I read the same article and sadly believe that the parents bear a fair amount of responsibility. The blame game is apparent and may have contributed to the unrelenting assault on the minds of this family as they chased the quick fix around the corner. Sadly a runaway would have had a better chance at recovery. The story does show the scam of psychiatry and possible religion. It makes me scream inside not for the family but for the life and soul of this girl.
Thanks Dr. Breggin for having the courage to speak up to bring attention to an industry that seems more content at selling than healing. The white coat placebo is the most dangerous of all the drugs. For someone in control to confirm or anchor a hypothetical or misguided belief removes or takes away the spirit and confidence that someone has in themselves. I’m convinced your courage has already saved many lives and will continue to save many more so please know you have our admiration and keep pushing forward.
Spot on with this list. Time also heals. Or buy a Harley and ride.
One of my favorite shows on the Discovery Channel is Naked and Afraid. When these survivalists go several days without protein they start to experience a spiritual emergency. Get some protein or meditate to conserve that spirit.
“odds are that if they start taking stimulants daily as a freshman theyâll lose control and end up psychotic before they graduate”, This is a given! These stimulants steal the spirit from the soul and stick it in a little bottle. As human beings increasingly look inward, life begins to seem more like a problem to be solved than a process to be fully experienced. There are no shortcuts to life…
Exactly my thought! The spirit can soar out of poverty and toxic waste but the labels and subsequent treatment will kill it.
I teared up over the stories and the fragility of life. It is a shame that there is a price on spirit recovery.
Great writing! Often we find others within us. Now to name them makes it real and brings it out of the imagination. No one should have control of our mind but ourselves and as long as you are putting fun into your day, week, month, and year then happiness is all yours. Enjoyed the read.
No winners in this one!
Do a session of past life regression with a trained hypnotist and you will experience mental phenomena in spiritual realms only experienced by those that have fallen off the spinning wheel of sanity. I don’t know how you can write about it, or speak about it unless you have experienced it. The therapist is a guide and most don’t know the route at all. Most are trained in the visual world of the critical mind where we must think about it before we do it and analyze it before we try and fix it. Our dreams line the path of the sub-conscience mind where few go other than those that play there. What a complex organ the brain and its gift the mind that we have have been given to guide and train for life. Fear not!
âMake sure,â I tell them, âthat your child knows there is nothing wrong with them.â Love this!
If our wounds are visible like a cut or a broken leg we just give it time and what we see is part of the expectation that we can heal. If we wound the spirit we can’t see what is wrong so we run seeking the unknown. It might take months or years but healing the spirit can happen.
Best summed up in the song “Jessie J – Who You Are” with “it’s ok not to be ok”
Right! This is a stretch to find that this has filtered into the DNA of our species.
Your spirit is kicking it! Some cannot imagine at all and some imagine and feel it all. Have fun and enjoy the sharpness and power you are showing us. Thank You!
Are you replacing the fear behind ADHD with that of emotional child abuse. Really a stretch if you are.
First off it chocked me up because looking back it seems clear you understood why and how you got to where you are. Great story that many will learn from. You walked us down a road that seems very dark and yet familiar. You light it up with your talent for words so that many may find their way out. Nice!
You are very special Joel in the eyes of many and that is what you need to remember. The cure from what is always the question. How did the chicken cross the road…he walked, right? Just be very cautious taking any pills/medications and be way more cautious quitting them. Find your spirit center and pray or meditate for strength every day at least once a day. You will increase your happiness as you cure the unknown. Use faith as your guide like your favorite music soothes the soul.
Keep writing because your story should be told. Well thought out and well spoken.
Continue to educate yourself as the circumstance allows.
With this gift of insight you will continue to rise above and help others in ways you can only imagine.
Hi Julie, Your story is an inspiration to many i’m sure. Don’t modify anything you write about to satisfy the critic in the crowd because you have walked the talk. When you have lived something you definitely don’t need a research paper to tell you the doctors got it wrong.
What is the dogs name again?
Nice to see your post!
In poor areas of this country I suspect the numbers on Amps are much higher. Legal Amphetamines are the true gateway drug. It is an epidemic that is morphing into a catastrophe. Because the climb to success is insurmountable once a young person is labeled a failure and then drugged to the point of chronic failure.
Not only that our social security system is doomed because of the dramatic rise in disability claims to come. Additional School funding is being tied to the numbers in need and that perpetuates the growth.
Why are the experts in our society letting this happen?
I 2nd the Kudo!!!
I agree with the last assessment. The ego of the greedy one in all of us tends to trap us in the art of competition. Hopefully this doctors great work overshadows his need for attention.
Great story! My heart and soul cries out to the spirit of the victim.
Mesmerism is closer to reality than psychiatry ever will be!
“It is derived from the consequences of deprivation and abuse in our formative years, followed by additional struggles that result from our adaptations to the ongoing traumas of life.” This is where I don’t agree with Dr. Berezin and others that make these blanket statements on causation. He is coming around from labeling every mind problem as genetic so there is hope.
Find some good help for your daughter. Stay off the drugs for sure. The spirit is in the mind and the heart. Spirit is what needs the guidance in life.
#1 rule is to seek fun and adventure.
Try this spirit meditation. Have your daughter draw a box or get a small nice little box. On or inside that box write what is important in life. Church, home, mom, dad, sisters, brothers, and the other things she loves about life and is grateful for. Put one small item that will be used to represent her spirit into that box. Put that box where it is visible, think about that box and what it represents. Have her center her focus to the item in the box that represents the spirit and meditate once or twice a day for 20 minutes. One doesn’t have to look at anything just close eyes and relax…the mind during the meditation should be focused on the spirit item in the box. As the thoughts of the mind wander bring the focus back to the spirit item. Do this for 20 minutes a day, twice a day, and the spirit and the mind will become one.
“how many Doctors in America will sit down and tell the family members of the mentally ill that their responsible for their patients depression and sadness”
Your statement is a generalization and only your opinion of open dialog that is not based in fact. Conjecture and finger pointing plants the wrong seed no matter how intelligent the planter or pointer might be.
It might be true that family members are not responsible enough for recovery.
Open dialogue seems more inclusive in this respect and thus more successful.
It takes a village!
You need to study the work of Bruce Lipton and Rupert Sheldrake and you will find out how resilient the brain/mind is.
You need a reason to believe first.
Very well done! There is a need for uncertainty and you explain it well.
There is no magic bullet. It takes time in a time when we want a quick fix.
It’s mind, body, spirit. Time changes the mind, medicine changes the body, and the spirit needs support.
Thank you for sharing.
I wish there was a like button, because I like your comment.
Every day is a new day and you have proven that. The spirit shines in your work. Nicely done!
The ADHD diagnosis and the medication that follow is an epidemic that is ruining lives!
The deck is stacked against the struggling child because the teachers and the parents are being hoodwinked.
My oldest son suffered head injuries in a car accident when we was 6 months old that delayed his development. We continually had to fight the school system to assure them he didn’t have ADHD or need drugs. You cannot imagine the pressure. We persevered and he is a hard working adult.
However ADHD became a door to drugs for our youngest son. Who was attending M.I.T. in Boston, miles from our midwest home. Failing to keep up he convinced a local pdoc that he was suffering from ADHD. He was handed a prescription of adderall and months later we had to pick him up and bring him home because of a psychotic break. To add to the pain we were trapped into seeing more pdocs and given more drugs to fix what we and he were clueless to understand.
The wolves cry in fear…stop and think!
ADHD isn’t the problem…It is the pdocs that know this is a fictitious illness and hand out drugs only to grow their incomes. It’s the teachers in the classrooms that have been convinced this diagnosis and treatment is a benefit. It’s the parents that lack the education on this subject to properly support their child.
This is the short story…
Exactly the point of the article. Parents might be surprised if “schizophrenia” could be defined instead of thrown out there as a label. What surprises parents is the unknown.
“The voices of the commenters are an essential part of such a counter-narrative”
This is why MIA has all the visitors. The many PhD’s (and growing) that write multi part articles on this site based off years of research should be challenged by those that walk the talk directly.
This site fills a need and I thank Robert because your voice has opened many eyes.
Dr. Berezin, Well done…Best of the best!!!
Blame is as toxic as the antipsychotic drug. Not at all helpful because it works in the past or on something outside ourselves. It is contrary to forgiveness, gratefulness, gratitude, and mindfulness. There is nothing healing about blaming your mother and backing that up with research, other than in extreme circumstances which would be rounding errors in this research. This is at the root of why madinamerica is important because it exposes the sellout in us. Why the mother…because Freud was a product of the times, maybe. Tom Cruise and Scientology make more sense than this and Scientology is way out there.
Keep it in perspective as you read it because providing a crutch can be disabling.
I have walked the talk and don’t buy half of the overly researched bull spawned here. Take the clothes pin off the dogs tail so he can stop researching on how the pin got there.
Julie, You are my favorite read and your spirit shines.
For those students flirting with Amphetamines, I howl and cry and prey for you!!! These drugs will destroy your spirit and steal your self-confidence.
I wrote the following in an email thanking Robert Whitaker for his book back in 2011 and he responded back with reassurance that recovery was possible. We are getting there!
“After retrieving our son from college (MIT) because of a psychotic episode we were clueless to the cause and the prognosis of his state of mind. Months of reading and research has uncovered most of the truth. Having fallen behind in classes our son went to a college psychiatrist who put him on Adderall. Which he used and abused. This began a trip in life for him and his parents that I wouldnât wish on anyone. From Zyprexa to Seroquel to other drugs I can’t spell or say the name of, we and numerous doctors experimented on this kid. We are located in Iowa so it wasnât a short trip to MA to rescue & comfort him from this Adderall induced psychosis. Hell I didnât even know what psychosis was. Our son is now recovering drug free, because that is what he wanted, trying to build a life there in Cambridge, but only time will tell if the effects of the torture we imposed on him will wear off. We documented this ordeal as it unfolded and looking back I find it almost unbelievable.
I grew up back in the 70âs on one of the poorest Indian reservation in this nation, and spent 6 months in a forestry camp for bad boys as a youth, but I have never seen anyone as screwed up as my son was on the handful of meds he was put on to fix what someone else thought needed fixed. I was screwed up as a kid but never seen a pdoc and never put on meds, smoked a little pot, but managed to self correct and I now manage a million $ company and serve on various Boards. I can only imagine what amphetamine prescriptions alone are doing to the poor areas in this nation. The lost spirits are going to be many!
Your book put into one place all of my suspicions as to what the hell happen and saddens my heart that we inflicted so much pain on our son. Had we read this book I assure you we would have at least been aware of the perils of the drugs we so casually leaned on.
Your book gives me some hope and I wish every parent would read it…Great book!!!”
“I would recommend that Dr. B have a family member who is a mother read his work before publishing it. I donât believe he sees how patronizing, patriarchal and demeaning it can read.”
I’m male (not a mother:) and totally agree with you. Puts your faith in psychiatry to the test, if you have any faith left. These are smart doctors that have been trained and that I for one seem to have less hope in their capacity for change than in their patients capacity for change.
Great memory…Like your reply for sure.
“Dr. Berezin offers explanations that arenât backed with scientific evidence and long-term outcomes” You are so correct. This is all the more reason not to give up on the fun side of life. The child breaks into song and that’s ok.
I read it in hopes of being enlightened. Still not believing your pdoc psychobabble on genetics and now motherhood. I was into the script until you turned on the copy machine and we find you repeating the same ideology from past posts. Come on doc take a trip and explore the mind a little.
Interesting path but one often traveled it seems. Pin a base on the mental map as to where the spirit is at peace. Take it all into the imagination. Guide the spirit back here often because it is from this base that the spirit will seek to understand what a crazy world the ego seeks. No drugs required!
Great read! One of my favorite cable shows is the Discovery channels “Naked and Afraid”. On this show many tough people break down after just a few day due to the lack of sleep and protein. I know this seems like a simplistic example, but is it. We send a kid off to college and his eating and sleeping patterns change dramatically. Off to the pdoc for some speed to kick it on the next assignment and the pdoc hands out a prescription of Adderall – no background, no advice, just take it and its all better…Right! This further exacerbates the problems. This story is running as we speak.
“chronic aftereffect” to correct
You would think this was some big surprise. The fact that one can go over the edge and into psychosis is a part of the amphetamine culture with a long history. Hopefully the psychosis is episodic with the drug use and not a chronic after affect.
Prescription or not this drug takes one down a path that leads the mind away from the spirit. It is the story of a false prophet for sure. How sick is man to inflict this on his children?
Spot on…best read on MIA!
Took me back into my head to eloquently explain some previous time warps.
Genetic? You are consistent if nothing else.
Great story!!!
“In schizophrenia consciousness is altered due to something genetic, epigenetic or most likely in the context of damage due to early deprivation or abuse.”
You are as consistent as a copy machine.
Great story! And great comments!
I too live in Iowa and we had a son that was off in college in Boston when his life fell apart. Try that commute. We followed your path because this seems to be the one most traveled today. Until I found Whitakers books and realized there was another way. What a journey our mind can take us on.
We humans are creatures that love to pattern match to form habits and addictions that are routine to the mind because of our survival mechanism. They become our reality and get stored in our subconscious mind. Learning to go to the edge of our minds is important but coming back can be treacherous but necessary. Time is a major factor (or the lack of) and one that is in short supply today because of our modern lifestyles. We want the quick fix and we even read this in your book title.
Practice the mindfulness, meditation, dreaming out loud, and telling a great story. Then give this to others and most importantly your children.
Best
I second the awesome!
It is in the imagination of the observer.
For lack of a like button…Well said!!!
Great article. There seems to be a thread of justification for drug use and or excuses for drug use in this story. I have to wonder how Max’s story would have turned out had he never been put on ADHD medication. We diminish his life if we don’t advocate for no drugs for the vary reasons ACE may contribute or exacerbate this environment.
What can we expect from this fast-food style of mental health?
“receiving 14 months of treatment with stimulants” It doesn’t stop at 14 months.
When you pick your son up from college because he has experienced psychosis for the first time in his life. You find out that he has been awake for days and taking Adderall like candy.
You then look around the community and you find that just about everyone knows someone who has had a child or young adult that has suffered real bad side effects from these amphetamine class of drugs. Some catastrophic!
More power to the ADHD kids that don’t take drugs because you will rule the world.
“I am glad I grew up in a time before they stole childhoods of the innocents before the mass drugging of America” Amen to this! I would have been drugged for sure. I came so close to the fire that I cry for the next generation because there are many that will get burnt for sure.
Wow! I cry for the victims. This level is insane. It is a profession gone wild.
I can’t help but think the disability claims to follow will bankrupt this country.
Frayed please talk to yourself. It works for my grandson. He is learning to talk. He has also recently learned to climb the slide at the park and his parents have told him to be careful … “Calvin be careful”, over and over. They have been teaching him to say his last name and because it is an old Irish name he has shorten it to Kenny. The other day he was in the park climbing the slide and his parents could hear him saying to himself “be careful Calvin Kenny, be careful Calvin Kenny”. His spirit told him to talk to himself and how did he know this would help.
Aside from outright poverty most of this is being driven by the rampant use of drugs and alcohol. Both legal and illegal drugs. I grew up on the Crow Creek Reservation over 40 years ago and don’t remember a single youth suicide. I don’t believe there was a single child of school age that was diagnosed with ADD or ADHD or other contrived mental illnesses or were they on prescription amphetamines (Adderall and others). I can only imagine today how many are on some form of prescription drug.
The fix today is handed out in a pill bottle. The reality is there might be to many doctors and to much government aid. White Christianity swoops in to save the day only to drive these people further from their own spiritual past.
The first step is to drive out the pill pushers and preachers. Require the Indians that want to live and survive on the Rez to survive on their own using their historical teachings and ways. Put the spirit back into the people. Some that think this is crazy need only look at the Hutterites of South Dakota and the Amish in Iowa and how they survive and live with the spirit of their belief.
These people are like the canary in the coal mine and the white man will not save them that’s for sure.
Spot on! It only adds power to a myth when someone of prominence supports it.
How did we get to this place in time where there is so much support for the more brutal chemical approach to healing our spirit?
Steve,
Your Thesis at NaturalPsycholgy.org is incredibly well done. Very nice work!
Shortly after our son’s major spiritual break I came across Mad in America and Robert Whitaker’s books and emailed him. Not expecting a reply…but he did and reassured me that our son would be ok. That email response gave us more confidence than the 5 or more pdoc’s had given us.
To say this connection has changed our lives would be an understatement.
A couple years back our son’s best friend (kingtoadmusic.com) took his life and I only wish we would have seen the signs and helped.
I know we can’t look back, but Life is so dam fragile!
iatrogenic … now there is a word.
Your story tugged at my heart for sure. Jake looks exactly like our son Bill. Bills spirit is recovering from psychosis, and the life after that, and he is constantly on our minds. Medication free but not always symptom free. My advice to him is to always make sure he is having fun.
In our efforts to mold our kids (and now grandkids) we tend to want to protect them from failure. Forgetting that failure is only feedback to which we grow and learn from.
“natural child development process” is the key here.
It’s called critical thinking. Schizophrenia isn’t something you can put in a container. It defines a condition and yes you can argue against it. This is the very premise of this site.
You take a descriptive word like “schizophrenia” and you say it is genetic and then you give it power by saying this is what the Dr says, and you destroy the power of faith, hope and love.
With all due respect pdoc. You are defining the state of someones mind and not the color of their skin or eyes. It is a shame that you have given up on your faith in the recovery model. Frivolous or delusional I thank you for the reflection.
“I do entertain that schizophrenia has a possible genetic component.”
So did Hitler.
This crazy story highlights our crazy world. We are often placed in this box with little hope of getting out. Congrats Ted on your escape.
What a road you have traveled down. Very interesting spirit. Nice post!
Thanks for the review it has saved me reading time. I’m a wiser man today that I was yesterday that’s for sure. I don’t believe any of the drugs were originally designed for long term use but that is where we are today. We have no one to blame but ourselves because we demand the quick fix these days.
If you have rode the wave of suffering behind days of no sleep and uncontrollable fits of a misguided spirit you know more than any doctor. The fact is many doctors won’t diagnose you because they don’t want to tell you they can’t cure you because they know that’s what you come to them for.
When you take a magic bullet like Zyprexa and find that the next day you appear suddenly normal then why wouldn’t everyone think that a miracle has happen. This is reality! But you have just sold your soul to the devil because the fleeting moments of a cure are coming from within and are often lost in the soon to appear hopelessness of all the side effects.
The doctors need to tell the patient that here are a few days of pills take them only if you must to get you some sleep and maybe get yourself to a place of peace. Give you some hope by telling you to have faith in your own body that like a bad illness this will in time pass.
Read the warnings on the drugs and you will find that none are to be taken long term. Be aware that a drug in the short term and for safety reasons might be the only choice. Be aware that healing takes time and it isn’t going to happen on drugs. Faith and love and compassion and time will heal the spirit. I have witnessed it!
Wow!
The world needs more Fred that’s for sure.
Note to Timothy Kelly don’t walk by the scrap yard and kick the fence because there are some big dogs in here. I’m not sure the intent of Mr. Kelly was to attack Mr. Whitaker as the title suggested but to point out the fact that there might be other reasons behind the rise in SSDI numbers. I found it an outstanding and provocative post. Yes I’ve read all of Whitaker’s books and say wow to his work.
The rebuttal is refreshing and interesting as well.
One thing for certain…it woke up this place. đ
Suzanne, You are spot on!
We had to retrieve our son from college, in a psychotic state, because of amphetamines that he had a prescription for because he was all of a sudden diagnosed with ADHD. After being his HS class valedictorian and getting into MIT I might add. Amphetamines steal away a persons confidence and that’s how it becomes your trap. 25% to 30% of kids in some schools are on some form of amphetamine. So addictive it is one of the single most destructive legal drugs on the market today. Way more to the story but I wish it were as simple as a new pair of eyeglasses.
Thanks for posting this response.
Spot on! Easier to get in than it is to get out.
Well done! I think this quote sums up the intent in this article.
“One point that strikes me as particularly urgent is that
âMass incarceration has led to the systematic exclusion of crucial data on 8â10 million (mostly minority) men who have been imprisoned over the last 35 years, obscuring the true extent of this nation’s worsening health and social outcomes among the poor.â ”
The rise in SSDI claims might have more to do with the fact that incarceration rates in many states have risen more than 5 fold over this time period. The war on illegal drugs has also branded many as felons unable to obtain work. I agree with this article that policy may actually be creating or driving these trends. The drug companies and psychiatry become the benefactors of this new populations attempt at survival.
To be diagnosed with a mental illness and have a criminal record adds more road blocks to the recovery process. Recovery after you have fallen no mater how that happens seems to be made harder by those that want to pile on once you are down. Once someone is incarcerated and then treated as if they are mentally ill compounds these issues as well. Throw on top of this overzealous drug and psychiatry professions that also drive policy and we may never see people come off of SSDI in their lifetime.
Whitakerâs work opened up this discussion. Like him I think the most important point is educating yourself so that we can add value to this life we live. I’m not sure the concern is what is driving SSDI as much as why aren’t we getting better results. Are there alternatives?
I’m with Ted a little on this subject. When I started reading this it seemed more like an advertisement and it seems lately there are a lot of those on this site. It seems everyone has a book to sell.
With that said it seems Scott is walking the talk by investing in this wide offering of services. Very interesting to say the least. It should be interesting to come back here and read about the success these programs are having.
Much Success!
I’m half way into your book and I must sleep so I put it down. It is a must read for all who walk this path. Well done!!!
You are one of the lucky ones to escape the trap, not of the mind but of the establishment. As with writing a good book it takes time to heal a good spirit. Congrats on your mission to help others!
Very sorry for your terrific loss. Please read this website for support. Check on a WRAP program in your area. http://www.copelandcenter.com/ has a way to find this resource.
Get help but get the right help. Read Robert Whitakers books to start with so that one can see hope in the process.
It takes time to heal the spirit.
“dump the shrinks” Puzzle is one sharp Dog. She is lucky to have an owner who understands her that’s for sure.
I try to count my self down into a deeper sleep. The deeper I go the better I feel. Hope is the light of life, right.
All the best to both of you.
I found your posts interesting so you should do this. Does Puzzle help?
Sleep is at the root. I have a friend who has major sleep issues and takes drugs to make it all work but not a cure at all.
Great Spirit! You are an inspiration to many. Puzzle is a lucky dog. đ
Everything in the brain is chemical and Zyprexa does its magic there but none of these drugs heal the mind or the spirit in us. We have a son with a similar story and he has blessed us with his spirit as well. What a father you are for sharing your sons journey and for joining him in his life. I tell my son that whatever you do make sure you are having fun at it.
“The United States imprisons its citizens at a higher rate than any other country in the world (according to a 2013 study.) We make up five percent of the worldâs population and yet our citizens make up 25% of the total world population of prisoners.”
Couple imprisonment with the rate of felony convictions as these drive joblessness and hopelessness. So the only way to survive is with a diagnosis and drugs that become the band-aid for survival.
Your spirit is colorful, shiny, loud, and infectious. Your words worked on my tears and yet made me smile. By sharing you show there is kindness, forgiveness, and possibilities. The light you shine on this dark road makes you a hero! Thank You.
Interesting post and comments as well. I’m a conservative and a believer in climate change and i’m often called a nut case so maybe there is a contrast. If you are a liberal and a believer you might be ok. It might depend on the box you are in or what box you checked. đ
As someone that has worked for an electric utility for 36 years I can tell you they know climate change is real. Any new transmission line and a lot of the distribution lines built today in the upper part of the U.S. are being built to withstand stronger ice and wind storms. Many are moving to underground conductors at the distribution level. They also want to keep burning coal so there is this double edged sword in the fight.
The science is real and the numbers are too depressing so maybe there is a connection between mental illness and climate change in more ways than one.
We can move rapidly to renewable energy and we will peacefully or kicking and screaming.
Great topic and one that should be discussed more on this website. A meaningful life comes from employment and feeling of being needed. However not everyone that has had a psychotic episode / spiritual emergency and the recovery that hopefully follows is or has a diagnosis of such. As a parent or significant other there is a need of some organization that can and will assist without having to walk in their door and jump through hoops to ask for help. Victims (they become) languish in their homes and rooms needing assistance but scared as hell to ask for it. We know who they are those less fortunate in life that lack the strength to reach for the ring on their own. If those that read this site who have the hiring authority in their organizations would take that step and hire and mentor the mild or the meek among us then we would be on our way to solving half of our mental health problems.
Gary, This happen to our son as well. While in College he convinced a pdoc that he was ADHD because that’s how you get Adderall to help you study. He was his high-school class valedictorian on no drugs. He spiraled out of control dropped the Adderall without tapering off the drug and this brought on major psychosis. Scary deal if you don’t know what is going on…as you have found. Stay off the drugs and if on them be careful to taper off very slowly.
As a parent its easy to want a quick fix with drugs. Slow life down because recovery takes time.
Wow…your story is strong! Around this same time in the 70’s I was sent off to a State run boys camp in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Most campers (nice right) were in there because they misbehaved but I remember clearly that there were many with emotional (cutting etc.) and drug (illegal kind) related issues. Absolutely no legal drugs or ECT were given, just timber work and compassion. The point I’d like to make is that even back then there were innovative programs to help young teens find themselves. This boys camp is no longer there and I’m not sure where the records might be…it would be interesting to read the back story of what the staff thought.
I’m sure today most would have been drugged into submission. I can only imagine.
This is the state of mind I get into when I ride my motorcycle down a nice country back road. Not a care in the world. Sometimes a couple hours turns into 5 or more.
God Bless you! As you move forward with your recovery your minds inner voice will help guide you off these brain disabling drugs. Please use caution when this happens and educate yourself on the withdraw process. Find the sunshine in your life and enjoy the challenges.
Reference the studies…are you kidding. How about reading the labels on these drugs or read some of the posts on this website in reference to physical bodily damage these drugs have done. Listen to the commercials on tv or youtube to catch the warnings on side effects from the drug companies themselves.
Give me mania or give me death might be the real choice.
Please error on the side of common sense before handing these drugs out to defenseless children. I don’t know of any child or parent reading scientific studies prior to being treated with these barbaric man made drugs.
Peter thanks for the warning!!!
@tyler, “finding environments that worked well for my personality and behavior” Congrats for moving your life in this direction.
@Michael, Spot on!
The diagnosis and the drugs are causing way more harm than good. The drugs and their side effects have devastated the lives of many kids that I know personally. Shame on the drug companies because the parents and teachers are but innocent participants in this crime on the mind.
I long for the day when we can celebrate the individual spirit as a special gift.
You nailed it here in the fact that marijuana is being laced with synthetic/amphetamine like substances and that’s why I agree that marijuana use today can be hazardous. By attaching the fear of psychosis to marijuana use we increase the odds that it will never be legalized. Illegal product has little quality control. Not to mention the arrest and incarceration rates that have ruined many many more lives.
“When these kids start showing signs of amphetamine psychosis these parents read more fraudulent information that convinces them there child is bipolar and needs more drugs !!”
I thought you were reading my mind. This is so spot on that it must be like hitting the replay button on a popular song. The crazy thing is that some of these kids have turned into adults that are now in prison being forced to take the same medications that created and precipitated a minor problem into a major catastrophe.
It’s like driving by a major car accident and slowing down to look at it, wondering what happen, and feeling glad it wasn’t you or your family. Someday it might be!
âSociety wont pay next to nothing to actually help me, but theyâll pay these guys 6 figures a year to just shut me down, and then have the nerve to call it helpâŠâ
How truthful this is. The State here recently shut down a way-ward girls home whose method of treatment was solitary confinement. I estimated they spent $90,000 per girl to house and drug them.
They city meets to cry about the jobs lost. Who crys for the girls?
Junk Science!
Karen: I have walked in your shoes! I sleep on the floor many nights while our son experienced his spiritual emergencies. Went to many pdocs, took many tests, and tried many drugs. Not quick cure out there.
First off take several deep breaths and realize this isn’t going to be healed overnight, but healing will happen. Time heals not the drugs. He may not follow the path that you want but let him follow his path and be very very patient and supportive with him. Listen and he will tell you things that might help. Educate yourself and keep a journal. He may need a drug short-term to stabilize if he has lost total control. Paranoia and hallucinations are rooted in us all so don’t let that be a reason to medicate. Long term you need to work on sleep, meditation and mindfulness to start the healing process.
Slowly taper off all the drugs, even if they have been taken for years and the pdoc thinks it is harmless. Example being ADHD meds etc.. Unless he needs a drug to survive then review its necessity.
If he is in college he may need to take time off. If he has a stressful job he may have to quit it. In the short term release the pressure on him. Don’t let him isolate himself from family and friends. No yelling or screaming or lecturing. Relax and he will relax. Laugh and he will laugh. Love and he will love and heal.
This will take time to heal. It may take years. If you try to medicate it away it may take a lifetime.
God Bless
Very very powerful story Nancy! You rock in those glasses!
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out–Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me. Martin Niemöller
Is there a cure for the card? OMG
“Something tells me he hasnât converted” No kidding!
As a parent of a young adult with coping problems it seems the last place I’d seek help is at NAMI. Review their website and you will see they are heavily biased toward medication for life.
Here is advice off a link from the MA NAMI website. http://www.reintegration.com/reint/family/family.asp
“Help with medication compliance, sticking to a medication regimen is the cornerstone of successful treatment of schizophrenia, and most people with schizophrenia must take medication for the rest of their lives to control the symptoms.”
Is this true? Is this advice routine for psychosis? Does treatment keep you in treatment? Just wondering.
I hear this morning, on meet-the-press, from the head of the NRA that our mental health system is a mess. No kidding! But who’s going to draw the line between the sane and the insane. Joseph Campbell in some of his work says we are all at times near that edge. Watch the news videos on the gun law protests and you will for sure wonder where the edge actually is. Is a person protesting with an assault rifle sane? I cringe when the solution to a problem is passed on to another problem, especially making gun control a mental health issue.
Can NIMH play a part in drawing this line? This is an important question as the events of the past week open new discussions.
Yes this is a rant. The real problem is in the fact or to the degree that we perceive there exists a mental problem. Both for those with the problem and for those that think others have problems. We all must find the fun in life, we must find the fun in all we do, and we need to stop trying to medicate our way to it or we will all be on medication.
I read the same article and sadly believe that the parents bear a fair amount of responsibility. The blame game is apparent and may have contributed to the unrelenting assault on the minds of this family as they chased the quick fix around the corner. Sadly a runaway would have had a better chance at recovery. The story does show the scam of psychiatry and possible religion. It makes me scream inside not for the family but for the life and soul of this girl.
Thanks Dr. Breggin for having the courage to speak up to bring attention to an industry that seems more content at selling than healing. The white coat placebo is the most dangerous of all the drugs. For someone in control to confirm or anchor a hypothetical or misguided belief removes or takes away the spirit and confidence that someone has in themselves. I’m convinced your courage has already saved many lives and will continue to save many more so please know you have our admiration and keep pushing forward.
Spot on with this list. Time also heals. Or buy a Harley and ride.
One of my favorite shows on the Discovery Channel is Naked and Afraid. When these survivalists go several days without protein they start to experience a spiritual emergency. Get some protein or meditate to conserve that spirit.
“odds are that if they start taking stimulants daily as a freshman theyâll lose control and end up psychotic before they graduate”, This is a given! These stimulants steal the spirit from the soul and stick it in a little bottle. As human beings increasingly look inward, life begins to seem more like a problem to be solved than a process to be fully experienced. There are no shortcuts to life…
Exactly my thought! The spirit can soar out of poverty and toxic waste but the labels and subsequent treatment will kill it.
I teared up over the stories and the fragility of life. It is a shame that there is a price on spirit recovery.
Great writing! Often we find others within us. Now to name them makes it real and brings it out of the imagination. No one should have control of our mind but ourselves and as long as you are putting fun into your day, week, month, and year then happiness is all yours. Enjoyed the read.
No winners in this one!
Do a session of past life regression with a trained hypnotist and you will experience mental phenomena in spiritual realms only experienced by those that have fallen off the spinning wheel of sanity. I don’t know how you can write about it, or speak about it unless you have experienced it. The therapist is a guide and most don’t know the route at all. Most are trained in the visual world of the critical mind where we must think about it before we do it and analyze it before we try and fix it. Our dreams line the path of the sub-conscience mind where few go other than those that play there. What a complex organ the brain and its gift the mind that we have have been given to guide and train for life. Fear not!
âMake sure,â I tell them, âthat your child knows there is nothing wrong with them.â Love this!
If our wounds are visible like a cut or a broken leg we just give it time and what we see is part of the expectation that we can heal. If we wound the spirit we can’t see what is wrong so we run seeking the unknown. It might take months or years but healing the spirit can happen.
Best summed up in the song “Jessie J – Who You Are” with “it’s ok not to be ok”
Right! This is a stretch to find that this has filtered into the DNA of our species.
Your spirit is kicking it! Some cannot imagine at all and some imagine and feel it all. Have fun and enjoy the sharpness and power you are showing us. Thank You!
Are you replacing the fear behind ADHD with that of emotional child abuse. Really a stretch if you are.
First off it chocked me up because looking back it seems clear you understood why and how you got to where you are. Great story that many will learn from. You walked us down a road that seems very dark and yet familiar. You light it up with your talent for words so that many may find their way out. Nice!
You are very special Joel in the eyes of many and that is what you need to remember. The cure from what is always the question. How did the chicken cross the road…he walked, right? Just be very cautious taking any pills/medications and be way more cautious quitting them. Find your spirit center and pray or meditate for strength every day at least once a day. You will increase your happiness as you cure the unknown. Use faith as your guide like your favorite music soothes the soul.
Keep writing because your story should be told. Well thought out and well spoken.
Continue to educate yourself as the circumstance allows.
With this gift of insight you will continue to rise above and help others in ways you can only imagine.
Hi Julie, Your story is an inspiration to many i’m sure. Don’t modify anything you write about to satisfy the critic in the crowd because you have walked the talk. When you have lived something you definitely don’t need a research paper to tell you the doctors got it wrong.
What is the dogs name again?
Nice to see your post!
In poor areas of this country I suspect the numbers on Amps are much higher. Legal Amphetamines are the true gateway drug. It is an epidemic that is morphing into a catastrophe. Because the climb to success is insurmountable once a young person is labeled a failure and then drugged to the point of chronic failure.
Not only that our social security system is doomed because of the dramatic rise in disability claims to come. Additional School funding is being tied to the numbers in need and that perpetuates the growth.
Why are the experts in our society letting this happen?
I 2nd the Kudo!!!
I agree with the last assessment. The ego of the greedy one in all of us tends to trap us in the art of competition. Hopefully this doctors great work overshadows his need for attention.
Great story! My heart and soul cries out to the spirit of the victim.
Mesmerism is closer to reality than psychiatry ever will be!
“It is derived from the consequences of deprivation and abuse in our formative years, followed by additional struggles that result from our adaptations to the ongoing traumas of life.” This is where I don’t agree with Dr. Berezin and others that make these blanket statements on causation. He is coming around from labeling every mind problem as genetic so there is hope.
Find some good help for your daughter. Stay off the drugs for sure. The spirit is in the mind and the heart. Spirit is what needs the guidance in life.
#1 rule is to seek fun and adventure.
Try this spirit meditation. Have your daughter draw a box or get a small nice little box. On or inside that box write what is important in life. Church, home, mom, dad, sisters, brothers, and the other things she loves about life and is grateful for. Put one small item that will be used to represent her spirit into that box. Put that box where it is visible, think about that box and what it represents. Have her center her focus to the item in the box that represents the spirit and meditate once or twice a day for 20 minutes. One doesn’t have to look at anything just close eyes and relax…the mind during the meditation should be focused on the spirit item in the box. As the thoughts of the mind wander bring the focus back to the spirit item. Do this for 20 minutes a day, twice a day, and the spirit and the mind will become one.
If she is looking for adventure I recommend http://www.mum.edu
“how many Doctors in America will sit down and tell the family members of the mentally ill that their responsible for their patients depression and sadness”
Your statement is a generalization and only your opinion of open dialog that is not based in fact. Conjecture and finger pointing plants the wrong seed no matter how intelligent the planter or pointer might be.
It might be true that family members are not responsible enough for recovery.
Open dialogue seems more inclusive in this respect and thus more successful.
It takes a village!
You need to study the work of Bruce Lipton and Rupert Sheldrake and you will find out how resilient the brain/mind is.
You need a reason to believe first.
Very well done! There is a need for uncertainty and you explain it well.
There is no magic bullet. It takes time in a time when we want a quick fix.
It’s mind, body, spirit. Time changes the mind, medicine changes the body, and the spirit needs support.
Thank you for sharing.
I wish there was a like button, because I like your comment.
Every day is a new day and you have proven that. The spirit shines in your work. Nicely done!
The ADHD diagnosis and the medication that follow is an epidemic that is ruining lives!
The deck is stacked against the struggling child because the teachers and the parents are being hoodwinked.
My oldest son suffered head injuries in a car accident when we was 6 months old that delayed his development. We continually had to fight the school system to assure them he didn’t have ADHD or need drugs. You cannot imagine the pressure. We persevered and he is a hard working adult.
However ADHD became a door to drugs for our youngest son. Who was attending M.I.T. in Boston, miles from our midwest home. Failing to keep up he convinced a local pdoc that he was suffering from ADHD. He was handed a prescription of adderall and months later we had to pick him up and bring him home because of a psychotic break. To add to the pain we were trapped into seeing more pdocs and given more drugs to fix what we and he were clueless to understand.
The wolves cry in fear…stop and think!
ADHD isn’t the problem…It is the pdocs that know this is a fictitious illness and hand out drugs only to grow their incomes. It’s the teachers in the classrooms that have been convinced this diagnosis and treatment is a benefit. It’s the parents that lack the education on this subject to properly support their child.
This is the short story…
Exactly the point of the article. Parents might be surprised if “schizophrenia” could be defined instead of thrown out there as a label. What surprises parents is the unknown.
“The voices of the commenters are an essential part of such a counter-narrative”
This is why MIA has all the visitors. The many PhD’s (and growing) that write multi part articles on this site based off years of research should be challenged by those that walk the talk directly.
This site fills a need and I thank Robert because your voice has opened many eyes.
Dr. Berezin, Well done…Best of the best!!!
Blame is as toxic as the antipsychotic drug. Not at all helpful because it works in the past or on something outside ourselves. It is contrary to forgiveness, gratefulness, gratitude, and mindfulness. There is nothing healing about blaming your mother and backing that up with research, other than in extreme circumstances which would be rounding errors in this research. This is at the root of why madinamerica is important because it exposes the sellout in us. Why the mother…because Freud was a product of the times, maybe. Tom Cruise and Scientology make more sense than this and Scientology is way out there.
Keep it in perspective as you read it because providing a crutch can be disabling.
I have walked the talk and don’t buy half of the overly researched bull spawned here. Take the clothes pin off the dogs tail so he can stop researching on how the pin got there.
Julie, You are my favorite read and your spirit shines.
For those students flirting with Amphetamines, I howl and cry and prey for you!!! These drugs will destroy your spirit and steal your self-confidence.
I wrote the following in an email thanking Robert Whitaker for his book back in 2011 and he responded back with reassurance that recovery was possible. We are getting there!
“After retrieving our son from college (MIT) because of a psychotic episode we were clueless to the cause and the prognosis of his state of mind. Months of reading and research has uncovered most of the truth. Having fallen behind in classes our son went to a college psychiatrist who put him on Adderall. Which he used and abused. This began a trip in life for him and his parents that I wouldnât wish on anyone. From Zyprexa to Seroquel to other drugs I can’t spell or say the name of, we and numerous doctors experimented on this kid. We are located in Iowa so it wasnât a short trip to MA to rescue & comfort him from this Adderall induced psychosis. Hell I didnât even know what psychosis was. Our son is now recovering drug free, because that is what he wanted, trying to build a life there in Cambridge, but only time will tell if the effects of the torture we imposed on him will wear off. We documented this ordeal as it unfolded and looking back I find it almost unbelievable.
I grew up back in the 70âs on one of the poorest Indian reservation in this nation, and spent 6 months in a forestry camp for bad boys as a youth, but I have never seen anyone as screwed up as my son was on the handful of meds he was put on to fix what someone else thought needed fixed. I was screwed up as a kid but never seen a pdoc and never put on meds, smoked a little pot, but managed to self correct and I now manage a million $ company and serve on various Boards. I can only imagine what amphetamine prescriptions alone are doing to the poor areas in this nation. The lost spirits are going to be many!
Your book put into one place all of my suspicions as to what the hell happen and saddens my heart that we inflicted so much pain on our son. Had we read this book I assure you we would have at least been aware of the perils of the drugs we so casually leaned on.
Your book gives me some hope and I wish every parent would read it…Great book!!!”
“I would recommend that Dr. B have a family member who is a mother read his work before publishing it. I donât believe he sees how patronizing, patriarchal and demeaning it can read.”
I’m male (not a mother:) and totally agree with you. Puts your faith in psychiatry to the test, if you have any faith left. These are smart doctors that have been trained and that I for one seem to have less hope in their capacity for change than in their patients capacity for change.
Great memory…Like your reply for sure.
“Dr. Berezin offers explanations that arenât backed with scientific evidence and long-term outcomes” You are so correct. This is all the more reason not to give up on the fun side of life. The child breaks into song and that’s ok.
I read it in hopes of being enlightened. Still not believing your pdoc psychobabble on genetics and now motherhood. I was into the script until you turned on the copy machine and we find you repeating the same ideology from past posts. Come on doc take a trip and explore the mind a little.
Interesting path but one often traveled it seems. Pin a base on the mental map as to where the spirit is at peace. Take it all into the imagination. Guide the spirit back here often because it is from this base that the spirit will seek to understand what a crazy world the ego seeks. No drugs required!
Great read! One of my favorite cable shows is the Discovery channels “Naked and Afraid”. On this show many tough people break down after just a few day due to the lack of sleep and protein. I know this seems like a simplistic example, but is it. We send a kid off to college and his eating and sleeping patterns change dramatically. Off to the pdoc for some speed to kick it on the next assignment and the pdoc hands out a prescription of Adderall – no background, no advice, just take it and its all better…Right! This further exacerbates the problems. This story is running as we speak.
“chronic aftereffect” to correct
You would think this was some big surprise. The fact that one can go over the edge and into psychosis is a part of the amphetamine culture with a long history. Hopefully the psychosis is episodic with the drug use and not a chronic after affect.
Prescription or not this drug takes one down a path that leads the mind away from the spirit. It is the story of a false prophet for sure. How sick is man to inflict this on his children?
Spot on…best read on MIA!
Took me back into my head to eloquently explain some previous time warps.
Genetic? You are consistent if nothing else.
Great story!!!
“In schizophrenia consciousness is altered due to something genetic, epigenetic or most likely in the context of damage due to early deprivation or abuse.”
You are as consistent as a copy machine.
Great story! And great comments!
I too live in Iowa and we had a son that was off in college in Boston when his life fell apart. Try that commute. We followed your path because this seems to be the one most traveled today. Until I found Whitakers books and realized there was another way. What a journey our mind can take us on.
We humans are creatures that love to pattern match to form habits and addictions that are routine to the mind because of our survival mechanism. They become our reality and get stored in our subconscious mind. Learning to go to the edge of our minds is important but coming back can be treacherous but necessary. Time is a major factor (or the lack of) and one that is in short supply today because of our modern lifestyles. We want the quick fix and we even read this in your book title.
Practice the mindfulness, meditation, dreaming out loud, and telling a great story. Then give this to others and most importantly your children.
Best
I second the awesome!
It is in the imagination of the observer.
For lack of a like button…Well said!!!
Great article. There seems to be a thread of justification for drug use and or excuses for drug use in this story. I have to wonder how Max’s story would have turned out had he never been put on ADHD medication. We diminish his life if we don’t advocate for no drugs for the vary reasons ACE may contribute or exacerbate this environment.
What can we expect from this fast-food style of mental health?
“receiving 14 months of treatment with stimulants” It doesn’t stop at 14 months.
When you pick your son up from college because he has experienced psychosis for the first time in his life. You find out that he has been awake for days and taking Adderall like candy.
You then look around the community and you find that just about everyone knows someone who has had a child or young adult that has suffered real bad side effects from these amphetamine class of drugs. Some catastrophic!
More power to the ADHD kids that don’t take drugs because you will rule the world.
“I am glad I grew up in a time before they stole childhoods of the innocents before the mass drugging of America” Amen to this! I would have been drugged for sure. I came so close to the fire that I cry for the next generation because there are many that will get burnt for sure.
Wow! I cry for the victims. This level is insane. It is a profession gone wild.
I can’t help but think the disability claims to follow will bankrupt this country.
Frayed please talk to yourself. It works for my grandson. He is learning to talk. He has also recently learned to climb the slide at the park and his parents have told him to be careful … “Calvin be careful”, over and over. They have been teaching him to say his last name and because it is an old Irish name he has shorten it to Kenny. The other day he was in the park climbing the slide and his parents could hear him saying to himself “be careful Calvin Kenny, be careful Calvin Kenny”. His spirit told him to talk to himself and how did he know this would help.
Aside from outright poverty most of this is being driven by the rampant use of drugs and alcohol. Both legal and illegal drugs. I grew up on the Crow Creek Reservation over 40 years ago and don’t remember a single youth suicide. I don’t believe there was a single child of school age that was diagnosed with ADD or ADHD or other contrived mental illnesses or were they on prescription amphetamines (Adderall and others). I can only imagine today how many are on some form of prescription drug.
The fix today is handed out in a pill bottle. The reality is there might be to many doctors and to much government aid. White Christianity swoops in to save the day only to drive these people further from their own spiritual past.
The first step is to drive out the pill pushers and preachers. Require the Indians that want to live and survive on the Rez to survive on their own using their historical teachings and ways. Put the spirit back into the people. Some that think this is crazy need only look at the Hutterites of South Dakota and the Amish in Iowa and how they survive and live with the spirit of their belief.
These people are like the canary in the coal mine and the white man will not save them that’s for sure.
Spot on! It only adds power to a myth when someone of prominence supports it.
How did we get to this place in time where there is so much support for the more brutal chemical approach to healing our spirit?
Steve,
Your Thesis at NaturalPsycholgy.org is incredibly well done. Very nice work!
Shortly after our son’s major spiritual break I came across Mad in America and Robert Whitaker’s books and emailed him. Not expecting a reply…but he did and reassured me that our son would be ok. That email response gave us more confidence than the 5 or more pdoc’s had given us.
To say this connection has changed our lives would be an understatement.
A couple years back our son’s best friend (kingtoadmusic.com) took his life and I only wish we would have seen the signs and helped.
I know we can’t look back, but Life is so dam fragile!
iatrogenic … now there is a word.
Your story tugged at my heart for sure. Jake looks exactly like our son Bill. Bills spirit is recovering from psychosis, and the life after that, and he is constantly on our minds. Medication free but not always symptom free. My advice to him is to always make sure he is having fun.
Your use of the word hope makes me want to share this Jim Carrey speech and talk.
https://www.mum.edu/whats-happening/graduation-2014/full-jim-carrey-address-video-and-transcript/
https://youtu.be/el0LbrdL0ks
Great article!
In our efforts to mold our kids (and now grandkids) we tend to want to protect them from failure. Forgetting that failure is only feedback to which we grow and learn from.
“natural child development process” is the key here.
It’s called critical thinking. Schizophrenia isn’t something you can put in a container. It defines a condition and yes you can argue against it. This is the very premise of this site.
You take a descriptive word like “schizophrenia” and you say it is genetic and then you give it power by saying this is what the Dr says, and you destroy the power of faith, hope and love.
With all due respect pdoc. You are defining the state of someones mind and not the color of their skin or eyes. It is a shame that you have given up on your faith in the recovery model. Frivolous or delusional I thank you for the reflection.
“I do entertain that schizophrenia has a possible genetic component.”
So did Hitler.
This crazy story highlights our crazy world. We are often placed in this box with little hope of getting out. Congrats Ted on your escape.
What a road you have traveled down. Very interesting spirit. Nice post!
Thanks for the review it has saved me reading time. I’m a wiser man today that I was yesterday that’s for sure. I don’t believe any of the drugs were originally designed for long term use but that is where we are today. We have no one to blame but ourselves because we demand the quick fix these days.
If you have rode the wave of suffering behind days of no sleep and uncontrollable fits of a misguided spirit you know more than any doctor. The fact is many doctors won’t diagnose you because they don’t want to tell you they can’t cure you because they know that’s what you come to them for.
When you take a magic bullet like Zyprexa and find that the next day you appear suddenly normal then why wouldn’t everyone think that a miracle has happen. This is reality! But you have just sold your soul to the devil because the fleeting moments of a cure are coming from within and are often lost in the soon to appear hopelessness of all the side effects.
The doctors need to tell the patient that here are a few days of pills take them only if you must to get you some sleep and maybe get yourself to a place of peace. Give you some hope by telling you to have faith in your own body that like a bad illness this will in time pass.
Read the warnings on the drugs and you will find that none are to be taken long term. Be aware that a drug in the short term and for safety reasons might be the only choice. Be aware that healing takes time and it isn’t going to happen on drugs. Faith and love and compassion and time will heal the spirit. I have witnessed it!
Wow!
The world needs more Fred that’s for sure.
Note to Timothy Kelly don’t walk by the scrap yard and kick the fence because there are some big dogs in here. I’m not sure the intent of Mr. Kelly was to attack Mr. Whitaker as the title suggested but to point out the fact that there might be other reasons behind the rise in SSDI numbers. I found it an outstanding and provocative post. Yes I’ve read all of Whitaker’s books and say wow to his work.
The rebuttal is refreshing and interesting as well.
One thing for certain…it woke up this place. đ
Suzanne, You are spot on!
We had to retrieve our son from college, in a psychotic state, because of amphetamines that he had a prescription for because he was all of a sudden diagnosed with ADHD. After being his HS class valedictorian and getting into MIT I might add. Amphetamines steal away a persons confidence and that’s how it becomes your trap. 25% to 30% of kids in some schools are on some form of amphetamine. So addictive it is one of the single most destructive legal drugs on the market today. Way more to the story but I wish it were as simple as a new pair of eyeglasses.
Thanks for posting this response.
Spot on! Easier to get in than it is to get out.
Well done! I think this quote sums up the intent in this article.
“One point that strikes me as particularly urgent is that
âMass incarceration has led to the systematic exclusion of crucial data on 8â10 million (mostly minority) men who have been imprisoned over the last 35 years, obscuring the true extent of this nation’s worsening health and social outcomes among the poor.â ”
The rise in SSDI claims might have more to do with the fact that incarceration rates in many states have risen more than 5 fold over this time period. The war on illegal drugs has also branded many as felons unable to obtain work. I agree with this article that policy may actually be creating or driving these trends. The drug companies and psychiatry become the benefactors of this new populations attempt at survival.
To be diagnosed with a mental illness and have a criminal record adds more road blocks to the recovery process. Recovery after you have fallen no mater how that happens seems to be made harder by those that want to pile on once you are down. Once someone is incarcerated and then treated as if they are mentally ill compounds these issues as well. Throw on top of this overzealous drug and psychiatry professions that also drive policy and we may never see people come off of SSDI in their lifetime.
Whitakerâs work opened up this discussion. Like him I think the most important point is educating yourself so that we can add value to this life we live. I’m not sure the concern is what is driving SSDI as much as why aren’t we getting better results. Are there alternatives?
I’m with Ted a little on this subject. When I started reading this it seemed more like an advertisement and it seems lately there are a lot of those on this site. It seems everyone has a book to sell.
With that said it seems Scott is walking the talk by investing in this wide offering of services. Very interesting to say the least. It should be interesting to come back here and read about the success these programs are having.
Much Success!
I’m half way into your book and I must sleep so I put it down. It is a must read for all who walk this path. Well done!!!
You are one of the lucky ones to escape the trap, not of the mind but of the establishment. As with writing a good book it takes time to heal a good spirit. Congrats on your mission to help others!
Very sorry for your terrific loss. Please read this website for support. Check on a WRAP program in your area. http://www.copelandcenter.com/ has a way to find this resource.
Get help but get the right help. Read Robert Whitakers books to start with so that one can see hope in the process.
It takes time to heal the spirit.
“dump the shrinks” Puzzle is one sharp Dog. She is lucky to have an owner who understands her that’s for sure.
I try to count my self down into a deeper sleep. The deeper I go the better I feel. Hope is the light of life, right.
All the best to both of you.
I found your posts interesting so you should do this. Does Puzzle help?
Sleep is at the root. I have a friend who has major sleep issues and takes drugs to make it all work but not a cure at all.
Great Spirit! You are an inspiration to many. Puzzle is a lucky dog. đ
Everything in the brain is chemical and Zyprexa does its magic there but none of these drugs heal the mind or the spirit in us. We have a son with a similar story and he has blessed us with his spirit as well. What a father you are for sharing your sons journey and for joining him in his life. I tell my son that whatever you do make sure you are having fun at it.
“The United States imprisons its citizens at a higher rate than any other country in the world (according to a 2013 study.) We make up five percent of the worldâs population and yet our citizens make up 25% of the total world population of prisoners.”
Couple imprisonment with the rate of felony convictions as these drive joblessness and hopelessness. So the only way to survive is with a diagnosis and drugs that become the band-aid for survival.
Your spirit is colorful, shiny, loud, and infectious. Your words worked on my tears and yet made me smile. By sharing you show there is kindness, forgiveness, and possibilities. The light you shine on this dark road makes you a hero! Thank You.
Interesting post and comments as well. I’m a conservative and a believer in climate change and i’m often called a nut case so maybe there is a contrast. If you are a liberal and a believer you might be ok. It might depend on the box you are in or what box you checked. đ
As someone that has worked for an electric utility for 36 years I can tell you they know climate change is real. Any new transmission line and a lot of the distribution lines built today in the upper part of the U.S. are being built to withstand stronger ice and wind storms. Many are moving to underground conductors at the distribution level. They also want to keep burning coal so there is this double edged sword in the fight.
The science is real and the numbers are too depressing so maybe there is a connection between mental illness and climate change in more ways than one.
We can move rapidly to renewable energy and we will peacefully or kicking and screaming.
Great topic and one that should be discussed more on this website. A meaningful life comes from employment and feeling of being needed. However not everyone that has had a psychotic episode / spiritual emergency and the recovery that hopefully follows is or has a diagnosis of such. As a parent or significant other there is a need of some organization that can and will assist without having to walk in their door and jump through hoops to ask for help. Victims (they become) languish in their homes and rooms needing assistance but scared as hell to ask for it. We know who they are those less fortunate in life that lack the strength to reach for the ring on their own. If those that read this site who have the hiring authority in their organizations would take that step and hire and mentor the mild or the meek among us then we would be on our way to solving half of our mental health problems.
Gary, This happen to our son as well. While in College he convinced a pdoc that he was ADHD because that’s how you get Adderall to help you study. He was his high-school class valedictorian on no drugs. He spiraled out of control dropped the Adderall without tapering off the drug and this brought on major psychosis. Scary deal if you don’t know what is going on…as you have found. Stay off the drugs and if on them be careful to taper off very slowly.
As a parent its easy to want a quick fix with drugs. Slow life down because recovery takes time.
Wow…your story is strong! Around this same time in the 70’s I was sent off to a State run boys camp in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Most campers (nice right) were in there because they misbehaved but I remember clearly that there were many with emotional (cutting etc.) and drug (illegal kind) related issues. Absolutely no legal drugs or ECT were given, just timber work and compassion. The point I’d like to make is that even back then there were innovative programs to help young teens find themselves. This boys camp is no longer there and I’m not sure where the records might be…it would be interesting to read the back story of what the staff thought.
I’m sure today most would have been drugged into submission. I can only imagine.
This is the state of mind I get into when I ride my motorcycle down a nice country back road. Not a care in the world. Sometimes a couple hours turns into 5 or more.
God Bless you! As you move forward with your recovery your minds inner voice will help guide you off these brain disabling drugs. Please use caution when this happens and educate yourself on the withdraw process. Find the sunshine in your life and enjoy the challenges.
Reference the studies…are you kidding. How about reading the labels on these drugs or read some of the posts on this website in reference to physical bodily damage these drugs have done. Listen to the commercials on tv or youtube to catch the warnings on side effects from the drug companies themselves.
Give me mania or give me death might be the real choice.
Please error on the side of common sense before handing these drugs out to defenseless children. I don’t know of any child or parent reading scientific studies prior to being treated with these barbaric man made drugs.
Peter thanks for the warning!!!
@tyler, “finding environments that worked well for my personality and behavior” Congrats for moving your life in this direction.
@Michael, Spot on!
The diagnosis and the drugs are causing way more harm than good. The drugs and their side effects have devastated the lives of many kids that I know personally. Shame on the drug companies because the parents and teachers are but innocent participants in this crime on the mind.
I long for the day when we can celebrate the individual spirit as a special gift.
You nailed it here in the fact that marijuana is being laced with synthetic/amphetamine like substances and that’s why I agree that marijuana use today can be hazardous. By attaching the fear of psychosis to marijuana use we increase the odds that it will never be legalized. Illegal product has little quality control. Not to mention the arrest and incarceration rates that have ruined many many more lives.
“When these kids start showing signs of amphetamine psychosis these parents read more fraudulent information that convinces them there child is bipolar and needs more drugs !!”
I thought you were reading my mind. This is so spot on that it must be like hitting the replay button on a popular song. The crazy thing is that some of these kids have turned into adults that are now in prison being forced to take the same medications that created and precipitated a minor problem into a major catastrophe.
It’s like driving by a major car accident and slowing down to look at it, wondering what happen, and feeling glad it wasn’t you or your family. Someday it might be!
âSociety wont pay next to nothing to actually help me, but theyâll pay these guys 6 figures a year to just shut me down, and then have the nerve to call it helpâŠâ
How truthful this is. The State here recently shut down a way-ward girls home whose method of treatment was solitary confinement. I estimated they spent $90,000 per girl to house and drug them.
They city meets to cry about the jobs lost. Who crys for the girls?
Junk Science!
Karen: I have walked in your shoes! I sleep on the floor many nights while our son experienced his spiritual emergencies. Went to many pdocs, took many tests, and tried many drugs. Not quick cure out there.
First off take several deep breaths and realize this isn’t going to be healed overnight, but healing will happen. Time heals not the drugs. He may not follow the path that you want but let him follow his path and be very very patient and supportive with him. Listen and he will tell you things that might help. Educate yourself and keep a journal. He may need a drug short-term to stabilize if he has lost total control. Paranoia and hallucinations are rooted in us all so don’t let that be a reason to medicate. Long term you need to work on sleep, meditation and mindfulness to start the healing process.
Slowly taper off all the drugs, even if they have been taken for years and the pdoc thinks it is harmless. Example being ADHD meds etc.. Unless he needs a drug to survive then review its necessity.
If he is in college he may need to take time off. If he has a stressful job he may have to quit it. In the short term release the pressure on him. Don’t let him isolate himself from family and friends. No yelling or screaming or lecturing. Relax and he will relax. Laugh and he will laugh. Love and he will love and heal.
This will take time to heal. It may take years. If you try to medicate it away it may take a lifetime.
God Bless
Very very powerful story Nancy! You rock in those glasses!
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out–Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me. Martin Niemöller
Is there a cure for the card? OMG
“Something tells me he hasnât converted” No kidding!
As a parent of a young adult with coping problems it seems the last place I’d seek help is at NAMI. Review their website and you will see they are heavily biased toward medication for life.
Here is advice off a link from the MA NAMI website.
http://www.reintegration.com/reint/family/family.asp
“Help with medication compliance, sticking to a medication regimen is the cornerstone of successful treatment of schizophrenia, and most people with schizophrenia must take medication for the rest of their lives to control the symptoms.”
Is this true? Is this advice routine for psychosis? Does treatment keep you in treatment? Just wondering.
I hear this morning, on meet-the-press, from the head of the NRA that our mental health system is a mess. No kidding! But who’s going to draw the line between the sane and the insane. Joseph Campbell in some of his work says we are all at times near that edge. Watch the news videos on the gun law protests and you will for sure wonder where the edge actually is. Is a person protesting with an assault rifle sane? I cringe when the solution to a problem is passed on to another problem, especially making gun control a mental health issue.
Can NIMH play a part in drawing this line? This is an important question as the events of the past week open new discussions.
Yes this is a rant. The real problem is in the fact or to the degree that we perceive there exists a mental problem. Both for those with the problem and for those that think others have problems. We all must find the fun in life, we must find the fun in all we do, and we need to stop trying to medicate our way to it or we will all be on medication.