Emotions Are Normal — They Are Part of Natural Life

Diana van Landeghem

Despite what psychiatrist told me, I’m recovered from my illness.

The most traumatic experiences are not because of this ‘illness’ but because of psychiatric treatment. They locked me up in an isolation cell and pumped me full with drugs for about a year. I’m suffering more because of this traumatic experience, than because of the ‘mental illness’.

I’m a happy person and my mind is clear. I have a job and I study psychology at university.

I live with my boyfriend in a nice house in the city of Groningen, and I have many friends.

I consider myself a normal person instead of a mental patient.

Emotions are normal — they are part of natural life. I’m not sick because I have emotions. They considered me sick because I was deviant, and rebelling against psychiatry. I was normal.

I think everyone is normal, and everyone needs attention and love from other people.

When mental health care can provide this, that’s okay, but when they tie people onto beds, lock them up in isolation cells and pump them full with drugs against their will, it is not mental healthcare any more.

That is mental torture.

I have accepted my past and now I go on, towards a future that is as happy as the last 2 to 3 years.