Well how about that! It's almost like simplistic, one-size-fits-all approaches to psychiatry aren't the best we can do.< /snark >
I think this issue is pretty interesting. I recently became a father, and it's led me to think a lot about how it's best to teach my daughter to deal with these sorts of issues. I hope you write more here!
Jonathan, bravo for posting this brave and much-needed article. My mother, who was finally successful in ending her own life on the seventh attempt (that I know of) in 2006, was experimented on like a guinea pig by the British psychiatric establishment. They insisted that it was her 'brain chemistry' causing the problems; and that the 'right' medication at the 'right' dosage would get her back on track. Seeing the side effects of that shit, which made things far worse rather than helping, was pretty tough, I can tell you. The last thing the British 'experts' did for my mum was to 'give' her electro-shock 'therapy, which 'miraculously' had the effect of her suddenly wanting to go home (!) from the madhouse they'd consigned her to. Can you guess what happened next? Yup, in her desire to avoid further torture, she obviously figured out that she'd better get it right this time, and gassed herself in her car....
What you've written here is important, and needs more exposure. Upvoted, followed, and kudos sent your way for being brave enough to say it despite the people who think you're a danger to humanity for doing so. On behalf of my mother, I'd encourage you to continue with your research, despite the protestations and convictions of those people and their 'snake oil' medication/'therapies'...
Of course there's billions of dollars involved here. It's always about the money. I read a study a couple years back where 10 perfectly healthy, well-adjusted kids were sent to 10 different doctors, with (false) minor complaints of being fidgety, bored or hyperactive. ALL 10 were "diagnosed" with attention deficit disorders and prescribed dangerous chemicals to poison themselves with. Good thing the State is looking out for us!
i love molyneux. this was a good one. have you seen the: There Is No Such Thing as Mental Illness? it's a good one. can't say i agree with his analysis of the gmo situation though.
@invisiblegorilla I am glad someone finally wrote something on this topic. I've got my own hypothesis on 'disorders', and it's definitely similar to yours. Would you be interested in doing a podcast regarding this topic with me? I think there is a long dialogue we would be able to have, to certainly fill in information gaps in this topic.
You can find me on the steemit.chat under stephen.polsky if you want to discuss this further.
Great post. I've held these same convictions but can't say I have much of an educated basis for them. I've just experienced the power of my own words in helping me overcome my own negative emotions. I don't deny there are chemical imbalances that make the battle harder for others, but I think our culture's tendency to label and medicate causes many who could overcome these challenges without medication to shirk personal responsibility.
Thanks for your feedback, jasonstaggers. I would recommend looking into the long-term adverse effects of many of these psychiatric drugs. Ironically, they are often the cause of these so-called imbalances.
Appreciating your point about the power of words, @invisiblegorrilla. While it's true that many people genuinely suffer from these "disorders", it's also true that healing starts from within, and a paradigm shift is in order to get there. Healing is truly limitless, but when one is locked into a belief system that there's something broken or insurmountable within themselves, one is doomed because they convince themselves that "healing is impossible". Also, Big Pharma is the most powerful industry on the planet, and they directly profit off consumers who turn to western medicine for relief--which is unfortunately the leading cause of death in America. https://steemit.com/health/@gardenofeden/western-medicine-is-the-leading-cause-of-death-in-america
@invisiblegorilla You write: "I want to acknowledge that throughout this article, I’ve written words such as ‘disorder’ and ‘illness’ in quotations. This is not to minimize or negate the seriousness of sensations people who have these words applied to them, experience. However, I simply refuse to speak in the language of the pharmaceutical industry and large proportions of the psychiatric community."
You're far from alone in my experience. I personally always write "ADHD" in quote marks, for example, since I know how that particular reification was invented.
When I first heard of it some years ago, it was customary for anyone who didn't accept the American Psychiatric Association's perception of reality to be accused of being a Scientologist. I don't know if that holds true still. Perhaps things have moved on (I haven't involved myself in any discussions on this topic for a long time). My views on the subject were more likely to find me accused of having no medical or other professional training, to which my response has always been that, when people speak to me of the DSM and its stories, they are no longer in the world of medicine; we are in the world of scam artistry where I've invariably been on much more solid ground than they have.
Hey bobcollier, thanks for sharing. I think I recall Robert Whitaker talking about how Scientology was used to discredit the critics of psychiatry in his book, Anatomy of an Epidemic.
Yes, it did seem to be that "You must be a Scientologist" was a stock response to anybody who questioned the official line. There seems to have been a kind of war going on between the Church of Scientology and psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association in particular, for a long time. I learn from your introductory YouTube video that you're from England. So am I, and I live in Australia now. Years ago when I was exploring what I choose to call "the psychiatric labels scam", I found that advantageous because my thinking on these things wasn't trained by the direct to consumer advertising that Americans have been and are subjected to. Speaking of which, you might be interested in the work of John Breeding, author of The Wildest Colts Make The Best Horses.
psychiatry is attempting to pathologize personality. they admit themselves that they have never brought about a single cure, ever. not one. i keep finding people who say that, short of actual physiological damage (TBI, etc) the place to start is with diet. who would have guessed that what you build your body out of has a great effect on how it functions. try building a car out of marshmallows and see how far you get. mmmm marshmallows.
thanks for the post.
Well how about that! It's almost like simplistic, one-size-fits-all approaches to psychiatry aren't the best we can do.< /snark >
I think this issue is pretty interesting. I recently became a father, and it's led me to think a lot about how it's best to teach my daughter to deal with these sorts of issues. I hope you write more here!
Thanks for your support - and congratulations on your recent fatherhood!
you have no idea how insulting this article is to people who are actually suffering from a disorder
Jonathan, bravo for posting this brave and much-needed article. My mother, who was finally successful in ending her own life on the seventh attempt (that I know of) in 2006, was experimented on like a guinea pig by the British psychiatric establishment. They insisted that it was her 'brain chemistry' causing the problems; and that the 'right' medication at the 'right' dosage would get her back on track. Seeing the side effects of that shit, which made things far worse rather than helping, was pretty tough, I can tell you. The last thing the British 'experts' did for my mum was to 'give' her electro-shock 'therapy, which 'miraculously' had the effect of her suddenly wanting to go home (!) from the madhouse they'd consigned her to. Can you guess what happened next? Yup, in her desire to avoid further torture, she obviously figured out that she'd better get it right this time, and gassed herself in her car....
What you've written here is important, and needs more exposure. Upvoted, followed, and kudos sent your way for being brave enough to say it despite the people who think you're a danger to humanity for doing so. On behalf of my mother, I'd encourage you to continue with your research, despite the protestations and convictions of those people and their 'snake oil' medication/'therapies'...
Thanks for your support and I'm sorry to hear about your mother.
Of course there's billions of dollars involved here. It's always about the money. I read a study a couple years back where 10 perfectly healthy, well-adjusted kids were sent to 10 different doctors, with (false) minor complaints of being fidgety, bored or hyperactive. ALL 10 were "diagnosed" with attention deficit disorders and prescribed dangerous chemicals to poison themselves with. Good thing the State is looking out for us!
Without government, who would block the sale of life-saving drugs?
i love molyneux. this was a good one. have you seen the: There Is No Such Thing as Mental Illness? it's a good one. can't say i agree with his analysis of the gmo situation though.
Yeah, I've seen it. I don't recall his comments on GMOs, though.
apparently, they are perfectly safe and questioning is silly.
@invisiblegorilla I am glad someone finally wrote something on this topic. I've got my own hypothesis on 'disorders', and it's definitely similar to yours. Would you be interested in doing a podcast regarding this topic with me? I think there is a long dialogue we would be able to have, to certainly fill in information gaps in this topic.
You can find me on the steemit.chat under stephen.polsky if you want to discuss this further.
Thanks for your feedback. I'll find you in the chat, later.
Great post. I've held these same convictions but can't say I have much of an educated basis for them. I've just experienced the power of my own words in helping me overcome my own negative emotions. I don't deny there are chemical imbalances that make the battle harder for others, but I think our culture's tendency to label and medicate causes many who could overcome these challenges without medication to shirk personal responsibility.
Thanks for your feedback, jasonstaggers. I would recommend looking into the long-term adverse effects of many of these psychiatric drugs. Ironically, they are often the cause of these so-called imbalances.
Yeah. It's no coincidence that most (possibly all) of the mass shooters recently were on psychotropic meds.
Appreciating your point about the power of words, @invisiblegorrilla. While it's true that many people genuinely suffer from these "disorders", it's also true that healing starts from within, and a paradigm shift is in order to get there. Healing is truly limitless, but when one is locked into a belief system that there's something broken or insurmountable within themselves, one is doomed because they convince themselves that "healing is impossible". Also, Big Pharma is the most powerful industry on the planet, and they directly profit off consumers who turn to western medicine for relief--which is unfortunately the leading cause of death in America. https://steemit.com/health/@gardenofeden/western-medicine-is-the-leading-cause-of-death-in-america
I'm glad you found my approach valuable - and sorry for being slow to respond!
@invisiblegorilla You write: "I want to acknowledge that throughout this article, I’ve written words such as ‘disorder’ and ‘illness’ in quotations. This is not to minimize or negate the seriousness of sensations people who have these words applied to them, experience. However, I simply refuse to speak in the language of the pharmaceutical industry and large proportions of the psychiatric community."
You're far from alone in my experience. I personally always write "ADHD" in quote marks, for example, since I know how that particular reification was invented.
When I first heard of it some years ago, it was customary for anyone who didn't accept the American Psychiatric Association's perception of reality to be accused of being a Scientologist. I don't know if that holds true still. Perhaps things have moved on (I haven't involved myself in any discussions on this topic for a long time). My views on the subject were more likely to find me accused of having no medical or other professional training, to which my response has always been that, when people speak to me of the DSM and its stories, they are no longer in the world of medicine; we are in the world of scam artistry where I've invariably been on much more solid ground than they have.
Hey bobcollier, thanks for sharing. I think I recall Robert Whitaker talking about how Scientology was used to discredit the critics of psychiatry in his book, Anatomy of an Epidemic.
Yes, it did seem to be that "You must be a Scientologist" was a stock response to anybody who questioned the official line. There seems to have been a kind of war going on between the Church of Scientology and psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association in particular, for a long time. I learn from your introductory YouTube video that you're from England. So am I, and I live in Australia now. Years ago when I was exploring what I choose to call "the psychiatric labels scam", I found that advantageous because my thinking on these things wasn't trained by the direct to consumer advertising that Americans have been and are subjected to. Speaking of which, you might be interested in the work of John Breeding, author of The Wildest Colts Make The Best Horses.
Thanks for the recommendation. Based on the Amazon description, it sounds like quite an interesting read.
He has an interesting website too at www.wildestcolts.com
psychiatry is attempting to pathologize personality. they admit themselves that they have never brought about a single cure, ever. not one. i keep finding people who say that, short of actual physiological damage (TBI, etc) the place to start is with diet. who would have guessed that what you build your body out of has a great effect on how it functions. try building a car out of marshmallows and see how far you get. mmmm marshmallows.
thanks for the post.
Both a healthy diet and regular exercise are important contributors to the maintenance of psychological well-being.
Thanks for your feedback.