A 50 year record shows Antipyschotics do more harm than good

Anonymous wrote:On the subject of reading, there is some evidence that with sz people find it difficult to read slowly along a line. I've done some literacy teaching also volunteered with mental health projects. I've honestly seen so many people who probably had a learning disability that went undiagnosed. I've since left this field as I just met too many co-workers including qualified nurses who wanted to explore "energies" and healing techniques. However not one person was knowledgeable or even interested in any science that could help a lot of their clients. Anyway that's my little rant. Hope this is helpful. Ask if you've got anymore questions.

From my perspective, (a diagnosed chronic SZ) language is a just frustrating tool, a social construct. If you are familiar with the concept of linguistic determinism you will understand the limits of language are the limits of reality.

A great thing about having a so-called SZ break is you fall out of the socially constructed reality that the majority of the populous adhere to and you can clearly see how arbitrary reality is.

Not being able to read a sentence is not a sign of an illness. Language is only a social construct; it will not hurt your health not being able to use it. Yet the use of language (or the poor use of it) is a key component in the diagnosis of SZ. Talk about social control!

Grunt Grunt Grunt! See, that didn't hurt me a bit. But it's hard to control/exploit a person that doesn't adhere to social construct's like language, it's hard to boss them around and make $$$ from them. I completely understand the concept of usurpation.

Open Mind wrote: After her final attack of mental illness Woolf loaded her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse near her Sussex home on March 28, 1941.

If mental illness were a real disease it would not cease to exist at the boarders of countries. Diabetes is the same disease from Canada to Cambodia to the Caribbean’s, unlike so-called mental illness, which can be more culturally specific and can stop at boarders.

You cite suicide as a sign of mental illness, yet in Japan suicide is a cultural norm. For example: How are kamikaze pilots explained?

When you read Woolfs life story, no wonder she drowned herself. It seems like a logical thing to do given her circumstances.

Hi there,
I was just interested in the research behind the visual theory mentioned because I have had a lazy eye since 1st grade. I was just interested since it was something I have never heard of before and I can have an open enough mind to see that it is possible that when you are constantly having to adjust your vision it may possibly effect your mind in some ways. Not saying that it is true or not...just interesting to ponder . About the history of Virginia Woolf, I realize that she had what we consider to be 'mental illness' (I was an American Studies major with a focus on Women's Studies - not so good for any job but working at a museum like I did before the slippery slope of mental health meds ) but given the deaths of so many of her loved ones starting at a young age...I still have to stand by my own theory that 'mental illness' is many, many times developed from situation and not a chemical imbalance we are born with. Don't want to start an arguement here...just basing it on my own experiences and then now backing it up with the biography posted about Virginia Woolf. And if it is developed from situation(s), then how can it be considered a 'mental illness'. I guess I just hate that term and how loosely it is given out as a label for anyone who is suffering emotionally and then how the drug companies and drs. paint it as an illness with conotations that if it is an illness it needs medical treatment via medications. Soapbox again...sorry

This leading me to my second comment on Soteria . I have to order the book online...no luck finding it locally. Guest, since you posted that you are involved in getting a similar place off the ground...would you be interested in sharing more about it? If you would rather email me personally about it my address is jryankowsky@aol.com. I am finding myself fixated on thinking about this more now. But, my 'vision' has been more centered around giving a safe and caring environment for people who are suffering from depression, stress, anxiety, etc. and are being misdiagnosed with 'disorders' when all they may really need is someone to listen without being cut off by the clock and a place to come and relax and connect with people. I think that the explosion of 'mental disorders' comes directly from the fact that we aren't as connected to each other as we once were and that the stress of society is creating so much anxiety that when we add the 'miracle' drugs is only making things worse. Ok...soapbox again .

Thanks for anything you can share about your project....

stopthemadness wrote:I still have to stand by my own theory that 'mental illness' is many, many times developed from situation and not a chemical imbalance we are born with.

I couldn't agree more!

As far as the respite center progression, I'll be seeing my colleques in the next fortnight and I'll be updated. I will use your email address when I have more details.

BTW, I am not a resident of the USA. I'm glad you found the FDA exposed article usefull. It's difficult to lobby a US department if your not a citizen of that country, but what happens in the US basically effects the rest of the Westernised world.

Unfortunately, when the US bans something they just ship and sell the excess stock to another country.

Thank you so much for any information you can send. I am looking forward to reading about Soteria when the book arrives. I really appreciate you sharing your information on subjects like the FDA even though you don't live in the U.S. You are so right about the influence of America on the rest of the world. Even though some will think that I am being unpatriotic by saying this (which isn't true), I really think many other countries need to stop looking up to the U.S. for guidance. I mean look at the general population. Many may seem 'successful', but there are so many more who aren't and the corruption that goes on is disgraceful and so much so that many don't even want to admit that it happens. I feel that we are free, but are ending up at the end of the day to be free to be extrememly manipulated. Sorry to anyone that this offends, I don't mean it that way...just more as a plea for us to wake up and get back to what our forefathers intended in declaring independence and democracy. Ok...way off topic...sorry . Thanks again though for the anticipated info

stopthemadness,

Go here. It's a great resource that is continually updated.

http://www.ahrp.org/index.php

Thanks again. I had seen some of the infomails from this site, but hadn't seen this section before. Chock full of information that is for sure . Thought the FDA article was interesting since it was dated prior to the advisory meetings and sounded like the results would be towards requiring the long-term studies...like we have seen that was not the recommendation of the panel further emphasizing who really has the control...the drug companies who were so well represented. Also found the link to the letter about the Neurontin cases interesting since I was put on that for almost 2 yrs after my initial adverse reaction to Celexa landed me in 2 psych hospitals back to back. I was put on it during my first stay I believe and ended up back in the hospital the same day of my release for overdosing and ended up on the cardiac floor with 24 hr supervision until transported by ambulance to another psych hospital at the other end of the state. I was eventually taken off the Neurontin and switched to a so-called 'better' power combination when I just kept getting worse and my life was centered around not if I would be going back to the hospital, but when. Would like to say that it got better off the Neurontin and that I could just pin point that as the only cause, but since I was on many, many meds and none of them worked...and not only didn't work but made it so bad that I don't even know who that person was, I am totally convinced that all of these mental health meds have the potential to cause significant harm and this is being revealed each and every day. And how convenient for the drug companies that if you are on multiple meds it is almost impossible to hold them responsible for the side effects of one...even though there are thousands of others with the same story! And how sad that the government has the drug company's interest in mind and not public safety. I have found it interesting recently that I remember reading something that they don't want to make the public scared to take the meds and therefore creating a public safety concern or something...what are they doing with the bird flu thing! They say over and over that the risk for these meds is 'small'...well right now as it stands it looks like the bird flu risk is small...doesn't mean the risk won't grow...same as the meds if you ask me. But, it doesn't stop the media from scaring the pants off everyone...I don't see them doing the same for the meds which are responsible for many deaths and for people suffering. Different yet the same? Again, off topic....sorry .

stopthemadness,

I think it's all contained in the article thread "Drug lobby second to none".

In addition, with the Bush families financial interests in Eli Lilly I'm not surprised that the public is lied to. It's all about money and power.

At least you're a wake up to it and got off the meds and away from the quacks. Stay strong, it will be a long fight, but we will win.

BTW, I have you heard of "noncompliance-with-treatment disorder (No.15.81)" listed in the DSM IV?

Bio-psychiatrist's are greedy power hungry scum.

Yes, I still have to read all of that drug lobbying article. It looks like a good one though. I would like to say that I am shocked with the many links I am finding out about between government and the drug companies, but it is something I speculated about long before even reading any of these articles that confirm it. Writing this reminds me of a poem I wrote a couple of days prior to my 2002 hospitalization (many, many others written during this time something I could never do before or since meds...something I find interesting) Anyway, thought I would share it if that is ok? I have scanned them and posted to my site, but I think they are hard to read that way so am thinking of just typing them all out...anyway it gives a good view into the mind of a med-induced manic/psychotic patient. (All of the grammar, punctuation, and capitalization are as they were written.)

Lost and away
Gone for a day
Maybe more and maybe less
Who knows with this whole mess
They think i care
I know they don't
We'll see who wins
in this crapshoot of wits
Colors wiz by
they think i know why
i think they shoud
as the professionals don't you?
In this world we call glazed
We all search for a clue
The glaze is cracked and we know not why
that is how we pay and cry
the answers come so slow
will we ever know?
The professionals rake it in
as they come up with theory time and again
is what they say based on truth
or what was read 5 min. ago in a book?
Where do they come up with it on a guinea pig?
take me i say and use me instead
as the next experiment and what would be the difference?
they think i am wrong with what i say
i couldn't be more right and the truth just hurts more each day.
You fumble through your job like no one i know
only polititians, lawyers and the like could be
unreliable and unaccountable so
So, get off my back when you don't even know
Remember I am the one who has lived in this head.
You think about that the next time you reach for that pad and pen.

I wonder if the "noncompliance-with-treatment disorder (No.15.81)" that you mention existed as a diagnosis then? I bet they would have thrown that into the mix if they could have. I think this might indicate how frustrated I was with them and they with me . I also found this one that kind of relates too written the next day, but with 9 other entries in between...boy was my mind racing!

My threshold is gone
My chatter won't stop
And I can't keep up with this madness and carry on
We will have to find a way out
The doctors say wait
Patience is virtue
With each passing minute I quake
My cigarette burns down to the nub
My teeth will follow unless this stress ends
Time released meds are the new road to try
i'll give it a shot; what the hell i reply
one more person who says they know what they say
one more person who says trust, but i'm still leary the same
wouldn't you be after all these years
i know others who have had it worse, but that makes it scarier still
We come here for help and although they try you wonder
when will be the next time you will meet here by and by
Hopefully never and you must understand why so many
of us are at the end of our strand.

Hmmmm...emotionally draining to re-read these, but I am convinced that there is a reason that I wrote all this down with dates and sometimes the time in such a mad frenzy and am hoping that it will reveal something since it is such a different rendition of who I was or who I am now, but definitely who I was on the meds. I was thinking the other day how of course people trust and take the meds because they are in a very vulnerable place and are desperately seeking something to help - that was how I was. Then when on the meds (for someone with a reaction like mine and so many others) it is like you are driving a car that has been hijacked with a gun to your head. Of course you don't want to be doing what you are hearing, but you have to and your 'free will' or freedom of choice is removed or seriously impaired at the very least. And then you are manipulated into believing that even though you are getting worse not better, this is your only option...oh yes, unless you want to get your brain shocked by electricity...been there done that too. Guess you will do anything to get yourself better, but in hindsight I can see that what I am doing now to maintain balance is much easier and safer in the long run . Hope this wasn't inappropriate to post here, just thought they related in a way....

It's really amazing how we are on the meds and how different it is from what we are really like. When I was nuts on drugs I didn't want to write down my bad thoughts, I wanted to only write down prayers I was saying, and happy things. It was an exercise. Actually I can't remember for sure whether I wrote down bad stuff but if I did I must have immediately thrown it away or used a lot of euphemisms. Anyway I "lost" those records, I think I threw all the notes away after I got better (stopped the drugs) but I was trying to focus on positive stuff to keep myself from going more crazy.

My doctors were all new when I met them for the first time- not a single one knew me before the Zoloft except my OB - and if you ask them later they all say, well we had to do something! (recommend I keep taking Zoloft) when they didn't even know what I was like before. It was my stupid OB who carelessly handed me samples and dismissed the pharmacist's statement that what I was experiencing was drug-induced, and said that was total garbage.
What an ego trip.
Now he is too sick to work, I wonder if that was impairing his judgement at the time or if he was just a major jackass most of his career.