The Coercion We Don’t See: From Mental Health to Wearables, the War on Inner Freedom Continues
I don’t usually meander into so-called current events, as I’m not someone who watches the news nor do I engage in politics for oh so many reasons. But a friend of mine called and brought this to my attention recently and it sent shivers down my spine. Instead of a paradigm shift that is desperately needed it appears we are still marching down the same road.
We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road - the one less traveled by - offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth. - Rachel Carson, author Silent Spring (p. 277, 1962)
RFK Jr. stated in a congressional hearing that every American should be wearing a health-monitoring wearable within four years as part of the “Making America Healthy Again” initiative. To promote this, the government is launching a $20 million taxpayer-funded campaign—designed to market wearable devices to the public under the banner of empowerment and disease prevention.
On the surface, it may seem harmless. Even innovative. But if you’ve lived through the silencing force of institutional systems—particularly those cloaked in the language of care—you feel it differently. You recognize the pattern. This is not about health. It’s about habituating the public to surveillance—disguised as wellness.
When Mental Health coercion is disguised as care
When I was involuntarily committed, I learned firsthand how coercion hides in “compassionate” language. I was told it was for my safety and the safety of others. I was told I “lacked insight” when I didn’t regurgitate the story they had already falsely constructed. I was told I couldn’t be trusted to speak or make decisions for myself.
But the deeper truth was this: I had challenged a narrative. And the system was not built to discern truth—it was built to eliminate inconvenience. To neutralize resistance. Any objection became further evidence of illness.
Any attempt to assert my voice became “proof” of delusion. This is how psychiatric coercion works: it circles you in its logic until your only path is submission or something far, far worse.
The Pandemic Expanded the Toolkit
Then came COVID. Suddenly, the methods used against people the system deemed mentally ill were turned outward—on society as a whole.
Questioning was deemed selfish —first amendment rights and all dialogue that was oppositional to the story being told was silenced.
Doctors, nurses, healers and others who were dissenting voices of the Covid narrative being spun lost their licenses, their platforms and their livelihoods.
Others had their bank accounts frozen, publishing contracts canceled, and reputations destroyed—not because they were dangerous, but because they refused to conform.
Bodily autonomy and the power to chose and refuse was reframed as public endangerment.
Resistance was pathologized.
People were told to mask, isolate, inject, and comply—or face exile from public life. This wasn’t public health—it was psychological conditioning at scale with fear the driving force. It was a chilling reminder that freedom of thought and action is not guaranteed when power feels threatened. This is no different from what those involved in the mental health system act out. It was a stark reminder to me of what happens when positional power and control outweigh the common good of individuals and society as a whole. And financial systems—like the medical and legal ones—can be weaponized swiftly and silently to enforce obedience.
And Now—The Wearables
Now the coercion will wear a modern face. It’s tech-friendly. Stylish. Marketed with optimism under a banner that started one way with a grassroots movement called MAHA. But now a disturbing pattern is unfolding: Track your body. Track your thoughts. Track your moods. Let the system tell you how to live. Be outer referencing. Don’t listen to your own intuitive knowing. We have already seen the slow and steady movement with smart watch apps for exercise, heartrate, etc along with mood rings and mental health apps slowly walking us down a path that many don’t realize they are walking. What happens if you stop walking this path?
What might the next step be if you don’t comply?
What they’re not saying:
That the data collected by wearables is not protected by HIPAA.
That it can be sold, shared, or used to profile and control.
That some of the most vocal champions of this initiative have personal business interests in wearable companies.
They speak of health. But they are building infrastructure for behavioral surveillance. And it’s being sold to us as “choice.”
The True Cost
The greatest danger isn’t the device —it’s the internalization of the logic behind it. It teaches you to distrust your body’s wisdom. To override your inner knowing. To conform your life to algorithms. To a machine. It is the epitome of the mind/body/spirit split. It takes us one step further away from our true nature and the still small voice. Our intuitive knowing. It is the continued pattern of forcing you to look to an outside source. This is directly from the playbook I experienced during civil commitment. We are telling your story and whatever you think, feel or say is irrelevent.
This is not healing. This is training. This is a removal from the REAL (the knowing body, the creative cosmos and the complex sense of place) replaced by a friendly, tech AI buddy with massive data centers collecting the information and doing what with it?
Final Reflection
Coercion doesn’t always come in handcuffs. Sometimes it comes as a health app. What starts as a health app becomes a data stream into a machine that knows more about you than you know about yourself—and which others may use to determine your freedom, employment, medical access, or social belonging.
And now, with federal backing (taxpayer dollars), $20 million in wearable marketing, and DOE-powered data campuses coming online by 2027, this system is being built faster than the public can grasp it. Research it and see the DOE requests for proposal (RFI) and private companies building massive AI data centers in Georgia and elsewhere.
Now a “public service” campaign. A sleek wristband that promises to care for you. But if you’ve ever been silenced “for your own good,” you know: this is not new. The “handcuffs” of your life will come in an array of enticing colors. The whisper…this is for your own good will be heard. The face may be different, but the intent is the same. Information, created story held in hands other than yours, and ultimately, control.
We are meant to have a sovereign mind, body, and heart.
We are meant to be free.