Loose Ends

Before this goes nuclear I’m gonna speak on a few things I didn’t have the opportunity to before.

One of the greatest men to ever graze the planet was named John Forbes Nash Jr. A renowned mathematician that made numerous significant contributions to his field.^[1] Having won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences,^[1] the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition,^[2] the John von Neumann Theory Prize,^[3] the Abel Prize,^[4] and the Double Helix Medal,^[5] in addition to being made a fellow of the American Mathematical Society,^[6] being elected to the American Philosophical Society,^[7] and receiving honorary degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Naples Federico II, and the University of Antwerp^[8]—the man was highly decorated.

But he was also a paranoid schizophrenic, which as his condition got worse, completely derailed his career for nearly 2 decades with complications first arising in 1959.^[9] During his time at Princeton and MIT, discussions about his erratic behavior were prevalent, causing his academic reputation to suffer.^[12] He was frequently hospitalized and hated his experiences, stating that he found them “dehumanizing, humiliating, and traumatic”.^[10] He didn’t like the effects antipsychotics had on his mind either, feeling as if they robbed him of his intellect, causing him to abandon them.^[10] He instead gradually began to “intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking which had been characteristic of his cognitive orientation”.^[10] He was eventually able to return to the field in the mid 1980s and continue his work as his condition improved.^[11] This was undoubtedly in part to the significant amount of support he was able to receive throughout his life.^[12] The center of it being his lovely long time partner Alicia, who stayed by his side until they both died in 2015.^[9] He also had a supportive community at Princeton University that helped him find jobs during periods where he was capable of working.^[13]

By the end of his life his schizophrenia had improved so much he was considered to be recovered, despite having not taken medication since the 1970s, or any form of professional treatment.^[14] 3 months before his life would end, he shared his own perspective on mental illness and the field as a whole during a 2015 speech at the University of Oxford:

“… It increases thought about the area of mental health, and that is still a very controversial area because, well it’s possible to have controversial issues and there’s a lot of ignorance. [The] question of what is the best sort of medicine or the hardest in medicine [that] should be used and how the different states of mind [should] be classified, etc etc. I can certainly confess to having been through mental illness, [and] in some ways it’s like when the mind goes on strike and it doesn’t do the work that it should do. You don’t know what the duty of your mind is (laughs) but the duty is to make you more or less a normal human individual that performs certain expected functions, and if it doesn’t do that then that’s mental illness. It can be called that.” ^[15]

– John Nash, 2015

Self diagnosis is a controversial topic and a worthless one. The perceived impact of the harm it causes is one of those things the internet makes people feel is much bigger and dire than it actually is. The resulting hysteria accomplishes so little of its actual goal. The first argument against it is that people who wrongfully claim an illness set a bad image for members of that illness which increases stigma and spreads misinformation. Not only would that be a case by case basis, meaning it isn’t inherently true, they are still a minority. Stigmas around illnesses are driven by a number of factors, one of the largest being the actual behavior the mentally ill exhibit. Whatever damage someone online might actually be causing is a drop in the bucket. I don’t think people realize the ratio of people diagnosed with a disorder to the ratio of people that aren’t yet speak online about it.

This argument also inherently suggests that the general public even cares. They barely respect the mentally ill if at all, nor do they care to hear their stories. If a self diagnosed person goes babbling on about things that are legitimately inaccurate or “damaging”, the general public was never listening to them in the first place. I think the perception that the voice of a self diagnosed person is even going anywhere is because people that engage with mental health communities have at least part of their reality encased in a bubble. It seems as if those people’s voices are going somewhere because in the very tiny corner of the internet you interact with, they do. But that’s all it is. Majority of people online don’t care that much either. Just your corner.

The general public does not give a fuck about your disorder or its intricacies. If they did, they’d already know all about it. If they did, stigma wouldn’t be as high as it is today. If they did, then they’d already know which information is inaccurate and that multiple sources of information are needed to form conclusions regarding a subject anyway—meaning the alleged damage of the vocal minority of self diagnosed individuals would be rendered meaningless. Of course, we know that isn’t the reality. But again, if they don’t care about what a diagnosed person has to say they’re not going to care any differently about what a self diagnosed person has to say, if not less.

And yes, the less misinformation the better, but the whole reason why the general public have the simplistic & reductive views they have of certain illnesses is largely reflective of their lack of care. If these illnesses weren’t able to be reduced to & presented as a very simplistic idea, the general public wouldn’t retain anything about any specific disorder. If the only time anyone ever heard about bipolar disorder was when people who actually have it spoke on it, almost nothing different would be retained by the public compared to now. It was always either going to be the crazy woman mood swing disorder, or nothing at all. There are so many race related concepts in America that are routinely explained by black people themselves that many people still cannot grasp in the current year. What makes you think it matters if people get their information from the proper source?

Realistically speaking, it’s not like that much information in general would be retained by anyone anyway. Disorders have vast amounts of depth and the person living with them interact with that disorder which creates unique experiences. Who is going to remember that much information outside of those with a passion for understanding and other mentally ill people?

Misinformation and stigmatizing rhetoric from people perceived as normal is always going to cause significantly more damage than someone misrepresenting an illness they don’t have. One is much more respected by the general public than the other. The media we consume is also highly influential. If you care about stigma and misinformation you should be much more concerned about how illnesses are represented in entertainment & spoken about on the news. Allegations imposed on others regarding disorders are also just as damaging. The people’s ignorant understanding of bipolar is of no one’s fault but the public themselves, and the common practice of claiming someone is bipolar due to their behavior despite having no actual knowledge of that disorder is of no one’s fault but the public themselves as well. Why do you never have anything to say to those kinds of people?

Understandably, it can be frustrating and aggravating to see any illness turn into a trend online which inadvertently causes you to be perceived as a trend as well, but again, that is a much bigger reflection of the general public’s respect and attitude towards mental illness. If you weren’t being seen as a trend you still wouldn’t be seen as anything better. The only reason some illnesses have even been turned into a trend is because people are only aware of the nonthreatening aspects of them and the relatability of very vague surface level details. If it wasn’t for these two traits, then the general public, or rather the internet, would pay no mind to them like in the years prior. Your illness was not made into a trend due to an unchecked number of people sincerely convinced they have something, your illness was made into a trend because of a general lack of respect towards people like you. They’re not even thinking of you when they engage in it.

Some people take this whole argument further in suggesting that people will use illness they don’t have as a scapegoat for bad behavior, which makes diagnosed people look worse, as if people with a doctor’s note don’t already do that. As if the majority of people that do hide behind illness aren’t already diagnosed. It reeks all the same. Of course someone using illness they don’t have as a scapegoat is rightfully infuriating on its own, but it’s still such a small minority.

Something no one seems to realize either is that someone willing to stoop low enough to use an illness they do or don’t have as a shield against criticism & bad interpersonal behavior would use anything else instead. That’s how those personality types are. It has nothing to do with self diagnosis, and everything to do with the grace they expect to be given due to “sympathetic” circumstances. A person like that will pull anything out their ass to escape accountability. You better hope their 3rd cousin on they mom’s side didn’t die recently.

Even if that person isn’t being disingenuous, the reality is that them having an illness specifically, isn’t really relevant. Because the reality is the majority of people that would excuse someone because of their alleged illness would excuse them for any other reason as long as they can grasp that it’s an unintended negative aspect of their life. Replace that illness with intense stress or the loss of a loved one or a broken home or whatever the fuck—you are likely still going to get a pass from that person. They are simply displaying empathy towards an unfortunate circumstance. The only way in which someone being ill grants a special privilege is that mental illness is seen as chronic. At some point, people expect you to get over all that other shit.

All of this also highlights that regardless of whether or not the person is actually ill, the way their accountability is handled should be the same regardless. Nobody is forcing you to give mentally ill people unlimited fuck ups before you finally show adequate criticism for their actions. Nobody is forcing you to do that for anybody. It seems like many people don’t want to discriminate against someone for exhibiting symptoms of an illness, or circumstances in general that aren’t the persons fault, but at what point will someone be fairly criticized? By adjusting the attitudes towards people fucking up, you can actually solve 2 issues. Bad behavior can only be excused if you let it.

The final argument that’s usually thrown around is how self-DX harms the person, as they now believe they have something that they don’t—which is something I feel is never brought up in good faith. This implies that it’s impossible for a regular person to have the basic perception needed to compare their own life to the descriptions & experiences of a particular illness. I promise you the information is not that complicated. This complaint is usually also bundled with the idea that the person will feed into their own problems by doing this. There is a gigantic flaw in this thinking, because if you just found out you have a problem, why the fuck would you “feed into it”? That makes no sense. I get people are trying to say that the person might believe they have issues they actually don’t, but at that point you are grasping at random hypotheticals. The majority of ill individuals upon discovering they may have a mental disorder utilize that revelation to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and the life they had to live. Very few people are reading up on symptoms and unintentionally adopting them or making them worse.

The only way someone would realistically feed into anything in this context is if they’re now under distress due to the social stigmas surrounding that illness. That has much less to do with the person themselves and much more to do with how the general public treats members of that illness. I mentioned feeling like this argument is never brought up in good faith because if misdiagnosis is what you’re allegedly concerned about, why do you never call out the prevalence of misdiagnosis from “professionals”? Which is astronomically more damaging in comparison? Do you have any idea how many people are going to die misdiagnosed? Or how your rhetoric reinforces the idea that “professionals” are all doing their job proper?

I think there’s really only 4 camps of people inside the self-DX pool; young people looking for a sense of identity and belonging, young people that are ignorant and hopping on trends, people that are looking for a card of sympathy, and people that legitimately fit somewhere on the spectrum.

When it comes to the first camp of people; when you gate keep something and make it a special club people can’t get into, what do you think that’s going to make these kids want to do? Actually listen to you? Or want to be apart of it even more? They already view illness to be a special club and you policing everybody just amplifies it. Often times this is also done by effectively turning mental illnesses into a monolith. “If you don’t fit into this exact criteria I dictate, then whatever you say isn’t legitimate.” That is terrible all around.

When it comes to the third camp of people, that exist in major spaces of the internet, they are actually incentivized to be this way, because there is a culture now that only values “perfect” victims. No one’s allowed to be a person anymore. If internet culture shifted away from the idea that people need to be nonthreatening hurt little kittens at all hours of the day to be shown humanity, and if it also knew how to appropriately criticize someone’s actions while still respecting their humanity, then this entire issue would begin to resolve itself. It would also further eliminate any appeal for young people that gravitate towards illnesses for the false sense of social privilege.

When it comes to the first 3 camps, not a single one actually cares about the hysteria. It does nothing to stop them. The only camp that gets affected is the fourth one, as they are the only ones that actually care. It’s to the extent that the harm that comes with self diagnosis outrage is worse than the harm of self diagnosis itself. Even if they’re a minority compared to the others, let’s say 5%, the effects of what the 95% are doing does not compare to how the reaction to them affects the 5%.

Mentally afflicted people already very frequently experience invalidation and dismissal from both people in their personal lives and from health “professionals”. They get told that they’re lying, that they’re making it up, that they’re exaggerating, that they’re seeking attention, or that they don’t fit the stereotype so it mustn’t be true. Then on top of all that, they now have to carry an additional weight on their mind consisting of the fact that they never received a doctor’s note for their suspected condition. It’s much deeper than just a confirmation of specifics—due to the culture we have, that doctor’s note is the only thing that says a person’s life actually happened. Can you imagine going through some of the worst life has to offer and unless a stranger with a license agrees with you, then apparently none of it was real?

None of this even takes into account the endless reasons someone can fail to receive a doctor’s note regarding their condition. Inability to pay, insurance issues, discrimination, ridiculously long wait times, a system structure that doesn’t even allow it, and very simply just “professional” incompetence. Just because you had a smooth time receiving your diagnosis (which might not even be accurate) doesn’t mean everyone else will have the same level of ease. And just because you had a difficult time receiving your diagnosis doesn’t mean you get to turn around and make other people feel like shit for not having one just to make yourself feel better about the trouble you went through. That is misdirected anger.

The system is nowhere near credible or reliable enough to be discrediting anybody who sincerely believes they are mentally ill off the sole basis that it was never medically confirmed. Any argument that a psychiatrist would inherently know better is also false, since the overwhelming majority of misdiagnosis cases in the field were due to discrimination, negligence and narrow minded thinking. In concept a psychiatrist should know best, but that is not the reality. It’s also not like there are a vast amount of illnesses and that they all lack distinct identity. The odds are that someone will identify only one or two that seem applicable, and not have much trouble doing so, rather than blindly feeling out and guessing what applies. Anyone that possesses symptoms of several disorders is already someone that couldn’t be “accurately” diagnosed by a mental health “professional” anyway because of our poorly constructed diagnostic model.

Self-DX hysteria also drives people away from seeking treatment. In order to schedule a psychiatrist you have to believe something’s wrong with you. The hysteria directly states that no civilian is capable of deciding that. I have seen first hand, individuals that have shied away from seeking any sort of engagement with the system because of this.

The silent majority of people that would pass as having “self diagnosed” are people who have struggled their entire lives and have now either achieved an intimate level of understanding in themselves or are on the path to doing so. It was never a moment as simple and casual as “this label seems the trendiest”. For the silent majority, the discovery & conclusion regarding an illness was a world shifting event. It was something that lifted an immeasurable amount of weight off their shoulders to find out there are other human beings just like them, that there actually is a way their life can change, and that there is a whole new world to navigate. It was also never an experience of looking at something briefly one time and calling it a day. For the silent majority, it was consuming numerous sources of information and first hand experiences and finding out what it’s like to have your exact life story be retold by someone you’ve never even met.

All of this leaves us with an outrage that quite truly achieves nothing other than making people who are most likely mentally ill feel even worse than they already do. It’s about as worthwhile as Prohibition was in the 1920s. When it comes to any condition, mental or physical, you don’t magically have one because a doctor told you. You have to already have it, and you either do or do not. The hypothetical danger of what will happen if someone takes it upon themselves to figure it out does not compare to the actual harm the outrage to that hypothetical danger causes. Especially considering that the odds are, if someone is actually “self diagnosing”, they will not do a single thing that affects you or the illness they’re apart of.

Something that’s also never acknowledged is that someone could simply just lie about having a doctor’s note. You’re not going to verify it, you would blindly believe it, and they’re incentivized to do it. If people relaxed towards it, there’d be more openness & honesty. There’s also an irony in people claiming it’s not possible for any non “professional” to have any clue what’s wrong with themselves, while also telling people they can’t possibly be of a certain illness because their judgement dictates it’s not likely. Where’s your license?

I understand that for many people the self-DX antagonism is actually rooted in the concern that someone who has nothing at all is claiming to have something, rather than someone with something claiming to have something they may not have. But unfortunately, the people you intend to target don’t care, and the people you don’t intend to target end up receiving the worst of it.

Those of you that have made your illness your entire personality and have tied your whole identity to it, seriously, the way some of you speak sounds exactly like comic book fans that get mad because of all the “fake fans” due to the mainstream success of the movies. The state of someone’s diagnosis is a lot less your business than you make it out to be.

To those of you that have hesitated on looking into disorders that have caught your interest, go all in. It’s not illegal to simply read information about a disorder, is it? To those of you have been carrying imposter syndrome regarding your lack of a doctor’s note, let it go. The fact you feel anything at all makes it 99.99% likely you aren’t faking. Especially if you’ve already engaged with members of that illness and you both relate to & understand each other without any issue. People don’t seem to realize that if you picked up any random person on the street and placed them in a room full of mentally ill people, there is a 95% chance they will have no idea what the fuck anyone is talking about.

At the end of it all, it’s your life. Do what works for you. It’s your life and no one else’s. When it’s your time to go you’re the only one that’s leaving. If learning about an illness and seeking the best ways to manage it greatly improves your life, that’s all that matters. Majority of people don’t actually care like that, and you’re most likely not going to try painting yourself as the sole spokesperson for that illness anyway (which would be bad regardless of DX status). If you’re worried about the response you’ll get after disclosing your DX status to loved ones—the people you love should know your character well enough to trust you’re serious, with valid reason, and aren’t attention seeking. They should be supportive and validating regardless. I know I would be if someone even just suggested the idea that an illness they’ve read up on might have the answers to questions they’ve been asking their whole life. In any case, you could always send them this chapter if they don’t get it.

Every state in the country has their own law that all permit the involuntary committal of people into psychiatric facilities. These laws include the 5150 in California,^[16] the Baker’s Act in Florida,^[17] Section 12 in Massachusetts,^[18] Code 9.27 in New York,^[19] Code 302 in Pennsylvania,^[20] the Pink Slip in Ohio,^[21] Emergency Detention in Texas,^[22] and Title 43A Statutes Section 5-410 in Oklahoma.^[23] The specifics of these codes vary, with some showing more respect to the autonomy of the committed person than others.

Conceptually the idea of an involuntary committal isn’t terrible. I personally believe it is possible to be “out of your mind” and in need of adequate assistance. Having someone in that position be taken to a place where they can receive the care that’s potentially needed to regain themselves and prevent another incident is not a bad idea. However this concept becomes harrowing at best and inhumane at worst once it hits reality.

As mentioned by Anonymous 25 in Psychiatry’s Mirror, there was a psychiatric facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma called Shadow Mountain (which should already tell you where this is headed).^[24] On July 5, 2019 it ceased operation, and to this day if you go to their website it shows what’s titled “An Open Letter to our Community”.^[25] Upon reading it, it seems as if the place shut down amicably—as if the treatment of its patients wasn’t outright horrific and the reason for its closure.

On April 11, 2017, former Buzzfeed journalist Rosalind Adams published an article detailing the intense malpractice that took place at the facility.^[26] Under the headline it reads “A psychiatric hospital and its director that are under state investigation. Riots that end with pepper spray. Staff who can’t begin to contain the violence. And patients as young as 5. Secret videos show the dark side of Shadow Mountain.”^[26]

The list of things mentioned in the article include; police pepper spraying children, failure to report sexual misconduct, staff members that in one instance were “shooting up drugs while on duty in an intensive care unit”, police being called to the facility 340 times across 3 years, 30 counts of child abuse over 3 years, rape, violence, the majority of staff requesting anonymity from BuzzFeed due to fear of punishment, a 9 year old boy being grabbed by the neck and slammed against the ground, blood on the walls, attempted coverups of lawsuits, disingenuous admission of patients for the sake of revenue, and a 19 year old boy that was killed by staff.^[26]

The former director of Shadow Mountain was Sharon Worsham, a licensed nurse who ran the facility from the year 2000 until she got promoted to vice president of the psychiatric division of Universal Health Services a decade later.^[26] The man who replaced her was Mike Kistler, a former high school wrestler, army sergeant & black belt martial artist with no medical degree that was originally brought on staff in 2002 to physically restrain patients.^[26] Kistler eventually got promoted as head director of the facility in 2011.^[26]

The article goes into detail about many instances of abuse at the literal hands of Kistler himself, with one described instance being of a 9 year old boy that was pinned down by several staff members including Kistler, before being brought into a secluded room and pushed onto the floor.^[26] The boy then started pounding his fist into his own head repeatedly, and Kistler simply ignored him, until the boy tried leaving, in which Kistler shoved him back into the room.^[26] “He pulls the boy down to the ground and onto his lap, pins his arms back, and wraps one of his legs around the child’s thighs. After about 30 seconds, Kistler releases the boy, leaving him on the floor of the empty room, and returns to his conversation. The boy soon begins banging his head against the wall. Kistler, standing in the frame of the doorway, does nothing.”^[26]

Unsurprisingly, many of the people that ran and represented Shadow Mountain had nothing but good things to say about Kistler and the rest of the facility.^[26] Their former chief financial officer John Kirtley Nimrod said “[Kistler was] probably one of the most ethical people I’ve ever worked with”.^[26] Universal Health Services, also known as UHS, which owned Shadow Mountain, went as far as to give Kistler a Chairman’s Council award, which is given to people “who inspire and build exceptional teams that are dedicated to advancing their facilities through strong financial performance and achieving the highest patient satisfaction and outcomes.”^[26]. Strong… financial… performance… hmm…

In August of 2016, two employees from Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services viewed the video tapes of the abuse that went on at the facility.^[26] Their response? Nothing. No investigation was assigned.^[26] It wasn’t until April 4, 2017, four days after Buzzfeed starting asking about the outcome of their tape viewing, that the department decided to open an investigation against Shadow Mountain.^[26] According to another 2017 article by The Frontier, the release of the Buzzfeed article also led to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority canceling its contract with Shadow Mountain, and also led to the the U.S. Department of Justice starting its own criminal investigation against the facility.^[27] On top of that, at least additional 5 lawsuits were filed in both state and federal court.^[27] Eventually, on July 5, 2019, the facility announced it would be shutting down.^[25]

The Buzzfeed article goes into way more detail than what was listed here, including Universal Health Services’ many desperate pathetic attempts to try and cover up and discredit the allegations, as well as providing graphic video evidence of the abuse that took place at the facility.^[26] It’s a fantastic piece of journalism, and is only just one of five articles written by Rosalind Adams during her investigation titled “Intake”.^[28] The first article in this investigation, titled What The Fuck Just Happened?, highlights more than just a corporation’s abuse. It highlights the entire commercialization of the mentally afflicted. The subtitle reads “Lock them in. Bill their insurer. Kick them out. How scores of employees and patients say America’s largest psychiatric chain turns patients into profits.” The article beings with Samantha Trimble, a woman who walked into the lobby of Millwood Hospital to receive a free mental health assessment.^[28]

“It was nearly 11 p.m. by the time a staff member walked her down a long hallway. She recalled being startled to see rooms that were filled not with desks but with beds. A technician rifled through Trimble’s purse for sharp objects and then a nurse told her to strip down to her underwear. It was then, she said, that she realized the doors to the psychiatric ward had locked behind her. Trimble, who has recently reached a settlement regarding her hospitalization, recalled shaking with fear and ‘deep, shameful humiliation’ as the nurse examined her body, noting the location of any identifying marks. ‘All you can do,’ Trimble said, ‘is stand there and let it happen.’ The nurse handed her a small cup of pills, and soon she was asleep. When she woke up early the next morning, she recalled thinking, ‘What the fuck just happened?’”^[28]

Millwood Hospital, located in Arlington, Texas, is owned by UHS, America’s largest psychiatric hospital chain.^[28] It was founded in 1979 by Alan B. Miller, who still remains the executive chairman.^[29] His endeavors in healthcare turned him into a billionaire.^[30] At the time of the article, UHS had over 200 psychiatric facilities and admitted nearly half a million patients in 2015, resulting in $7.5 billion in revenue from inpatient care that same year, with a profit margin of 30%.^[28] Not surprising when you pull tricks to hold patients until their insurance payments run out. “‘Your job is to get patients,’ said a former clinician at Salt Lake Behavioral. ‘And you get them however you get them.’”^[28] “If an insurance company gave you so many days, you were expected to keep the patient there that many days.”^[^28] “‘You have insured people who didn’t always need treatment getting admitted,’ and ‘uninsured people not being hospitalized when they should be.’”^[28]

In an article by Reveal titled “Cashing in on Troubled Teens”, the subtitle reads: How the country’s biggest psychiatric hospital chain is profiting off kids trapped in a broken child welfare system.^[31] The article follows the story of Trina Edwards, an Alaskan foster kid who was first locked in a psychiatric hospital at the age of 12.^[31] She thought a foster parent would pick her up the next day, but instead ended up spending years going in and out of North Star Behavioral Health in Anchorage, Alaska.^[31]

On multiple occasions she was ready to be discharged but Alaska’s Office of Children’s Services couldn’t find anywhere else to put her, so Trina stayed trapped at North Star.^[31] During her time there she experienced violent restraints and periods of isolation, before being transferred to Copper Hills Youth Center in Utah after her 15th birthday.^[31] The article states how Trina’s story is emblematic of the parasitic relationship between a corporation that has beds to fill and children in need of beds to sleep, all made possible by a foster system that doesn’t have enough beds to provide.^[31] When you have a country with services allegedly designed to protect children in need that fail to actually protect said children in need, you end up with Trina Edwards interviewing Julia Laurie, a reporter for Mother Jones. The remainder of the article is a transcript of their 50 minute conversation, the audio of which can be found on their website.

UHS is no stranger to lawsuits and investigations. At the time of the Buzzfeed article, UHS was under federal investigation regarding whether or not they committed Medicare fraud.^[26] In 2020, they agreed to pay $117 million to “resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act for billing for medically unnecessary inpatient behavioral health services and failing to provide adequate and appropriate services.”^[32]

In 2024, an entire article by Ronald V. Miller was made regarding UHS’ numerous sexual abuse lawsuits.^[33]

“Universal Health Services is grappling with the financial and reputational fallout of significant legal judgments tied to sexual abuse allegations at its behavioral health subsidiaries. More lawsuits are coming. Juries are already being heard. In one case, a jury awarded $360 million to three plaintiffs who suffered abuse by a physician at the facility. With over 40 additional plaintiffs pursuing litigation, the total liability could rise dramatically. This judgment follows an earlier $535 million verdict against another UHS subsidiary, Pavilion Behavioral Health System, related to the sexual assault of a minor patient. Combined, these two judgments bring UHS’s liability to $895 million, far surpassing the limits of its insurance coverage for the year.”^[33]

Considering they’re a Fortune 500 company raking in over $11 billion annually, I’m sure the UHS family will be just fine.^[34] Make no mistake, not even the articles in their entirety provide the full scope of what goes on at Universal Health Services’ endless number of psychiatric facilities. It’s like with every article I finish, I uncover another.^[35]

The next chapter:

Fuck You.

John F. Nash Jr. Facts by Nobel Prize
1999 Steele Prizes by American Mathematical Society
John F. Nash by Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
Untitled by Abel Prize
2010 CSHL Double Helix Medals dinner—presented to Dr. John F. Nash by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
A ‘tragic but meaningful’ life: Legendary Princeton mathematician John Nash dies by Princeton University – May 27, 2015
Three elected to American Philosophical Society by Princeton University – May 23, 2006
John F. Nash, Jr. by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
‘Beautiful Mind’ mathematician John Nash, wife killed in car crash by CNN – May 24, 2015
Why Did John Nash Stop His Medication? by Peter Weiden – December 2002
“Beautiful Mind” John Nash’s Schizophrenia “Disappeared” as He Aged by Rachael Rettner – June 4, 2015
Mental Health in History – A Beautiful Mind: John Nash’s Triumph Over Schizophrenia by Matt Kuntz – August 23, 2023
John Nash by David Bell (Living With Schizophrenia) – 2017
Recovery from Schizophrenia by American Experience (PBS) – April 28, 2002
JOHN NASH BEAUTIFUL MIND by OxfordUnion – February 24, 2015
Involuntary Detention by OC Health Care Agency
Baker Act by Florida Department of Children and Families
YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING ADMISSION TO AND DISCHARGE FROM A HOSPITAL UNDER MASSACHUSETTS MENTAL HEALTH LAW by The Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee – December 2011
Mental Hygiene Law – Admissions Process by Office of Mental Health
Mental Health Procedures Act by Office of Behavioral Health
Emergency Hospitalization and the Pink Slip Process by Neomed – 2019
HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE. TITLE 7. SUBTITLE C. CHAPTER 573. SUBCHAPTER A. by Texas
OKLAHOMA STATUTES TITLE 43A. MENTAL HEALTH by Oklahoma
Psychiatry’s Mirror by Blessings Stranded – December 13, 2024
Open Letter to our Community by Shadow Mountain Behavioral Health – 2019
Videos Show The Dark Side Of Shadow Mountain Youth Psych Facility by Rosalind Adams – April 11, 2017
At least five lawsuits target Tulsa psychiatric facility after allegations draw national attention by The Frontier – September 11, 2017
“What The Fuck Just Happened?” by Rosalind Adams – December 7, 2016
Alan B. Miller by Universal Health Services
Alan Miller & family by Forbes – December 2, 2024
Cashing in on Troubled Teens by Reveal – October 21, 2023
Universal Health Services, Inc. to Pay $117 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations by United States Attorney Office (Department of Justice) – July 10, 2020
Universal Health Service (UHS) Sex Abuse Lawsuits by Ronald V. Miller, Jr. – October 11, 2024
Universal Health Services and Regent Surgical Health Announce National Partnership by Universal Health Services – October 29, 2019
‘Something from a horror novel’: U.S. Senate slams owner of N.C. psych hospitals by Taylor Knopf – June 27, 2024

The Myth of the Mental Health System

w r I t t e N b Y b L e S s I n g S s t r A N d e d

Fuck You.