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> Sucks to be American, I guess.

Don't go there. The situation is almost global with a few legal nuances that barely have any practical impact.

Since you're mentioning the ECHR, have a look at the German man that was involuntarily committed and drugged for years just because he said his wife was engaged in a large financial fraud.

Spoiler: she really was.

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Of the millions of people who get psychiatric treatment obviously some are going to be abused. I don't tell people to avoid GPs just because Shipman murdered at least 200 of his patients.

Protections in the UK for mental illness are reasonably strong. (Much worse for people with learning disability, but psychiatrists tend not to be involved so much in the worst abuses there.)

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