Read thomas szaz. Psychiatry in it's current form is just another arm of the government with the power to institutionalize you if they think it's in you best interest(whatever this may mean). Unless you are violent mental retard, it's not. Psychiatry is also a way in which western socities shift the blame on the individual for collective problems. Think about it for a second, most depressed people have real material problems: no friends, a shit job and no religion, you can't be hopeful in such a situation. It is very important to acknowledge that any mental diagnosis is based on a set of criterion which are in essence either social(or political) and medical (neurologic most of the time). The cause for the exponential rise of the incidence of autism, for example, is due to a change in the social criterions of diagnosis. Does that means that autism doesn't exist? No, it definitely exist look at recent research in fasciculi connectomic. But giving a diagnosis of autism or depression to every introverted teen results in making them believe that the problem lies in them and not in their circumstances. If you life is shit, you need anger and sadness to fuel your transformation. This change might result in outbursts of violence especially in men 18-25. Psychiatry with the help of the modern "mental health" movement is designed so that every person you know will coerce you into "seeking help" and not acting to chage your circumstances as it may be violent.
Before modernity, you didn't need a psychiatrist because you had a village taking care of you. Stopping someone from committing suicide and aiding him in achieving autonomy is a collective responsibility. You shouldn't rely on psychiatry to take care of your loved ones, do it yourself.
Ideally you should be religious so that you may become independent of your material condition when it comes to attaining a certain degree of peace.
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