Accessible SummaryWhat is known on the subject?People with mental health problems are often left behind, forgotten and excludedLittle is known or written from a service user perspective about experiences of psychiatry, mental health nursing, Mental Health Tribunals and alternative approaches (such as counselling, peer support, psychological and recovery approaches, cognitive behavioural therapy—CBT and creative/art/music/drama/horticultural/dance therapies).What the paper adds to existing knowledge?This paper aims to remedy this gap in knowledgeIt focuses on positive and negative experiences of psychiatry, Mental Health Tribunals and alternative treatments from a service user's perspective.What are the implications for practice?The paper makes several recommendations. In brief, (1) psychiatrists need to listen more attentively rather than being focused on signs of psychosis; (2) de‐escalation techniques (for example, talking calmly with the patient) should be used by nurses before physical restraint; (3) psychiatry should be less biomedical. Nurses and social care professionals deserve better training, time for and practice in alternative and more therapeutic forms of care; (4) carers need to be more involved; (5) there need to be better, more democratic, more open processes of law; (6) voluntary work and supported employment schemes should be run by health and social services for people who want to work and want to have a vocational life.AbstractThis paper aims to describe the lived experience of mental illness, coercive treatment by psychiatry and mental health nursing, and the problematic case and bias of Mental Health Tribunals. It then looks at more positive experiences of alternative approaches and makes recommendations for improving mental health services and people's experiences of them.