Any MH “expert” who says people shouldn’t be talking about MH unless they have a professional degree has it grotesquely backwards about who needs to learn from whom. Of course, “experts” have knowledge but people with lived experience do too. If they devalue that it says a lot

I’ll keep valuing advice & insights from people w lived experience as much or more as what professionals have to offer. And no it’s not the same as being an anti-Vaxxer. Those are wildly different subject matters—experts who make that comparison show a dangerous lack of humility

Sometimes they say it in contexts where it makes sense to criticize the person speaking BUT when they say things like it’s dangerous for non-experts to speak, they’re the ones being dangerous. Silencing those from the lived experience community is so wrong & counterproductive

How hard is it just to make the substantive point you need to make without telling everyone else they have no right to speak? I would think a MH professional should have the skills to do that.

Anyway this always https://twitter.com/crys_tom/status/1315355707256889345

Also if your colleagues are doing this maybe correct them rather than cheer them on? Think of what it looks to people with lived experience when you are saying the only people with valuable knowledge and insights are professionals. It’s not just absurd & false-it’s harmful

Then they say that non-experts speaking up are to blame for others not seeking help. I’m not even going to dignify that rn but I can tell you what stopped me seeking help and it was fear of a lack of humility in professionals and the silencing of my perspective on my own life