When I lived in Massachusetts I taught yoga and led writing groups for alternative mental health communities. While the organizations I worked for were alternative, many of the students and participants were heavily drugged with psychiatric pharmaceuticals. There was one skinny teenager I’d never have forgotten who listed the drugs he was on for me once in the yoga room after class: a long list of stimulants, neuroleptics, moods stabilizers, far too many drugs and classes of drugs to remember. His slender frame, fair skin and impulsive speech clued me in to how sensitive he was and what a tragedy it was for him to be so heavily drugged. His body moved jerkily and he sometimes got incredibly frustrated in yoga class. Many positions hurt his body in one way or another, and as a skinny, highly sensitive person myself, I could relate to some of his frustration.
There were times he left yoga class in the middle, frustrated he was in so much pain. There were times he stormed out of writing group in a fit, seeming to feel hurt and embarrassed that he hadn’t gotten enough attention or feedback for what he shared. He was the most loyal participant in both groups though.
I felt uncomfortable around him sometimes, concerned at any moment he might have an intense feeling or perception and storm out or accuse me of criticizing him, ignoring him or yelling at him. He was the only teenage client in the community and being on so many psych drugs at that age, which is so angst ridden for most of us anyway, made him a poster boy (in my eyes) of the teen who is constantly seeking attention, immature, lacking in self awareness see sawing between extreme confidence and utter insecurity. He frequently had outbursts of rage and mini tantrums.
In Ayurveda, this constitution he and I share is called vata. Skinny, cold, anxious, erratic, cracking joints, impulsive, sometimes lacking in self control. People who tend toward this constitution are considered to be most easily thrown off balance and need a lot of soothing, nourishment, nurturing the body back to feeling ease (as opposed to a lot of loud stimulation, strenuous exercise or aggressive forms of healing). Vata benefits from warmth, gentle oil massages, consistency, regular habits, regular warm and nourishing meals, meditation, gentle yoga (holding postures and breathing into them slowly), a fairly heavy diet with ample fat, deep breaths, touch, soft soothing music, quiet time and plenty of rest.
Ayurveda teaches that the vata in anyone can get out of balance, but those of us who tend towards vata imbalance, have the hardest time feeling stable and calm. On the other hand we can go into the deepest states of relaxation, trance and meditation (when we actually do) and tend to be highly creative.
The last thing this constitution needs is unpredictable toxic substances like psychiatric drugs taken regularly. These drugs add yet another variable to the mix of things a vata person can be sensitive to and while they may provide instant relief for a vata attack (extreme anxiety, panic, insomnia, erratic eating etc.) taken everyday or regularly, they add yet another factor to deal with in the pursuit of a delicate balance. This factor is an unpredictable one, since makers and dispensers of these drugs have little idea how they work, acknowledging their effects vary drastically from person to person and even moment to moment. The withdrawal process from any dependency creating substance, including these drugs, generally puts even the most stable and steady constitution into a vata attack.
***
After teaching yoga and leading writing groups as alternatives to mainstream mental health care for years in Massachusetts, my own vata nature became weary of the long cold winters and I moved to San Francisco 4 years ago. I lived on the west coast for 4 years before returning to Western Massachusetts for an extended visit. After being back east for a couple of months, I was at the housewarming party of an old friend, and who should walk in but that boy who used to come to my yoga classes and writing groups religiously. And he was no longer a boy; he was now a young man.
I noticed my guard go up right away. He sat across the table from me at this dinner party with long frizzy hair and a healthy looking face. I scanned him for signs of medication but didn’t see any. He looked around the room, 23 now, noting that he knew how he knew everyone there except me.
“I know you from somewhere but I can’t remember where,” he said.
“I know you,” I told him.
“From where?”
“I want to see if you can remember,” I smiled.
“I’m thinking yoga teacher,” he said. I nodded. Did he remember where? “I’m not stupid,” he said, as if reading my mind. “I’m not on drugs anymore. I’m not stupid anymore.”
My answer came faster than I could have gotten it if I’d tried. This healthy looking young man had gotten off all the drugs he’d been on and looked great. I did many double takes throughout the evening when he mentioned things like his job, his roommate, his apartment, friends of his who I knew as well. He had escaped “mentally ill” status and was a thriving member of the community I’d been part of in Massachusetts, the community of dancers, health conscious and creative people there was more his than mine now.
There are many people of all ages who don’t live this success story—this escape from psychiatry and a mental illness identity. It is much more common for me to reconnect with old friends who are heart heartbreakingly drugged up and have lost the twinkle in their eyes. This young man was clear of psych drugs and had gotten it back. He was glowing with health. I told him we need to talk. He had no idea why, he said, and he was curious.
“What could you need to talk to me about after 6 years?” he asked. I asked for his email address and told him I’d be in touch but didn’t say more at the party in front of others. He has a story that must be shared was all I could think. He was eager to give me his contact info and curious what this was about.
I knew I was witnessing him in a way no one else had, based on having been through a similar thing myself. In his journey, I could see my own, right away. Having those witnesses in life was crucial for my own success in exiting and staying out of the psychiatric industry. I wanted to tell his story or help him to do so himself.
Interview:
Chaya: I’d like to interview you about your experiences coming off psych drugs for an article on Mad In America, where I blog. Please let me know if you’d be up for that.
FJ: Yes I’d be interested in talking about my experiences.
Chaya: How did you make the decision to stop taking psych drugs?
FJ: In a documentary I watched about monoculture farming, the American West was described as having been turned into “a sponge onto which we pour chemicals every year.”
When you are on the number and dosage of drugs that I was on at age 18, you become analogous to that: you do not exist; you are simply an entity that can reproduce the thoughts that it is given. First, that means I have no memories of the time period that are in the first person; the ones I have, I see from outside myself. Second, it means that I cannot recall basically anything that I was thinking at the time.
Generally speaking, I give credit for my ability to break the cycle to the fact that I was playing World of Warcraft about 12-14 hours a day in the three months leading up to my becoming sober. Spending such long periods of time entirely isolated from anyone who wished to “pour chemicals” (or dictate thoughts and feelings) into my drug-addled “sponge” was probably what created the space for me to learn what it would take to break out of the spell.
The process went like this:
One evening, I took all the bottles out of the cabinet and threw them away. Since I was unable to sleep without them, by the next morning i was overwhelmed and miserable and it was a fairly easy push for my mother, having dug the bottles out of the trash, to more or less whine and plead me into taking them.
After taking them, I waited for her to leave the house, gathered some kindling, and made a fire. In went all the drugs. Even though I didn’t burn the bottles (I recycled them), the whole house still smelled of burning plastic when I was done.
Chaya: How many and which drugs were you on? Did you go off cold turkey? How was the withdrawal for you?
FJ: I don’t remember which ones, and they changed frequently because of course they didn’t work. At least 3 at the end.
There’s no such thing as “cold turkey.” Any alcoholic will tell you that you either do it or you don’t. After I burned the pills, the insurance wasn’t up for another few weeks and I never took them again.
The withdrawal from the psych chemicals did not affect me. The two effects were that because they controlled my sleep, I was awake from Tuesday to Saturday, even while taking over the counter sleep drugs. (That Tuesday happens to have been one week after Obama was elected).
By that Thursday, I had lost all desire to play video games and I never have since. I do not know why.
The main effect of withdrawal was the severe and prolonged retaliation from those who wished I was still taking them. I can get more into that later; I have to leave for work now.
Chaya: What made you take them in the first place? Pressure from others? Do you remember what classes of drugs you were on and how many was the most you took at any one time?
FJ: I just remembered that I obtained a full list of the drugs, including dosage and reason for taking them, in 2009. Don’t let me forget. After the 4 consecutive nights of sleeplessness, for which regular sleep drugs might as well have been mashed potatoes for all they accomplished, at 11:00am on Saturday I was in a parked car when a thunderstorm hit. I later learned that we had had one of the first tornado warnings ever in November but I only saw one flash. Immediately after that, I felt entirely normal and I slept fine that night and every night after.
The main withdrawal symptom was the retaliation from the people who had been making me take them (my parents). I was thrown out of my mother’s house within 3 weeks, and sent to my father’s house. I was then thrown out of his house 6 weeks later and sent to an apartment with few possessions and no idea how to look after myself.
Withdrawal for me involved the loss of my mother, who I expect to never speak to again, and the revelation that neither of them really cared whether I lived or died – but that, while alive, they had better be controlling my thoughts.
What made me take them is the wrong question. The question is who, and the answer is doctors, parents, and psychologists. I had no say in the matter.
According to the record, this is what I was taking. No dates are available for the first four items. I have no idea how to classify them, that is your job.
Zoloft
Prozac
Paxil
Neurontin, (all begun after January 2002 and ended before July 2003)
Depakote, begun April, 2003 max: 1,000mg **
Risperdal, begun July, 2003 max: 4mg **
Geodon, begun & ended in June, 2004 max: 60mg
Abilify, begun & ended in June, 2004 max: 15mg
Seroquel, begun July, 2004; ended December, 2004 max: 350mg
Fluvoxamine, begun January, 2006 max: 100mg **
Lexapro, begun December, 2006 & ended January, 2007 max: 10mg
Wellbutrin, begun July, 2008 max: 150mg **
The four drugs marked with stars are the ones that I was still under the influence of when I quit. All others ran concurrent to those according to the dates. I have no verification of this other than a typed summary from the doctor, which she copied by hand from a less summarized version of her notes without my supervision. There is no way for my to know if she made any mistakes or omissions, on purpose or by accident.
Chaya: Is there anything you’ve said that you wouldn’t want published?
FJ: I see no shame in the truth, only carnage – and I see little likelihood of me ever reading any medical publication or blog, ever. No offense. So publish whatever you like.
Chaya: Did you know from the very beginning that you didn’t want to take them? Did you ever think they might be beneficial? At what point did you realize they were harming you? And would you describe the harm they did?
FJ: No, I didn’t know that I didn’t want to take them. I didn’t really think much of anything while I was on them, I just acted. I had innumerable physical and emotional ailments while I was on them, but they were always blamed on me, not the drugs. Since I was on drugs, I took that more or less on faith. As soon as I was free of the stupor it occurred to me they might be harmful, but the first evidence I got was when I obtained the drug summary and it listed the same reasons for going on the drugs as for going off them.
In fact, if that paper was fiction it would be quite funny, especially considering how many of the initial symptoms I had completely made up to get me out of trouble.
Chaya: If there was a message you could give to all children/teens who get a label and are told they need to take drugs, what would it be?
FJ: My message to kids would be this: don’t take drugs, they’re bad for you. If you don’t believe me, ask the people who are telling you to take them, because I heard it from them first. As to labels, I heard through the grapevine that if you peel them off the bottle whole, they make great roll-your-own paper for smoking pot.
Oh, wait, which kind of label did you mean?
If you’re under 21 and in school, I would be more worried if you CAN pay attention.
If the people who tuck you in at night can’t stand you, and you DON’T feel sad all the time, then maybe I would wonder if you’re crazy.
Most of the named disorders and diagnoses are pronouncements of normalcy more than anything else.
If you’re hyper and distracted because you eat twinkies for lunch and go to bed at 7:00 pm, that’s not attention deficit, that’s GOOD.
If, on the other hand, you are good at math and science and don’t like being in a gang, you’re not Autistic…you’re just not the same as the other kids.
Besides, the last people who should be name-calling kids are parents and doctors . . . right?
None of this is the kids’ fault though, so it seems strange to be giving the advice to the victims. It’s a bit like writing that young women should always wear sweatpants and use the front door of establishments to reduce the risk of rape.
The only things I would really say directly to kids are these:
1. If you’re going to smoke pot, do it on the weekends so you don’t fall behind on your grades, and
2. If you’re going to commit suicide, blame your parents, not another kid you didn’t get along with.
Brill – I want him to be my friend!
What a brilliant young man and children’s rights activist!
Report comment
Maybe he could get a blog on this site? I’d love to hear more from him
Report comment
Thanks John. It would be great if he wanted to write here!
Report comment
This is such a powerful example of how we, as a society—starting from within families—use drugs, labels and all sorts of insidiously divisive and discriminating tactics as a substitute not only for self-responsibility on the part of adults, but also, even more directly and critically, as a sub for love, caring, respect, and acceptance. That’s about as toxic as I can imagine. How wonderful that FJ was willing to share his experience and perspective, at your prompting.
Great truth-speaking, I hope this story, and other heartfelt testimonials like this, helps to wake people up. Brava again, Chaya!
Report comment
Thanks Alex!!! I completely agree.
Report comment
What I find really depressing about this story is that this kid, who was on all these drugs, was obviously suffering tremendously, and acting out on a regular basis, and yet somehow it was essential to the adults that he remain on all the drugs. It is pretty obvious that they weren’t making his condition any better, and easy to infer that they were making it worse. Why on earth would they continue a treatment that doesn’t improve the condition it is intended to treat????
And yet I see this all the time – kids are given drugs to improve condition A, which brings on condition B, and another drug to “treat” that, which leads to condition C, and pretty soon they’re on 5 drugs and condition A still persists, and condition B is worse than it even was when they had only two drugs (and of course never existed before the first drug), and the kid is in residential treatment because no foster home can handle him and he breaks windows and attacks the staff and THEY STILL THINK THESE DRUGS ARE HELPING!!!!
Good for him for getting off, and thanks to him for the awesome advice. This is such an excellent description of how and why kids get whacked out on 5 drugs at a time, and how parents and treatment providers get off the hook for their failures. Disgusting and yet inspiring.
Thanks as always for your insightful and engaging post!
—- Steve
Report comment
Yes Steve, this is a hopeful but still very sad story. Thank you for your emphatic response. It is important not to lose that level of caring despite how commonplace this type of story has become. Thanks for staying engaged!!!
Report comment
Steve,
You write: Why on earth would they continue a treatment that doesn’t improve the condition it is intended to treat????
This question has baffled me from day one. I kinda expected that the drugs given my son would clear up his psychosis, and no matter what drug he was given, he wasn’t much improved. So the obvious solution in my mind was to get him off the drugs, although he has really only succeeded at present to keeping his medication to the lowest possible dose of one drug. But I am always amazed at how trusting other parents and patients are of their doctors. They don’t trust their own eyes.
Report comment
Yes, there is a huge need for re-learning how to trust our own instincts, bodies and inner knowing.
Report comment
Dr’s don’t trust their own eyes either. In psychiatry they haven’t for decades.
Report comment
Very happy to see FJ’s blog here! Wishing him an awesome and wonderful new life.
That last sentence and some of his other statements really struck me. I seriously contemplated as a teen in the 90s, forced to take Haldol and later Thorazine cocktails. I even planned and started writing the “blame note,” and as I was writing realized and believed from the bottom of my heart that if I killed myself, my parents would be glad. I’ve been lucky tho, drug free and system free for the vast majority of my adult life despite the diagnosis.
Report comment
Thanks Cataract! I’m so grateful both you and FJ broke free!!!! Everyone who breaks free is a gift for us all.
Report comment
es, I read that in a state you yogaed…
Sorry have to practice violin now
LAter (Y)
Report comment
I just looked up “bipolar in teens” as an experiment to see what comes up. http://www.google.com/search?q=bipolar+in+teens
Link after link selling bipolar drugs !
On page 5 of my results I found this http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/11/11/moody-teens-wrongly-diagnosed-with-bipolar-disorder-psychiatrist-claims/
A weak argument against.
My mother got into all this disease mongering bipolar crap she thought “explained everything” just like all the other parents who fall for this scam that preys on the fears of parents wile making billions drugging kids.
No matter what the mix of words on all these teen bipolar drug pushing websites the message to parents is the same: “If you don’t drug your child he she will abuse drugs and/or commit suicide! ”
I hope more teens are finding the truth about big pharma and psych searching online cause its the only “informed consent” information they are going to get !
Report comment
Thanks Copy Cat! You are right, Pharma uses parents fears to sell their products, and with very dangerous and disastrous results!
Report comment
The disease mongers selling bipolar all seem to suffer from pseudologia fantastica !
In psychiatry, pseudologia fantastica, also called mythomania, compulsive lying or pathological lying, is a behavior of habitual or compulsive lying.
“Risk of suicide”….
——————-
The selling of bipolar disorder stresses that the disorder takes a fearsome toll of suicides. And indeed the controversy surrounding the provocation of suicide by antidepressants has been recast by some as a consequence of mistaken diagnosis. If the treating physician had only realized the patient was bipolar, they would not have mistakenly prescribed an antidepressant. Because of the suicide risk traditionally linked to patients with bipolar disorders who needed hospitalisation, most psychiatrists would find it difficult to leave any person with a case of bipolar disorder unmedicated. Yet, the best available evidence shows that unmedicated patients with bipolar disorder do not have a higher risk of suicide.
Storosum and colleagues analyzed all placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trials of mood stabilizers for the prevention of manic/depressive episode that were part of a registration dossier submitted to the regulatory authority of the Netherlands, the Medicines Evaluation Board, between 1997 and 2003 [28]. They found four such prophylaxis trials. They compared suicide risk in patients on placebo compared with patients on active medication. Two suicides (493/100,000 person- years of exposure) and eight suicide attempts (1,969/100,000 person-years of exposure) occurred in the group given an active drug (943 patients), but no suicides and two suicide attempts (1,467/100,000 person-years of exposure) occurred in the placebo group (418 patients). Based on these absolute numbers from these four trials, I have calculated (see Figure S1 showing calculation, and see Figure 2) that active agents are most likely to be associated with a 2.22 times greater risk of suicidal acts than placebo (95% CI 0.5, 10.00).
The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Disorder
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030185
Report comment
What a fortunate young man. I’m so glad he got off drugs and found himself. My son also was able to wean off drugs for his bipolar disorder, and is managing very well as a Ph.D. candidate. I pray he’ll be one of the lucky ones who dodges the bullet for life.
I’m not so lucky. Mental illness has nibbled away at my life and destroyed most of what was good: family, profession, friends. Unmedicated bipolar can be a terribly destructive thing.
And then there are the absolute casualties: friends, relatives, and patients (I’m a pediatrics/adolescent medicine physician, or was until mania took over) who have suicided after going off their meds because they “didn’t need them anymore.” I just had another one recently. I do practice medical acupuncture, and a couple brought their schizophrenic son, actively delusional, to me for treatment. I didn’t feel comfortable treating him, so they brought him to a different practitioner, a very good one, and she treated him for several months with acupuncture and Chinese herbs. Then he hung himself.
Just goes to show that mental illness is something that we cannot make sweeping generalizations about: either “everybody needs medication,” or everybody needs to NOT be medicated.” You have to be intelligent when making these assessments, these choices. You have to be very, very careful, because on both sides of the coin you are taking someone’s life in your hands.
Respectfully,
Laura P. Schulman, MD, MA
http://bipolarforlife.me
Report comment
“Unmedicated bipolar can be a terribly destructive thing.”
Just to say it, I don’t believe in “bi-polar” but I do believe in electromagnetic toxicity.
Report comment
Dr. Schulman,
Good point about not making sweeping generalizations. But at the same time, you can’t assume that because people went off their meds and committed suicide, that proves they needed the meds.
Unfortunately, if people cold turkey psych meds or taper too fast, that can produce suicidal withdrawal symptoms that look like a return of the illness but aren’t. Sadly, because many people have zero support from their doctors in getting off of psych meds, they aren’t warned this could be a possibility and tragically end up committing suicide.
Supplements, including chinese herbs, can also be quite dicey and interact with psych meds in strange ways which may have caused the suicidal ideation. Many people make the mistake of thinking that because something isn’t a drug, it can’t be dangerous when nothing could be further from the truth.
AA
Report comment
Good point AA! When I was about 19 I started taking lots of supplements and vitamins, and looking back I had some very bad effects when I suddenly stopped and started them. Synthetic vitamins are basically drugs of a different variety and we don’t know exactly what they do. Many sensitive people can have strong effects from them, and even withdrawal. Herbs as well can have withdrawal effects. Thanks for bringing this up AA!
While the young person in this interview was able to go cold turkey and get through it okay (it seems), I am aware that for many many many people (myself included) this would be very dangerous. Most times I went off anything cold turkey, I had extreme effects that were worse than anything I was experiencing to begin with. They were never a sign of any perceived “mental illness” returning, but rather my sensitive body detoxing a very potent chemical.
Report comment
Hi Laura,
Since many psych drugs cause suicidality, especially in young people, we need to be even more careful. I’ve also seen them cause (or at least not prevent) suicide in adults. I hope we will be able to address the underlying pain and alienation people experience, and understand better what we need when we feel suicidal, or our loved ones do. Connection and deep respect would be a start. Assuming a drug is a safeguard from suicide is an idea propagated by Pharma and needs to be heavily scrutinized. Especially given how often it has done just the opposite.
Thanks for sharing here.
Warmly,
Chaya
Report comment
When I attempted to end my life because of all the condemning messages I received about myself from my ‘support’—specifically because my psychiatrist pounded into my head that I had ‘lost my dreams,’ because all he could perceive was how confusing my mental chaos was to him–everyone assumed it was because I was no longer taking medication. Whereas, in reality, it was because no one believed I could heal, the way I believed I could heal. I was taking herbs, and it was speculated that it was due to the herbs that I was led to try and kill myself. Then, a doctor suggested angrily and accusatorily that I was manipulative, and a saboteur.
What I most noticed at the time was that no one bothered to ask *me* what was going on with me on the night of my self-harm. When I did try to articulate it, everything that came out of my mouth was somehow turned against me, or simply dismissed as trivial, or even psychotic.
When I came back to life, I turned to healing communities where they understand how we create our realities, and who know how to shift energy for the purpose of healing core issues and energy imbalances.
It seems impossible to move forward with these issues in the mental health community, because it is filled with ‘yeah, but…’ More than anything, what I’ve seen and experienced most from the mental health community is that peoples’ realities are flat out denied, attacked, and turned into diseases. When I first began to talk about having healed fully, at the core, then it became the favorite past-time of the cynical mental health community to look for evidence that I was wrong about myself. They did not succeed, and it they were not happy about it, in fact, rather defensive. It felt very strange to experience this, almost surreal. Certainly, it was confirmation that it was time to leave that toxic world, altogether.
The good news, I discovered as I went along, was that my reality is what it is, for me to live the way I choose. What a concept. Having been part of the mental health world for so long, one way or another, I had somehow come to believe that others knew what was best for me. Looking back, I see how I was influenced to have this negative self-belief–brainwashing, programming, whatever you want to call it, all of it traumatic, one way or another.
When I can own and validate my own reality, and be impervious to negative projections that so many love to cast, including mental health clinicians, then I feel safe and grounded in the world. “Mental illness,’ as we know it today, is simply one big stigma, given that client’s reality is readily dismissed, in favor of a projected reality based on ‘observation,’ which I’ve never seen to be positive, uplifting and affirming, but instead, quite the opposite. I can see how being flooded with this while in a vulnerable and fragmented state could cause a person to want to kill themselves. This is what happened to me, at least. It’s excruciating to live this way, being condemned by those that who call themselves ‘support.’ Leads to hopelessness. That is real, neither medication-induced, nor withdrawal-induced. It’s culturally induced. My personal belief is that shifting our focus, here, would be most valuable.
Report comment
I am glad that this young man has found a way out of an awful chapter in his life. I take issue though with the ‘blame the parent’ in the event of suicide.
When my son was 16, he got many racing thoughts. His brain was very noisy for days on end. I always encouraged him to stay home from school and take it easy; I thought it was anxiety and stress from school. Taking days off from his routine did not help at all. He soon sought solace in street drugs to quell the noise. Those drugs made it worse – for years.
Long, long story short (and I’m talking 12 years) — After losing his 3rd job and a wife, my son sought help from a psychiatrist and found medication that kept the noise and the mania and psychosis under control. At long last he is able to hold a job and was able to walk away from street drugs.
If I had known then what I know now about the very real physiological anomaly in his brain, I would have taken him to a psychiatrist early on and would have supported a plan that included Depakote and lithium. How many pain-filled, anguish-filled years that could have been avoided.
For Mad in America to say unequivocally that all psych meds are bad is dangerous. Those meds saved my son’s life.
I’ll tell you something else, when my son was psychotic, I prayed that he was able to seek help on his own. I prayed that he wouldn’t kill himself. I prayed that he wouldn’t be violent. Yes, one of his 3 hospitalizations was because WE – the parents – took him to the hospital for fear of his safety. The others were of his own accord.
Mad in America posts some good articles, but more often than not anymore, you guys allow some extremely ignorant information. All we need is someone who is psychotic to read that ‘they have to blame the parents’…. are YOU nuts?! Have any of you ever been with someone who is psychotic?!
Report comment
“If I had known then what I know now about the very real physiological anomaly in his brain”
Did you see this physiological anomaly on a medical test ?
The name of the medical test is __________ ?
The cost of the medical test is ________ ?
Please inform us.
Report comment
I witnessed the anomaly with my own eyes. When a brain can’t sleep and can’t stop the racing thoughts – this is not a neurotypical brain. I don’t have to be a car mechanic to know that when the engine is racing, something is not working as it should.
I wish that I would have been able to have my son get an MRI when this anomaly started showing itself.
Report comment
You don’t have to be a mechanic to know you cant fix many engine problems by pouring chemicals into the gas tank.
“The spirit of a man can endure a sick body, but who can bear a broken spirit?” (Prov 18:14)
The mind races when the spirit can’t find peace for what ever reason.
I know that makes no sense at all to the soulless science of psychiatry.
P.S there is no MRI to detect any of these “physiological anomalies.”
Bottom line psychiatry hurts lots of people to but REFUSES to admit that on any level.
They can’t even be trusted to put proper warning labels on there drugs or give patients informed consent to treatment.
Report comment
“I don’t have to be a car mechanic to know that when the engine is racing, something is not working as it should.”
I think it’s electromagnetic toxicity.
Report comment
P.S Did anyone here get this “physiological anomaly” test before being given the psych drugs ?
I didn’t.
Report comment
Nope. I guess they could tell I needed drugs just from looking at me… or perhaps from my superhuman strength…
Report comment
@3grieffilledmom,
1. “I take issue though with the ‘blame the parent’ in the event of suicide.” You can take issue with whatever you want, but sometimes a child’s suicidality is a response to ridiculously horrible and/or inept parenting. This may not be true in your case, but it happens often. I can attest to that.
2. “At long last he is able to hold a job and was able to walk away from street drugs.” So your son stopped illegal drugs and started taking legal drugs. Congratulations. If everything is so dandy these days, then why isn’t your son on here saying so? Why are you the one saying so?
3. “For Mad in America to say unequivocally that all psych meds are bad is dangerous. Those meds saved my son’s life.” Mad in America never said any such thing. There are diverse opinions around here. The presence of your own comment proves this. Personally, *I* do think that all psych drugs are dangerous, just as all street drugs are dangerous. What’s also dangerous is unquestioning belief – in anything.
4. “All we need is someone who is psychotic to read that ‘they have to blame the parents’….are YOU nuts?! Have any of you ever been with someone who is psychotic?!” I find these comments highly offensive. I would very much like to know who you think you are to shamelessly display such bigotry. Is that how you talk to your son?
(If your son was here, I would tell him that, though I personally think psych drugs are useless, life-threatening garbage, he should do what he thinks is best for himself. I would politely suggest that he look at the research. That is what respect looks like.)
Report comment
Hi 3grief,
The opinion that the parents should be blamed was stated flippantly (I think) by this young man. I don’t believe the parents should be blamed. In fact blaming in general doesn’t exactly breed compassion. My concern about Pharma is that they use the fear of blame and guilt so many parents have to sell their drugs. It’s not an either or: parents are to blame or brain is to blame and drugs are the only answer. There has to be a response that is compassionate to both children and parents.
Report comment
Did you find my post on Md Junction before it was removed ?
Here on this site all views are welcome, I hope you keep reading, writing here.
Report comment
Dear 3greifilledmom, I have spent many hours with several people who were either psychotic (if you believe in that label) or who had recently been so.
I tried to keep them away from services.
Generally they calmed down with understanding. It’s hard work and I wish services existed which could provide that for you and your son. However very few exist. So I’m sure you did the best you could.
Once, my head was racing. Someone very kindly listened and taught me some simple meditation techniques. It helped a little and in the morning it had worn off. I can’t say this would work for everyone but it worked for me and I was very grateful to the person who helped me.
I hope things get better for you and your son
Report comment
I really got the impression that the author was addressing (facetiously) those whose situations were similar to his own. I was unable to tolerate valproate (Depakote) and lithium. I’ll spare you the complete horror story, which involved choking up clots of blood the size of chicken livers. My parents still forced me to take them, after for whatever reason the Thorazine was no longer possible. Perhaps they were annoyed because I couldn’t stay conscious enough to swallow my food or control my bladder. Internally bleeding to death wasn’t as inconvenient. But if I had killed myself, I shouldn’t have blamed them? Who should I have blamed? Some parents are really, really abusing their kids and I wish people would stop getting so gosh darn offended when someone dares to stop pretending like it never happens.
Report comment
Psychiatry cures Dual Diagnosis the “disease” of drug addiction.
It’s like this:
Imagine that there is a nasty disease that kills 50% of the people who get it. A pharmaceutical company has a new medicine that they want to test. So they give the drug to a bunch of the people who have the disease, and 50% of them get better.
The drug manufacturer cheers and brags, “Look at how great our new medicine is! We saved half of the patients!”
Wrong. The new drug saved nobody. The half who survived were the ones who were going to survive anyway. The drug had an effective zero percent cure rate, above and beyond normal spontaneous remission.
To compute the success rate of any medicine or treatment program, you have to subtract the normal rate of spontaneous remission from the apparent success rate. In this example, fifty percent minus fifty percent yields a zero percent success rate for the new medicine. The new medicine didn’t make anybody recover.
(And if the survival rate of the patients who were taking the new medicine was less than half, then the new medicine was actually poisoning people and keeping them from recovering.)
Thus, an psychiatric treatment program that seems to have an 10 % success rate treating addiction probably really has a zero percent success rate — it is just taking credit for the spontaneous remission that is happening anyway.
The commonest reason for quitting drinking and doing drugs is because people just get sick and tired of being sick and tired, and wish to avoid death.
Report comment
I put a link here in this forum to this post “Interview with a Survivor” and it was removed.
http://www.mdjunction.com/forums/parents-of-bipolar-children-discussions/general-support
This is the webs greatest testimonial of harm done to kids by psychiatry written by the very people doing that harm in that name of help. They never stop with the advice to ‘find the right meds’ no matter how badly the kids suffer from the meds before them. Please sign up and post. Its easy, if they delete your account simply sign up for a new one.
Report comment
“Mdjuction Parents of Bipolar Children” http://www.mdjunction.com/forums/parents-of-bipolar-children-discussions/medicine-treatments This has to be the webs greatest collection of psychiatric horror stories.
Report comment
Banned in 10 minutes.
Report comment
The 12 Steps Of Antipsychiatry
RARELY HAVE we seen a person who has thoroughly followed the psychiatric path and recovered. Those who do recover are usually people who have recognized Psychiatry as a dangerous anti-religious atheist cult, and will not give themselves completely to Psychiatry’s fanatical program. The Psychiatry Cult the A.P.A is constituted primarily of men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with anyone… including themselves.
We are not at fault; WE were screwed the second we sat on the leather couch. We were systematically indoctrinated into believing that we have a biologically based brain defect. Psychiatrists should be held accountable for the behavior that has destroyed so many lives. Many APA members suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders. The psychiatric program requires that they believe mental patients can never recover and must take dangerous pills for the rest of there lives. Most of the people who quit Psychiatry have recovered in large part, due to their self-determination and ability to act rationally. Our stories disclose in a general way what We used to be like, what happened, and what We are like now.
If You have decided You want to leave Psychiatry and are willing to go to any lengths to do it – then You are ready to take certain steps.
At some of these We were delighted. We were sure that We had found a more sound and reasonable way. With all of the earnestness at our command, We encourage You to be resolute and confident from the very start. Some of Us have tried to hold on to Our old Psychiatric ideas and the result was nil until We let go absolutely. Remember that WE deal with Psychiatry – cunning, baffling, dishonest! Continuing the mental masturbation was too much for us.
May You trust and believe in Yourself now! Delusions and psychiatric nonsense availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We learned to protect and care for Ourselves with complete self-acceptance. Here are the steps we took which are encouraged as a course of action to escape the Psychiatric mind trap…
1. We decided We were “Not Powerless” over our problems – that our lives had become dominated by Psychiatry.
2. Came to understand that we never had a biological brain defect as psychiatric fundamentalists had led us to believe.
3. Made a decision to turn and walk away from Psychiatry forever.
4. Made a scorching and fearless indictment against Psychiatry as an organization.
5. Admitted to Ourselves and another Human Being that We had been tricked into joining an atheist cult (psycho-education).
6. Were entirely ready to rid Ourselves of the self-defeating Bullsht We were taught by Psychiatry.
7. Familiarized Ourselves with cult indoctrination tactics in order that We may never fall into a similar trap again.
8. Made a list of all Psychiatry-members who had harmed Us, and became willing to confront them all.
9. Called such people on their Bull whenever possible, except when to do so would really injure them or others.
10. Continued to indict Psychiatry and when we were wronged promptly expressed our disapproval of it.
11. Sought scientific empirical evidence that could help Us to defeat there BullSh^t and lies; focusing on Ourselves as the Power to carry that out.
12. Having been awakened from the Psychiatric nightmare as a result of these steps, We tried to carry this message to other victims of Psychiatry, so that everyone might know the truth about the Psychiatric cult and big pharma lies.
Report comment
This is hilarious!!! Love it. Spread it around.
Report comment
Great article, Chaya.
Report comment
Thanks Ted!
Report comment