I've reprinted below some extracts from a deliciously subversive story about a trainee psychotherapist given an assigment by his master to steal some cookies from a store. The lessons drawn from this story bring to mind the story of another subversive, Huckleberry Finn, who wanted to help Jim, the runaway slave, yet also knew he was guilty of stealing property (Jim) from Miss Watson. Huck opted to go against the moral and legal standards of the time and work to free Jim.
How I got away with stolen cookies and created an alternate reality: a clue to the strategy used by big pharma and the APA
Saturday, January 14, 2012 by: Mike Bundrant
"I want to you steal some cookies from the grocery store. But don't just sneak in there and put a box under your coat. Do it in a way in which you create a distorted reality and walk out of that store with the manager's permission to take the cookies."
Most of what I learned from the Mental Health Underground has come to me slowly but surely over the years as I have matured. The most poignant lesson of all is that reality, and the sanity that comes from knowing it, is a mutually created thing. We create and share it together. If someone doesn't see reality the way most people do, he is considered crazy, out of touch. Schizophrenics fall into this category. Most people are not hearing voices come out of the walls. When someone does, he gets drugged up until the voices are smothered in a warm, chemical blanket.
Who created the reality you share?
When a person creates a bizarre reality and expects you to share it with them, you may not react well. The contrast between the bizarre reality and the one most people agree upon is too great. What happens, however, when the bizarre reality seems plausible from within the agreed upon one? The bizarre version has great potential to be adopted and shared, especially if the proponent of that reality has power or credibility.
In my case, the store manager accepted the scenario I presented, a bag full of items that I purchased. He had evidence of my credibility, as he knew of the bag I had left behind earlier in the evening. I altered that reality only slightly by including the mint cookies and it still met the manager's approval. The manager failed to understand the layers of deception, however. He didn't know that his memory of the forgotten grocery bag was part of my treacherous plot all along. What gave my story credibility was the false scenario that I created from the beginning.
What does this have to do with big pharma and the APA?
Everything. These organizations have fabricated a version of reality that mental health patients and helping professionals alike are required to accept. That reality has less to do what patients actually need or what is really going on in their lives and more to do with how to efficiently get their money while minimizing liability.
Share a reality that heals, not one that steals
The hidden blessing of my involvement with the Mental Health Underground is that it gave me a chance to share an incredibly useful experience with a few like-minded people that didn't buy into the system. Although I admit some of our experiments were foolish, they pale in comparison to the vast experiments being perpetrated on humankind by those in power who will never feel bad enough to make amends for their stolen cookies. They play for keeps and it is your mind at stake.
Rather than buy into the mental health trip laid out in the DSM, opt for learning how your mind and emotions actually function. Learn to master your own state of being. Discover how to communicate well and how to manage conflict. Learn useful tools, not useless diagnoses! This is the path to health and healing.
Read the full article here: http://www.naturalnews.com/034641_alternate_reality_Big_Pharma_psychiatry.html
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
The best and cheapest alternative therapy for schizophrenia
Information about alternative therapies for schizophrenia is cropping up more and more in research journals and in the media, which is a welcome change. In the past, it was almost impossible to find information about schizophrenia except in the medical context of "debilitating and chronic illness requiring life long medication." I have extracted some recent studies that are reprinted below. What I have to say may sound strange coming from someone who has promoted diverse alternative therapies ranging from sound and music based therapies, to drama therapies and cathartic psychotherapies.
Here's my two cents worth. Alternative therapies to treat schizophrenia may not be necessary. Plenty of people I have come in contact with through this blog and from reading recovery stories, have never gone in for orthomolecular therapy, or ridden a horse, or participated in dance or drama therapy. What I would consider the most basic alternative therapy that works for most people is take time out to rest and reflect, and to have the non-judgemental and encouraging support of family or a close friend or friends. I call this basic therapy an alternative one because it is actually contrary to what a lot of people believe. The public mainstream still invests in the idea that schizophrenia is a debilitating, chronic illness that medications can manage. Encouraging growth at home is also contrary to how a lot of people are treating their relative, who they have come to view as having a disease. To quote from the Sheila Mehta/Auburn University study testing whether the belief that a disease view of mental disorder reduces stigma:
In general, the disease view did not improve attitudes, except in terms of blame. It did, however, tend to provoke harsher behavior. In contrast, the psychosocial view induced treatment no different from that toward normal others. The results provide little support for the claim that regarding the mentally disordered as sick or diseased will promote greater acceptance and more favorable treatment.
The therapies I have written about in my blog are icing on the cake. They can help and do help a person to be more at ease in their body and mind (enabling them to stop relying on meds), but all of the work the therapies do counts for nothing if a person sees himself as fundamentally a chronic case or if his family and friends treat him as such. You can practice alternative therapies, but if you return each day to an environment that is critical and unnurturing and which supports your patienthood, all the good they have been doing for you will undone.
So, here are just three of the therapies that are gaining attention. I've quoted the National Post (horseback riding) and The Cochrane Review research for dance therapy and drama therapy.
One doesn’t really expect to see horseback riding and psychiatric illness mentioned in the same sentence, let alone combined as a form of health care. But a recent Canadian study suggests that riding may actually be beneficial for people with schizophrenia. And that is only the tip of the iceberg, it seems, when it comes to horses and treatment.
Dance therapy (also called dance movement therapy) uses dance and movement to explore a person’s emotions in a non-verbal way. The therapist will help the individual to interpret their movement as a link to personal feelings. This review aims to assess how successful this therapy is as a treatment for schizophrenia, when compared to standard care or other interventions. Six studies were identified but five were excluded because there were no reliable data, because they were for a therapy other than dance or because they were not properly randomised. The included study compared 10 weeks of group dance therapy plus standard care, to group supportive counselling plus standard care for the same length of time. It was a community-based project involving 45 people and both groups were followed up after four months.
Drama therapy is one of the creative therapies suggested to be of value as an adjunctive treatment for people with schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like illnesses. Randomised studies have been successfully conducted in this area but poor study reporting meant that no conclusions could be drawn from them. The benefits or harms of the use of drama therapy in schizophrenia are therefore unclear and further large, high quality studies are required to determine the true value of drama therapy for schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like illnesses.
There are several things that I would consider when deciding to undertake an alternative therapy.
1. The words "therapy" and "therapist", when attached to the word "alternative," convey a medicalized view of the so-called illness, even when you do not believe in the medicalized view of the so-called illness. There is a danger with alternative therapies of having your patient status reinforced, especially if the therapy is institutionalized and done in a group. Horseback riding is an example. It's expensive, and probably done in a group for that reason. Group therapy, whatever the kind, has a sheltered workshop aspect to it, the same kind of feeling that you may get from being enrolled, like Chris was, in a hospital program. Chris's and other people his age, found being in the program, humiliating.
Individual or one-on-one therapies or activities don't carry the stigma of group activities when it comes to a mental health diagnosis. One benefit of individual treatment is that the person/therapist may be a guiding light for your relative. This has certainly been the case with Chris. He has benefited from their holistic beliefs in helping to heal a spiritual crisis.
2.Not every therapy is a good choice in the early stages of a crisis. Vitamin therapy is fine in the early stages, and being around animals like a family pet is far less threatening that riding a horse. Chris couldn't bring himself to do voice lessons, for example, until he was better equipped to handle the voice teacher's demanding personality.
3. The therapy or activity should suit the person. Horseback riding seems all the rage as a therapy, but as Rupert Isaacson said in his memoir, The Horse Boy, go with what your relative is interested in. Chris has done lots of therapies, but the common ingredient tended to be music and drama. His art is at the stick figure level, so art therapy wasn't something he pursued.
4. Which brings me around to saying that whatever you do doesn't have to have the word "therapy" attached to it. I dragged Chris through all those therapies because it felt good for me to be DOING SOMETHING about THE PROBLEM (LOL). Someone who wants to draw and paint only needs access to the materials. Anyone can listen to music.
5. It is just possible that your relative will show an interest in something when recovering that will reveal what he or she was put on earth to do. The crisis was a way of showing that the old expectations were the wrong ones. Don't urge your relative to just get with the same old program. That old program didn't work.
Here's my two cents worth. Alternative therapies to treat schizophrenia may not be necessary. Plenty of people I have come in contact with through this blog and from reading recovery stories, have never gone in for orthomolecular therapy, or ridden a horse, or participated in dance or drama therapy. What I would consider the most basic alternative therapy that works for most people is take time out to rest and reflect, and to have the non-judgemental and encouraging support of family or a close friend or friends. I call this basic therapy an alternative one because it is actually contrary to what a lot of people believe. The public mainstream still invests in the idea that schizophrenia is a debilitating, chronic illness that medications can manage. Encouraging growth at home is also contrary to how a lot of people are treating their relative, who they have come to view as having a disease. To quote from the Sheila Mehta/Auburn University study testing whether the belief that a disease view of mental disorder reduces stigma:
In general, the disease view did not improve attitudes, except in terms of blame. It did, however, tend to provoke harsher behavior. In contrast, the psychosocial view induced treatment no different from that toward normal others. The results provide little support for the claim that regarding the mentally disordered as sick or diseased will promote greater acceptance and more favorable treatment.
The therapies I have written about in my blog are icing on the cake. They can help and do help a person to be more at ease in their body and mind (enabling them to stop relying on meds), but all of the work the therapies do counts for nothing if a person sees himself as fundamentally a chronic case or if his family and friends treat him as such. You can practice alternative therapies, but if you return each day to an environment that is critical and unnurturing and which supports your patienthood, all the good they have been doing for you will undone.
So, here are just three of the therapies that are gaining attention. I've quoted the National Post (horseback riding) and The Cochrane Review research for dance therapy and drama therapy.
One doesn’t really expect to see horseback riding and psychiatric illness mentioned in the same sentence, let alone combined as a form of health care. But a recent Canadian study suggests that riding may actually be beneficial for people with schizophrenia. And that is only the tip of the iceberg, it seems, when it comes to horses and treatment.
Dance therapy (also called dance movement therapy) uses dance and movement to explore a person’s emotions in a non-verbal way. The therapist will help the individual to interpret their movement as a link to personal feelings. This review aims to assess how successful this therapy is as a treatment for schizophrenia, when compared to standard care or other interventions. Six studies were identified but five were excluded because there were no reliable data, because they were for a therapy other than dance or because they were not properly randomised. The included study compared 10 weeks of group dance therapy plus standard care, to group supportive counselling plus standard care for the same length of time. It was a community-based project involving 45 people and both groups were followed up after four months.
Drama therapy is one of the creative therapies suggested to be of value as an adjunctive treatment for people with schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like illnesses. Randomised studies have been successfully conducted in this area but poor study reporting meant that no conclusions could be drawn from them. The benefits or harms of the use of drama therapy in schizophrenia are therefore unclear and further large, high quality studies are required to determine the true value of drama therapy for schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like illnesses.
There are several things that I would consider when deciding to undertake an alternative therapy.
1. The words "therapy" and "therapist", when attached to the word "alternative," convey a medicalized view of the so-called illness, even when you do not believe in the medicalized view of the so-called illness. There is a danger with alternative therapies of having your patient status reinforced, especially if the therapy is institutionalized and done in a group. Horseback riding is an example. It's expensive, and probably done in a group for that reason. Group therapy, whatever the kind, has a sheltered workshop aspect to it, the same kind of feeling that you may get from being enrolled, like Chris was, in a hospital program. Chris's and other people his age, found being in the program, humiliating.
Individual or one-on-one therapies or activities don't carry the stigma of group activities when it comes to a mental health diagnosis. One benefit of individual treatment is that the person/therapist may be a guiding light for your relative. This has certainly been the case with Chris. He has benefited from their holistic beliefs in helping to heal a spiritual crisis.
2.Not every therapy is a good choice in the early stages of a crisis. Vitamin therapy is fine in the early stages, and being around animals like a family pet is far less threatening that riding a horse. Chris couldn't bring himself to do voice lessons, for example, until he was better equipped to handle the voice teacher's demanding personality.
3. The therapy or activity should suit the person. Horseback riding seems all the rage as a therapy, but as Rupert Isaacson said in his memoir, The Horse Boy, go with what your relative is interested in. Chris has done lots of therapies, but the common ingredient tended to be music and drama. His art is at the stick figure level, so art therapy wasn't something he pursued.
4. Which brings me around to saying that whatever you do doesn't have to have the word "therapy" attached to it. I dragged Chris through all those therapies because it felt good for me to be DOING SOMETHING about THE PROBLEM (LOL). Someone who wants to draw and paint only needs access to the materials. Anyone can listen to music.
5. It is just possible that your relative will show an interest in something when recovering that will reveal what he or she was put on earth to do. The crisis was a way of showing that the old expectations were the wrong ones. Don't urge your relative to just get with the same old program. That old program didn't work.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
"Doc Martin" calls vitamins "placebos"
Following my post yesterday about the British television show "Doc Martin" and the use of placebos, I deliberately avoided revealing what the placebos actually were in order not to distract from the main points I wanted to raise. The "placebos" that Doc Martin and his predecessor gave the patient were vitamins.
Now, if you, like me, are a fan of another doc, "Doc" Abram Hoffer, you may object to calling vitamins, "placebos." Niacin in very high doses in combination with an equal amount of vitamin C and other B-vitamins, is very effective in reducing psychotic symptoms, anxiety, and increasings one's focus. Ever since I learned about niacin and started giving it to Chris to help his psychosis, I also put myself on three grams per day of niacin,vitamin C, and I added a B-complex and zinc. I got amazing results in just three days. My ability to focus increased about five-fold, my hair got thicker and my skin got smoother. I was less anxious.
People are unique in their nutritional needs. People under stress need much larger amounts of certain B vitamins than they get from eating an otherwise healthy, well-balanced diet. Smoking depletes vitamin C, alcohol depletes the B vitamins, and so on. Don't assume that vitamins are worthless just because someone calls it the placebo effect.
Now, if you, like me, are a fan of another doc, "Doc" Abram Hoffer, you may object to calling vitamins, "placebos." Niacin in very high doses in combination with an equal amount of vitamin C and other B-vitamins, is very effective in reducing psychotic symptoms, anxiety, and increasings one's focus. Ever since I learned about niacin and started giving it to Chris to help his psychosis, I also put myself on three grams per day of niacin,vitamin C, and I added a B-complex and zinc. I got amazing results in just three days. My ability to focus increased about five-fold, my hair got thicker and my skin got smoother. I was less anxious.
People are unique in their nutritional needs. People under stress need much larger amounts of certain B vitamins than they get from eating an otherwise healthy, well-balanced diet. Smoking depletes vitamin C, alcohol depletes the B vitamins, and so on. Don't assume that vitamins are worthless just because someone calls it the placebo effect.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Doc Martin
Last night the family (parts of it) watched two episodes from the first season of the British television series, Doc Martin. The show is about a London surgeon, Dr. Martin Ellingham, who has developed an aversion to blood and must seek other work in his profession. He is invited to be the general practitioner in a small Cornish town populated with the usual lovable British eccentrics. His lack of people skills when dealing with the locals is the humorous premise for the show.
Readers of this blog may enjoy Doc Martin. Here's why. In one of the episodes, the doctor finally goes to see a man who has been asking that the doctor come to see him. (As a former surgeon, the doctor doesn't make house calls. He expects people to come to his office at a set time on a set date.) Finally, he goes to see man, who lives on a remote farm. The farm house is fenced and gated and there is barbed wire on top of the wall. The man insists that the doctor stay for lunch, but it is becoming clear that he is quite paranoid. He has a friend "Edward," who turns out to be a giant invisible squirrel. Edward has been invited to lunch, too, and a place has been set for him. The man tells the doc that the former doctor in the village gave him a steady supply of a certain medication, and he absolutely must have a prescription from the doctor before the doctor leaves. The doctor, rightly sensing that the man is "squirrely," figures out that that the old doctor gave him benzodiazepines to calm him down. But Doc Martin won't do this. Instead, he gives him a lecture on the damage that long term use of benzos will do.
I'm sorry to say I can't remember what ruse the doctor uses to get off the farm. Further into the episode the townspeople and the doctor come upon the man hacking down some birdhouses in a psychotic frenzy. "He's got post traumatic stress disorder from being in Bosnia," say the townsfolk. "Just give him the tranquillizers, doc -- Old doc so-and so always gave them to him."
As it turn out, the doctor discovers that old doc so-and-so did no such thing. Rather than give the man benzos, the former doctor was giving him placebos. They were were working quite well, until after the old doc died and there was stretch of time when the town had no doctor and no way for the man to access the placebos. So, Doc Martin continues to give him the placebos, and he gets the man's agreement to begin some psychotherapy.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of Doc Martin. It will be interesting to see how much alternative medical thinking will be written into the scrip
Readers of this blog may enjoy Doc Martin. Here's why. In one of the episodes, the doctor finally goes to see a man who has been asking that the doctor come to see him. (As a former surgeon, the doctor doesn't make house calls. He expects people to come to his office at a set time on a set date.) Finally, he goes to see man, who lives on a remote farm. The farm house is fenced and gated and there is barbed wire on top of the wall. The man insists that the doctor stay for lunch, but it is becoming clear that he is quite paranoid. He has a friend "Edward," who turns out to be a giant invisible squirrel. Edward has been invited to lunch, too, and a place has been set for him. The man tells the doc that the former doctor in the village gave him a steady supply of a certain medication, and he absolutely must have a prescription from the doctor before the doctor leaves. The doctor, rightly sensing that the man is "squirrely," figures out that that the old doctor gave him benzodiazepines to calm him down. But Doc Martin won't do this. Instead, he gives him a lecture on the damage that long term use of benzos will do.
I'm sorry to say I can't remember what ruse the doctor uses to get off the farm. Further into the episode the townspeople and the doctor come upon the man hacking down some birdhouses in a psychotic frenzy. "He's got post traumatic stress disorder from being in Bosnia," say the townsfolk. "Just give him the tranquillizers, doc -- Old doc so-and so always gave them to him."
As it turn out, the doctor discovers that old doc so-and-so did no such thing. Rather than give the man benzos, the former doctor was giving him placebos. They were were working quite well, until after the old doc died and there was stretch of time when the town had no doctor and no way for the man to access the placebos. So, Doc Martin continues to give him the placebos, and he gets the man's agreement to begin some psychotherapy.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of Doc Martin. It will be interesting to see how much alternative medical thinking will be written into the scrip
Friday, January 6, 2012
Market for schizophrenia drugs may be peanuts, but so is the Risperdal settlement
From Bloomberg.com
J&J Said to Agree to $1 Billion Accord in Risperdal Sales
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will pay more than $1 billion to the U.S. and most states to resolve a civil investigation into marketing of the antipsychotic Risperdal, according to people familiar with the matter.
J&J, the world’s largest health products company, reached an agreement last week with the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, according to the people, who weren’t authorized to speak about the matter. Negotiations over a possible criminal plea are still under way, they said.
The U.S. government has been investigating Risperdal sales practices since 2004, including allegations the company marketed the drug for unapproved uses, J&J has said in Securities and Exchange Commission filings (JNJ). The company said it has been in negotiations with the U.S. to settle the investigation.
Read the rest here.
J&J Said to Agree to $1 Billion Accord in Risperdal Sales
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will pay more than $1 billion to the U.S. and most states to resolve a civil investigation into marketing of the antipsychotic Risperdal, according to people familiar with the matter.
J&J, the world’s largest health products company, reached an agreement last week with the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, according to the people, who weren’t authorized to speak about the matter. Negotiations over a possible criminal plea are still under way, they said.
The U.S. government has been investigating Risperdal sales practices since 2004, including allegations the company marketed the drug for unapproved uses, J&J has said in Securities and Exchange Commission filings (JNJ). The company said it has been in negotiations with the U.S. to settle the investigation.
Read the rest here.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Ablechild and breaking the monopoly on psychiatric treatment with medication
Below is a press release from Ablechild about the prioritizing of issues on the Connecticut Governor's 2012 agenda.
“The most important thing Connecticut can do now is to break the monopoly on psychiatric treatment,” (co-founder Sheila) Matthews says. “Medication shouldn’t be the first option addressing behavioral or learning issues and it certainly shouldn’t be the only one.”
Some readers may question why a press release about the over-proliferation of medication use in the child foster care population is reprinted in a blog on schizophrenia. While it is true that diagnosing schizophrenia in children is still rare, the diagnosing of ADD, ADHD and bipolar (schizophrenia's look-alike twin) has grown by leaps and bounds. Most psychiatrists accept and promulgate the notion that there is a rare psychiatric condition called childhood schizophrenia. Up until now, the public has tended to accept this, just as it has accepted the pharmaceutical companies ' pronouncement that schizophrenics need antipsychotic medication just like diabetics need insulin. Robert Whitaker's book, Anatomy of an Epidemic, revealed that pharmaceutical salesmen promoted this self-serving and false comparison in order to keep people from going off their medication.
I strongly suspect that the push to stop medicating children stops at schizophrenia, which is always upheld as a "special case," just as it is in adults. When the public stops buying into the notion that adult schizophrenia is always a special case, effectively treated by drugs, the childhood schizophrenia diagnosis and the use of drugs to "treat" it will also be questioned. Childhood schizophrenia can be treated and should be treated, like any other childhood emotional disorder like ADD, ADHD and bipolar, without resorting to drugs. Ablechild is doing excellent work. Let's make sure that treating childhood schizophrenia without drugs is part of its agenda.
Ablechild Urges Adding Overmedication of Children in State Care to Governor’s 2012 Agenda
Parent advocacy group to educate State of CT healthcare providers on the over-prescribing of psychotropic drugs to children in foster care.
WEBWIRE – Tuesday, January 03, 2012
WESTPORT, CONN., JANUARY 3, 2012—Ablechild co-founder Sheila Matthews will brief Connecticut State Healthcare Advocate Victoria Veltri today on the organization’s research into the over-prescribing of psychotropic drugs to children in foster care.
The parents’ rights organization is a sitting member of the Connecticut Behavioral Health Committee that reports directly to Governor Malloy. In today’s meeting, Matthews will share data from last month’s ABC News 20/20 report, which Ablechild helped develop. The show provided a first look at a new Government Accountability Report that found:
• Foster children were prescribed psychotropic drugs at rates nearly five times higher than non-foster children.
• More than a quarter of foster children were being prescribed at least one psychiatric drug.
• Hundreds of foster children received five or more psychiatric drugs at the same time, despite no evidence that this is safe or effective.
The meeting’s agenda includes a report on the $29,766,625,000 spent on psychiatric services by Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families, and Ablechild research showing how making educational, language and vision and hearing/speech solutions available can cut costs while enabling true informed consent for parents. “The most important thing Connecticut can do now is to break the monopoly on psychiatric treatment,” Matthews says. “Medication shouldn’t be the first option addressing behavioral or learning issues and it certainly shouldn’t be the only one.”
In a November briefing with Malloy’s legislative aide, Michael Christ, Matthews also pressed for action on Proposed Bill 5007. If passed, the landmark legislation would require the state to inform parents of their rights regarding diagnosis and treatment of behavioral and mental health disorders in children.
Since 2005, Proposed Bill 5007 has remained stalled in the Connecticut Legislative Education Committee subject to reintroduction by long-time committee chair, State Representative Andy Fleischmann. Matthews says, “It’s extremely frustrating that no action has been taken on this bill for over five years while special-interest and industry-backed legislation not only moves through committees rapidly, its backers have been given fast-track access to the legislative process itself.”
Malloy is preparing his 2012 agenda, which will be announced shortly before the legislature convenes in February. “Ablechild is pleased to support Governor Malloy as he sets his course for the year ahead,” says Matthews. “Connecticut was the first state to prohibit schools from recommending the use of psychotropic drugs, three years before it became federal law. We hope Connecticut will continue to show leadership through best-practice guidelines that protect its most vulnerable residents.”
About AbleChild
AbleChild is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization dedicated to parents, caregivers, and children’s rights alike. The organization is a clearinghouse for objective information regarding ADD, ADHD, and other behavioral issues. All services AbleChild provides are free to the public. To learn more, visit www.ablechild.org.
“The most important thing Connecticut can do now is to break the monopoly on psychiatric treatment,” (co-founder Sheila) Matthews says. “Medication shouldn’t be the first option addressing behavioral or learning issues and it certainly shouldn’t be the only one.”
Some readers may question why a press release about the over-proliferation of medication use in the child foster care population is reprinted in a blog on schizophrenia. While it is true that diagnosing schizophrenia in children is still rare, the diagnosing of ADD, ADHD and bipolar (schizophrenia's look-alike twin) has grown by leaps and bounds. Most psychiatrists accept and promulgate the notion that there is a rare psychiatric condition called childhood schizophrenia. Up until now, the public has tended to accept this, just as it has accepted the pharmaceutical companies ' pronouncement that schizophrenics need antipsychotic medication just like diabetics need insulin. Robert Whitaker's book, Anatomy of an Epidemic, revealed that pharmaceutical salesmen promoted this self-serving and false comparison in order to keep people from going off their medication.
I strongly suspect that the push to stop medicating children stops at schizophrenia, which is always upheld as a "special case," just as it is in adults. When the public stops buying into the notion that adult schizophrenia is always a special case, effectively treated by drugs, the childhood schizophrenia diagnosis and the use of drugs to "treat" it will also be questioned. Childhood schizophrenia can be treated and should be treated, like any other childhood emotional disorder like ADD, ADHD and bipolar, without resorting to drugs. Ablechild is doing excellent work. Let's make sure that treating childhood schizophrenia without drugs is part of its agenda.
Ablechild Urges Adding Overmedication of Children in State Care to Governor’s 2012 Agenda
Parent advocacy group to educate State of CT healthcare providers on the over-prescribing of psychotropic drugs to children in foster care.
WEBWIRE – Tuesday, January 03, 2012
WESTPORT, CONN., JANUARY 3, 2012—Ablechild co-founder Sheila Matthews will brief Connecticut State Healthcare Advocate Victoria Veltri today on the organization’s research into the over-prescribing of psychotropic drugs to children in foster care.
The parents’ rights organization is a sitting member of the Connecticut Behavioral Health Committee that reports directly to Governor Malloy. In today’s meeting, Matthews will share data from last month’s ABC News 20/20 report, which Ablechild helped develop. The show provided a first look at a new Government Accountability Report that found:
• Foster children were prescribed psychotropic drugs at rates nearly five times higher than non-foster children.
• More than a quarter of foster children were being prescribed at least one psychiatric drug.
• Hundreds of foster children received five or more psychiatric drugs at the same time, despite no evidence that this is safe or effective.
The meeting’s agenda includes a report on the $29,766,625,000 spent on psychiatric services by Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families, and Ablechild research showing how making educational, language and vision and hearing/speech solutions available can cut costs while enabling true informed consent for parents. “The most important thing Connecticut can do now is to break the monopoly on psychiatric treatment,” Matthews says. “Medication shouldn’t be the first option addressing behavioral or learning issues and it certainly shouldn’t be the only one.”
In a November briefing with Malloy’s legislative aide, Michael Christ, Matthews also pressed for action on Proposed Bill 5007. If passed, the landmark legislation would require the state to inform parents of their rights regarding diagnosis and treatment of behavioral and mental health disorders in children.
Since 2005, Proposed Bill 5007 has remained stalled in the Connecticut Legislative Education Committee subject to reintroduction by long-time committee chair, State Representative Andy Fleischmann. Matthews says, “It’s extremely frustrating that no action has been taken on this bill for over five years while special-interest and industry-backed legislation not only moves through committees rapidly, its backers have been given fast-track access to the legislative process itself.”
Malloy is preparing his 2012 agenda, which will be announced shortly before the legislature convenes in February. “Ablechild is pleased to support Governor Malloy as he sets his course for the year ahead,” says Matthews. “Connecticut was the first state to prohibit schools from recommending the use of psychotropic drugs, three years before it became federal law. We hope Connecticut will continue to show leadership through best-practice guidelines that protect its most vulnerable residents.”
About AbleChild
AbleChild is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization dedicated to parents, caregivers, and children’s rights alike. The organization is a clearinghouse for objective information regarding ADD, ADHD, and other behavioral issues. All services AbleChild provides are free to the public. To learn more, visit www.ablechild.org.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Acting helps soldier cope with post-traumatic stress disorder
I'm holed up here in my vacation pad (LOL) with only my Blackberry to link electronically to the blogging world. There is an interesting story in ocala.com on the value of acting for overcoming PSTD. Schizophrenia is essentially post-traumatic stress disorder, except the trauma that precipitates the psychosis is the former case is usually less obvious in the latter case. There is a time and a place for acting as part of a person's recovery. As the article states, recovery is individualistic. People have to go with what works for them. My son, Chris, was introduced to acting classes in his two year recovery program, and his psychiatrist observed that Chris really "came alive" in this class. But it was only four or five years later that Chris started to seek out activities that put him on the stage. Recovery is personal. A good approach to it is the holistic one. Try a little bit of everything.
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