Mass General, a doctor came to my room and I was no longer interested in treatment. I asked, "when am I going to see a doctor with the authority to discharge me?" He held up his hand as if to say "that's me" and I knew that I would be going home in a matter of days.

I was very unhappy with my treatment at that particular hospital, which happens to be one of the best in the world. I can't imagine the level of neglect and mistreatment occurring in other facilities.

I think the biggest disconnect between doctor and patient here exists because even doctors seem to forget that it's a behavioral problem. I'm supposed to take my dr patient relationship seriously, which I think I do. However, my doctors have disagreed in the past on this, as evidenced by them giving up on me over missed appointments. Perhaps behavioral problems deserve a little more room for error; I'm not trying to make excuses, as many have told me I am. I believe this to be the biggest thing that mentally healthy people don't understand about mental illness: mental illness causes behavioral problems which then can cause many other problems including social problems, economic problems, personal care problems, etc.

Do you have much of a social life outside of this forum?

Yes I like to think I'm pretty active socially. I have a best friend that I hang with at least 3 times a week, if not more. I have other friends that I exchange messages with frequently and hang with on a more relaxed schedule. I have a huge extended family and I'm on good terms with all of them.

So yeah, I'm actually one of the lucky ones, socially speaking.

Forgot to mention my lady friend of over 5 years. <3

Here you go :

"Hello everyone, I am so happy to be here to share something that I am very passionate about. That subject is, you guessed it, Mental Health. It is a stigma, people are afraid of being damaged and do not seek help of therapists etc when they should. We are far more focused on the next iphone than putting in significant global study into mental health, which in the west has grown into an epidemic.

We are so addicted to everything about society, its almost as if reality in the west is an amusement park for the ego/self. Going through life with little gratitude of how lucky you are to be living here, and complaining about some serious "first world problems". Mental illness is growing at a rapid pace, as our bodies cannot keep up with how fast tech is growing, as our bodies are still used to the pre tech era. This is disconnecting generations from reality and each other, ironically enough as the intention of it was to bring everyone closer together by talking from across the world in an instant. Meditation is one of if not the most critical daily habits for long term happiness and understanding of reality and your own being. People need to know its okay to have a mental illness, as none of it is their fault. They were exposed to an abundance of quick dopamine hit quick fixes that the brain loves and couldnt help but become addicted to the non-reality of the internet/video games/porn/phone etc. The world is suffering. The west is mostly suffering on a psychological level, and this is why I believe we need to be working harder in the area of mental health de-stigmatization and have an overall large growth in knowledge of how to help the millions and millions of people in the west who have a mental illness, no matter how small, as well as to the millions more that will be programmed into a mental illness because of all the landmines of quick dopamine fixes in the west, which almost always ends in a life of un-fulfillment and misery.

Here is a quote I recently made

"All there is, is love, love for everyone who was forced into this thing we call life in an unfair board-game, where most people suffer far more than they feel joy. Once you can truly be aware that no matter how happy and amazing your life is, you just won the biggest lottery in life and are probably still ungrateful for it. To be born at all? To also be born in the west? To be one of the first generations to reach adulthood without severe world chaos? Always love, never hate, for the "bad guys" or depressed people or whatever it is, did not sign up for that position of a lifetime of suffering. I love you all."

Thats a good start anyways, hope I could help!

Well said. It might take a brilliancy to empathize with mental illness -- without having lived with it or around it, of course. I don't fault society for thumbing their nose, or saying "seek help" without conceptualizing what the help might be like.

I'm surprised/not surprised by your doctors' attitudes. Some days, for some people, tying one's shoes might feel too difficult, so major LOLs at a professional being ruthless with ya.

Not exactly the angle I want to hit from, but thanks for the input.

Thanks. I don't blame the masses for their ignorance, but it's the people that express views that are rooted in lies that really bother me. If I don't know anything about a subject, then I would be severely out of line if I was to express a negative view of the individuals involved with such a subject. This is my gripe. People assume things about me based on what they think they know are truths about mental illness. Even my closest family members and friends remain ignorant. When I try to verbalize what's going on in my head? It's never correctly verbalized on my part and thus the message is never received in the manner that I've attempted to convey it.

This is the angle that I wish to hit from: