This is a beautiful remembrance of Jay, Michael. We met in Boston in 1979/80 through Judi Chamberlin. We had both survived the atrocities of forced ECT. We saw each other over the years at conferences and I shall always remember his kindness. He was a truly kind man.
Thank you‼️
Thank you, Leah and Celia. This is an excellent interview!
Thank you, boans. it is so frustrating. I was lucky to get at least some of my records.
Thank you, boans.
Thank you, Sam Plover!
Thank you, psmama!
Thank you for your comment, Lockjaw. Yes, the system hurts so many people. Kindness and patience can go a long way to helping people heal.
Thank you, Rosalee.
Thank you, Boans.
Thank you for writing this. It is horrifying‼️
Excellent!
Very true, Rachel777
Thank you, CatNight. I shall find that book.
Thank you, Julie Greene. All that you say is true. And, I also haven’t had anything published for years.
With heartfelt thanks for your kind comment, Jim.
Thank you for your comment, Someone Else.
Thank you for your moving comment, psmama. Never give up and never be afraid to speak out! Good luck!
Thank you, kumininexile. My op-eds were published in 1979-81. Also in the Detroit Free Press and The Miami Herald. I sent out many, many paper envelopes filled with my writing to many newspapers all over the country which had over 100,000 subscribers. I was lucky.
Thank you, Someone Else.
Yes, oldhead. Very true.
Thank you, Redcat.
I thought Bob’s reply was thoughtful and important.
This is fascinating and very sad to read.
I see an ad for McLean. Page 75 in April 22 magazine. It’s a cartoon of a man reading the paper while drinking coffee/tea. “Finding discreet,proven treatment for drug and alcohol abuse is no joke. BUT IT IS POSSIBLE.”
There it is! Disgusting! I didn’t see any other drug related ads. Very few ads at all.
Thank you, Bob! It is so important that you have written your response. Many of us were bothered by the mainstream slant to that article. Bravo to Laura for doing her best.
This is very true!
Excellent blog, Peter Breggin. Keep it going. This shutdown is horrifying. It’s whistleblower backlash, and I would assume MA politics too.
Thank you, Noel!
Thank you. So true.
Thank you, Iden and Sera and Earl! This has been going on for years and I am so glad you have written this detailed and powerful blog for all to read and pay attention to.
Dorothy
Thank you for your excellent piece of writing! I, too, was diagnosed with”schizophrenia” at age 19. I agree that the term has no meaning, and the massive doses of Thorazine and the combined insulin/Electroshock nearly killed me. I managed to survive 3 years in hospitals and have been fine for 50+ years due to the gentle kindness of a therapist whom I met towards the end of those terrible 3 years. You have expressed so many of my thoughts on the subject, and I hope more people will speak up here.
This comes with my best wishes and so much respect for you.
Dorothy
Wow! Thank you, Corrine. You have written beautifully and honestly. This is a letter which your son will carry with him, always.
Love, Dorothy
This is a wonderful comment, Steve. All that you say is so true.
Thank you for posting your moving and strong story of the horrors you lived through and are walking away from. Sending my very best wishes for sunshine on your journey.
Dorothy
Thank you, Dan. I am so happy you named Lee and George. We were so lucky finally to find these kind men who, as you say, were bravely trying to change the system from within.
Thank you, Sera, for an excellent article. Just so that everyone understands, I did not get “better” or released from the final hospital because I had been “cured.” There had never been anything “wrong” with me except sadness. All of my hospitalizations and in-hospital abuse could so easily have been avoided had I been offered early understanding and kindness, eventually found in one young therapist. As Sera says, he told me all of my survival behaviors (which resulted in the shocks and restraints and seclusion) had been caused by these atrocities. I have been fine for over 53 years, not because of my hospital “care” back then but in spite of that terrible “care.” As Sera also says, I was one of the very lucky ones. And I learned NEVER to be silent from being locked up and also from witnessing Elie Wiesel.
Just testing my login
Dear Fancher,
I am still in shock that Leonard is no longer with us even though he will always be in my heart and the hearts of so many of us. I remember meeting you at NARPA in Los Angeles and also flying on the plane to San Francisco that night. I didn’t know, until reading your above beautiful tribute to Leonard, that you, too, are a fellow insulin/ECT survivor. I am so
sorry that I will not be able to be at Leonard’s
Memorial tomorrow. I shall be with you all in spirit. Love, Dorothy
Dear, dear Leonard.
You were my brother-in-arms and, above all, a fellow insulin/ECT survivor. I will never forget meeting you on that bus from the LA airport to our NARPA hotel those many years ago. Giving the workshop with you and Ron Bassman about our near-fatal experiences with horrifying combined insulin/ECT was an honor and memory I shall always cherish. My friend, you always spoke for everyone with such wisdom and passion and intelligence. May peace and harmony and love envelop you in the sweet hereafter. So long for now…..
Dear, dear Leonard. You were my brother-in-arms, above all, a fellow insulin/ECT survivor. You always spoke for everyone with such wisdom and passion and intelligence. May peace and harmony and love envelop you in the great hereafter. In loving memory, Dorothy
Grahame, I am so sorry that has happened to you! Extremely frustrating! I urge you not to give up, and I am sure you will create something powerful from whatever you are able to retrieve. Yes, it is often so so difficult to get psychiatric records – and especially ones which are truthful from your point of view.
Good luck and thank you for commenting here.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
This is so interesting. When I had a concussion in February, my concussion expert doctor told me to take large amounts of vitamin D (among other vitamins). Perhaps she already knew this information. Thanks for posting it here.
Dorothy
Dear Leah,
Thank you for your heart-wrenching and beautifully-detailed account of your sad childhood and your mother’s tragic descent into the mental health system. Surely, the intensity of those experiences is what has turned you into the most compassionate activist on behalf of so many currently in distress. She would be so very proud of you, and her spirit is alive in you today as you go about supporting others. This comes with respect and admiration for all of your hard work!
Love, Dorothy
I remember Bessel from back in 1962 when I was a patient at Mass Mental Health Center. He was a very kind psychiatric resident there. His beliefs make all the sense in the world to me.
Dorothy
Ha ha…yes, if you can get beyond the horrors of what was written, there really is a lot of humor in this. So horrible that it is funny. And I love that you pointed it out!
Thank you so much for responding.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Yes, Stephen, it truly is so very disgusting!
Thank you again for responding to my post.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you, Tristano! What terrible and dehumanizing experiences you describe so well! I remember being locked up, too, and for us (as adolescents in the USA mental health system) the only way to protest was also by cutting and burning ourselves with cigarettes. Your writing about that is the first time I have ever read about it, and it is/was so very common. I am so happy you were able to find Thomas Szasz. I also hold him and Loren Mosher in very high regard.
Best wishes to you for a life full of joy and fulfillment outside the prison and mental health systems – in the world at large with the many beautiful situations it has to offer.
Thank you, again,
Dorothy
Boans, thank you again for this information. It will be helpful to many who finally get access to their records and might wish to confront the authors who are misrepresenting the facts within them. Things sound pretty bad in Australia.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
AA, I am so glad to see that you have not lost your sense of humor. Yes, things are often written in our medical records about our emotional well-being, whether it is actually true or not. I am sure reading your records would keep you awake after dinner. Thank you for responding to my story.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Stephen, of course you are proud of your heritage! I think the shredder was a great choice for the demeaning words you found in your records. Yes, as you say, we are the ones who know who we are. I am so sorry that you are having to work on the same unit as the psychiatrist whom you cannot stand, for very good reasons. That must be very, very difficult.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
The 8th circle of Dances inferno sounds like the perfect place for them.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Boans, that practice sounds terrible, and you give good advice.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you so much, Michael.
love,
Dorothy
Hello Hermes,
I am so happy for you that you were able to taper off your drugs, and I completely understand how difficult it is to remember all of the dreadful things they said about you. They said I was schizophrenic too, and many other diagnoses. They had no idea how to be simply kind and compassionate (as Michael Cornwall describes in his MIA blog). I always try to concentrate on all of the things in my life that might be going well for me at any given time. Thank you so much for sharing your story and responding to mine.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you so much, Michael. You also are an inspiration to me.
love, Dorothy
Excellent post and video! Thank you!
Dorothy
Yes, Francesca, there was, and still is, a lot of male chauvinism evident everywhere! And there is so much sadness in our records. Thank you so much for sharing your story.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you for a beautiful blogpost, Michael. Imagine how many of us would have been saved from the damaging atrocities of the mental health system if we had been shown the compassionate and kindness you speak of.
Love,
Dorothy
Cheryl, I do not have any more very large vinyl-coated ones. I am having more 15″ x 21″ printed right now, and I could mail you one next week. The cost would be $15 ( $10 for the poster and $5 for tube and postage). The other thing you could do is go to PsychRights website, and they ask for a $25 donation if you download it from them. I am sorry to have to charge for this, but the cost of printing again is very high. Here is my email: [email protected].
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Olga, and, yes, the horrible notes are certainly the Journal of Insults!
Dorothy
Olga, thank you so so much for your inspiring comment! I really appreciate all that you said.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
That is really horrible that they could get away with charging that much money, nevermind any money at all! My firm belief is that our records are about us and they should rightfully belong to us! I am so so sorry that you are in this difficult situation. I wonder if you try going to a free legal clinic that they might be able to request them for you for free. Just thinking out loud. Thank you so much for commenting and sharing your situation.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
boans, thank you for your comment. Yes, it is important to have the evidence.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Copy_cat, I am happy you finally received your records, but it is an outrage that you, or anyone, should have to pay any $ for that to happen. Thank you for responding and telling how you got yours.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Oh, pencilect, I am so sorry to read about your story. It sounds so similar to mine. I feel very lucky that I survived. They also tested my IQ about a month after finishing the series of insulin/ECT. I remember he asked me to tell him the population of the USA, and I had no idea what the answer was so I guessed 1,000. He asked me if I would like to guess again. I answered 2,000. My brain had been fried, and it took a long time for it to heal, although I don’t think I have ever been truly the same after the ECT. Not to mention all of the other atrocities you and I both experienced locked up back in the 60s. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Good luck!
Best wishes,
Dorothy
I am so happy to hear you have been doing well for a long time.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
warmac, how lucky you were to have been sent to a camp where you received compassion. Yes, we need more programs like that which are based on kindness. Thank you for sharing your story.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
aria, I am so sorry you were subjected to that horrible overdrugging, but I am happy that you were able to get your records. It is wrong that you had to hire a lawyer to get them as, in my opinion, they should rightfully belong to us. Thank you so much for responding.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Yes. It is morally wrong that we did not have access to our own records without going through such a lot of hard work finally to get what we could of them.
Take care, and thanks again for responding.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you for sending that along for all of us to read. And, again, thank you for your response.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
I am so sorry for what you went through, but I am glad that he was at last arrested by the FBI! Thank you so much for your responses.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
B, you are so right. Our medical records should belong to us and they should be totally free! Isn’t it outrageous the lies they tell?! Thank you for reading and responding to my story.
Take care,
Dorothy
larmac, I am so so sorry for the painful and horrifying experiences you and your son went through in the horrific mental health system. Yes, it is impossible for so many to believe that these abuses go on, but it is vitally important that we tell our stories as that is the only way change will occur. You are absolutely doing the right thing by exposing the horrors of what he experienced – and you too, as his mother. I am so sorry it ended up with his taking his life. That happened to many of my friends. Take care of yourself in this very sad time for you. And thank you for sharing your devastating experiences.
Love,
Dorothy
Thank you so much for your sweet and generous response, Greg. I feel very lucky to know you, too, and to be able to be part of the future revolution of change which will surely make this world a kinder place for all.
Love,
Dorothy
Thank you, Sandra. I am on my way to the Red Sun Press right now to have more printed. If you email me at [email protected], I will give you the details.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you, PJ. I am on my way to Red Sun Press right now to have more posters made. The last one from the 1991 printing was sold a couple of weeks ago.
Hi everyone. Thank you so much for your responses. I just rewatched the video I did a few years ago where I say I went out to read my records in 1980. It was actually 1978. Leah Harris made that video in which I describe making my poster. I did it on the spur of the moment without being able to remember that it was exactly in 1978. Thanks, Leah, for helping me tell that story! And thank you to PJ for filming the interview at the APA!
Thank you, Kim. I am happy you were able to get your records and discover that they said more about the authors than about you. I agree that for many people it is helpful to read them for the first time with a trusted friend. For others, however, sometimes reading them in quiet solitude can be healing. Good luck.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you. That is so interesting that you found no reference to the molestation but your parents talked the incident over with you. I, too, had a near death experience in a medical hospital in 1973, and when I got those records there was no mention of that either. I even confronted the surgeon after it happened, and he denied it. My chest was even bruised from their pushing on my chest to revive me. Good luck.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you, dear Leah!!! You inspire me too!
Love,
Dorothy
Thank you so much for reading and responding. Good luck.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you, Eric. Good luck with getting your own.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Wow! Thank you! I am so happy for you that you were able to get your records and see the misinformation which they so often hold. Good luck with everything.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Fantastic, Daniel! I am so honored to be in your film and to be your friend. Thank you for documenting this important protest.
Love,
Dorothy
Excellent and passionate speech, as always! Onward and upward!
Love you,
Dorothy
Thank you, Vera! It was such a pleasure to meet you and to protest the APA with you on Sunday in New York City.
The revolution is ongoing and upward thanks to so many of us who care so deeply.
Be well,
Dorothy
Thank you, Dr. Hickey! This was brilliant, and I loved reading every single word!
Be well,
Dorothy Dundas
Thank you, Richard. We shall all be together on May 4, wherever we are.
Thank you, Susan.
This is an excellent idea and a fine first piece to have commissioned. Thank you all at MIA!
Thank you for writing and MIA for publishing Cindi’s heart-wrenching story trying so hard to help her son.
“Fisher may be part of a coming tsunami of protestors that North America has not seen before—a gathering storm of family members who’ve witnessed unhelpful or debilitating impacts from psychiatric drug treatments on their loved ones over the course of decades.”
Indeed, the time is here when thousands of us who have experienced the atrocities of the mental health system will join the many Cindis in protest and change will come!
Never give up hope,
Dorothy
I have called attention to the following paragraph from the above article:
“This is misleading. TMS involves sending multiple strong bursts of magnetic energy into the brain. The pulses are increased in strength until they are actually causing neurons (brain cells) to fire, and are repeated at that intensity about 3,000 times in each session. In the present study, the average number of sessions received by participants was 28. Strictly speaking, a medical procedure is considered non-invasive if it doesn’t break the skin, but it seems a misnomer in the present context. X-rays don’t break the skin, but would hardly be considered non-invasive.”
—————–
Being a survivor of very traumatic ECT, I read this thoroughly. I would never, ever recommend this treatment!
Dorothy
Amen!!! Thank you John. And thank you Ted. All of us who have survived this atrocity must stand up and tell our stories with force and the clarity of truth.
With love and a lot of hope,
Dorothy
This is what I feel about the NY Times review of Torrey’s latest book:
In 1960, I was hospitalized, slapped with a diagnosis of “schizophrenia,” forced into undergoing 50 insulin and electroshock “treatments” that nearly killed me, and on my way to lifelong institutionalization. So, when Dr. E. Fuller Torrey calls for increasing the number of public psychiatric hospitals and for making it easier to lock up people like me, I am shocked. And while your reviewer calls the book “an object lesson in good intentions gone awry,” I am grateful for those good intentions that saved my life.
After I spent three horrifying years in psychiatric hospitals, one of those doctors your reviewer calls “well-intentioned, starry-eyed idealists” saved me from being locked up forever or, more likely, an early death. Those brave and compassionate doctors paved the way for the best kind and effective community care we have today. But if Dr. Torrey’s vision becomes reality, it would return us to the days when a “mental illness” diagnosis was a life sentence.
Thank you, Michael. This is very disturbing. I am actually in favor of a gun-free world, but I can see that this is just the beginning of a very dangerous situation. Human rights are being systematically stripped from those we care deeply for, our brothers and sisters.
Sending love,
Dorothy
This is beautiful, Leah. You are an inspiration to so many and a bright light leading this revolution.
Love, Dorothy
Thank you, Jon. I think it is a good idea to throw out a wide net and to respond to all. You just never know who will be touched by our words.
Be well,
Dorothy
Thank you, NI. Yes, Big Pharma’s influence goes far and wide with very damaging consequences.
Be well,
Dorothy
Thank you, Susan. This is a strong follow-up to the 60 Minutes show.
Dorothy
This is a beautiful remembrance of Jay, Michael. We met in Boston in 1979/80 through Judi Chamberlin. We had both survived the atrocities of forced ECT. We saw each other over the years at conferences and I shall always remember his kindness. He was a truly kind man.
Thank you‼️
Thank you, Leah and Celia. This is an excellent interview!
Thank you, boans. it is so frustrating. I was lucky to get at least some of my records.
Thank you, boans.
Thank you, Sam Plover!
Thank you, psmama!
Thank you for your comment, Lockjaw. Yes, the system hurts so many people. Kindness and patience can go a long way to helping people heal.
Thank you, Rosalee.
Thank you, Boans.
Thank you for writing this. It is horrifying‼️
Excellent!
Very true, Rachel777
Thank you, CatNight. I shall find that book.
Thank you, Julie Greene. All that you say is true. And, I also haven’t had anything published for years.
With heartfelt thanks for your kind comment, Jim.
Thank you for your comment, Someone Else.
Thank you for your moving comment, psmama. Never give up and never be afraid to speak out! Good luck!
Thank you, kumininexile. My op-eds were published in 1979-81. Also in the Detroit Free Press and The Miami Herald. I sent out many, many paper envelopes filled with my writing to many newspapers all over the country which had over 100,000 subscribers. I was lucky.
Thank you, Someone Else.
Yes, oldhead. Very true.
Thank you, Redcat.
I thought Bob’s reply was thoughtful and important.
This is fascinating and very sad to read.
I see an ad for McLean. Page 75 in April 22 magazine. It’s a cartoon of a man reading the paper while drinking coffee/tea. “Finding discreet,proven treatment for drug and alcohol abuse is no joke. BUT IT IS POSSIBLE.”
There it is! Disgusting! I didn’t see any other drug related ads. Very few ads at all.
Thank you, Bob! It is so important that you have written your response. Many of us were bothered by the mainstream slant to that article. Bravo to Laura for doing her best.
This is very true!
Excellent blog, Peter Breggin. Keep it going. This shutdown is horrifying. It’s whistleblower backlash, and I would assume MA politics too.
Thank you, Noel!
Thank you. So true.
Thank you, Iden and Sera and Earl! This has been going on for years and I am so glad you have written this detailed and powerful blog for all to read and pay attention to.
Dorothy
Thank you for your excellent piece of writing! I, too, was diagnosed with”schizophrenia” at age 19. I agree that the term has no meaning, and the massive doses of Thorazine and the combined insulin/Electroshock nearly killed me. I managed to survive 3 years in hospitals and have been fine for 50+ years due to the gentle kindness of a therapist whom I met towards the end of those terrible 3 years. You have expressed so many of my thoughts on the subject, and I hope more people will speak up here.
This comes with my best wishes and so much respect for you.
Dorothy
Wow! Thank you, Corrine. You have written beautifully and honestly. This is a letter which your son will carry with him, always.
Love, Dorothy
This is a wonderful comment, Steve. All that you say is so true.
Thank you for posting your moving and strong story of the horrors you lived through and are walking away from. Sending my very best wishes for sunshine on your journey.
Dorothy
Thank you, Dan. I am so happy you named Lee and George. We were so lucky finally to find these kind men who, as you say, were bravely trying to change the system from within.
Thank you, Sera, for an excellent article. Just so that everyone understands, I did not get “better” or released from the final hospital because I had been “cured.” There had never been anything “wrong” with me except sadness. All of my hospitalizations and in-hospital abuse could so easily have been avoided had I been offered early understanding and kindness, eventually found in one young therapist. As Sera says, he told me all of my survival behaviors (which resulted in the shocks and restraints and seclusion) had been caused by these atrocities. I have been fine for over 53 years, not because of my hospital “care” back then but in spite of that terrible “care.” As Sera also says, I was one of the very lucky ones. And I learned NEVER to be silent from being locked up and also from witnessing Elie Wiesel.
Just testing my login
Dear Fancher,
I am still in shock that Leonard is no longer with us even though he will always be in my heart and the hearts of so many of us. I remember meeting you at NARPA in Los Angeles and also flying on the plane to San Francisco that night. I didn’t know, until reading your above beautiful tribute to Leonard, that you, too, are a fellow insulin/ECT survivor. I am so
sorry that I will not be able to be at Leonard’s
Memorial tomorrow. I shall be with you all in spirit. Love, Dorothy
Dear, dear Leonard.
You were my brother-in-arms and, above all, a fellow insulin/ECT survivor. I will never forget meeting you on that bus from the LA airport to our NARPA hotel those many years ago. Giving the workshop with you and Ron Bassman about our near-fatal experiences with horrifying combined insulin/ECT was an honor and memory I shall always cherish. My friend, you always spoke for everyone with such wisdom and passion and intelligence. May peace and harmony and love envelop you in the sweet hereafter. So long for now…..
Dear, dear Leonard. You were my brother-in-arms, above all, a fellow insulin/ECT survivor. You always spoke for everyone with such wisdom and passion and intelligence. May peace and harmony and love envelop you in the great hereafter. In loving memory, Dorothy
Grahame, I am so sorry that has happened to you! Extremely frustrating! I urge you not to give up, and I am sure you will create something powerful from whatever you are able to retrieve. Yes, it is often so so difficult to get psychiatric records – and especially ones which are truthful from your point of view.
Good luck and thank you for commenting here.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
This is so interesting. When I had a concussion in February, my concussion expert doctor told me to take large amounts of vitamin D (among other vitamins). Perhaps she already knew this information. Thanks for posting it here.
Dorothy
Dear Leah,
Thank you for your heart-wrenching and beautifully-detailed account of your sad childhood and your mother’s tragic descent into the mental health system. Surely, the intensity of those experiences is what has turned you into the most compassionate activist on behalf of so many currently in distress. She would be so very proud of you, and her spirit is alive in you today as you go about supporting others. This comes with respect and admiration for all of your hard work!
Love, Dorothy
I remember Bessel from back in 1962 when I was a patient at Mass Mental Health Center. He was a very kind psychiatric resident there. His beliefs make all the sense in the world to me.
Dorothy
Ha ha…yes, if you can get beyond the horrors of what was written, there really is a lot of humor in this. So horrible that it is funny. And I love that you pointed it out!
Thank you so much for responding.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Yes, Stephen, it truly is so very disgusting!
Thank you again for responding to my post.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you, Tristano! What terrible and dehumanizing experiences you describe so well! I remember being locked up, too, and for us (as adolescents in the USA mental health system) the only way to protest was also by cutting and burning ourselves with cigarettes. Your writing about that is the first time I have ever read about it, and it is/was so very common. I am so happy you were able to find Thomas Szasz. I also hold him and Loren Mosher in very high regard.
Best wishes to you for a life full of joy and fulfillment outside the prison and mental health systems – in the world at large with the many beautiful situations it has to offer.
Thank you, again,
Dorothy
Boans, thank you again for this information. It will be helpful to many who finally get access to their records and might wish to confront the authors who are misrepresenting the facts within them. Things sound pretty bad in Australia.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
AA, I am so glad to see that you have not lost your sense of humor. Yes, things are often written in our medical records about our emotional well-being, whether it is actually true or not. I am sure reading your records would keep you awake after dinner. Thank you for responding to my story.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Stephen, of course you are proud of your heritage! I think the shredder was a great choice for the demeaning words you found in your records. Yes, as you say, we are the ones who know who we are. I am so sorry that you are having to work on the same unit as the psychiatrist whom you cannot stand, for very good reasons. That must be very, very difficult.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
The 8th circle of Dances inferno sounds like the perfect place for them.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Boans, that practice sounds terrible, and you give good advice.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you so much, Michael.
love,
Dorothy
Hello Hermes,
I am so happy for you that you were able to taper off your drugs, and I completely understand how difficult it is to remember all of the dreadful things they said about you. They said I was schizophrenic too, and many other diagnoses. They had no idea how to be simply kind and compassionate (as Michael Cornwall describes in his MIA blog). I always try to concentrate on all of the things in my life that might be going well for me at any given time. Thank you so much for sharing your story and responding to mine.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you so much, Michael. You also are an inspiration to me.
love, Dorothy
Excellent post and video! Thank you!
Dorothy
Yes, Francesca, there was, and still is, a lot of male chauvinism evident everywhere! And there is so much sadness in our records. Thank you so much for sharing your story.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you for a beautiful blogpost, Michael. Imagine how many of us would have been saved from the damaging atrocities of the mental health system if we had been shown the compassionate and kindness you speak of.
Love,
Dorothy
Cheryl, I do not have any more very large vinyl-coated ones. I am having more 15″ x 21″ printed right now, and I could mail you one next week. The cost would be $15 ( $10 for the poster and $5 for tube and postage). The other thing you could do is go to PsychRights website, and they ask for a $25 donation if you download it from them. I am sorry to have to charge for this, but the cost of printing again is very high. Here is my email: [email protected].
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Olga, and, yes, the horrible notes are certainly the Journal of Insults!
Dorothy
Olga, thank you so so much for your inspiring comment! I really appreciate all that you said.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
That is really horrible that they could get away with charging that much money, nevermind any money at all! My firm belief is that our records are about us and they should rightfully belong to us! I am so so sorry that you are in this difficult situation. I wonder if you try going to a free legal clinic that they might be able to request them for you for free. Just thinking out loud. Thank you so much for commenting and sharing your situation.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
boans, thank you for your comment. Yes, it is important to have the evidence.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Copy_cat, I am happy you finally received your records, but it is an outrage that you, or anyone, should have to pay any $ for that to happen. Thank you for responding and telling how you got yours.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Oh, pencilect, I am so sorry to read about your story. It sounds so similar to mine. I feel very lucky that I survived. They also tested my IQ about a month after finishing the series of insulin/ECT. I remember he asked me to tell him the population of the USA, and I had no idea what the answer was so I guessed 1,000. He asked me if I would like to guess again. I answered 2,000. My brain had been fried, and it took a long time for it to heal, although I don’t think I have ever been truly the same after the ECT. Not to mention all of the other atrocities you and I both experienced locked up back in the 60s. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Good luck!
Best wishes,
Dorothy
I am so happy to hear you have been doing well for a long time.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
warmac, how lucky you were to have been sent to a camp where you received compassion. Yes, we need more programs like that which are based on kindness. Thank you for sharing your story.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
aria, I am so sorry you were subjected to that horrible overdrugging, but I am happy that you were able to get your records. It is wrong that you had to hire a lawyer to get them as, in my opinion, they should rightfully belong to us. Thank you so much for responding.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Yes. It is morally wrong that we did not have access to our own records without going through such a lot of hard work finally to get what we could of them.
Take care, and thanks again for responding.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you for sending that along for all of us to read. And, again, thank you for your response.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
I am so sorry for what you went through, but I am glad that he was at last arrested by the FBI! Thank you so much for your responses.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
B, you are so right. Our medical records should belong to us and they should be totally free! Isn’t it outrageous the lies they tell?! Thank you for reading and responding to my story.
Take care,
Dorothy
larmac, I am so so sorry for the painful and horrifying experiences you and your son went through in the horrific mental health system. Yes, it is impossible for so many to believe that these abuses go on, but it is vitally important that we tell our stories as that is the only way change will occur. You are absolutely doing the right thing by exposing the horrors of what he experienced – and you too, as his mother. I am so sorry it ended up with his taking his life. That happened to many of my friends. Take care of yourself in this very sad time for you. And thank you for sharing your devastating experiences.
Love,
Dorothy
Thank you so much for your sweet and generous response, Greg. I feel very lucky to know you, too, and to be able to be part of the future revolution of change which will surely make this world a kinder place for all.
Love,
Dorothy
Thank you, Sandra. I am on my way to the Red Sun Press right now to have more printed. If you email me at [email protected], I will give you the details.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you, PJ. I am on my way to Red Sun Press right now to have more posters made. The last one from the 1991 printing was sold a couple of weeks ago.
Hi everyone. Thank you so much for your responses. I just rewatched the video I did a few years ago where I say I went out to read my records in 1980. It was actually 1978. Leah Harris made that video in which I describe making my poster. I did it on the spur of the moment without being able to remember that it was exactly in 1978. Thanks, Leah, for helping me tell that story! And thank you to PJ for filming the interview at the APA!
Thank you, Kim. I am happy you were able to get your records and discover that they said more about the authors than about you. I agree that for many people it is helpful to read them for the first time with a trusted friend. For others, however, sometimes reading them in quiet solitude can be healing. Good luck.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you. That is so interesting that you found no reference to the molestation but your parents talked the incident over with you. I, too, had a near death experience in a medical hospital in 1973, and when I got those records there was no mention of that either. I even confronted the surgeon after it happened, and he denied it. My chest was even bruised from their pushing on my chest to revive me. Good luck.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you, dear Leah!!! You inspire me too!
Love,
Dorothy
Thank you so much for reading and responding. Good luck.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Thank you, Eric. Good luck with getting your own.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Wow! Thank you! I am so happy for you that you were able to get your records and see the misinformation which they so often hold. Good luck with everything.
Best wishes,
Dorothy
Fantastic, Daniel! I am so honored to be in your film and to be your friend. Thank you for documenting this important protest.
Love,
Dorothy
Excellent and passionate speech, as always! Onward and upward!
Love you,
Dorothy
Thank you, Vera! It was such a pleasure to meet you and to protest the APA with you on Sunday in New York City.
The revolution is ongoing and upward thanks to so many of us who care so deeply.
Be well,
Dorothy
Thank you, Dr. Hickey! This was brilliant, and I loved reading every single word!
Be well,
Dorothy Dundas
Thank you, Richard. We shall all be together on May 4, wherever we are.
Thank you, Susan.
This is an excellent idea and a fine first piece to have commissioned. Thank you all at MIA!
Thank you for writing and MIA for publishing Cindi’s heart-wrenching story trying so hard to help her son.
“Fisher may be part of a coming tsunami of protestors that North America has not seen before—a gathering storm of family members who’ve witnessed unhelpful or debilitating impacts from psychiatric drug treatments on their loved ones over the course of decades.”
Indeed, the time is here when thousands of us who have experienced the atrocities of the mental health system will join the many Cindis in protest and change will come!
Never give up hope,
Dorothy
I have called attention to the following paragraph from the above article:
“This is misleading. TMS involves sending multiple strong bursts of magnetic energy into the brain. The pulses are increased in strength until they are actually causing neurons (brain cells) to fire, and are repeated at that intensity about 3,000 times in each session. In the present study, the average number of sessions received by participants was 28. Strictly speaking, a medical procedure is considered non-invasive if it doesn’t break the skin, but it seems a misnomer in the present context. X-rays don’t break the skin, but would hardly be considered non-invasive.”
—————–
Being a survivor of very traumatic ECT, I read this thoroughly. I would never, ever recommend this treatment!
Dorothy
Amen!!! Thank you John. And thank you Ted. All of us who have survived this atrocity must stand up and tell our stories with force and the clarity of truth.
With love and a lot of hope,
Dorothy
This is what I feel about the NY Times review of Torrey’s latest book:
In 1960, I was hospitalized, slapped with a diagnosis of “schizophrenia,” forced into undergoing 50 insulin and electroshock “treatments” that nearly killed me, and on my way to lifelong institutionalization. So, when Dr. E. Fuller Torrey calls for increasing the number of public psychiatric hospitals and for making it easier to lock up people like me, I am shocked. And while your reviewer calls the book “an object lesson in good intentions gone awry,” I am grateful for those good intentions that saved my life.
After I spent three horrifying years in psychiatric hospitals, one of those doctors your reviewer calls “well-intentioned, starry-eyed idealists” saved me from being locked up forever or, more likely, an early death. Those brave and compassionate doctors paved the way for the best kind and effective community care we have today. But if Dr. Torrey’s vision becomes reality, it would return us to the days when a “mental illness” diagnosis was a life sentence.
Thank you, Michael. This is very disturbing. I am actually in favor of a gun-free world, but I can see that this is just the beginning of a very dangerous situation. Human rights are being systematically stripped from those we care deeply for, our brothers and sisters.
Sending love,
Dorothy
This is beautiful, Leah. You are an inspiration to so many and a bright light leading this revolution.
Love, Dorothy
Thank you, Jon. I think it is a good idea to throw out a wide net and to respond to all. You just never know who will be touched by our words.
Be well,
Dorothy
Thank you, NI. Yes, Big Pharma’s influence goes far and wide with very damaging consequences.
Be well,
Dorothy
Thank you, Susan. This is a strong follow-up to the 60 Minutes show.
Dorothy