Duncan Sage

So radical huh

I came into this ‘anti-psychiatry’ movement by accident to be honest. I used to totally subscribe to the medical model of MH when I was younger - but I worked with hundreds (probably over a thousand) people (mainly women and girls) who had been raped, abused and exploited or trafficked, then I worked with men in male mental health centre - and the majority of them had ‘mental disorders’ - but all I could see was humans suffering, in poverty, distressed, lost, traumatised, sad, angry, scared. I started noticing cultural and gendered differences - like the higher rates of certain diagnoses in Black communities or the higher rates of certain PDs in women vs men. My PhD originally explored the mechanisms and theories of victim blaming women and girls who had been abused and raped - but I noticed more and more that alongside being blamed, they were being sent to mental health professionals where they would then be diagnosed and medicated. This caused my interest in pathologisation and the role of psychiatry in society - especially the role of labelling victims of abuse (men, women and children) when they disclose or speak out. The evidence is global and solid, all so-called ‘psychiatric disorders’ correlate strongly with trauma, poverty, suffering and abuse. I think we’ve been medicating and harming people for over a century based purely on antiquated theories and ideas about ‘mentally ill’ and ‘insane’ people with ‘illnesses of the mind’. We’ve also never addressed the abuses, corruption, torture or harm caused by psychiatry or psychology - with most regulatory bodies refusing full inquiries into institutional racism, for example. From the scientific point of view, I don’t think psychiatry has the evidence base it claims to have as a topic or a discipline - and especially not enough evidence that these mental disorders exist to warrant taking away someone’s liberty or forcibly medicating them with harmful drugs. Lastly, I would recommend to anyone: reading the new WHO and UN guidance on mental health 2023, in which they clearly state that psychiatry should be reformed and is the cause of endless human rights breaches, conversion therapies, abuses, control, discrimination and stigma. I’m not frightened at all to say I’m anti-psychiatry. I know lots of professionals are scared to use that term because they are labelled ‘quacks’ or ‘conspiracy theorists’ or ‘scientologists’ - but I’m used to being called names all day every day on socials, so I don’t care as much as others might. I would like psychiatry to be seen for what it is: a theory. A perspective. An idea. An approach. It is not settled science, and it’s not ‘fact’. I would like trauma-informed, anti-pathology and social models to be seen for what they are: an opposing theory, an opposing perspective. A different approach or lens. It is not dangerous or radical. In science, I thought we were all supposed to understand and acknowledge competing explanations and theories, so it fascinates me how horrified professionals are when people criticise psychiatry, as if it’s untouchable. Many of the responses to valid points and concerns raised by survivors, academics, professionals and activists are personal slurs, snotty subtweets, screenshots and ad hominems. Ironically, many of them are calling those people mentally ill as a slur, claiming they are delusional or disordered. The irony is excruciating to watch. It’s extremely fragile and childish from such intelligent people.

I know that my work is ‘controversial’ but I never set out for it to be that way. I thought what I was saying was obvious. Years ago, when I first realised that women and girls were being told they had mental disorders and personality disorders instead of having their distress and abuse and trauma validated - I thought everyone could see what was happening. But the reality is, women and girls seek help at their darkest hour, and a person in authority tells them that they have mental health issues. And they believe them. And then that person ‘diagnoses’ them. And the women believe them, that it’s a real illness, that it’s a real diagnostic process. And those same people tell them that they need to take the pills every day to ‘treat’ their ‘illness’. And more often than not, those women and girls, with the newly ‘diagnosed’ ‘illness’ - never have their trauma discussed or validated. The fact they were abused in childhood is ignored. The fact that they are co-parenting with a violent misogynist is ignored. The fact that they are working long hours, raising kids, caring for their family, - are under more and more pressure to be thin, beautiful and popular. Then there’s life, stress, debt, work, bullying, grief, illness, accidents, break-ups, arguments, loneliness, feeling lost… So, I started asking the question: What if there is nothing wrong with her? What if she’s just reacting to the external pressures on her? What if she’s just trying to cope with trauma and distress? What if there is no such thing as a ‘mental illness’? What if these social constructs are just old names for distress? Categories we used to lock people up and medicate them? These conversations - whilst uncomfortable - must happen. Millions of people are given drugs every year for mental illnesses that we don’t have a test for, we can’t prove they exist, we have no biomarkers for - and yet every single person I’ve ever met with a diagnosed ‘mental health issue’ has had a distressing experience of some kind. Wouldn’t it make more sense for us to support each other in our distress and trauma?

My favourite course to run . It always scores 💯 . Lots interaction, real time learning , ahahs, and laughter

READ THESE BEFORE TOMORROW

BREAKING This is HUGE Our Supreme Court is allowing Water Companies to be sued for dumping sewage Let’s go for thousands of claims from swimmers, surfers, families and more Yessssss 👍🏼 Times are changing WE MUST VOTE ON THURSDAY 👍🏼 Make it historic

Lady with wavy hair, "I'm sat here and I'm baffled that you (Andrew Mitchell) can talk about serious youth violence as if your party is not directly responsible for services being stripped to their bones" "Grassroots organisations are on their knees. They're supporting vulnerable young people" "Until you acknowledge that we need proper intervention into early intervention services, police need a working definition of child criminal exploitation, young people need to be treated as the victims that they are; not further criminalised, further harmed and pushed to the edges of society" "At best your party has been incompetent. At worst you have been negligent" "You are directly responsible for the increase in youth violence, loss of life and liberty, that we are seeing in our communities"

Man in blue, "Thames Water on the verge of going bust.. The water industry is the perfect business model.. Their market is every home, every business.. Their customers are forced to use their company.. There's zero competition.. They're selling a product made up of 70% of the earth's surface.. If you cannot get that right, you should not be running a business" #BBCQT

Wow! Simon Case explains that test and trace worked in countries like Germany because they kept cases down, but because we had so many covid cases in the UK, our test and trace system was ineffective Hugo Keith, "You knew the second wave was coming.. There was no vaccine.. Test and trace was ineffective" Simon Case, "The problem went back to the unlocking in summer (Eat Out To Help Out)" Hugo Keith, "By early September.. Anything you did, rules of six, circuit breakers, etc had to be applied for longer with a more severe effect because there were so many cases" Simon Case, "Yes" Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak unlocked and encouraged people to eat out, that spread covid cases across the country, and instead of bringing in immediate restrictions to curb them, they kept delaying, and delaying, till eventually they did bring restrictions in, and instead of being for a short time, because they delayed so long, restrictions were there for a much longer time.

"Severn Trent raises dividend despite increasing bills and sewage spills." Shh! Don't tell. We may have increased the amount of sh*t we dump into rivers by 33% but we're going to give our shareholders a 25% pay increased anyway. Oh and pay our CEO £3.2m mirror.co.uk/money/severn-t…

The ICC's arrest warrant is a sobering wake-up call for political leaders who have aided and abetted crimes against humanity. The UK government must give its full support to the ICC and end arms sales to Israel. We will carry on campaigning for a just and lasting peace.

James Schneider, "Hundreds of thousands of children living in poverty, wouldn't be living in poverty, if you scrapped the two child benefit cap" @schneiderhome "You could increase the capital gains tax and dividend tax so Rishi Sunak and millionaires like him aren't paying a far lower rate of tax, than all of us" "There is money there if you chose to say, here are specific taxes which we're going to raise and that will fund this specific good. And that is what Labour should do"

After contaminating Devon's water supply with a parasite outbreak, South West Water has paid out £127 million to their shareholders. These companies can't be trusted to put our wellbeing ahead of private profit. It's time to end the failed experiment of privatised water.

Why’s Sunak allowed to give his family £100ms in govt contracts? Why isn’t this considered a huge conflict of interest? No PM should be enriching himself with taxpayer £££.

A new report from the University of Greenwich highlights: "Since privatisation the shareholders of the 10 English & Welsh water & sewage companies have invested less than nothing... but the companies have paid out the equivalent of £72.9b in dividends since 1990" #BBCBreakfast

We are already in a two-tier healthcare system Nuffield Trust reports this week on a massive increase in private provision More worrying, a massive surge in people using their savings to access care From the best health system to one of the worst in 14yrs! Summary 🧵

"Shareholder investment in top 10 water and sewage firms has decreased by £5.5bn since privatisation. while dividend payments have increased to £72.8bn." What could have been done with that £72.8bn? Clean rivers, leaks fix, beaches fit to swim... 🤔 independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

Following the ICC's application for arrest warrants, I asked the Foreign Minister about the military relationship between Britain and Israel. He refused to answer.

Netanyahu & Gallant 🇮🇱 are guilty of the worst crimes of humanity. Starvation used as a weapon of war. Biden 🇺🇸, Sunak, Cameron & Starmer 🇬🇧 have done more than give cover for genocide, they have aided in it. All are guilty. All belong in The Hague. twitter.com/uncoovr/status…

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said on GB News last night: “About time it’s [Ofcom’s] antiquated nonsensical regulations are removed for privately funded broadcasters” So there we have it. GB News refuse to follow broadcasting rules, so uses a Tory MP to lobby for their abolition.