FFS.

1/ Andrew Robb & @MindMedicineAU are pushing for psychadelic drugs to be approved for the psychological impact of #Covid_19.

I’ve got no problems with decriminalising substance use, please do it already—but I have a big problem with this. https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-15/calls-for-expanded-drug-treatments-for-coronavirus-mental-health/12147352?pfmredir=sm

To start with, this feels like gaslighting.

For years, mental health systems have harshly judged & punished those of us who cope by using substances.

Instead, psychiatry has pushed their own dodgy, dangerous substances on us, often by force.

3/ Robb says “there hasn’t been any major move forward in mental health...for decades”.

True. Because psychiatry can only see distress as a disease process, and struggles to imagine any treatment that’s not drugs.

This is not a move forward, it’s more of the same.

A real major move forward would be for the mental health sector to recognise that what they falsely call “illness” is actually a normal response to trauma, adversity & existential crisis.

It’s human & completely appropriate to have an emotional reaction to a global pandemic.

And while some folks may value drugs during crisis moments, what we most need is a drastic increase in peer support, trauma counselling and therapies.

The powers that be won’t suggest or support this, of course, because it would upend the status quo of power.