Once you're diagnosed, then they’ve really got you. Laugh too much, cry too much, talk too much, don’t talk enough - or, god forbid, get angry - and the people around you think you’re getting ‘sick’ again. And how likely are you to be believed about anything? Some people get beaten and raped in hospital, sometimes by staff. But if they complain about it, they may well be told they were hallucinating.
As a mental patient, you don’t just lose your credibility with other people, you’re taught not to believe in or trust yourself. You’re taught to doubt your own perceptions: they may be signs of your illness. It’s especially bad if you don’t think you’re sick. That means you have no ‘insight’ - the psychiatric term for agreeing with your doctor about what’s wrong with you and what should be done about it. If you fail to appreciate the nature of your illness, you will be deemed incompetent to make treatment decisions. As the process of declaring you mentally incompetent or incapable - carried out by psychiatrists, of course - allows other people to legally make decisions on your behalf, lack of insight can be ground for drugging you against your will.
