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originally posted by: Blaine91555
a reply to: EducationSeeker
A biochemical imbalance is physiological and treating it with medication is the same as using medication to deal with say diabetes.
The International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry, Inc. (ISEPP) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit volunteer organization of mental health professionals, physicians, educators, ex-patients and survivors of the mental health system, and their families. We are not affiliated with any political or religious group.
Our mission is to use the standards of scientific inquiry and critical reasoning to address the ethics of psychology and psychiatry. We strive to educate the public about the nature of “mental illness”, the de-humanizing and coercive aspects of many forms of mental health treatment, and the alternative humane ways of helping people who struggle with very difficult life issues.
We believe this is essential since one of the most cherished principles of the mental profession is “informed consent”. That means you should be fully and honestly informed about the problems you are experiencing, and the full risks and benefits of any treatment, before making truly voluntary decisions about your care. Our goal is to fully inform you.
At the heart of our critique is the fact that “mental illnesses” are not literal illnesses like diabetes and cancer. Despite popular media portrayal and pronouncements from medical organizations, decades of scientific research have failed to demonstrate any biological pathology that causes “mental illness”. For this reason, they should not be considered medical problems and traditional medical treatment is not a solution. Treating them as if they were truly illnesses of the body would be a great mistake and lead to much harm.
The experience of “mental illness” is a natural human reaction to extraordinary and painful life circumstances. They have to do with personal, spiritual, political, economic, and existential problems. To help those who are experiencing these problems, we advocate various forms of psychotherapy, support groups, self-help programs, and help with employment, education, housing, exercise, nutrition, and other issues of living. We also urge the ruling out of real diseases that can mimic psychological problems, such as nutritional and vitamin deficiencies, sleep deprivation, and diabetes.
Sometimes the biggest form of help comes from just knowing you are not abnormal and there are others willing to help you in your struggle, understand what you are going through, and appreciate you as a fellow human being. The only way to restore one’s humanity is through humanity.
psychintegrity.org...
originally posted by: EducationSeeker
a reply to: nowayreally
Big Pharma controls medical schools and medical journals to a large extent.
PTSD and Psychiatric Medication Linked to Dementia in Older Veterans
By Shannon Peters
May 24, 2017
. . . “Patients diagnosed with PTSD and using SSRI [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors], NA [novel antidepressants], or AA [atypical antipsychotics] are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with dementia compared to both those with and without a PTSD diagnosis and not using any psychotropic medications.”. . .
www.madinamerica.com...
originally posted by: Blaine91555
what about him makes his point of view more valuable than nearly the entire psychiatric community resulting from actual studies and science?
The APA Is a Fraudulent Enterprise
By Jim Gottstein, JD
May 1, 2014
I will be traveling from Alaska to attend the protest of the American Psychiatric Association in New York, because psychiatry is a morally and scientifically bankrupt enterprise that causes great harm and must be held accountable. . .
www.madinamerica.com...
originally posted by: EducationSeeker
One of the most disturbing things about this subject matter is the fact that people can be institutionalized and drugged against their will. I’ve read stories of people’s own families having their loved ones committed, thinking they’re doing the right thing.
John McDougall
Published on Mar 15, 2013
www.youtube.com...
originally posted by: EducationSeeker
Another unacceptable practice in psychiatry at present is Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy (ECT); it is barbaric.
A Smashing Victory — And an Insidious New Threat
By Peter Breggin, MD
June 9, 2019
. . . The manufacturer’s intention is to apply the treatment for months or years, but the controlled clinical trials for the FDA lasted a mere four weeks. Misleadingly promoted as trigeminal nerve stimulation, it is really a broad electrical assault on the frontal lobes of the brain through electrodes on the forehead; a genuine shotgun approach using electrical zaps instead of pellets.
Is it electroshock treatment? No, it’s more subtle and more sustained—several amps of electricity applied overnight to the front of the brain right into the critical and highly sensitive frontal lobes. There are seizures, but only when something goes wrong. They are not aiming at knocking out the children. Instead, it is a slow electrical erosion—or corrosion—of the highest functions of the brain and mind. . .
There Is Nothing to Fix with Electricity
ADHD is not a disease or a disorder, it is a collection of behaviors that disappoint or try the patience of teachers and parents. So-called symptoms or behaviors listed in the official diagnosis include the category inattention (fails to pay close attention to details, loses things, avoids difficult tasks, forgetful) and the category hyperactivity/impulsivity (fidgets, too often leaves seat, often “on the go,” talks excessively, interrupts, doesn’t like to wait his turn). In children labeled ADHD, there are no known physical causes for the behaviors. . .
The “causes” of these behaviors are infinite, but there is nothing wrong in the brains of boys and girls labeled ADHD. In my private practice, I guarantee parents that if their child’s behavior looks like ADHD, the child will start doing much better after two weeks of a combination of improved and consistent discipline, unconditional love, better nutrition and daily fun exercise. At the same time, some of these kids are “cured” overnight by transferring to a better classroom or school. . .
www.madinamerica.com...
Immediate hospitalization followed and with it the addition of an antipsychotic (Risperdal) and an additional prescription to deal with known side effects of the antipsychotic. This was the beginning of a year of hospitalizations and heartache. Inpatient, outpatient, inpatient, outpatient. A never-ending vicious circle. More medications. Different medications. Higher dosage. Lower dosage.
. . . And through all of this, no therapist sat us down to ask, “How are things at home?” “What can we do differently in Rebecka’s environment to make her feel better?” There was no glimmer of hope. No indication that this might be temporary distress. Situational. Part of growing up. Rather, it all felt very permanent. And on the worst days, we firmly believed that our only child would live in our basement indefinitely.
We thought we were fine. But in reality, we were not. Indeed, when I look in the rearview mirror, I realize we weren’t fine at all. I was a workaholic and also situationally depressed due to work-related stress and dissonance between my job and my value system. Todd was working in a small town four hours away and coming home on the weekends. Our future living situation was uncertain, because Todd’s teaching position at the time was not permanent. Add puberty to that.
So not really fine at all.
Not until the # hit the fan and Rebecka was hospitalized for the eighth time did the course of our lives change again. When things couldn’t get any worse, Dr. Robert Shedinger, author of Radically Open and a colleague and friend, handed us a copy of Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic. Todd and I read it out loud to each other during the long drive to the nearest in-state psychiatric hospital almost two hours away.
We read the stories and recognized our daughter. Yep, she had become “bipolar” after starting anti-depressants. Yep, she had gained fifty pounds on Zyprexa. Yep. Yep. Yep. We were shocked to learn the truth about modern psychiatry and Big Pharma and angered to read about the dire consequences for millions of people.
. . . Asking the psychiatrist to discontinue medication was one of our bravest moments. It went against everything doctors had told us over the past twelve months—against Rebecka’s regular psychiatrist’s vehement opposition (“You can come back when it doesn’t work.”). It went against what we heard repeatedly in the media and in pop culture. It went against what we saw in the advertisements during the evening news.
And it was the turning point in Rebecka’s journey toward optimal mental health. . .
www.madinamerica.com...
The Three Types of Psychiatric Drugs – A Doctor’s Guide for Consumers
By Lawrence Kelmenson, MD
June 9, 2019
When people call me up seeking “medication management,” I first say:
“There are three types of psychiatric drugs to choose from:
1. We’ve got placebos1 for all the suckers who bought into the idea of sadness being ‘a serious but treat-able illness caused by chemical imbalance that occurs for no reason if you’re genetically vulnerable’. This turned out to be a pure hoax.2 That’s why antidepressants’ initial benefits invariably and disappointingly fade. It’s likely why users usually worsen over time,3 as they try one after another in futile pursuit of a myth.4
2. We’ve got drugs that really do lift you up — at first. But unfortunately they’re all addictive.5 6 Thus, with daily use, not only do you develop a tolerance, but you suffer horrible withdrawals if you try to stop them. Ultimately you need increasingly higher, impairing, and dangerous dosages in order to avoid withdrawals.7
3. And we’ve got sedatives that ensure that you’ll never again have any feelings, thoughts, or complaints, since they can’t selectively numb just your unpleasant sensations — they numb all sensations. They can be used to zombify your kids to make them instantly manageable, so you don’t need to raise them. But then they’ll never mature or reach their potential, and will likely continue using drugs as their only coping tool as adults.“
Usually people either hang up on me before I finish this speech, or let me finish and then politely request the name of another psychiatrist who’s more gung-ho about my field’s miracle pills. Occasionally they take me up on my offer to instead look into whatever is upsetting them (relationship troubles, losses, fears, life pressures, etc.).
Those psychiatrists who do push the medical model profit from it easily and greatly, since health insurers pay for these scams and since people trustingly line up to see them. Clients faithfully stay with them despite faring poorly, since they’re convinced it’s due to their ‘chronic illness’. Many must return religiously, due to becoming drug-addicted and/or needing ongoing medical documentation of permanent disability.
Psychiatrists are seen as hard-working, caring, understanding healers, but they’re really snake-oil sales-men, drug-dealers, and master-sedaters. What they do should be illegal. Someday everyone will realize that not only do psychiatrists not heal anything, they’re a major contributor to the recent rise in suicides and overdoses.
They say little in their brief sessions. But if you take the few things they do say, read between the lies and boil them down to their essence, you’ll be left with this message: “Whatever is upsetting you is not worth listening to — just shut up and take one of these shut-up pills.” (Isn’t that the gist of “Your painful feelings are mere symptoms of depression — a medically treatable illness,” for example?) It’s the essence of psychiatry’s role — the goal of all its treatments. So there’s really just one type of psych drug, not three, and just one type of medication management session, which I’ve summarized below:
“Shut up and take your pills,
And don’t forget to pay your bill.
Take one or take ‘em all, but please move it along,
‘Cause I’ve got an important meeting with a drug rep… Next!”
1. Kirsch, I. The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth. Basic Books, 2010. ↩
2. Kapur, S, et al “Why Has it Taken So Long for Biological Psychiatry to Develop Clinical Tests?” Molecular Psych, 2012, 17, 1174-9. ↩
3. Whitaker, R. Anatomy of An Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. Random House, 2010. ↩
4. Kaitrin ”How Many Antidepressant Meds Have You Tried?” Depressionforums.org, Aug 15, 2004. ↩
5. National Institute on Drug Abuse “Well-Known Mechanism Underlying Benzodiazepines’ Addictive Properties” April 19, 2012. ↩
6. National Institute on Drug Abuse “Prescription Stimulants: Drug Facts” June, 2018. ↩
7. Weich, S. “Effect of Anxiolytic and Hypnotic Drug Prescription on Mortality Hazards: Retrospective Cohort Study” BMJ 2014; 348: g1996.
www.madinamerica.com...#
My hospitalization was the beginning of a real odyssey of searching for the right medication to stabilize me, since I had strong reactions to the drugs they tried. Most of the medication either caused severe side effects (which were life-threatening on two occasions) or they made me feel dull, which I could not accept because I enjoy being an active person. So I was in and out of the hospital and day clinic for nine straight months. The drugs simply could not get a hold of my rapid cycling in a way that I could live with.
The depressions were strong, but once I regained my sleeping pattern, my determination to heal this ‘disorder’ became stronger. Being a born competitor and former Karate world champion, I was never going to give up this fight. I was desperate to get off the medication. I wanted to be in control of myself again; independent and capable. The label of Bipolar Disorder made me feel like I was seen as a crazy person who did not fit into society. I wanted my dignity back!
www.madinamerica.com...
New trials have shown the drug psilocybin to be highly effective in treating depression, with Oakland the latest US city to in effect decriminalise it last week. Some researchers say it could become ‘indefensible’ to ignore the evidence – but how would it work as a reliable treatment?
originally posted by: EducationSeeker
Another unacceptable practice in psychiatry at present is Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy (ECT); it is barbaric.
www.madinamerica.com...
ECT Litigation Update: Are Patients Being Warned of Brain Damage Risk?
By David Karen, Esq.
June 13, 2019
. . . In October of 2018, in Riera v. Somatics, LLC, the United States District Court for the Central District of California ruled that there was sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find that the prominent manufacturer of ECT devices, Somatics, LLC, caused brain injury in the plaintiffs by failing to warn their treating physicians of the risk of brain injury associated with ECT, and also through a failure to investigate and report to the FDA complaints of brain damage and death resulting from ECT. . .
www.madinamerica.com...