Thursday, March 30, 2023

Comments by amnesia

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  • My husband came every day. He came in the morning after ECT to tell me where I was and why I was being tortured. And he wiped the blood from the corners of my mouth. He came three days a week for 2 1/2 months – sometimes twice a day. After seeing me he drove to the other side of Toronto for work – at lunch he shopped for groceries – after work he went home and cooked a meal for me – he made enough so I would have leftovers for lunch the next day. Then he came to see me with supper. The next morning he was back. When he collapsed, I quit ECT. Fifteen years later I still have tremors, vision problems, breathing problems. I can’t walk properly and I can’t run at all. And now I am alone. A recent CT scan shows some small white spots on my brain – I wonder if those are what remains after the brain bleeds – petechiae. Will update you. I cry a lot. There seems to be no purpose to life – other than revenge. I am obviously not demented, not in an institution, not receiving pharmaceuticals nor maintenance ECT for the rest of my life. THEY were wrong.

  • Haven’t posted for a long time. My husband died. He was the custodian of my memory. I’m missing 15 to 20 years of my life – including most of my marriage. My husband’s heart failed when he realized what had happened to me after he was coerced into signing consent forms for ECT – I had refused. I became his caregiver for 15 years until he died with my hand on his shoulder. His doctors had medicated him to death – he could not metabolize any of the drugs administered. Me? Why did I have ECT? No one recognized that I was sensitive or allergic to benzodiazepines and dozens – yes, dozens – of drugs were given to me in a few months – until I was considered ‘an excellent candidate for ECT.’ My soul died and my husband’s heart failed when we were told 1. I was demented 2. I would not be going/coming home, but rather to an institution 3. I would be taking pharmaceuticals for the rest of my life 4. I would need maintenance ECT for the rest of my life. There was nothing wrong with me. All pill bottles should have the word ‘POISON’ written on them. Why did I take the benzo? Insomnia from caregiver stress while my mother was dying. I cold-turkeyed off the benzo. I tapered myself off all drugs and stopped going for ECT. I am damaged in many ways.

  • you can in fact contact Carolyn Dean MD ND through her website and her assistants will forward your questions to her – she is familiar with orthomolecular medicine and the Abram Hoffer protocol. http://www.rnareset.com is a commercial website – you do not have to buy any products – you will still get an answer to your question. Good luck.

  • start niacin very gradually – build up from mini-doses – cut the 100 mg tablets into quarters. Cut dairy, sugar and grains from your diet. Stay hydrated. Magnesium is important – try citrate or orotate. Read Carolyn Dean MD ND about stress, depression, etc and the role of magnesium.

  • I write about nutrition and orthomolecular medicine and their efficacy – especially in mental health. My intuition and recommendations have restored hundreds of people to health. Canadian orthomolecular psychiatrist Abram Hoffer (deceased) treated more than 5000 schizophrenics with micronutrients and not pharmaceuticals. I knew him as a friend (not as a patient). Bob Whitaker even delivered the Abram Hoffer Memorial Address at a recent Orthomolecular Medicine conference and Bonnie Kaplan and Julia Rucklidge are both PhDs and MIA authors and write about the role of NUTRITION (including the EmPower ingredients) in mental health.

  • I knew Abram Hoffer – not as a patient – and I am responsible for the very last audio interview he gave – a few weeks before his death – he suggested that all psychiatrists should be sent to Mars – “we’d be better off without them’ Whenever he met a client he would ask them what they were going to do when they got well – many cried because no one had ever told them they could get well – and most got the idea they could get well and they did – a belief system and some inexpensive micronutrients. For listing of orthomolecular practitioners see http://orthomolecular.org/resources/pract.shtml and here’s Hoffer’s last interview
    http://www.maieliiv.com/linkedfiles/AbramHoffer2.mp3 – hope this works

  • Further to ‘truth’s’ comment – I am in contact with at least 100 ECT victims – all report that they no longer read books – they cannot focus or remember. What was once a pleasure is now an ordeal. I have sent books to people locally through Amazon but found that they will not send e-books outside the US and Canada.

  • For the REAL ECT stories have a look at the fledgling website http://www.ECTstories.com and submit your story. Our words can do something – create an opening of doubt for the doctors who believe in what they are doing – they might do some deeper research. I once told Robert Whitaker that I was starting a site ‘Psychics Against Psychiatry’. People have no idea of the harm done by ECT on the physical and spiritual planes.

  • This might be of interest to you -you do not have to be a health care professional – check out the topics – https://csom.ca/event/schizophrenia-psychosis/ – module 2 – Orthomolecular History
    Upcoming session: May 10
    The legacy of Abram Hoffer, deemed the father of orthomolecular psychiatry, remains strong after almost 50 years. His zealous contributions to a nutritional perspective on schizophrenia stimulated ongoing research in the biochemical bases of psychiatric illness with immeasurable benefits to the field. The second module in this course describes Hoffer’s progressive treatment strategies and recommendations, highlighting his primary practice of using high-dose Niacin and Vitamin C to target schizophrenia symptoms.

    Vitamin Deficiencies – Dependencies
    Upcoming session: May 17
    In addition to Niacin (Vitamin B3), schizophrenia research and clinical trials suggest that additional vitamin deficiencies are involved in producing brain abnormalities. Individual genetic variations in nutrient and drug metabolism can result in biochemical deficits or excesses that significantly impact energy homeostasis and neurotransmitters in the brain. This module explores the roles of B-Vitamins (folate, B6, B12), Vitamin D, and Zinc in normal mental function.

  • Obviously I’m not Sara but I did know Dr. Hoffer, met him several times at conferences and corresponded with him and was responsible for his very last 1-hr audio interview 2 weeks before he died. I know his daughter. We both agree that he would have had more success if he had been aware of the role of gluten in ‘mental’ illness. Vitamins don’t kill. It would be ideal if a medical practitioner could oversee the dosing. Most people on the regime do very well. I may have posted this previously but it’s important to be aware https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-7075-6-10 Schizophrenia, gluten, and low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diets: a case report and review of the literature

  • unable to post a link but here is a mass of comments – Julia Woodford, Editor:

    We also carry a horror story this month, submitted by a woman whose insomnia diagnosis led her in to the dark world of prescription drug addiction. Seeking help from her psychiatrist, the woman ended up on a mixture of benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and Oxycontin, which ultimately left her a blithering idiot in a psychiatric ward. The moral of the story – prescription drugs can be dangerous enough to ruin your health, your mind and your life. Don’t read the story unless you have a strong stomach.

    John M Grima, Toronto:

    I had some trouble believing this woman could be so ignorant of one’s health. I can understand that when we go to a doctor, we can expect a prescription. But I cannot understand how this woman kept trusting and receiving ALL those prescriptions from her ignorant Doctor … Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Lori Farquhar-Bryenton, Toronto:

    I was saddened by this letter but it’s all too prevalent these days. People get caught up in this and they don’t realize the harm being done to them until it’s too late.

    Crystal Hawk, Toronto:

    I’m so glad this is finally seeing the light of day so others can read it and learn hopefully not to let this happen to themselves. Thanks for sharing this very difficult story. Hopefully it will make a difference for many others.

    Toni B. Rhodes, Atlanta, GA:

    I went through something similar to your experience, with doctors piling up psychotrophic drugs to find the ‘right med’ for me. Now, 5-1/2 years benzo free, I’m starting to feel better but still have protracted benzo w/d syndrome. I pray both of us will eventually heal.

    Elizabeth K. Ellis Moorhead, MN:

    Excellent, excellent article. So full of reality.

    Patrice Campion, Ireland:

    Thank you for sharing your personal story. We are grateful for courageous people like you who step out from behind the shadow of shame, and tell the world about your experiences, so others may avoid this same life experience. May you continue to remember, even if it is better to forget. God Speed. x

    Mary Maddock, Cork, Ireland:

    An excellent article! It is so heartfelt and so honest. Yes doctors can do outrageous harm. Many people have been crucified by psychotrophic drugs in the name of ‘help.’ People live in fear of receiving them against their will when they know they have caused them serious harm. THANKS for writing this article!

    Iianne Knight, Canada:

    Living by the Laws of Life and the Laws of Nature, historically, from ancient times forward, have restored many to vibrant wellness without any drugs. Surgery or radiation. I hope that you will be able to rise to this personal challenge that you have received to study the masters and become one of our finest teachers.

    Pamela St. John, Chapel Hill, NC:

    What an amazing, well written and powerful article you have given the world….I am so glad you are writing a book!! I keep your story as inspiration for the work that must continue for changing these horrendous conditions, pray for your continuing return to full health, and give thanks for your passion to help others along the way. I read Peter Breggin’s book, Toxic Psychiatry, when it came out and felt very supported by that in my own growing beliefs around ‘mental health.’ Your evidential experiences will be tremendous back up for those in the field who have tried to speak out.

    Altostrata, California:

    Heartbreaking, but all too common. There are posts by patients all over the Web with similar stories. To the enduring shame of medicine, few doctors recognized adverse effects of the drugs they throw out like candy. Even fewer know anything about gradual, individualized tapering off these medications to minimize withdrawal damage. There are maybe a dozen Web sites run by patients – NOT doctors – offering support. I run one of them, SurvivingAntidepressants.org, but I would gladly shut it down if medicine stepped up to its responsibility to patients to get them safely off these drugs.

    Anonymous, Oregon:

    I was started on Prozac in 1992 for PTSD after an assault. I lost the 20 years of my life that followed, to a parade of psychiatric drugs, all prescribed for the effects of the drugs before. Now it’s taking me another five or six years to safely get off them. I’ve lost the best years of my life – not only lost, but I can’t describe the suffering I experienced during those years. I wanted to die most of the time. My children lost their mother. I have no savings to retire on. I have no partner and at this point it looks like I’ll spend the rest of my life alone. Thank you modern medicine. I no longer see doctors. I don’t believe in any of your ‘interventions.’ You have no idea how much damage you are doing, and you don’t want to listen when we try to tell you.

    Toni Rhodes, Atlanta:

    This story is heartbreaking. I went through a similar experience – getting hooked on a benzo that a doctor prescribed. Fortunately, my husband intervened; otherwise, my doctor would have given me ECT. I went through a horrific withdrawal process and now have protracted benzo withdrawal syndrome, which is awful but not as bad as being on the drugs. I wrote a letter to my HMO describing all the ways I was mistreated by doctors in the system, and I actually got a call from one of the doctors, who said he would take my case before a board to see if changes could be made in procedures. Maybe doctors in this country are beginning to see how wrong they have been. Too many of us have had to suffer!

    Wellness, Ontario

    Add me to the list of victims. Addicted to sleeping pills in 3 weeks. I was getting panic and anxiety attacks from the interdose w/d. They threw the whole drug catalog at me and diagnosed me with so much stuff. I’m 16 months off my last dose of benzodiazepine and still very ill. Psychiatry is a profession gone bad. If I had my way they would be lining up for the unemployment line.

    Harmedbydoctors, Toronto:

    I have a similar story. I am called a Psychiatric Survivor. I have refused to ever use those drugs again (now they say SSRI’s don’t work) I know they don’t work … 20 years ago. I went through 6 years of nothing but drugs and baloney, no help, nothing. After many hospital stays and crap, one day the “dr” threw me away and said I could not be helped and would end up killing myself. This “person” still practices but I plan on writing and posting my experiences online. Somewhere, someday, naming names. I have struggled but found success in alternative therapies. I now fully confront any “dr” who needs confronting and I don’t care what is about or what is written down in my ‘file”. I have a file now on doctors. Do no harm? Everyone of us should be able to sue for damages. I agree, psychiatrists et al should be sent to Mars or if there is a hell, hopefully there is a special place for doctors who harm, injure, destroy and yet make quite a good living at our suffering.

    Anothervictim, USA :

    Another victim here. I am so sorry for this lady. I went from relatively mild situational anxiety to psychosis on drugs. I was polydrugged (14 drugs over a 4-month period) since doctors used drugs to treat adverse effects from other drugs. I am now 7 months free of all drugs and my body and brain still feel like when I was on the rugs, meaning that the (hopefully temporary) chemical brain damage that was caused by the drugs remains. I have no idea when I’ll be healed and able to restore my normal life. I was an amazing sweet mom and wife and an MIT graduate with a perfect GPA and on the worst of my withdrawal I had slurred speech and could not even recognize a tube of toothpaste … Cannot feel love for my family either. This is what these drugs do, a chemical lobotomy. That feeling of agitation is called akathisia or “Hell on Earth”, psychiatrists dirty little secret … and 7 months later I still have it. For those who feel good on the drugs and are able to get on and off of them without issue, beware, your brain will not stand the beating forever and sooner or later will rebel. So if you’re one of the lucky ones that has a ‘sturdy’ brain be thankful. IMHO, these drugs should only be used in extreme cases where the risk significantly outweighs the benefit, not because you’re depressed that your dog ate your LV purse.

    OneMore, California:

    I too am a victim/psychiatric survivor. I was a teacher who became a jailbird after I was given Risperidol, Haldol, and Seroquel. I had no family near. There was no empathy for me after I lost my baby, you see. I got pills instead of empathy. All I needed was some empathy. I was strong. I could have made it. Instead of comfort, the medications and actions it caused me to lose roughly 10 years rebuilding my life and establishing a new career. They almost killed me. After starting the medications – I lost my life. Now all I have is the new one I’m building. My integrity as a person was shattered. I explain things one way to myself – but in another way to others. What a shadow the ordeal cast on what was once a clean slate that was called my life.

    Roberto, Idaho USA:

    This is just an amazing story and hard to believe, but never the less it is TRUE. Millions of people TRUST their doctors blindly because this is all they know to do. Some doctors have a way to win your TRUST to the point that NO matter how your health keeps on declining you will still TRUST their judgment like this lady did for the many years until it is too late. Some people really believe that thee DRUGS are a godsend, but in reality they may help for a while until something else goes wrong and you begin to experience hell on earth …

    Medical Journalist:

    The article is hair-raising. I’d like her permission to use her story in my book. My husband cried when he read her story. My husband is a physician.

    Young Intern:

    This story should be required reading for all medical students. It’s sobering.

    ‘Open Letter to Doctors’ posted in Dead Man’s Vitamin

    Lori Farquhar-Bryenton, Editor:

    I came across this story today and felt I had to share it with others. Although I have spoken with many people with similar stories, I have never come across such gross negligence.

    Gross negligence: n. carelessness in reckless disregard for the safety or lives of others, which is so great it appears to be a conscious violation of other people’s rights to safety. It is more than simple inadvertence, but it is just shy of being intentionally evil. If one has borrowed or contracted to take care of another’s property, then gross negligence is the failure to actively take the care one would of his/her own property. If gross negligence is found by the trier of fact (judge or jury), it can result in the award of punitive damages on top of general and special damages. Also:

    Gross negligence is a conscious and voluntary disregard of the need to use reasonable care, which is likely to cause foreseeable grave injury or harm to persons, property or both. It is conduct that is extreme.

    If this is not a case of gross negligence then what is? Why can’t we hold psychiatrists responsible for the harm they cause? Why is this being allowed to continue?

    With no due recourse and nowhere to turn, this lady can only endure what has been done to her by mental health “experts.”

    Dbunker:

    Thanks. Gross negligence? It goes beyond negligent and it’s way beyond gross.

    MKH :

    How are we supposed to taper “under supervision”? I can only do it on my own. When I asked for help with it, the doctor wanted to “add a little bit of Abilify”! I write notes to myself: You feel bad because you are in withdrawal. It will be over before long … because otherwise I might start to believe them again. There is nothing wrong with my brain. My list of diagnoses went from schizophrenia to paranoia to chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia to schizotypal PD to schizoaffective to bipolar personality disorder. If I had never seen a psychiatrist I would never have had any of these labels or the hundreds of pills and the almost ruined life. I am still tapering. On. My. Own.

    Cynthia

    Psychiatrists kill.

    “Open letter to Doctors” Posted in Gaia Health

    Heidi Stevenson, Editor:

    This woman’s health was taken over and devastated by creatures who call themselves doctors. Anyone’s life can be destroyed in this system that dares to demand it be the only approach to health.

    Robert Bonan:

    Wow! I just finished reading this amazing testimony and my heart goes out to this person who survived the ordeal. This is the part I read that just blew me away “A psychiatrist asked: is she still alive?” meaning that she had taken so many pills that she should have died.

    VaccineRisks:

    A shocking and tragic story. Sadly, there are thousands of people annually who have their lives destroyed due to psychiatric drugs prescribed by cynical psychiatrists.

    Doctors may look side effect up but are rarely interested in interactions between drugs but, yet they do occur. The shocking cocktail which the poor woman was given is criminal. Several of the drugs were undoubtedly taken at the same time. Many in the list interact with each other resulting in for example increase in effective concentration, increasing toxicity, reduction of blood pressure etc.

    The open letter, so excellently formulated, so vividly describing the disgraceful, unethical and low level to which much of psychiatry has sunk, should be widely spread. It is also a perfect example for workshop discussions for medical students, in the hope that they will not be tempted to fall into the culture of greed and corruption which symbolizes psychiatry’s situation today.

    Debby Bruck:

    Shocking. Sad. Criminal.

    Ruth:

    I read this with tears in my eyes. I watched a similar thing happen to my sister after horrific vaccine damage at age 12. She died a year and a half ago at age 40. Doctors offered no hope for her ‘rare’ condition that they had absolutely had ‘no idea’ where it materialized from. They treated her with such disrespect and disgust those last days … as if she were somehow at fault … I think they know deep down. If they allowed themselves the thought that what they are doing is harming people, children, to the extent that it really is, well, maybe a few would just want to go jump off a bridge. We could only hope…

    Amita Durgaprasad:

    EXCELLENT post! It’s appalling how completely the medical community has abandoned the tenet “First do no harm” in favor of “Protect the MAXIMUM profits & best interests of Big Pharma AT ALL COSTS, and NO MATTER the extent of ‘collateral’ damage from injury & death of innocent people.

    Comments from Facebook groups as the story continued to spread

    Anonymous:

    Wow.

    Jana Brown:

    My heart goes out to the author.

    Jennifer Bryant Roeder:

    I am horrified of what you went through and am amazed you survived. I am so sorry. It’s unbelievable how psychiatry destroys so much of our minds and our lives. Thank you for sharing your story.

    Julia Deborah:

    Wow. Amazing story, beautifully written. Thanks for sharing.

    Name hidden:

    “I’d like to drive a dagger through the heart of psychiatry, but I can’t find a heart.” Irish psychiatrist Michael Corry (1948-2010) the above quote is part of a poignant piece at the linkhttp://vitalitymagazine.com/article/an-open-letter-to-doctors/ I venture to say, we can’t find a brain either.

    Name hidden:

    I completely agree with everything you wrote. If I wasn’t afraid of jail and going to hell my psych doctor would be in serious danger. Bottom line: if there was any justice in the world my psych doctor would be in jail.

    Name hidden:

    I have no doubt we will reach a tipping point soon and then the tide will turn. Word is getting out.

    Name hidden:

    My experience is similar in so many ways to that of the writer … But it is so sad that in spite of the work of the likes of Peter Breggin and Robert Whitaker these drugs are continuing to be prescribed and people are blithely taking them. And I wish somebody would tell Woody Allen to stop subliminally advertising benzodiazepines in his films.

    Name hidden:

    I just read your story. Omg I am so sorry. I hate psychiatry with a passion.

    Name hidden:

    Wow. It is unbelievable how you were treated – what happened to you is criminal and it just boggles the mind that these doctors can be so callous, careless, cruel and (seemingly) ignorant of the adverse effects of all these drugs and treatments and get away with it because it is the ‘standard of care’. The psychiatrist who pushed all these drugs on you was worse than the worst drug pusher – except psych drugs are more dangerous. Your statement – “one should not have to survive going to a doctor’ nails the ‘irony’ and tragedy of what is happening in mainstream medical model health care. I will share this with family and friends.

    Anne Woodlen, writer, social activist, psychiatric survivor

    Dear God. Your words are triggering an adrenalin rush in me. The horror – the horror, of what we’ve been through. It’s hard for me to read because it brings up memories that I’ve moved away from.

    I think – hope – that what you’ve written will be a punch in the face to “civilians” – people who think the psychiatric system is beneficial. You write with simple, direct clarity. Facts. No howling or whining, just a strict report of events, which is very, very powerful.

    I’ve had it bad in the psych system, but not as bad as you. (Jesus, there ought to be criminal indictments against all these people who call themselves doctors.) Your story ought to be required reading for all students preparing to engage in mental “health” treatment. Would you consider letting me publish your writing on my blog? It is important, it matters, and I feel a terrible sense of urgency about it.

    I am reminded of the Book of Job where Satan destroys everything Job has. After each crop is destroyed or each flock of animals dies, a servant comes to Job and says, “I alone am left to tell you.” You, alone, are left to tell us. You survived with enough of your brain intact to tell us the damage that psych meds cause. You are one of the reasons I believe in God. Bless you.

    David Healy MD/Psychiatrist/author/Pharmageddon/www.RxISK.org

    This is an extraordinary list of meds. This is definitely something we need to showcase but in the early days of getting Rxisk up and running I’m trying to get as many general health issues into the frame as I can first. There are some equally terrible things from mainstream medicine – so keep an eye on the Rxisk blog when we get it going.

    Robert Whitaker/author/lecturer/Mad in America/Anatomy of an Epidemic

    Your story is one that tells of how this system of “care” we have can take people down an ever-downward path. This is much of what I wrote about in Anatomy of an Epidemic, which is how an initial small problem gets converted into a much bigger and more lasting problem. I am so sorry that you have suffered in this way, and I hope that you can continue to recover in the time ahead.

    Paula Caplan/Harvard psychologist/author/They Say You’re Crazy/When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home

    Oh, God, this is a nightmare! Your story is indeed terrifying and so, so sad. What a tragedy to see how you were being fed all those awful drugs and then, when you reported the negative effects, told they proved how sick you were! You are a miracle for having gotten out of it and for being so brave to try to help others.

    Ginger Breggin/Peter Breggin MD/psychiatrist/Your Drug May be Your Problem

    I am so sorry for your ordeal. Stay strong and keep building your support network! (Great idea about the ECT speakers group! Bravo!)

    Sir William Osler (1849-1919)

    Canadian physician known as ‘the father of modern medicine’

    “The battle against polypharmacy, or the use of a large number of drugs (the action of which we know little, yet we put them into the bodies … the action of which we know less) has not been fought to the finish … Do not use rashly every new product of which the peripatetic siren sings. Consider what surprising reactions may occur in the laboratory from the careless mixing of unknown substances. Be as considerate of your patient and yourself as you are of the test-tube.”

    “It is only too true, as you know well, that a most successful – as the term goes – doctor may practice with a clinical slovenliness that makes impossible for that old friend, Dame Nature, to cover his mistakes.”

    “It is astonishing with how little outside aid a large practice may be conducted, but it is not astonishing that in it cruel and unpardonable mistakes are made.”

    “The daily round of a busy practitioner tends to develop an egoism of a most intense kind, to which there is no antidote. The few setbacks are forgotten. The mistakes are often buried …”

    “Listen to your patient, he is telling you the diagnosis.”

    David Healy MD/psychiatrist/author/Pharmageddon/www.RxISK.org

    “No one knows a drug’s side effects like the person taking it.”

    IN SUMMATION

    Neither Dr. C., nor the CPSO, nor the Independent Opinion, nor the “expert tribunal” ICRC (Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee) chose to listen to the patient. Decisions were based on Dr. C’s records, records which were described by the CPSO as lacking: “Put simply – the documentation of the treatment of this patient is impossible to follow.” Dr. C. was reprimanded on many counts. Of the above-mentioned people, Dr. C. is the only one who met me. A group who never met me, never asked questions of me, decided I was mentally ill on the basis of Dr. C.’s notes. Hopefully the HPARB will listen to the patient. (PENDING since November 2012)

    BACK

  • ‘Prescripticide’ was actually a David Carmichael word. I use it a lot – unfortunately. I had a small card printed with the heading ‘PRESCRIPTICIDE’ with links to a number of websites including RxISK , Peter Breggin and MIA. I handed them out at the wake. The doctor was at the funeral but not at the wake – probably back at work murdering more people with her prescription pad. I have supported at least 6 people with their complaints (and appeals) to the medical governing body. I have been stunned and speechless to see the complaints dismissed by the old boys’ network. ‘Admit no harm’ is the war cry. I have lost respect for the medical profession.

  • I have the same question. I am an executor for the estate of a close friend who took her own life last year. I don’t call it suicide. I call it murder. Prescripticide.

    I had to clean out her apartment. I had to arrange for a decontamination crew to clean the deep stains left on the floor by her decomposing body. I have many of her medical records. I have her emails. I have my emails to her doctor. I have her computer. I have a box of pill containers – some still full – some empty.

    It was her very first antidepressant – citalopram. I warned her against it. I even warned her doctor three times. My friend told her doctor she felt the citalopram was making her feel suicidal. Her doctor told her that was impossible and increased the dose.

    My friend complained of insomnia. I found out later her doctor wrote a script for a two-month supply of sleeping pills. The doctor was on her way for a month in Europe. I was out of the country at a conference. I came back and my friend was already dead. I suspect she stopped the citalopram cold-turkey. The citalopram container still had pills in it. The sleeping pill container was empty.

    The police detective and the coroner suggested I file a complaint with the medical governing body of our province. I didn’t bother. Doctors are never held accountable – I’ve learned that from experience. My friend experienced the current acceptable standard of care.

    I photographed her apartment contents and the stain which was all that was left of her – bodily fluids, bits of scalp, bits of hair. I haven’t picked up my camera since. Last week I offered a small pearl necklace to another woman who had also considered herself a close friend. She declined the necklace – she stated she couldn’t wear anything that had belonged to a person who had “committed suicide”. I almost screamed at her: ‘She didn’t commit suicide – she was murdered by her doctor”.

  • Not just old people. Polypharmacy is rampant and leads to death and ECT. Have a look at the lead story at http://www.ECTstories.com and the rest of the stories where people have been ‘polypharmacied’ to the point where psychiatrists considered them good candidates for electroshock. Clinical trials for drug A, clinical trials for drug B, clinical trials for drug C , etc. We/you are the clinical trial for drug A+B+C.

  • Forced – yes it is forced. I took a benzo at a time of great stress. I was not depressed. Cold-turkeyed from the benzo when the stress was over. Got mild shakes. No one recognized benzo withdrawal. Diagnosed with agitated depression. Medicated to insanity. Actually diagnosed with dementia. Went to a psych facility for help in withdrawing from pharmaceuticals. Seized and forcibly shocked – considered an excellent candidate for ECT. I would have been an excellent candidate for supervised drug withdrawal. My life has been destroyed. I take no drugs and I am out for revenge.

  • Thank you Don.

    Canadian orthomolecular psychiatrist Abram Hoffer (1917- 2009) was appalled by the dominance of the pharmaceutical industry, the inhumane treatment of patients, and the degrading levels to which healthcare can sink. He felt that patients today would do well to avoid psychiatry like the plague. A few weeks before his death signed off with: “All psychiatrists should be sent to Mars – they’d be better off and we’d be better off without them.”

    Irish psychiatrist Michael Corry (1948 – 2010) opposed bio-psychiatry and psycho-pharmacology, and
    campaigned for the abolition of ECT. Dr. Corry once said: “I’d like to drive a dagger through the heart of psychiatry, but I can’t find a heart.” (Someone commented: I doubt if you could find a brain either.)

    Make sure you don’t miss the new website http://www.ECTstories.com. The stories speak for themselves. And for those who haven’t already done so look at http://www.ECTjustice.com about class actions suits.

  • I agree with ‘truth’ – I am Amnesia – amnesia from ECT – ECT because doctors mistook benzo withdrawal syndrome for agitated depression and medicated me to insanity and forced ECT. I also would like a prize offered for the cure to doctor-induced memory loss. I am missing 25 years of my life. Does anyone care? No! I respect most of Dr. Healy’s work and promote the Rxisk website everyday but I feel he is blissfully ignorant of ECT damage.

  • About niacin – start very slowly – 1/4 of a 100mg tablet and go up from there. Take after food. Some people get extreme flushing and panic and don’t touch niacin again. Students at our local naturopathic college took niacin as part of their training. A few students fainted – can’t remember how many – they had not eaten lunch.
    Vitamin C, selenium, zinc, other B vitamins also important. Dairy and sugar were to be avoided. Dr. Hoffer did use pharmaceuticals but weaned people off them as soon as he could replace the drugs with micronutrients. A few weeks before his death he remarked that all psychiatrists should be transported to Mars – we’d be better off without them.

    I’ll try to link to another article about the role of gluten in schizophrenia also low-carb ketogenic diet https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-7075-6-10

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    amnesia June 29, 2017 at 11:30 pm
    Sara: Brilliant – both text and video. Dr. Hoffer would be grateful. Close to the end of his very last audio interview a few weeks before his death (an interview he agreed to only if he could speak about schizophrenia) he asked that we carry on his work. His final comment was “all psychiatrists should be transported to Mars – we’d be better off without them”. I will pass this on to his daughter. Thank you. You brought a smile. I write about his work almost daily.

    I’ll try to get you a name for orthomolecular doctor in France

  • Just wanted to share something – it’s not only psychiatry – all branches of medicine.

    Oncology: Doctor: Stop waiting for a miracle . You have only two to three days to live (with acute leukemia). Me: Who do you want to believe? Your doctor or me? Patient: I can still remember his expensive polished shoe on the side of my bed. We did imagery and Therapeutic Touch.

    Outcome: The patient went into strong remission. The doctor died a week later of a heart attack on the street outside of the hospital – he was 43 years old. A perfect ending.

    Cardiology: He (my husband) could drop dead any minute. He needs to have a pacemaker /ICD immediately. Me: He is feeling better. Cardiologist: People often feel better just before they drop dead. I was devastated and terrified and sick for weeks. My husband got over it quite quickly. A few years later, a few micrionutrients later my husband is no longer a candidate for any type of invasive measures.

    Be careful how you hex your patients..

  • Of course it works for depression. People become suicidal when they realize how much of themselves and their lives they have lost because of ECT. They kill themselves – and then there are fewer depressed people.
    Seriously, I personally knew four people who killed themselves as a direct adverse effect of ECT, I knew one woman who died of a heart attack shortly after ECT. I saw one woman being resuscitated after her ECT ‘therapy’.

  • Abram Hoffer – Canadian orthomolecular psychiatrist – now deceased – treated more than 5000 clients with the schizophrenia label – he did use pharmaceuticals in urgent situations until the individual was stable and then he tapered them and gave them micronutrients. Most became stable on micronutrients and didn’t need pharmaceuticals . Whenever a new client came to his office Dr. Hoffer asked them what they were going to do when they got well Many broke down in tears – no one had ever suggested they could get well. Most of them ‘got the idea’ and they did get well.

  • Absolutely! I was ‘diagnosed’ with anxiety, depression, agitated depression, major depression, adjustment disorder, bipolar, vegetative depression, psychotic depression, somatization disorder, dissociative identity disorder, DEMENTIA, plus paranoid ideation (when I questioned the role of pharmaceuticals in creating this mess) Of course all disappeared like magic when I tapered off drugs. Of course, the brain damage from forced ECT will never disappear.

    The only thing I did was take a benzo during a time of great stress and exhaustion and cold-turkey off it. I was never depressed until the doctors got their hands on me. The curse DEMENTED – I left farewell notes for my husband and wrote a living will I was afraid I would kill myself and I was afraid I wouldn’t kill myself. I gave away all my most precious belongings. Those psychiatric labels stick on medical paperwork and in my subconscious. I lost my self-confidence. I will never lose my hatred and my will-power.

  • A benzo taken at a time of extreme stress. A cold-turkey withdrawal from the benzo. The shakes as a withdrawal effect. A diagnosis of agitated depression. An antidepressant which resulted in akathisia. Diagnosed with worsening depression. More than 30 drugs given – a new one almost every week – no wash-out allowed. The diagnosis changed to dementia and psychotic depression. 25 rounds of forced bilateral ECT followed. It took only 8 months. Most of the drugs were administered in the first two months. It took only 25 years of my memory. Blank. All gone. Blank.

  • Excellent, thank you. I’ve posted a lot about the potential dangers of ECT but have taken some time to deal with my husband’s health issues – heart failure related – a direct result of the guilt and despondency he feels at signing the form authorizing ECT for me – I had refused to sign – he was told it was the last and only hope for me. The last and only hope was, in fact removal of all the pharmaceuticals – all of them – not one was necessary or even indicated. His bright, slender, trendy, articulate wife returned home as a bloated zombie collapsing to the floor, frothing at the mouth with spontaneous seizures, and missing about 25 years of memory. He used to wipe the blood from the corners of my mouth after ECT and explain where I was and why I was being tortured. We had both been told that I was demented, had severe psychotic depression, needed maintenance ECT for the rest of my life, needed pharmaceuticals for the rest of my life, and to top it all off – I would not be coming home but would be going to an institution. I went to the psych facility carrying Peter Breggin’s book – Your Drug May be Your Problem – I went for help in withdrawing from the drugs – they seized me and declared that I was an excellent candidate for ECT. IDIOTS!. I am now dealing with cracked teeth and cracked dental restorations – and I am terrified of anyone going near or into my mouth.

  • Yes, there are better ways.

    I know many who became psychic/spiritual after head injuries from car or motorcycle accidents. Know several who became psychic after near death experiences.

    In the words of the great orthomolecular psychiatrist Abram Hoffer: “How can something that makes well people sick, make sick people well?” He suggested that all bottles of pharmaceuticals carry a skull and crossbones symbol and the word POISON.

  • This topic is all too bizarre and amateurish.

    Psych drugs leave spaces in the human energy field. This allows undesirable energies to get in. People get worse. They are being made worse because the drugs damage the field. More drugs then follow, etc, etc, etc.

    And then when the field is very porous and the patient has been driven insane, they get rewarded with ECT which totally destroys many. The ones who suffer most are the ones who had expanded consciousness in the first place – the artists, the musicians, the writers, etc.

    ECT damage can be seen in the human energy field.

    Look at a photo of a preteen who took her own life. There is a space in this girl’s energy field that intersects with her forehead, her frontal lobes. This is the kind of trauma caused by drugs. She would not have been able to link consequences and her emotions, which would also have been very negatively affected. Prior to this, this little girl was joyful – she was just what they call a kinetic learner which means she had to learn through movement and “hands on” learning. She should never have been given drugs (to help her concentrate in school.

    I once attended a seminar for voice-hearers. I went because of the reputation of the presenters. Many of the attendees were psychically open and didn’t realize it. Their doctors, of course, didn’t realize it either and were drugging them. Wrong.

    The problem – consciousness isn’t taught in schools. I have a book in the works.

  • Robert Whitaker: Could you please post the Abram Hoffer Memorial Lecture you gave at the Orthomolecular Medicine Conference two years ago.

    I have not picked up my camera since I photographed what was left of a very close friend after the removal of her decomposing body and before the professional decontamination team came – just some dried blood sludge, some bits of scalp, some hair. I did every thing I could to warn her about the antipsychotic she was about to take – her first psychiatric drug. She insisted her doctor would not give her anything that would harm her. She said she was feeling suicidal within a few days. Her doctor told her that was impossible and increased the dose. She felt worse. I think she cold turkeyed. I was out of town when she took her own life. That was a year ago. The doctor remains clueless.

  • Hundreds of us would like to see the story of ECT that doctors ignore to tell us. Hundreds of us can give you testimonials of how we were driven to insanity by antipsychotics and then rewarded with electroshock for having survived. Some of us have an ethical/moral dilemma. A young woman with ‘postpartum depression’ following a complicated last minute cesarean, was given antipsychotics. She felt terrible. She was given ECT and couldn’t remember anything nor function. She was terrified. Her husband threatened to divorce her if she didn’t continue with the antipsychotic(s). Her mother wouldn’t speak with her unless she returned for ECT. I have her emails. Dozens of us have her facebook posts pleading for help. Those who should have been her support system failed her because they chose not to be informed about antipsychotics and ECT, They read only what they wanted to hear. A little girl is motherless. Do we devastate the family with the truth – or do we let the little one grow up thinking that her ‘mentally ill’ mother took her own life?

  • Truth: Of course drugs are not the ideal solution to grief (or perhaps the insomnia often associated with grief). But the first thing that doctors do, is offer drugs. And that is not going to change any time soon. Two of my friends lost their sons to medical malfeasance and one lost a daughter – first thing their doctors did was offer them drugs – they didn’t accept. Some grief support groups are financed by drug companies. Tolerate = is the drug going to make you crazy/violent/suicidal!?

  • Yesterday a woman in Georgia who had apparently been depressed over the death of her father stabbed her husband and four children to death. One daughter is still alive. The are reports of her behavior being bizarre and of her having hallucinations. Hopefully we will soon hear about the drug(s) prescribed for her. Wouldn’t it have been useful if she had had genetic pre-screening for her ability to tolerate the drug(s)?

  • $200 23andme – when I had it done for myself and my husband it cost $100.

    ‘someone’ should just shut up – not at all well-informed – no need to share ignorance and try to prevent people from having genetic testing and avoiding what is harmful to them.

    That said – your genes are not your destiny – they do get triggered, though.

  • Kindredspirit – I did use 23andme for starters and then based on info found followed up with some specific testing – as a result my husband is off all heart meds – they were killing him and doctors in their ignorance kept adding more and more – and now they are wondering why he is no longer a candidate for all the surgical interventions they deemed necessary. Psych drugs use similar pathways.

  • Here’s one from CAMH – likely Canada’s major psychiatric facility.

    http://impact.camhx.ca/en/education-pharmacogenetics

    The tests are still fairly expensive and for sure drug companies would not like to see them used – fewer customers.

    Look up David Carmichael – and paxil – David would have spent the rest of his life in jail had it not been for genetic information.

    People get so freaked out by the word ‘genetic’. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know which drug would have the best result for you – or would you prefer trail and error?

  • amnesia is not wrong – amnesia is an empath and has super psychic abilities – you can indeed weed out people and the tests are already available but costly – there is nothing wrong with people – we all have genetic glitches – psych drugs are almost lethal to many

  • There is always hope. Orthomolecular psychiatry does not use massive doses of vitamins – or it should not. Abram Hoffer MD used the absolute minimum required. Are you aware of EFT – emotional freedom techniques to deal with childhood issues? What is your diet like? Gluten, dairy and sugar-free? Omega 3s? B3? B12? multi Bs, zinc, magnesium, vitamin C, selenium? People who are nutrient depleted do worse with ECT. Here’s something to consider https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/06/schizophrenia-deconstructed/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2652467/ Ketogenic gluten-free diet.

  • I was never depressed. I had a bad reaction to benzo withdrawal. ECT was forcibly given. I lost 20-25 years of memories. God knows what my IQ is now. I have become almost inarticulate. Absolutely terrified of doctors. My husband almost died from the guilt of having signed the form after being told it was my last and only hope. In Bonnie Burstow’s latest blog BizOMadness she writes about the eradication of memory, the terror instilled, the profound interference with the ability to navigate life. I’d like to see a special Mad in America ‘blog’ where brain-damaged ECT survivors tell their stories.
    It’s a necessity.

  • They do exist – look up CYP450 – look up Yolande Lucire MD. Look up David Carmichael who killed his son while on Paxil. I had to learn all about genetic glitches and saved my husband’s life when I found he couldn’t metabolize any of the heart meds he was given. With ECT tests can be done to see if people can tolerate/metabolize the drugs given prior to the induced seizures. You are not at all in la la land. I’m not quite ready to write about this but people who can see the human energy field can see the damage from pharmaceuticals- the field becomes porous – ECT then makes it even more porous – full of holes. A lot depends on the energy field – people react in different ways. Do you think pharmacos would like people to know the huge percentage who cannot metabolize their drugs. Right now the tests are fairly expensive – but soon they won’t be.

  • Agreed – my husband was supposed to die 13 years ago – cardiologists said so and then proceeded to medicate him in a manner designed to make sure that he did. They insisted on all manner of medical procedures plus a pacemaker/ICD. I wouldn’t let that happen. He was in the ER resuscitation room 4-5 times because of the drugs. I did a lot of research, replaced his meds with nutrients. Cardiologists are speechless wondering why he is no longer a candidate for any procedure. He’s still on a blood thinner and a mini dose of another drug which is being reduced. He has most of his life back. We are now dealing with concussions from the meds which stopped his heart or lowered his blood pressure so much that he would pass out. Cardiologists are the second highest ranking killers after psychiatrists. He needed stress reduction and magnesium. His heart didn’t do well when told his wife was demented, psychotic, needed pharmaceuticals for the rest of her life plus weekly maintenance ECT, and furthermore – she would not be coming home but be going to an institution.

  • Sara: Brilliant – both text and video. Dr. Hoffer would be grateful. Close to the end of his very last audio interview a few weeks before his death (an interview he agreed to only if he could speak about schizophrenia) he asked that we carry on his work. His final comment was “all psychiatrists should be transported to Mars – we’d be better off without them”. I will pass this on to his daughter. Thank you. You brought a smile. I write about his work almost daily.

  • Found it – ordered it – read a little about you. I once made a living with my camera. Post ECT I couldn’t figure out how it worked. Now own a point and shoot which I rarely use. Thank God I have photographs – a record of sorts of my life – of people I don’t remember knowing, of places I don’t remember visiting. I have to keep my husband alive as he is the custodian on my memories. .

  • His cronies – the medical governing body for Ontario Canada did not scold him for almost killing me – in fact they agreed with him – he did prove that I was mentally ill. They also wrote that his notes were almost illegible. He provided a new set of notes – pure fiction. They believed him. I received their decision – some of the names of the ‘deciders’ were blacked out. I’ll will try to get them under Freedom of Information. He was scolded for prescribing one drug which they felt was not called for. He was also scolded for OHIP fraud. (Ontario Health Insurance ). He double-billed in one day. He was not scolded for drugging me to insanity. I was diagnosed with dementia!!!!!

    A couple of women who lost children to psychiatry and I started a website http://www.cpso.co – we tell our stories there. If you do look, my story is the one with the brain with a jolt of electricity going through it.

  • An MD friend commented on his facebook page: ‘ECT causes brain damage. Bits and pieces of brain cells can be found in the CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) after ‘treatments’ . Side effects include memory loss and numerous neurological abnormalities. It’s the creation of a concussion disguised as a treatment. It is utter unscientific rubbish that should be banned. Leave it to psychiatry to promote brain damage as a mental health benefit”.

    Unfortunately it is the standard of care.
    With each of my 25 bilateral ‘treatments’ I thought I would die – either by electrocution of by lethal injection.

    I have highlights in my hair – people comment on how attractive they are – I don’t bother to explain they are in the areas where the ECT machine fried my scalp.

  • Seth: I didn’t blindly trust the psychiatrist. I was so agitated from the drugs I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid I would kill myself and I was afraid I wouldn’t kill myself. I carried Peter Breggin’s book ‘Your Drug May Be Your Problem’ from doctor to doctor – I even took along David Healy’s report on the effects of antidepressants on twenty healthy volunteers. I eventually became the ‘healthy volunteer’ for ECT. Seven psychiatrists and MD psychotherapists refused to see me – I wanted help in withdrawing. These were doctors who apparently did not take the Hippocratic Oath but took the “Oath of Silence’. I understood my situation – at least initially. I also saw naturopaths, psychotherapists, craniosacral therapists, social workers. I don’t remember any of this. My husband has the cheque stubs – massive amounts.

    The head of psychiatry of a local hospital felt that I was not depressed but traumatized and overstimulated. In his report to the psychiatrist who was drugging me, he recommended that the drugs be withdrawn. So – one drug was cold-turkeyed and I got worse and that was proof enough for the first psychiatrist that I absolutely needed the drugs for the ‘major mental illness’ which he had ‘unmasked’. I even attended psychiatric ‘daycare’ at the local hospital – I have the most interesting artwork from that time – of course, I don’t remember being there.

    As a final act of desperation I went to CAMH (I later learned it’s Toronto’s shock mill) for help in withdrawing. They saw my extreme agitation and vocalizations and decided I would not be a candidate for psychotherapy but that I “would be an excellent candidate for ECT”.

    I refused consent; my husband was coerced into signing when told it was the last and only hope for me.
    He paid dearly for that signature. When he saw his formerly bright, articulate, energetic, trendy, slender wife return as a cognitively impaired, confused, lethargic, bloated amnesiac who frothed at the mouth when she had spontaneous seizures; he collapsed and was hospitalized with takotsubo cardiomyopathy – better known as broken heart syndrome. He was also misdiagnosed, improperly medicated, and almost killed – that’s another story. I couldn’t go back for maintenance ECT because I now had an invalid husband to look after – a husband who had never in his first 60 years missed a day of school or work for illness.

    I am writing a book about consciousness, high sense perception, energy healing, and orthomolecular medicine. My experience with psychiatry will be one ugly, ugly chapter. I will publish my medical records and the words doctors used to describe and ridicule me.

    I have 700 pages of medical records. I am uniquely suited to writing about the depravity that is psychiatry.

  • A gentler way of treating catatonia.

    The great Canadian orthomolecular psychiatrist Abram Hoffer wrote in his memoirs:

    ” We deduced from our biochemical theories that large doses of vitamin B-3 and vitamin C might be therapeutic. We obtained a large supply of pure crystalline niacin, niacinamide, ascorbic acid and riboflavin. Our first patient Ken was a catatonic schizophrenic in the mental hospital run by Dr Osmond. He had had insulin coma and also ECT and had been left in a coma and was dying. We decided that he must be our first patient to be given niacin and hoped he would not be our first victim. We used a stomach tube and gave him a large dose of niacin and ascorbic acid. He survived. The next day he sat up and drank it and thirty days later he was well. He was discharged and remained well. We were very fortunate. It is essential that the first patient one treats with any new treatment responds and he did. We then knew that we had something but our conviction was not great. After six double blinds, thousands of patients I have treated since then, and dozens of open clinical studies, I am convinced that what I saw in 1952 did represent a new way of treating these patients. ” ……….

    “The adrenochrome hypothesis has been a map that we have followed since then and it has been remarkably effective in directing our investigations in to fruitful areas of research. These include the discovery of the mauve factor, psychedelic therapy, special clinical tests for schizophrenia such as the HOD and EWI test, the discovery that niacin lowers cholesterol levels, better housing for patients, better and more humane treatment of patients and more. Our research, and the use of mega doses of vitamins led to Linus Pauling’s formulation of Orthomolecular Psychiatry and Medicine. And I now know a lot more psychiatry than I did when I first started so many years ago.”

    Hoffer died in 2009 at age 92 and worked up until two weeks before his death.

  • In the words of the great Canadian orthomolecular psychiatrist : ‘How can something that makes well people sick, make sick people well?’ And at the end of his very last audio interview a few weeks before his death: ‘All psychiatrists should be transported to Mars – we’d be better off without them.’ Yes, indeed we would.

  • About niacin – start very slowly – 1/4 of a 100mg tablet and go up from there. Take after food. Some people get extreme flushing and panic and don’t touch niacin again. Students at our local naturopathic college took niacin as part of their training. A few students fainted – can’t remember how many – they had not eaten lunch.
    Vitamin C, selenium, zinc, other B vitamins also important. Dairy and sugar were to be avoided. Dr. Hoffer did use pharmaceuticals but weaned people off them as soon as he could replace the drugs with micronutrients. A few weeks before his death he remarked that all psychiatrists should be transported to Mars – we’d be better off without them.

    I’ll try to link to another article about the role of gluten in schizophrenia also low-carb ketogenic diet https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-7075-6-10

  • Dr. Abram Hoffer was criticized nonstop – when his clients (he called them clients) got well, he was told they were never sick in the first place – just nutritional deficiencies. Orthomolecular nutritionists do exist. Hoffer was brilliant. In many cases nutritional deficiencies are taken for mental illness and medicated.

  • Yes, psychiatrists harm their patient out of stupidity – and ignorance and arrogance. I’ve posted parts of this before – how I came to be forced to have ECT because not one idiot psychiatrist recognized benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome – I had cold-turkeyed from a low-dose benzo which I took at a time of extreme stress. ECT – a dangerous practice, in ignorant and dangerous hands.
    ………..
    I wrote this (excerpt) as an open letter to my doctors. ” I tried to withdraw from the benzo. I felt horrible. You insisted I was “depressed.” You said it was because of my traumatic childhood. My childhood was not the issue. The issue was your drugs.
    ……………
    You didn’t recognize my adverse reactions to the benzodiazepine. And you didn’t recognize the withdrawal syndrome. You diagnosed me with ‘Anxiety Disorder’ and ‘Depression.’ You gave me an antidepressant. When I became agitated and developed a tremor as drug effects, you said I had ‘Major Depression with Agitation.’ When the agitation became so severe that I lost my sleep entirely, you gave me even more antidepressants. You also gave me sleeping pills.
    ……………
    You said I had an ‘Adjustment Disorder’ – but the only things I wasn’t adjusting to, were your drugs. I collapsed frequently, sometimes on the street, and was twice taken by ambulance to an emergency room. You did not recognize that one of the drugs was causing my blood pressure to drop precipitously.

    When I started twitching and shaking uncontrollably, you gave me more sleeping pills – to be taken three times a day and at night. When I fell asleep during an appointment, you said I had ‘Vegetative Depression.’ When I was in constant motion, you said I had ‘Bipolar Disorder.’ You then settled on ‘ Psychotic Depression.’

    You gave me antipsychotics. I started howling like a dog. I marched in place. My body movements became chaotic. My face twitched, and my tongue darted in and out of my mouth.

    You gave me 35 different psychiatric drugs. You gave me a new drug almost every week. You said you were ‘unmasking’ mental disorders. You didn’t allow for a wash-out period between drugs. You were treating the adverse effects of pharmacy and polypharmacy with more polypharmacy. Why did I accept all those drugs? I would have done anything, agreed to anything, ingested anything to stop the horrendous agitation – it’s called akathisia.
    ……………..
    I couldn’t stop moving. You said it was a symptom of my mental illness. You told me I was demented. I was afraid I would kill myself. I was afraid I wouldn’t kill myself. I wrote a Living Will and a Do Not Resuscitate directive. I gave away my belongings. I wrote farewell letters. I detailed how my ashes were to be disposed. I asked my husband to shave my face – one of your drugs caused the growth of facial hair. My husband watched in helpless disbelief, horror and grief.
    …………….
    I wanted to withdraw from the drugs and went to a psychiatric facility for help. You seized me and kept me there forcibly. You said I had ‘ Dissociative Identity Disorder’ and ‘Somatization Disorder.’ You said I was ‘delusional, self-absorbed, and violently agitated.’ You cold-turkeyed me off many of the drugs and wrote that I was ‘an excellent candidate for ECT.’

    I refused treatment, but you coerced my husband into signing. You told him electroshock was the last and only option. You held me for 10 weeks and treated me to 25 general anesthetics and 25 bilateral, grand mal seizures. I don’t remember much except the assembly line of gurneys on shock days. I shook from terror as I looked up at your cold, matter-of-fact faces and waited for merciful oblivion as the anesthetic hit. You kept me on the sleeping pills – three times a day, once at night and you added new drugs. You told me I would require institutionalization, medication for the rest of my life, and weekly maintenance electroshock treatments. I did not go back for maintenance ECT and I gradually tapered myself off all drugs. For years I lived with the fear that you would have me returned to your facility and committed for more electroshock. I WAS NO LONGER A HUMAN BEING. You could not have been more destructive.
    …………..
    When you promise to do no harm, you should acknowledge when it happens, and share so that it does not happen again. You will never admit that you did harm and no one will ever learn from your mistakes. The oath you took was ‘to admit no harm.’ You also took ‘the oath of silence.’
    ……….
    I have been drug-free for many years and see no psychiatrists. I had a ‘spontaneous recovery’ from every label I had been given when I withdrew from the pharmaceuticals. Well, not quite. When I tried to get help for the trauma I experienced at the hands of doctors, I was told what I was saying was libelous and that I had “Paranoid Ideation.”

    Doctors systematically destroyed my brain and nervous system with drugs and electroshock. I have amnesia. More than 20 years of my life are totally missing. Most of the memory of my life with my husband is gone. I also have anterograde amnesia – the loss of the ability to create new memories. I have cognitive impairments, optic nerve damage, tremors, seizures, vocal tics, diminished lung capacity, poor working memory and poor organizational skills. I function with a wall of ‘sticky note’ reminders.
    …………..
    I live in terror of those who forgot they once took an oath to do no harm. However, if I met any one of you, my doctors, on the street, I would not recognize you. You stole my memory.
    ……….
    Three of the dozen women incarcerated with me are dead – two from suicide, one from a post-ECT heart attack. What was wrong with them in the first place? Try thyroid problems, gluten intolerance, B12 deficiency, zinc deficiency, kidney not filtering properly, head injury, inner ear problem, toxic chemical exposure ….. (I’m a good intuitive)

    ……… Doctors are too ignorant to make a proper diagnosis.

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  • How/why I came to have forced ECT – a dangerous practice, in ignorant and dangerous hands.
    ………..
    I had taken a low-dose benzodiazepine short-term for extreme stress. I wrote this (excerpt) as an open letter to my doctors. ” I tried to withdraw from the benzo. I felt horrible. You insisted I was “depressed.” You said it was because of my traumatic childhood. My childhood was not the issue. The issue was your drugs.
    ……………
    You didn’t recognize my adverse reactions to the benzodiazepine. And you didn’t recognize the withdrawal syndrome. You diagnosed me with ‘Anxiety Disorder’ and ‘Depression.’ You gave me an antidepressant. When I became agitated and developed a tremor as drug effects, you said I had ‘Major Depression with Agitation.’ When the agitation became so severe that I lost my sleep entirely, you gave me even more antidepressants. You also gave me sleeping pills.
    ……………
    You said I had an ‘Adjustment Disorder’ – but the only things I wasn’t adjusting to, were your drugs. I collapsed frequently, sometimes on the street, and was twice taken by ambulance to an emergency room. You did not recognize that one of the drugs was causing my blood pressure to drop precipitously.

    When I started twitching and shaking uncontrollably, you gave me more sleeping pills – to be taken three times a day and at night. When I fell asleep during an appointment, you said I had ‘Vegetative Depression.’ When I was in constant motion, you said I had ‘Bipolar Disorder.’ You then settled on ‘ Psychotic Depression.’

    You gave me antipsychotics. I started howling like a dog. I marched in place. My body movements became chaotic. My face twitched, and my tongue darted in and out of my mouth.

    You gave me 35 different psychiatric drugs. You gave me a new drug almost every week. You said you were ‘unmasking’ mental disorders. You didn’t allow for a wash-out period between drugs. You were treating the adverse effects of pharmacy and polypharmacy with more polypharmacy. Why did I accept all those drugs? I would have done anything, agreed to anything, ingested anything to stop the horrendous agitation – it’s called akathisia.
    ……………..
    I couldn’t stop moving. You said it was a symptom of my mental illness. You told me I was demented. I was afraid I would kill myself. I was afraid I wouldn’t kill myself. I wrote a Living Will and a Do Not Resuscitate directive. I gave away my belongings. I wrote farewell letters. I detailed how my ashes were to be disposed. I asked my husband to shave my face – one of your drugs caused the growth of facial hair. My husband watched in helpless disbelief, horror and grief.
    …………….
    I wanted to withdraw from the drugs and went to a psychiatric facility for help. You seized me and kept me there forcibly. You said I had ‘ Dissociative Identity Disorder’ and ‘Somatization Disorder.’ You said I was ‘delusional, self-absorbed, and violently agitated.’ You cold-turkeyed me off many of the drugs and wrote that I was ‘an excellent candidate for ECT.’

    I refused treatment, but you coerced my husband into signing. You told him electroshock was the last and only option. You held me for 10 weeks and treated me to 25 general anesthetics and 25 bilateral, grand mal seizures. I don’t remember much except the assembly line of gurneys on shock days. I shook from terror as I looked up at your cold, matter-of-fact faces and waited for merciful oblivion as the anesthetic hit. You kept me on the sleeping pills – three times a day, once at night and you added new drugs. You told me I would require institutionalization, medication for the rest of my life, and weekly maintenance electroshock treatments. I did not go back for maintenance ECT and I gradually tapered myself off all drugs. For years I lived with the fear that you would have me returned to your facility and committed for more electroshock. I WAS NO LONGER A HUMAN BEING. You could not have been more destructive.
    …………..
    When you promise to do no harm, you should acknowledge when it happens, and share so that it does not happen again. You will never admit that you did harm and no one will ever learn from your mistakes. The oath you took was ‘to admit no harm.’ You also took ‘the oath of silence.’
    ……….
    I have been drug-free for many years and see no psychiatrists. I had a ‘spontaneous recovery’ from every label I had been given when I withdrew from the pharmaceuticals. Well, not quite. When I tried to get help for the trauma I experienced at the hands of doctors, I was told what I was saying was libelous and that I had “Paranoid Ideation.”

    Doctors systematically destroyed my brain and nervous system with drugs and electroshock. I have amnesia. More than 20 years of my life are totally missing. Most of the memory of my life with my husband is gone. I also have anterograde amnesia – the loss of the ability to create new memories. I have cognitive impairments, optic nerve damage, tremors, seizures, vocal tics, diminished lung capacity, poor working memory and poor organizational skills. I function with a wall of ‘sticky note’ reminders.
    …………..
    I live in terror of those who forgot they once took an oath to do no harm. However, if I met any one of you, my doctors, on the street, I would not recognize you. You stole my memory.
    ……….
    Three of the dozen women incarcerated with me are dead – two from suicide, one from a post-ECT heart attack.
    ……… Doctors are too ignorant to make a proper diagnosis. No psychiatrist needs to use ECT.

  • the author might find this interesting – http://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2017/06/14/turning-points-dr-joel-salinas.cnn

    Comments included – “This is not “rare.” It’s called being an empath and medical intuitive. The doctor is one and the medical model is trying to make it a big scientific deal. It’snot. He needs a spiritual teacher to show him how to disconnect it and turn it into insights about the diagnosis instead of feeling the physical pain. I had to learn how to do this myself after feeling the significant physical pain of several clients.”

    and “When I was a doula I would feel when my clients were going into labour before they even paged me. When I was with them I felt their labour contractions and this would guide me very well to understand what to do to help. I often knew weeks ahead of the birth how things would go. Luckily for me I experienced this without the actual pain. But with my children it is different. I DO often hurt where they hurt and get their symptoms but not as dramatically.

    and “when I was active in Therapeutic Touch I would know when my clients needed a bedpan in the middle of the night – and when the nurses were not responding to them. I also knew when people were about to take their own lives – i.e. attempt suicide.”

    William Bengston has done a lot of fMRI research on healing – when he is in ‘healing’ mode the same site in his brain lights up as does the site in the healee’s brain.

  • Not familiar enough with the Seth material to comment. Seems solid. Seems to be the same conclusions people come to generally after many years of study. I understand that Jane Roberts gave many free Seth sessions to people who asked for help.

    I will not only be writing about the nonsense psychiatrists spoke, but also the nonsense that came out of the mouths of many mediums/channels. And the $$$$$$s charged. I was desperate at times.

    Here’s a segment from a July 2006 Time magazine article by Stephan Faris: “Take, for example, Yahaya Sekagya. Like Okello, his history was shaped by medical trauma. As a teenager he was consigned to a mental hospital for visions he says were calling him to traditional medicine. “It was misdiagnosed and misunderstood by Western medicine,” says Sekagya, 43. Although he ended up going to medical school–more out of contrariness than conviction–he also spent six years studying at a medicine man’s shrine. Now he’s the director of the Ugandan chapter of Prometra, a Senegal-based advocacy group promoting traditional medicine. Sekagya runs an outdoor school in a forest south of Kampala. About 100 students gather weekly under a leafy canopy. Instructors line up herbs on a thin wooden table cut from a single log. Along with the basics of hygiene and anatomy, students learn the identification and uses of local plants. Meanwhile, spiritualists chant, dance and drum to call down spirits and consult them for cures.

    While Sekagya concedes that modern medicine is better at blood transfusions, rehydration and aligning compound fractures, he insists that traditional ways should not be dismissed simply because they are not understood. “A Western yardstick is the wrong yardstick to regulate traditional medicine,” he says.

    He is also worried that expensive modern medicines may be smothering local knowledge, leaving the country dependent on foreign drugs and funding. “ARVs are not curing AIDS. They are improving the quality of life,” Sekagya says. “Some traditional practices are doing the same. What attention are we giving to that? And if we come with ARVS and flood the whole system, will we lose those traditions?” ”

    I met Sekagya at an AIDS conference some years ago when I was promoting the work of Canadian medical geographer Harold Foster who was reversing the symptoms of AIDS with micronutrients and not pharmaceuticals. People could be freed from their medical cocktails. Foster could not get a clinical trial in Canada and died before we could set up a trial with Sekagya and his colleagues.

    There is much I would like to do but my time is limited by care giving to my husband who is also a victim of psychiatry – broken-hearted from watching me being ‘treated.’

    Thank you oldhead for reading my comment – at least one person did.

  • 1. Thank you for this excellent post and the links.

    2. Thank you for blue vervain.

    3. I refer to psychiatrists as ‘People of the Lie’ – they almost killed me.

    4. I’m an empath with extreme subtle energy sensitivity.

    5. I have precognitive dreams (very accurate, often involving death for others) and am very stressed by them.

    6. I occasionally hear voices – bilingual, informative, warning – never destructive.

    7. I can go into trance states and see what someone needs to heal – IT IS NEVER A PSYCHIATRIC DRUG. During my first trance state (drumming) I saw a figure in white coming toward me with an armful of flowers – a voice said they were for a friend. Up close the flowers were red clover. I have no experience with herbs but I did buy my friend a tincture. It took care of her menopausal symptoms.

    8. I once took a benzodiazepine under conditions of extreme exhaustion, caregiver stress and sleeplessness. I had ‘seen’ my mother’s death. She died three weeks later. I stopped the benzo – cold-turkey – and got the shakes. Those shakes were considered to be agitated depression and I was convinced to take an antidepressant. Things went downhill from there. In less than eight months I was given 30 different drugs, labeled with almost every condition in the DSM, forcibly hospitalized for 2 1/2 months, and forced to have 25 rounds of bilateral electroconvulsive therapy. I was told I was demented and psychotic, would be on pharmaceuticals for the rest of my life, and would be receiving weekly ECT for the rest of my life. And, I would not be going home, I would be going to an institution. I attended a support group. Each person had a different diagnosis but all were shuffling or tapping their feet. A pharmacist came to speak to the group. I asked about the foot movements. She said it was a drug side-effect – AKATHISIA. I left the room immediately, never returned for maintenance ECT, and tapered myself off the multitude of drugs I was on. The taper was horrific. I had been medicated to insanity because no one recognized akathisia. I never had agitated depression.

    9. I have 600 pages of medical notes and will be publishing some of them. I was ridiculed and mocked by at least a dozen psychiatrists and several social workers for ‘thinking’ I ‘saw’ things. When I tried to get help for withdrawing from drugs, seven psychiatrists refused to see me. Cowards.

    10. I met an elderly clairvoyant. He bellowed in rage: “What the hell happened to you? You were a totally healthy person and doctors have turned you into a piece of shit. There are nine holes in your energy field – all caused by pharmaceuticals. Your doctors should be jailed.” “You are much disintegrated.” He told me I could help people by telling my story.

    11. A very well-known healer and clairvoyant told me I had a beautiful energy field (thank God) but I look as if I ‘have been shocked’. So the result of ECT is visible to those who can ‘see’.

    12. I lost 25 years of memory. My boundaries were destroyed by ECT. It’s much more difficult to be around people and in a constant ‘pick-up’ state. I am not alone in this – many many shock survivors/experiencers are in the same situation but don’t realize why they feel horrible.

    13. And the women incarcerated with me and receiving ECT? What was wrong with them? A clairvoyant/intuitive look: thyroid problems, an inner ear problem, a kidney not filtering properly, a toxic chemical exposure (handling chemo agents), gluten intolerance – all good reasons for psychiatrists to ply them with antidepressants and then to shock them. Three are now dead. I will tell their stories.

    14. I’m still struggling – its been 13 years. I am caregiver to my husband whose heart reacted (similar to Carrie Fisher/Debbie Reynolds) when told I was demented and never coming home.

    15. I have attended groups for voice-hearers – many are psychically open and don’t know it. Many are brilliant. Most are being drugged.

    16. I study. I write about nutrition and genetics. I promote orthomolecular medicine and energy psychology. I write about the work of Canadian orthomolecular psychiatrist Abram Hoffer who treated more than 5000 ‘schizophrenics’ with micronutrients and not pharmaceuticals. His new patients often cried when he asked them what they were going to do when they were well. No one had ever told them they could get well. They got the idea. I need to stay anonymous until I get my book finished. It’s a spiritual book with one very ugly chapter – ‘Iatrogenic Insanity’ .

    17. Drugs don’t heal people. People heal people. I hope soon to be able to support people having exceptional experiences and extreme states.

  • Thank you. I warned her – I warned her doctor – it was her first antidepressant – she wasn’t on it for long – a few weeks – the night before she took her own life she was talking to a friend about a scheduled dental implant. She was not intending to kill herself – she was intending to get on with her life. Her ashes were dealt with a few days ago. I feel exhausted. Will start on an article about prescripticide – the drug exists – the doctor made the decision to prescribe it – the doctor’s hand killed my friend.

  • For AA: Tomorrow’s agenda – cemetery – mausoleum – ashes – lawyer. When a close friend told her doctor that citalopram (Celexa) was making her suicidal her doctor told her it was impossible and upped the dose. I tried but couldn’t do anything to stop the events – the doctor is/was an acquaintance. I arranged for decontamination of her apartment after her decomposing and mummifying body was found and removed. What was left of her was a large thick stain on the floor and pieces of scalp and hair – forever in my memory. Too furious to grieve. Who best knows the effects of a drug than the person taking it? Certainly not the doctor. Thank God, AA, that you were non-compliant.

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