Electroshock Protest

A reading of the Reclassification document published by the US Food and Drug Administration

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/talkwithtenney/2015/12/29/talk-with-tenney-special-reading-of-shock-fda-reclassification-document

Here's a direct link to the FDA's document: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-12-29/pdf/2015-32592.pdf

Thoughts to a young man writing about the mental illness industry

I've been active with human rights advocacy for about three decades, the focus issues of important to people with psychiatric diagnoses and physical disabilities.

Two different yet overlying "camps" of people, as it were.

It is clear that at some point we friended one another on FB; looking at what you have been writing - and of the breadth of issues touched upon, I am glad we did.

Currently I work as an advocate "within" one part of the huge dysfunctional system that is mental health services in the USA. I harbor no illusions about "fixing" that system from within, yet also recognize that without dedicated folks working in it, then those without voice who are in it, are at even greater risk for being further victimized by abusers - be they power-hungry shrinks or family members distraught that they cannot control their unruly kinfolk.

Advocating within a system - as I see it - basically follows two different (though overlapping) paths:

1- Advocacy: that is, speaking up for the improvement of living conditions; making incremental changes in how everything from treatment team planning is conducted (including making sure the client/patient/inmate's voice is not only heard but heeded); to speaking out for the reduction and eventual elimination of seclusion and restraints (including chemical restraints) as well as being a watchful eye and ear close-up-and-personal of the staff; and providing empathy, compassion and offering options to those most in need - i.e. the folks caught up in the system as clients (whether inpatient or out).

2- Abuse and Grievance investigations: Here, working inside the system is necessary, for the investigator has to have access to records (both patient as well as employee performance), policies, incident reports and given the authority to hand down decisions and rulings (don't use this term w/the treatment folks or employee unions - they'll have a bird !) well, findings and recommendations, then. on how to implement corrective measures to ensure abuse is discontinued, employees disciplined (or fired, depending on the seriousness of the findings) and to watchdog the time line for corrective measures to be put into action.

And another thread: "Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity" and "competency" issues: I'm impressed! Few people in the psyche survivor "movement" (as it were) ever seem to touch upon these matters. BOTH are crucial and warrant a much closer review of how these concepts impinge on civil liberties as well as feed into the media and pro-forced treatment zealots intentional deceptions about "The Mentally Ill" (picture that last quote as bold faced, italicized and underlined). The "not competent" legal status is - and always has been - a clear violation of a person's right to a speedy trial. The NGRI issue is a HUGE whale of injustice against people who have committed crimes while in states of extreme distress. NGRI "acquitees" - across the nation - spend 2 to 3 times longer incarcerated (often in "hospitals") than they would have for their crimes if they plead guilty. NGRI is also a convenient vehicle (as you have noted) for folks who - quite in touch with their motives and purposes - attempt to use the NGRI designation to not be held accountable for their actions - often heinous and inhumane - crimes

I could go on, which would be unfair; since I am writing you unsolicited with my opinions.

So I shall tarry no longer, and step down from the soapbox.

social history - Torture and psychiatry

Three segments on video about Dr Ewen Cameron, who both attended the post holocaust Nuremberg Trials and later over saw the infamous CIA MK-ULTRA torture experiments at Allen Institute at McGill University in Montreal PQ, during the late 1950s.

What Cameron wanted more than anything was to find a new way to treat mental illness. He instead endorsed "depatterning" or brainwashing as a kind of "cure. Instead, while he admitted to "failure" he never acknowledged the horrors he subjected his victims to.

Dr Cameron's main 'crime' here was not that he didn't tell his patients what he was doing and why, but that what he was doing was intrinsically evil, horrifying, destructive, even sadistic.

Cameron's ultimate crime was betraying his patient's trust. He wanted to go to his grave knowing he'd made a difference. But he became infamous, rather than revered.

psyche/mental health issues - Side effects of psychiatric drugs

FROM THE Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) WEBSITE:

     Psychiatric drugs including antidepressants, antipsychotics and stimulants have serious, life threatening side effects and patient’s are rarely warned about the full risks of these drugs.
     International drug regulatory agencies including the U.S. FDA warn that commonly prescribed psychiatric drugs can and do cause worsening depression, mania, aggression, psychosis, depersonalization, diabetes, hallucinations, suicidal and homicidal thoughts, heart attack, stroke and sudden death. And what’s worse, these are drugs commonly being prescribed to children and even infants.
     CCHR has long fought for full disclosure of psychiatric drug risks, and was one of the first organizations to expose the suicidal and violent inducing effects of antidepressants as far back as 1991, calling on the FDA to take action and issue public warnings.
     It would take the FDA 13 years to finally issue black box warnings on antidepressants causing suicidal ideation.

NOTE: I'm often wary of sourcing CCHR* for its critiques, because of their historic ties to both the Church of Scientology and the disparaging label of "anti-psychiatry". However, this is a good video with a punch based on facts, not advertising bromides.
     But being critical of Big Pharma's own historic negligence at owning up to adverse side effects of psychiatric medications does not make one either a Scientologist or anti-psychiatry. Just stating the facts.

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CLARIFICATION: * CCHR is the Citizen Commission on Human Rights International. It was co-founded in 1969 by members of the Church of Scientology
and Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus Dr. Thomas Szasz at a time when patients were being warehoused in institutions and stripped of all constitutional, civil and human rights.