Comments by Bippyone

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  • This is an article published on the wonderful website by journalist Venessa Bealey and i think it is relevant to what is now going on globally and the truth about the Covid Vaccine. The website is called The Wall Will Fall and i can’t remember just how i came across it but i feel people who follow this website would be very much interested in what her website and its wonderful articles by journalists have produced.

    https://thewallwillfall.org/2021/01/03/developers-of-oxford-astra-zeneca-vaccine-tied-to-uk-eugenics-movement/

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  • I like so many people had a traumatic childhood and was a victim of my father’s struggle to earn a living and also the moralistic values of the society we then lived in.

    It appears to me that the most important time of our lives of everyone’s lives is their childhoods and for some children they experience trauma to such an extent their wounds are never healed.

    Until children and childhood are recognized as the most important human beings on earth and the most sacred time in life and the laws to protect them are adhered to then change won’t come about and people growing up with emotional wounding will seek help later in life and then fall prey to a system of abuse and cruelty like psychiatry which has never been known for centuries.

    Laws to protect children and compulsory teaching to parents of parenting skills are what has been lacking in societies for generations.

    Parents must be given the tools they need to be good parents and especially mothers and this must take on the form a new religion and be the soul worship of every society. Children above all must be listened to and understood. They must not be churned out in schools by teachers who are state controlled and every parent must be given the rights to decide what is best for their child. At the same time there must be laws to protect both parents and children but most importantly children.

    Children are our most vulnerable and important people yet our most abused citizens. Parents are not trained to be parents and they make mistakes as they go along and the so called experts tend not to be the right ones to give the advice parents need. It should be every parents perogative to teach and be taught by grandparents and those with lifelong experience in childhood care. All abuse should be recognized early and no abuse should ever be unrecognized. All children should be protected and those that commit crimes against them should be highly punished. I was a victim of abuse but it wasn’t my parents fault. Those that are found out to have committed crimes against children must be the ones who suffer severely in society with punishment by laws set up to protect children at all costs.

    Until this is recognized until there is protection for the most valuable people in this world and childhood is considered sacred and turned into a religion then nothing will ever change.

    These atrocities to humankind will continue and go on repeating and repeating themselves and millions will suffer and die. Until people wake up and realize just what is at the root of all of this. That childhood and childhood trauma must be recognized and society must assist parents to become good at what they do, which is the most important work they will ever have to do in their lives. Being a parent and grandparent.

    Until it is recognized that parents are trained to be good at the job of parenting and that a child is not owned by society and parents are given the tools to become the best they can be for the sake of future generations then nothing will change.

    Lets fight towards a law that makes every child on the planet receive the love and attention that is needed for the most valuable people alive who are our future and our destination and the cruel practices in our lifetimes are wiped out and society engages laws for our children that simply needed more than ever and that most important of all emotions and which is society is constantly lacking in the Love for our children.

    Thank you so much Lisa. Thank you Kathleen. Nothing and nobody can touch you now.

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  • Thank you Rachel for the wonderful article. It took me many years to discover the truth about psychiatry and now in my 70th year i find they have released their hold on me and now i am drug free finally.

    My son however remains on medication his choice and has decided toward the medical model. He doesn’t believe in what i tell him. His dad believed in the medical model and spent his whole life doing so until he passed away in a psychiatric hospital in 2009.

    I would like to see my son drug free and away from psychiatry before i pass from this world but every day it seems i have to standby and watch him caught up in the mainstream of the status quo belief about mental health issues.

    Do children every listen to their mothers?

    My own mother kept me away from doctors for many years until one day my brother seeing me distressed asked if i would like him to make contact with a psychiatrist for me.

    That was when i was a young woman of 23 years old and ever since i have been wrapped up in the system. For what crime? I made the terrible mistake of wanting to end my life and believing in feminism. Now i find reading feminsit literature it was simply because i was a woman and female. It amounted to nothing else.

    Thank you once again and Merry Christmas

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  • Although Rachel was very loved you don’t mention much about her childhood and maybe her experiences that must have affected her later in life.

    She was a true artist and my brother left poems before he died and took his life.

    I have a poetry blog and draw cartoons.

    My mother attempted in vain to keep me away from doctors and out of hospital.

    Sanctuary is needed. Depersonalisation is not. Medicalising is not needed.

    People who suffer for their sanity can find peace and solitude.

    I have experienced this myself now and my son also.

    Thank you!

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  • One thing is overlooked here and that is that these conditions do exist. Psychosis and delusions are experienced by some people without ever coming into contact with psychiatric drugs. Mania does exist for some people. I do not consider these conditions to be illneses in need of treatment by medical means. I do however recognise that these conditons are devastating on a persons life but can be recovered from and you can lead a normal life given the chance.

    Medicalising people turns them into long term patients whereas if we had sanctuary without force then that would be an immense improvement on real care.

    Soteria was one such place.

    Thank you Dr Peter for yet another amazing article and i will be pasting it to my psychiatrist.

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  • Actually when my son attempted his life and ended up in intensive care the nurses never even informed the mental health team. Or asked me questions about my son. When they were informed there was no follow up appointment by any nurse or psychiatrist. No Time? Seems they make time to dish out the tablets and to make stock records which can take hours in the clinic on the wards. They make time to write up endless inaccurate notes and reports. This research was done by a nurse am i correct? They all watch their own backs. In the 45 years i have been in touch with psychiatric services i have met three nurses who i could say were up to scratch and one moved on so his patient a paraplegic was left outside and died of exposure.

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  • Thank you so much MIA for this Post and incredible interview with Dr Spandler who is from my neck of the woods Lancashire and she will be aware of Cheadle Royal Hospital.
    Mental and psychological overwhelm is as diverse as the people who suffer from it but there are regularities. It is defining them among people. My abuse was sexual when i was a child and this led me to complex feelings of guilt and dislike almost hatred of myself. It led me to complexities later in life sexually but not something i carried out it was psychological complexities because of guilt and dislike for myself and this was never ever discussed with any therapist or psychiatrist or professional in any way. In fact i don’t even believe the training is there. Also women can experience impotency the same as men.
    There is one doctor i am aware of who works with people who have had sexual abuse and her name is Dr Sam Warner and she works as a psychologist at Manchester University UK. Her book Female Sexual Abuse is incredible i strongly recommend it and it can be found online free if you search for it.
    I have tried getting in touch with this doctor to no avail and she now works with children and women who have had sexual abuse in Manchester.
    Also we really don’t understand psychosomatic tendencies and the affects of placebo. We don’t understand these at present.
    It is my opinion that so much has to be learned about psychological issues and complexities and to stay put in mud believing there are only certain ways that can be helpful is not helpful, there is so much not dealt with in psychiatry and one of those is sexual issues another is because we don’t know enough about sleep or the complexities of dreaming which is so important.
    I have been asked many times how did i want to be helped and one of my answers was not to be drugged but i needed drugging and i needed sedating and i still do regularly. I never really knew the answer to that question and i still don’t. I don’t know how i would like to be helped i just know i need a place of sanctuary from time to time and i need that place to be safe.
    I don’t know whether Dr Simon Wessley chairman of the Royal College of Psychiatrists is aware of Mad In America but i have his email address and will contact him and remind him you exist and he should take note about what appears on this website.
    Thank you so much MIA for this wonderful interview and post. Yet again it draws inspiration.

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  • Hi, thank you so much for this post and i so agree that psychiatrists and psychologists do little to help people in emotional distress and overwhelm. When there is a power imbalance in any relationship where one person is considered to be the expert and the other the person needing that expertise when it really doesn’t exist then more harm than good comes about.
    I have yet to hear a psychiatrist, therapist or psychologist make perfect sense. There are very few people who actually know how to help others in emotional distress. There is very little insight from most professionals in this case and so many have to recover through chance.
    I find though there is one person in my life at present who makes a big difference and i am grateful for that much.
    Sometimes lay persons and counsellors are the very best at helping people with emotional issues.
    It takes a reflection from the book of life to have enough experience to help anyone in distress.

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  • i will never recover ive told the mht as much but i think like all doctors since the very start of the profession there are very few times a doctor will sit back and do nothing for a patient in distress.

    doctors respond to peoples distress and emotional pain is distressing. at one time labotomies and insulin treatment were acceptable procedures to alleviate that distress now meds are the course of treatment. very rarely do i see shock treatment used today here in the UK.

    medicine has moved on from leeches and blood letting in the middle ages to tranquillizers in the 21st century. Who knows what the future holds?

    As long as the insane are considered to be patients in distress and who are suffering from an illness then people like me will be treated whether that treatment works or not.

    Maybe one day in the not too distant future it will be considered insanity is not an illness.

    I do not believe i have an illness i do not know what i suffer from i just know what i experience. i become overwhelmed.

    something always triggers my insomnia which leads to delusions and paranoia and psychosis, which i believe is all sleep related.

    we dont know anything about sleep do we?

    when we do we will be getting somewhere.

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  • Human Beings are social animals like monkeys and there will always be a social hierarchy and being the sophisticated creatures that we are, there will always be the haves and have nots. I had my first delusional attack at the age of 17 but did not encounter a psychiatrist until i was 24 years old, in fact I kept away from all doctors until then. I spent 7 years free of medication but suffering delusions, paranoia and psychosis. My mental health didn’t improve and i am in fact lucky to be alive. The only thing that wasn’t affected was my position of work thanks to my parents support financially.

    It is time here in the UK for the New Years Honours List whereby the Queen gives out her Knighthoods etc. You could say our class system is quite embedded in our society and i unfortunately find i am at the bottom rung of that system. However, one of my current nurses informs me that he knows of a psychiatrist diagnosed with bi-polar who works within the NHS and this is quite an oxymoron in my opinion. Also another one of his clients (someone mentally ill) lectures on mental health. It seems that peer review is considered acceptable for employment in the mental health work place and that the more lived experience you have the better, but i wonder if the psychiatrist diagnosed bi-polar suffered from psychosis? Psychotics very rarely get accepted anywhere in the work place whether they have the title ‘Dr’ or not.

    The staff at Soteria House qualified as members by their lived experience and i think that still goes today. I have seen some remarkable work done by nurses including nursing assistants within the NHS working head on with patients and the system here is based on what actually is reported back to doctors by nursing staff then the doctor decides on what action should be taken as regards someone in distress.

    It’s an individual authority though, because those doing their job right whether they carry a ‘Sir’ before their name or a ‘Dr’ can use that title at their discretion, and it still takes many lived years of experience to be good in psychiatry and to give your patient the best care you can. Here in the UK there are no longer back handers to doctors received from drug companies to promote their drugs and such tit bits are not for the taking anymore by doctors as far as i am to understand and they are paid by set salaries. Insurance companies are rarely involved here with people except in negligence cases.

    The point I am making here is should we abolish the Queens Honours List here in the UK and never have people recognized for their good deeds and it has been known for small people like street sweepers to actually receive an honour, rarely but known to have happened, or should people never have titles?

    In the hierarchy of our societies I know I like having the title of Mrs rather than Miss because at 69 if i had a title of Miss then that would most definitely class me as a spinster even today because the title Mrs has a higher kudos.

    In the chocolate box of life I think that wrapping up people with titles can be a good thing but when it boils down to it it depends on how the person uses that title. There are good and bad doctors and there are good and bad psychiatrists. I would not for instance take away ‘Dr’ Peter Breggin’s title as he in my opinion has earned every aspect to being a doctor. In the chocolate box of life Dr Peter must be the exquisite French Truffle a very rare thing and i think he deserves the title ‘Dr’ in every capacity and description of that word. Besides the word ‘doctor’ comes from the Latin word ‘docore’ To Teach and i think basically there is without any doubt in my mind Dr Peter is the worlds most eminent teacher in psychiatry. To address him in any other way would make a mockery of all what he has taught us. So i am for titles and yes pro the use of ‘Dr’ before a name.

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  • Sorry but my situation and condition isn’t just a ‘problem with living’ my condition makes my living problematic.

    Delusions, hallucinations, mania and paranoia come about yes from traumatic experiences but must be recognized for anyone to be helped or assisted in recovery. Nobody knows yet why the brain reacts in this fashion because of trauma and i have found that i have experienced trauma throughout my life, this has disrupted my day to day living and made it difficult for me to function at times but not all the time.

    Thank god there are hospitals and treatment centres because who knows what on earth would happen to someone like me if these places weren’t available. Going to see somebody for a chat is not sufficient i am afraid. Total sanctuary is necessary for someone like me when i have a breakdown and yes i accept this includes my freedom being taken from me and yes treatment given without my consent. I accept all of this and am totally grateful.

    Education is the key word but education doesn’t solve the problem. It is only by associating with people like me constantly talking about their experiences and describing what is and remains a phenomenon from the first people who experienced madness to the present day that maybe the problems could be solved. As it is we are walking in the dark and physicians only know that certain medications for certain people do in fact work. Yes some people will find themselves lost but i am happy to say that i personally always pull through thankfully because of good nursing and doctoring. I am always grateful for new ideas to my problems but so far in my lifetime the only ideas that have been helpful have been political and within the benefit system which has helped me tremendously financially here in the UK.

    If it wasn’t for hospitals and doctors and nurses then i doubt very much i would have survived or would my son for that matter. I will remain eternally grateful.

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  • Lately, having been in contact with doctors and nurses reading this article i do come to the conclusion that some people are academic and some people are hands on. Those who are book worms and academics go onto become doctors and professors and teachers and rightly so. Medical doctors are in the business of care. Also they have to be hands on.

    When you refer to a medical doctor by dr ‘surname’ and rightly so you are addressing a professional with the respect they have presumably earned by qualifying not only through being an academic in their field of expertise but by years of experience as hands on.

    I found myself that I came to refer to the doctors I encountered as dr ‘first name’ and this was not just recognizing their skill but recognizing it with affection.

    I am diagnosed and i am not educated so the there is a status of superiority between me and my psychiatrist. I was given my diagnosis without being asked if i agreed with this or not. However, this does not make me feel inferior or at a disadvantage. In fact lately it makes me feel so grateful that what i do in fact suffer from is recognized.

    This now i do agree with and am grateful for and the polite address to the doctor who has treated me is no skin off my nose

    Misogynists are to be found everywhere they are just a daily irritation for educated women in every profession. Women in position usually are made of tough stuff and can take criticism from men so the little quip Epstein gave to Jill Biden ‘kiddo’ i am sure she brushed off quite easily.

    I took on the identity Mrs when i married. I was happy to do so. I think that having the title doctor is still quite acceptable and should remain for some time to come. After all both are forms of identity and along with by diagnosis bi-polar people like me and others need to be identified. thank you!

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  • Once some years ago i was at a crisis stage in my life and although ridiculous i went along to see the mental health team and the social worker interviewed me and decided i needed admitting once again. She lied to get police involved and they came banging on my front door which is glass. the police came round my back and looked through my window near where i was sitting in my living room and sneered at me then when i drew the curtain and would not answer the door they broke it in in broad daylight.

    then they carried me off in an ambulance. my crime. nothing! nothing at all!

    i am incarcerated now having come here as a voluntary patient immediately drugged and responded as such and sectioned. I hope John you read this message and know i resonate so much with your writing. I absolutely wish i had your talent. it is by all accounts god given.

    love to you all and yes one day freedom will prevail.!

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  • hi! Such a pleasure to see Phiebe’s work on this website.

    as i am unfirtunately to understand and to make sense of all emotional overwhelm it evolves from a traumatic loss of one kind or another.

    i of course in regression to my own childhood can relate to a lost childhood in mant respects.

    i am so glad pheob’s wonderful accounts of her experiences with detention in psychiatry she has expressed in art in her wonderful way are on this site and i hope she continues working through her life.

    thank you!

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  • Psychiatry is an institution and men found out long ago that profit could be made from people who became insane. When i was a little girl i knew because i wasn’t a boy i had limitations. My world surrounding me and my mother’s issues in her marriage to my dad and my dad’s abusive behavior led me to spend long hours wishing everyone on earth would disappeear and that i would have the whole world just to myself.

    It is men who have created psychiatry and male scientists who have created the drugs to force onto people who lose touch with reality and who have suffered abusive childhoods. It was my brother who suggested i first contact a psychiatrist because he wanted to learn the truth about the meds having been involed with psychiatry too. Then after i had a few admissions and being drugged myself he asked me the question. Do i think psyche meds work. I said i didn’t. The next we knew he topped himself.

    My very brave mother kept me away from abusive doctors and although she could never leave my dad because she hadn’t the means financially she did protect me until during another breakdown and being vulnerable my brother suggested i contact one. The road my life took then led me to social exclusion and a marriage that basically wasn’t a happy one. I had a son. Of course his childhood was affected because of my breakdowns due to my husband not being able to support us financially or in any other way for that matter.

    He died of lung cancer ten years ago. Before this i ended the marriage. I have been attempting for ten years to become drug free. I have finally made it. I actually didn’t even know the man i married. It wasn’t until years of living with him i realised what he was and why he married me.

    As long as it remains a man’s world institutions and societies and relationships will be created by people who are totally out of touch with mother nature and just how to create environments that bring sacred childhoods to thrive.

    The difference with men and women is that women create life and in a man’s world we are penalised for it.

    I miss my mother very much and i cherish her memory. I don’t miss my husband whatsoever. I live for my son now. I could never protect him unfortunately. We both get by. I hated my father. My son is a beautiful person and we support one another. I am devoted to helping him stay well. I am also aware of the world he too lives in this man’s world which has nothing to offer him whatsoever in which we both have existed. The most i can hope for is that he gets by. I know i will now.

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  • Thank you so much Irit Shimrat for making one of the most important comments i have ever read on this website.

    Not only do psyche drugs cause what you have said but they also cause permanent insomnia and vivid dreaming, they cause permanent reacurring mania but one of the most heart rendering things they cause is breast formation in young adolescent boys. Also psyche drugs can cause sexual dysfunction as well in both men and women and this can form itself in impotence as a well as increased sexual labido.

    If i am not mistaken didn’t Freud express how important our sex lives were and i cannot imagine what he would have said about what psyche drugs do to young adolescents just starting out on their sexual relationships. I can’t imagine anything more cruel or disturbing especially as no conversation between any adult psyche person ever tells them the truth and they go onto believe it is there fault.

    The emotional torment caused by psyche drugs on young teenagers must be the most tortuous cruellest thing that can ever be done to another human being by those that insist they care for others.

    One day somewhere in the deep future people will look back in horror and think how was it ever possible to inflict so much pain in the name of care onto vulnerable people.

    Those presently inflicting that pain are so thick skinned though they really have no conscience and simply do not care as they believe that those suffering emotional overwhelm are in fact sub human. What they really don’t know though is that emotional overwhelm can happen to anyone at any time of their lives.

    I would like to thank everyone on Mad In America for this website and the wonderful work people do on here.

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  • Actually Oldhead while i am no advocate for psyche meds and being forced to take them i do not despise all medicine.

    i was around as a child in 1956 when my brother contracted polio and when it was rife amongst the community i lived in. i also remember having chickenpox and germain measles. my other brother had hooping cough and germain measles at the same time.

    the mortality rate for children and babies was high.

    then scientists discovered vaccines and marie curie discovered penicillin.

    so many lives were saved.

    i dont believe this is a conspiracy by governments in cahoots with drug companies. i think that is rediculous.

    i do think there might be a possible conspiracy but like my friend who is extremely wise says it could simply be a force of nature and something that has raised its ugly head out of nowhere.

    then believe you me if drug companies discover a vaccine that saved your life you would be eternally grateful.

    my brother has remained a cripple all of his life and they discovered the vaccine too late for him but not for millions of other children and now polio is virtually wiped out. vaccines are a good thing. my brother spent his 4th birthday in an iron lung and his childhood in and out of hospital having operations on his foot. he was in calipres and called cripple by other children and neighbours. i am proud to say he has had quite a remarkable life though.

    i was so glad to have my son vaccinated. thank god.

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  • I like to think that societies have come a long way since WW11. That there was so much to be learned by what occured. That the atrocities were in fact exposed to the general world and the horror of what happened was frowned upon and the majority of people said it must never happen ever again.

    We moved on. All torture and eugenics are meaningless they have no purpose in psychiatry the majority of psychiatrists feel that they are in fact helping their patients. I think psychiatry is going to make a huge change and that this change could be in fact for the better of the population.

    I think fascism doesn’t work for people and that is widely accepted in our modern world and i believe that the medicalizing of human emotional suffering will grow out of itself and that psychiatrists will abolish their treatment of drugs because i believe these drugs will become too expensive and now governments will want to look at much cheaper options. That psyche drugs will be used minimally and in the short term just like they are used in developing countries and the poorer countries of the world. Therefore these medications will work properly and how they are intended in the short term.

    I think psychiatrists will be forced to look for alternatives now because they can’t allow whole societies to become long term patients. This is not productive and it would mean that the majority of the work force would be paying to keep half the population idol. Nobody wants that. Drugged people are unproductive no rational leader would want this for the majority of its population.

    Drugged people can’t even stack shelves or work in the fields. The motive is a healthy society. That is the motive. No world leader wants their society to become sick.

    Unless….there is a global benefit. I believe yes Covid 19 is infact instigated by world governments to control people. Also that they knew some would die but i think it is absolute and total GENIUS! Because this planet was heading for destruction and millions and millions were going to die. That is what the protestors of extinction rebellion have known for years.

    Now not only is this planet going to be saved there will always be enough food and water to go round societies will have localized pockets of communities and people will contribute the best way they can. Nobody’s work will be considered too menial because it all contributes to the existence of their community.

    I believe now psychiatric hospitals will in fact close because they will be considered harbingers of Coronavirus and i think here in the UK Open Dialogue will be introduced. Why would a leader want his population to be sick and drugged? And kept for by the state? Leaders want their population to be productive.

    Hitler’s intention was he wanted to create a super race and he wanted the Germans to become that super race and dominate the world. We have moved on since Hitler and it was not considered feasible that there was ever going to be a super race.

    The world has become a melting pot of peoples. However saying that population has grown so vast that our planet was buckling under us. Now maybe women will not consider themselves a failure if they don’t produce children. Not every woman is cut out for motherhood. I for one am so grateful i only had one child.

    To me Covid 19 is the best thing that ever happened to this World. I am grateful to world leaders if they instigated this. Minimal deaths and our planet instead of heading for distruction with mass loss of life now has a chance.

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  • Actually ThereAreFourLights the sediment stirred up by gondolas in the venetian canals is pollution and wild birds only take what they need unlike mankind. Nature has a way of balancing out before humankind steps in to corrupt it.

    And the voice in the background of the dolphins being filmed at an Italian harbour is in fact Italian. I know i used to work in Naples when i was young.

    Air pollution globally is down. This planet for the first time in generations has a chance. It’s peoples have a chance. If this is instigated by governments for global change it is in my opinion total GENIUS!!

    We were heading for mass distruction and millions and millions of lives would have been lost.

    All i know now my tap water is now running pure and my cat charlie can drink it whereby he wouldn’t touch it before and i couldn’t drink it.

    Maybe just maybe humanity has a chance!

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  • Hi Jeffrey C, i too suffered abuse and have spent the last 45 years involved with the psychiatruc system. i have been isolated these last ten years since my husband died and my son left home. now it is worse then ever. i dont see a soul. I feel more like a none-person than ever before.

    you sound Jeffrey C that you have suffered so much and i too have suffered and dont love myself at present. i have survived all my suicide attempts and was contemplating attempting my life again. the hardest thing for some people especially those in emotional pain is to love yourself.

    my life really isnt worth living. then i asked myself this question i might think my life isnt worth living and not value the love i feel my own love is really unimportant. however, the love of my friends is important. two very special friends. and the love of my son. their love is more important then what mine amounts to. their love is precious! should never be lost! i hope jeffrey c you are loved and have someone who loves you because if you have living is worth every pain you have. Because being loved is the very essence of living. x Thank you so much Steve! x

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  • What do people think about my theory that the authorities will want to close down psychiatric hospitals because they will become harbingers of coronavirus? That they might just introduce Open Dialogue Therapy for people? Nick Putman is working on introducing it to the NHS.

    Psychiatrists might just have to retrain and actually become useful in their jobs?? Am I being totally optimistic??

    I know one thing after Covid 19 things will never be the same on this planet.

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  • I really don’t know what this shut down of the whole planet is all about?? I checked and during January 2020 in the UK 56,702 people died of natural causes. Why lock down the UK because of something like 700 deaths?

    Why lock down the whole world?? What is this all about???

    All I know is that our planet was heading for distruction. Climate Change, Pollution, Lack of resources and Population Incrase were making our planet head for disaster.

    I find now that the planet is in fact at present surviving. In Venice the canals are now running clear and fish and wild birds are to be seen there. Dolphins are swimming in the ports where yachts used to harbour and now have left so the sea there is running clear. In the Indian Ocean Dolphins are seen in Mombai swimming in the harbour. Where they never swam before.

    In my local area here in Wales the UK Montgomeryshire Canal is running clear. My tap water which i couldn’t drink before is now running pure and my cat can drink it which he never would touch it before.

    The weather here which was stormy and areas were flooded is now calm.

    I am self isolating at home but honest to God what is new for me??? I am always isolated so is my son and my friends.

    People in institutions are more at risk than ever though and my heart goes out to them especailly orphanages and the children there.

    I don’t see this current climate going away for some considerable time.

    I hope everyone stays safe and well.

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  • Yes I agree Fiachra, the medical field is up for corruption. I agree. Especially Mental Health. But i have also witnessed in my 44 year history as an in patient and out patient doctors and nurses with compassion. I have met psychiatrists with compassion. They are not interested in my life experiences or expectancies but they firmly believe they are helping people. Honestly! I don’t think these misguided doctors really want to harm their patients.

    My current psyche nurse is very compassionate but believes in her medication. I had an ex nurse who is a wonderful guy and we are still friends and keep touch and he worked within the Ronnie Laing movement years ago he just came to believe that psyche medication had a place to play with his patients. Maybe it does? For some having their feelings numbed is quite a god send when they are suffering so so much emotionally and no amount of talking therapy can help them.

    These drugs also sedate which is quite kind. Although too drugged up your energy is zapped and this in itself is cruel. I am not zapped. I am sleeping well although tonight for other reasons i find i am awake but i have slept all day. I am wondering whether to stay on this dosage of the Haldol because it does help me sleep and i have always had major issues with insomnia.

    I am always swaying over the fence of whether psyche medication should be used or not? This surely is for the individual to decide! It is a personal choice but everyone should have informed consent. Nobody should be forced to take psyche meds or any other medication for that matter.

    If i decide to take my life that is my business. If a doctor decides to take my life he is playing god.

    Nobody can play god. But then i ask myself is my life my own to take? Or once born and given life should you never destroy it? It is my belief once gone then that probably is the end of it. I am glad doctors and nurses saved my life when i almost died from suicide attemtps. I am glad i am alive today. I was attempting my life long before i ever consulted a psychiatrist. My psychotherapist hadn’t the power to keep me from hospital admissions.

    One thing i do know and there is an old Lancashire saying – ‘Where there is life there is hope!’

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  • Come to think of it i have never met one decent doctor or nurse! Ever! And i trained as a nurse for a while and some pretty degenerates trained along side of me.

    i dont recollect one lesson which covered ‘Ethics”.

    I think that only good doctors appear in hollywood films or Tv soaps. They are a fallacy

    When i went to my family GP suffering from anxiety when i was 17 he sexually molested me then the dirty old quack did it to my sister 2 years later.

    Thinking these people have a moral code is just not the right way to perceive what they are and the way they work. The ones who are genuine carers are rare and shine out from the rubble. My first psyche nurse had the nerve to say to me doctors bury their mistakes. In the ratio of saving lives to burying people id say doctors bury more then they ever save!

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  • Hi Sam, it was very cowardly of Shorter and the NYT to make those comments on someone’s Obit. In fact extreme cowardice on Shorter because Bonnie couldnt defend herself could she.

    But then isnt Shorter used to making attacks on defenceless people?

    Its his whole persona and way of life and he would be by profession a woman hater which reflects on the editor of the NYT as well.

    Very few come to defend the integrity of women its a hystorical hysterical part of patriarchy and we have lived this way for mant eons.

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  • I love this Website and the people’s comments. Shorter is given short thrift and his slander of Bonnie will have repercisions as he will draw attention to his own mysogony. He is not exactly a supporter of women’s rights is he?

    I must draw attention to feminist sites about this attack on Bonnie by a cut throat psyche who is probably responsible for killing more people and maiming more women than i care to imagine.

    Actually if we all wrote letters to the NYT regarding this outrage would they actually be published? Who is the bloody editor anyhow?

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  • Googled Edward Shorter again and yes he has written many a good book and one on Women’s Bodies which out of sheer curiosity i have purchased. Saying that how he can blame Bonnie for suicides when everyone knows psyche drugs and incarceration cause more deaths then anything else next to cancer and heart desease. I am aware of 4 deaths by suicide my local psychiatrist is responsible for during the last 5 years and there are others i don’t know about.

    I have already read good books on women’s history of madness written by women and am interested to read the comparison via a male psychiatrist. I wonder who in fact has it more accurate?

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  • Just googled info about who Shorter who in fact is. He is one of the powerful atrocities name a gynocologist who slices up women’s bodies are a profession and probably is responsible for maiming more women that i care to imagine. He also thinks he is some kind of male expert on female desire???? When has any man been an expert on female desire??? It takes women to know how we truly feel and no man has ever come close to satisfying women to such an extent he then writes a book about it and becomes an expert. What kind of joker is this man?

    If it wasn’t for the fact i am making home improvements lately and I have stopped my monthly investment in books i would buy Shorter’s little scribbles and read to what extnet he is in fact an expert on women’s bodies because it is through my feminist readings and philosophy that gynocologists tend to hash up women’s desires. Please can someone inform me of some of Bonnies’ books? Whether it breaks my bank or not i would rather read her as a piece of good literature than any hacker of the women’s anatomy and faker of expert in female desire.

    Please have your article on Bonnie posted in the NYT asap Bob!

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  • Actually lets not forget here that biopsychiatry is the enemy of the people and all psyches who have an investment in it. Bonnie was the Tigress who spent her life fighting the Scorpions and she did in fact sleigh many a sting. Shorter felt her bite even in death and in a way has brought more attention to just how awesome she in fact was. I feel what you have written in response to the comments Shorter was allowed to say Bob should also be printed in the NYT. She should have her defense as her burning pire floats down the river and gain the respect due to her as the fearsome warrior she was and will remain throughout history.

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  • So Sad! Bonnie a heroine of our times unable to defend herself against such an attack in her obituary of all things. I am sure glad Bonnie lived to be what she was and what she accompllished and not to worry because for future generations and as a mark down in history she will be placed as a Pioneer of Mental Health and Reform Against The Violation of Vulnerable Minds which is i’m sorry to say modern psychiatry and which has been psychiatry for many decades. Bonnie made a difference to a corrupt game of minds and she is in my mind Tomorrow’s Heroine!

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  • Hi Everyone! While we all agree psychiatrists have the power to destroy their patients in the name of care and are responsible for what can only be described as ‘The Silent Holocaust’, it is my experience and with my somewhat limited knowlege of history that what goes around comes around. The people are in fact only human and if they look after themselves in their elite lifestyles then they will inevitably grow old and find themselves in your caring comfortable nursing home. Where lets face they might be susceptible to other caring professionals who just might see fit to prescribing the odd anti-psychotic or anti-depressant to the old dears. In fact it is my experience that ‘What Goes Around Comes Around!’.

    I draw cartoons and hopefully this will come through to you and it is one of my favorites.

    https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm&ogbl#inbox/QgrcJHsbcVPCvXtbrqtMSxNpzblvSqJXwtV

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  • Hi Sam, I so agree with what you have said because it is my total experience with these doctors over the years. The whole set up they have devised and system has no real value whatsoever to people suffering from emotional issues. They just don’t have this in their training whatsoever. It seems and i have witnessed while i was an in patient in hospital that it is appropriate for nursing staff working on a ward to take time in the office on their computer to do a training scheme while being on duty.

    I question their credibility every day as nurses and doctors. Also once i was refusing to be admitted when i was ill and the police came and smashed down my front door and carried me out of the house. My neighbors witnessed this. There were times i have been up against a mountain and only to slide way back down again. My main concern is my son and now i am growing old and it upsets me to think that he will be alone one day without me and he doesn’t see what i see and won’t unless he lives to be my age and makes it himself to be an old man.

    He relates very much to American people and has a friend who lives in New York who he hopes to visit next year some time.

    In the meantime he has found a counseling course at the local library where he is going to classes training to become a counselor and so far he has been motivating himself to go. Like i have told him if anyone knows about mental health it is him having had two parents with mental illness and being involved with the psychiatric system since he was a tiny baby.

    Well, i came up with the idea because i was recently told by a MHT nurse that i should put something in writing so i thought i would write a letter to my psychiatrist and ask him as my consultant did he in his professional opinion believe without a shadow of a doubt my continuing treatment and dosage of Haldol injection would definitely stop any attacks of psychosis i would have in future? Like somebody who has diabetes when a doctor knows categorically insulin injections are what is needed?

    I haven’t got around to composing the letter yet and posting it off to him. I will get out later today though and he should receive it Tuesday. I asked for a reply in writing also and i will make a copy of it. hehe

    So love coming on here and reading all the comments.

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  • Sam Plover : What an excellent observation you made.

    It’s so true a psychiatrist makes diagnosis based on observation and in giving that observation labels his patient. I ask the question what do you do when you find yourself becoming a person who does have psychosis etc? Where is the help in dealing with your issues and where do you and your loved ones turn when things get dire? You need recognition of your suffering at the same time you don’t need a powerful social authority making laws that are based on a doctor’s assumptions and observations about you when you find you are in a position in your life where you yourself loose touch with reality.

    People with psychosis cannot always be helped by family members and where do we turn in our society when it comes to finding answers because not everyone knows about Mad In America and the situation as regards health care is different in Europe anyway.

    In Britain we live in a nanny state and almost everyone nowadays are given mental illness labels but the whole institution which is the NHS and what has been free health care here in the UK for everyone for decades is now in turmoil. There are rumors it is going to become like the American healthcare system and be privatized and what has been free for generations of people from the cradle to the grave is transitioning which will include psychiatry.

    In the UK and with our elderly and young social needs are not being met and i doubt if they ever have been and people are living in times of austerity unable to feed their children or heat up their homes. There are millions struggling. There are of course also the better off and many rich people live here but so many turn to the church for leadership and people turn to mental health issues for every normal emotional crisis they encounter in life.

    So I agree Sam we don’t want psychiatry inventing a test which once used can prove a diagnosis it is in fact safer for an observation to be involved by a doctor rather than some fool proof test which would like you say not point out a single thing but a symptom of a disease and have nothing to do with what is happening to a person whether psychotic or otherwise and those people who are being convinced they have a mental illness and it is almost everyone you meet these days here in the UK who are being convinced their normal emotions are symptoms then as every psychiatrist knows those observations can still be disputed.

    However what goes on behind the closed doors of the consulting room and what is observed by others in their mental health teams is not only based on observation but is a very socially involved crisis for a person too. There is so much more then just a diagnosis it is a whole system with laws behind it strictly created to make money for the drug industry. Saying that there are people with real issues in their mental health like psychosis and hearing voices and where do they go when their lives are in crisis and it becomes critical?

    It will take whole dynasties to fall and crumble before ordinary people who suffer from psychotic episodes who find themselves vulnerable at the hands of doctors and who are taught can give solutions to their pain before change comes about. In actual fact it will take future generations and won’t happen in my lifetime or for that matter as far as i can see it won’t happen in my son’s lifetime either.

    I ask myself with Xmas time looming and around the corner when will it become a symptom of bad mental health because a child believes in Father Christmas? Because it is becoming apparent to me that everyone is beginning to believe that about themselves and their children. Saying that there are so many kids who have real issues with psychosis because of current lifestyles and parenting and people don’t question a health care system that they are brought up to believe is looking out for them.

    As long as psychiatry has the law behind it people will fall victim and as an eminent doctor told me here in the UK the Mental Health Act which has been in force for one hundred years almost cannot be changed over night and can only be reviewed from time to time. Every psychiatrist has the law behind them until laws are changed then vulnerable people will suffer and become slaves to drug addiction without even knowing it.

    Its good to come here on this website and read people’s comments because it is a place to air free speech which now is becoming a rarity as far as critical psychiatry is concerned here in the UK and there are no platforms online to be found where people can find out exactly what is what and so many don’t know what exactly is happening to them. Most people suffering psychologically have only one place to turn along with their families and friends and don’t know about the law and how they stand legally until family members find they have in fact lost a loved one. They fall foul to the addiction of medication and are told it is safe and believe that.

    Saying this my behavior when i am overwhelmed and become manic, psychotic, obsessive etc because what i suffer from in my own personal emotional crisis needs to be recognized and when i am vulnerable and acting in a strange way and my family members become frightened of me and so do others then there needs to be on every street corner places of sanctuary. What has come about people are sent where the beds are available far from where they live and families are not kept in touch while they are incarcerated. Families are separated from their loved ones here in the UK and people are left victim to hospitals where there is no longer any adequate care.

    R. D. Laing here in the UK during the 70s who brought about Kingsley Hall was just the exception and things have evolved and moved on since then and psychiatry because it has the power now is what can only be describes is social engineering.

    Time is continually changing but madness has remained the same for thousands of years madness doesn’t change and really exists and is not experienced by everyone. How we interpret this decides the fate of people who suffer from it but in these decades because its considered to be an illness then it will take extreme changes to alter these beliefs and i ask myself just what will madness and the way people describe it become in future generations?.

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  • Hi Rachel 777, it’s so true doctors are placed on a pedestal yet a psychiatric nurse once told me they do bury their mistakes. It seems that there are no records kept of all those that die in psychiatric hospitals here in the UK. You just can’t access them if there are. They are swept under the carpet.

    When these doctors have it on good authority we are a risk to ourselves it seems it is appropriate for them to take over and make us become a risk to them but of course it is for our own good.

    If it hadn’t been for my husband and my sister in law my son would probably have been taken from me and I decided years ago that the best option for my son was to stay put in my marriage. I couldn’t look after him myself and i knew the risk of him becoming anxious and suffering from other emotional distress was a probability when he grew up. It was a struggle bringing him up drugged on medication and on the outskirts of society but we felt we had no choice as social services would have been down on us.

    It seems all those vulnerable in society are victims and drug inducement makes them valuable commodities because those benefiting namely the rich basically don’t care about them or the animals their drug companies experiment on. Psychiatrists enjoy the position and power they have over people and simply diagnose which takes no expertise at all and anyone can scribble out a prescription.

    Like you say Rachel777 it is a messed up world. At least we know what is happening and thousands go blindly along not knowing. It is those who watch on as their loved ones suffer which is hard to face. It is the loss of life which is the most painful.

    As it was we did the best we possibly could for our son and now he just gets by which is all i can hope for.

    It was my own childhood trauma and my father that led me to break down at the age of 17 and attempt my own life and i actually believed i could have a good life when i gave birth to my son but it was the biggest mistake i ever made because he has been involved in psychiatry all of his life and psychiatry has almost destroyed him. Those executives of drug companies and the ones that profit from psychiatry have all been involved but these men don’t even know he exists. He is just way down on the chain but they will say he was born that way and because of that assumption it gave them licence to destroy his life. Psychiatrists literally have no idea just how their medications and treatments destroy people. They literally have licence to destroy people and the ones who benefit from the sale of drugs live in luxury oblivious to the victims of their companies.

    This is part of life in the 21st century and it is a male dominated world. It is also men that will destroy the world completely and women and children who will suffer. My son is one of psychiatry’s many victims. I have to sit back powerless and unable to change this and watch what happens to him when he becomes overwhelmed with mania and is at the mercy of doctors and police and there is absolutely nothing i can do about it.

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  • Hi Everyone, I have read and re-read everyone’s comments and my heart goes out to you especially you Rachel 777 and what psychiatry has done to you. At the age of 24 I was diagnosed with schizophrenia although when i attempted my life at the age of 17 i had every reason to be paranoid because of what one person i knew from school was doing to me and what she continued to do and was hell bent on destroying me.

    But that was paranoia as far the psychiatrist was concerned and in fact i think he already had his mind made up before he actually diagnosed me. Then because i revealed this and my diagnosis to a work colleague i got sacked while off sick from a top secretarial job in the city. From then on the label destroyed my chances of decent work and i took on the role of housewife and mother but we lived on the bread line for many years. It has been a long long road. I stuck with my home and was never homeless except for one night when my marriage was breaking up. I live comfortably now on benefits and rent free. That doesn’t follow for a lot of people diagnosed mentally ill here in the UK. Most are on the minimum benefits and do not live in nice accommodation. Some are homeless. Psychiatry tends to fuck up your life. I do agree with you. Not only does it impair you physically and mentally it just destroys what chances you have of fitting into society. The labels are destructive on human nature and benefit nobody but the psychiatrists.

    I have been attempting to be drug free for ten years and am still on a high dose of Haldol I just simply am lucky that’s all that i have got away with having no permanent damage. Except i feel my sleeping architecture is messed up and i would have permanent bouts of insomnia without taking the drug. I get vivid dreaming which makes nightmares a problem.

    I have witnessed so much and years ago watched the old timers in the old Victorian hospital shuffle in a queue to get their drinks of tea when they were working in occupational therapy which products the hospital sold for a profit and never gave to the patients who made them and they most of them had Tardive Disconesea. The psychiatrists believed in dosing their patients with high doses of medication then.

    I was married to my husband for 33 years and the last 17 he was symptom free except his side affect was he sacrificed his sex life. There never was and never has been discussions about sex with any psychiatrist. I actually took the book The Vagina Bible by Dr Jen Gunter along to my appointment with my new psychiatrist and he really didn’t know what to make of me. hehe I am a feminist and have read many books on just how women have been affected by psychiatry. How years ago if a husband wanted rid of his wife he would have her committed and those women spent the rest of their lives locked up in institutions. Also women who had children out of wedlock were locked away for life having their babies taken from them.

    If you ask me do i believe my medication is working for me then i would say “No!” “No way!”. The Haldol injection doesn’t work for me. I just take it because i couldn’t sleep without it.

    We haven’t got diseases of the brain and psychiatrists don’t know what is wrong with us they only presume to know. Our brains are intricate and complicated and scientists don’t know fully how they work. Psychiatrists just mess about with the delicate membranes of these vital organs that once destroyed affect every part of our bodies. To take away our livelihoods, our position in society and our health and to damage our brains and bodies which is a continuation of what psychiatry has been doing these past 100 years and it is a crime against humanity and is in my opinion “The Silent Holocaust”.

    I have watched a person die in hospital in front of me having an adverse affect to an injection. Her relatives if they cared simply lost her like so many lives have been lost. Like so many have lost their fight for their sanity. From Insulin Therapy to Freezing Baths to Shock Treatment psychiatry has literally got away with murder.

    I would like to see change and huge change at that. I will never be free of it neither will my son and i have that to live with. My son was damaged by Seroquel and has suffered mania because of that ever since. He has bouts of it which he says comes round in cycles every 18 months to 2 years of his life. The police also here in the UK are corrupt and broke my son’s arm once when he was ill and sexually harassed and gaslighted me. Psychiatrists and MHT work closely with the police here in the UK. When should there be a law passed that entitles a doctor to incarcerate you? It is barbaric!

    They are no better than Nazis! I am an old woman now and probably only have a decade maybe two to live but my son is 39 and has the rest of his life in front of him. I have to watch in despair and only pray that the recent break he has had in going to train as a counselor comes about and he hasn’t been homeless yet for a long time. I have to pray somehow he will be okay without me when he gets manic but i have trouble believing this. I like he does too take it a day at a time. That is all that is left to do. The power that psychiatry has over people maybe one day will fade but it will take other dynasties and other times for this to come about.

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  • Hi Julie Greene thank you so much for your concern but my bloods were taken in June and my kidneys are functioning fine.

    My ankles are swollen because i have rhuematism in my knees which i think was caused because years ago i used to clean my bathroom floor down on my knees which i wouldnt advise anyone to do.

    Im afraid i have no ill affects from neuroleptics and have just taken one drug at a time and my doctors gave me that option.

    I am so sorry people have had adverse reactions to psychiatric meds and do empathize but like is said everyone is different. From what i gather and i dont know for certain the majority dont suffer adverse reactions here in the UK. It could be with something to do with the quality of the drugs themselves. It is quite tragic something given to treat a patient causes more trouble for them.

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  • Hi Julie Greene, it is 6am here in the UK at present and i just called my 24/7 medical helpline and a practitioner will call me back before 11am. In the meantime i will be calling my GPs surgery early and speak to another practitioner who has my details and will find out if my kidneys have been tested. My swollen ankles are probably because i sit a lot and i have a touch of rheumatism in my knee joints and legs. This is what my doctors call wear n tear and apparently i only have it mild and Ibuprofen seems to do the trick.

    But because i know i need maintenance and have been having an MOT lately then i would take up your advice.

    Thank you!

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  • Nope have nothing wrong with me! i’m afraid to disappoint you but have no thyroid trouble. no diabetes, no pancreas trouble and blood pressure fine. my lungs are okay. my heart is sound. my brain is in tact. The only thing i suffer from is swollen ankles and a bit of wear n tear because i dont go to bed to sleep and sleep in my recliner. I have vivid dreaming but i dont mind that. I need more exercise which i am having lately after all i am almost 70 years old. i expect things to go wrong a bit but honestly cant complain. Everything in the sex department is fine and yes thats still on the agenda hehe. i really have nothing wronf wirh me that exercise wouldnt put right.

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  • Hi Rachel777, i agree people can have adverse reactions to medication that goes without saying because that happens with all medication. All of it has that potential. Vaccinations have that potential but save so many childrens lives and stop children from being crippled.

    Im sorry you are one of the unlucky ones but would you stop medication helping others? Would you?

    i have taken psychiatric medication all different kinds over 45 years and never suffered permanent damage. I am on something i think will work. Would you say i should be denied this? As for your plight i think you should be compensated financially for your loss but would this change your quality of life?

    Doctors have to weigh up the pros and cons and what works for the majority of their patients if they didnt do that theyd all be quacks.

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  • Hi Sam Plover, i dont believe all those trying to help and understand the mentally ill are charlatans i just believe it is common medical practice to prescribe medication for people because believe it or not sometimes medication works for some.

    i wouldnt say psychiatrists deal with people that have nothing much wrong with them either but deal with people who have major issues. I think medical practice doesnt always work right and it is a case of training and speciality and there are good and bad doctors and good and bad nurses.

    At present i am happy with both.

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  • I first broke down and became paranoid and suicidal at the age of 17 when my mother sent me to my local GP who sexually molested me and when I told her she refused to send me to another doctor and nursed me at home with her. She didn’t use any techniques just catered for my needs and fed me and took all responsibilities from my shoulders. She help me sleep with a few glasses of tonic wine and basically both my parents were involved with my total care.

    I spent the ages of 17 to 23 drug free and never consulted a psychiatrist and my parents always looked after me at home. There came a time that this didn’t help and suicidal once again i consulted a psychiatrist and went down the road of drugs.

    My parents were intelligent people but didn’t have any literature at their finger tips on just how to help me and I wonder is “being with” and “doing with” the answer?

    I don’t think the answer to really making a difference in the lives of people who get psychotic has been found because it’s a social thing and once society accepts that psychotic people are not failures but can be creative and industrious and contribute to the whole of the herd then things will change for the better.

    At present it is accepted people like me have an illness that needs treating which puts us in an inferior light in most people’s eyes. If we take away that people like me do not get sick then that can only be a step forward.

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  • As a young woman of 23 my first encounter with a psychiatrist was voluntarily i sought him out after my brother who had been diagnosed and treated for many years seeing how emotionally disraught i was suggested it.

    up until that time i was under the impression all doctors were highly educated highly trained professionals even though i knew through an encounter with my family GP that not all were ethical.

    i found sanctuary in hospital and the medication knocked me out and made me sleep a lot and i trusted my doctor and welcomed the fact i had an illness and became a patient and not just a crazy bitch like my sister had me believe i was.

    i have probably had akathesia in the past i cant remember as ive suffered so many side affects over the years but when complaining my doctors have listened and changed my prescription.

    in between taking the meds i do have a condition which i had 7 years before being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. in fact i did go crazy and werent just upset by an affair going wrong also i had trouble with my sexuality.

    i was distressed and suicidal on thst first admittance and continued with all of my out of reality experiences and also my in reality ones too. i met my husband in a psyche hospital. my son is diagnosed bi polar.

    there are good and bad doctors and good and bad nurses like there are good and bad people in any profession.

    those that threaten admission in my mind are professionals lacking ethical moralality and are no better than Nazis and their eugenics. if that is the corruption of psychiatry in the States then it is something that really must be stamped out.

    i find although i have never been informed about medication and i have had my door broken down and been carried off at one point it is common practice for psychiatrists to want to treat their patients in the community here in the UK.

    the financial gain doesnt enter into it.

    i feel for all those people simply just going through a rough patch in their life who encounter doctors who decide unethically to admit them and force drugs on them are exceptionally unfortunate but i in my experience havent come across this happening to patients without severe symptoms.

    i admire anyone who can break away from the psychiatric system unfortunately i will never be one of them as my condition has never gone away and i still get delusional and psychotic. i am the blueprint for all those diagnosed. as my sister put it many years ago and probably still does. i am the crazy bitch. being classed mentally ill is a kindness.

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  • Hi Sam Ruck, although i understood my husbands behavior totally there was nothing in my power i could do to help him when he became manic although on one attack i nursed him at home but i think although i tried he had to be admotted in the end for hos own safety.

    He literally went into orbit and out of reach. i couldnt deal with him at all and had to have him admitted.

    Also the last time my son was delusional he terrified me and the cats. What was i suppose to do under those circumstances? I had to call for help.

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  • Rachel777 i have never heard a psychiatrist say that people they diagnose are dangerous. Never heard one ever say that.

    i am quite happy to believe that myself i have a condition whereby i produce more dopermine under extreme stress rather than believe i just cant hack it.

    i feel better for believing this.

    i find sometimes medication works for me. saying that it should always be a personal choice whether someone decides to use it or not with informed consent.

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  • There is stigma with the term ‘mental illness’ i get exposed to it all the time. I got to thinking about words in general. How the word ‘racist’ describes someone who hates people from another country. How the word ‘homophobic’ describes someone who hates gay people. I cant think of a word that describes someone who hates the mentally ill.

    Would appreciate someone on here letting me know if there is such a word?

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  • Ekaterina, I haven’t experienced brutality in the 45 years I have been an in and out patient. Yes, I have been pinned down and injected but I couldn’t just stop taking medication. I couldn’t and have done and it has been even worse. I’m afraid it was for my own good. I have a friend who is an artist though and she was manacled and put in restraints because she became mute. This should never have happened and was abuse. I am not saying it doesn’t go on and we have residential homes for the disabled where abuse carries on. Some of these have been exposed and closed down. I personally have never been abused that is all. I suppose I am lucky, but my husband and son haven’t been either.

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  • Hi Sam Ruck, while I so hear what you are saying would it was so easy as to give our loved ones all the love we could muster and they would be cured with kindness and affection. I and my husband loved one another deeply and we loved our son and our parents certainly loved us but unfortunately it did not stop there and we became, and i know of no other word to describe it, ‘ill’.

    When we were children both my brothers, my sister and I were traumatized but only two of us became ill. There is no other word in the English dictionary to describe it except insane, mad or crazy and I prefer the words mentally ill.

    The theory is unlike others we produce extra dopermine in our neurotransmitters which affects our synoptic clefts in our neurons because of the trauma which makes us vulnerable to psychosis and the other symptoms. It isn’t just a case of cheering a sad person up, it isn’t just a case of giving the person all the love and affection in the world, if they are
    under stress they will become ill and it will make no difference.

    One thing you could do for your wife is to make sure she is no longer under stress but this is hard to avoid as life has its ups and downs.

    My husband stayed well for 17 years even under stress because he was medicated before he died and in his words he had a good life. I hope your wife makes a full recovery and has a good life too!

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  • i agree chuck ruby it is a fact that people naturally suffer psychosis and whichever way you look at it people who have it lose touch with reality and its like being in a sleep state while being awake. then there are delusions and everybodies delusions are different. delusions are scary psychosis is even scarier.

    if you are a killer then you will kill when deluded or you will become violent. the whole majority never are violent. i dont believe the medications can make you do this. Unlike Dr Breggin although i firmly believe he is a remarkably compassionate doctor.

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  • Hi George! As long as we have media that sensstionalizes murder by people psychotic then we will have the stigma.

    i live in a small rural town and things i did in the past while ill are remembered but since my husband died i am building up a good reputation for myself.

    also media coverage is becoming more positive. Trump didnt really help by not sdding that the majority of people do no harm and here in the UK 2% of crime is committed by people like me who experience psychosis and delusions.

    which i think thst makes us extremely special individuals!

    the words “mental illness” and labels dont matter what matters is how the media cover it. That goes for literature, tv, large screen and social media. Social media is good overall.

    like i say i dont believe my psychosis or delusions paranioa voices mania or depression has ever been spiritual although sometimes were of a religious nature!

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  • there is something wrong with both your brother in law and your wife both have been traumatized. To say they have nothing wrong is belittling them as human beings with extrordinary life threatening conditions. Both need complete care. Both suffer. Whether you call one a paraplegic or one a schizophrenic what they suffer from is equally devastating. In my experience most medical staff i have encountered appreciate this.

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  • i dont really care what label you give it a certain amount of celebrities including prince harry here in the uk are lime lighting mental illness. we still have those who kill and that is broadcast but generally i think the tide is changing. when i explain to people what happens to me under stress and those that know me treat me with respect. there is one guy in the shame department and is a jehovahs witness. other than that people treat me with the utmost respect.

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  • like i said Ekaterina i had this condition long before i consulted a psychiatrist. Am grateful to doctors and to know what i suffer from. Do not feel it is at all spiritual. There is strong scientific evidence there is a deficiency in my neurotransmitters and i am very happy to believe this. i am vegan and have little glutamate in my diet and i dont smoke drink or take supplements. when i have my medication reduced right down ill consider getting more exercise.

    Good luck to you!

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  • i did it because my psychiatrist at the time refused to help me. now i have a very forward thinking doctor and am doing it slowly but although i could i dont want to come off it completely. just have it reduced. Dr Richard Bentall sent me the scientific evidence once people like me produce excess dopermine under stress. when i tell people this is what i suffer from they understand and treat me with respect.

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  • Actually my husband was depressed and manic long before he was ever given medication and i started to be ill at age 17 and didnt see a psychiatrist until i was 23.

    We had a condition or illness whatever you care to call it. My husband went out manic during the night on his motor bike and almost died and ended up in intensive care. Never having been given medication before actually medication made him well. I watched him become manic when not on medication for years just like my son and like all of these conditions they are dangerous.

    Some people who are treatment resistant should be assisted to become drug free. And more research needs to go into this and more training by doctors and nurses.

    I hate being in psychosis. I hate being depressed, hearing voices, being manic and having delusions and paranoia. I see so many people suffering. Im glad to sleep through these episodes which is kind. i appreciate doctors and nurses working through the night and making it their life’s work to come to my aid. Although better training could be given. Here in the UK doctors and nurses dont make billions of dollars they are dedicated.

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  • Thank you Ekitarina for that response. Yes agree one glove shouldnt fit all and there should be Advance Directives that are adhered to when made by a person who is sound.

    Last year i became drug free and went psychotic not because i was withdrawing but because i was under extreme stress and i had myself admitted voluntary and was forced drugs again. There should be options if a person isnt totally aggressive which last year in my psychotic episode i wasnt but police were involved and they insist i am treated so i feel the doctors had no choice. The psychosis lasted about a couple of hours and i wasnt aggressive but i was delusional for over a week. I needed sanctuary and was grateful to be there in the end but like i say the OT department was lacking except there was a nice walk when i was allowed.

    When i was first admitted in the early 70s doors on the wards werent locked until evening and you were free to go and come as you pleased. Things have changed so much because the OT departments were huge.

    With psychiatrists they tend not to recognize just when a person has well being or not and they prolong treatment when its obvious its not working.

    Psychosis is not always a bad experience for people. There should be a conversation about the nature of what goes on in your head at the time as it can reflect so much. That never happens. Also patients should be advised about addiction. It should always be a personal choice whether to continue with meds and always with informed consent. Thank you for a great article.

    my psychotic episodes although in the past have been of a religious nature i feel arent spiritual in any way but i dont dispute yours in fact are.

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  • Actually one thing that has always bugged me why are people like me given regular weekly or monthly medications? Wouldn’t it be better to just give people the treatment when they have an attack.

    It seems the worst most of us do is act silly. Except I was known to abscond and disappear to another part of the country and I also could have got on a plane and left the country altogether. This is something I dread my son doing because I wouldn’t be able to help him and luckily so far he has helped himself when extremely ill.

    My husband had medication for 17 years and was okay and got his life together again. It wasn’t until he came off it he had a manic attack and was in hospital.

    Seems it is the old adage “Prevention is better then cure!”

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  • Actually i believe i have a condition wherby i produce extra dopermine than other people when under stress. i ask to be admitted then refuse medication which is forced on me which further increases my stress levels then dopermine.

    The thing is there needs to be more studies with people suffering psychosis because its my experience mine doesnt last. Naturally. It has done in the past though and lasted for weeks.

    As for being labelled schizophrenic? I am glad my condition is recognized but society has to change not so much the wording. It will take generations to come just like it took people’s attitude towards HIV and Aids.

    I doubt very much exercise would have helped my first episode of psychosis. The right kind of therapy would have helped though if someone had explained to me and my family just what was happening to me.

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  • Apparently there is scientific evidence people like me produce extra dopermine in our neurotransmitters when under extreme stress. Then we are admitted to hospital and forced medication against our will or placed in isolation. Which further increases our stress then dopermine. There has to be better ways of nursing people. But you cant come off these meds quickly and i refuse to take them. So what is for my own good?

    I do not have an illness as such and have gone cold turkey and suffered psychosis before that way. My doctor is weaning me off the drug 10mg reduction over three months at a time.

    i do suffer flat moods for the first few weeks but that wears off. I do appreciate sanctuary except the occupational therapy departments have declined considerably over the years. They used to be amazing.

    By choice i dont intend being totally drug free because i get psychosis naturally and i feel a small dose would in fact help.

    My husband’s life was changed completely for the better on meds.

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  • While i know i dont really have an illness as such i have a condition. I react a certain way under extreme stress. Yes this could give me a chemical imbalance just like new mothers react post partum psychosis to the extreme stress of childbirth.

    I dont believe my psychosis is spiritual. I think the content of my psychosis reflects my lifestyle and generally how i perceive the world at the time which is distorted. i think if you kill in psychosis you have to be predisposed to it. Each personality is different the majority of people simply arent killers. The majority of people like me are vulnerable.

    We need support. Most families dont know how to deal with someone having this condition and there isnt the support out there.

    Sanctuary is most important. stigma surrounding people who have these conditions will take further generations to change.

    Can you do something yourself? Well i suffered feelings of flatness and then decided to go onto a vegan diet. This has helped tremendously. Even with withdrawals because im having the meds reduced.

    Do medications help? Yes they do for a lot of people.

    Is Trump right when he says shooters are severely mentally ill?. No! They could be suffering psychosis though and just have a predisposition to kill. They could be experiencing severe stress. We shouldnt all be labelled the same! The majority of people are basically good hearted.

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  • Hi! I have had weight problems for years on anti psychotics and frankly I am not convinced that they are anti psychotics. Psychiatrists expect their patients to put up with the side affects even if they are life threatening because they say with regards suicide ideation the threat is there anyway.

    Lately I’ve taken control of my diet and become vegan. Also these past three days I have found myself able to walk a mile or so. Due to my luck in having a forward thinking psychiatrist I am having my med reduced. To get down to a low dose will take me months and partly I will be withdrawing.

    Whether with my first psychotic episode I would have benefited from exercise I really couldn’t say all I know is that now it really seems beneficial.

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  • Hi Phoebe, like you say mankind has been taking hallucinigating substances from the begining whose to say people like us who have these traits natirally have simply inherited them.

    Basically it is for nobody to judge what helps us get by in life.

    looking at your remarkable artwork and writing you have done the right thing for you. Stay free Phoebe Stay producing your wonderful work. You have done the right thing for you!

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  • So agree because during the last ten years i have been attempting personally to be drug free and have suffered withdrawals every time similar to what im supposed be ill from. Every cut! So now i am resigned to be a medication drug addict for the rest of my life . i simply cant face the withdrawals when they are unrecognized and similarly my son could be permanently damaged through Seroquel. He is not drug free at present and suffering side affects from lomotrogine and haldol however the doses might be low. He doesnt believe it is so but i see it and helpless i watch on. He is terrified of becoming manic again. Thank you for that Cole!

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  • Thank you so much Elizabeth for your devoted love for your child and for writing your letter to the incompetent psychiatrist who almost killed your son.

    You now have the tools to protect your son and keep him away from psychiatry and i kept my son away from them for as long as was possible like my mother did for me but circumstances arose and as a 39 year old man my son is now caught up and entangled in psychiatry’s dangerous web. i feel he is damaged too by SSRIs and the doctors who caused his mania and prescribed them to him without informed consent have got off scott free as nothing can be proven. So inspiring to read your son has broke free but of course he will be emotionally scarred as will you all as a result of doctors who are supposed to be caring for people who have emotional issues and instead maming them with their quackery. Bless you and thank you for sharing your story!

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  • JohnChristine, thank you for your comments and I am grateful for what you have written. This is about civil rights of both men and women and those vulnerable enough to find themselves in need because of trauma experiences and abuse sometimes from those closest to them in their family circle. This is all about family and close net circles not just society in general. This isn’t about Love. Love comes secondary to control and parents sometimes wish to control their children simply because they can. Dr Breggin has simplified what Love actually is and is in a very privileged position in his life to make choices whether for the benefit of those affected by abuse or not. It seems anyone can write a book and I have proven that myself. As regards helping people that is another question.

    It seems everyone has agendas and to my knowledge there are societies beneath societies and underworlds which psychiatry is one and there is an awful lot of fake news out there. It seems that long ago individuals discovered there was money to be made in psychiatry and the mentally ill and employment where there never used to be employment. It takes a huge industry to cater for people diagnosed mentally ill and so many people benefit and make it their life’s work to gain from others misfortune. People who are diagnosed mentally ill keep not only drug companies wealthy but everyone concerned with people like me. I would say that Breggin lives quite comfortably thank you very much from the books he has published and he has created quite a nice lifestyle for himself out of the mentally ill.

    JohnChristine I ask you to consider whether your voice is being heard in the right media? Whether what you are saying is actually being heard in the right place? Thank you!

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  • I don’t require compassion coming from any professional because that is what they are a ‘professional’ they are not a family member or in my close social circle. I require knowledge of what I suffer from to a degree that qualifies them to be in a position of authority over my life. Over the many years I have dealt with mental health teams I have found one nurse who remotely covers this in his ability as my carer.

    I have been diagnosed Schizo Affective and am supposed to suffer traits of schizophrenia and bi polar. I am not a naturally violent or aggressive individual but I do fight back when in hospital and forced medication.

    “Female schizophrenics are more openly hostile or violent, or more concerned with sexual and bisexual pleasure, then are female depressives”. Women and Madness Phyllis Chesler

    To compare a schizophrenic with a depressive is not only doing those women an injustice it is like comparing chalk to cheese because what they suffer from is totally different in nature and there is no comparison whatsoever. Since reading Toxic Psychiatry I became angry and yes hostile towards medical staff including my GPs who I feel caused my son to become manic when prescribing him anti depressants. In fact I have watched by helplessly as he has deteriorated and them destroy his life with the result he has very little pleasures and any semblance of a decent lifestyle. They would blame me as an abusive mother and not their treatment and system. I have been no abusive mother and have in fact been a good mother except when I was overcome with the condition which makes my methods in motherhood even more remarkable. However, like all mothers I am blamed.

    As for myself although I get downhearted at times I am not a depressive and I suffer from delusions, psychosis, voices and paranoia although the condition has improved with my age and the fact I have spent 5 years in psychotherapy. I also feel intimidated when threatened and overpowered against my will and as a result I make my anger known to those infringing my human rights. In no way does this make me a violent person. Also I like sex and have not completely lost interest in that department yet unlike someone who is a depressive and loses interest in all things in life. You can’t compare the two like Chesler attempts to do and I can only presume she has never suffered any of the traits she likes to think she is an expert about.

    “It is often asserted that the medieval women accused of witchcraft actually suffered what we now know as hysteria” The Myth of Mental Illness Thomas S Szaz

    It seems to me that in feminism and the psychiatric system the witch hunt is still ongoing as regards women who suffer from the condition I myself suffer from. I do not have to commit any crime for the police to come to my home and break down my front door and physically carry me off to be detained under the mental health act a law made by men I might add. It seems women like myself are still condemned from all quarters and little empathy is given to exactly the situation I find myself in when the condition takes hold.

    Chesler goes on to describe the type of woman I am supposed to be always moaning and complaining and having had a husband who is long suffering as long as the dishes are washed at the end of the day. It couldn’t be further from the truth I am no complainer or moaner and I had a very happy marriage under the circumstances and was responsible for keeping the marriage going so long. I do however become aggressive when deluded and this no way makes me violent because I feel my world turning in on me from all quarters and I tend to wake up for spells of reality and see my life for what it is and it is usually a wake up call. I am happier alone and after 33 years of marriage I realized my husband was a total dependent and I didn’t want to continue the marriage whether one would call that love or not as he became indifferent to me and my son’s suffering just like the mental health teams are except they follow the law of the land and like to exert their authority over someone like me when the condition is full blown and they take it upon themselves to put me away.

    I do not need compassion I need people educated enough to know and put themselves in my position when I am deluded and psychotic and not to treat me with disdain or as someone who is inferior. In fact I myself believe I use more parts of my brain then any normal person which you could say in theory makes me superior.

    I need empathy and people who have been taught enough to relate to my situation when I lose touch with reality. Not the force of an archaic law which in my opinion still believes women like me are witches of one sort or another. I believe while laws are made by men to control and forcibly detain and treat women like myself and while those that fight for women’s rights still condemn those diagnosed schizophrenic and hold them to blame for their behavior then the witch hunt will continue.

    Very little empathy is given to women of my like and very few people can put themselves in my position. I believe I was born with this condition and it is purely biological and the medical profession is archaic and hasn’t moved on for generations as regards mental illness (or whatever description you care to give it). I still think medicine and knowledge of a woman’s biological make up is still in the dark ages and very little scientific studies are given to women and their biology and little is known because medicine is still a man’s domain.

    Although I don’t carry a broom I have two cats and feel most days I am still living in the dark ages where most domains are dominated by men and women like myself are still considered to be the witch who lives on the outskirts of the village and I am an outcast in society which I might add I really don’t wish to belong to in the end.

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  • Theresa, forgive my other comments as I too am medicated and have been for over 45 years. I get doped and suffer somnolence and also withdrawals at the end of the weeks injection. I get confused by constant friendly nurses who aren’t what they seem. My son suffered depression yes from a very young age and I protected him as long as possible but he is now wound up in the psychiatric system and has gone down hill these past years.

    I have lost contact with my family my brother also was a psychiatric nurse and is a staunch churchgoer.

    I have little defense at my hands like even you too with your family behind you have been helpless to uphold the welfare of your son and have had to witness his suffering more and more like I have to sit back and witness my sons suffering more and more.

    I haven’t given up and wonder if I will outlive him and yes who fights his corner when I am gone? I live with this daily entangled myself in a system named care which is anything but and is abusive and cruel.

    I am isolated like so many mothers and alone in dealing with a system that is overbearing and powerful. I am a small person and growing old. I have to die knowing I will be leaving behind a beautiful son who they will kill himself in the end or torture for the rest of his life. He has no life. Sleeps his days away and is up during the night online hardly being awake these days or having the sun on his face.

    I would support and help you Theresa in any way I can and my heart goes out to you as it does to other mothers like Sandra Breakspeare who founded the charity Chy Sawel and who has lost her son to the system in the end. Anything I can do in any way I will help and support you. Please let me know there is a way and I am many miles from you and live in the UK.

    [email protected]

    What they have done to our son’s is not only a crime against humanity it is the silent holocaust that nobody wants to hear about and disclose. Psychiatry is responsible for killing millions and torturing billions of young and old alike.

    None of us live forever and I believe that all the electrical impulses in our bodies leave when we die on earth and go into space where we are from originally and those electrical impulses are from our brains too. I don’t believe there is any such thing as a judgement when we pass into space I think we simply carry with us our experiences and that we are recognized for who we are deep down. Cowards and those shallow uneducated people who like to think they are important because they qualify as a psychiatric nurse or carer and who have power over those vulnerable will be recognized for what they are once they leave their own dead bodies. Space is vast and remarkable and unexplored and we are tiny but we will live on and those who have experienced the richness of sorrow and happiness will be recognized and treated specially.

    It is human to be cruel but it is also human to have empathy and be kind. Those rich in these emotions will take that with them when they live on and be recognized as valuable beings.

    I believe this. I just wanted to thank you for your heart rendering post and that I do admire your courage and determination and most of all the love you have for your son which I too have for mine.

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  • I have been on anti psychotics for over 45 years and last year with the agreement of my psychiatrist I came off the drug for three months. My circumstances came about where I found my son lost contact with me so did my therapist and I became very isolated. As a result I then became delusional again sought help and was admitted and forced more medication on me at a higher dose. So now my situation is that I am still being drugged. I do suffer side affects like weight gain and somnolence and have just spent the winter sleeping most of my days.

    However, I followed the doctor William J Walsh and read his book along with Dr Pfeiffer and their books and read and re read Nutrient Power and realized they had something and diet could in fact help people like me. So I became Vegan cut out dairy cut out meat because I care about animals and am aware of the cruelty done to monkeys experimented on in science laboratories.

    I have suddenly woken up and have lost 3 1/2 lbs in weight in one week. I feel more active and not as tired or over dosed. I feel alert and am not sleeping all the time. I am in contact with my son and haven’t given up on him and never will although the MHT work on him all the time and do their very best to keep us apart and turn him against me. I am after all his aging mother and why would he listen to me?

    All I know is since I have changed diet this last three weeks I feel so much better. I eat and enjoy my food so much better also and this I feel is no coincidence.

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  • My son is now 39 and I have watched as I have lost him under psychiatry. He is damaged. I simply go out to all mothers who witness the same happening to their children. What do we do against this wall of forced drugging and shock? It is eugenics at its worst. Mother’s like me must feel so small like I do most of the time and so helpless and how can we fight against this?

    Maybe one thing would help? Maybe if we became united?. Maybe somehow across the seas we could all become united and then become strong? Maybe before we expire to our graves we can free our children? I don’t know how this can be done but I wonder?

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  • Hi Sandra, first of all I would like to thank you for your bravery in what you have written here and how you have survived. I too am what could be classed as a survivor. There is nowhere to go for help. There is only doctors and medicine. Also detention. I have attempted after years and years to become drug free. I have failed so far. I came across a doctor Dr William J Walsh who has had results with nutrition and mental health. I couldn’t afford the tests by his practitioner but decided to change my diet completely.

    I have become Vegan and just this past week or so I feel so much better. Less depressed less clogged in thought processes and have become clear minded. This is just one week of becoming meat and dairy free. Remember it is not just us humans who suffer but animals at the expense of drug companies and then they are tossed aside like rubbish.

    I haven’t given up hope that I will make a complete recovery because I still get deluded and have all the symptoms of insanity and I am not sure if this will go away eventually. I will be taking Dr Peter’s advice and reducing my injection by 10% 5mg a fortnight and by one year and eight months I should be drug free. In the meantime I will continue with my new diet and being Vegan and know it can only do me good.

    I wish everyone here good luck and a better life free from drugs. It takes extreme bravery to fight a system as powerful and big as psychiatry.

    My marriage of 33 years ended because of the medication I was advised to take and the fact I knew i wanted to be drug free. Then my husband died. I know if he was alive today he would be proud of me and even prouder of me if I could make it in the end.

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  • Hi! I hear what you say as a mother and I too have a son who has been diagnosed with bi polar. He was never on social drugs in his life maybe very rarely he smoked a splif under peer pressure. He doesn’t smoke or drink. He is never in trouble with the law and has no criminal record although I constantly ask police for help when in crisis with him. He is on low doses of medication which he feels he will give a chance and see what the outcome will be for him. It helps him get by daily and he has suffered from depression since he was a small child of three years old. He suffers mania and psychosis. He has been ill since being very little and spent his life having two parents with a mental illness and we too have no criminal records. Social Services have never been involved with us as we were always considered to be good parents.

    I think you should ask yourself the reason why your son decided to take the road of social drugs to begin with and why now he feels that medication helps him. Like you say it is his choice. It is agonizing as a parent to see your child affected by the side affects and somnolence and insomnia these drugs can produce in someone but what they suffer from is worse and your son whether the walking wounded or not seems to need so much help which I believe whether you want to hear this or not you were unable and are unable to give.

    My son was never medicated as a child until he became very ill when he was 24 years old and he has been medicated ever since and he is now 39. He has a life. Not the kind of life I would choose for him but he holds his own. I have a wonderful relationship with him as he is gentle, intelligent, loving and is never in trouble with the law. He is not considered a risk to anyone but does spend time in hospital when very ill.

    As long as I live I will support him in any decision he chooses to make and support him when he is ill by yes agreeing to him being in hospital and medicated because that is the safest place for him and like I say he is on small doses and the psychiatrists do listen to me. I hope your son recovers one day as I still hope my son too recovers but it probably won’t be in my lifetime.

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  • Please bare with me but I have been doing some research this weekend. There is a link to copper and the mentally ill and most mentally ill people smoke. My son has never smoked. However I have been attempting to find a link between my son and me. He never was exposed to abuse. Nor was he in care. In fact apart from being separated from his father and me there is nothing to suggest he should get depressed or suffer mental illness.There was no link in my husband’s family. Except when he was little my son was exposed to orange juice and he became extremely depressed. This is the link between us now. Orange juice. I know it contains copper. Some people might have a predisposition to taking copper. Do people on here drink orange juice or eat oranges? I know this sounds crazy but there might be a link?

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  • Id say that all doctors and nurses go into that profession firstly because they care but they are human too make mistakes and get dispondent with health care.

    As for Kingsley Hall, Soteria, Open Dialogue Therapy and the Hearing Voices Network none of this would have helped me. I get voices, paranoia, delusions, psychosis and mania. Never went to see a psychiatrist for 7 years from the age of 17 to 24. I had these symptoms. Therapy helped for a time but did not stop my condition.

    I think that the drug companies are vast and make billions but I think doctors use the medical systems they feel work for their patients. I certainly couldnt be a doctor and make life held decisions about patients.

    I was a nurse and know of nurses who went into the profession for the wrong reasons. Thatcher brought in better training for nurses in the UK.

    We dont advertise medications here in the UK. I think the American people are very astute and don’t believe everything they see on TV or otherwise. I think people get desperate and search for help.

    Do I believe ill ever recover I probably won’t but the hardest thing for me to live with is that my son could die young like my brother. Suicide is a slap in the face for everyone concerned.

    I have to keep myself alive.

    Im going to have tests by a practitioner in London who follows William J Walsh PhD and I’ve read the book Nutrient Power and researched about him.

    I have found a connection in what he says are symptoms and my body.

    I will let people know what happens.

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  • I have only read two of your many comments Yeah I Survived and I so so agree witg you.

    The DSM is strictly a guideline for doctors fresh out of university it is not a guideline to life and all the adversity we face from the day we are born and sometimes before.

    I think people are so resilient hence Yes We Survive. I think people can become on the edge and for whatever reason attempt their life. I don’t think you have to have a predisposition to do this. I think you have to have a predisposition to hear voices, psychosis, mania, delusions and paranoia.

    I think there are are no tests and I think the doctor William J Walsh PhD has found such a test.

    Yes I think they should legalise social drugs most definitely.

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  • No, the psychiatric profession is not promoting death on the contrary it is attempting to save lives. However doctors are not trained correctly and there are no tests for people. This is where so many mistakes are made and so many people continue to suffer. I do not believe psychiatry is a form of social control or eugenics. I believe that doctors and nurses go into the profession to care for people.

    I am not a christian but I believe in life after death and I believe every baby is born innocent and life experiences make us who we turn out to be. I believe anyone can change at any time.

    Can I ask you one question. If you were in say a car accident and critically injured would you refuse help from para medics and doctors and nurses?. You can’t say that those treating injuries are using social control. This is the same with psychiatrists they are doctors just like Dr Peter. I just think that the majority of doctors are not trained properly.

    Then there is the question what if I take my own life and have assistance in this?. I don’t feel suicidal now and believe it or not I am very glad to be alive and I am grateful I have remained alive for my son’s sake. He needs me.

    I have found a doctor I believe can help and I am expecting a phone call from one of his practitioners on Monday. If people on here would like I will tell you of my outcome. I don’t believe my suicidal thoughts are because I am ill. I think it is something else and I think this practitioner who believes in nutrients affecting the body can help me.

    I met Sandra Breakspeare in 2015 and she told me all about her charity Chy Sawel and her son Anthony who was incarcerated in a mental institution for 10 years. He did get very bad unfortunately and now he has died this year.

    Hers is the saddest story I have ever heard and I intend to keep on supporting her charity which is named after her son Anthony now. She searched the world for help for her son and found Dr William J Walsh Phd who resides in America. I believe he can help me and my son. So I am going to find out.

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  • Anything that stops suffering of any description is a good thing. One man’s medicine is another man’s poison. Shakespeare tended to know about life.

    My son and I have prolonged suffering. I would try anything to alleviate this.

    You can’t change the status quo overnight and really although Soteria in some ways is better it doesn’t change much. Some people still need medicine. We still don’t know enough about our brains.

    I don’t believe people should be misguided or forced about medication if they are not violent and i believe in informed consent. I do know about side affects have suffered much in that regard but not permanently thank goodness.

    I do believe malpractice should be brought to justice which very rarely occurs within the UKs social justice system as regards MH.

    Like all nations there is injustice.

    I’m not saying the walking wounded don’t suffer but people like me and my son dont recover.

    Sandra Breakspeare is doing something really constructive about MH. And being an in patient so many times in 45 years I know some people can be violent and disrupt a ward so they need to be sedated.

    It isnt fare on others struggling or staff.

    Sanctuary is tantamount for people like us. Everyone needs it especially those emotionally injured. But it has to be under a controlled setting and I prefer people trained with experience rather than those untrained.

    Whether we have an illness I doubt it very much. It is a condition. It brings about great suffering. Whether you are the walking wounded or not you are wounded by life’s events. Wounds need to heal. Sometimes people die sometimes people have wounds they are born with.

    I believe people get wounded by life. I believe people sometimes never recover. People given the right help do and can. Everyone is so different.

    I don’t believe within the NHS doctors go into their profession to make money or dominate people for power. I think they go into the profession because they care. There are good and bad doctors there are good and bad nurses. It takes a University degree and lots of hard work to become a nurse in the NHS. Margaret Thatcher made the right decision there and created a better trained nurse.

    If alternatives come along that could stop my son’s and my suffering I would go for it. Like most human beings I look for answers.

    So far we haven’t tried orthomolecular treatment.

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  • I so agree Steve Mcrea don’t believe mental health issues are illnesses although I do believe brain chemicals are involved because i believe the brain does use chemicals in Neurotransmitters. But I don’t believe we know enough about how the brain works. There are also electrical components to brain waves. This is why psychiatrists use drugs and shock

    I think it’s a matter for re training doctors. I don’t think any doctor unless in a crisis should make on the spot diagnosis.

    I’d say yes loss is a big factor for people with these conditions. Whether it is an illness as such I really don’t think so like addiction isnt an illness.

    I think people need help and don’t know where to turn and doctors are available.

    I think Sandra has found an answer. I really wish I could get her started with her center. Her poor boy remains incarcerated. At least my boy doesnt spend long in hospital.

    In the future Sandra’s center will be opened. I wish it would be in our lifetimes.

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  • You can’t leave the walking wounded and those severely insane without treatment. This is inhumane. My friend Sandra Breakspeare has formed a charity Chy Sawel and wants to test people by using orthomolecular testing.

    This is the way forward for everyone. If I ever won the lottery i would give her £500,000 so she could open her center.

    At the moment psychiatry has no tests even Dr Peter has no tests. To me Sandra in her plight to help her son has found the answer.

    http://chy-sawel-project.co.uk/

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  • When psychiatry diagnose and people don’t react to the medication the way they expected then they say everybody is different yet they treat everyone with the same treatment. Very similar anyway. There are no tests given in order to confirm diagnosis.

    My friend Sandra Breakspeare has come up with her charity Chy Sawel where tests can be given. Treatment should be different for everyone because no two people’s brains are the same. Some people benefit from psychiatric drugs while others are damaged. Some people need ECT while others don’t and are damaged.

    We need treatment.

    Here is Sandra’s charity and if I ever came into £500,000 i’d gladly give it to her so she could open her treatment center

    .
    http://chy-sawel-project.co.uk/

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  • Yes I so agree Don. The dilemma doctors have is deciding what actually is ailing a person. Is it because they are suffering from life’s events or are they suffering from severe insanity ie delusions psychosis voices or mania.

    These sufferings are very similar although should be treated differently. One is caused through life’s events one is a condition of the brain. They are similar in appearance but not the same. You have to diagnose when your a doctor even Dr Peter has to do that.

    The prognosis for the walking wounded is more optimistic than my prognosis. Treatment should be different but it is common to treat everyone the same. You can’t.

    Like with all medicines people react differently. Some people cannot tolerate even coffee. Tests have to be given. There are no tests at the moment.

    I have a friend who formed a charity Chy Sawel in Cornwall and she believes in orthomolecular testing

    I believe this should be carried out before any treatment is given by psychiatrists.

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  • Like I say it takes professionals and training to carry it out. As for not erasing bad memories and maybe erasing good I didn’t find this. I lost all memory and was happy to start afresh. And learn again. I had such horrendous memories at the time and even now my memories are bad. I forgot where I was which helped tremendously as i had just spent months in hospital. I never forgot how to drink or how to use the toilet. I never had the privilege of becoming a doctor but I could never be a nurse or legal secretary again. Not because i lost my memory but because of the labelling. I’d say psychiatry can’t control the media. And a lot of it is fake.

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  • Taking away memory by any means is a good thing from some critically emotionally wounded people. You cannot deny them this help. I received 4 to 5 sessions of ECT in the 1980s. It took away my memory and while it did that I was in a very happy state. Then my memory came back and the horror of life hit me.

    It takes professional anethetists, trained nurses and doctors to administer ECT. I never suffered any permanent brain damage. Neither did my husband. My son has never been given ECT and I doubt he ever will.

    Those on the actual front line of psychiatry see remarkable responses in their patients.

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  • I don’t believe my psychosis or delusions were in any way spiritual at all. I simply believe they coincided with my imagination taking off at the time they occurred. All different and although very meaningful when happening really they like some dreams had no meaning. Although very profound. Nothing that could be deciphered and I had therapy for 5 years. I believe these conditions are a dream like state. Dreaming while awake. We know so little about dreaming and sleep i’m afraid. Once we learn more then people will benefit from this.

    In the meantime people find different help from different aspects of their life. Do I wish I had never had the condition I can’t say I have always had it. I believe I use part of my brain that some others don’t and that people might use with hallucinogenics. I use this naturally. Does it make me superior it makes me very different from the norm.

    I could have done with recognition of my condition without the labeling and stigma attached to it. I would very much have liked to have fitted into society in some aspects and not to be outside the herd. This I found to be the most debilitating aspect of the condition. I would have liked to have worked. I enjoyed working. I could have worked.

    I very rarely enjoy my delusions and psychosis and mania gets me into trouble. Would I prefer not to take the meds? No, because I suffer very little on them personally. I never give up but do become overwhelmed and want out of my situation some days. I happy to have the support I have. I have my negative and positive days. Today was very positive and I am happy. I haven’t been delusional since last July. I haven’t had psychosis either since then. I can go years without having it. Sometimes my days are really negative and I want out as I have wanted out so many times before. But I do something about that. I have a son to live for.

    I came off my med for three months last year. Then had another breakdown. I didn’t want the drug in my system but was forced to take it. I wrote journals for two months and read them back and realized just how I responded to medication. It did in fact help me. I believe it helps me still and certainly does me no harm.

    I have read Bob’s books including his poetry books. I met him in 2015. I keep in touch with him.

    Do I believe everything he writes. No. Like I don’t believe everything in most books I read. I read a lot. Research online a lot.

    I think people seek help and find it as best as they can. I believe people like us need sanctuary. I believe that we don’t always know what is good for us and bad for us. Sometimes you have to trust in professionals. I don’t believe that psychiatry is a business here in the UK. Or for that matter psychiatry is out for mind control of individuals. I’d say people today are more in tune with their emotions and so much is more acceptable.

    I will continue taking the drug and although I became very happy to be there the last time I was admitted to hospital I will keep out for several years now. If not for good. But I have my ups and downs and sometimes have to reach out for help. I will deal with this and overcome it. I lost my husband 10 years ago now and it has been difficult but I have had some very good days and have achieved what I wanted out of life. Except to go out to work because I have always had sleeping issues.

    As for people dying yes I have watched people die. Like all treatments sometimes they are not safe and people die or become injured. It is all there is at present. Talking therapy would never have helped me overcome my condition.

    As for losing 20 years. I am 68 this year. In two years I will be 70. I am old.

    My mum and dad taught me to question everything and I do and always have.

    Like I say today has been a very good day one of many. Tomorrow might not. That is life as we know it.

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  • If I was just a walking wounded I never would have consulted psychiatry. Seems walking wounded have choices it’s their own fault if they make the wrong choices. Therapy works for life’s discrepancies.

    As for drug companies controlling the masses I don’t buy that I’m afraid. People are actually living longer. Child mortality rate is at its lowest. Here in the UK we have our issues like most nations but the NHS is not a business.

    Without medicine people die. Sometimes things don’t work out as expected.

    Social work here has many departments. We never had much to do with them. Kept to family. We werent considered a problem.

    I have known the MH social worker here for years. A great guy. Available if I need him. Don’t need him.

    Seems you people have social issues not MH issues. Apart from the stigma I have no issues socially. I find I still have choices. Not unlike you people.

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  • Rachel777 I beg to differ thanks to people like Dr Breggin we have come a long way since lobotomy and drilling holes in people’s brains.

    Psychiatry although not many new treatment methods have been discovered has moved on. My MHT has improved here in the UK there is a crisis team, help for armed forces and help for children.

    When I first consulted a psychiatrist I was prescribed high doses of meds. Now it’s much less.

    There used to be huge occupational departments in hospitals now this service is less but we have tv’s in our rooms and although for security we are locked in we are allowed escorted leave then can go out by ourselves. The food is good although nurses have more red tape to deal with when they could be with patients.

    The last hospital I was in was a lovely place and so suicide proof.

    You do have a choice whether to take medication they can’t force you once discharged. They don’t keep you in hospital longer than they have to.

    Shock treatment is only used as a last resort.

    You do know when you feel better or not. You do have a choice and thanks to people like Dr Peter withdrawals can be safe. My psychiatrist says it’s my choice.

    I choose to be on the med. It helps me sleep. I don’t suffer voices anymore my condition has improved.

    I am not waiting for some cure to keep from having psychosis is my goal. I was free from admission while taking the drug. I get support

    I’m sorry your experiences aren’t the same as mine. I am not a walking wounded.

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  • Hi Starr, my husband has now passed and died in a psychiatric hospital of lung cancer. I have been prescribed neuroleptics for 45 years suffer no side affects but weight gain. I was ill for 7 years before ever seeing a psychiatrist. The diagnosis of schizophrenia made me feel my condition was recognized at first then I was happy to be in hospital. Lately I was happy too to be in their. I kept a journal and noted my reaction to medication and I felt better with the right dose. They got me on my feet. Here in the UK drugs aren’t advertised neither are doctors. It is not a business. Although the NHS is struggling I have the very best of care and benefits. Live in great social housing in a nice town in mid Wales. And this is all free. I get free prescription, free dentistry and free glasses. The NHS is a fantastic institution but occasionally things go wrong. There are more people needing its services. I always had a choice whether to take more than one medication at a time and chose to take one. Sometimes I would ask for it to be increased. I found my doctors know best. Now I am on 50mg depot Haldol Deaconate a week. It helps. Checking my journals it has no affect on my mood swings or thoughts it is my lifestyle. I am however doing something about this. I find sleep is so terribly important. We know so little about sleep and dreaming. My son suffers because he gets no quality sleep.

    It seemed from your story that your struggles in life could have led you to go either way either success or failure. This is like so many who are suffering from their life’s events

    I don’t just suffer from my lifes events I have a predisposition to delusions, psychosis, mania and hearing voices. Seems I was born with that predisposition so was my son.

    I had existential therapy for 5 years which really helped. I could have therapy from Terry Lynch but I feel the help from my MHT might be adequate although I am isolated at times and sometimes in crisis. I don’t think Terry could help in this regard although I contacted him recently.

    I have negative and positive days and like my son take it a day at a time.

    I am certainly not waiting for a cure and am not better off without the med.

    It’s always good to learn about a successful woman and God knows we need good social workers.

    Congratulations on your success. I am sure you will help many people.

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  • I have never encountered abuse from doctors except my family GP. Psychiatrists have to decide about who are the walking wounded and those critically insane.

    Shock treatment works by erasing memory and should only be used as a last resort. Some memories are so painful and are constant. It works for people like this.

    I’d say in the UK it is safe enough but like I say it works by damaging memory

    I know it helps critical people.

    I had it and my husband had it. My memory is fine so was his.

    It takes experienced doctors nurses and anathetists to carry out the procedure.

    I found it helpful for a few hours after until my memory came back. I’m glad I wasn’t permanently damaged if I was I would be disraught. This is the risk you take.

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  • So glad you managed to get through your education. Like I have often said I don’t believe that the walking wounded should be diagnosed mentally ill or prescribed psychiatric medication. Seems it comes into a lack of training for doctors. However, being drug free doesn’t work for everyone and sometimes the condition does not leave us.

    Saying people are spellbound whilst taking these medications and that they don’t know if and when they are helpful is like saying the mentally can’t make their own decisions. Obviously the medication didn’t work for you but then you are the walking wounded you did not suffer psychosis or delusions or mania for that matter and managed to complete your education. My husband was on medication for 17 years and did not become severely manic in that time which he did before and severely depressed. He was well until our marriage broke up. You can’t treat everyone the same. Everyone is different. Living one’s best in life is not possible for everyone dear I’m afraid. This is not a perfect world and never will be. Some of us have to be content with nothing,

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  • This is where the meaning quality of life comes into it. Most people diagnosed with a mental illness have poor quality of life. When prescribed several medications at once because a doctor doesn’t know what else to do for his patient isn’t helpful either. Stigma at work too. Flexible working hours would suit most mentally ill people. If given the chance we could work and be useful citizens in society. We don’t have to be long term patients.

    As for assisted death. Once dead you are completely out of it and don’t suffer anymore. The best way for people with psychological conditions has not been found for the majority. Society needs to change and this can take decades. People will still suffer though and those involved will attempt to find a way round this. Especially loved ones. Nobody knows more than them how their relatives suffer.

    I wish I was dead quite often and there are times I would appreciate assistance in this. I am not ill all of the time and quite rational now but only yesterday I was suicidal. Not caused by drugs. Caused by my lifestyle. Could things have been different yes of course butthere were no opportunities for work where I live. I don’t have the privilege of a good education behind me something I am not ashamed about.

    Consent is the question.

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  • Excuse me Rachel 777 are you referring to my comment? I assure you nobody has put me up to writing that. I wrote it with over 45 years experience of psychiatry and have read over 1000 books on the subject. What is your experience? I have no brain damage after having shock treatment and my husband didn’t either although they nearly killed him in the process. I was once told by a psychiatric nurse that doctors bury their mistakes

    It might enlighten you to know that most psychiatrists believe in their treatment and are after helping their patients. In the UK we don’t advertise neuroleptics or drugs. There are incompetent doctors and some abusive I have experience those as for this being about eugenics and social control I am not paranoid enough to believe in that piffle.

    For those children in care oh yes I was exposed to that too as a child by nuns. And I was sexually abused by my family GP. In my experience i haven’t met a psychiatrist yet who didn’t believe in his treatment although trained in the wrong way.

    I have watched people die in front of me in psychiatric hospitals and I have been the victim of abuse from nurses and patients alike.

    I am well aware of all the hazards of shock treatment and psychiatric drugs and although at times I feel I am damaged I am not. I have overweight and basically that is all. That is enough. Would I campaign to stop force yes. Informed consent is so necessary otherwise it becomes a violation against human rights.

    Nobody puts me up to anything and I’m certainly not afraid of anyone. I just don’t go in for all of this social control aspect to psychiatry. I don’t believe in medicating the walking wounded let alone shocking them either. Or medicating women on the change, with post natal depression or post partum psychosis. These conditions are strictly hormonal problems.

    The only way ECT could ever be considered to work is that it erases memory good and bad. Some people’s memory of abuse is crippling. Sue Cunliffe is not advocating stopping ECT altogether because she was once a doctor herself. She wants machines improved and the practice given with informed consent and all those damaged compensated and heard. I do so agree with her and I am so sorry she is suffering so much. However I have witnessed so much suffering. Also I suffer so much myself and so does my son.

    There are no straight forward answers in helping the psychologically wounded and no cures for illnesses that don’t exist. People suffer though and seek help. Not everybody can be helped and some come away from treatment more damaged. Sometimes though and people on here don’t want to hear this sometimes people feel their suffering is alleviated by treatment. At present there are few alternatives for the likes of me and my son.

    We dont have sanctuary. And the treatment doesnt work for us. It seems doctors are in the privileged position to help those suffering. I’d say that most do the best they can with the tools they have. Psychiatry however is still primitive. Nobody has the answers.

    But the fact Dr Peter has never had a suicide makes me believe he helps the people he treats. That the man in fact might just have something.

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  • Thank you so much Dr Peter for speaking out yet again against the atrocity of ECT. My friend Sue Cunliffe is severely damaged by ECT and has a child who is sick she has to take care of. She is attempting to campaign against uninformed consent about this treatment. I wish her every success.

    You are so right Dr Peter you should never beat a child or use force against them. Or for that matter any adult unless maybe in self defense and some would question whether or not even then. I have reacted in self defense to patients attacking me in hospital but I have never harmed anyone. In fact in over 45 years I have lashed out maybe three or four times and not done anyone any real harm. Neither has my son.

    So, where is the excuse to treat mental patients worse then criminals? Just where is it? It seems we are vulnerable and so taken advantage of and this can be done to any child. Children can’t defend themselves. Vulnerable adults can’t defend themselves. Cowards take advantage of the vulnerable. What about when those doctors think they are actually helping their patients? The misguided and the misled.

    I asked an elderly woman once if she felt ECT helped her and she said she thought it did, but watching her she was definitely a very unhappy person and to me did in no way seem to be thriving. That word ‘Thrive’ so seldom used for the mentally ill.

    My husband was given several sessions of ECT by a very misguided doctor who wouldn’t listen to his nurses when they told him it wasn’t helping him. I witnessed him come out of the anesthetic too quickly and he had to be carried back to the ward and was put on his bed. I was asked by one forward thinking doctor if I thought this should continue and I didn’t know what to do because he slept for several hours afterwards and I was scared because he was so active that some harm would come to him. He had already absconded and a search party was sent for him because the hospital was in the middle of sparse countryside. In hindsight I wish I had stopped it. There was a woman in the recovery room who was awake climbed on all fours on her bed and really shouldn’t have been given this treatment at all because it never stopped her mania and seemed to make it worse.

    It takes brave pioneers and progressive people like yourself Dr Peter to make a difference and put wrongs to right.

    I am sure you have heard these words many times ‘Thank you!’.

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  • I do believe love which exudes happiness is the answer to mental illness. When my son was just 6 months old my husband became redundant and it looked like him getting another job was slim. Having lived in poverty before I became frightened about our precarious future. Then I suffered one of the craziest episodes in my life. I never stopped loving my husband but the love of my new born son and fear of the future made me ill. I believe happiness cures most that ails us and now my son a grown man has experienced a romantic loss and is looking to be admitted to hospital. Any loss can bring about illness. Sometimes Dr Breggin love is not enough as i devotedly love my son but cannot make him well again.

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  • yeah denzig666 i agree totally. I also believe we are consumed by electric impulses in our bodies. I believe they came from out of space and we just host our earthly bodies and when they die our electric impulses some may call the soul go back into space. we are only here for the ride so speak to find out about earth and what it’s like to live here at any given time. I think this has always happened. I believe there is a God Almighty Ruler of the Universe and that nobody on earth has ever seen it or is likely to. I believe jesus christ was an alien hybrid. that his mother had a visit from an alien and was artificially inseminated. that joseph her husband to be also had a visit from an alien and jesus was half human half alien. hence he could perform miracles. of course he died. then went back into space. to me i am immortal and it is kind of like star wars. i don’t fear death on earth and i believe my husband is travelling the universe as i write this. may sound quite bazaar but has its rationality about it don’t you think?

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  • Hi danzig666 – ‘PSYCHOLOGICALLY, I believe in psychological socialism’

    yes me too. and the fact death is so much part of life. it surrounds us. but nobody talks directly to us about our own death. we will all encounter our own death. there is no escape. to control how and when we leave this planet should not be seen maybe as a failure in life as such but the fact we took our lives in our own hands. we had the ultimate autonomy. it wasn’t left to doctors or caregivers to say exactly when we should leave this world. we decided. we took it upon ourselves. death was no longer prolonged by medication or we weren’t drugged into oblivion. we decide when we commit suicide. why should it be considered such a tragedy. why should death be considered such a tragedy. if life continues and nobody really knows afterwards or if we are in endless sleep then we either enter a new realm of adventure or we know nothing about it. it is only a tragedy for the lives left behind and each has their own personal way of dealing with grief.

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  • what a remarkable person you are Carlene. I must have attempted my life 20 times at least i have lost count. now i know i have to live for my son. this last time i was going to stop eating and drinking and did that for two days with one day left to go. i called for help because yet again i thought of my son. so my plan is to just not have any pills in my house available for me to overdose on. i overdosed on vitamin pills and herbal sleepers. nothing happened of course. i googled the dangers later and found out they are just chalk.

    suicide prevention and i did make myself quite ill last time is something you seem to have learnt to do as a fine art. well done. quite remarkable.

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  • a couple of glasses of tonic wine got rid of my psychosis and delusions and helped me sleep thats all i know before i ever consulted psychiatrists and went on the merrygoround of drugs.

    and the little bottle of Indian Brandy my mum gave me a few drops of. it worked. I went and recovered back into society until i got labelled then everything went downhill except i got married and that was a happy marriage and i have a wonderful son who i love very much.

    Thank you streetphotobeing very much!

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  • Just wanted to say i read somewhere that wine is good for psychosis. Years ago when i first started with this condition my mum used to nurse me at home long before i went to visit a psychiatrist. she would take the world off my shoulders and lay me down on the sofa under a warm duvet after giving me a glass of tonic wine. she also used Indian brandy from a little bottle as a hot toddy. with mum’s love and care i always recovered quickly went back to work and had good years of life before i ever consulted a psychiatrist. She in her wisdom taught me another way but unfortunately i still ended walking down the wrong road.

    sometimes the simple things can be the greatest cures.

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  • actually ever since i have been admitted to this hospital they have injected or forced me to take something oral then they have messed about with the dosages every week. up an down. increased and decreased and my moods have been up and down too and all over the place.

    today had another meeting and you’ve guessed it the doctor saw fit to alter the dosage again.

    i wrote him a letter. then another quoting what Micheal suggest we say to these people. Word for word i put down exactly what Micheal has written about them simply not giving a damn. He is back Monday and should get it then.

    I have done more sorting my life out from housing and life studies from here on my hospital bed then any of them have done for me and this will be a three months stunt again. all for wasting police time and foolishly asking for help.

    Thank you so much Michael for your wonderful post.

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  • there is no question in my mind that the label of madness is detrimental to a person. a degredation ceremony is not what comes to mind being coerced or conned into treatment doesn’t either but accepting that there was something drastically wrong with my mind does come to mind and receiving help does. that it was the only help available and yes much better than none even if it did numb my feelings give me sleeping hours and take me away from me the torment then that was a good thing.

    the fact society didn’t accept me as being a valuable person well that is part and parcel of politics and where money is involved there will always be politics. if we were considered elite members of society everyone would want psyche drugs wouldn’t they? they would all want to jump on the bandwagon. i have no side affects except somnulance and i really appreciate that. i might heart disease but i am after all 67 and they are checking me over thoroughly at present.

    really madness throughout history has been frowned upon by every society. very few communities welcome it in my experience and reading we have been ostracized throughout history and generations. nobody when madness attacks escapes from the lowest to the highest in society. that is madness. if you recover then your lucky and can build a life for yourself. but if you continue then madness holds you and blights your life and you are lucky to keep a roof over your head.

    i consider myself not only lucky but also extremely gifted in that i will be finding a future now for myself and possibly my son. given god grants me another ten years then i know i can achieve this dream i have and others agree with me. those who you proclaim to be con merchants actually support me with this and think my ideas wonderful to benefit so many.

    it take just a break in someone’s life. just one break. it is not just what cards you are dealt with in life it is how you play them.

    i wish everyone on here the best of health and good wishes for the future

    there is a little wooded grove here by the hospital where a sculptress has carved a large wooded bird.

    she has written beneath it the words – have faith in the past – accept the present – trust in the future.

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  • where i am now on this psyche ward we all feel compassion for one another. you can feel compassion anywhere and in any place with anyone. it depends on you as a person and your own experiences in life. as a little community like i say compassion is shared but we have no tools to put that in a motion where other than words it would help any of us. the nurses and doctors have all the tools. like paramedics. without those tools although the compassion is deep it spreads little to alleviate the suffering. however those with the tools when they show the slightest semblance of compassion it goes a long long way. it happens. nobody here is attempting to take advantage or do someone harm. that i know. they are not con merchants. neither are paramedics. they are back up carers on the front line of emergencies and this to me today although not everyone is best trained they are indeed caring and nobody is taking advantage of anyone. and my medicine is what it is treatment. whether this treatment is wrong or not and isn’t up to date doesn’t mean the compassion is not given out with this tool. without tools to put compassion into work then it only runs a slight course and anyone can use words.

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  • actually paul keith i don’t get the drift of most of what you write although i am sure it makes sense somehow to you. as for the young lesbian and her father having police authority over her then when she becomes of age the law is on her side and he no longer would have authority over her.

    as for abuse i have been involved with psychiatry for 42 years and very rarely witnessed abuse only had one person verbally abuse me in all of this time. yes i have been forced medication on me and you could say this is against my human rights. but i had my injection three days ago against my will and am today a much happier and better person for it.

    but you don’t want to hear that do you. maybe things are different here. i do know like i say of abuse happening but not to me or mine.

    i wish you well.

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  • Actually Paul Keith I was married for 33 years before my husband died and he was a manic depressive. As a result my son my only child suffered abandonment issues and was sent to the GP and of course they bombarded him with drugs. Now he has a mental illness too. Also my husband was well for 17 years on medication before he died of lung cancer. I on the other hand have recovered but because i have been prescribed neuroleptics for 42 year i can’t get off them because the withdrawals are too painful.

    I was and have been through the system and seen many people with these conditions. As for an ordinary woman like myself changing 100 year old law like the Mental Health Act well even Sir Simon Wessley writes that it is an impossibility and we can only just review certain parts of it.

    Seems you are very ideological but not practical and down to earth. I have achieved also writing a book and draw cartoons of my situations in psychiatry. I hope go on to achieve further still being on medication.

    I actually find empathy is okay by me and all the nurses in the hospital where i am are empathic. I don’t need compassion I have enough of that for myself and I have enough for my son. As far as I am concerned strangers don’t buy into compassion. Why? Because they don’t know me! Seems the kind of compassion you deal out I can very well do without! You don’t know me yet you judged me. Seems you should actually begin to learn some empathy.

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  • Given the right environment anyone with emotional issues can thrive. In the right environment and it can be different for different people if there is only one person willing to reach out and believe that person’s story that harm was done to them and this is why they are reacting a certain way maybe years later after the harm has been done and as a consequence there has been to that person a build up of harm without a lucky break. Sometimes if compassion is felt for that person then it can mean a lot but compassion doesn’t take away the pain for that person who has suffered it takes an environment where that person’s needs are met.

    People always recover from emotional overwhelm and find themselves in a situation of dire need because they have been uprooted from a society that condemns their actions and says they are at fault not what happened to them. You learn if you are wise to read people but how do you make sense of people in a world where nothing makes sense and you are vulnerable?

    When the arm of the law says because you are considered to suffer from strange unacceptable behavior from time to time then the police can come and get you. How do you read whether a policeman has compassion for you or is basically just doing his job and following the law. The Law is compassion-less.

    Where the law is involved with the welfare of vulnerable people then those people are bound to suffer and compassion doesn’t exist. The law says we should be taken to a place of safety. Where drugs are forced on people this does not exist although many would disagree with me believe it or not.

    People have how compassion towards me and I have to them but nevertheless it doesn’t take away your emotional pain. It is a constant tight rope walk without a safety net and you are so lucky if you manage not to fall.

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  • There is only one way of looking at suicide and it is the same way as looking at death. Death is inevitable. When one chooses to die for whatever reason that may be we are looking at death. I personally believe the electrical currents which run through our bodies live on once our human bodies have expired. living now or living in the next world i don’t want anyone telling me when or how i must die. it should be a personal choice too many busy bodies interfering and playing at god almighty get me down.

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  • Hi Eric, once I actually convinced my doctor I would be alright coming off all my medication I had no trouble. Came off extremely slowly then had oral tables PRN to fall back on. Took me a while to figure what to do and the nurses had to find he correct syringe.

    If you are not too busy can you pass a message onto Robert and tell him there is an extremely good artist on his artist page. BARREN – Cheeky Ingelosi A really very good photographer

    If you want to do any justice to the mentally ill you’ll give her two or three pages of her own

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  • Talking therapies should be the first port of call when any patient suffering from what is considered a mental health issue turns up in a doctors surgery. Doctors have 5 minutes to spend with each patient. Assessing what is wrong is not possible for most people. So there should be alternatives available at doctors surgeries.

    Talking therapies should be available. I don’t really no why this has never been approached?

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  • Basically everybody who becomes a patient in psychiatry is a walking wounded. You go to your doctor with symptoms and in distress that doctor will try and help you. He won’t necessarily attempt to cure you. He will at the best attempt to alleviate your symptoms. That’s what doctors are all about. What has happened is that doctors and nurses haven’t been trained right have they. It is in their training to give out medication to treat distressed people who have what is considered mental health issues.

    Dr Healy when I consulted him recommended Clopixol because I was convinced I had brain damage. In fact I did have dystonia but it psychosomatic. After reading Dr Peter Breggin’s books on the subject and witnessing someone who did in fact have brain damage caused by neuroleptics.

    In any nursing and doctoring procedures with any medication there are side affects. Some people actually don’t make it as hard as you might try for them. I haven’t come across within the NHS doctors taking handouts from drug companies. i haven’t come across that. They might meet for a meal but as for receiving vast amounts of money I have never come across that within the NHS here in the UK.

    The Royal Society of Psychiatrists have an annual conference. There tickets are £300. I can’t afford that. Top psychiatrists get paid good money. Privately they earn £300 an hour. My psychiatrist on the NHS gets £100,000.00 pa.

    I have never come across doctors in the UK getting thousands from drug companies to promote their drugs.

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  • Dr David Healy and Dr Joanna Moncreif believe that for chronically ill patients the sedatory affect of neuroleptics have a place. My nurse Tony used to work many years ago connected with R D Laing. He worked in a psychiatric hospital. Did not agree with treatment. Left then went back to it. He felt that the psychiatric drugs did in fact have a place. Now after 33 years he is retiring next month.

    The medications had a place with my husband and kept him from getting manic for 17 years until he eventually stopped taking them suddenly. He was a chronic case..

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  • I did suffer traumatic events in my life. When I was 17 i became paranoid and detached. But there was a completely good reason for it as someone I knew t school wished me harm. I never descovered exactly why. Every time I encountered this person during my life she did me harm. Also at that time a young relationship was coming to end. Then my mother because I got rather distressed and overdosed took me to my local gp a family doctor who put me on librium. I can’t remember exactly when after I was convinced for some reason that I had cancer of the womb. So my mum said i should go for an internal examination. To my local family doctor. My mum was in the examining room with.me. This doctor had his back to her whilst examining me and he was leering down as he did it and it was very much a sexual act.

    I did tell my mum eventually when he molested my sister and she slapped his face. My mum said in disgust I should have slapped his face. But at the time I was convinced I had cancer.

    Traumatic events can take many a disguise come in all shapes and forms. Eventually through life’s events I did become overwhelmed and my brother arranged for me to see a psychiatrist.

    That was 42 years ago.

    I have never suffered abuse in any hospital stay. I did have one young nurse verbally abuse me. She warmed to me before I was discharged. I have been pinned down and injected when I refused medication but you can’t go cold turkey.

    I have been attacked by other patients. I have defended other patients being abused.

    I don’t recall my husband ever being abused either. He reacted very badly to shock treatment because of the anasthetic.

    Generally the nurses respected us. We got on fine with them.

    The doctors too.

    I still do.

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  • After being on psychiatric medications for 42 years I have been drug free since last April. I have no syndromes whatsoever. I have a few little withdrawals. Mainly I did put on more weight which although my nurse Tony is very patient with me when we are out walking it does hinder me. I just have to perservere that’s all. i am really hoping that the more the drug leaves my system the better my walking with become.

    They give me general check ups every year and I have nothing whatsoever wrong with me.

    I am just one of these considerably luck people to have got off scot free?

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  • I think these cartoon makings is a fabulous idea. The problem of course would be getting it promoted finding the right director etc. Which I think everyone is discussing. There are people who would be willing if there was a profit in it. Getting a star to make a voice over would promote it therefore there would be profit. I think actually going to approach Tom Cruise would be a huge step in the right direction. I think also he would be very willing. The general public despite the publicity Tom has had regarding scientology has not dismayed them has it. He still has a big fan club. It all depends on how successful at the box office this cartoon is and I think you anti-psychiatry would be amazing actually doing the background work. I do know somebody actually who has done the graphics for Star Wars. His brother is a best friend of my son. If you like I could approach him maybe possibly?

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  • When abuse is done to children they in their non developed emotional state understand things totally differently So as adults to recall that abuse the context is out of perspective isn’t it. Also memories fade with time. There is also the impact of such traumatic trauma that the impact is not absorbed in the amygdala right so that memory gets destroyed. Going back to remember trauma in childhood is particularly difficult. Even with the right therapy which is it out of reach anyway for most adults. However I think when recalled that memory is in fact true and accurate. It may be disguised and distorted a bit but I think in therapy if that is worked it can be helpful. Because with this trauma in particular sexual trauma there comes so much shame and guilt. Because it is never understood is it. By children. I don’t think in fact anything will ever change. As regards the abuse of children. I think it will get worse now. Especially as big pharma is involved. The best that can be done is to help those children we can to overcome that abuse and live with it. There is of course the media if possible. That is a good approach. I myself would like to create books for children. Adults do too need a lot of therapy. This is never available and not the correct kind to so many people. The media is a good approach. I think that is wonderful. Cartoon making. Film making. That is good. There was some mention of using Tom Cruise. I’d say go for it. Yeah. I think that is a good idea despite his connections with Scientology.

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  • Charles Dickens in his novels particularly recorded child cruelty and there are so many over the centuries who have been cruel to children. In fact anyone can do anything to a child or infant because as children we are so dependant on adults for our survival. There are so many who get away with diabolical acts towards our little people simply because they can.

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  • Its tragic what happens to these vulnerable children it really is. I was in an orphanage myself as a child temporarily while my mother had an operation. That was in a convent run by nuns and some of them were particularly cruel. Simply because children are vulnerable and defenceless. It takes a considerable adult coward to take advantage of a child. Lets face it they have no way of defending themselves do they. There are so many who have no conscience whatsoever who do take advantage of children.

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  • Actually suicide is only painful for those left behind. It is a way out. A self approached euthanasia. I think it is entirely an individual’s choice.

    If there is nothing after death then that is fine. If there is life after death then that is fine also. If there is life after death then I am afraid we are all going to die and travel over anyway.

    It seems that mankind is so hell bent on saving lives. Yes I believe in life but I also accept that death is a part of life. If we didn’t have mankind constantly interfering with death then maybe it would be a better world.

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  • I know a little bit about history but I am yet to learn of the atrocities committed on our most vulnerable human beings, children, as is occurring currently in the 21st century.

    When did mankind feel that his conscience was not going to be pricked whilst gag banging young 11 to 12 year old girls and drugging babies and children?

    Never in the course of humanity as to date has there ever been such vile atrocities committed against babies and children.

    I am ashamed to actually exist in this day and age where this is in fact happening and being powerless to stop just one of those children being brutalised in such a way.

    If ever there was hell on earth its this.

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  • There is here in the UK a charity Kidstime and its founder is Dr Alan Cooklin he is a family psychiatrist. He does workshops with parents and children the parents having a mental illness. His work is very good. Although Dr Cooklin is a bio psychiatrist I feel that he could be consulted about this and would very interested in fact.

    I don’t know whether you would think it a good idea being American?

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  • Actually I feel that as I worked with children for a short time that the best way to go about making any movie or cartoon for children is to in fact get a group of youngsters say from aged 4 to around 10 and interview them. All in the mode of playing. They know! They are the most important people here. Why is it that adults seem to think they know everything they need to know about little people.

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