I had always wanted to be the Mom who breastfed in public, doing my share to make it more common for women coming after me. I saw myself rocking her and nursing her at night and I never expected to stop before 6 months; if anything, I wanted to go as long as possible. I can’t help but wonder now what might have happened if I had gone on medication right away when she was born. Could I have avoided the PPD? Could I have kept breastfeeding? It bothers me that I can never know the answers to those questions.

That label is often thrown around heedlessly. And in my experience, it’s usually chucked directly at feminist women, or women who will not submit in some way to the Holy Order of Male Doctor-Hood.

Frankly it needs to be chucked out the door. One is either sociopathic or not, meaning someone has a conscience or not–or one *does* have a conscience and is, to meet some dire need or other, manipulating the doctor or refusing to play nicely in the sandbox with [usually] a male doctor or medical staff. I’ve noticed that women who stand up for their rights either in a psych ward or in a medical environment tend to get slapped with “borderline”. Bluntly, the amount of women I’ve seen wearing that label on their foreheads just does NOT compute.

I worked with mentally ill, actively using drug users and sex trade workers for years. And I can honestly say out of the thousands I met over the years, there were maybe 3 so-called “real borderline women” [and I would have said they were sociopaths] and perhaps 5 true male psychopaths. If it’s that low a percentage in the people who suffer the most in this society–for those in a better strata, it must be even lower.

The rest? Large percentage of PTSD, clinical depression, bipolar, a few with schizophrenia, many with physical illness resulting in unclear thinking and problem solving.

It also occurred to me that every woman I ever met with the label “borderline” was intensely creative and intelligent. I can only recall one single woman with that label who had an IQ under 120.

A counsellor’s job of any stripe be that psychiatrist, therapist, social worker [unless you have chosen directive psychology such as Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy or Cognitive Behavorial Therapy]is to *ask the necessary questions*–in other words help you explore all the alternatives before you make a final decision. Only poor counsellors give advice or tell you how to live your life.

A friend of mine calls them “Lie-chiatrists” because people are forced to lie to them about taking medication or taking less medication or whatever so the person [Note: you are NOT a "patient" that is an object, you are a PERSON who happens to be getting some healthcare] can get their therapeutic or medical needs met.

Ludicrous IMO.

Of course you felt de-humanized. This man didn’t explore what options you had, in the case of wanting a child and breast feeding–he was giving orders like a drill Sargent and “thinging” you. {Meaning, you are not a real person with your own ideas, you’re just a Patient-thing}. It’s a failing many doctors share.

His job was to point out the risks should want to stop medicating and if you chose to do so, in order to breast feed or become pregnant–helped you to taper down the medications that were unsafe during pregnancy. Then explain, to the best of his ability what the possible psychological results might be. And possibly to hook you up with others who could support such a decision and prepare you for the future.

Of course, that would entail him actually doing his job and we can’t have that now, can we?

MetisRebel