Psychiatry Misleads Again
Psychiatry Misleads Again
by Edward Dantes
Occasionally I stumble upon one of the dark side's websites (i.e. biological psychiatry), and usually find myself laughing or horrified or both. Today was no exception when I found this amusing article in the Psychiatric Times (http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/apa-2016-Schizophrenia/multidisciplinary-approach-first-episode-psychosis).
Here are a few quotes that stood out:
“To improve medication adherence, oral antipsychotic medication was transitioned to a long-acting injectable form.” - This Orwellian statement, so typical of out-of-touch psychiatrists who think they know what's best for “patients”, brings to mind Otsuka's new chip-implanted Abilify drug... it keeps giving me the thought that those aliens on Alpha Centauri are softening up the planet by drugging us all up in preparation for their invasion. Now what is that thought a symptom of?
“I will now review a case of a young man who came down with schizoaffective disorder...” - This made me laugh - poor guy, sounds like coming down with the common cold! I wonder what could cause someone to catch schizoaffective disorder? Is it airborne? Maybe it will become the new Zika or SARS... Hard to believe that psychiatrists are ignorant enough to use this type of language.
“A structured assessment of symptoms to clearly make a preliminary diagnosis and to be able to conclude on schizophrenia or psychosis..” - There are no symptoms of schizophrenia, because there is no such illness, nor is there a reliable or valid diagnosis named as such. To give psychiatrists credit, some of the more evolved ones are at least starting to tentatively admit that there is no singular schizophrenia and the disorganization and disorientation of psychosis is a continuum with many possible causes.
“The medical examination utilizing MRI imaging and laboratory blood tests is an important step in making the correct diagnosis so a young person is approached appropriately...” - What!? I guess psychiatrists are dreaming that they've come up with some way of using brain and blood scans to make valid diagnoses. Dream on. It's funny how serious sounding and clinical these psychiatrists try to make their terminology sound, when in fact what they are saying is absolute gibberish! There are no MRI imaging or laboratory blood tests that can be used in diagnosing.
The article creates a simulacrum of engaging and helping the person, but it's hard to effectively help when one is assuming the existence of a biologically-caused illness that just isn't there and drugging on that basis. As usual, in this article there is no discussion whatsoever of the lived experience of the case examples, no mention whatsoever of what the troubled person feels, wishes, hopes for, fears, or went through. Where is the humanity in the soulless, colorless T.S. Eliot-ian Wasteland of biological psychiatry?
It's such a shame that more US psychiatrists won't try Open Dialogue, learn about psychoanalytic or psychodynamic approaches, or other non-medical methods to helping people experiencing psychosis. Then their energy would be put toward something with a much better chance of understanding and helping. Meanwhile, more young people will be harmed by the lies about brain disease and the notion that they have to indefinitely take drugs that aren't even tested over the long term, and lead to a life time of disability and dependence.
OK, I'll respond to Chris. Sorry you had to wait 3 months. I understand exactly what you're saying here, I think. You're trying to defend "biological psychiatry". First, you need to understand that so-called "psychiatry" is a pseudoscience and a drug racket. Period. It only pretends to be a medical specialty as a cover for pimping PhRMA's toxic, expensive drugs. Money, power, and social control are about all that the shrinks care about. They are self-deluded fools who usually, especially in the long run, do far more harm than good. There's no science behind the old trope of "chemical imbalance" - it's pure marketing hype. So-called "mental illnesses" are only as real as presents from Santa Claus. But not more real. Please think about this carefully. In your comment here, you seem to be trying to take some imagined "middle ground" in the "debate" over "psychiatry", and even attempt to defend it. Didn't learn enough from the Seroquel, did you? Imagine being FORCED to take drugs, against your will. That's what psychiatry does. I see it every day in some of my friends. And I'm a surviving victim of the lies of the pseudoscience drug racket of psychiatry, myself.... I'm glad you're here. I hope you see my reply, here, and come back to this website often. I'd also suggest you spend several hours - at least - at >madinamerica.com<. Read about the direct collusion between PhRMA and the Amer.PsychiatricAss'n in Robert Whitaker's "Anatomy of an Epidemic". Enjoy! (c)2016, Tom Clancy, Jr., *NON-fiction
I find the above comments to be overly simplistic and 180 degrees on the other side of the drug companies' over-the-top misuse of biology. Many folks seem to just react with the opposite of what biological psychiatry is saying or implying, setting up an unproductive point/counterpoint with little facts to base any rational argument on. This produces a lousy dynamic where it's either or and there's nothing in-between whereas 90% of us may actually be in-between. Both are untenable, argumentative viewpoints. One is based on economic opportunism and says whatever promotes that (pushing drug sales averse to what science may say). The other just takes the opposite tack without openness or rationally looking into diverse sources of information that might support whatever view (something totally different than our belief system). What is lacking is reliable, repeatable evidence or knowledge to base our ideas on. When people do that, scientists, mental health peers, family members, doctors, and health administrators who may know of some very real physiological and blood chemistry differences may just discount such arguments as emotional reactions. People in mental hospitals may be some of the most physically ill people on the planet. One reference book I read stated that the highest and lowest blood pH readings ever recording were made in mental hospitals. I have since read of lower levels, however. Certain B vitamin deficiencies are widespread or nearly ubiquitous in folks with mental issues. B-6 is one very common deficiency. B-6 is needed to break down dietary proteins and reassemble them into metabolic compounds, proteins such as the neurotransmitters, leukocytes, prostaglandins, thyroid hormone, and immunoglobulins. Physiological variations and expressive characteristics of different illnesses can create some unique as well as common mental symptoms . When I was on psych drugs, I was obsessed with riding my bike right on the white dew line on the road. When I tapered off the last drug, an antipsychotic, I stopped that within days, weeks, or months, it's not clear to me now but that 'side effect' from Seroquel went away after tapering off of the drug over several years. In truth, very real and reliable differences in blood chemistry have been found that much more accurately describe the various forms of schizophrenia, but with depression I am skeptical of even defining it as a 'mental illness' since it is something that can be caused by 100's of different factors, nutrient deficits, organ problems, insufficient sunlight (think of America's prisoners), celiac disease, financial issues, unsuccessful love realtionships, failed tests, too much time indoors, overexcitement, overly starchy diets, etc. etc. Just because the pharmaceuticals have grossly and hideously misused the problem of metabolic imbalances to peddle their often harmful and ineffective drugs does not make the opposite point of view—that there are no physical, ascertainable, blood, or metabolic differences at all involved with these very challenging illnesses—true. Very simply, just because A is false does not make B true. Think about a whole alphabet of possibilities, then multiply that by the influences in your life, both biochemical, emotional, environmental, dietary, chemical (pollutants), genes interacting with their nutritional (raw material) regulators, sunlight's effect on human physiology, spiritual influences, subtle mental pressures, outdoor activities, allergies to foods or household materials, influence of television and electrical fields, nagging roommates, pet dander, Toxoplasma gondii, foreign bacteria, humorous people, adequate or inadequate sleep, etc. We need to open our minds to a universe of real possibilities of things that influence our bodies and world and pare away the prejudices against thinking about those... Can you understand what I'm saying here?