h3r4ld

Can it lead to something eventually like the Holocaust? I doubt it. The Holocaust was a government sponsored hatred and killing. Of course that's not going to happen here in the United States - or at least I hope not.

Sir, with respect I have to say these sorts of comments are what worry me most in our current climate. I fear the thought that "it can't happen here" is exactly what can allow such horrors to repeat themselves; if we believe it can't happen here, we will not mobilize to prevent it until it is too late.

Germany in the '30s and its people were not some great aberration in all of space and time - this country and its people are not, either. Authoritarianism, fascism, and government-sponsored genocide can happen here, they can happen anywhere, and that is why we must always remain vigilant.

אזכור אותך ואת כל האבודים.

You can also do this to people who aren't suicidal, just having a panic attack. You can have them arrested and held for a three-day stress test (in order to see if they're telling the truth when they try to explain that they aren't suicidal but were just having a panic attack). You can force upon them, with absolutely no recourse, the most horrifying and traumatic experience of their lives, and not only that, you can cost them their job as well when they get fired for missing three straight days of work!

Source: roommates did this to me three years ago. It was genuinely the worst thing I have ever experienced in my 27 years on this planet.

TL;DR: You should be very, very certain you have no other options before you Baker Act someone without their consent. If you're wrong, you just may make whatever problem they are having a million times worse.

I'm actually very glad you made the points you did, as I, at least, was not aware of Mr. Lesser's age at the time of his experiences, and that absolutely adds some much-needed context.

I hope it goes without saying I meant absolutely no insult, nor do I hold those two sentences in one comment in a Reddit thread as any sort of reflection on or of the man himself.

Most people who have actual mental health challenges don't see a therapist without getting a diagnosis; 8 sessions per year is fine for someone who has something temporary in their life they need to work through, but not for anyone actually neurodivergent.

I have ADHD; if I'd never gotten a diagnosis or taken medication, I'd be eligible for a Class I medical, and (if I got hired obviously) be responsible for hundreds of lives while hiding/masking my ADHD symptoms. Now that I have been diagnosed, and take medication to control those symptoms and function much more normally, I'm permanently disqualified from even being licensed to fly a Cessna.

OP, I know you're doing a good thing here, and you've been helping people find ATC careers on Reddit for a long time. But it's the aviation world's worst-kept secret that "no pilot has ever been to therapy", and people are very much encouraged to hide those kinds of issues if they have any interest in an aviation career. There are even entire law firms and medical practices that specialize in fighting FAA medical disqualifications based on old, incorrect, or "incorrect" diagnoses.

Until it gets those things, I guess I won't week the help I need, because I do NOT need an imbecile try to get me proper access tonit again

This. This right here is what made my experience so awful. It wasn't being handcuffed and dragged into a police cruiser in front of my neighbors. It wasn't being told I'd only be there an hour or so, only to be held for 71 hours. It wasn't being stress tested, or woken up at 4am for my intake interview (I arrived shortly after 9pm). It wasn't anything that they did or that happened to me.

The worst part - THE WORST PART - was speaking to a woman, maybe in her late thirties, who was there voluntarily seeking emergency treatment because, as she put it, "I know as long as I'm here I can't hurt myself.". She was there by her own choice, because she truly felt like a danger to herself, and she was being put through the exact same bullshit as I was. The biggest lesson I learned from my 3 days there was that - if I ever was suicidal and in need of help, it wouldn't be available to me. I saw, first-hand, the breakdown of the mental health system, and I saw that people who genuinely needed - and were asking for - help were being treated like junkies trying to score pain meds.

The worst part was learning I was on my own to deal with these things.