Benefits Of Coercive Treatment

Coercive treatment involves the treatment of an individual whom does not want to seek treatment or does not think that they require treatment. I believe that coercive treatment is a defensible practice as the practitioners working against the will of their patients, are doing so in hopes of helping the individual suffering from a mental disorder. There are many reasons as to why individuals may not believe that they require any sort of treatment. These reasons range from not realizing the consequences of their actions, fear of judgement, misinterpretation of symptoms, etc. There are a few recounts from Voices from the Inside, which display the correct use and need for coercive treatment, deeming it to be defensible. In the personal account of Mark Vonnegut called “The Eden Express”, Mark recounts

He admits that she didn’t think that he would reach a point of breaking like he did, in all he was surprised by how the events played out. Although this personal account does portray coercive treatment as a defensible treatment plan, there are certain pieces of evidence which Mark shares that could be interpreted as his body seeking help. For example, when he lists the variety of symptoms he was having, starvation for 12 consecutive days was one. In class, we discussed that eating disorders could potentially be a form of our body seeking help. Similarly, when Mark finally admits that he did not think he would reach a point of breaking, it makes it very evident that internally there were signals that something was not right, but Mark did not act upon these signals. Although coercive treatment is done with good intentions, in some cases there are chances that they fail and lead the patient down a far worse downward spiral. In another personal account called “No Time to say Goodbye” by Carla Fine, Carla recounts her husband’s death and he life preceding his