From Mad in Canada: There are different hypotheses about what psychosis is. One hypothesis that has been repeatedly disproven is that of the medical model belief that psychosis is a medical abnormality of the brain. According to E. Fuller Torrey, a psychiatric researcher and author of Surviving Schizophrenia: A Family Manual, “schizophrenia” is a brain disease. “Evidence” he cites for this belief is that people with “schizophrenia” commonly have enlargement of the ventricles and reduced grey matter volume. He states that “Ventricular enlargement was clearly described two decades prior to the introduction of antipsychotics, using a research technique in which air replaced the fluid in the ventricles,”[i] and that therefore ventricular enlargement could not be caused by neuroleptics. He also states that “white matter volume loss has also been observed….”[ii] However, Torrey does not control for other variables. For example, enlarged ventricles are also caused by alcohol consumption and marijuana use, both of which existed before the invention of neuroleptics. It is also of note that alcohol and marijuana cause psychosis and moreover, people with “psychosis” are more likely to use alcohol and marijuana as stress reducing techniques.
The author has asked to remain anonymous and has asked readers to please note, this article is not advice.
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Well researched overview of the current draconian state of psychiatric treatment and the inevitable results. We need to find a radically alternative paradigm to help those who are considered to be “mentally ill”. I think this must be done by a convergence of various disciplines outside the medical system. Specialization has been a root cause of misunderstanding and misinformation over past centuries and continues today.
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