I don't know from aliens, but I do think it’s a scam; a big, incredibly complex con game.
I’m not sure I’m going to be able to convey this properly, but here goes:
From the time we’re little kids, we hear how everyone is different. We’re none of us, no two, completely alike; we’re all unique in some way. Even identical twins.
Some are similar, yes. In views, personality and temperament, which is how we form friendships, but we’re all different.
Our backgrounds are what "form" us, I suppose you could say; our genetic makeup, our upbringing, environment, whatever.
That’s what governs how our minds react to the information it receives. How the mind processes, accepts or rejects what it receives.
Not our brains, mind you….that’s different; a "brain" is an organ of the body; it works on a set principle, and they all work pretty much the same way.
I’m talking about the "mind", which is much more complex, and works with literally any---any---number of variables. Personality, emotions, nutrition, beliefs, thought processing, neuroses based on, once again, any number of variables…..who knows?
This is why I, as a natural skeptic, find it hard to believe that you can sit in a classroom and learn, from another flawed and fragile human being, how to understand, quantify and then treat all those almost infinite and ever-changing variables with the goal toward curing the illness.
Doctors, medical doctors, that is, treat physical illness. The organs work in such and such a fashion, and this or that works on them in such and such a way.
Not so with a mind, unless you’re talking about a chemical imbalance in the brain itself, one that can therefore be measured and identified by medical examination.
The "mind" is intangible, like smoke; you can’t grab onto it and work with it like you could the brain. You have to kind of manipulate it until you find what works.
Once again, though, we come back to the fact that everyone is different. How is it possible to learn how to properly "manipulate" something so complex and changing from one person to another person? It isn’t.
That’s why people who really have serious mental problems or emotional scars often go to the psychiatrist for decades, paying thousands upon thousands upon thousands, etc., without ever being cured (of course, I then have to wonder how many people perhaps are cured, but are kept on the string in the name of lining the doctor’s pocket).
There is, in general, no cure; all you can do is come in and talk about it; and of course get your latest supply of pills, which suppress the symptoms and make you feel close to cured, at least. The talking makes you feel better because you’re getting it out of your system, which you could, of course, do much more cheaply with a trusted friend or family member.
I personally think that, if someone is "cured" of a mental illness, they did it themselves, and all along could have done so without psychiatric help.
And, I often wonder, how can I go to a person who doesn’t know me from Adam, and really knows nothing about me, cannot ethically associate with me outside the office (thereby getting to know me better), and yet expect that person to help me?
Maybe this person can’t even relate to me on a one-to-one level.
For example:
Let’s say I have a problem; I’m moody, snapping at everyone, I have a knot in my stomach I just can’t unravel. I’m stressed.
I decide I need to see someone about this problem; talk to a therapist before it gets worse.
So, I pick up the phonebook. Scan through the pages….there; a full-page ad. "Dr. Feelgood" it says. Sounds great. I call Dr. Feelgood and make an appointment. Cool.
I go to the appointment, fill out some forms, answer a few personal questions on a questionnaire, and we’re good to go. Dr. Feelgood will see me now and, based on the information on that questionnaire, by gum, he’s gonna cure me.
Well, I go to Dr. Feelgood for some time, and after much time and much money spent---wasted, really---perhaps several thousand dollars, depending on how many times a week he wanted to see me, I decide that it’s just not working out. I’m not feeling any better. We’re just not clicking.
Dr. Feelgood is a Moonbat liberal, say, maybe even an atheist, and I’m a crusty old Archie Bunker Christian conservative.
This means that we have pretty much diametrically opposed views of the world, and perhaps even of life in general.
How is this guy supposed to properly help me when he can’t even begin to grasp how I see the world around me? How am I supposed to accept his words of sage advice when I believe virtually nothing he believes?
He can’t understand me well enough to help me, and I can’t understand him well enough to be helped.
Find another shrink and start all over, right? What choice would I have? More money and time wasted, and me feeling no better.
But then, what if he were court-appointed, or I was under some other obligation to see him, and only him? Then what would I do? I’d be screwed.
Another reason I distrust mental health experts is because they’re people, too, and often are just as screwed up as anyone else, perhaps even moreso.
A kind of "blind leading the blind" thing, I suppose.
Another example:
I remember some years ago, seeing a story on "Dateline" or "20/20" about a psychiatrist who was brought up on ethics charges by his superiors and then sued by this certain patient, and then brought up on charges by the federal government.
Seems he was treating this nice young woman’s various problems by using hypno-therapy, hypnotism, in an effort to bring out her "repressed memories". This was supposed to free her psyche from whatever, and allow her to deal with whatever it was, thus curing her illness.
But, it seems that what he was really doing was CREATING, planting, "memories" for her to "remember".
These "suppressed memories" he was working so hard to free were of her involvement as High Priestess of a cult; a worldwide network of Satanic covens and such, which supposedly carried out ritualistic acts of child molestation, infant human sacrifices and cannibalism.
She and her husband, the High Priest, were both committed to an asylum for quite a few years, under this doctor’s care, of course. Strangely, the couple was kept apart, and were never allowed to talk to or see each other.
Their kids, supposedly involved in the cult as well, were taken from them and put into foster care, where they received much treatment for psychological problems resulting from their involvement in the horrifying rituals.
None of it was true, obviously.
The guy was nuts; he was, for some reason, so utterly convinced of the existence of this Satanic cult, and was so desperate to reveal it and for vindication of these beliefs, that he used this woman and her family in this fashion.
Some of the "experts" the show interviewed agreed that the doctor may not even have been aware he was doing it. A big help, wasn’t he?
After many years of being committed and receiving their "treatments", some of the "memories" finally began to ring hollow, and they started to doubt him.
As I recall, the couple’s families hired private investigators, and then even called in the police, to check some of the claims (even exploring sites where the rituals were supposed to have taken place) and such. None of it ever was found to be true; no evidence was ever found.
These people lost years of their lives and had to fight the system to get their kids back, and for what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Now, I realize that this is an extreme and bizarre case, but
I really have to wonder how often this sort of thing happens, and no one hears about it. No one heard about that poor couple until their lives were destroyed. By the very system that was created to help them.
Maybe I’m just not getting it, but I just don’t trust the mental health industry.
This article isn’t quite what I wanted, I don’t think. It feels unfinished, or somehow unclear. Well, I’m gonna post it anyway.
I hope I was able to get across to you my reasons for feeling the way I do.
If not, I’m sorry.