Here's the thing, and the reason why I'm so against the idea of people trying to get this AMA taken down. I've been in psych wards myself - four of them. I've seen dozens of therapists and spent all of my school years from fifth grade to my sophomore high year in dual therapy/school programs.

It was only once I came of age and they started giving the papers to me rather than my parents that I started saying no. I dropped it all, and just went back to normal high school. No more meds, no more shrinks.

And guess what? I put all my difficulties behind me, and readopted to society. I now have a job, am out of high school, have friends, and no longer have the issues that I was institutionalized for in the first place.

Not everybody needs this kind of help. What works for one person doesn't work for everyone. The attitude that "if there's something wrong with you, then you HAVE to go to a psych ward" is just as damaging as the idea that nobody needs to.

That doesn't mean that nobody will get help at them. I know a lot of people who have.

But in my experience, psych wards really are like prisons, and I received no help there, even though a lot of people insisted it was the only way I would be "fixed".

That, and I just really loathe the concept of censoring anyone or anything, especially in the perceived interests of ideas being dangerous. You don't need to protect people from ideas - if someone doesn't want to get psychiatric help, seeing an AMA about a guy who escaped from a hospital isn't going to be the damaging breaking-point that ruins their life.

This guy has a story to tell, and even if you don't agree with what he's saying, he deserves to tell it.