Why Involuntary Out-Patient Treatment Isn’t Necessary
– A First Person Account

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The last sentence in a recent New York Times article entitled “Program Compelling Outpatient Treatment for Mental Illness is Working, Study Says” tells of the police taking a man to get his monthly Haldol injection under the involuntary treatment law.

For years I worked on a community based team that helped homeless people in extreme states who had histories of being frequently hospitalized.

I met them wherever they lived – on the streets, under bridges, in abandoned buildings, and in parks. I formed close, trusting connections by being open-hearted and harmlessly helpful. I wasn’t trying to “treat” them or enforce medication compliance.

Many people made remarkable changes because I had truly befriended them, pursued them with compassion to where they lived in isolation, helped them get food, wash their clothes, find safe housing.

It breaks my heart to see that police-state tactics such as forced Haldol injections are understood to be the only thing that can reach some people. I know it isn’t true.

I remember the supervisor of our county hospital psychiatric emergency unit contacting me, because a long-time homeless man who I was helping, hadn’t been there in over 6 months.

He had been the most frequently-hospitalized person in our large county mental health system. He often had been brought to psychiatric emergency by the police – sometimes several times a month. He had spent long months in the state hospital.

The supervisor really couldn’t understand that my simply spending time with him on the streets almost every day was making the difference.

But it was.

That simple friendly contact – when we are not forcing anything on someone, but instead are harmlessly helpful and kind – is precisely what helps someone relax and choose to pursue the basic things they need, like food, clothing and shelter.

But more, that frequent time spent with me simply listening and warmly feeling concern for the homeless man, began to gradually reduce the intensity of the extreme emotional state he usually was in. He became more and more present in the moment, more lucid and at ease.

That gradual shift into a more focused and relaxed state, has happened with many other people in extreme states that I have spent time with in that heart-centered way over the past 35 years.

You might want to see one of my related MIA blog essays, “Responding to Madness With Loving Receptivity: A Practical Guide.”

I hope that our society doesn’t persist in the fear-induced reaction that forces people  in our communities who are experiencing extreme states to experience violations of their human rights as well.

It’s not right, and It’s not necessary.

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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67 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you, for the compassion you show and have shown in the past to the homeless that have been labeled ‘mentally ill’.

    The New York Post’s 2013 article ‘Scoop the nuts
    Mentally ill roundup plan’ said it all…

    ‘But tracking them down won’t be easy. “There’s no rhyme or reason to their craziness,” said a law-enforcement source.

    “You might find yourself looking all over the place for one of these kooks who rides the subway back and forth.”’

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/scoop_the_nuts_TujGFMPDFLCfDgxDqmjHIL

    Society has been conditioned by the quack profession of psychiatry, the media, and the government, for centuries, to view those labeled ‘mentally ill’ as undeserving of basic human rights.

    Hence there is no shortage of people lining up to get a job injecting Haldol into the unwilling bodies of those labeled unworthy of owning their own body.

    As a survivor of community commitment, AOT, I think it says it all that I’ve been aware of the New York Times article that sparked this blog post, for 4 days, and haven’t clicked on it and read it. I’ve read several accounts of what was in the article, but I can’t bring myself to face the article, to face that kind of contempt for our human rights in the toilet paper of record.

    Organisms that get needles stuck in them against their will:

    -Bacteria in petri dishes in labs.
    -Animals at the vet.
    -Condemned inmates on death row.
    -People labeled mentally ill.

    Tranquilizer drugs were invented, and seen as a great way to control those who had been considered for centuries to be less than human. One person killed Kendra, allegedly as a result of a brain disease nobody can prove exists, therefore people who’ve never killed anybody deserve to be treated like animals. Heartbreaking indeed. Sure broke my heart. Why don’t they just build fake showers and develop Haldol in a fine mist and lead us to believe we are being taken for a shower.

    There is only one minority that Hitler tried to wipe out, that is still being treated like dirt in 2013 New York, those labeled ‘mentally ill’. At least future generations will be able to see how people in the present day spat on our human rights.

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    • I feel the emotion of sadness hearing how they treated you Anonymous. And angry too.

      The betrayal by people who are supposed to help us, but instead do harm, is the most heartbreaking, anguishing and infuriating kind of violation in my experience.

      We have no choice but to fight against us ever internalizing that state sanctioned devaluation of us, that violation of our sovereign and sacred right to not be harmed, because if don’t, that devaluation will kill our spirits.

      Your voice is one of the most true and eloquent forces here on MIA, Anonymous. I always feel drawn to reading your comments because I know your spirit will not be broken.

      You help us all be stronger, and truer to ourselves.
      Thank You, Michael

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    • Your commentary is excellent regarding forced outpatient treatment. I have been working in community mental health as residential manager, crisis unit manager, crisis responder, intensive case manager, licensed clinician and clinical services supervisor for 30 years.across 4 states (1985-current). Whether urban or rural, developing enough alliance with those suspicious, averse, and just not interested in treatment for severe mental illness is the best path to treatment acceptance and a reason to change. Acceptance, hearing the life narratives, and meeting comfort and human needs is the only way to relieve mistrust, fears real and unreal, and achieve stability of functioning. Forced treatment is denigrating, militaristic, and guarantees enmity and escalation of risk. Thank you for your eloquence and work. Best regards from a weary, but still standing, treatment professional.

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  2. Papa Bear,

    Thank you for reminding us there are many humane, loving and respectful ways to support someone experiencing extreme distress. Ways that preserve human rights and dignity and safety for self and community.

    Unfortunately these approaches take time and heart, which is perhaps why we find them seldom used in institutional approaches. Not terribly efficient in the short run. I suspect much more cost effective (and I do mean cost in every sense of the word) in the long run. Hard to measure in the aggregate, must be measured one person and one moment at a time.

    It is also notable that the UN Study on Human Rights was not mentioned in the article. This issue is much more nuanced and controversial than the article would lead us to believe…

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  3. Yes, surely people will respond positively when they are treated with care and compassion. Michael sets a good example of how mental “health” professionals should act.

    My role in the system, besides being trapped in and abused by it as a child, has been as a patients’ rights advocate and lawyer. I’ve also seen how people respond very positively when I tell them about my own experience. This has been especially true when I have represented children, who really need to have a positive example in front of them as someone who has been abused just as they are experiencing. I hope I’ve helped them see that they don’t have to give up on having a future.

    So, keep up the good work, Michael!

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    • Thank you Ted,

      It was great to see you again, and hear you speak at the Occupy APA protest in San Francisco!

      I hope people who don’t know you will read your incredible story and essays here on MIA.

      You are a champion for human rights, and for children who see you as living proof, that life can be so different than what their untrue psychiatric labels tell them about who they are, and what kind of future they can expect.

      Best of wishes, Michael

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  4. Article states: “For some people with severe mental illness, life is a cycle of hospitalization, skipped medication, decline and then rehospitalization. They may deny they have psychiatric disorders, refuse treatment and cascade into out-of-control behavior that can be threatening to themselves or others. ”

    There are to many people who like myself got caught up in taking psychiatric medication only to get worse and worse as the pills are piled on. Then when the person suffers withdrawal reactions or side effects like what I called ‘manic anxiety’ ends up in the hospital to get ‘stabilized’ (over medicated). Then the person suffers withdrawal reactions or side effects after the over medication like what I called ‘manic anxiety’ end up in the hospital to get ‘stabilized’ (over medicated) then the person gets out suffers withdrawal reactions or has side effects like what I called ‘manic anxiety’ end up in the hospital …

    That’s the cycle dare I say “most” of the time ?

    I see two well dressed parents who likely started having there child medicated early and did the whole ‘find the right meds’ thing as side effects and withdrawal reactions were labeled symptoms of what ever illness there child was accused of.

    I’ve seen this, my whole story started with wanting a pill I could take for insomnia, I knew nothing about mental health stuff at all zero or the dangers of this ‘medication’.

    Before I had a clue what I had gotten into I was ADD, bipolar with an anxiety disorder and on five different pills. I was clueless to the fraud of bio psychiatry and what these pills really do long term.

    It was about 2 years before my first psychiatric hospitalization where all the effects of these drugs were blamed on my “illness”.

    Who else was with me in the hospital ? A lot of other people who had no idea what they were getting into taking that first pill and way to many ‘troubled kids’ who’s well meaning parents started them on the road of psychiatric drugging only for them to land in the psych hospital with along with me.

    This isn’t just about force drugging the scary homeless guy who gets in your face demanding change wile out of his mind drunk, I see well dressed mom and dad force drugging there daughter, a likely victim of expensive psychiatry for very many years.

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  5. Thank you Copy_cat,

    I am very sorry you got started down the slippery slope of getting medications that later caused the reactions you describe.

    I like what R.D Laing said about psych drug side effect- something like- “These aren’t the side effects of these drugs, they are the effects!”

    Bob Whittaker has zeroed-in on the tragic results that may happen as effects of medications.

    Best wishes, Michael

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  6. I just reviewed some of your writings and one just shouts out to me:ttp://www.madinamerica.com/2012/03/eyewitness-to-the-ruination-of-a-public-mental-health-system/.
    As I joined MIA last year trying to educate myself how I lost my 25 y/o to suicide, a person that would have been voted the last anyone could fathom this happen to. But a sea of stressors along with some “recreational” drugs (marijuana mostly) taken more habitually following a serious boating injury and eventual surgery as well as reluctantly marrying his longtime girlfriend (silently,unbeknownst to his family, asking her to let them postpone it). From the night of his “break” the very system of mental health care that two naive, trusting parents believed surely would compassionately help our son understand why his brain had unraveled, knowing he admitted to using a substance (MJ) which he tested positive to on his drug screen. Instead, it was the start of a sci-fi movie but sadly the main characters were our then 23 year old first-born son and us, his parents. The horror of what was done to him – forcibly chemically assaulted, actually beaten once he resisted after voluntarily agreeing to walk inside the locked unit (we were forbidden to go with our son), seeing the EPS signs once he awoke from the 36 hours of trauma inflicted upon our son after he was “taken down” twice per the staff account. How any parent can go from seeing their normally grounded, always hard-working, loved by all son with one of those bigger-than-life personalities who had just married (supposedly his “soulmate”) to a person drooling, beaten, shuffling gait with almost inaudible slurred words and rigidity with every movement it’s impossible to comprehend. Of course, I didn’t get it until he died 21 months after the hell began, “the system” was set up to fail our son from healing. As I unravel the “how” and the “why” this industry was allowed to spin this way, reading the origin of when it changed into the egregious, Big Pharma driven corruptness while the “experts” spew out those poisonous hopeless messages to all the victims, like my son, they entrap.
    To my son’s credit, the injustices with the massive overdrugging and the harm from the side effects he opted to stop the meds after 3-4 months upon both of his releases and did return to “normal” health. But a young man who had so much pride trying to live with the stigma of being MI “for life” and the fear of being rehospitalized (which the out-pt p-doc loved to further intimidate with the prediction since he was the almighty God). Nothing made any sense from this industry that just believes in the drug paradigm of care, emotional stressors were not related. We believed our son after his second hospitalization (again returned to using marijuana which he tested positive on his tox screen) 18 months after the first “episode” but once again, got off all the massive drugging with multiple neuroleptics, mood stabilizers etc… and eventually returned to “normal” adamant he not continue with the psych meds side effects he believed so damaging to his body. My son moved away once his wife abandoned and betrayed him during the second hospitalization (“he’s damaged goods” she told me when she left him) joined AA and for the six months living alone to “heal”, got as healthy as a mother could hope for… was with us for the holidays and it was believed our son was 100% back to himself… couldn’t find a job in that isolated area which weighed on him but he had his beloved doggie and our family’s love and support though I kept trying to ask him to rejoin us because there was a distance emotionally I could feel when we spoke. He took his life, 3 months after turning 25, with the saddest good-bye note. He wrote “his choices” led to his exit though he knew it was the worst thing to do and asked for our forgiveness one day and how much he loved his family. He deleted himself off FB, removed every cell message from his phone. I think the world just seemed too cruel for a beautiful 6’5″ young man that I had always believed the world was his oyster. I will always wonder and regret I didn’t find a mental health system for my son that centered around being “harmlessly helpful and kind”. But I can dream… together our voices and actions… can try to wrestle these horrific injustices.

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    • Larmac, your tragic loss is beyond comprehension for those of us who are parents or a loved one, of a beloved young person such as your son.

      We all here, are in your debt for bravely sharing how this happened, and how the mental health system was culpable.

      Thank you for your willingness to take on the mission of fighting to see that other beautiful souls like your son are not lost. You helped that cause today by sharing what you have written.

      In solidarity, Michael

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  7. Michael:

    I just got off the phone with my 22 daughter who calls me about every other day from the acute care, private hospital where she is unjustly and involuntarily committed. It breaks my heart that she has been recommitted again and again, usually after trying to withdraw from psychiatric medications. I support her right to choose but the mental health system in our state has stripped her of her rights.

    At any rate, I have learned some techniques on the fly for how to be lovingly present when she wants me to listen, even if have difficulty following her logic; and I’ve learned to be relaxed when she is feeling extreme emotions, even rage.

    So I went through your checklist and most of them looked familiar because of what I learned on the fly and because of a technique I found out about through my sister called ho’oponopono by Dr Hew Len.

    One thing you mention however that is not familiar is this notion of speaking in ‘low tones’ and the heart chakra. Could you be a little more specific? My daughter has complained on multiple occasions about my squeaky high voice and my ‘tone’ has actually caused her to be upset. I don’t know how to change my voice.

    This is an interested mystery because one of her ‘alter’ voices has a very low tone. Are you suggesting that I attempt to change my voice to accomodate her? How does this work?

    And have you heard about the new technology in alpha waves?

    Sarah

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    • Thank you for your valuable comment Sarah. I hope your daughter is able to be out of the hospital and back in the community soon.

      I’ll try to answer your question about how we can helpfully modulate our voices when with someone in an extreme state.

      In the essay- “Responding To Madness with Loving Receptivity: A Practical Guide”- I was suggesting doing what is called relaxed belly breathing and letting our voices be expressive of the relaxed inner state that conscious deep breathing can provide. Doing that seems to help us stay more open hearted too.

      If we do that, there often is a deepening of our voices as opposed to when we speak with our diaphragms tight, and our voice naturally goes up in octaves.

      It sounds like you naturally have a higher octave voice, even when you are relaxed and breathing deeply.

      You have already explored the value of being relaxed, and know how it may help someone in an extreme state-

      It can contribute to someone calming themselves, if we feel and vocally sound as calm as possible ourselves.

      Please say more, if you wish. about the new alpha wave technology. Is it like bio-feedback?
      Best wishes, Michael

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      • Sarah and Michael,

        The lower toned voice is something that I find intriguing because I often can tell how well my son is when I observe his voice getting deeper (lower.) I see it as a sign of increasing wellness, and I assume it demonstrates that his anxiety is lessening. I have observed a lower voice after he undertook different therapies. Eventually he was able to concentrate more on his singing voice and perform in public. One therapy in particular where I noticed this happening was Tomatis, The Tomatis Method sometimes involves listening to filtered recordings of the mother’s voice in addition to filtered Mozart and Gregorian chants.

        “According to its creator, Alfred Tomatis, there exists a relationship between the ear and the voice of an individual. The method is based on a so-called pedagogy of listening that allows a person to learn to communicate more effectively by learning how to listen more effectively. The method is based upon three main laws:

        ” The voice can only make the sounds that the ears hear.

        ” If the way a person listens changes so too will the voice change. This change occurs immediately but unconsciously.

        ” It is possible to change the sounds of the voice by a sustained auditory stimulus.”

        So, I agree that a low tone of voice is very helpful. Probably yoga and other relaxation techniques would also help make this happen. Various sound therapies may also help, because of the vibration penetrates the body and the tones can help a person relax (or produce anxiety), depending on how they are interpreted.

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      • Sarah and Michael,

        The lower toned voice is something that I find intriguing because I often can tell how well my son is when I observe his voice getting deeper (lower.) I see it as a sign of increasing wellness, and I assume it demonstrates that his anxiety is lessening. I have observed a lower voice after he undertook different therapies. Eventually he was able to concentrate more on his singing voice and perform in public. One therapy in particular where I noticed this happening was Tomatis, The Tomatis Method sometimes involves listening to filtered ecordings of the mother’s voice in addition to Mozart and Gregorian chants.

        “According to its creator, Alfred Tomatis, there exists a relationship between the ear and the voice of an individual. The method is based on a so-called pedagogy of listening that allows a person to learn to communicate more effectively by learning how to listen more effectively. The method is based upon three main laws:

        ” The voice can only make the sounds that the ears hear.

        ” If the way a person listens changes so too will the voice change. This change occurs immediately but unconsciously.

        ” It is possible to change the sounds of the voice by a sustained auditory stimulus.”

        So, I agree that a low tone of voice is very helpful. Probably yoga and other relaxation techniques would also help make this happen. Various sound therapies may also help, because of the vibration penetrates the body and the lower tones help a person relax, depending on how they are interpreted.

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        • Thank you Rossa for this great comment!

          I hadn’t heard of the Tomatis method, so Googled it and see there is allot of history of it helping people in many ways.

          What you say about your son’s voice dropping deeper when he is feeling less anxious, and that lower tones help a person relax- seems to fit into the notion of a feedback loop where what we hear and what sounds we make in response are very connected.

          When someone is in an extreme state, they are often in a heightened sensory awareness state too. If they hear and see that we are coming from a place of inner calm and compassion, then they can more easily start to feel some relaxation.

          Best wishes, Michael

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          • Hi, Michael,
            Tomatis is quite popular in continental Europe, where I live, and is often covered by insurance as alternative treatment. Most people are familiar with it as a therapy for learning disabilities, like dyslexia, and some people take it to improve their language skills. I looked at it and wondered if it could do something for “schizophrenia” and got my son’s psychiatrist to prescribe it. That being said, I don’t think people have to feel they are missing out because they can’t afford the therapy. Healing takes time and a sustained calm and compassionate environment works wonders! It’s truly a journey and nothing happens overnight. I’ve taken notes over the course of this journey and I can pinpoint when my son’s voice got lower, and then lower, etc. For me, it’s always more difficult to hear if my voice is lower than it was before, but it makes sense that if I let go, if I’m less anxious, my voice has lowered, too. All this takes time and understanding how to support oneself and the other person. Thanks for your insight into these matters, which comes from the heart.

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          • You think you are helping when acting? Don’t answer the phone.
            Here are the facts. The other person is in a jail, not called a jail. The other person is on mind altering drugs, not called drugs.
            Usually a person has to commit a crime First before being put in jail.
            For drugs to be administered by a doctor to a patient, there usually is some kind of physical evidence of disease.

            You are trying to calm and relax the patient, while the patient is on a roller coaster ride of mind altering drugs?

            If you are trying reason and compassion on a drugged individual, you are beating your head against a brick wall. I hope you enjoy it.

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  8. Michael,
    Great piece.

    I’ve been in many meetings trying to stop involuntary outpatient commitment legislation in Ohio and when I mention utilizing the approach you write about, the scoffing and dismissiveness is palpable.

    Those pushing for IOC can’t or won’t find it in their hearts that being kind, gentle, caring and patient with another human being is, in itself, therapeutic. You see, to them, that’s too simple and therefore too simplistic to be considered as an intervention.

    For many, a prejudice exists towards those they/others label as “mentally ill” They perceive these labeled people to be potentially violent, lacking the will/ability to “get better” without the use of coercive measures. They embrace the use of tranquilizing drugs because the person can be reduced to a semi-conscious state (That’s how IOC is perceived as “working” in the NY Times piece).

    This is a difficult debate and I know it’s going on across the States and elsewhere. Thanks again for reminding us and others that the solution need be no more complicated than treating our fellow humans humanely.

    -David

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    • “the scoffing and dismissiveness is palpable.” oh I bet. Psychiatry, the system, and society, stopped listening to the people labeled ‘patients’ generations, centuries ago. They’d rather hear a narrative that has the patina of sciencey sounding pronouncements. Such a tragedy.

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    • “Those pushing for IOC can’t or won’t find it in their hearts that being kind, gentle, caring and patient with another human being is, in itself, therapeutic. You see, to them, that’s too simple and therefore too simplistic to be considered as an intervention.”

      Well then they don’t belong working in a field that supposedly exists to help people. It’s common sense that humans need to be treated a certain way. They themselves (the professionals) insist that people treat THEM a certain way, surely they wouldn’t tolerate anybody VIOLATING them. If they cant understand this, then they have no business receiving tax dollars to pay their salaries. My advice, is to give up on them and focus your energy on a campaign to shut them down for good. With the evidence that Whitaker has brought forth, along with what they are doing, I seriously believe that criminal charges ought to be in the works by now.

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      • they themselves (the professionals) insist that people treat THEM a certain way, surely they wouldn’t tolerate anybody VIOLATING them.

        I agree. Exactly. Hence the constant harping from them on the cost of their insurance and being sued and all this. The greatest violation to them seems to be being sued.

        Oh and then there’s the constant claims by the psych ‘nurses’ who want pity because 1 in 100 people they slam to the floor and inject by force might sock them one back in the face occasionally, hence making it a ‘dangerous workplace’. Newsflash: if assault is in your job description, sometimes humans assault you back when you exist to assault them. The literature from the nurses unions is just something to behold. They literally are indignant that there is any risk in their ‘workplace’, oblivious to the fact that a psych ‘nurse’ is nothing but psychiatry’s goon, employed to wrangle humans that are detained without charge or trial, and administer toxic drugs by force. Years of experience and research and I still can’t see there is anything much that psych ‘nurses’ do but drug people and assault people, and indoctrinate people. I came upon a psych ‘nurse’ union rally once, this is true, I took one of their flyers, listened to their spiel about how they wanted higher pay and more ‘rights’ at work, then revealed myself to them and told them what I thought of what they do for a living. It was an interesting day. With so many of them on strike that day, the city was safer.

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    • Thank you for your fine comment David- you really summed up why a humane approach to helping people in need is rejected by so many decision makers and care providers.

      It seems like once the basic medical, disease model of psychiatry is believed in, a model that actively labels people as broken and dangerous, and often intervenes with force- then a way of helping that belies that approach, is seen as you say, as being too simplistic.

      A way of helping based on establishing a caring, friendly relationship, and based on refusing to do harm, is derided as being naïve, unprofessional and unscientific.

      Thank you for doing all your good work in Ohio. I know you keep speaking truth to power and that isn’t easy.

      Best wishes, Michael

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  9. I agree it sounds like David does good work in Ohio, I forgot to mention and agree with that, yes. Very good work. I doubt I could stand being in such meetings without stroking out, I think it would be like sitting around the table at the Wannsee Conference, with nobody listening to me, but it is important that there exists people who can handle being in such meetings, and that they represent the cause of human equality in these meetings, in the face of the threat posed by forced psychiatry.

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      • The story doesn’t include the voice of the very people the laws strip human rights from. This is just how a group that is viewed as subhuman is treated. The society wanting to do something to them, writes an article about them, about the opinion of people who want to do something to them, but doesn’t think to include the voice of the group. After all, they aren’t willing to listen to us when we say something as simple as ‘I do not consent’, so why would they be willing to put our voice in the article?

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        • Thank you DruggedKid and Anonymous!
          I will write a strong complaint to the NY Times journalist Pam Belluck, who failed to write an article that interviews anyone trapped in involuntary community treatment- and I will write to Belluck’s editor too.

          Parents and relatives are interviewed in the Time’s article, about the “identified patient” in their families, but the person in question isn’t.

          That is a classic NAMI political strategy of claiming that parents and relatives are the real, “human faces” of so-called mental illness.

          There would not be these draconian laws if those of us with lived experience, who are the real human faces effected by forced treatment, were given the basic status of citizen by the press and lawmakers.

          No one says it better than you do Anonymous- That instead, we are classified as less than fully human because of our supposed neuro-genetic defects, so our citizen and human rights don’t even get us a damn question from a journalist about how we feel, about the police strong arming us out of our dwellings to get our monthly Haldol injections.
          Michael

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          • “That is a classic NAMI political strategy of claiming that parents and relatives are the real, “human faces” of so-called mental illness.”

            I put the the true face of coercive psychiatry on there names so people who know them can think for themselves.

            My report was sloppy and had grammer mistakes but if anyone looks up these NAMI activists names online they might get to see what exactly they are advocating for.

            See below

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          • While you’re at it, Michael, ask Pam Belluck why comments weren’t allowed for this article, and find out what their policy for not allowing comments. I strongly suspect that comments are not allowed when there is an agenda behind the story, in this case the TAC agenda. Pity, she won’t be able to say that, of course.

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  10. I wrote about Barbara and Michael Biasotti force drugging there child here ,

    http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Michael-and-Barbara-Biasotti/Select-StateProvince/Michael-and-Barbara-Biasotti-Michael-and-Barbara-Biasotti-Drug-Raping-there-Child-and-pus-1072802

    Barbara and Michael Biasotti like write about how great forced drugging is for kids in the New York Times, then why not write about them on a RippoffReport.com a site that never takes complaint pages down ?

    I couldn’t think of any reasons not to. People should know about them when they search there names online.

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    • Someone replied to rippoff report and asked to hear my story, so I replied with 4800 stories. Below is what I wrote.

      I put my story here, look for it.

      This website is a collection of 4,800+ news stories with the full media article available, mainly criminal in nature, that have appeared in the media (newspapers, TV, scientific journals) or that were part of FDA testimony in either 1991, 2004 or 2006, in which antidepressants are mentioned.

      http://ssristories.com/

      Me ? Im just one more person screwed up by psychiatric medication that had all the bad reactions blamed on my so called illness.

      Michael and Barbara Biasotti , let your child tell her story of psychiatric drugging. DARE YOU.

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  11. Thank you so much, Michael, for telling this story. It seems so obvious that compassionate, “harmless” attention would calm people down. Why isn’t it obvious to the other side?

    If anyone knows the answer to this question, it’s you. You sat at the same table with NAMI members for decades, and you know that they’re all terrified. You were able to calm them down, too, by being compassionate and “harmless”–although I still can’t imagine how you managed to do that.

    So this news story, and the way the NYT handled it, and your blog, and the comments, raise two questions for me:

    1. Does our movement (which I still don’t know how to name, when I describe it to outsiders) have a watchdog organization? Have we grown enough that a group could form that deals with the media–one that can command the respect of the NYT, the way you commanded the respect of a NAMI chapter? A group that would, eventually, be asked to comment in advance on stories like this?

    2. Can you imagine a group that specializes in communicating with parents like these—who must, themselves, be pretty “crazed”–with the kind of harmless and compassionate attention you brought to the table? And could that kind of listening change them, too?

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    • Hi Lisa,
      I wrote a letter of protest to NY Times journalist Pam Belluck about her very biased article on forced treatment. I haven’t heard back.

      I think existing resources like Madinamerica, Mindfreedom and the National Empowerment Center, and other groups, could serve as the much needed, pro-active media watchdog entities you wisely envision. They should be contacted by papers like the NY Times, before articles like Belluck’s are printed to ensure some modicum of journalistic fairness.

      I believe major media outlets have been actively courted by Torrey and other medical model advocates for decades, and that the media are routinely fed biased stories too.

      The same media outlets would be hard pressed to refuse Madinamerica and the other groups I mentioned giving input to articles, if it were found out the extent to which the Treatment Advocacy Center, for instance, has possibly dominated the content of articles such as Belluck’s recent article.

      In answer to your second question about family outreach, please look to the great blogs here by Jennifer Maurer and Lisbeth Riis of Mother Bears, to see how new approaches to hope filled recovery resources for families are now available!

      Thank you for your valuable comment Lisa.

      In solidarity, Michael

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      • Yeah, maybe MindFreedom. Madinamerica.com is more for information. NEC, maybe.

        You said: ‘I wrote a letter of protest to NY Times journalist Pam Belluck about her very biased article on forced treatment. I haven’t heard back.’

        I am sorry to hear that your letter went ignored. Let it be known that Pam Belluck, of http://www.islandpracticebook.com, “Pam Belluck”, twitter @PamBelluck email: [email protected] , member of jazz group ‘Equilibrium’, New York Times journalist, she has also won a Knight fellowship and a Fulbright, did not reply to the voices she excluded from her article on forced treatment. Excluding the voice of the very people whose rights are on the line?

        The question is, would Pam Belluck write an article about another group’s rights being taken away from them by government and not even include the voice of a member of that group?

        Or would she only dare do that to the dehumanized ‘mental patients’…???

        Maybe Pam Belluck is too busy selling her nonfiction book to TV networks to be made into a drama series to pay attention to basic journalistic fairness?:

        http://variety.com/2012/tv/news/imagine-20th-tv-develop-island-practice-1118056687/

        I won’t be watching ‘Island Practice’ on TV that is for sure.

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        • Thank you again Anonymous. There is real cowardice in the media to not question the fear mongering, that says those of us who get our human rights violated via forced treatment, must be deprived of our rights for the security of the community.

          The media is looking with a coward’s pandering eye to the president, and the across the political spectrum coalition of voices saying that we pose an imminent threat to the community.

          But we live in this country. How far will this go? Will the forced treatment laws that are the law of the land in over 40 states be beefed up, like the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security encroachments of liberty escalated?

          Very recently a dear friend and activist, was at a large, diverse stakeholder meeting in Sacramento, where a local sheriff reported his department has a watch list of all the people receiving mental health services in his county.

          It gives me chills to think of how that happened, and what may be the future oppression, as government, the media and other pawns of pharma and bio-psychiatry ratchet up the fear.

          Michael

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  12. “I remember the supervisor of our county hospital psychiatric emergency unit contacting me, because a long-time homeless man who I was helping, hadn’t been there in over 6 months.

    He had been the most frequently-hospitalized person in our large county mental health system. He often had been brought to psychiatric emergency by the police – sometimes several times a month. He had spent long months in the state hospital.”

    If you really think about this, I think it exposes a huge problem and a great INJUSTICE in mental health “treatment” in the U.S. especially. A months long hospitalization would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars at least — all of which winds up in the professionals pockets. These people who are getting all of this money supposedly to help the mentally ill, are just drugging them and then SENDING THEM BACK TO THE STREETS OR TO LIVE IN POVERTY!

    What right do the professionals have to be collecting all of this money that is supposedly there to help mentally ill people? Why should society spend what could be millions of dollars on one mentally ill person just so that they can wind up living on the streets or in some run down subsidized housing apartment? How can this not be considered an injustice?

    Give them even just a fraction of the money that would be spent on professionals to “treat” their disorder and their life would already be remarkably better. It’s just sick that these professionals drive to their fancy large upper class houses in their nice 80 thousand dollar cars, having made all of their money off tax payers supposedly on the behalf of helping societies most unfortunate members, who thanks to the professionals have to live in poverty despite society having spent MANY BILLIONS of dollars to supposedly “help” them.

    It’s sickening. These professionals ought to be ashamed of themselves.

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    • Hi JeffreyC,

      Thank you for asking these important questions, which, in my opinion, need to be asked much more often than they currently are. And perhaps it should be considered that maybe – just maybe – extreme poverty and its effects might even contribute to people’s mental distress. (I know it sounds outlandish…)

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      • The failure of the forced treatment, meds for all, medical model vision of psychiatry, is there for the world to see, in the daily tragedy of people in extreme states, suffering without food and shelter on the streets of our American communities.

        Yes, thank you JefferyC and up-rising, people without food and shelter who are in extreme states, are the most vulnerable casualties of our dog-eat-dog, social Darwinism culture, where the wealthy top 1% protect the unjust social contract we all live under.

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  13. I mean come on. I cant stop thinking about it. There are people out there living in extreme poverty despite the fact that society has spent at least hundreds of thousands of dollars and in some cases MILLIONS of dollars to supposedly help them, all of which just wound up in the pockets of professionals.

    There are homeless people in this country who could honestly say:

    “I may be homeless and living in extreme poverty, but society has spent MILLIONS of dollars supposedly trying to help me… And while I may be homeless, my whole ‘treatment team’ has benefited tremendously from it. Just ask my psychiatrist, he drives an Audi R8 and lives in a gated community!”

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  14. Thanks so much for you compassionate heart Michael and highlighting so well the very opposite forced treatment!
    You prompted to share this song I wrote in response:
    We are not, We are not, We are not your slaves anymore.

    Find another job, find another job, find another job to earn you bob.

    We will find our liberty,
    We will not live in misery,
    We are not, we are not, we are not your slaves anymore.

    No more ‘ECT’ ,
    no more ‘ECT’,
    no more ‘ECT’ anymore.

    No more brain damage,
    no more brain damage,
    no more brain damage anymore.

    We will find our liberty,
    We will not live in misery.
    Cause we are not, we are not, we are not your slaves anymore.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USs3sYB9_6A&list=PL522606C97D363822

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  15. Michael concludes:”I hope that our society doesn’t persist in the fear-induced reaction that forces people in our communities who are experiencing extreme states to experience violations of their human rights as well.”
    It will.

    It’s not right, and it’s not necessary.” It’s necessary to preserve the medical model and to ensure that the drug companies will be able to sell toxic drugs to clients increasingly reluctant to ingest these drugs. Once again we have vested interests overriding the rights of low status vulnerable citizens. In 1986 the NY State Supreme Court ruled that the State constitution–which is identical with US–
    prevented the kind of forced drugging that was made possible about 15 years later by the legislation known as Kendra’s Law. The study used to justify the passage of Kendra’s Law was misinterpreted by its authors. Its claim that patients subjected to forced treatment did better than the control group overlooked the fact that only the experimental group received enhanced services and most importantly affordable housing. Let me point out here in NY it is virtually impossible for the poor to find decent housing without consenting to be subjected to brain-damaging drugs, i.e., “anti-psychotics” in residences for the “mentally ill.”

    In Rivers v Katz the Court ruled “the due process clause of the New York State Constitution (art I, § 6) affords involuntarily committed mental patients a fundamental right to refuse antipsychotic medication….We reject any argument that the mere fact that appellants are mentally ill reduces in any manner their fundamental liberty interest to reject antipsychotic medication. We likewise reject any argument that involuntarily committed patients lose their liberty interest in avoiding the unwanted administration of antipsychotic medication.” The ruling explicitly rejects the contention that “the mentally ill” are incapable of making their own treatment decisions and permits overriding patient’s liberty interests ONLY if they constitute a danger to themselves or others.” But the NY Times justifies their use on the basis of the contention that they are good for clients—a violation of their right to choose.

    In River Vs Katz http://www.lawandbioethics.com/demo/Main/Media/Resources/Rivers.htm the Court ruled that, “the sine qua non for the state’s use of its parens patriae power as justification for the forceful administration of mind-affecting drugs is a determination that the individual to whom the drugs are to be administered lacks the capacity to decide for himself whether he should take the drugs.” Lack of capacity may not be inferred from the determination that the patient is mentally ill nor from the patient’s choice NOT to take the drugs. This fundamental provision–this protection of patients’ right of control over their own bodies–is violated by AOT laws which base coercive treatment on the patients’ refusal to submit to forced drugging in the absence of any demonstration of incapacity.

    WE now know with far greater certainty than we did in 1986 that long term use of anti-psychotics is typically very harmful. Forcing patients to submit to these treatments or making the availability of fundamental resources like housing conditional on taking these drugs is a violation of patients’ constitutional and human rights. It is not done to help patients, but to cater to the demands of the drug companies and the mental health system.
    Seth Farber, Ph.D.

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  16. Michael, this article made me cry. I am now 56 years old. When I was 28 and living in another location, a man who was the age I am now, 57 I believe, came every day to my home to visit me. His intention was purely to see how I was doing because he knew I was entirely alone. He was and is still a writer. He knew that I was, or could be, a writer myself, or that at least I had some talent buried deep inside me.

    I had pimples all over my face from lithium. I shook all over from side effects and had trouble keeping my balance. My speech was slurred. Many people poked fun of me. I spent all day smoking. I watched TV. I figured I had to take the drugs, and that if things went wrong, the doctor would tell me what to do. The doctor told me over and over to return to the mental ward, so I could never go back to college.

    Unfortunately, a former roommate spread some bad rumors. I’ll never know why. She spread a rumor that I was having an affair with my writer friend. Sadly, the rumor took off. He could no longer come visit, he told me, not fully explaining. I left town abruptly. I took years before I fully understood.

    I wrote to him recently. I hope it made him happy to know that I told the doctors to go screw. I returned to college. I earned not only my bachelor’s degree in writing, but my MFA. I’ve written seven books, and am working on my eighth.

    I told I hadn’t forgotten, and that the people that believe in you do make a difference.

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  17. Thank you for sharing this Juliemadblogger. I’m very glad you bravely beat the odds, and received some needed caring from someone who believed in you. Would you please share the titles of your books here with us? I imagine your writing is from the heart and soul.
    Best wishes, Michael

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  18. Michael concludes:”I hope that our society doesn’t persist in the fear-induced reaction that forces people in our communities who are experiencing extreme states to experience violations of their human rights as well.” It will.” writes Seth.

    Unless, we are experiencing the event horizon of R.D. Laing’s prophecy? That through the experience of quiet ordinary people diagnosed with schizophrenia, the light will begin to break into our all too closed mind’s? Closed by way of life’s experience and the vicarious impressions of reality, as it is, which we are raised to label, mind? Because, in my experience of recovery, we are all, as Ronnie described, in a post-hypnotic trance induced in early infancy. Or, as Alexander B Johnson puts it: The delusion is extraordinary by which we exalt language above nature. Our own nature, in my experience of exploring the “self-affectation” process involved in the experience of delusion, which, experientially confirmed for me, personally. John Weir Perry’s statement: psychosis is natures way of setting things right.

    Although, it was a mighty struggle to give up my illusion that I knew myself simply because I can speak, read and write, words. And are words, but surface image labels of reality? As-if, the word schizophrenia, contains the reality of lived-experience. And while the world’s leading psychiatrist’s continue to fight (with words) over whether Bipolar Disorder & Schizophrenia, can be described as the experience of affective & non-affective psychosis, Allen Francis asks us to contemplate, with a mind-less sense of Tolle’s The Power of Now, how: Man is the labelling animal, we can’t stop ourselves from putting a label on everything in sight.

    And as much as I love my brother in arms, Michael Cornwall, I beg you comrade, to feel the internal nature of projection, by which the American psyche, in my humble opinion, is trapped within a taken for granted sense of “us & them.” To paraphrase Australia’s newly minted Prime Minister’s suggestion about our public debate on nuclear energy, we have to take the ideology out the politics of experience and explore the practical realities involved in how we understand, the nature of being human.

    As always, much love,

    David.

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  19. 1st off – why do I have to scroll to the bottom to be able to make a comment ? When I donated money , suddenly , I could comment easily.
    That’s money-driven-courtesy !

    2ndly – to involuntary commit someone or apply force to make someone act less deviant from the norm (who or where can we find the basis of this ‘normal’ behavior) is having the same effect as medication on the brain –
    we will find a way to counteract or circumvent its intent.

    The brain already found ways to circumvent antipsychotica medication to reach its intended objective ; to provide the amiglia with hormones (those delicious phucking hormones 😉 )

    In order to escape the long-hand of psychiatry I introduced a thought of “them small corners” which allows me to circumvent their influence on my freedom of having deviant thoughts.

    Their oppressed POV on me is now being counteracted by me oppressing my especial created actionable thought of those small corners.

    This and the support of God in my life (His omnipotent love for me ‘just as I am’ and not ‘as I should be’ or ‘should become’) strengthened all my resolve to choose a new way of thinking.

    Had it not been for all the ‘bloody’ resistance against my deviance from their imposed ‘norm’ , I wouldn’t have the slightest notion of this kind of thought-power , let alone would I have conjured up this elaborate thought-pattern that frantically searched for a tangible solution !

    You see, God (or IPU (may peace be upon her)) created a inner-compulsive-need for me to get from A 2 B. All hindrance to get there, induced my life-drive to stick to His or Her plan ; to reach my fated destination to B(e) ….

    These involuntary shots of Haldol will drive the thought-motors of the vagabonds into overtime. In time their brains will find ways to circumvent and combat these deliberate & diligent thought up actions to de-liberate these vulnerable people of their liberties and/or sense of liberty.

    As I did , by inventing ‘the little corners’-thought , that liberates me mentally but also has the side-effect of restraining those , who want to ‘de-liberate’ me , from undertaking any actions that would get them exposed to ‘my little-corners’-thought-process & complementary actions , so will these vagabonds invent ways that will minimize or eliminate the risk of receiving ‘involuntary-injections’ and subsequently be stigmatized by society as being physically and mentally ‘deviant humans’.

    Also , I cherish the anguish & fear all others will have when their thoughts feel threatened by this state-implementation of stating the norm for all citizens in the US. (not beyond ! , because the USA is far further down the road of madness than all other western-countries or so called ‘un-civilized’ countries and nations).

    And so I think every hindrance for people to live their lives as they choose to will exceedingly result in extraordinary special ways that restore balance but also will create numerous solutions to psychiatry. I predict those solutions humanity will invent will not be appreciated by the current oppressors a.k.a. our governments.

    Gods omnipotent love is also there for you… Yes you ! You, just as you are !-)

    I interrupt this comment for a important message from Dr. Seuss :

    “Today you are YOU, that is TRUER than true. There is NO ONE alive who is YOUER than you…. ”

    The other day I asked my therapists if he knew any good psychiatric jokes, he said :”I’m afreud not !

    He ran into his doctor’s office screamin :” HELP ME !!! I’m am terribly afraid of palindromes !!”
    Well, in that case I will subscribe you some Xanax !!, his psychiatrist replied.

    That’s all folks… 😀

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