Bess 🇵🇸Nov 28, 2024

Sunday when I saw my family psychiatry came up as a topic.

Apparently there has been a local media storm (which I completely missed, fortunately) around a writer who was abused as a kid, didn't find good mental care until she went to the US, and then wrote an opinion piece about how the whole field sucks except for this specific type of systems therapy, which she is now also a licensed therapist in. The field reacted by saying she sucks herself. Very interesting debate (/s).

My opinion on this:
- the whole field sucks: totally agree.
- except for type xyz: don't agree at all. It's not because it helped you that it's going to help everyone. That's fucking basic and if you don't understand that you have the cognitive empathy of a toddler. The fact that she is saying this as a licensed therapist is problematic.
- (by the way, systems therapy is a very common type of therapy, definitely available over here. That specific type is not widespread though, as it's also controversial.)
- she sucks herself: well yeah kinda.

So:
- one side is a sexist racist colonial power structure not listening to criticism: they suck.
- the other side is a survivor of abuse ánd of said system, who went to join the power structure and making the exact same abusive mistakes: also sucks.

My family: she sucks, and the field should improve. This opinion sucks as well.

Show threadBess 🇵🇸Nov 28, 2024

🧵 (continuing)

So I told them about what happened with Brenda Froyen:

Brenda Froyen was a Belgian activist for patients' rights, specifically in psychiatry. In 2012, she had a psychosis and wrote a book about it to raise awareness, and then wrote a second book in 2016 about her criticism on the psychiatry sector. For me she was thé locally famous activist, she was the one who got asked to talk on tv when some debate was happening etc.

Last year, she relapsed and got hospitalised again. Nothing had changed, and she was retraumatised. She posted a video on social media about her experiences in the isolation cell, and she got sued by the hospital for defamation. So she sued them for medical abuse. Summer 2024 she had a crowdfunding for the legal costs and she was posting calls for first-hand stories of abuse in psychiatric wards.

She died by suicide a month ago.

#BrendaFroyen #psychiatry #ableism #MedicalAbuse #PatientsRights

Show threadBess 🇵🇸

🧵 (continuing)

The media reporting on her death: "the stigma was so big", "her mental health issues were playing up"... referencing to the abuse and her courtcase only minimally. I was so pissed about this. She literally stated in her video's that she doesn't care about taboos, that she wrote books about this topic because she wants to talk about awareness and improvements. Her life's work wasn't about stigma and mental health, it was about medical abuse.

#BrendaFroyen #psychiatry #ableism #MedicalAbuse #PatientsRights

Nov 28, 2024 at 11:16pmWeb
Show threadBess 🇵🇸Nov 28, 2024

🧵 (continuing)

I'm telling all this to my family. What did they say:

  • brother: I wonder what those caretakers have to say about this story, like what's their side.
  • mother: It must be very complicated to take care of someone in a psychosis.

Sooooooo: "both sides" and "it's complicated".

#psychiatry #ableism #MedicalAbuse #PatientsRights

Show threadBess 🇵🇸Nov 28, 2024

What they said isn't even that wrong. Of course I also want to hear from caretakers, of course the psychiatric ward is not a ponycamp. But jesus fucking christ I'm talking about ABUSE not about a misunderstanding.

I didn't have examples, maybe that would have helped. Like the caretaking nurse said to her: "you must be the shame of the family" while she was in an isolation cell. Do you really want to hear the side of the nurse for this? Is this a complicated matter?

The fact that my family can't imagine how bad it is, that they think it's probably a nuanced story... what do I even do with this.

#psychiatry #ableism #MedicalAbuse #PatientsRights