It's mental health awareness week, a time when we become more aware of the stresses and difficulties of life that some people may be experiencing and which can manifest as mental troubles.

In their hour of need, it's a time when some people might need a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on or a quiet place away from the hustle and bustle of life to regain some personal strength and the recognition that there's hope for the future.

The reality of the situation, however, is very different when psychiatrists are involved. Based on a psychiatric opinion, someone experiencing mental troubles can be taken unceremoniously to a psychiatric facility and detained. There, so-called 'treatment' can be forcibly administered, adversely impacting on that person's wellbeing, even turning them unnecessarily into a patient for life.

The psychiatric default setting is mind-altering psychiatric drugs that are known to cause a host of additional physical conditions. It's a mistake to think these heal anything. They are intended to 'mask' a person's problems and can create side effects that are sometimes more pronounced than a drug's intended effects. Those side effects are in fact the body's natural response to the invasion of a chemical that is confusing its normal functions.

Psychiatrists can also recommend the controversial procedure called electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In any other setting, it's a practice that would be considered torture.

In recent times, there have been many examples of ordinary people going out of their way to help their fellow man. It has been both heart-warming and humbling. Unlike psychiatric 'treatment', the love, the care and the attention that's been demonstrated by ordinary people to each other can be life-saving and don't have dangerous side effects.

BRIAN DANIELS

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (UK)