Do you know a psychiatrist/pediatrician who has ‘treated’ half the kids in your town for ‘ADHD’ for the past 20 years? Is there now a heroin epidemic in your town? If so, you may want to talk to him or her about his/her possible role in it. Before you do, you should know that psychiatrists don’t use the same language that others do — the meaning of what they say isn’t always so clear. I can translate “psychiatrist speak,” since practicing within the field for over 30 years enabled me to gain easier insight than most people into understanding what their words really mean. Here are 13 examples:
If a psychiatrist says: “Your son has a brain disease called ADHD. It’s like having a Ferrari with bicycle brakes,” he/she really means: “Your son is perfectly fine; he just hasn’t been raised yet. It’s me who is sick. I suffer from EDHD (Ethical-Deficit Hypersedativity Disorder). I only told you that because a mechanic just told me that my Ferrari has CNSD (Car Not Starting Disorder), so I need money for a new one.”
When psychiatrists say: “We now know that children’s emotional/behavioral problems are not due to anything parents do or do not do,” they really mean: “We now know that we can make more money by lying and telling parents what they want to hear than by telling them the truth.”
When a psychiatrist says: “Your kid has a brain hard-wiring defect which impairs his/her ability to learn how to manage his/her temper/impulses,” it really means: “Of course your child can learn to alter his/her behavior; even simple animals like mollusks can. You shouldn’t trust me so much.”
When psychiatrists say: “Kids with ADHD do better in school once they are treated,” they really mean: “We have managed to change America’s school motto from: ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’ to ‘If at first you don’t succeed, give up and get accommodations such as: ‘Fewer correct answers may be required in order to achieve a test grade if a child has an ADHD diagnosis’.’”
When psychiatrists say: “ADHD symptoms will greatly improve with medication, and the earlier treatment begins, the better the outcome,” they really mean: “We’ve succeeded in tricking parents into replacing child-raising with sedation from age six on, and are trying to get them to begin even earlier. We hope to someday tell pregnant moms whose babies kick a lot: ‘Your fetus has ADHD’.”
When psychiatrists say: “We now know that ADHD persists to adulthood,” they really mean: “We now know that ‘treating ADHD’ effectively creates lifelong clients, since kids who are shot with daily tranquilizer darts never really mature; their wildness returns each time they awaken from it.”
When psychiatrists say: “You have a chemical imbalance which can be corrected by medication,” they really mean: “Your brain chemistry is completely normal. Let’s change that.”
When psychiatrists say: “The DSM has improved the identification and care of mental illnesses,” they really mean: “How lucky for us that the DSM’s invention of new diseases saved psychiatry from extinction, by luring hordes into lining up for fake cures and getting insurance to pay for it.”
When a psychiatrist says: “You need medicine for your illness just as diabetics need insulin for theirs,” it really means: “Aren’t I a real doctor who practices real medicine, just like other MDs?”
When psychiatrists say: “I’m afraid our session time is over,” what they really mean is: “Shut up already and move it along, whatever your name is… You are holding up the assembly line! Next!”
When psychiatrists say: “There is much comorbidity among mental illnesses,” they really mean: “Luring and trapping people into ‘better living through chemistry’ is a well that never runs dry.”
When psychiatrists say: “Drug use can be curbed by treating underlying diseases that drive people to self-medicate’ (giving stimulants for ‘ADHD’ or benzos for ‘anxiety disorder’)” and “Addiction will not occur if it’s medically supervised,” they really mean: “Bug off, street dealers — this is our turf now… Say ‘NO’ to kids using street drugs, but ‘YES’ to their using the same drugs if given by us.”
When psychiatrists say: “Suboxone effectively treats opioid addiction,” they really mean: “All you need to do is say you’re a heroin addict who is hoping to quit, and we’ll give you endless opioids to get high from, and ‘look the other way,’ in case you are finding it hard to score them from pain doctors lately. Or you can use them to enable a heroin habit by taking them to ‘tide yourself over’ until your next fix, or selling them on the street to raise cash. Isn’t entrusting addiction ‘treatment’ to a field whose bread and butter is addiction creation just like giving a fox a job at a henhouse?”
For those of you who believe that psychiatrists are gullible victims of the “system” themselves, perhaps you are reluctant to give up faith in the idea that MDs are still the trustworthy authorities they used to be. But psychiatrists are very smart and are well-educated in genetics, pharmacology, biochemistry, and physiology. They also rule out physical causes and refer to other MDs if a physical cause is found, proving they know their domain is non-physical issues. So if they say or do things that defy logic or science, it is likely due to their adapting to threats to their financial survival by becoming adept at stealthily ‘illifying’ people. Is it just coincidental that all their newly created diseases are chronic and disabling (and thus lucrative for them), and are usually ‘treated’ by addictive drugs?
My nephew has been put on some crap for his “autism/ADD/whatever.” That encouraged me to go off my psych drugs. When he is old enough to get away from his folks, assuming he still has a brain to save, I can tell him how to withdraw safely.
My mother, sister-in-law, and nephew are all addicts now. Even my brother pops Xanax to “calm his nerves.” He would be upset if anyone suggested he drink whiskey or smoke cigars for similar benefits. He used to work for Big Pharma Eli-Lilly and his wife worked as the head of a “mental health” agency. Ironically they are now becoming prisoners in the jail they helped construct. 🙁
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dr kelmenson———
what do you think about nutritional psychiatry…
are all psychiatrists the same…
do we now know the cause of all the mental health problems…
what do you think of the psych/soc/bio/econ/pol model of causation
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I haven’t heard of this formulation. But I would definitely not put bio 3rd. I can see various plausible combinations, but in each of them bio would definitely come LAST. I’d be happy to omit bio entirely, except for nutrition and other elements of self care – otherwise, bio is just such an invitation to disregard all the other factors and embrace the disease paradigm.
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LittleTurtle, my depression always seems to hit worst when I’m anemic. Doubtless an iron rich diet would help me greatly. Mom wanted to put me on mega-doses of niacin, etc. when I was thought to have schizophrenia and the drugs didn’t work their alleged magic. Looking back, the drugs were causing my psychosis. I can’t remember her name, but a dissident psychiatrist who has blogged here, wrote about tardive psychosis. I was right after all, when I complained that the “antipsychotics” made me psychotic though no one listened to me!
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Btw, since going off my psych drugs, I no longer suffer from pernicious anemia. Coincidence?
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excellent, as always.
short, sad and to the point. so easy to understand (for the people who refuse to see that the emperor has no clothes).
permission to share widely?
thanks!
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Erin:
Of course, and thank you for your support.
Lawrence
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`Do we want to believe in a “magical” treatment for our worst times? Is the generalized loss of “God” being displaced onto the “doctor” to cure us all with pills, or worse? This then places a huge burden on the doctor because he/she is not God and therefore cannot make us better, but must try. After all he/she belongs to the same beliefs as everybody else in our society. As a “healer” the doctor places a huge expectation on him/herself therefore forever pushing more and more extremes of treatments. Needless to say the more ephemeral “illnesses” will attract the “furore therapeuticus” making it possible for even the most benign and gentle ”healers” to do terrible things in order to “help”. From there the path is not going to be very good for the “sick” person. Nonetheless, aren’t we all complicit.’
Not just psychiatry. It seems that the entire medical profession is running rogue. A friend who has cancer has been researching the treatments and coming up with coverups, poor research, and even outright fraud in both conventional and medically recommended `alternative’ methods. In 1946 a `miracle’ drug, penicillin, appeared and with that the entire profession gained almost holy status. The struggle now seems to be to keep that status (and the money) whatever that might take and the patients be damned.
Those who initially embrace the `noble’ cause with sincerity and idealism must deal with terrible cognitive dissonance as they become embroiled and few will be able to deal with that.
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Dee From what I can tell, most of the medical device industry is full of scams and shoddy research. I keep researching how much “sleep apnea” has increased, is surely overdiagnosed (umbrella widened as to what defines “apnea”) and these devices pushed on people who very well may have other sleep problems. This seems to have happened to a friend of mine, sadly.
Another imminent for me is kidney dialysis. Since it’s expensive (via “insurance”) and most are on medicare, they actually let you refuse.. Normally you die, IF you follow doctor’s message of “no hope.” My plan is to refuse, of course. No scam machine for me. I think they are hiding something from the public, if you read their slick literature about how “great” dialysis is!!! Really? Just like ECT was great….. If I do natural medicine, and stay far away from doctors and hospitals, they’ll never notice I’m in end stage renal. Nor will I. I feel fine.
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Interesting you mention the sleep apnoea thing – I had sleep issues as withdrawal from 13 years of dopamine-disturbing psych drugs. Dopamine is involved in the sleep/wake cycle and though I was careful in withdrawing from the drugs I still couldn’t stay asleep for longer than 2 hours. They diagnosed sleep apnoea and prescribed a machine. Expensive and difficult to use if you’re fully awake every 2 hours or less, so I ditched it. That was nearly 4 years ago.
I still see one of the consultants at that practise for the Restless Leg Syndrome (which was made much worse by the same drugs) and now that my sleep cycle s back to normal, I asked about the apnoea. He said it was so mild that he would’t recommend any treatment and not to worry about it. So what about his partner? Why did he? They were both looking at the same results. Money and constant contact at specialist prices is required when those machines are used-$$$
Vale medicine, now one of the most venal and corrupt professions in the lexicon.
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My naturopath is right about a lot of stuff. I have a good relationship with him. If I disagree I tell him so and we discuss things openly. He says cayenne will stop bleeding, so I tried it one day and YES if you mix a spoonful of the spice in water, drink that, it’ll stop a nosebleed far sooner than it normally would stop. I like him because we joke around a lot, and he hates psychiatry. I love to share a few anti-psych jokes with him.
I have a good relationship with the ladies who work in the health food store. I stop by all the time. They ask me how the radio show is going and I tell them it’s going very well. Not one of these folks is a doctor. I’m glad. I never ever see one. I guess I’m saving taxpayers an awful lot of money.
I got a job. In a while I’ll be off “disability.” Years ago those shrinks claimed I was incapable. Oh, someone else round here said I was “creepy.” Good thing no one else said that.
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This piece is brilliant in its truth-telling and offers a much needed perspective.
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Thank you for speaking the truth. Absolutely, doctors who lie through their teeth so they may create “mental illnesses” in other human beings with their psychiatric drugs for profit are deplorable.
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So many people who come to this site have been debilitated by psychiatric polypharmacy toxic effects and bogus diagnoses. Thank you for your article on interpreting “psychiatry speak”.
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They’d have to arrange for the receptionist to do all the talking if they were chemically forced to tell the truth. the big trouble would come if the receptionist asked if the extra duties of doing all the communication with the shrink’s patients meant the receptionist was going to get a raise for doing the additional work.
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Some receptionists and other facility personnel are witnesses to abuse. Of course, if they dare speak out….Off you go. I saw this once.
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Ok. This is better than previous articles. This is getting closer to the truth about psychiatry.
“But psychiatrists are very smart and are well-educated in genetics, pharmacology, biochemistry, and physiology.”
Education in genetics, pharmacology, biochemistry, and physiology does not make a person smart. Clever, perhaps, but not necessarily smart. What percentage of psychiatrists are duped by the system, in your opinion? It seems as though many, if not most doctors and psychiatrists (and social workers) go into the field of medicine because they want to “help” people, only to discover that medicine is the practice of inflicting harm.
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When I was in my psychiatry training program, most of us seemed aware of the fact that psychiatry had arbitrarily created fake diseases that everybody could meet criteria for, and that drug companies were throwing money around to influence the field’s direction and practices. They were very obvious about it.
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Wow. That is an incredible admission from an insider… and it is absolutely incriminating to the so-called “profession” of psychiatry. Thank you.
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I had a shrink who, if given truth serum, would have said the following…
“During my work at Gould Farm in 198_ (1983?) there were two suicides for which I was partially responsible. i had not bothered to renew my license for many years, practicing illegally in secret. When I got caught around 1988, Gould Farm swept it all under the rug.”
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Never mind the therapist that lie.
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Hmm. An unlicensed shrink. But if the mafia is after me, i won’t worry if Tony Soprano has renewed his certification and has the right to direct organized crime. Ha ha!
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I also think that some psychiatrists are just stupid or duped by the system.
And I seriously doubt their knowledge in genetics, pharmacology, biochemistry, and physiology. Psychiatrists don’t really practice medicine at all so most of them forget what they’ve learned. They’re like a doctor that retired from medicine right after they’ve finished medical internship\school.
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Dr.s who champion innovation and serve individuals way they are supposed to are in fact adapting to the system and supporting needed transformation.
I think dr.’s adopted the current service mechanism. They took on this approach and it goes way back.
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This article really hits home for me. I must add that if the psychiatrists who literally destroyed my child and family were given truth serum, they’d be forced to admit “I did not treat my patients the way I wished to be treated. I did not follow ‘The Golden Rule.'”
As the mother of a teenaged daughter whose was chemically kidnapped, tortured and killed by psychiatrists and their potions, this unfathomable realization came too late for us. After Natalie’s death, I was, understandably, in shock. However, the aftershock produced by my research which led me to the realization that the harm done to my family was intentional and avoidable, well this aftershock was and will forever be surreal. It is almost more difficult to accept this fact than it is to accept that I returned home from a normal day of teaching high school to find my own teen had died a terrible death.
As a teacher, The Golden Rule was my motto: I treated all of my students the way I would want my own children to be treated. I could have never envisioned the harm psychiatrists’ callous carelessness could create simply because it wasn’t in my consciousness to believe medical professionals would purposely harm their trusting patients and families.
My family contains several health care professionals, doctors and Ivy-league PhD’s. I’m not “anti-doctor” nor “anti-drug” nor “anti-academic.” I am simply “pro-truth” and “pro-informed consent.” My child and I never received either. As a result I saw my Natalie go off in a coffin instead of off to college. Nothing can change this fact. But I will never be silent as speaking out can save another mom’s precious child. I try not to lose sight of such a hopeful, important goal. Natalie was intellectually gifted from an early age. She unwittingly documented her ADRs in her diaries and I hope people will benefit from my sharing them. They are found on YouTube under Natalie Gehrki, Netherworld. I know she would want others to benefit from her prescribed suffering as do I.
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Kristina:
Thank you so much for responding by sharing the horrific tragedy/pain inflicted upon your family by my field. Psychiatrists who snuff out the lives of innocent children such as your daughter, who had such a promising future, a kind heart, and so much to offer the world, amazingly not only get away with it, but even manage to pass themselves off as altruistic relievers of suffering. Let’s continue to team up to open up the public’s eyes to the truth, and correct the misconceptions that my field has malignantly instilled into our culture. I agree with Erin that your touching, tireless efforts have already saved the lives of many. But there is clearly a long way to go. And although it is crucial that people from all walks of life must chip in, there are no contributions nearly as valuable as those made by victims such as yourself, who are willing to openly share their pain for the benefit of others. I hope you inspire other parents whose children fell victim to “prescripticide”, as you aptly named it, to follow in your footsteps.
Sincerely, Lawrence
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Thank you, Lawrence, for penning this honest article based on your academic training and professional experiences. I also appreciate your kind comments here.
There are so many wise and caring people dedicated to stopping medical violence. I believe one of the most critical first steps is securing the basic human right to Informed Consent. We all know the reasons why Informed Consent isn’t mandated. But without it, there can be no respectful, collaborative doctor/patient relationship.
Warm regards,
Kristina
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Hi, Kristina.
I recognize your name from “Letters…”. I first saw the film at its Florida premiere last year at a conference and have been supportive of it and Kevin Miller and have donated towards its circulation, and purchased and shared it for others to see ever since.
Natalie’s talents are evident in the film. She was so beautiful and special- you should be very, very proud. I know it’s a cliche to say this, but she lives on in the selfless way you take your pain and fight for others to be spared the same suffering.
I’ve known the truths about these diagnoses and drugs for a very long time and spend many, many hours helping others to withdraw and, even better, never buy into the lies in the first place. The oath to do no harm left the minds and hearts of these doctors long, long ago.
Keep up our oh-so-important work. Enjoy your memories of your amazing daughter. By now sharing her story has definitely saved countless lives.
Blessings to you,
-Erin
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Erin,
Your thoughtful comments and dedicated advocacy brings tears to my eyes. I miss my daughter every minute of every day. My irreparable broken heart also serves as a motivator to do what I can to save other moms from such profound grief and loss.
We face an uphill battle for truth and transparency. (Long ago I gave up any hope for justice in Natalie’s death and the countless others I’ve since learned about.) But we persevere because, as you note, lives are being saved and prescribed suffering avoided/reduced. Thank you for your kind words about Natalie, and for your support of Letters and Netherworld. I am grateful.
Warm regards,
Kristina
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Apparently there is a brain wave test for ADHD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd15ObwOTzg
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/first-adhd-brain-wave-test-approved-by-fda/
We need a brain wave test for psychiatrists.
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Thank You, Dr Kelmenson. This Article is very Pertinent.
Truth Serum:- when I complained about my own (historical) Near Fatal Drug Experience I was told by an Irish Psychiatrist that every where else was doing the same thing i.e. denying Akathisia. This psychiatrist was being honest.
This policy of Denial ties in with my GP Practice (Newton Medical) in Central Londons Approach; who are attempting to block any mention (from me) of Akathisia to my (historical) notes. Newton Medical would be under instruction (I would imagine) from their own “Superiors”.
But the Deaths continue:-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4884330/Ex-Choirboys-singer-jumped-train.html
https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/health/north-essex-mental-health-trust-25-deaths/
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/15533528.Government_urged_to_improve_care_of_mental_health_patients_after_death_of_man_at___39_young_age_in_most_unexpected_circumstances__39_/
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/sep/15/his-death-still-hurts-the-pfizer-anti-smoking-drug-ruled-to-have-contributed-to-suicide
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Well if we talk about on this psychiatrists there average income is about $167,610 in the year of 2010, according through the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The lowest-paid 10 percent of Psychiatrists many of you can learn more about this is here https://fullessayhelp.co.uk/ they can easily tell you about the history of psychiatrists, well their highest rate or you can call percent is closely to $166,400.
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Heard some friends criticize Robert Whittaker for writing lying books to make money. Neither of them read anything but frothy romances, cookbooks, and magazines. If you’re too lazy to read, you shouldn’t mock a writer.
You don’t make $$$$ writing books. Whittaker has earned something with speaking engagements, but my guess is he has lost incoming earning opportunities by following his conscience. Ditto for Breggin and many others.
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Do you ask them to be specific about their criticisms of RW?
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Hey, the commercials say the Rx drugs are life saving medications. So do all the crime show dramas and other network shows. The “real” doctors with letters in front of their names who wear pretty white coats and stethoscopes say psychiatry is a real science. So let’s just go along with the flow, sheeple…. Bah bah!
Certain articles from the American Psychiatric Association would open my friends’ eyes. But they have them big words in ’em, we can’t hardly read. Bah bah! Back to our SSRI’s washed down with yummy grape kool-aid poured out by Dr. Quackenbush. Even many of my friends/family not trapped in the mental illness system are taking chemicals nature never intended for the human body. SSRI’s and other crap for their “nerves.”
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In order to intelligently criticize what RW wrote they would have to take the trouble to read a chapter or two from one of his books. Meh. Too much trouble!
Let’s watch a Zoloft commercial instead.
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Mad In America is true:- Its possible to completely Recover from “Schizophrenia” but only through moving away from Psychiatry.
“Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime” is true as well.
Dr Peter Gøtzsche says that Doctors do not know how to use psychiatric drugs (and do more harm than good).
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Hey, it’s a matter of terminology, what you call something. Which is the basis of diagnosis. You’re a doc, whatever you say goes.
As for the rest of us……
I suggest we *guests* pack up the milk and cookies and have our picnic someplace where the table is ours.
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Julie:
This comment is in response to your other comment saying how psychiatrists said you were incapable, but that you did get a job and plan to go off disability. I wanted to congratulate you on that, since disability can often become a trap that many people find hard to escape. I also wanted to add that ironically, getting people onto psychiatric disability has become a big business. Many successful law firms focus solely on psychiatric disability claims. Psychiatrists push it, since people on disability need to see them for regular “treatment” to prove ongoing disability, and to have them periodically fill out reports documenting its persistence. I just got a mailing about a seminar teaching psychiatrists how to earn extra money by being disability specialists.
Lawrence
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Lawrence, Please email me about this “disability incentive” at [email protected]. I would like to interview you on my radio show since you have knowledge of this….
i happen to recall my first “disabilty” interview. And I also recall telling the rehab where I ended up that I had an eating disorder, which was then disregarded. The only way they could hastily get me onto disabiliy was to outright LIE and say I had schizophrenia. They knew I did not. Oddly, when I left the rehab I told them my ED had improved, and the director said, “What ED? I never knew you had one.”
After the schiz diagnosis, my psychiatrist insisted I heard voices. I was cornered into inventing what the voices told me, for years after that, since he kept asking! I studied books on schiz to learn what voices were all about (Torrey…) and studied my fellow patients who were capable of hearing them, but I was a poor faker. It took them 30 years to figure out I had an eating disorder! How loudly could I scream it! Then, they recorded that I had “just developed” it in my 50’s just to cover their hides. How badly could they LIE……
Please get in touch, I’m in the business of bashing psychiatry…..I figure after all these years and all the damages, it’s ABOUT TIME.
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Lawrence, FYI, I have a chapter in my book called “The Disability/Unemployment Trap.” I have a book I am coming out with, two actually, one called Myths of the Mental Health System and another about escaping one’s diagnosis. “Myths” is more involved, “escaping” is more of a how-to.
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I have seen many law offices with big signs out front about denial of disability claims. What lawyer will help get your diagnosis taken off when they think we’re crazy to begin with?
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OMG, Disability Specialists! Yea, I was “totally and permanently” disabled, told I’d never be able to have a career and probably never have a job. Pfffft! My attitude was ‘you’re outta your mind if you think I got 2 doctorates to just go sit on my ass the rest of my life’. I wrote a grant proposal that got funded by NIH during one of my hospitalizations. I never stopped working, even when I was blazingly psychotic. Haldol was the one thing that made it almost impossible for me to work. There was no brain activity going on.
I’m not saying it was easy, though. It was crushingly exhausting. The hardest part was not the work. The hardest part was swimming against the tide of everyone telling me I couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t.
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I don’t think there is an understanding of what psychiatry is supposed to be…
it is not supposed to be neurology….it is not supposed to be psychology..
it is a discipline in between….it is supposed to look at all aspects of mental suffering…
the closest model would be psych/soc/bio/econ/pol…of causation and anything else…
so what has happened…the drug companies have taken over…the money interests are in charge..
that needs to be taken down….but do you think it is a good thing to take down the search for truth..
$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and hatred needs to be taken down….yes
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littleturtle:
Long ago, psychiatry used to help people get in touch with and work on whatever issues were truly bothering them, until social workers and psychologists out-competed it for that niche. But ever since about 1980, it has instead searched for the most effective ways to trick people into accepting its lies about normal emotions and normal childhood immaturity being “medically treatable diseases”, so that it could survive by malignantly parasitizing society. Since it has become a field that only inflicts suffering, ruins lives, and invents and instills false models, there is no place for such a discipline. The truth is that psychiatry itself needs to be taken down.
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Dr. Kelmenson – Can you suggest how psychiatrists, knowing all that you describe, then live with themselves? The same would hold true for the pharmaceutical company executives who, learning of the potentially lethal side effects of their upcoming “blockbuster” psyc. drugs (such as Zyprexa) from endocrinologists, go on to bury the truth – thus condemming thousands of future innocent victims to death. One ponders the nature of the evil here.
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ebl:
My guess is they find their consolation by getting in their ferrari and going for a drive, or getting away to their winter home in the Alps or their summer home on the French Riviera.
Lawrence
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They certainly suffer no social repercussions either!
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The one’s who are really creaming it are the ECT docs. In Australia, a little (by population) country, they, and their complicit anaesthetists can make $30,000 per WEEK each. They keep membership of this team very carefully restricted by marking courses as exclusive and high tech. They’re not. Any registrar can do it and always used to before it became so lucrative. The anaesthetist has to be on the ball though as life threatening complications occur in about 1:6 treatments. E.g. cardiac arrests, respiratory complications and extended fitting. The cynicism of these people, 85% men, is beyond belief as they knowingly cause brain damage in almost universally ill-informed and unwitting people.
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Lol, I’m not sure either, they always get super defensive or avoid the question when I inquire, but I once had a psychiatrist tell me at a cocktail party, “Look at what you drive and look at what I drive.” At the time I wasn’t quite 30 and had a Jeep Cherokee. I was pretty happy with that! 🙂
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“But psychiatrists are very smart and are well-educated in genetics, pharmacology, biochemistry, and physiology. They also rule out physical causes and refer to other MDs if a physical cause is found, proving they know their domain is non-physical issues.”
They may be very smart, but they are singularly lacking in critical thinking. A glaring contradiction is at the core of the profession – Psychiatrists claim that psychiatric disorders are diseases of the BRAIN, then go on, in the DSM of all places, to distinguish THEIR `diseases’ FROM `real’ disorders of the brain which they defer to those who treat disorders of the brain.
I have complied a list of logic lapses in psychiatry that now has well over 100 entries – this is just one. Sadly, the neurotoxic drug treatments are tied to this massive contradiction and create untold misery.
Also, doctors are not well EDUCATED, they are highly TRAINED. There is a difference. A mechanic is highly trained to understand the workings of your car, but you would not necessarily assume that that training constituted an `education’. He may have extended himself and become `educated’ but that is incidental to his training. So it is with medical training. The course is so intensive and narrow that there is little time to gather an education even if the student is so motivated. Those who are tend to leave medicine.
It is possible that psychiatry, with its alliance and dependence on big Pharma, in drugging a generation, will seriously compromise the future of our culture by taking out the most intellectually curious, and exciting potential leaders of tomorrow. The restless, enquiring, energetic kids who don’t want to sit quietly doing the low grade clerical work, the ones who will bring the ideas and solutions of tomorrow’s issues are the very ones targeted. I suspect Einstein would have been diagnosed with ADD, and Florence Nightingale, one of the great actuaries and mathematicians of her day, would probably have been sedated with SSRIs. Who will WE lose?
Maybe we should look to Rwanda instead in our pursuit of happiness – where a western psychiatric team, sent to help the survivors from the appalling brutality there, was summarily rejected because, as these traumatised people put it, “Why would you want to sit on a small dim room and talk about our problems, we prefer to sing, to dance and to weep together to help us through terrible times.” Maybe we could try it.
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Dee, would you like to come on my radio show? Get in touch. You can contact me via my radio show’s blog
juliemadbloggerradio.com. Go to the contact me page.
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deee042:
I believe that future is already here, that most Americans are zombified in one way or another, right out of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”. I believe that the reason why young men are doing far worse than young women educationally and vocationally lately, is that so many boys (but few girls) had their childhoods needlessly wasted by ADHD “diagnosis”, “treatment”, and “accommodations”.
And as far as those CPAP machines for “sleep apnea”, it is a similar process. In the short-term they help since they put more air in your lungs, but in the long-term they probably harm you permanently, since your breathing muscles will eventually atrophy from disuse, since the CPAP machine is doing their work for them.
Lawrence
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Apparently there is so much SSRI residue being excreted into open water that the fish are absorbing it. There is some evidence that their behaviour is being influenced, e.g. that they no longer recognise predators. Oops. Certainly there is plenty of evidence that PEOPLE aren’t recognising the predators that prescribe SSRIs, doctors.
I was watching a popular TV series the other night and the doctor character was extolling the virtues of these drugs. Could it be time for those of us who know the truth to get some of this information to script writers and producers. My fear is, however, that they currently get their info, and possibly significant funding from the Psychiatry/Pharma Alliance. Another way to reinforce the BIG LIE – the bio-psychiatry myth.
Unless the media is involved in exposing this, the consequences for the future are frightening. `Brave new world, that has such people in it.’ is upon us. (These old authors are sure hitting the mark – Orwell, `1984′; Huxley, and Sinclair’s `It Can’t Happen Here’.)
And don’t worry, Lawrence, ADHD might get the boys, but sure as sunrise, SSRIs will get the girls.
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These productions use doctors as consultants – and we know what they’re like.
And they can’t expose the truth, there’s too much pressure on them. Your comment reminded me how they made “beautiful mind” into an advert to psych drugs. Even though John Nash doesn’t use them in the movie he does and they “saved his life” and responsible for his brilliant career and genius. The rumor was NAMI pressured the production to change the story.
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There was a time when anti-psychiatry was mainstream in the media and movies: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is considered one of the best and most popular movies ever. In 1975 it won all the academy awards. The pendulum is starting to swing back that way, and this website is playing a role in it. We need to tell more and more people about this website.
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If John Nash had been “meds compliant” I’m not sure he would have been with it enough to accept his award. A lot of poster children for Rx drugs become very nonproductive as their “treatments” progress. Glen Close’s sister never wrote another novel since starting her “treatment.” Kevin Earley probably gets paid something promoting psych drugs on YouTube. From what I hear, aside from NAMI and the hardcore psych crowd, they’re not that popular with the general public. Patty Duke had a few roles late in life, but aside from her promotional acts at Big Pharma/Psychiatry events, psychiatry ended her career. Ditto with Margot Kidder.
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*Groan!* A lot of friends and acquaintances of mine “need” Cpap machines to sleep. The Mental Illness centers make sure they get hooked up to them too.
Besides being too tired and spaced out from the drugs, another reason I never have been gainfully employed as an adult is all the discouragement–both active and passive–from the Mental Illness system and one shrink I call Dr. McSadist would tell me not to take jobs–as a direct order. She also told me to accept the fact that I would never get off SSI and when I looked upset (I assume I did) she would smile a nasty little smile to herself. Hence my nickname for her.
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Something both Finnish Dialogue and Choice Theory have in common is the use of community and repairing human relationships to heal psychological trauma. For some MI victims, that would mean accepting your family was determined to keep you the scapegoat and leaving them, since they want to hurt you to avoid coming to terms with their own character flaws and issues.
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My experience with psychiatrist including your family in treatment is bad. Usually it’s for the purpose of scapegoating the patient, abusing him, and manipulating him\her and the family.
It’s also part of the “veterinary nature” of psychiatry. Both are medical professions that are focused on other things than patient health (but only vets officially and openly admit it).
Psychiatrists treat patients like animals.
They both lock up “dangerous” and unwanted animals and ppl.
and the doctors only talk and make decisions with the patient family, behind the patient back.
There are more similarities.
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Huh? Sorry you’ve obviously had such poor experience with veterinarians, but as a veterinarian myself, I certainly object to being characterized as not caring about my patients. My patients’ health is always my primary concern. Locking up “dangerous” and “unwanted” animals is certainly not what the majority of veterinarians do. In fact most of the vets I know usually end up taking home or finding homes for as many of the unwanted ones as we can. I’ve never met a “dangerous” animal, but I sure as hell have met many dangerous people. A sure sign of a dangerous person is one who abuses animals.
Please don’t dump veterinary medicine in the same basket as psychiatry!
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I didn’t have a poor experience with veterinarians. The profession is basically concerned with “public health”, and not patients.
There are fields in veterinary medicine of pet and animals medicine, that are about it. but many work in animal control, making sure animals are safe to eat etc.
I see a lot of similarities, as I have explained:
1) The government\ municipal authority\ whatever employs vets and psychiatrists to do pretty much the same things. Locking up “dangerous” animals and ppl.
I don’t know of any other doctors the government employs to lock up ppl\animals (maybe an epidemiologist but they rarely quarantine ppl, and usually for a good reason).
2) Both treat patients like animals. Understandable for vets, not for psychiatrists. And even if the vet cares about their patients, they still treat them like animals, and humans shouldn’t be treated like animals.
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If I found out my veterinarian was deliberately harming my pet to gain money, I would take my pet and run. Vets who acted like psych doctors would find themselves dealing with a lot of law suits!
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In my opinion veterinarians treat their patients (and owners) very well. My vets have always petted Puzzle and played with her, calling her Sweetie, and most have treats for the dogs. As a pet owner I know most people treat their pets better than mental patients are ever treated.
But the expression, “treated like an animal” usually isn’t comparing to the loving relationship with a pet, but perhaps to cattle being sent to slaughter.
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UK MEDICAL/REGULATORY DISHONESTY + UNRELIABILITY IN DIAGNOSIS
In October 2012 I discovered my UK GP Surgery claiming for me as a Severely Mentally Ill Person. I had made my Recovery nearly 30 years before in Ireland, as a result of stopping strong Psychiatric drugs, and moving to Psychotherapy. These drugs had nearly killed me and had caused me several years of disability – and I could reliably demonstrate the suppression of AKATHISIA.
I explained my situation with evidence to my GP, Dr Simons at Newton Medical, Central London in two 1 hour long interviews in October/November 2012. During these interviews Dr Simons began to sweat and by the end of both of these interviews his shirt was sticking to his body.
Dr Simons committed in writing to removing “Schizophrenia” from my Medical records.
But I discovered later in an interview with a different clinician that “schizophrenia” had not been removed – and I complained. The Doctor Surgery then attempted to ‘re inforce’ “schizophrenia”.
I complained to the UK General Medical Council in February 2013. But the UK Medical Council ignored the Dishonesty; The Abuse of position; and the Interference to Information – and Fobbed me off.
In July 2013 Dr Simons was involved in a Patient Homicide:-
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/sailor-died-from-internal-bleeding-after-ae-sent-him-to-minor-care-unit-10288447.html
The main feature in this Homicide seems to have been the Interference to Information; and the Apportionment of Responsibility.
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Wow, very interesting article and perspective by Dr. K. Hocus pocus and you’ll be better seems to be the story line here. It’s a 100% shame that doctors don’t treat patients for what’s wrong; instead, seek the quick goldmine that’s Big Pharma that ruins people’s lives. I enjoy this comical side of Dr. K. The sarcasm towards psychiatrists is well placed and well spoken.
I believe Dr. K. pointed out that many of today’s illnesses have become big business. Who heard of celiac disease in the 1980’s? Big business today and I know because I was diagnosed in 2015. ADHD was never mentioned in the 70’s & 80’s. Sleep and eating disorders, again big business today and not mentioned years ago. Clearly, these “illnesses” are industry driven (Big Pharama) and doctor supported. Sad state of affairs for all the patients that suffer with these illnesses. Hopefully, they’ll have the strength to overcome the medicines and take back their lives.
I’ve changed my diet to be gluten free and all I ever get asked (by GI doctor) is do I have more energy, or do I feel better. The answer is yes and no. On this restrictive diet, you don’t feel like a real person. Your driven to read every label and do research (online) on what you can eat. Simply can’t go out to eat with your family anymore because there is very little that you can eat safely. Then comes the trust issues, do you really trust that your food is not contaminated with gluten in some form or other.
It’s not just psychiatrists anymore; it’s the whole medical field. Blinded by the light of the golden trail to money via “Big Pharma” or unneeded tests such as MRI’s or Cat Scans because there fishing for answers, Doctors today don’t treat, they prescribe or order tests that are inconclusive. Makes you wonder what’s in store for future generations as all doctors have seemed to fallen into the path of “Big Pharma” and unnecessary testing with little regard towards their patients.
Dr. K. keep rolling as I enjoy your stimulating articles. I’m surprised Richard didn’t chime in as he is a well experienced authority. Probably contemplating his response. Hello Richard, where are you? What are your thoughts on this subject matter?
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The other week I was reading an article about a young woman who committed a crime, killing someone, and the article was explaining how the aggression was out of character for her. My first thought was, “what was she on?” There were pictures of her too, and clearly something was different / wrong in the mug shot photo. However, in the commentary, the reactions of the public were mostly of people wondering what “mental illness” she must have. Turns out she was on crystal meth, but it got me thinking how even in my lifetime (and I was born in the 70s, so a Generation Xer, but already I find myself thinking “well in *my* day..”), how successful Big Pharma advertising and “mental illness” propaganda has been in getting people to believe that when something happens, mental illness is the cause and psychiatric drugs are the answer. This type of thinking had spread through our society like some sort of mental parasite and it’s very, very difficult to get through to people.
I don’t know what we are supposed to do or how we stop this, every year more and more people are put on psychiatric drugs, and at younger and younger ages. How sad is it that babies under 2 are being given these drugs? How is this even legal? And it’s medical doctors who do it too, not just psychiatrists. They’ve found medical problems to prescribe these drugs for, so it doesn’t seem like they are going anywhere? How do we stop this?
https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/children-on-psychiatric-drugs/
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Lenora22:
The numbers of people subscribing to and following this website are rising, so more people are starting to find out the truth. I believe it is the parents that we need to focus on reaching, so that they won’t comply with their child’s teacher’s or pediatrician’s recommendations for psychiatric evaluation. When parents allow the “parasite” to be implanted into their kids’ minds at such young ages, it becomes too ingrained to get rid of. By the way, did you know that crystal meth is methamphetamine, which is one of the “medications” used to “treat ADHD”?
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Yeah, one guy said he was busted in school for having speed, and found it ironic that all he’d have to now is be a bit of a pest in class and they’d give it to him. My sister’s a primary school teacher in a fairly rough area and she was fairly confident that some of the kids’ meds were finding their way into the parents and/or being sold on the streets.
I’ve sometimes postulated that for some kids who became better behaved in class, it was because they were developing a business plan on how to get rich flogging their meds. No longer bored but motivated.
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Let’s hope that some people are being reached before starting their kids on these drugs. It seems like the audience on these websites are people who have either been harmed themselves or have had a loved one harmed, maybe a few people who have worked in the system here and there. I certainly hope some people are getting the info on what harm these drugs do in the early stages, before they even start.
It’s just disheartening to read these statistics on how more and more people are being prescribed psychiatric drugs every year, and how we are spreading these toxic poisons over seas, and how the number of both adults and children being prescribed increases every year. And what happens to those kids in foster care and group homes…yikes.
Legal or illegal, drugs are drugs and I don’t see how a doctor prescribing them somehow negates “being on drugs”. Yes to knowing about adhd drugs basically being legal speed..and how your body/ mind/ physiology doesn’t know the difference between illegal/ legal drugs that basically act the same way.
Unfortunately, many people do listen to their doctors, and it doesn’t seem like psychiatric drugging is going anywhere. I’d love to to see some heavy duty changes made at least in how they are being prescribed to children (as in basically, outlawing it so they not be), but it seems like they keep finding new and creative ways to keep on doing it. :/
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Unfortunately Mad In America does not have an editorial stand that is consciously anti-psychiatry, which is a drawback since people who come here on one hand have this or that suspicion validated, yet at the same time are led to believe that psychiatry’s crimes are simply misunderstandings that can be corrected without dispensing with the entire institution/mentality.
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How far would Dr. Martin Luther King have gotten if he had spent most of his time dialoguing with the KKK, trying to work out agreements and compromises with the segregationists and worrying about whether the racists liked his members?
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If we are talking children here, America has a terrible track record with the support of children. Politicians and others talk a good story but that is what it only is a tall tale. Child care, education, support for parents, support for disabilities, good education for those who do want to help as in Social Workers and I would say even the medical students is laking in historical content and context,and in critical thinking. The isms are pushed aside and swept under the rug. What is honored and put on the alter is profit, greed, and getting the best deal at the lowest price. And yes country clubs and cars, and high end fashion and jewelry. Those things are considered ultimately as more important than families and children in our country. Vets who were knowingly exposed to hard things have to fight to get proper treatment and if you come from a lowballed, low exposure culture or group watch out- the system will and can eat you up.
There are good folks scattered among all the layers. The trick is to find them and somehow connect a thread to one another with not only exposure but some sort of active force that will in the end blow down the tower of blocks that these adult toddlers have built. One can always hope.
Thanks for all your voices.
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Sent Today
Dear Karen Buck MP,
I would like to attend your surgery to discuss Mental Health misrepresentation with you. I think this is a relevant issue.
Please read below.
NO 1
On the attached July 20 2016 Appointment information sheet in Capitals my GP Dr Simons has written:-
“…I SEE NO REASON WHY MR XXX COULD NOT WORK ON A BUILDING SITE..”
NO 2
On the attached Legal Advisers Information sheet (from Dr Simons during the July 20 interview) Newton Medicals Legal Adviser has written:-
“…The fact that this patient has a medical diagnosis of schizophrenia is a key part of his medical record and this cannot be removed as to do so could prove detrimental to his care…”
“..It does not seem in this case that the fact of the diagnosis is disputed and it is clearly relevant information for the purpose of the medical…”
IF THE 2 PARAGRAPHS ABOVE ACCURATELY REPRESENT ME, THEN I SHOULDN’T BE ANYWHERE NEAR A BUILDING SITE.
NO 3
ABOUT ME VERY BRIEFLY
I was disabled and in and out of hospital, between 1980 and 1984. I have been WELL since 1984 when I carefully stopped drug treatment suitable for any SMI.
Yours Sincerely
XXXX
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Dr Kelmenson,
I would like to know if you still practice clinically. How? I hope, given this article, the only “help” you give people is to tell them to stay away from ALL mental health practitioners!
Secondly, what inspired you to write for MIA and what, specifically, attracted you to this site?
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Illuminating post, and it is interesting that you focused on ADHD and opioid addiction disorders, two of our most recent additions to the pantheon of majorly iatrogenically induced dysfunction epedemics . As if to say, the lying doesn’t start here, folks, this is just the tip of the whopper iceberg, and very far from capturing the whole devastating mess in its entirety. How true! We’ve got these man-made epidemics that no man is taking responsibility for. When first you start making your living off imprisoning people, of course, continuing to profit doesn’t involve freeing them. Stupid laws, like stupid illnesses, proliferate. Unwritten law, too, begins gaining on written law, and there we have a problem as the liberty of all people begins to be so much at stake. Lying politicians, lying pharmaceutical exes, and lying psychiatrists don’t make such odd bedfellows after all. Telling the truth doesn’t pay, not like making up whoppers anyway, much to the detriment of those of us who do possess a conscience.
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Julie:
In the 1990s, I became increasingly fed up with the direction my field was going in, so in 2000 I stopped having anything to do with any organized “mental health treatment”, and have been in solo private practice ever since. I do therapy, which is largely listening to, getting to know, and understanding whatever people want to talk about, whatever issues are stressing, frustrating, or saddening them. I do not label/pigeonhole, or try to get them to conform (It is their choice how to live their lives, and what’s so great about being socially conformist, anyway?), or “treat mental illness”, since I have always been in total agreement with Thomas Szasz. My clients decide what to discuss, and they often seem to appreciate having someone who is concerned and willing to hear all the details of their lives, since often they do not get that anywhere else. If they come to me already on “medication”, I explain how these drugs are really the opposite of medications, and that the false medical model is a lie/scam meant to turn them into permanently ill customers. They usually agree to tapering off all their meds, and are glad that they did.
As time has gone by, I have felt the urge to do something about the increasing harms done not just by my field, but by all the people who have accepted my field’s lies and are poisoning our culture with them. When I read Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic, Irving Kirsch’s The Emperor’s New Drugs, and Marilyn Wedge’s A Disease Called Childhood, I felt both inspired, and encouraged that there were others who saw things how I saw them, and were standing up and telling the truth. When I discovered that RW had started this website and read some of the insightful, thought-provoking articles, it became clear that this was the place where people from all walks of life, who understood what was really going on and thought for themselves, all got together to try to come up with ways to bring the truth to the American public, before too much irreversible harm is done by biological psychiatry and its false medical model. So many people have done their part to contribute so much in their own ways, here. I believe I have found a home, and am ecstatic to be part of the team/cause that all of us are a part of. I honestly believe we are going to change things.
Lawrence
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I think it’s great when degreed people have this turnaround. I hear that some clinicians refuse to take insurance due to diagnosis requirements. Then there’s the problem that only the wealthiest can afford these folks.
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Dr Kelmenson,
Thank you for speaking honestly. We need more within the fields of psychiatry and psychology to tell the truth.
When I tried to kill myself after my psychiatrist molested me, he sent me to another shrink for ECT. I nearly died during the 13th treatment, a fact I never would have known if the nurse who attended during the procedure hadn’t been so shaken by the brutality (shrink kept ramping up the current), that she actually told me after they got me out of status epilepticus. I wonder if the 2 shrinks might have been trying to cover up the molestation by wiping out the memory, or maybe eliminating me?? I sure would have liked to give them some truth serum!
Honestly, there was not a single psychiatric medication I was prescribed that did not make me worse. I have a list that’s 2 pages long.
All that crap happened to me in the 80s after I was diagnosed with schizophrenia. After reading a couple of Dr Breggin’s books, I got off all drugs and now refuse to take them. I have a PhD in Neuroscience and a veterinary degree from U Penn, along with 40+ yrs of research and teaching. I read the literature and know more about these drugs than any shrink I ever went to.
Although I think psychiatric diagnoses are about as useless as psychiatric medications, psychosis is no fun trip. I am terrified of going over that edge of psychosis and ending up in the clutches of psychiatry again. Really terrified.
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maradel
You might be interested in reading, and/or seeing this woman speak on You tube
Breaking Through the Wall of Schizophrenia – Mad In America
https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/06/breaking-wall-schizophrenia/
Jun 14, 2017 – Danish psychologist Olga Runciman’s webinar on July 7, 2017.
I read a book by called “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” by Hannah Green (a nom du plume) – It was an inspiring and autobiographical story of a young girl’s recovery from severe psychosis back in the 1940s or 50s. The author became a well known writer, Joanna Greenberg. More than half of all those who suffer a psychotic break never have a recurrence – some who do, have rare episodes and manage them without having to fall under the psychiatric bus. I wish you well.
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What really gets to me is the lack of accountability in psychiatry. Because the whole sand castle is based on opinion, all they have to do, even in the face of severe malpractice is to say, `4 of my colleagues agree with me’, and they’re in the clear. I’ve seen sexual assault, overdosing to the point of death, physical assault, bullying, physical and mental, false imprisonment, often leading to life threatening and life destroying outcomes, but as soon as the lawyers hear `mental’ or psychiatry, they flee. So abuse not only continues but escalates where there are so few check and balances. There is a tendency for people to go as far as the law will allow but there is no law in psychiatry and the power imbalance is leading to a point where the patient is without protection. This has always been a problem and in its worst manifestation led to the murder of nearly half a million people in Nazi Germany. This is unlikely to happen now in any formal sense because there is too much money in cowed patients but the potential is there.
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You are absolutely correct about no accountability and a huge power imbalance. And by the way, don’t ever try to level that playing field! I’ve tried to have reasonable discussions with psychiatrists about what recent literature shows about the effects of “antipsychotics” on the brain (eg., neuronal cell death, permanent brain damage). One psychiatrist started yelling at me that I was being combative. He was so agitated and out of control that if I hadn’t been so alarmed by his behavior, it would have been amusing. But the labels are one way psychiatrists try to control people and wield their power. In a slightly different situation, even though he was the one out of control, he could have called the police and had me sent to a psychiatric facility, where I could have been held and medicated against my will. No matter how many advanced degrees I have, no one would have believed that he was the real nut case. I am very aware of how dangerous it is to be a person with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Note the distinction: it is the diagnosis, not the actual illness/condition, that is dangerous.
I wish I were as sure as you seem to be that what happened in Nazi Germany to people with serious mental illnesses won’t happen here. Seeing what has been going on in Washington since last November has me very frightened about my safety. People with serious mental illnesses are not the “cash cows”. We are the ones who are seen as costing money. In a society that values money above all else, we are viewed as expendable. The current administration is hell bent on eliminating people who need medical care in the most heartless and cruel manner imaginable. Make health care unaffordable and unavailable, so if you get seriously ill or injured, please just go die. I am genuinely so frightened that I will probably leave the US.
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Maradel, I have a strong distrust of all doctors now. They are all collaborators and enablers of psychiatry even if not shrinks. Right now they keep running heart tests on me. My Medicaid will cover these, but I hate going and am not sure any medicine they offer to help my ticker will benefit me. Probably useless at best! If they really wanted to help my heart they would tell me my psych drugs were damaging it. (I’m off them now, but the doctors don’t know this. I aim to keep them in the dark.)
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I guess I’m in the minority here, but I just don’t see how eliminating the field of Psychiatry will have any kind of beneficial effect. What has been happening in psychiatry is a symptom of a much deeper societal defect, and the symptom is not limited to psychiatry. Every branch of medicine is affected; in reality, every part of our society is affected. Tearing an institution down without addressing the core problem will only lead to something equally degenerate taking its place.
In fact, at the risk of being booted out of MIA, I think all the sturm unt drang over eliminating psychiatry is just a way to avoid having to deal with the much more serious systemic malady. Few seem willing to admit that. Treating the symptom without addressing the underlying disease: Isn’t that what we all complain about in modern medicine??
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The field of psychiatry right now has a very detrimental effect. It maims and kills hundreds of thousands of people every year. Lobotomy, ECT, drugs, etc., all were the direct result of these medical specialists seeking a physical remedy to what may not be a physical problem at all.
Every branch of medicine is not the same, but psychiatry’s claim to legitimacy as a branch of medical science is much more dubious than most, if not all, others. The proof is entirely lacking that what we are dealing with are actual physical ailments.
Symptoms in psychiatry, given the DSM, are lists of unwanted behaviors, making the presumption of “underlying disease”, if anyone should question it, all the more questionable. Basically, as is, scrap psychiatry and you would be protecting health and saving lives at the same time. Sometimes health and lives are more precious than is changing them in the name of the abstract “functionality” of phony baloney “medicine”.
MIA does not take an antipsychiatry position, and so you are in no danger of being banned for not taking such a position yourself. If research were to show, as some claim it does, that people “in crisis”, for lack of a better way of putting it, do better who have never been exposed to psychiatric drugs than those who have, well then, I guess that fact must speak for itself.
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Well, I won’t disagree that psychiatry has a dubious claim to legitimacy, and I won’t disagree that psychiatrists have done and continue to do great harm, especially since I have been a recipient of that harm many times. But that wasn’t really my point. I am suggesting that without addressing the underlying systemic problem(s), if the field of psychiatry is eliminated, something equally reprehensible will fill that void.
Although I’m not a neuroscientist wedded to the hardware aspect of the brain, I think I do have to disagree to some extent that there is a lack of physical/biochemical change that occurs when people have emotional, or psychic, pain. Whether the changes are causes or effects of the pain is difficult to tease out.
Emotional trauma, especially in childhood, can rewire parts of the brain. That doesn’t mean that someone who experienced emotional trauma has a brain disease that needs to be treated with drugs! Psychotherapy, meditation, exercise and many other things can also alter brain structure and function. These non-drug modalities are what should be used to help heal the effects of emotional trauma and psychic pain. IMHO….
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Rewire parts of the brain from what? Some supposed “normality”? And what is it that makes some people more resilient than others and less prone to be terminal victims of what you call “trauma”? All I see is scapegoating.
Psychiatry grew out intolerance for eccentric, flamboyant, and different behaviors. What a coup when you can call such things “mental suffering”, and get people to buy your product (i.e fabricated disease labels and the treatment thereof)!
I mean if we’re going to treat grown ups like children, there is definitely a case for, as Thomas Szasz outlined it, referring to insane asylums as adult orphanages. Thing is, as far as I’m concerned, that is a case for deinstitutionalization rather than, as is, the maintenance of psychiatric prisons of one form or another.
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Frank, in my case there was suffering involved. I was afraid to leave my bedroom because of years of homelessness as a kid–my dad refused to provide for the family because he felt he was “called” to work as a preacher and nothing else! Then, when we found a home I was sexually harassed nonstop for two years.
A lot of weird behavior is caused by trauma. I’m not talking about Elton John with his rhinestone glasses and feather boas. Or Michael Jackson’s devotion to his teddy bear.
Flamboyant behavior is not worthy of punishment. Neither is emotional suffering. Adding to the original suffering with defamatory labels, segregation, and drugs only makes it 10x worse.
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Frank,
I’m afraid I was being kind of simplistic in referring to wiring of the brain. That’s a very mechanical view of our “being”. We can talk about networks and fields, or concepts even more esoteric. Basically, all I’m saying is that our interaction with our environment changes us. We are not just biological beings, of course, but I too easily slide into that reductionist view of neurochemistry and neuroanatomy.
There is no real “normal.” It is a very fluid, socially determined construct. But we also cannot pretend that we don’t live in a society of some kind. So we are judged, rightly or wrongly, as falling somewhere along the spectrum of abnormal/normal. I am clearly outside the realm of what our society calls “normal,” but within my geeky profession (a subset of our society), I can get away with being farther from the overall “norm.” I’m “eccentric.” In fact, eccentricity is valued in science (or was).
Are you saying that we can deny the existence of mental suffering or psychic pain? I certainly can’t deny my own; however, suffering and pain can be largely context-driven. Recognizing the context goes a long way towards putting things into perspective for me; and yet, there is still pain.
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Hi, Maradel, I don’t think anyone would say that there is a “lack of biochemical change” during changes in our experiences and in our reactions to them, and in reacting to our reactions. There is biochemical change at all times in our nervous systems and bodies as whole. What many, including me, disagree with is that the changes are as simple as a lego brain would allow and that a person can go from distressed to contented if we just deliver the right chemicals to the right lego. Maybe we could but no candidate for the lego has been found.
As for brains being rewired by early trauma, the argument against that is that brains are not wired. They are convoluted lumps of densely packed nerve cells that spit chemicals at each other all day and night and they have tremendous capacity to adapt and learn. They are awfully good at learning about danger and too good at alerting us of danger sometimes.
Are some associations not unlearnable, ever? Maybe, but I got rid of one once. I had astounding luck with a mental exercise called the rewind technique, which could be of interest to anyone who feels etched or hardwired by trauma. It can be done with a therapist. I did it alone, after finding it online and thinking it was worth a try. I was finally able to sleep without ruminating on and re-experiencing a bad thing that happened a couple of years earlier. It was not the most traumatic event imaginable, however.
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A “lego brain” would be counter-productive actually. If your life stinks, pain can be useful in forcing you to change. Good therapies (Choice theory, Peter Breggin’s kind, some Cognitive behavioral therapy) will force you to appraise your life and make necessary changes. If feeling good is all that’s necessary, why bother with psych drugs? Alcohol and street drugs are equally effective and you won’t be labelled permanently insane.
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I agree that hard-wiring is an inaccurate/misleading metaphor for human emotions, thought, and behavior. It implies that attempts at learning to cope and adapt would be fruitless, even though these abilities are the essence of what being human means. This metaphor may apply to very simple animals that are controlled by instincts, but not us. I believe it was devised by my field in order to trick people into thinking they can’t resolve their own problems, and trick parents into believing their children are un-raisable, so that everyone will instead give up, and join psychiatry’s assembly line of sedation as the solution to all of life’s issues. It’s as if psychiatry’s goal for the past 30 years has been to get mankind to undo the amazing capabilities which it took millions of years of evolution to produce.
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The people I have known who were abused as children also were not fed well, or not fed at all. I have known people who, as very young children, were so neglected that out of desperation they tried to cook for themselves and were too little to reach up on the stove.
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maradel–you are not the only one…I also don’t think that removing psychiatry from medicine will have any beneficial effect…the society problems run very very deep…most people WANT a quick fix…we have fast food and now we have fast moods…
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It’s interesting to read all the insights and shared experiences this MIA article sparked. I agree it is unlikely the present business of psychiatry will ever die. However, as more people publicly share their experiences of medical violence and prescribed demise, it is possible the field could slowly rediscover analysis/talk therapy based on mutual respect and equality. Such a transformation would take a generation of altruistic young professionals more interested in making a positive difference than a quick buck.
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Kristina,
I’m afraid it would take many, many generations… but one never knows! Big changes can occur all at once. Maybe a close brush with nuclear annihilation would wake enough people up. But it’s not just psychiatry that has to wake up.
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Eckhart Tolle has brilliant and free advice on dealing with trauma (and it works).
https://youtu.be/GoEE9_qo0kI
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Maradel:
What do you think the core, underlying problem with our society is which needs addressing? If you think it is that too many people look for quick fixes through “better living through chemistry”, then modern psychiatry is a big reason for that, since it really became popular ever since prozac’s mass marketing in 1988, which began the incessant pounding of the public with: “depression is an illness caused by a chemical imbalance. Ask your doctor about how prozac can help you”. And ever since psychiatry labelled normal childhood immaturity a medically treatable disease around 1990, this resulted in the production of a generation of young adults who never matured beyond instant gratifications, and whose only coping tool is “better living through chemistry”. And you can also blame psychiatry (and other doctors) for dispensing billions of bottles of addictive chemicals to parents, whose children could then find and experiment with them and thus be led into addiction. So psychiatry may be the reason for the big change in America’s core identity.
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You didn’t ask me, so I hope you and Maradel don’t mind I find if I venture an answer.
I think the whole world has suffered since the west was won! At any time in the past 4 or 5 centuries, until about 1900, there was a drive to explore and tame and conquer in a westward direction.
Can you imagine the excitement when North America was newly discovered by explorers and presented to Europe? A vast, very lightly populated expanse with varied vistas and terrains. It wasn’t theirs to despoil or lay claim to, but they believed otherwise and acted on their belief.
North America (and South) offered an “out” for those who’d messed up in Europe, an adventure for those who were bored, an escape from the Church of England for those who clung to their religion and desperately needed a place to practice it, or, because class systems meant most people would never make a dreamed-of fortune, to the rare bird who ventured to dream, it was a place to stake out something to call an estate. There was nothing of the sort in England.
Then after that, there were colonies and then a small United States, and even then, there was still the Wild West. California, busy with people who got there earlier, would prove so alluring that battles were fought over the right to govern and apportion the land.
Restless and bored? Off you went with an expedition, on a horse, or on foot.
Happy and engaged? Fine, stay on the east coast and model a character for Henry James.
Once all the wars over what was to be Mexico and what was the be the US were done, the end of the adventure was near. Land got all owned up, claimed by the early, the oily, and the best armed and aimed.
We can still mess around in the Antarctic or the bottom of the sea, or spit ourselves at other planets in high tech tin cans, but the days of pushing west across habitable and arable land, contiguous with the rest of the great American undertaking, and eventually making a patch of it yours have ended, not all that long ago — my grandparents were children — but decisively.
And now there is nothing for a certain kind of person to do.
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Well, it will never be over for the financial sector, which I really ought to join some day. They are doing it again, but the unowned terrain is acres and acres worth of loan collateral deserted by the would-be owners along with any intention to make another loan payment as long as they live. It does tend to be in the west, too, where nonjudicial foreclosure is law in most states. Declare default, schedule an auction, transfer title. Think the hapless borrower has the wherewithal to sue? You can’t prove she owes you the money, but frontier justice favors the bold. Swat her off like a gnat.
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I’d like to take a stab at this. I believe it is income inequality and that we, as Americans look to blame the individual for not surviving when we live in an oligarchy. It is a social problem not an individual problem. Once compounded with extra stress which is already present with just surviving, we lose the ability to meet our basic needs as in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, clothing, food, a sustainable and affordable place to live. Most cannot sustain the physiological base needs. No one ever gets to the safety level. That’s how we live our lives.
Ask yourself how many people can’t sleep at night because they wonder if the current situation is precarious. A high percentage of people can’t scrape $600 together for an emergency. Welfare is gone and there is no such thing as a safety net. Only part time jobs are available. Statistics say that there hasn’t been a wage increases since 1970. Yet the 1 percent, increase their net worth at a steady pace.
Psychiatry exists because it creates a revenue stream off of society’s ills. Blame the individual for their predicament and market the hell out of that narrative.
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I mainly agree, but I would call it financial insecurity, which arises when income isn’t adequate the service the costs of the lowest standard of living the individual can tolerate. For the poorest the fear is homelessness, for the rest, the fear is slipping down so many rungs that personally important physical and abstract elements of life are lost. Whether one can empathize or not, rich people lie awake at night wondering if they’ll be forced to sell the place in the Hamptons under the same silvery moon as middle class people worry about paying the mortgage and someone sleeping in their car worries about a crackdown on overnight parking.
They could all end up on drugs if they went to see a doctor about anxiety. How nice it would be if the car-dweller, who might have Medicaid, could receive, instead of seeing a therapist and taking antidepressants, the money used to pay for them.
When the problem isn’t so much staying afloat, but inadequate time to get everything done in the household, for the children and the aging parents, etc, plus a full time job, I would bet there are millions of people, women especially, who would be relieved of all symptoms if they were granted a Multitalented assistant or even a just a housekeeper who kept their dwelling spotless and tidy. When you start to break down, it’s EVERYTHING that’s too much, but it is usually just one thing that pushes you over the line.
It is the ultimate in humanist psychology to leave the human out of it altogether. If there were a medical specialty that treated our bank accounts and homes as “sick” and fixed them instead of us, and health insurance paid for it…well, I can dream.
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But you forgot one main point, to make money you have to have money and this is why the rich stay rich. If you are one of them, you have the network to pull you out of whatever snafu that you got yourself in. It’s the ones without the safety net that are most at risk. President Trump is one of those. He believes he was born into that position and no matter what, he is entitled to keep his position. And he does through countless bankruptcies. Yes they do sell some to the middle class but those who partake just don’t talk about it.
You have to admit that the system is rigged and everyone knows it. If you find yourself in the living paycheck to paycheck which was the last taxpayer propping up of the banks, then you will see that is the reason there has been no wage increases since the 1970’s. Welfare doesn’t exist and if you find yourself “homeless”, the only choice you have will to take these toxins, declare yourself incapable and make the pharmaceutical companies rich to get any help. And this is why the labor participation rate continues to go up and more people stay on the sidelines. This is the only way they can survive. Either that or earn less and lock yourself into that paradigm of a continuous cycle.
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Dr. K and Maradel, I believe the core beliefs are the socially tiered society we live in. Any MD is automatically right no matter what, but now some are questioning this attitude. Any perceived mental patient is wrong no matter what, and that, too, has to change.
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Dr. Kelmenson,
Sorry, I’ve been too busy to get back to this until today…
Wow, I’m going to have to go much deeper into this than the others who replied. Their responses are certainly valid up to a point, but to me, the CORE problem has to do with the disconnection of humans from what we share in common with all life. For many reasons, humans have decided that we are “above” everything else; ie., superior. Religions, of course, have played a big part in setting that up, but religions are stories humans have invented to justify the use and abuse of other beings and the earth itself. Once humans set themselves apart from and above even one other form of life, we/they can easily find justification for using/abusing others of our own species.
I’m not really talking about “new age” stuff, although I think that movement is a reflection of the feeling that we have somehow lost touch with a deep unconscious connection to others around us. Also, I think the spirituality that some yearn for and seek out in religion is an expression of that disconnection that leaves people feeling solitary. I should also say that my definition of “life” is not necessarily a biological one. What others call inanimate objects have life, to me.
I’m not a philosopher, so expressing these ideas is difficult, and even a little embarrassing for me. I’m trained in the western paradigms of science and medicine, so the “Doctor” in me is very skeptical. But before all that training and education, there existed (and still exists) an intense awareness of my connection to everything. When the intensity of the awareness becomes too great, or when my awareness of connection is overwhelmingly discordant with the zombie-ness abound me, I get labeled as psychotic. I was “schizophrenic” ever since I was a young child, although not diagnosed as such until my 20s. I’m not trying to say that I am somehow superior to other human beings because I experience this connection. It’s painful; it’s terrible. I often wish I could be so disconnected. In order to survive, I had to create the Doctor person who had no problem being disconnected. The Doctor person is very two-dimentional. However, the Doctor is not totally separate from “me”. The Doctor is more like a survival mechanism.
It has taken me many decades to understand why I feel like such a freak, and of course, I might be wrong! Maybe it’s all about dopamine (says the Doctor). My first major psychotic episode in my 20s was triggered by my desperate attempts to exist as a zombie (I was working for Monsanto as part of the original BST development team—OMG!). It tore a big hole in my universe and there was no going back. I didn’t know that then, and I kept trying, but the revolving door of hospitalizations didn’t end until I stopped having to BE the Doctor. The Doctor is still around and serves an important purpose, but isn’t the whole.
Anyway, the huge focus on I-ness, ME-ness, especially in the West, (MY wealth, MY possessions, MY position, MY health, etc, etc) immediately excludes the recognition that there really isn’t an I or a My. It sets each individual apart and above any other individual, and that is what leads to the casual disregard and violence towards others. I am just as guilty, because it is a fundamental flaw of Homo sapiens. I hear the bullshit that comes out of my mouth sometimes and I think ‘who just said that??’
I think what is going on in the US and elsewhere today is that the desperate struggle between the desire to maintain the disconnection and a growing awareness that disconnection is a terminal disease has reached a crescendo. The blatant hatred and fear of anything that is “other,” in the US especially, is terrifying to me, so much so that I feel that I have to leave in order to keep from flying over that psychosis cliff or killing myself. There is that knowledge that there really is nowhere to go, but my terror doesn’t always allow me to acknowledge it.
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Maradel:
I am glad that you got back to me. I agree that there is an increasing disconnectedness in the U.S. Families and relationships in general are much less valued or consistent, and children are often raised more by impersonal daycare centers and the internet, than by their families. Women who want to stay home to raise their kids are looked down upon for not focusing on themselves and their career. Even when people are together, they still are on their cellphones, tablets, or laptops, and thus are still not that connected with each other. This is probably part of why people are so vulnerable to the idea of pills as a way to feel better, by bypassing the underlying cause of their pain, and seeking quick short-cuts to feeling better.
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I don’t think cell phones and other electronics caused psychiatry. Actually our movement is allowed to flourish because of technology. Before that, they used phone conferencing, but now we have the internet to connect us. Also the smartphone was not anticipated by psych and they are kinda overwhelmed that now, patients have easy internet access via the smartphone. This is a blow to them. We can now tell the truth and many will read or listen to what we say, even though most of us have never been able to pursue through legal means.
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Dr. Kelmenson,
This is another reply to your question/comment that is related to my earlier one. When I step outside myself, I just don’t see much value in the “blame game”. Are drug pushers responsible for the epidemic of illegal drug use, or are they just filling a demand? Same with physicians (or veterinarians) or pharmaceutical companies and patients/clients. Is it a chicken and/or egg situation or is there co-development of the situation in a kind of positive feedback loop?
For example, I published some of my thesis work in the journal Science. The work had to do with some new ideas about how food intake/appetite were controlled in the brain. Because Science is a prestigious journal, it got a lot of attention. I actually got phone calls from physicians who wanted my opinion about the applicability of my very basic research to treating obesity in humans. One call from a neurosurgeon, in particular, was very disturbing. He told me that he had patients so desperate to lose weight that they would do ANYTHING, including having cannulas implanted in their brains so that substances could be administered directly into the areas involved in controlling their appetite. So was he taking advantage of his desperate patients or was he just responding to their demands for a new way for them to lose weight (that didn’t involve the hard work of changing their relationship to food)? Now, this kind of situation goes on all the time. There are demands for new and better treatments. Doctors and pharmaceutical companies see potential markets, and because everything is profit-driven, they go for it.
Of course, things spiral out of control when pharmaceutical companies and doctors collude to “create” diseases that don’t exist, just to create markets for new sources of profits. That’s exactly what your article addresses. It happens in other fields of medicine, as well. But why are patients so willing to allow themselves to be labeled? Note that early in my career as a mental patient, I was willing to be labeled, too. I wanted answers; I wanted to know what was “wrong” with me. Over time, and with my skeptical nature, I started rejecting the easy answers. But for someone who just wants to get rid of the pain, Haldol is where it’s at. You don’t feel anything! Well, until the akathisia kicks in. But there are more drugs to treat the side effects. You see where I’m going??
Blaming one side or the other feels good because it eliminates personal responsibility. These are very complicated issues and there is responsibility on both sides. And sometimes, it seems there is real evil.
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Maradel I am interested in your work on appetite as I survived an eating disorder. Yes the ED industry is also a huge moneymaker. Steal your kid and charge a fortune.
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When the SSRIs & ADHD meds came on the scene, I was in college (90s), and I remember the whole “chemical imbalance” idea spreading like wildfire. Crazy how deeply and insidiously it has established roots in our culture. One thing’s for sure, marketing and advertising works. :/
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Lenora22:
I think quick fixing of “chemical imbalances” was an instant hit because it came at the right time, when women were often overwhelmed by trying to juggle full-time careers with raising kids, often all by themselves due to divorce. They were too busy to look at their lives and try to find ways to adapt (and maybe there were none), so “happy pills” for themselves and justifiable sedation of their kids came to the rescue.
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Actually the `chemical imbalance’ was a fraudulent scientific justification for what had been going on for a very long time. When I was a `mental health’ professional starting back in 1969, valium was the drug of choice to keep the little woman in her place, and there was another one before that, and before that, and contemporaneously, there was a `cup of tea, a Bex and a nice lie down’ (Bex being an analgesic at the time), and before that, Laudanum (an opiate) – They were all addictive and all were used to control women. A firmly patriarchic society couldn’t, and still can’t, afford women to become assertive and challenge the privilege and power of men.
The `chemical imbalance’ was merely an extension of that, and has to be one of the greatest PR campaigns in history, only rivalled by `God is Love’. Even `the Jews did it’ pales before it.
Now, the situation exists where the poor and children are targeted as well, as Aldous Huxley predicted. He was tongue in cheek but here it is, `The Brave New World.’
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Dr. Kelmenson & deeeo42-
I can see what both of you are saying, with the societal forces that influenced the success of these marketing campaigns. From what I understand, Naturopathic medicine and holistic approaches really got kicked to the curb (slowly making a comeback, thankfully) when modern/ conventional medicine and pharmaceuticals came along in the 40s and 50s, and psychiatry fell in step with their antipsychotics at this time too. Each decade has had their drugs and their methods, but boy did things explode in the 90s.
And what happened since then has been this great equalizer. They’ve gotten a hold of people from all socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds, diagnosing them and get to them to take their drugs. Psychiatry is still a male majority, but the mental health/ social work and human services fields are dominated by women (almost 84%?) in the US, and ethnically diverse too, so you’ve got a whole different demographic of players doling out the “treatments” and making sure the patients are going to pay for the sins of the father, or whatever it is that they are doing. Men and boys aren’t immune, and I agree with what you said earlier, Dr, Kelmenson, about what they are doing to boys and young men with the ADHD diagnosing. Funny about the One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest reference earlier, because I’ve worked with plenty of modern day Nurse Ratcheds, and had that movie on my mind quite often when I worked in Human Services. No one escaped their wrath. I learned a lot about what types of personalities are drawn to those professions, and though you get some nice people peppered in there, you also get a lot of dysfunctional/ controlling types. “Wack jobs”, if you will..
And these companies, they are doing a great job blocking alternative remedies and treatments from going mainstream, and even getting people to campaign against their own rights and creating more stigma (as in, let’s get more people diagnosed to lessen the stigma of mental illness…when all it does is create more fear and stigma). Gotta hand it to them, they are good at what they do :/
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Lenora22,
I got disgusted with NAMI and other health professionals when they came up with that bright idea of reducing “stigma” created by themselves by stigmatizing more and more people. Along with other stuff I had been reading this led to my break with the National Alliance for the promotion of Mental Illness.
Reminds me of an account of a boy kidnapped by a pedophile who was encouraged to bring friends home. He knew his “guardian” would molest them, but he did it so he would leave him along. Eventually he got sick of being an accomplice to the pedophile’s evil and helped a little boy escape–escaping himself in the process. Ever heard of Steven Steiner?
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I don’t see us ending psychiatry any time soon. If we could simply ban involuntary psychiatry many of us–including me–would be very happy.
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Ban? Outlaw involuntary treatment, and many of us would be happy. The problem is that forced treatment IS the law, and the only way to change that is through the law (legislative process). Repeal bad law, or constrain it in some fashion, and there you go.
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I agree with you there. And by “ban” I meant “outlaw.” Not sure how else you could ban it.
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This article is so spot-on! Everyone in my circle talks about this quietly amongst themselves…but are somehow scared to speak out. I have been reprimanded more than once for “undermining” a psychiatrist in various work environments for merely uttering simple facts about the brain to patients.
Most recently I’m alarmed at children in the foster care systems. I know from first-hand experience they are being taken from their families and are almost immediately put on psychotropic medications by court-appointed child psychiatrists! The parents have no rights in the ordeal–the foster parents take them to the appointments, get the diagnoses, and initiate the medications. And are paid more monthly for having the child on them. I also worked in an inpatient facility where the same thing happens, and children and teens are regularly dropped off and admitted to psychiatric facilities where they are literally assessed in 10 minutes of time by a low-quality psychiatrist and medicated.
I am a PhD Psychologist, working under a license in professional counseling with clients who are genuinely interested in feeling better with anxiety-related symptoms. I am also an Army Veteran and am very frustrated with what I see going on with my fellow Veterans. So much of my work is sorting through the ridiculous-should-be-illegal mixtures of counter-intuitive medications they are on…from psychiatrists and family doctors who have 100% refused to return my phone calls.
I have so may stories to tell. I think those of us who actually are knowledgeable about the brain and psychology are full of stories such as these. Not sure what we can do against the U.S. #1 profitable industry other than plug along saving one brain at a time and educating as many people as we can, one by one.
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I agree Dr. Nash, I think that if we are going to be effective, not only do we need organized effort, but we also need to demonstrate what we believe in in our personal lives.
Too often I see discrediting of diagnosees, even by people who should know better, such as fellow survivors. I see use of pseudodiagnoses also, such as calling a person delusional without using the word. Don’t do that. Walk the walk.
Too often I see us bashing each other when that will only weaken us. I can’t figure out what to do about that, as it seems rampant. We need a solid plan, and solid leadership from within.
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