Dr Ben Discounts His Own Theory And Then Ignores It

Monday 15 October 2012

I was told 'psychiatrists would be out of a job if we could stop child abuse'

"As the Jimmy Savile allegations come to light, it's time we spoke about the strong link [sic] between child abuse and mental illness."

"The psychiatrist in charge of the ward told me that she would be out of a job if she could somehow prevent anyone from ever being abused as a child. The psychiatric wards would be empty she told me. Those wards weren’t empty. They were in fact full to bursting with desperate, damaged, unhappy people and there was always the constant pressure of more people needing to be admitted.

"Clearly not everyone abused ends up with mental illness [in fact, the tiny minority do], and not everyone with mental illness was abused - genetics and brain chemicals [!] also play their part. but the association between childhood trauma and mental illness in adulthood is well documented. I wonder if those adults who do the abusing even consider just how much pain and torment they cause [sic] and just how long it lasts."

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/i-was-told-psychiatrists-would-be-out-of-a-job-if-we-could-stop-child-abuse-8211801.html

Childhood trauma and adult mental health

""A caveat to this assumed causal link is, of course, that trauma can be subjective; what is hugely traumatic to one person is not necessarily of the same import to another."

http://www.bps.org.uk/news/childhood-trauma-and-adult-mental-health