There are no accurate, objective criteria for "diagnosing" someone as mentally ill, hence there are no accurate, objective criteria for considering someone improved or cured. People who are labeled "mentally ill" have complex problems which cannot be solved by pills or shots. On the contrary, psychiatric drugs add to their problems by dulling the mind, causing physical ailments, and creating dependency.
All psychiatric drugs, including sedatives, influence neurotransmission. So do illegal street drugs. That's precisely what makes them dangerous and addictive neurotoxic chemicals. It is not safe to tamper with neurotransmission.
People who are prescribed psychiatric drugs are not tested for levels of serotonin, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters. Such tests don't exist. Neurotransmitter levels in the brain can only be determined on sacrificed laboratory animals. Psychiatric drugs are prescribed on the basis conjecture or as a matter of policy.
The government itself has no laboratories or scientists to do such research. It bases its knowledge on research results that are provided by the manufacturers of the drugs. The manufacturers also control which results are disclosed to the government. Approval of the drugs is as much a matter of political negotiation as of scientific criteria.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. The harmfulness of psychiatric drugs has been known for decades, but unlike the infamous thalidomide, doctors are allowed to, and do, continue prescribing them, even as part of forced treatments. Thalidomide caused public outrage, probably because it so obviously and sensationally harmed infants born to "normal" mothers. The side effects of many psychiatric drugs are equally grotesque, but the general public doesn't know about them because, when seen, they are not associated with psychiatric drugs, or because the worst victims are hidden away in institutions. Without public outrage, the government is not motivated to act, particularly considering the financial and political interests at stake.
Referring only to physical side effects, some psychiatric drugs, in particular the neuroleptics, have ADR (adverse drug reaction) rates of 50% during the first year of use. After long term use the rates rise to nearly 100%. Psychiatric drugs are not comparable to medicines prescribed for somatic ills because:
a) most medicines are taken only a short period, whereas psychiatric drugs are continued indefinitely;
b) most medicines do not cross the blood/brain barrier nor affect the central nervous system whereas all psychiatric drugs do;
c) side effects from medicines commonly disappear when the drug is discontinued, whereas many side effects from psychiatric drugs are irreversible.
In fact, some side effects from psychiatric drugs emerge after the drug has been discontinued. The physical side effects of psychiatric drugs can be highly disfiguring and debilitating, not to mention the damage to mental functioning.
By the time an ADR appears, the brain may be conditioned to the drug (addiction). Discontinuing the drug abruptly will cause serious, often dangerous physical as well as behavioral reactions, possibly resulting in involuntary committal and forced drugging. At that point the drug will be interchangeable only with a similar drug, which will cause the same side effects.
Unfortunately, doctors do not always act in their patients' best interests. This is particularly the case in psychiatry, where:
a) no effective medical treatments exist;
b) patients' complaints are often not taken seriously;
c) side effects are commonly mistaken for a presumed mental illness;
d) the interests of a third party, for instance the convenience of employees of an institution, may take precedent to the interests of the patient;
e) doctors themselves are often misinformed because they glean their information about the drugs they prescribe from the manufacturers' marketing campaigns.
Source:
This material was taken from a book entitled
Click here to download the entire book in PDF format (approx 600k in size). You will need to click on the link with your RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON and then choose to 'Save Target As'. You will also need to grab adobe acrobat to be able to view the file. You can do so by
clicking here.
Or click here to read the book online. {Added June 1st, 2001}
June 2nd -
click here to read latest version. I converted it from PDF into a webpage but have not yet sliced it up neatly into chapters ...
Here is the forum where I first read about the book. It lists Mira's email address.
Walter by Mira.
ISBN 90-805136-2-8
Note - this may not be as recent a version as the PDF file. This will be remedied as soon as I get the time.
Some Links
Click here for my list of 'Interesting Mental Health sites'
The case against psychiatric coercion by Thomas Szasz
Mental health professionals who oppose involuntary treatment
Antipsychiatry site with a whole swag of links & articles and the world-famous Antipsychiatry Reading Room ...
Excerpts from "Toxic Psychiatry" - plus some excellent links
What You Should Know About Psychiatry and Psychiatric Drugs
Should the use of neuroleptics be severely limited?
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
The Politics of Experience by RD Laing
Unshrink! - alternatives to psychiatry
Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide
National Empowerment Centre article - also tons of links
My first Zoloft plus thoughts on the brain & the soul
Update May 29, 2001 -
Seth Farber - author of The adventures of a mad psychologist
More links & articles - including interview with Thomas Szasz
Shoshanna's Psychiatric Survivor's Guide
In their own words - various quotes about the DSM (the psychiatric bible)
Psychosocial Manipulation of Human Populations
Say NO to psychiatry (if only it were THAT simple)
Pseudoscience & Psychobabble Page - defunct?
Brainwashed by Psychobabble? - mind you, I offer these links as food-4-thought only. I do not nessecelery agree with the viewpoints raised. For instance, I personally do not see Hell as a 'place' but rather a self-induced state-of-being. So, I'd probly have some interesting chats with the authors of this site ...
{Interview with Neale Walsch, author of Conversations With God}
The above quote about psychobabble is from the writings of
John Rosemond ...
Therapeutic Madness by John Lynch
Nabokov on Freudian Psychology
Normal Personality Disorder - it is all in the of the beholder
Interesting debate abt psychiatry & people's brains
Interestin article about Full Spectrum Light
Your bear is becoming a butterfly - Gil Lopez,
star of
'We don't live under normal conditions'
When others demand that we become ...
"The Human Evasion" - an analysis of sanity by Celia Green
Schizophrenia: a Nonexistent disease by Lawrence Stevens
Some people still aren't ill! by Jared Blackburn
Writing your own philosophy of life
Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical
Support Coalition - a huge page of links. Aint checked 'em all out just yet but they look worth a peek ... especially the home pages of Kari Ann Owen & Mario Heilmann to name but two ...
Spirituality & mental health are linked ...
Gaining control of the new awareness
Update July 20th 2001 -
People Against Coercive Treatment
The Mandorla - 'the study of madness leads to greater sanity'
Sally Clay is a Buddhist, poet, psychiatric survivor ...
People who experience mood swings, fear, voices & visions ...
School Shootings Linked to Psychotropic Drugs Such as Prozac, Ritalin, Luvox, and Paxil
SSRI drugs made healthy volunteers suicidal
Sept 2001 -
Centre for Psychological Alternatives to Biopsychiatry
More atricles about the fraud of ADHD & Ritalin
Personal Accounts by Patients, Trainees, and Family Members
Please hear what I'm NOT saying ... - some excellent poetry from the AESOP newsletter
Faces in the dark - they have an 'Am I crazy?' page, which makes some excellent points ... if only ...
It's the system that's crazy ...
Frank Sterle's writings
Update August 2002 -
A Finnish patient (no pun intended)
Mind drugs may hinder recovery
A few more links ... as listed below:
Links page - includes jung web, prozac linx etc ...
Dark side of psychiatry - oops, sems defunct ...
More about optimising the grey matter inside your skull
Do you sense a theme ...
Doing harm (see also parts 1, 2 & 4) - the wonderful enchanted world of modern psychiatry ...
from the Humaniversity site
... welll, try a couple of these ...
Last update: August 3, 2002
