this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
731 points (97.7% liked)
Science Memes
20083 readers
2645 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Autism has been trending lately. A similar trend occurred with bipolar disorder; nearly 100% of people in rehabilitation clinics have this diagnosis. The most likely reason for this trend is insurance fraud. An insurance company will pay more to treat a suicidal bipolar autist then they will to treat an addict with a transient anxiety disorder.
Another factor is patient expectations. When a parent or patient pays for a psychiatrist, they expect a diagnosis. They don't want to be told that they are normal and fine.
No. It's actually really well documented why there's been an increase.
Previously women were seen as less likely to be autistic and often considered for other diagnoses without considering autism. This was also the case for POC.
Secondly, until 2014 ADHD and autism were exclusive diagnoses - if you had one you couldn't have the other. Now they have realized that they actually occur together naturally diagnoses for both have increased.
Asperger's is no longer diagnosed in a lot of places (only since around 2015, depending on location) therefore these diagnoses are now joining autism diagnosis numbers.
Access to healthcare, more education, more research than ever before and an ever increasing understanding that autism can occur with or without a low IQ.
Naught to do with insurance and everything to do with fantastic people who have done a lot of research to deepen the understanding of autism and include previously excluded people in a diagnosis that has no exclusions (any colour, any gender, any IQ level, any culture, any age).
Or... Orrrrrr... They stopped throwing people that needed help into torture asylums and instead took time to understand and diagnose more than just the most obvious cases.
It's possible, but the psychiatrist has a strong financial incentive to give a profitable diagnosis. Since there isn't any consequences, why wouldn't they? What do they care if their patient ties their identity to a lie or becomes addicted to amphetamine?
In what world is ADHD profitable? Those amphetamines are heavily and artificially limited so that a significant portion of patients that need it can't get them. That's not even mentioning the people who are taking them as a diet pill or using or as study aids. Wouldn't those be far more profitable?
You spoke about autism and bipolar. You don't get amphetamines for either.
Have you actually been a parent paying for a psychiatrist? Because I have. This would be laughable if it weren't so infuriating. You have no idea what you're talking about, and I pity any children you might have.
While I don't agree with the previous commenter's views, really at all, Mad in America does great reporting. They also have lots of personal stories that you can read.
I invite you to expand your awareness beyond your personal experience with psychiatry and come back and tell me if you still don't think there is abuse, negligence, and fraud in psychiatry:
https://www.madinamerica.com/
And yes, every field has bad actors. Anecdotes are not evidence of widespread corruption and profiteering. I definitely don't agree with everything that is posted there, but nonetheless there is still a treasure trove of information there to digest.
Do me a favor though, and let the personal stories, blogs, etc. paint a picture. Read until you can't read anymore. Read from the various accredited people (e.g. psychiatrists) who write on or contribute to Mad in America. Hear what they have to say. Really dig deep into the documented systemic abuse that is written about in detail throughout that website. See the face of activism in psychiatry and mental health. Understand the horrors of forced medication, polypharmacy, involuntary commitment, misdiagnosis, potentially permanent and relatively common side effects (iatrogenic illness) no doctor is able to help with properly (like tardive dyskinesia or akathisia - look at videos of the two conditions, it's heart-wrenching), and also the rampant sexual/other types of abuse in mental health institutions.
Psychiatry is in dire need of complete reform.
Psychiatry is in need of reform. But people need to stop targeting autism as the condition that gets over-diagnosed or misdiagnosed. All conditions are getting misdiagnosed and mistreated in certain cases. Focusing on just autism (and ADHD) is ignoring a huge part of the problem - which to your last point is that PSYCHIATRY needs reform - on all levels for all diagnoses and all the things you mention because there are so many issues.
It's just "easy" to reduce it to autism and ADHD are being over-diagnosed because big pharma. It's ignorant AF and peddling out the easy targeted rhetoric and misinformation only contributes to the issues that the whole health system has. It's not a 2D picture, you got to look at every side to get any inkling of the full picture.
A lesson I learned recently is acceptance. Not everybody has the will or ability to see the full picture by themselves, and I certainly don't believe I have the full picture as an outsider looking into to the system - with no medical training or formal education/experience working in mental health.
I believe that we have to all be compassionate and patient for the best outcome to emerge. Every moment can be a teaching moment for ourselves and others.
Of course, I recognize the harm in misinformation and the amount of effort it can take to challenge it. When we speak about topics we don't know head from tail about, it does have the real potential to drown out the signal. I believe it has across our discussion forums and discourse as a whole.
It's important to recognize that we live in a society though, and if more people calmly, succinctly (and with the best intentions) identified misinformation and gently corrected it - there would likely be a less chaos and confusion in our discourse. People have the potential to learn from our example and put the lessons we have learned into practice for themselves. This can scale up. Not everybody has to be 100% correct to be speaking to their truth or some truth. The commenter you are responding to is likely reacting to something and I believe it's helpful to acknowledge their concern and direct it the best we can so they aren't so confused.
I understand your frustration - I really, truly, do. Your feelings are valid. And to your other points, I am in agreement. Diagnosis is a complicated subject. There is a TON of nuance to explore in that topic. I'm a neurodiversity advocate and I am somebody who strongly believes in the benefits of diagnosis to those who willfully seek help and support.
I believe mental healthcare is a limited approach in the form that it is currently taking. It's disconnected from society at large, it is disconnected from our communities, it has the potential to disconnect those treated from themselves. It is extremely costly to access in most cases - I don't believe it's healthy for society to put people in debt for wanting to heal and improve - to relieve their crisis. We need to approach it differently. We need to call upon those working in the field to acknowledge the collective trauma that very clearly exists in themselves, which most certainly affects the standard of care.
As I mentioned to another commenter who responded; please check out the Soteria House paradigm. They have done incredible work and I believe there are many lessons that we all can learn from that model of mental healthcare.
Thanks for engaging! I hope I was of service.
(sory this got really long 😅 )
Appreciate this response and I'm 100% on the same page about what you said. Question for you - was my response to the other commenter argumentative? I was trying to agree with them and expand on the point so if it came off differently I'd actually like to know that!
I agree in terms of teaching moments and having productive discussions about all of this stuff. It can be hard to not let the emotions get in the way sometimes when you're passionate (perhaps I did in my other comment? Definitely something I'm always working on!). I think that of all discussions, especially online it's too easy to have arguments rather than discussions and part of that is also recognizing who is worth engaging with and who is really just not going to be receptive no matter how respectfully you communicate. That's a hard part of these discussions online!
I absolutely agree about the disconnection - that's all very true to my personal experience and definitely on a wider scale. I work in the disability industry (also studied mental health and the people I work with often have comorbidities in mental health as many with disabilities do).
It's such a big conversation with so many moving parts; society, culture, financial, government, lived experience that ALL need to be involved in how we move forward if we want to see real change. Part of the struggle, I believe, is that there are a lot of people who may see change as an admittance of being wrong - which sometimes, yes it is. Sometimes it's been just being wilfully ignorant, sometimes it's been based on the available research, it's a sliding scale of errors. That acknowledgement that professionals make errors (not just in individual cases, including research limitations and the wider systemic issues) seems to be a really big barrier I see.
I believe acceptance is important - and complicated. I think of this in terms of lived experience. Briefly, I am autistic and was misdiagnosed for a long time with mental health issues and on the "conveyor belt" of the system for over 20 years. I have definitely held a lot of anger around my experiences that has lessened (not gone, definitely not no anger!) but I think my situation is not unique. There are many people with similar experiences and I believe that it would be both healing for us (and help with the acceptance) and extremely beneficial for professionals in the system for us all to work together. Again, for acknowledgement and to truly be open to how do we change things so future generations are getting the support that they need and the industry of healthcare is adjusting and innovating.
Anyway, it is a huge conversation and I could go on lol. I have not heard of this Soteria Paradigm - I will look that up now, thanks for sharing!
Lastly, I'm not sure about you but I'm not American. I'm Australian. I think this discussion is very much global and nowhere (that I know of!) has mental health, or wider, healthcare "right". There's a lot of progress to be made everywhere.
I just checked. I don't feel that you were argumentative, no. But even if you were perceivably, I think it's reasonable and rational to feel big feelings about sensitive subjects like this - especially considering your lived experience. This is personal to you and it matters to you. You care about the truth and you want to clear things up. Even if you were angry writing that, I suggest not blaming yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back for all the progress you've made. I see it.
I feel that censoring our feelings is harmful - we have to respect them. I believe for true mental health, we have to elevate and honor our feelings. Numbing, suppressing, or blaming/shaming ourselves for feeling feelings is harming ourselves. Is anger your highest expression? Or is it causing you to hit a wall? I've been facing that wall a lot in my life, and I realize now that I was the one erecting the wall. I chose anger and frustration instead of all the things I actually wanted to feel, do, and express.
Yes, I feel this difficulty. I have engaged with people who I believe have used AI to discredit my points and argue in bad faith. I have engaged with people who insult me in every way they can, while skirting rules on civility. It's exhausting, but I knew what I was walking into each time. I chose to engage with them in debate and challenge their beliefs. My lesson was that you can't change somebody who isn't open to change, no matter how sound your argumentation is and how much good faith you have - especially in an impersonal space like the fediverse.
Even if you don't want to engage directly with a commenter, you can feel free to chime in and respond to their comments when you see misinformation. By not pointing fingers, by not shaming them, by remaining neutral, by keeping it short and simple/condensed as much as possible - we can diffuse the confusion and minimize the effort spent. Passionate emotional exchanges carry charged energy and are hard to parse or engage with, from a bystander's perspective. If we see a bot, or somebody acting in bad faith openly - in defiance to the rules, it's likely best to move on if mods refuse to take action and maintain the space's integrity.
💯
It's awesome stuff.
It definitely is global. There is a lot of progress to be made for sure. Take care and much love to you! Hope to see you around on the fediverse.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you.
You're very welcome! There have been many times that I have wished I was in the field transforming it from the inside, but since that doesn't seem to be my path, I'm just doing my best to encourage others to see the truth for themselves. I'm raising my voice for those that suffer inside oppressive and tyrannical systems, while many willfully turn a blind eye - dismissing their voices and the voices of those that advocate for them.
I really want us as a society and global community to start looking at the iatrogenic damage that is a result of current and past prescribing practices. To see the mechanisms of damage, and truly help these individuals heal. I have read about the incredible struggles and healing journeys some individuals embark on to heal from this sort of damage - most times completely by themselves... I don't believe that it's healthy for society that individuals struggle so much to heal damage that was likely in conflict with the Hippocratic Oath from the very beginning.
If you haven't already, check out the Soteria House model of mental health care! I feel that many of the answers we seek in regards to reform have already been discovered and proven. It just takes a willingness for us to admit the problem and work together to manifest the solution.