When I trained to become a mental health nurse, it felt like a dream come true. I wanted to help people, to listen, to understand, and to walk beside them through their pain, empowering them to find their way. I believed I was stepping into a field grounded in compassion, understanding, and genuine care. But when I began working in psychiatry, the reality was very different from what I had imagined. I quickly realised that psychiatry is deeply flawed, even corrupt at its core. People in distress weren’t truly being cared for. They were being diagnosed and medicated, often within minutes. Their stories, their trauma and their lives were all reduced to checklists and labels.
Instead of asking ‘what happened to you?’ Psychiatry too often asks ‘what’s wrong with you?’
I watched people who had endured deep pain, due to traumatic life events, being told they had a “chemical imbalance” as if their distress was a biological defect rather than a natural response to suffering. The treatment? Drugs and more drugs. Sometimes for life.
Even when psychological therapies were available, the waiting lists were endless. People were too often left to cope on their own or numbed into silence by medication. And when they tried to come off those medications, many experienced unbearable withdrawal symptoms such as shaking, insomnia, panic, anxiety and even more distress.
But instead of recognising withdrawal for what it was, psychiatrists told them they were “relapsing” and that this was proof they needed the drugs forever.
Very often they were never told about these withdrawal risks. It was heart breaking to watch. I watched people’s spirits dim under the weight of these labels and pills. And as a nurse, I felt powerless, expected to work in a system that, deep down, I no longer believed in. I began to question everything. Were these medications really helping or were they doing more harm than good? I began to research alternative viewpoints, read the stories of survivors and explore the growing critique of psychiatry. That’s when I discovered Mad in America, and it was like a light bulb moment. Here was a community of professionals, researchers, and people with lived experience who were bravely exposing the flaws in mainstream psychiatry and advocating for a different way forward, one rooted in truth, humanity and holistic healing. It’s incredible to see this community now expand across the globe.
The Importance of a Holistic Approach
A truly holistic approach recognises that mind, body and environment are interconnected. It acknowledges that trauma, relationships, nutrition, sleep, movement and purpose all play vital roles in our mental health and wellbeing. It means listening deeply to people’s stories and helping them find meaning in their experiences. It means supporting the nervous system through gentle, natural methods such as therapy, grounding, mindfulness, community, creativity, nutrition and body-based healing. It also means empowering people to take back agency over their own lives, rather than telling them they are broken and must rely on medication forever. As a nurse, I entered this field to help people heal. What I have learned is that healing happens through connection, compassion, and understanding. Not through diagnosis and dependency. Mental distress is not a sign of defect or disease. It is a natural human response to traumatic/overwhelming experiences. It is a sign that something in a person’s life or environment needs attention, care, and love. The current system is not working. It’s a revolving door system that focuses on managing symptoms and rarely creates true healing. I believe we need a complete rethinking of mental health care. One that moves away from pathologising human distress and towards a more holistic approach. True mental health care should honour people’s stories, not silence them with a prescription pad.