In 2015 I wrote an MIA article called “Medication Mechanization: Microchip Sensors in Abilify to Increase Medication Compliance.” The article warned about the FDA considering approval of a new form of Abilify that carries a microchip inside to send digital information about its time-stamped ingestion to prescribers, and also potentially to family members and legal authorities.
The FDA approved the prescribing and sale of this new hi-tech compliance-monitoring “antipsychotic” drug this week. I believe that this new Orwellian pharmaceutical instrument of invasive individual and social control will serve to usher in an even more desolate landscape of oppression and human suffering.
I’ve been a dissident therapist with lived experience of extreme states in the SF Bay Area since 1980. I’ve seen the growing unified political power of NAMI, the APA and its disease model paradigm of psychiatry, plus the cash flow from Big Pharma, totally destroy the existence of compassionate, medication-free sanctuaries for people in extreme states — places like Soteria House, IWard, and Diabasis House. All three of those sanctuaries were actually open at the same time here in the Bay Area. My blog “Remembering a Medication-Free Madness Sanctuary” tells of my years serving at the IWard sanctuary, and about my research on Diabasis House and my connection with Loren Mosher of Soteria too.
For some years recently I’ve been involved with an RD Laing-inspired group called the Gnosis Project, that is just now starting up an off-the-grid in-home support service for people in extreme states, as well as planning the opening of a Laingian style 24/7 residential sanctuary. The Gnosis Project group is led by fellow MIA blogger and good friend Michael Guy Thompson, who worked with Laing in London for several years.
Our efforts on the Gnosis Project are bolstered by many volunteers and yearly large public weeklong events at Esalen Institute focusing on the living legacy of RD Laing. But as we passionately work to bring heart-centered resources forward, the conditions here in Northern California for people trapped in the various county and state mental health and prison systems are growing bleaker by the day.
So, these are some of my personal concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation for people in extreme states here, that are now multiplied by my profound fears about how the new digital Abilify will be used as a powerful weapon to even further trap, demoralize and abuse vulnerable people.
I see that tragic injury coming not just through the emotion-neutralizing drug effects themselves, which have been documented here on MIA by myself and many others (see my “Enslaved to Abilify” blog). I also see tragic personal injury coming via its supporters’ treacherous intent. They intend to use the new digital monitoring form of Abilify to control people’s “antipsychotic” dosing compliance from inside their own bodies, something that I believe would even make dystopian visionaries George Orwell and Aldous Huxley shudder.
Conditions are very ripe for such oppression in California right now, because there is an even more oppressive mental health services “best practice” model and standard of care for people in extreme states that is emerging based on forced in-home treatment or AOT.
Like California, almost every state now has some version of in-home compulsory court-ordered medication treatment based on state law, so that medication compliance for people in extreme states in the community can be ordered by the court.
In California the governing statute is called Laura’s Law. It’s based on New York’s Kendra’s Law, where the police can and do actually show up at the door in New York to escort the “patient” to the clinic for their antipsychotic medication injection if they have not kept their medication appointments.
It’s very ominous that under California’s Laura’s Law, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Francisco counties in the Bay Area, and many other California counties including giant LA County, have chosen the option of forcing people to take meds in their own homes or be in violation of a court order.
The incredibly politically successful (and I’d say unholy) alliance of NAMI, Big Pharma and the APA (which represents 25,000 medical/disease model psychiatrists) are now targeting Sacramento and Santa Cruz county politicians to also vote for the option of in-home forced medication treatment under Laura’s Law.
That powerful political alliance recently succeeded in getting the majority of county supervisor votes to secure compulsory in-home medication in San Francisco and both Oakland and Berkeley in Alameda County — arguably three of the most politically progressive cities in the United States!
That alliance is the relentless juggernaut we’re up against. It has tenaciously fought for and won almost every political battle for forced in-home medication all across the United States.
In addition, that alliance has recently won a huge victory because the US Congress that they’ve relentlessly lobbied for decades has finally responded with the recent 2017 passage of the historic Murphy mental health care legislation. This legislation ramps up the coercion for such compulsory community treatment by tying funding via federal dollars with requirements that states and counties have such legally mandated programs in place.
The compliance-monitoring microchip Abilify is designed to give medication prescribers, NAMI family members and courts the hands-on power to address the fact that 74 percent of people in extreme states who are prescribed “antipsychotic” medications have stopped taking them by 18 months, as a major research study recently confirmed. From their perspective, this is unacceptable.
Tremendous pressure, I believe, will also be exerted by mental health care providers for people to voluntarily accept taking the new digital Abilify. I see that pressure being put on people seeking discharge from in-patient units, and pressure will be put on people in extreme states or with such histories, who will be involved anywhere on the spectrum of community mental health services and in jails and prisons too. In both mental health and penal systems, medication compliance, not providing humanistic care, is clearly the highest priority.
How the very crucial need for alternative resources like the Laingian Gnosis project and the many other fine resources like Open Dialogue stands out against the very grim and Orwellian reality of a regimen of forced in-home medication treatment or voluntary submission to a regimen of compliance-monitoring Abilify.
The oppressive treatment is really an emotion drowning mistreatment. It’s a morally bankrupt approach that ensures a soul-numbing, hi-tech compliance-monitoring device be in the digestive tract of every DSM-labeled person in an extreme state, in order to keep them in line. It forces the controlling psychiatric adversary to be there within our very guts in the form of every single digitized Abilify capsule that we choke down and swallow.
People who would want and need to control other people in such ways often are limited by their inability to find a powerful way to do it.
Power is always potentially dangerous, as we are reminded every day that we look at the news.
This week the FDA, the government agency mandated and funded to protect us from harmful substances and drugs, made history.
I’m marking my calendar. This week in November 2017 a new chapter in human darkness descended — one that is applauded by the alliance of control addicts that made it happen.
As would be expected with these kinds of morally sinister social engineering projects, the rise of the internalized controlling power of the state to now both dwell in and monitor the inside of our very bodies was celebrated as a victory of reason, of light and of the most well-intentioned generosity by the victors who got their wishes fulfilled this fateful week.
Wouldn’t these pills be expensive to mass-produce Michael? Will they be standard for all SMI labeled folks? Is there anything (besides moving to Mexico) we can do to protect ourselves?
I am finally off my crap after 25 years. My heart condition, anemia, and morbid obesity are correcting themselves. I’m relearning social skills I forgot at age 20 when I got sucked in. I hope to become gainfully employed soon and am “passing” in a community where people don’t treat me like a vermin.
I have broken no laws. I help sick neighbors and volunteer. Why do they want to hurt people like me?
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Thank you for your important comment YetAnotherAccount. I’m very sorry for all you’ve been through, and glad to hear you’re finding your way forward.
Best wishes,
Michael
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Tweedle, Psychotherapy and Recovery are predicated on denigrating survivors. Problem is too many survivors go along with it. Can’t really outlaw talk between consenting adults, but we should not be giving special licensing to it. Such licensing should be revoked, and we must be protecting children from it.
And of course involuntary drugging has to be considered on the level of lethal assault.
Beyond that, things change when survivors start voluntarily rejecting all therapy and recovery, and instead opt for political consciousness raising and political action.
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Patents were being filed for these technologies in the late 90s, early 2000s. I have been writing here and there a little bit and attempting to discuss them for the best part of a decade. Paranoia, people insisted, paranoia.
The good news is that WIFI WPA encryption is broken and bluetooth is laughably leaky. So there’s a lot of scope for ethical hackers to come to peoples’ rescue, if indeed, they want to be rescued. Sadly, the majority don’t.
Agree with Michael Cornwall, this marks the beginning of the new age of psychiatric intervention. And it’s the tip of the iceberg. There are many invasive technologies under development that will follow this. If you don’t accept the new technologies, expect to be treated as a Luddite.
Overall these new technologies will be welcomed and embraced as a new form of urban cool. The narcissists will enthusiastically share their microchip updates on social media….
Also… assisting someone in subverting these technologies will be a criminal offence, akin to assisting an escaped patient.
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Of course we need to be fighting these microchip sensors and the laws behind them by any means necessary.
But psychotherapy cannot ever be a part of this, it must be 100% rejected as it still serves to subjugate the clients.
The remedy can only be political consciousness raising, political activism, and penalties for perpetrators and reparations for the survivors. These can only be obtained by fighting. And no one can ever restore their social and civil standing without demonstrating willingness to impose penalties upon perpetrators. Unless you are willing to fight for what is right, and to impose penalties on wrong doers, then you are still in your therapist’s office.
We should have people on the ground right now working to end this guy’s political career:
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/23/opinion-if-counties-invested-more-in-treating-mental-illness-public-safety-would-improve/
This guy sees the poor as a social hygiene menace, and he holds up his family scapegoat brother as the example of someone who has to be kept drugged.
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There is lots of evidence that Abilify causes more harm than good:-
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-curse-of-akathisia.html%3Fm%3D1&ved=0ahUKEwjWhtaJ3cvXAhXF2RoKHf8oD8k4ChAWCCcwAQ&usg=AOvVaw13opQDuyCKId-m0u3fgRwD
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://m.duluthreader.com/articles/2012/04/05/299_many_psychoactive_drugs_are_strongly_associated&ved=0ahUKEwjWhtaJ3cvXAhXF2RoKHf8oD8k4ChAWCCQwAA&usg=AOvVaw0kai1dpoLdTjuHV2kN0_sM
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/341108&ved=0ahUKEwil88HS28vXAhVBExoKHfvfA_gQFgh9MAk&usg=AOvVaw0KYucv992dBIpg1ubBOgDz
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://amp.peoplespharmacy.com/posts/did-antipsychotic-drugs-contribute-to-suicide&ved=0ahUKEwil88HS28vXAhVBExoKHfvfA_gQFghXMAU&usg=AOvVaw0zo2jU4edPA7-IUmcyKxi2&cf=1
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://davidhealy.org/left-hanging-suicide-in-bridgend/&ved=0ahUKEwil88HS28vXAhVBExoKHfvfA_gQFghLMAQ&usg=AOvVaw1M8ksEplyr89I6prNeEytQ
Aripiprazole Side Effects in Detail – Drugs.com
https://www.drugs.com › sfx › a…
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/drug_warnings_on_violence/recent-murdersmurder-suicides/&ved=0ahUKEwil88HS28vXAhVBExoKHfvfA_gQFggzMAE&usg=AOvVaw1pXrAL2Ot7u4Cg9DIyatu1
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2990567/&ved=0ahUKEwil88HS28vXAhVBExoKHfvfA_gQFgglMAA&usg=AOvVaw2JpBUSyVHr5YcjW5P18-jX
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/05/fda-warns-new-impulse-control-problems-associated-abilify/&ved=0ahUKEwjWhtaJ3cvXAhXF2RoKHf8oD8k4ChAWCCowAg&usg=AOvVaw1GpRiEpdWNNeW4U1qBRVUz
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/03/amp/antidepressant-side-effects.aspx&ved=0ahUKEwjWhtaJ3cvXAhXF2RoKHf8oD8k4ChAWCC0wAw&usg=AOvVaw1SKMlbTwQ5TrrqT96uHuvs&cf=1
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.newsday.com/amp/long-island/nassau/cops-man-in-murder-suicide-had-hallucinations-1.4869922&ved=0ahUKEwjWhtaJ3cvXAhXF2RoKHf8oD8k4ChAWCDUwBg&usg=AOvVaw0Vzz4BzXJOPuh-ulwNTveP&cf=1
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=34LhpLT9taYC&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=abilify+suicide+homicide&source=bl&ots=HI0WuW7Hrs&sig=gfe8exmfQr17kFIprTQKuYXYU04&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWhtaJ3cvXAhXF2RoKHf8oD8k4ChDoAQg9MAk
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Thank you very much Fiachra, for sharing this extensive documentation about the harmful effects that Abilify causes for many people.
Best wishes,
Michael
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Michael
You have written about a very important aspect of increased social control in a political period of creeping fascism – via Trump and all that his election represents. I hope that all activist type readers on this website will give this blog the serious consideration it deserves and respond accordingly.
Richard
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Thanks for your comment Richard.
Under President Obama, the FDA rejected the original digital Abilify approval application based on safety concerns. But in May, 2017 the drug makers reapplied- and now have received FDA approval.
One of the promises President Trump made in his campaign was to loosen federal regulatory oversight at the EPA and other agencies.
I believe that the institution of Psychiatry evolved, exists and is tasked to control personal and societal deviance while making a handsome living for the 25,000 MD’s who are psychiatrists.
Abilify has been the most profitable drug on the market for it’s makers and company shareholders.
In the coming days we will see Big Brother and Big Business become even more tightly joined at the hip.
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This is speculation but my guess is that if you find a substance similar to stomach acid you can hack this ‘high tech’ gadget, say by throwing the God d*mn pill into a glass of lemon juice. It just takes cheeking to a new level. Facism prevails when fear is endemic. It’s good to be vigilant but don’t lose hope.We will win this battle and win our human rights!!
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I don’t understand why this is being pursued when there is already a depot injection called Maintena which is the injectible version of Abilify. I should know: I’m being forcibly injected with 400 mg every three weeks.
Edited to add: And I’m wondering what effect this digital Abilify might have upon a paranoid schizophrenic. In this instance, could we really attribute her paranoia to mental illness?
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Yes, about the paranoia. This drug will cause physical illness and emotional distress. Abilify is adept at delivering akathisia. It will cause intelligent people to despise doctors and governments. They will be called conspiracy theorists, as if there’s something wrong with that….
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Francesca – I’m sorry you are being injected.
It’s about extending the patent profits, it has nothing to do with treatment.
It’s a blockbuster drug, about to go out of patent.
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An extension of their own FDA surveillance tracking program on their own employees:
http://www.workplacebullying.org/fda/
They are just giving themselves more rope to hang.
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This is really scary shit.
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The foundation is that people believe the psychiatric drugs are medicine, and they do. Bad behaviour is not a choice but something to be “corrected” by magical chemicals.
Who ever has the gold/money makes the rules. If you have a source of gold/money from providing a service, both the provider and the person/company paying want the deal to continue.
If you are not causing trouble then those in authority will/would have no reason to force a court ordered depot injection or use these new smart pills that tell if the criminal-who-isnt-acriminal has consumed them.
——-
In the big picture of humans on the planet.
Once women have the knowledge and access to inexpensive birth control they tend not to have children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_fertility_rate#United_States
In Canada , my country, we have a 1.6 rate birth rate , where we would need a number closer 2 to equal out births and deaths . https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2014002-eng.htm
As psychiatry has successfully converted the act of sinning ( all humans are imperfect/ make mistakes/ basically animals: as in: we need to breath, eat, and sleep like any animal) into psychiatric disease, psychiatry will never run out of new clients to treat.
IMO the only solution to forced drugging is that psychiatry has to be exposed as a religion. There are no brain chemical imbalances . There is no psychotic molecule, virus or bacteria for an antipsychotic to affect.
It is all about following orders from those who have the gold/money.
Make them prove you are not following orders.
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Dropping the Abilify Chip pill into Acidic warm water should fool this system into thinking the victim ingested it as long as it is kept near the receiver.
How could this system tell if the pill is in a persons stomach or some 98 degree acidic liquid in a cup or even there own stomach contents they vomited up kept warm and dropped the pill into ?
“A new chapter in human darkness has descended” Well said.
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They assume we’re a bunch of dumb bunnies and it will take a while for Big Brother Shrinkenstein to catch on. Most think we’re not capable of anything that clever.
They might scan your body for the chip later. Catch the dissolved contents of the drug, put them in a plastic bag and put it in your pocket before the thought police drag you in for scanning.
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Couldn’t you dismantle the pill and swallow the microchip? I read somewhere that it was 1 millimetre long and 0.3 millimetre wide so you might need a magnifying glass.
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The news are still awful. What could I say – the best thing is of course to never be diagnosed as schizophrenia even if you extremely psychotic.
I think there should also be the resource which would help people lie and deceive common diagnostic psychiatric thinking (e.g. a little bit of training on what not to say to psychiatrist ever and if you don’t say you know they tend to give you milder label).
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I would imagine that micro-chips slipped under the skin, and that report drug-taking, are next. This would probably require some sort of surgical procedure. It’s not like people don’t see the possibilities for deception that might arise from these things. After all, these drug and technology developers, these “behavioral” social controllers, are experts at deception themselves.
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Experts at deception are often arrogant and underestimate those they despise and see as subhuman.
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I seem to be the only one with a different viewpoint here.
Although I can’t recommend Abilify as the cure-all here (I found it miserable and could not tolerate it), I am perfectly happy to be on my “cocktail” of meds for my bipolar disorder II, BPD, and anxiety.
These drugs–whether from a farm or Big Pharma or a mad scientist’s basement–have saved my life. I no longer drink until I black-out, I no longer go home with complete strangers from bars (neither do I drink anymore), and I am making better decisions (although I still struggle to have normal interactions with people–I fear I will always say inappropriate things and hurt people and drive them away. A recent ex-friend said I was too “intense”).
As I am 53 years old, I don’t see another way to control my behavior. And yes, I go to therapy (when I can find a good one) and that has helped me see how skewed my view of relationships and how I insist that people conform to my way of thinking.
Does no one have a similar experience to mine? Perhaps if I had been diagnosed when my symptoms became noticeable (around ages 5 to 10) and had been shown another way to communicate, my life would have met its potential rather than being a series of emergencies and deep depressions and very, very poor decisions (before being medicated).
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I don’t imagine you had a problem taking your “medication”, and so I don’t think the micro-chip in a capsule would even be applicable to your case. The issue is not whether or not people should take “medication” if they would choose to do so. The issue is whether a non-compliant patient, unlike yourself, should have to take a capsule containing a micro-chip that relayed information to the social control authorities who would be forcing, against his or her will, this “medication” on him or her.
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I understand the issue better now.
I still have a different viewpoint, but I also see your point and reasoning.
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>YetAnotherAccount
My “drunkenness” wasn’t a factor in any of my decisions. You don’t have enough information about me or my decisions or life situations to make such a comment.
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Okay. So you never did anything stupid from intoxication. Why did drinking pose a problem then? It did not cause you to black out or take home strangers from bars.
I am using the information you provided when I say this. You know how accurate your information is; I admit I’m not a psychic.
And it was a question, by the way. Not a comment.
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dogleblog writes :“I am perfectly happy to be on my “cocktail” of meds for my bipolar disorder II, BPD, and anxiety”
This actually tells me hardly anything about what you find problematic in yourself except a few labels.
“These drugs–whether from a farm or Big Pharma or a mad scientist’s basement–have saved my life. I no longer drink until I black-out, I no longer go home with complete strangers from bars (neither do I drink anymore), and I am making better decisions (although I still struggle to have normal interactions with people–I fear I will always say inappropriate things and hurt people and drive them away. A recent ex-friend said I was too “intense”).”
In other words, one set of drugs that you don’t give shit about (in terms of how they came into being), makes you feel better than another drug that you don’t give a shit about.
“As I am 53 years old, I don’t see another way to control my behavior. And yes, I go to therapy (when I can find a good one) and that has helped me see how skewed my view of relationships and how I insist that people conform to my way of thinking. “
Do you really think you should need people playing the role of mental health workers OR psychiatric labels to consume something that, in simple terms, and in your own view, helps you perform better?
“Does no one have a similar experience to mine? Perhaps if I had been diagnosed when my symptoms became noticeable (around ages 5 to 10) and had been shown another way to communicate, my life would have met its potential rather than being a series of emergencies and deep depressions and very, very poor decisions (before being medicated).”
It sounds like you’re someone who finds taking some drugs helpful, but has no idea how deep the negative consequences of psychiatrists, and truth-obfuscating labelling can go.
Perhaps if I had been diagnosed when my symptoms became noticeable (around ages 5 to 10) and had been shown another way to communicate, my life would have met its potential rather than being a series of emergencies and deep depressions and very, very poor decisions (before being medicated).
Don’t be too sure of that. You may have ended up not even being where you are right now.
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>registeredforthissite
I can read, and I do know that there are harmful effects to having bad mental health providers; in fact, this has happened to friends of mine.
My experience has been mostly positive, and I am able to advocate for myself. I am not schizophrenic nor numbed nor do I feel “drugged.”
I am positive that my life would have turned out to be more productive and satisfying than it presently is. That is not to say I’ve had a “bad” life, but I would have liked a different one.
There is no way I could tell my life story in this small comment box and I don’t believe anyone would be interested in reading it.
I see that you are all talking about being forced to take drugs, and that is an entirely different subject, which I also see that there are two sides to. I wrote initially because I objected to what I saw as criticism of pharmaceuticals in general and NAMI–which is an extremely helpful organization and whether or not people need medication, and I strongly believe that they do. I do not wish to argue.
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I think you are missing the point here. It’s not about whether the drugs help YOU in your perception. It’s about whether you should be FORCED to take drugs, whether you think they help or not, and be tracked remotely and punished if you fail to follow the orders of your superiors! You said Abilify didn’t work for you. What if your psych insisted you take it anyway, and sent the police around any time you skipped a dose? Is that the kind of world you want to live in????
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>I don’t want to live in this world the way it is, period. With or without mandatory drugs. I didn’t know this was such a radicalized group. Maybe it’s not for me.
Also, multiple question marks aren’t necessary. I see what you are saying.
I do think that some people do have “superiors”–such as very young teenagers who want to kill dozens or hundreds of people, and actually complete their plans.
Also, dangerous and violent domestic abusers who refuse counseling and kill and maim family members. Sorry if that offends you.
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But why are you only thinking of people who want to kill and maim? You think the only people who will be at risk are those wanting to kill and maim?
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I used to think I would transform into Ms. Hyde without my wonder pills. I truly feared for the safety of my loved ones. My religion says, “Take every thought captive to Christ.” I took every thought captive to my confessor–the high priest of Psychiatry.
I watched my thoughts and feelings anxiously fearful my “meds” would quit working. (Part of the reason for “stigma” is everyone knows the “meds” only work part of the time. Then Hannibal the Cannibal breaks through his straps and rips off his muzzle. Broohaha!)
The thought that I was a viscious monster who relied on medicines to keep from murderous rampages sickened me. Often suicide seemed like a moral imperative.
Here’s the question no one in the mainstream is asking. 30 years ago, the majority of these drugs did not exist. There were fewer hopelessly mad people and a lot fewer of these bizarre mass murders taking place.
If all these “life-saving medicines” are the answer to violence why are there more violent crimes and not fewer? How effective is that?
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Healthyplace and dozens of other sites will welcome you with open arms. NAMI also needs more consumers to serve as mascots. Speaking as a former mascot/token nut job for NAMI.
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One look at doglegblog’s Pininterest page and her links to bullet points about “mental illness”, “bipolar disorder” etc. show that she might be from the type of crowd that hangs around websites like Healthy Place, Crazy Meds etc.
These people’s ideas are even more harmful and dangerous than the murderers and maimers she’s talking about. They are promoting and marketing the all too common “myth of mental illness” (the way it is promoted today) and will result in multitudes of people, especially youngsters, devalue themselves, end up being dependent on a system and a community that will never truly allow them to reach their fullest potential in life (all with supposedly benevolent intentions of course).
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You did not answer my question. Do you want to live in a world where a person, without any legal authority beyond their own opinion and a rubber stamp court hearing, can force you to take Abilify, even if it makes your life miserable? I’m not talking about some theoretical violent teen, I’m talking about YOU.
And BTW, as you yourself have seen, taking Abilify or any other drug doesn’t necessarily make things better. There are plenty of people who committed violent crimes while taking these very drugs that are supposed to prevent it. Is there any real evidence that forcing people to take a particular drug has the predictable effect of stopping them from committing violent acts?
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I will also add that I have worked with DV victims for many years, decades actually, and I have not seen any evidence that any drug stops or even decreases domestic abuse. However, I have seen domestic abusers use the “My meds aren’t working” and “my psychiatrist is screwing me over” and “I have bipolar, what do you expect of me?” lines to justify continued abuse of their partners. Enforced Abilify will have no impact on that area, either. IMHO.
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You may have found that the drugs are helpful to you and that NAMI is a wonderful organization but it would be important for you to understand that not everyone has your experiences of things. NAMI has done some pretty rotten things to a lot of people and the drugs forced on so many people have disrupted their lives, even to the point of killing them. I’ve found that it’s very easy for me to assume that everyone else around me sees and believes and has the very same experiences as I do but that it truly not the reality. I can’t make that assumption and have had to teach myself to see that everyone else doesn’t feel the same way as I do about so many things.
Yes, we are a radicalized group here but that’s due to our experiences we’ve undergone at the hands of psychiatry and the drug companies. Try us out for a little while longer before you decide that you don’t what to come here to MIA. Give us a chance by being willing to see things from our experiences. It’s great that you’ve been so lucky in your experiences; most of us have not had that, unfortunately.
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>streetphotobeing
You are completely wrong about my life. Those instances were few and far between and they were caused by my bipolar disorder and trying to escape the mess I’d made of my life.
I am not an alcoholic and haven’t had a drink in many years and do not care about that part of my life.
Bipolar disorder is a real disease. You sound like the people in Western PA and Ohio who insist that “those” people who are overdosing consistently, sometimes daily or twice a day, are choosing that life.
My perception of my illness is just as valid as your solution.
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The drugs have no part in what your body requires as a result of evolution. Unfortunately they do cause what Peter Breggin calls spell binding. When you find the strength to come off the drugs, you can control your GABA/Glutamate situation with magnesium and attenuate you life so there are no intensive inputs. Sorry if that sounds patronising or offensive, but I have lot of experience with this, especially with anti-psychotics and alcohol.
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I think streetphotobeing making an assumption about why you drink is not appropriate.
And yes, ” ‘bipolar disorder’ is a real disease”, just like ” ‘fever disorder’ is a real disease which ’causes’ elevated body temperature” and ” ‘headache disorder’ is a real disease which ’causes’ one’s head to ache.”
No one is saying what you aren’t experiencing is real. Just don’t expect people to agree with your truth-obfuscating terminology.
Also, do you realise people are being stamped with the label of “bipolar disorder” for the iatrogenic effects of the very drugs that psychiatrists prescribe (like mania caused by antidepressants or stimulants)?
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I wound up branded Bipolar as punishment for having a reaction to Anafranil. The shrink lied through his teeth, claiming it never caused psychotic mania. Gas-lighting quack.
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I do not mean to be offensive. The reason I’m doing that is to try and put a crack in the “spell binding” as Peter Breggin calls it and offer a way out. I had this over lithium – the psychiatrist lied to me – until I read the word neurotoxin re lithium on Joanna Moncrieff’s site. And then started to listen to Peter Breggin radio interviews. It is not an over estimation to say Joanna and Peters words saved my life.
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Very sorry, I meant to say: I do not mean to be offensive.
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You were free to discontinue Abilify. People taking this? Someone will wake up one day and decide the last few days on the drug were just too terrible to repeat. If they don’t take it, what happens? Paramedics? Cops Scolding? Incarceration? No fruit cup? [refers to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.]
I’m glad you were able to stop Abilify. When it’s bad, it’s very very bad.
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Hi dogle, This site likes to pick on people particularly women who join in the conversation.
You’re not the only one. Some of the blogs are nice so I read, but the commenters are too terrible for me to participate.
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Are you a woman Pat? Sorry you aren’t participating.
Couldn’t keep away, huh?
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I can’t but see this development as a serious threat to civil liberties. Among the rights that would be protected by the Declaration of Independence, there goes freedom of choice. I suppose pursuit of happiness, and life itself are next.
I would hope that there is a legal team out there that is beginning to take note of the issue, and how it is going to affect all of us. This kind of thing is unconscionable. The assault on civil liberties may not begin and end with this technology, but it is certainly another example of the corrosive effect that science in the wrong hands can have. I don’t see how, with technological social control reaching such a state, people can still call America the land of the free.
People may be running from other lands to the USA in order to escape poverty and political oppression, but given drugs like this one, on top of much recent legislation, this situation may not last. Who knows? Before long you could have people trying to flee the USA due to it’s oppressive laws and the take over of it’s government by a rich (in other words, non-representative) elite.
Apparently, another tool for controlling the lives of its subjects has just dropped into the lap of members of this ruling elite. I just don’t see the situation turning out well for those underling who are to be contained by this toxic substance.
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America is headed to becoming a very impoverished nation. With the psychiatric team salivating over the 25%-30% of the population they hope to drag into their ghetto. There won’t be enough people capable of paying the bigwigs’ salaries or buying all their drugs. (Yes, Frank. High ranking shrinks are indeed accusing 25% of the population or more of being insane. Begging them to get “treatment.” Or their loved ones can force them to for their own good.)
Those drugs cause disability and prevent gainful employment. Even 15% of the population as career junkies will be too many for tax payers to support–along with the army of bureaucrats in charge of “saving” everyone else from them. Like a lot of abusive systems, psycho-pharma-bureaucrats are very short sighted.
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It’s a disgusting thing that drugs like this are being developed.
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They must be very expensive too. Microchips are easier to produce than they used to be, but I doubt they are cheap.
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In a nutshell, these devices work by detecting a chemical process, then sending a signal. They are incredibly cheap to manufacture at scale.
They won’t be cheap for health-providers to purchase and deploy. Because of the abundant costs of historic R&D coupled with salivating shareholders and a rapacious profit-motive that is endemic in the pharmacological culture.
For a while they will be easy to subvert.
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These technologies are not overall “disgusting”. By and large their deployment will save many lives.
There are lots of people with multiple complex conditions that for one reason and another forget or omit to take their medication. Such systems will help them and help their health providers.
But of course, psychiatry tends to piggyback, and here it is piggybacking again.
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Hi Michael,
I am an attorney in Santa Clara County, California who advocates for the civil rights of people in the mental health system. In the last few years, I have spent a portion of my time advocating to limit AOT statewide and to keep it out of the county I work in. I share your concern about AOT and this new technology furthering involuntary treatment and undermining the right to informed consent.
AOT in CA does not allow for forced medications in the community, unlike Kendra’s Law in New York. I am certain it is not legal for police to drag people to psychiatrists office’s for injections, as I have heard happens in NY state. I have heard that one CA county, Nevada county, puts the recommended medication in the court order but that the administration of the medication cannot happen outside of the hospital and not without a separate capacity hearing during the inpatient commitment process. But in all other counties advocates like me have fought to ensure that medications are not a part of the AOT order and they cannot be forced in the community. I am sure that the AOT order is used to coerce and cajole people into taking medications they would otherwise refuse. I am wondering if you have heard differently about how these orders are being used across California with respect to medications.
I very much appreciate how you put the inception of Abilify Mycite into the context of an increasingly oppressive system for delivering mental health services.
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Thank you for taking these issues on, professionally, RightsRNotWrong.
And thank you for the clarification regarding what does and does not occur via AOT/Laura’s Law in California.
Pretty scary stuff coming at all of us from many different angles. Good work, also, Michael, for bringing this issue up–saw it in the news days ago and knew it had to get some air time here.
california resident/humanbeing
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Thank you RightsRNotWrong, for the work which you do. So much better to be talking with attorneys instead of therapists and recovery program leaders.
And much of the problem with forced and voluntary drugging is very much the same a psychotherapy and recovery, that survivors believe that they somehow “need it”.
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Thank you RightsRNotWrong for your hugely needed civil rights work for people in the mental health system in California and for your clarifying comment here about Laura’s Law AOT in California. The various Sf Bay Area counties that have chosen the Laura’s Law court ordered out-patient treatment option have gone through lengthy struggles between NAMI led activists and opponents like my friend Jay Mahler who you might know, and the very large group of people in Alameda County that includes Berkeley and Oakland for example, who fought against AOT.
In my MIA article called- “Why Invountary Out-Patient Treatment Isn’t Necessary: A First Person Account”- I cite a N.Y. Times article on Kendra’s Law that Laura’s Law was fashioned after. In the N.Y. times article a relative of a person in the mental health system AOT program is quoted- “Now with Kendra’s Law, the police take him to get his monthly shot of Haldol and he’s pretty stable.”
I understand that the Laura’s Law AOT treatment plans that I assume would always incude medications as part of the plan, are also drawn up as part of the AOT court order.
Would it require a Riese hearing or a community conservatorship process of the person under the AOT court order to allow the court to have the police involved as in the New York example?
I think that the “black robe” effect, and being under a court order that includes the AOT treatment plan can also be a form of pressure and coercion on a vulnerable person in the MH system.
Complying with an AOT treatment plan that includes new digital Abilify will no doubt be something that will be expected if not forced on people to avoid hospitalization in the future.
Best wishes,
Michael
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Yes, Michael. Forced medications in California still require either a Riese hearing process or conservatorship process (outside of the criminal context). The Riese hearing decision is only in effect while the person is inpatient, it cannot be used in the community. Not all counties have community conservatorship. Alameda has a new program but Santa Clara County will drop conservatorships once a person is living independently so I am not aware of people being dragged into doctor’s offices by law enforcement.
I don’t know Jay Mahler I don’t think but I would very much appreciate any connections to AOT opponents in the South Bay in case the AOT discussion rears its ugly head again.
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Soma, on steroids.
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Is it possible to bankrupt the MH system by refusing to take even the microchipped version, forcing them to come visit you or hospitalize you? Obviously, such a thing would be very traumatic for the person attempting to resist and result in violence towards them, so I don’t mean to be offensive in suggesting it. But I do wonder if trying to run up the highest possible bill with these people, refusing to pay any out of pocket cost, and then declaring civilian bankruptcy is a final remaining way to resist the “MH” system. At the end of the day, they are looking to maximize profit and reduce cost, so I wonder what it would be like if a bunch of people purposefully ran up an extremely huge bill. Perhaps it could get them to lay off. In reality, I think they just try to kill you to get rid of how “much you cost” if it’s a lot.
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No. For every one person that resists, one thousand acquiesce. And that one person that resists only burdens the one thousand that acquiesce.
If the one thousand resisted, which they won’t, then, supposing that they did, the impact would be felt on their lives only, by and large, and nobody else’s.
Here is a crumb. Divide it by one thousand. That’s all you’re getting. Need more? Then divide that same crumb by two thousand, by three thousand. It’s still all you’re getting.
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Two things:
a) Mass resistance on the part of those ordered to take this shit is definitely in order and could be organized. It would require a huge public support effort, including outraged professionals and others who decide to do more than talk about this. However the public could be educated as to the Orwellian aspects of forcing a drug such as Abilify on non-violent (or even violent) people; all they have to do is read the list of “side-effects” (btw there is no such things as “side”-effects, only effects).
b) I envision a cottage industry of movement “mad scientists” who can continually come up with better and better ways to short-circuit the process and send “I took my pill” confirmations to people’s minders. Volunteers?
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Sounds like fun. I only took Physical Science and Biology 101. But now that I have a brain again it’s enjoyable learning things. I am teaching myself computer coding and Spanish now.
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People like their personal data presented in a colourful digital form. They like their bluetooth devices and their smartphone apps.
But don’t be rash.
The worst psychiatric regimen to be on is the depot injection.
This new device offers some light to those unfortunate souls stuck on monthly injections. There isn’t any reasonable way one can fake or subvert having a needle poked into one’s backside.
As the device relies on a very simple though ingenious chemical reaction — as someone pointed out above, the acidic conditions of the stomach can be simulated at home… and the pills dropped into the pseudo-stomach acid, triggering the rice-grain-sized chip to transmit its signal of compliance.
And if that didn’t work, the trendy wristband that complements the pill communicates its various messages including pill-in-stomach events to the cool personalised smartphone app via bluetooth. And again the bluetooth signal can be captured, copied, subverted.
And if that didn’t work, the smartphone app will send its collected info to the cloud, I presume using personal or public wifi. And again that communcation can be intercepted, analysed, subverted.
So as I say… to go from the absolute of a depot injection to a technological solution full of exploitable holes, isn’t such a bad thing for that small but significant number of people who wish to assert their right to refuse.
The data collected also has the potential to give a more accurate picture of the impact Abilfy has on peoples’ activity levels, and heart-rate and so on. As all that data is collected too. It isn’t all bad. This data could be used as convincing evidence that one particular drug is not the best for an individual. It would give them actual evidence to present to health-providers.
This first incarnation of the technology is not really a reliable method for coercing or enforcing drug compliance. Because the sensor and the communication process are not reliable enough.
Compliance-enforcing technology will follow this, of course. That’s inevitable.
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survivingthesystem wrote, “Is it possible to bankrupt the MH system …”
We must resist by all available means!
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I initially skipped this article after having read very briefly my MIA newsletter. But, the seriousness of it all hit me when the news station (Radio Canada, which is the official Canadian federal news broadcaster) cheered and applauded a great medical breakthrough. To be honest, the paper ended on a precocious note. But the note was very short and gave no details. Something like a quick “some are afraid it will present ethical problems”, but what the heck ! It is a very sad state of affairs that we are willingly trying to fool people into being compliant. I am deeply disturbed by this new incursion in our rights and freedom. The only case I would find this “chip on the pill” gadget admissible would be with people with severe memory problems who forget everything, all the time like in, I think it was “Nemoy”, the little fish character’s girl friend – who I dont recall the name – Maybe I am a good candidate after all !
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Compliance is based on a huge pack of lies. Or metaphors, as certain members of the APA call it.
No way I would have knowingly taken mind altering drugs for 25 years. I was lied to, told I had a physical brain disease and these legal street drugs would save me from going totally mad like a rabid dog.
After 5 years of carefully educating myself (high the whole time) I decided to go off. I had no help from those around me because they believe the lie to this day.
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Here’s a rough quote from the old show King of the Hill. Bobby Hill ate too much sugar one morning and got diagnosed with ADHD. Hank and Peg, Bobby’s parents were told Bobby would be put n a “special” class unless they put him on Ritalin or some other drug.
Hank tells Bobby he is going to be giving him a drug. from now on.
Bobby: I thought you and Mom always said I wasn’t supposed to take drugs.
Hank: Yeah, son. But those are just the drugs you wanna take that make you feel good. 😀
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This is super scary and, yes, we should most definitely organize both hacktivists who want to hack this BS and those who are being forced to take it. This is so Orwellian its not even funny.
RightsRNotWrong, do you have an contact info you would be willing to share for people or groups organizing resistance to AOT? I am involved in efforts here in the Pacific NW. Would love to make contacts. I don’t think we can direct message here on MIA… you can email me if you like at [email protected]
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