I just spent 20 mins reading this thread, absorbed only a minute fraction of what I read and I'm not very cranky and tired!!
So I will just briefly state my opinion. Psychiatrists can not be trusted. I lost 8 years of my life to the mental health system. It destroyed my body, my self esteem and has left me broken and untrusting. It's going to take years to fix the internal damage, and much longer for the emotional. Luckily I have an awesome therapist that I see one or twice a week.
When I was 14, I was diagnosed with clinical depression after a 15 minute appointment with my pediatrician who can barely speak English. From there, I was hospitalized, institutionalized, bullied, manipulated, etc etc by psychiatrists and therapists. They'd give me more and more pills to shut me up, and if I said I didn't like them, they'd threaten to hospitalize me if I stopped. Even after I had 2 full blown seizures from the damage the meds caused, not one doctor even hinted that the medication could be the cause.
After taking Aspirin for a headache, I became too ill to take my meds and came out of one hell of a fog!! They can not be trusted to decide who's unstable...
Btw, I'm on the autism spectrum and have ADHD, but NO SIGNS OF MENTAL ILLNESS! They should be medicated, they are the ones who are insane.
I'll be happy to go into specifics if anyone has any questions. ^_^