Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said mental illness may be best treated using "faith-based approaches" as opposed to pharmaceuticals.

He gets so close-

Violent crime has risen over precisely the period we have shuttered these psychiatric institutions. And you know what? The number one psychiatric institution today is jail. It’s prison. And they don’t do a very good job. And now you then get the calls to clear the jails or to have commuting of sentences or shortening of sentences. People leave those jails in a worse psychiatric condition, often, than when they even entered.

Yes! Yes!

We can do this again learning from past mistakes without those abuses. I don’t think I want to be pumping psychiatric institutions with pharmaceuticals into people.

Seems reasonable.

Faith-based approaches – there are better ways to do this.

Oh for fuck’s sake.

And, of course, the ironic thing is that Ramaswamy is a pharma bro.

  • remotelove@lemmy.ca
    0·
    9 months ago

    Depression and anxiety management is a thing. It helps to have medication, but it absolutely is not a cure-all. It takes years of practice to manage this stuff effectively. Believe me, I know. Even with medication, it took me years to learn how to manage my own head.

    Sometimes, our bodies and minds are simply just broken and the damage can’t be wished away. Drugs can be an excellent crutch to help people live a normal life without the need to dedicate all of their precious time on this planet to healing.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
      0·
      9 months ago

      Religion is also a crutch - that’s why it was invented. For people who actually believe in that garbage it totally works.

      Most people don’t, including people who claim to be religious

      • remotelove@lemmy.ca
        0·
        9 months ago

        I actually believe that religion was mainly born out of the fear of death. Death is a scary thing and people need to find purpose somehow. Religion is an easy out in that regard.

        Prayer should be called what it really is: Meditation. Meditation subject or religion of choice aside, meditation has the potential to be healthy. Everyone needs to take time and reflect on the difficult things in their life in a healthy way.

        The concept of religion to the common man or woman seems great! Do good; Feel good. Pay your tithe like a good boy or girl and you get a ticket to a trillion virgins in an afterlife, or whatever. It’s only a good concept until you start looping in magic and subservience.

        Other humans quickly discovered that if they start dictating what a religion is, they get to scare people into subservience because of the fear of death and being sent to hell for eternity. The original concept of religion being a good thing simply degrades into a method of control.

        My point is that it is dangerous to take a person that is going through a mental crisis and point them in the direction of a religion. If it truly makes them happy and humble, cool. However, churches prey on the vulnerable by nature and it’s the equivalent of sending a hen directly into the foxes den. The problem is, is that if you take a person that is in pain and promise them relief via deity and they find the illusion of a cure, you have broken and their mind and they are now willing to believe any old bullshit.

        Religion is way more than a crutch, my friend. It is way more devious than that.