If You Don’t Have Anything to Hide, You Don’t Have Anything to Worry About

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Today President Obama stripped everyone who is subjected to forced in-home treatment of their second amendment constitutional rights.

The federal law prohibiting the purchasing or possession of a firearm had applied to people who had been involuntarily hospitalized. Not anymore. Now tens of thousands of people under community involuntary commitment in over 40 states, have suddenly lost one of their constitutional rights.

Not since the Patriot Act that was rushed through congress after 9/11 have I seen such fear mongering as I have in recent months, aimed at creating an “us vs. them” of good citizens vs. “the enemy within.”

The Patriot act was aimed at finding enemies of the state who were terrorists, but it  soon also fulfilled the mission implicit in its name.

If you were a US citizen who opposed the loss of civil liberties and privacy that the Patriot act demanded, then your patriotism was at risk of being in question.

The saying went “If you don’t have anything to hide, then you don’t have anything to worry about.”

Now many seem to be saying “If you are not a treatment resistant mental patient, then you don’t have anything to worry about. If you comply and take your meds, the proposed national forced treatment Murphy legislation – or Kendra’s or Laura’s laws – won’t force you to take meds in your own home, and if that forced treatment isn’t deemed necessary, then you get to keep your second amendment rights too!”

But wait a minute.

Are we the new terrorists?

In a country where one out of four women carry a DSM psychiatric diagnosis to qualify them for their psychiatric medication prescriptions, and one out of five US citizens are diagnosed and prescribed psychiatric medications, what kind of slippery slope are we on here?

Because gun violence is driving the demonization of people with psychiatric labels, aren’t we facing the probability that every prescription for psych meds is being run through a justice department or law enforcement data system, to be matched against criteria for the med recipient being a potential danger to the community?

Aren’t people with psychiatric labels being treated as if we are a potential new danger to homeland security?  Indeed, last month a paraplegic Canadian citizen was denied entry to the U.S. because of her prior hospitalization for depression – private information that was inexplicably in the possession of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

We who have been, or are, or will be mad, depressed, extremely scared, we who deviate from the social norm in the expression of our emotions and the content of our thinking, are being raised up as the threatening ones now in the public’s perception. We are smeared as bringers of violence and death on Sixty Minutes by E. Fuller Torrey and APA president Jeffrey Lieberman, who hold up MRI images that show supposedly diseased brains, right next to images of supposedly normal brains, as evidence of what is so wrong with us that we deserve extraordinary measures by society.

I’m worried about people I know and love who are now or may get caught up in this dragnet of public hysteria that is stoked by craven politicians and true-believer psychiatrists.

Of course the pharma profiteers profit as usual, and the NAMI decades-long political agenda of in-home forced treatment as the law of the land, nears its full realization.

It’s been a long time since I have been in a madness process myself, but I felt the cold hand of fear touch me today when I read the latest move by our government to tighten control over people with histories like mine.

I believe that most of the horrific mass shootings that were done by very lost young men at Columbine and since were catalyzed by the negative effects of the psychiatric drugs the young men were taking.

I wonder if the dark visions of Orwell and Huxley, who imagined a future where deviance was silenced for the perceived safety and greater good of all, may be coming to pass.

The justice department decree today, broadening the scope of second amendment restrictions, talked about it being a “common sense” solution.

In a remarkable letter to George Orwell by Alduous Huxley about Orwell’s book 1984, Huxley said he didn’t believe Orwell’s  prophetic version of the future would happen, where a “boot in the face” big brother government would rule. Instead, Huxley believed, a more friendly fascistic state would emerge, where the individual would lose their freedom in a torpor of emotion-numbing sedation that was required in the name of “efficiency”, a kind of commonsense approach to pacifying the masses.

There is some of that sinister commonsense advice that makes me cringe in the messages we hear these days; “If you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have anything to worry about.”

And, “If you aren’t a resistant mental patient who won’t take their meds, then you may be allowed to be free to walk among us.”

* * * * *

Of further interest:

Stopping Mentally Ill Gun Buyers (Editorial in the New York Times)

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71 COMMENTS

  2. I hope this opens the eyes of many of my fellow right wingers who have been pushing the bumper sticker “take away the guns of the mentally ill” for some time.

    Few MIA readers need to be convinced that psychiatry is the new inquisition, ie, the institution that governments worldwide use to exert social control outside the criminal justice system, but unfortunately, not everybody shares that view. This has to be used to our advantage.

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  3. Thank you for this article, Michael. We in the movement for human rights in the mental illness system need to pay closer attention to what is going on here.

    I do think one important way to fight back is to carry out actions that show regular people that psychiatric power can be used against them too. Torrey and those who support him try to frame any discussion, such as it is, as an issue, as you say,that only affects strange weird people who wander the streets ready to kill people. The fact is, of course, is that this policy will affect many people who don’t think of themselves as “mental patients.” Just look at what is being done in Boston to Justina Pelletier and her parents.

    They better wake up. We have to help them wake up.

    As for your question, are people with psychiatric labels the new terrorists, I am not sure if that is the question to ask.

    Although I know that the conventional wisdom is that no one should dare to say this, I think our position is more like that of the Jews in Nazi Germany in the early 1930’s. Then too, the German (and world) economy was in desperate shape, and the powers that be needed people other than themselves to blame it on. Anti-Semitism in Germany was nothing new, but the Nazis whipped it up to mass hysteria.

    Bigotry against crazy people is nothing new either, but right now it is being exploited to take the public’s attention away from what those in power are doing, looting our country for the benefit of a tiny elite. There is nothing new in this. It’s been done before, and it is important to look at the details of what was done before.

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  5. Michael,

    I’ve mentioned more than once on MIA that I’m a proponent of upholding constitutional rights for all people, including (and especially) for those who have been marginalized. Not *special* rights, but *equal* rights.

    This includes second amendment rights.

    At the risk of being seen as a redneck, I grew up in the Hill Country of Texas. I knew very few kids who hadn’t learn to fire a rifle or shotgun by the time they were teenagers (with their dads). Many of us went hunting and target shooting, sometimes with pistols. Guns were a way of life. We were respectful of them, but not “afraid” of them. They were objects, not people.

    I have mentioned on MIA that I have undergone some unspeakable trauma in my life.

    I rarely speak of these things, but I would like to bring up a couple of events that took place in the context of this subject. I survived an armed robbery while in a retail store, where the perpetrator of the crime held a shotgun to the base of my skull. On another occasion, I was out to eat with my wife (who was in her third trimester at the time. An armed man came into the restaurant. We climbed under the table and plead for our lives.

    On both occasions, I wish I would have had a gun to protect myself. Or that someone else would have. We waited for several minutes for the police to arrive in each of these events. We were at the mercy of those perpetrators. They could have decided to kill any or all of us at their whim. And there is *nothing* we could have done about it.

    The police finally arrived in both events (it felt like hours) – with *guns* by the way (for those who constantly chant that guns are bad).

    The idea that a group has now been targeted in this fashion is inexcusable.

    “First they came for the Communists,
    and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Communist.
    Then they came for the Socialists,
    and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Socialist.
    Then they came for the trade unionists,
    and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
    Then they came for me,
    and there was no one left to speak for me.”
    – Pastor Martin-Niemöller

    I’m frightened by what I see taking place with this government of ours. From spying on people, to forcing people to buy health insurance, to arbitrarily taking away second amendment rights. It’s as if tyranny has taken hold, and most people are fast-asleep.

    Duane

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    • Please forgive the typos. I was emotional while writing. Also, to clarify, the police arrived *after* the perpetrators had already left in both events.

      In terms of my concerns about the losses of freedom in this country… For the record, I have close friends who are both Democrats and Republicans; some who would describe themselves as liberal; others moderate, conservative, even libertarian.

      I hope we can find common ground here, when it comes to protecting the most basic rights; those guaranteed in the constitution.

      Your brother,
      Duane

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  6. Thanks for this post, Michael. This news is chilling.

    The FOXNEWS website described Obama’s two new executive action proposals as follows:

    “One proposal would formally give permission to states to submit ‘the limited information necessary to help keep guns out of potentially dangerous hands,’ without having to worry about the privacy provisions in a law known as HIPAA.”

    “The other proposal would clarify that those who are involuntarily committed to a mental institution — both inpatient and outpatient — count under the law as ‘committed to a mental institution.’ According to the administration, this change will help clarify for states what information to provide to the background check system, as well as who is barred from having guns.”

    (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/03/obama-administration-proposes-new-executive-actions-on-gun-background-checks/)

    They want to enter people on AOT (forced outpatient drugging) into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. (Here’s a very interesting FBI brochure for that System: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/general-information/nics-index.) This is a continuation of the criminalization of “the mentally ill.” Not only does the government want one’s Second Amendment rights, but it will take them from one by violating one’s HIPPA rights, and by putting one on a Federal list. Yes, here’s The List.

    And it would be silly – in my opinion – to think that that, in this era of government agency “information sharing,” this list will only be used to violate one’s Second Amendment rights.

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  7. Real power is achieved when the ruling class controls the material essentials of life, granting and withholding them from the masses as if they were privileges.

    – George Orwell

    But, has that happened yet?

    If you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have anything to worry about

    There is a difference between privacy and secrecy.

    People go a bit insane and rabid when they smell privacy. They don’t know the difference between privacy and secrecy.

    Be careful if we want some PRIVACY in this world! They’ll witch hunt. They’ll torment and torture. Torture is the method used to extract information! Sometimes they PUT what they want to be there.

    Anonymity is becoming discouraged and disallowed. I got notice from Facebook that I MUST use my real name. YouTube is also trying to FORCE people to use their real name.

    Government is SO POSSESSIVE with information that it has been impossible to access my own information and records! There’s a difference between privacy (and “security”), and taking full ownership, possession and control. When they succeed, they call it “complete”.

    They’re restricting guns because they know the level of unfortunate JUSTIFIED hostility has peaked. They’re restricting guns because they know the end of the road where “kill, it’s such a friendly word, seems the only way for reaching out again” (Metallica, Sanitarium).

    When I want the NEWS I read music lyrics. Here’s a word from B.o.B called “The Watchers”

    “The Watchers”

    Yes, I feel the end, the end is close
    The same thing happened eons ago
    To know exactly you have to read up some more
    Everyday technology speeds up some more
    As is above, so is below
    Some feel the heat, yet some feel the cold
    We are the souls, yes we have been chose
    Some roll with angels and demons and ghosts
    But shh, hold up Bob, Don’t go there
    You know that they watching, they all see and stare
    But they can’t stop me, I’m already there
    And y’all ain’t seen shit but y’all already scared
    I’m gone, high like fructose, fructose
    You wanna know the truth, really, you don’t, you don’t
    It’ll blow ya out ya mind like a UFO, UFO
    I’m basically a resident of Pluto, Pluto
    You know, but you’ll probably be the same one hating
    Saying every rapper is in the freemasons
    While the cops giving out free mace to your face
    Now how do that taste? I’m outta my mind
    These video’s tellin’ ya’ll lies, bruh
    Tellin ya’ll, we holding evil hand signs bruh
    Last time I checked I’m from the eastside bruh
    So do your research and make ya own mind up
    ’cause us musicians have influence on the mic
    But they don’t like that so they conquer and divide
    Double-H N-D, hip hop never dies
    So shoot all you want, but we fly
    Because you know, no one man should have all that power
    Obviously cause it’s only one power
    But nevermind, y’all keep worshiping Towers
    While the clock keeps handing y’all hours
    But pucker up because the truth gets sour
    More sour than the sour diesel I devour
    Hear me by the hour, I give ya fifty vowels
    When I brain storm its like a shower
    So pull out your towels
    And don’t let ’em play you
    Do your own thing
    Fuck what they do
    And if you good at something make sure they pay you
    And if not then take a thank you
    Whether they praise you, or whether they hate you
    It’s all about the attention that they pay you
    Y’all on that grape drink
    Try this grape juice
    Shouts to Grand Hustle
    We got that break through
    And yes, it’s evident we better than the rest of these competitors
    Really there ain’t no-one else ahead of us
    Yeah I bust these verses off et cetera, et cetera
    Cause they watching y’all like the Federers, owww
    Kadoish, kadoish, kadoish, Adonai Tsebayoth
    It’s B.o.B and I’m out
    Peace!

    http://youtu.be/v4bo_UaKWWk

    Privacy is good. Secrecy implies sickness & criminality.

    The all-seeing eye of the triangle! Oh, but this world has two primary set of eyes: sexualize and criminalize.

    World under surveillance, “security” cameras, is an invasion of privacy in my eyes.

    Here’s some voyeurism. I wonder how many of these people DON’T know that there’s some person watching them on a live feed, right now.

    http://www.earthcam.com/usa/florida/miamiandthebeaches/?cam=miamibeach1

    If they have a problem with the fact that some stranger is watching them, there isn’t anything they can do about it except stay off the beach.

    earthcam.com is only one website of live feed cameras to view.

    To me, the world at large is an unapprehended criminal. It seems that a majority of people see government itself as THE criminal, with some people going “nuts” over some “new world order” government.

    George Orwell, big brother government, new world order, world under surveillance, webcam live feeds, mass psychosis, severe mental illness…

    It’s a sick world after all
    It’s a sick world after all
    It’s a sick world after all

    It’s a sick, sick world.

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  8. Today, we call for a National Mental Health Offender Registry, referred to from herein as the “MHOR“. The MHOR would be modeled upon the already existing National Sex Offender Registry, but it would not be limited to those who’ve been convicted of criminal offenses. A serious mental health offense exists by application of any diagnosis by a mental health clinician, and anyone so diagnosed would be included in the registry and denied the freedoms guaranteed by the bill of rights of the untied states constitution…

    What should you do if freedoms and rights are important to you ?

    I would refuse any psychiatric evaluation, treatment or diagnosis based upon the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as such diagnoses are unreliable. According to Allen Frances, who was chairman of the fourth edition of DSM, “There are no objective tests in psychiatry—no X-ray, laboratory, or exam finding that says definitely that someone does or does not have a mental disorder.”

    By not going anywhere near a mental health professional for any reason at all no matter what such codes and descriptions would not be entered into my medical records as this unreliable and unscientific information will remain in my records and remove my rights as an American Citizen.

    “The saying went “If you don’t have anything to hide, then you don’t have anything to worry about.””

    How about this nightmare ?

    I am your enemy. I’m the co-worker who’ll will do anything to get you fired or angry you got me fired. I’m the neighbor who hates you. I’m the ex-wife, ex-husband angry ex-lover who calls 911 and says you are not well and planning to kill yourself…

    Say goodbuy to your rights forever, you loose !!

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    • … or the child molester who wants to cover up his abuse of your child, or his pastor who aids and abets by refusing to baptize your daughter. Then calls and demands your husband take you to his therapist friend because you’re confused by such an appalling pastoral sin, and the societal insanity that occurred concurrent with it on 9.11.2001.

      Or the primary care physician whose paranoid of a malpractice suit because her husband was the “attending physician” at the “bad fix” on your broken bone.

      These crimes are already happening, it happened to me. This is “the dirty little secret of the two original educated professions,” as my subsequent pastor explained to me. The psychiatrists bribed all those in power with their ability to get the evil, greedy, and unethical in charge decades ago.

      How sad this may be how psychiatry pulls off another holocaust. I pray to God history does not actually repeat itself. Mr. President, please abide by the Constitution instead.

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  9. (my comments to the recent NY Times article Obama Announces Gun Control Actions, related to the above, linked below)-

    Per your article-“While the vast majority of Americans who experience a mental illness are not violent, in some cases when persons with a mental illness do not receive the treatment they need the result can be tragedies such as homicide or suicide.”-President Obama:

    Psychiatric patients subjected to the drug/shock oriented ‘treatment’ of mainstream psychiatry often do become very physically ill, disabled, and possibly violent or suicidal as the result of this form of treatment, not as the result of an inherent, labeled mental illness, as those promoting psychiatric treatment often suggest. Current drug black box warnings, and independent research provide overwhelming evidence of this, as well as the facts about the mental health/ psychiatric ‘treatment’ histories of the ‘mass shooters’ and others-

    The President’s statement is true, but is only a partial address of the problem. Yes, suicides and homicides do tend to sometimes follow mainstream psychiatric treatment- not the kind of treatment the offenders needed. The prior psychiatric treatment received by those who commit violent crimes needs independent investigation and disclosure, without the influences of the special interests and lobbies of the drug industry, and psychiatry.

    Can the President and others elected to serve ‘the people’ overcome the influence of these special interests and lobbies?- jim keiser , Page admin https://www.facebook.com/jpkeis (Mental health/psychiatric watchdog & reform activity) http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/03/obama-announces-gun-control-actions/?smid=fb-share

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    • I agree,

      They should put a black box warning on everything psychiatry does. Your wording is perfect.

      | IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION and INDICATION for psychiatric patients subjected to the drug/shock oriented ‘treatment’ of mainstream psychiatry often do become very physically ill, disabled, and possibly violent or suicidal as the result of this form of treatment, not as the result of an inherent, labeled mental illness. |

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    • From the article:

      “… After the legislation failed, Mr. Obama vowed to take whatever steps his administration could through executive action. He later issued 25 executive orders intended to tighten the rules for gun ownership.”

      Executive orders.
      Always the same thing.
      When something cannot get passed through the legislative process, he just issues an executive order.

      He has a “my way or the highway” leadership style.

      Is this the president or some kind of dictator?
      Is this America or Cuba?

      Sorry to get into politics (something I think rarely does any good on this site), but I’ve had enough of this tyranny and this tyrant! Sue me.

      Duane

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  10. That Conn school shooting started alot of this.

    FACT: Psychiatric drugs kill far more kids every year than school shooters but our government fears the pharma industry with it’s agenda to label and drug as many kid as possible. Our govt is SCARED to say a word about it for some reason.

    Are leaders who run around wearing red or blue ties like gang colors fighting with each other like rival street thugs instead of acting like leaders or tying to actually solve problems.

    Its pathetic.

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  11. Thank you for writing this article Michael. It is important to speak out about these matters. The issue of how psychiatric drugs can and do CAUSE violent behaviour -towards the self and others, is an important one. This needs to be highlighted, in order to counter the relentless stigmatising them and us “brain disease” propaganda, which suits and is backed by Big Pharma, psychiatry, political and other vested interests, and which can be unquestioningly presented to the public by the media.

    These interests do not care who they hurt or the damage they do to individuals and to society in the process. I believe that certain vested interests are deliberately using these violent incidents to serve their own agendas. Truth has gone out of the window and is of no concern whatsoever to them. In reality, they are the ones whose sanity and capacity to lead should be called into question!

    The evidence needs to be presented more clearly to the public, so that we can come to a realisation of the truth of the matter, the real dynamics involved and the lies we are being fed. All is not what it seems! The public needs to become better informed, more critically minded, more questioning and much less gullible.

    Here are some relevant links.

    Medication Madness:The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Murder, by Peter Breggin:

    http://www.breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/medication-madness-how-ps_b_223922.html

    Forbes Unpublishes Commentary on Medication/Violence Link

    http://www.madinamerica.com/2013/01/forbes-unpublishes-commentary-on-medicationviolence-link/

    Mass Violence linked to prescribed psychiatric medication:

    http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ssriviolence.php

    Psychology Today: Psychiatric Drugs and Violence:

    http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mad-in-america/201101/psychiatric-drugs-and-violence-review-fda-data-finds-link

    David Healy: Psychotropic drugs and violence:

    YouTube:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCta8I0pKqM

    Vimeo:

    http://vimeo.com/67245935

    Website:

    http://wp.rxisk.org/violence-zone/

    CCHR International: Psychiatric Drugs & Violence – The Facts

    http://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/drug_warnings_on_violence/

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  12. Michael, thank you how very much for writing your article and for the NY Times editorial link. I too am very alarmed by this latest affront to our human, second amendment and privacy rights. And thanks Duane for the Pastor Martin-Niemöller poem. I find it very telling. The statement, “If you don’t have anything to hide you don’t have anything to worry about” can also be translated to “Big Brother is watching you”.

    This part of yesterday’s article is especially revealing:

    …the White House said health insurance organizations would be extended “an express permission” to furnish to federal authorities “the limited information necessary to help keep guns out of potentially dangerous hands.”

    I wonder if that agreement had been pre-arranged between the corporate health insurance industry and this corporatist government, for their mutual benefit. Interesting that it was announced just after the ACA became effective on January 1.
    And interesting, that it takes place in the midst of our growing recognition of our government’s illegal spying on its own citizens.

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  13. Thanks Michael and everyone else for your usual illuminating writings and comments.

    I can’t believe that this monstrous evil, murderous fraud of the biopsychiatry/Big Pharma/Corrupt Government Hacks is being forced on citizens in most so called democracies of the world when the mental death profession has made them even worse than Stalinist Russia. It is no secret that Obama and his cohorts sold out to Big Pharma and other corrupt entities to get his Obamacare through.

    Is this “new” terror agenda against the so called mentally ill another murder plot against the vulnerable and powerless a la Nazi Germany’s gassing to death of the so called mentally ill for practice of bigger and better things to come while providing another handout/free lunch to Big Pharma, Congress and the quacks of biopsychiatry?

    The fact that so much information has been made available about biopsychiatry’s deadly, fascist, murderous agenda by many even within the profession no less, it is obvious that this latest rounding up of what Hitler called “human vermin” is another despicable scapegoating enterprise so that we can once again see just how low certain members of our so called human race can stoop. This monstrous evil is explained in the book and web site Political Ponerology as well as in books on psychopaths and sociopaths by Dr. Robert Hare, Dr. Paul Babiak, Dr. Martha Stout. Dr. Reid Melloy, Dr. Hervey Cleckley, Dr. Theodore Millon, Dr. John Clarke and a growing number of others. Many other authors write about malignant narcissists also robbing one and all of their humanity as did the chief example, Psychiatrist Robert Spitzer, when he created the horrific DSM III treating humans like rock specimens as he did in real life when he denied any social or other human causes for people’s distress while blaming their supposed diseased brains.

    Anyway, I have nothing but contempt for the evil fiends promoting this despicable, fraudulent, fascist, predatory, psychopathic agenda for greed, profit, power, sadism, eugenics and other vile purposes to further enhance the 1%. Anyone who stands by or aids and abets this latest human holocaust against the vulnerable has no conscience whatsoever, the chief problem with psychopaths and malignant narcissists or evil people!! Bear in mind EVIL is LIVE spelled backwards as Dr. M. Scott Peck said in his book on human evil, The People of the Lie.

    Here is a great web site about a lot of the fraud of biopsychiatry though I don’t agree with all the author of this web site says and does:

    http://1boringoldman.com/

    Of course, we have had plenty of excellent articles here with many great references to others and great books, so obviously, this assault on the so called “mentally ill” has nothing to do with hell or safety if one considers all those destroyed and murdered in the name of “mental health.” Let’s at least call a spade a spade and not aid and abet these monsters who lie, steal and murder with impunity!

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    • I meant “health or safety,” but I guess the “devil” made me write “hell or safety” when writing about such horrific evil making so many lives a literal health on earth!!

      Wish we had the numbers for all those victims murdered by the mental death profession which includes the lobotomized as well as those stigmatized, terrorized and robbed of everything that ever mattered to them with horrible lives shortened by about 25 years on average by these brain/body/soul murderers. Great book on such fiends called Stalking the Soul: Emotional Abuse and the Erosion of Identity.

      Again, Gaslight is a great movie showing exactly how the mental death profession and its cohorts rob people of their sanity and why: for greed and wealth just like the Charles Boyer character murdering and gas lighting for his own insane desire for the victims’ jewels!! This movie makes the crazymaking goals/motives of biopsychiatry, Big Pharma and corrupt politicians as well as their many enablers and patsies all too clear. There are online videos of this great movie and access through libraries.

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      • See, I can’t stop equating health and hell thinking about the mental death profession, so I won’t call this one a typo…the devil made me due it to show his great power over us? At least metaphorically for nonbelievers!!??

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  14. Pretty pathetic when even people like Dr. Steingard says she tries to avoid going to the doctor due to all the corruption. Guess that’s the only safe thing to do now unless you are bleeding to death or dying since if you aren’t yet, the corrupt medical profession will make sure you’ll be dying of something real soon to become a permanent customer of this sordid cartel with a fraud “diagnosis” and toxic drugs whether SSRI’s and/or Statins!

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  15. Hi Michael.

    Thanks for the excellent article. I have just one question–for the “If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear” folks–

    Why do I have to hide my psychiatric history in order to retain my human rights, my professional credentials, my employment and my dignity. Truly, I have nothing to hide. And it has been a horrible ride at times.

    Sharon Cretsinger, Founder, Director, Psychiatric Survivor
    Kent Empowerment Center
    Kent, Ohio

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  16. Thank you, Michael. This is very disturbing. I am actually in favor of a gun-free world, but I can see that this is just the beginning of a very dangerous situation. Human rights are being systematically stripped from those we care deeply for, our brothers and sisters.

    Sending love,
    Dorothy

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    • Thanks for writing Dorothy,
      I hope there is a gun free world too someday!

      The post 9/11 neo-McCarthyism that is ratcheting up now seems to be asking us and our brothers and sisters-

      “Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the potentially dangerous, mental patient second class citizen population?”- Instead of the witch hunt days interrogation question- “Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the communist party?”
      Sending love,
      Michael

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  17. Mike, it’s not a problem to identify what’s wrong. We can all pretty much do that. It’s more a problem of how to change and do what’s right and get others to do the same. The gun control folks are quick to piggy-back on the scare tactics of E. Fuller Torrey and others who claim that (horror!) we’ve got one in five with “mental illness.” I think SAMHSA and others should start using those but flip them in the positive. We’re doing a great job! We’ve got 80 percent who are mentally healthy. If we just work at it a bit more, we should be able to increase that number significantly! The whole thing isn’t about gun control. It’s about people control and we’ve got to fight this battle on all fronts. There is movement to destroy our privacy rights (by NAMI and other family members). There is movement to forcibly “treat” (drug) us in our own homes. Soon, there’ll be a national data base showing which of us fall into that 20% category and they’ll be showing up at our door with injections to keep us under control. At least until we die over 25 years too young. Can you say euthanasia? I hope all is well in California. I know of someone in your county who is homeless and looking for help to keep his sister from committing him to outpatient treatment. Where can he turn for help?

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    • Hi Pat, good to hear from you! I just sent you an email to your gmail address with some ideas for helping the man in Contra Costa.
      Hoping all is well up your way- smiling remembering our time on the Coalition. I love what you wrote above- back in the day we didn’t have to worry about a national data base tracking everyone- now it’s really Big Brother time.
      Mike

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  18. Great article by Dr. Philip Hickey on the unanswered question about the Sandy Hook Massacre:

    http://www.behaviorismandmentalhealth.com/2014/01/06/sandy-hook-massacre-the-unanswered-question/

    This is the huge, well known connection between SSRI’s and other psych drugs to suicide, murder and other violence. Even the best selling multibillion dollar brain/body damaging poison neuroleptics are now known to cause violence as well as kiddie cocaine drugs like Ritalin. Anyone who has done any research at all knows there is a well known connection that can be found on many web sites like SSRIstories and just by googling school/public shooters and antidepressants or psychiatric drugs. That most school/public shooters were on these lethal drugs is well known from Columbine on.

    Many prominent psyciatrists including Dr. David Healy, Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, Dr. Peter Breggin and many others have documented this well known connection and risk with psychiatric drugs and violence.

    Although I am feeling a bit shunned here, I would like to point out that 1boringoldman now has an article about the Satanic Ritual Abuse debacle of psychiatry in the 1980’s along with other well known corruption in this sordid profession by the KOL’s at the top acting as “royalty” without any code of honor which Dr. Nardo deplores in his latest articles on his 1boringoldman web site.

    Gary Greenberg’s book, The Book Of Woe, has been compared to digging into the depths of the DSM on a parallel with Dante’s Inferno. So the concept of “Satan” and evil are all too well known when it comes to biopsychiatry. I’ve also noticed others have referred to witch hunts a la Joseph McCarthy, eugenics, etc.

    I hope everyone knows that Dr. Peter Breggin wrote a superb, but horrifying article showing how psychiatry paved the way for the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews by first gassing the so called “mentally ill” to death they started before Hitler came to power I have cited several times on this site. They later convinced Hitler to transfer this apparatus to the concentration camps for a more global eugenics enterprise known as the Nazi Holocaust that other biopsychiatrists acted out in other countries. Robert Whitaker has written about this sordid history and the fact that the despicable eugenics theories invented by biopsychiatry with some robber barons of the time to justify their elitism in the U.S. was the inspiration for all of this bizarre human evil and crimes against humanity. The eugenics agenda continues today with the vile DSM and biopsychiatry’s neverending search for the inferior genes or so called brain diseases (inferior brains) that cause so called mental illness to justify the entrenched 1% while using ongoing fraudulent claims of inferior genes for the majority to justify the many toxic social stressors, injustice and gross inequality they inflict. Dr. Jay Joseph has written many superb articles on this web site and elsewhere as well as books like The Missing Gene and The Gene Illusion on this topic. I have submitted many articles exposing the fraud of ongoing genetic research with regard to biopsychiatry; no genes have been found and most likely never will be found, but they will keep wasting billions on this sordid brain research to justify their gross injustice to the majority of citizens and violation of all human, civil, democratic rights as they are continuing in this latest witch hunt. I admit I am inclined to get a bit too emotional when thinking and writing about such despicable plots, but that doesn’t change the truth.

    Of course, this is all interconnected and the so called “mentally ill” are being used as scapegoats to let allow Big Pharma and its cohorts to continue to prey on millions of people with life destroying stigmas though declared invalid by their Chief of NIMH, Dr. Thomas Insel, to continue to push their deadly drugs that not only kill the imbibers but those who happen to be in the path of the small number pushed over the edge by these literal killer drugs. It is quite bizarre that the government and Big Pharma use the very public/school shootings they create with their dangerous drugs to justify more of the same “treatment.”

    I am wondering why interested lawyers like Ted above and James Gottstein aren’t going after the fact that the DSM has been exposed as invalid junk science without a shred of scientific, medical or any other evidence for it or proof anyone has these nonexistent “diseases” or “disorders.”

    Anyway, I appreciate all the great comments here, but I think a multi-faceted approach is needed.

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    • Donna,

      Dr. Peter Breggin is called “the conscience of psychiatry,” but in my mind he is much more than that. He is also “the heart of psychiatry,” IMO.

      I feel the same way about Michael Cornwall. He expresses anger about the oppression in the field, but equally important, his empathy and caring are transparent.

      With all the fraud, injury, death around us… I find myself feeling deeply grateful for the few souls in the mental health field like Dr. Breggin and Michael.

      They are, undoubtably heaven-sent.

      Passionately,

      Duane

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      • Hi Duane,

        Thanks for your reaching out to me as usual. I get very discouraged constantly learning about the latest human rights violations of biopsychiatry and their powerful cohorts as we all do. I was afraid I had gone over the top a bit and offended people here, so I wrote my last post trying to convey my upset in a more calm and factual manner with much backup for what I said.

        I totally agree with you about both Dr. Breggin and Dr. Cornwall though I am more familiar with the work of Dr. Breggin. I have appreciated communicating with Dr. Cornwall on prior posts so I do not wish to offend him or anyone else. Dr. Cornwall’s caring and compassion are all too evident, which is why he wrote this post in the first place.

        Anyway, here is another vital article that describes the young narcissitic, grandiose men who are all too “sane” in their motives of hate and self aggrandizement when carefully plotting their mass murders to reek vengeance on what they perceive to be a hateful world by projecting their own hate and arrogance on the innocent. Obviously, providing drugs known to cause violence to such volatile young man who already lack empathy and compassion for others is creating walking time bombs.

        http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303309504579181702252120052

        The experts behind this article have studied these young men doing these mass shootings and stress that they are not “mentally ill” in the sense of being psychotic, “schizophrenic” or other labels claimed by the Ralph Torrey crowd. Rather they are very cold and calculating in their “theatrical” agenda. Their goal is to compete with other shooters and become infamous in their great “glory” to create as much spectacle and mayhem as possible with their suicides depriving all of any justice.

        So, those pushing the latest witch hunts on the so called mentally ill are also ignoring the vast research done by the real experts on this tragedy.
        http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303309504579181702252120052

        The experts in the above article advise the best way to discourage such shootings is to deprive them of any media attention or the theatrics they wish to achieve that instigate others to commit such evil acts.

        I hope everyone here will read this article for a better understanding of the problem.

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        • It dawned on me that psychiatric drugs probably have an even more profound impact in creating these public/school shooters/killers.

          Dr. Breggin exposes how these toxic drugs can make one indifferent, apathetic, “spellbound,” uncaring and robotic while the imbiber does not have a clue about how badly these deadly drugs are affecting him/her while those around them see the destructive effects often. Dr. Breggin shares cases where people on SSRI’s and benzos did truly bizarre things like robbing a bank with an absurd, obvious “disguise” and other life/career/family destroying behaviors unless the poison drugs got “full credit” for such out of character behavior by the victims thanks to lawyers.

          None of us older people recall all these highly aggressive, angry, isolated men or many if any such public shootings or violence.

          So, I believe it is possible that psychiatry’s poison drugs are causing these young men to deteriorate to the point they lose their humanity, empathy, compassion and ability to love once they are stigmatized and robotocized with no social skills. There are also many books and articles about the huge harm done to boys as society keeps subjecting them to the old boy network “man code” of violence without feelings.

          If one reads Adam Lanza’s and other shooters’ histories, his encounters with biopsychiatry and his downward spiral are pretty clear as is true for most people. Same with James Holmes, the Columbine killers, etc. Dr. Peter Breggin covers such tragedies in his book, Medication Madness, among others.

          This is why for those powerful Big Pharma entrenched cohorts to advocate for more of the same of such evil predation on our youth is criminally insane itself.

          Of course, some like Rappaport have suggested that these public shootings could be some CIA or other rogue government setup or cy-op. This has been said of 911 as well to institute all the rights violations and expansion of the war machine Eisenhower warned against. These abuses keep accelerating including more power and expansion of biopsychiatry, government and Big Pharma for the ultimate “therapeutic state.” Then, there is the gun lobby and many others adding their self serving agenda to the mix.

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        • “I hope everyone here will read this article for a better understanding of the problem.”

          You recognize one kind of scapegoating propaganda from a fascist system and yet fall for another kind. The system on the main creates it’s own criminals with wealth deprivation and social oppression.

          The elite has all kinds of propaganda to find scapegoats to deflect attention from themselves.

          The structure of our society which most people internalize and perpetuate creates a criminal class and a victim class. The larger victim class is victim to both the criminal class as well as the economic repression of the elite.

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    • Thank you Donna for your important contributions to this discussion and the many valuable references you shared with us. I’ll be checking out some of the books and articles you recommend. I agree that we need a very comprehensive approach to oppose the forces that are causing such suffering for so many.
      Best wishes, Michael

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      • Hi Michael,

        Thanks for your response. Guess I was feeling a little down as we all are under these constant assaults on our humanity. As John Donne says, “Do not ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee” and “no man is an island…” so we are all lessened in our humanity with these constant assaults regardless if we are targeted directly or not as is true of the many historical Holocausts. I admit I get a bit too upset when discussing these issues at times, but I have had to rescue loved ones from this nightmare and it wasn’t pretty. Living under such constant oppression from a growing fascist government/world is not a good way to live.

        I appreciate your taking the time to write me a response since I was concerned I had offended you as I said to Duane above.

        I also have a great admiration for your work and many insightful posts, so I agree with Duanne’s assessment of you 200%!

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        • Thank you Donna for your generous words and reminder that we are all lessened as Donne says when one of us is harmed, lost.

          When the tragedy is multiplied so hugely, as a whole segment of the human family is singled out, made a scapegoat, then the outrage and sorrow we feel is often very hard to bear. I’m grateful for you and all of us who join forces here on Madinamerica.
          Michael

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  21. There certainly is a huge amount of loss and suffering for those targeted for the vile “treatments” and human rights violations by the biopsychiatry cartel when it is all too clear that these bogus DSM voted in stigmas only exist to line the pockets of those in power allowed to prey on the rest of us with impunity. In my opinion this is the main issue.

    http://www.behaviorismandmentalhealth.com/2014/01/07/the-sandcastle-continues-to-crumble-adhd-does-not-exist/

    Another reason there is a lot of rage is due to the millions preyed on by biopsychiatry that were targets of domestic, work, school and other bullying/mobbing/violence/aggression only to be horribly betrayed with bogus DSM blame the victim stigmas and toxic drugs rather than helped with validation, empathy and means of escape. I believe there are many more animal shelters than shelters for women and children suffering life threatening domestic/work and other abuse.

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  23. “If you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have anything to worry about.”

    In regards to being under the jackboot of economic fascism we do have a lot to worry about.

    “If you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have anything to worry about.”
    In regards to critical self-inspection if you hide from yourself you end up in the phantom zone.

    —
    Every organization and group outside of ourselves puts their own interests first – always.

    So no guns for the people that probably need them the most for protection against victimization..

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  24. I haven’t read through all the comments, so I don’t know if someone else has pointed this out. If you go to an unlicensed therapist, you won’t get a diagnosis. If you go to a licensed therapist, like the author of this blog, and you don’t want a diagnosis, the therapist may agree–check them out before you tell them anything. Get a referral from someone you trust. We need a network of therapists who oppose this horror and agree not to participate. They are out there.

    I don’t know if it’s still possible, but there used to be “non-pathological” DSM categories that could still make you eligible for insurance. (Is this still true, Michael?) The real problem is if you feel that you need drugs–and too many of us do. We need to create an underground movement–like the “self-help” movement that performed abortions, when they were illegal–that can help people get the meds they need without a diagnosis. Dangerous–but not as dangerous as Brave New World.

    Thank you so much, Dr. Cornwall.

    Lisa

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  25. PS: As Loren Mosher often pointed out, the best med of all is benadryl, and you can get it over the counter. It can help you sleep, and sleep can do wonders for many symptoms.

    There are also supplements that can help with a variety of symptoms, and nobody is tracking their purchasers.

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  26. Another fabulous article I’ve come across at MIA. I’m so glad I’ve found this site.

    I arrived home from the protest in Boston January 10th, 2014 and I’d been home ten minutes when there was a knock on my door. Two members of my church and the police social worker (not in uniform) were at my door. I wouldn’t have let them in, but standing out on the hall means my neighbors will listen in.

    About a week previously, I had written a private e-mail to an office in Boston that oversees church activities in our denomination. I had decided to e-mail because within my own church the discriminatory remarks and even policies excluding those members with mental health history was getting to be too much. I had written after our minister published a hateful remark in our monthly newsletter, which anyone can access. That, to me, was the last straw. Again, this was a private e-mail, not a posting on a site.

    The person at the office wrote back and said she took what I said seriously but unfortunately their policies stated that this matter must be handled internally.

    I assumed this office in Boston was going to do nothing. I was wrong. These two church members had brought the policewoman with them cuz they were scared I had weapons in my home and was planning to attack someone. I never stated this and my e-mail contained no threats, but I had identified myself as former patient. I had to do so to explain everything fully. At my church the fact that I was a former patient was no secret. You’d figure a church that prided itself on being “welcoming” would be welcoming to all.

    I believe my e-mail stirred up trouble and indeed, I believe my minister did feel threatened by me. Many feel threatened by my pen.

    I told the three of them that I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I am a tiny 5’1″ woman and under 100 pounds. I’m 56 years old and I cannot see without thick glasses. I doubt I could even hold up a gun long enough to aim, and if I were to shoot one, I’d fall over. I have no interest in these things. They seem like ugly, smelly, metal penises. If anyone else wants one I don’t care, just don’t shoot me or my dog.

    The two church members were shaking all over, both of them, visibly frightened of little ole me, a supposedly dangerous criminal.

    They then told me I could come back to church on the provision that I never e-mail that office again, and go to them instead if I have a complaint. So now, bribery? I can go to church if only I keep my mouth shut? I told them I’d been at a protest all day, I was tired, and to please leave. I said I had no desire to return to a church that discriminates against me and practices censorship of uppity people. And I said I had no plans to limit whom I e-mail just because I have a mental illness label.

    This was too much. I am tired of being Julie the Mental Patient in everyone’s eyes in this town. They’ve forgotten, apparently, that I’m first and foremost Julie the Writer.

    Julie Greene

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    • Dear Julie,

      Your story has catalyzed a feeling that has been incubating in me for a while. I am a “second wave” feminist and was active in Women’s Liberation, which I would give anything to revive. The way the mental health system treated women was seen as a feminist issue. And that was before the “epidemic” of depression in women, and the subsequent medication of so many. In those days, we were mostly fighting psychoanalytic orthodoxy.

      I want to make this a “women’s issue” again. I love the men who are fighting this fight, but I beleive that, if we organized as women, we could gain the support of a lot of women who don’t even know about the issue now. If, in the “old days,” you had written up this story for a feminist publication, there would be a picket line outside your church.

      I don’t even know how to begin, but I want to find a way to organize a Speak Out–of the kind New York Radical Feminists sponsored on abortion (when you could go to prison for it)–on “mental illness.” I want women’s stories to be heard by other women, and to be used to rebuild Women’s Liberation. If we could do this, the faultline between women therapists and the patriarchal Pharma-psych complex might start quaking.

      It’s too bad I’m in California, because the Arlington St. Church would be the obvious place to hold such an event. Do you know other women in Boston/Cambridge who might be galvanized by this idea?

      Lisa

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  27. Lisa, there are people here in Boston. As you know, we are overrun by medical facilities and of course Harvard. Women especially are tempted by these institutions. We are told that the answer is to find a great doctor who will cure you of what is really, in fact oppression. We think women, we think women’s health, right? Women’s health is now equated with empowerment. We are told we need all kinds of medical care, including shrink care, which is designed specially for us and it’s going to cure our ills.

    Anyone oppressed who tries the psychiatric route is going to be subject to nonstop insults by these medical people. Patients are so accustomed to the insults that this become the new “normal” and that’s why patients are convinced they are getting great medical care. In reality, their sense of self worth has lowered considerably. They feel they are no longer worthy of respect. This is the worst oppression of all.

    You don’t go to a doctor to cure oppression. You fight back. You organized and take action. I feel that men are also subject to this just as much as women but they are, on a whole, less oppressed.

    However, I believe the feminist movement is for ALL of us, and it’s not just about women. The civil rights movement isn’t about Negroes in 1964. It is about here and now. The ADA is about human decency.

    Let me know what I can do to help out here in Boston. I’ve been drumming up more blog entries and a few more You-Tubes. You-Tube isn’t used much by writers but it’s a good way to get the message across. My blog had record high hits yesterday and that was the day I got my long entry up about the DCF meeting in Boston that I attended. Facebook is buzzing with all this, too. I was alerted a couple of hours ago about last night’s “60 minutes” show, and I won’t shut up about that, either.

    Julie

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