I have a feeling that many states, Maryland in particular, are receiving much big pHARMa funding to keep the lies about their drugs as well as the lies of psychiatry, especially the "chemical imbalance" nonsense going.
It also further the false corporate narrative that so called "mental illness" is driving homelessness. Nonsense. Again, a way to avoid facts, that rents are untenable and wages have not kept up apace as corporations have not paid living wages and have increasingly cut jobs in the US in favor of cheaper overseas labor markets. The only people this benefits are corporate owners and the Wall Street elites. Psychiatry and its lies have been persuaded to keep the profitable lies going, upholding and helping shape the false narrative and its extraordinarily harmful perjerous fraud.
Coercion is supposed to be illegal from all sectors, personal and so called "professional". What is happening at this point is benefits trafficking and psychiatric slavery for corporate benefit and Wall Street interests.
It needs to be called out and exposed for exactly what it is in a major way so that it can be properly addressed and stopped with funds allocated and redirected into communities where positive, lasting changes changed will happen that promote true healing and actual health, mind and body both.
Yes there are sadly far too many that believed the initial soft sell of " mental illness" and then the marketing created lie of "chemical imbalance".
There is trauma and its effects, not the least of it intergenerational. These are not medical issues but social and emotional ones. The lies of any of it stemming from brain issues absolutely should have stopped long ago. But corporate profiteers and those going along with them are completely amoral and unethical, continue to supress or attempt to discredit holistic treatment modalities while deliberately obfuscating facts about the intentional harm the neurotoxic psychotropics cause. They want a neverending revenue stream, ever increasing profits and not a healthy independent populace that doesn't serve their profit agenda.
Thanks Rob, KK and Jim for drawing attention to the increasing problems with Forced treatment.
When you are forced into receiving treatment "for your own good," you are probably going to engage in a life-ong journey that is not of your own choosing, with few exits. Thank you for drawing attention to a problem of control instead of needed compassion. See our SAFE pilot project that offer options (respect, support, education, community) other than a one size fits all solution to the trials and tribulations of trying to be fully human.
Forced treatment is an enigma. Many of the families that initiate forced treatment do so because they do not know what else to do. They do not realize that turning to a professional who believes in the medical model will result in a drug prescription that will at best mask problems and give the illusion of control and too easily result in a descent into becoming a chronic mental patient who will carry a life-long diagnosis. A combination of Empathy, Support, Education and Community is a better option for loving, caring families to effectively deal with the inevitable developmental crises that are part of life. We can and must do better.
Mentally ill Americans are at more risk today than we have been for many decades now, as per the hate-centric attitudes at the top of our nation's filth ridden food chain at this time. And I agree that at least some advocacy resources fail to the heed the voices of mentally ill Americans, and may function so haphazardly as to be all but useless in terms of better defending the rights of mentally ill American. I am but one voice that has all but singlehandedly brought about long past due federal oversight and intervention to two (2) different state managed mental hospitals in two (2) different states since my first diagnosis of mental illness in 2010, and have accrued over 3.25 years of in-patient time in these settings. As with other oppressor-to-oppressed relationships over the far greater course of human history, as a male American citizen who just happens to be mentally ill I am comfortable in saying that I have come to understand the basic choices and behaviors of many of these male American psychiatrists than they can understand in their own right. It is, thus, the behaviors of the contemporary American psychiatrist that most needs direct attention today, while the APA simply must be subject to deep and lasting reform, and be required to provide reasonably independent oversight of the behaviors of its collective membership- the doctors. The attendant need remains clear for the American people to again raise our voices and again tell the APA and these doctors how to and how not to behave. Responsible adult American citizens have had to do this more than once in contemporary US history. Thank you for your own good work, Mr. Wipond (Rob), and for sharing your own work with the American people and myself personally. Author-editor "PJ Reed. The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse 2011-2015; "PJ Reed. Montana State Hospital. Montana's Forgotten Suicides" 2016-19: "To All Serious Problems There are Always Solutions" current-ongoing.
I agree, Patrick, the American Psychiatric Association has contributed a lot to these problems. And the state boards of medicine do already have regulatory/policing powers over their physician and psychiatrist members, but studies show they do a very poor job of it--protecting physicians more than protecting the public.
As the sole governing authority over the behaviors of American psychiatrists, I argue for good reason that the APA has long been what has most held mentally ill Americans back, as per its long time unwillingness to entertain direct and reasonably independent oversight of its own collective membership. And for equally very good reason, I argue that many if not most contemporary American psychiatrists today are no more reliable than were their counterparts in the old days, on basis of the fact that in 1844, when the APA was founded, those people could not see mentally ill persons as humans, and have in effect remained frozen in that mindset, in all too many cases. As for state level authorities, US civil rights in the US transcend state law, as does apply to the Americans With Disabilities Act and the authority of the ADA; the rights of all American supersede the authority of state law, and this very much carries to mentally ill persons and every other American citizens today,
YES defend advocacy organizations from federal budget cuts -- AND maybe we should be asking why for decades they failed to achieve their goals ***when they were funded***?
It's a bit like being innocent and locked up in prison and your lawyer keeps getting paid to get you released... and three decades later you are still locked up and suddenly your lawyer starts yelling that their funding just got cut.
Defending federal funding without talking about movement failures and cooptation is just a recipe for repeating the past.
What happens if the funding gets restored? It's just going to be under threat again of new budget cuts.
Is our movement about defending the budgets of paid advocates while we fail to win our goals?
(Ah yes, there are those who will say "But we HAVE been meeting our goals." That's not how movements win - reduce the bar of success to small changes that can be taken away at any moment. Define "success" as getting funded for a tiny number of innovative programs while the overall situation of oppression just keeps worsening. -- and yes psychiatric oppression today is worse than in 1970. If Dr. King had that strategy there would be five integrated lunch counters and the rest of Jim Crow would be in place and worse, just with a budget for professional civil rights reform advocate grants added in.)
Thanks for sharing your views, Will! And for me I think the single most revealing factoid, which I mention in the main article, is that the P&As and NDRN have never done a national survey or hosted a national dialogue just to hear from all the PACs and get a sense of what's going on and identify if there are systemic problems that could be worked on. That would be extremely easy to do, and what better starting point could there be if one truly was concerned about fulfilling the mission and reducing infighting and ultimately creating a stronger united front.
Exactly, what is the metric for assessing "fulfilling the mission" - how is the mission defined, has it been fulfilled, what works and doesn't work to actually result in change, and if no change has occurred why on earth continue the same strategy?
I have a feeling that many states, Maryland in particular, are receiving much big pHARMa funding to keep the lies about their drugs as well as the lies of psychiatry, especially the "chemical imbalance" nonsense going.
It also further the false corporate narrative that so called "mental illness" is driving homelessness. Nonsense. Again, a way to avoid facts, that rents are untenable and wages have not kept up apace as corporations have not paid living wages and have increasingly cut jobs in the US in favor of cheaper overseas labor markets. The only people this benefits are corporate owners and the Wall Street elites. Psychiatry and its lies have been persuaded to keep the profitable lies going, upholding and helping shape the false narrative and its extraordinarily harmful perjerous fraud.
Coercion is supposed to be illegal from all sectors, personal and so called "professional". What is happening at this point is benefits trafficking and psychiatric slavery for corporate benefit and Wall Street interests.
It needs to be called out and exposed for exactly what it is in a major way so that it can be properly addressed and stopped with funds allocated and redirected into communities where positive, lasting changes changed will happen that promote true healing and actual health, mind and body both.
I agree that money is a major factor. And I also think that many people truly 'believe in' the drugs and the coercion.
Yes there are sadly far too many that believed the initial soft sell of " mental illness" and then the marketing created lie of "chemical imbalance".
There is trauma and its effects, not the least of it intergenerational. These are not medical issues but social and emotional ones. The lies of any of it stemming from brain issues absolutely should have stopped long ago. But corporate profiteers and those going along with them are completely amoral and unethical, continue to supress or attempt to discredit holistic treatment modalities while deliberately obfuscating facts about the intentional harm the neurotoxic psychotropics cause. They want a neverending revenue stream, ever increasing profits and not a healthy independent populace that doesn't serve their profit agenda.
Thanks Rob, KK and Jim for drawing attention to the increasing problems with Forced treatment.
When you are forced into receiving treatment "for your own good," you are probably going to engage in a life-ong journey that is not of your own choosing, with few exits. Thank you for drawing attention to a problem of control instead of needed compassion. See our SAFE pilot project that offer options (respect, support, education, community) other than a one size fits all solution to the trials and tribulations of trying to be fully human.
https://www.survivorsandfamiliesempowered.org/
I'm glad to see this initiative going, Ron -- I recall talking about it a little with you when I was researching my book, and now you're doing it!
Forced treatment is an enigma. Many of the families that initiate forced treatment do so because they do not know what else to do. They do not realize that turning to a professional who believes in the medical model will result in a drug prescription that will at best mask problems and give the illusion of control and too easily result in a descent into becoming a chronic mental patient who will carry a life-long diagnosis. A combination of Empathy, Support, Education and Community is a better option for loving, caring families to effectively deal with the inevitable developmental crises that are part of life. We can and must do better.
Mentally ill Americans are at more risk today than we have been for many decades now, as per the hate-centric attitudes at the top of our nation's filth ridden food chain at this time. And I agree that at least some advocacy resources fail to the heed the voices of mentally ill Americans, and may function so haphazardly as to be all but useless in terms of better defending the rights of mentally ill American. I am but one voice that has all but singlehandedly brought about long past due federal oversight and intervention to two (2) different state managed mental hospitals in two (2) different states since my first diagnosis of mental illness in 2010, and have accrued over 3.25 years of in-patient time in these settings. As with other oppressor-to-oppressed relationships over the far greater course of human history, as a male American citizen who just happens to be mentally ill I am comfortable in saying that I have come to understand the basic choices and behaviors of many of these male American psychiatrists than they can understand in their own right. It is, thus, the behaviors of the contemporary American psychiatrist that most needs direct attention today, while the APA simply must be subject to deep and lasting reform, and be required to provide reasonably independent oversight of the behaviors of its collective membership- the doctors. The attendant need remains clear for the American people to again raise our voices and again tell the APA and these doctors how to and how not to behave. Responsible adult American citizens have had to do this more than once in contemporary US history. Thank you for your own good work, Mr. Wipond (Rob), and for sharing your own work with the American people and myself personally. Author-editor "PJ Reed. The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse 2011-2015; "PJ Reed. Montana State Hospital. Montana's Forgotten Suicides" 2016-19: "To All Serious Problems There are Always Solutions" current-ongoing.
I agree, Patrick, the American Psychiatric Association has contributed a lot to these problems. And the state boards of medicine do already have regulatory/policing powers over their physician and psychiatrist members, but studies show they do a very poor job of it--protecting physicians more than protecting the public.
As the sole governing authority over the behaviors of American psychiatrists, I argue for good reason that the APA has long been what has most held mentally ill Americans back, as per its long time unwillingness to entertain direct and reasonably independent oversight of its own collective membership. And for equally very good reason, I argue that many if not most contemporary American psychiatrists today are no more reliable than were their counterparts in the old days, on basis of the fact that in 1844, when the APA was founded, those people could not see mentally ill persons as humans, and have in effect remained frozen in that mindset, in all too many cases. As for state level authorities, US civil rights in the US transcend state law, as does apply to the Americans With Disabilities Act and the authority of the ADA; the rights of all American supersede the authority of state law, and this very much carries to mentally ill persons and every other American citizens today,
YES defend advocacy organizations from federal budget cuts -- AND maybe we should be asking why for decades they failed to achieve their goals ***when they were funded***?
It's a bit like being innocent and locked up in prison and your lawyer keeps getting paid to get you released... and three decades later you are still locked up and suddenly your lawyer starts yelling that their funding just got cut.
Defending federal funding without talking about movement failures and cooptation is just a recipe for repeating the past.
What happens if the funding gets restored? It's just going to be under threat again of new budget cuts.
Is our movement about defending the budgets of paid advocates while we fail to win our goals?
(Ah yes, there are those who will say "But we HAVE been meeting our goals." That's not how movements win - reduce the bar of success to small changes that can be taken away at any moment. Define "success" as getting funded for a tiny number of innovative programs while the overall situation of oppression just keeps worsening. -- and yes psychiatric oppression today is worse than in 1970. If Dr. King had that strategy there would be five integrated lunch counters and the rest of Jim Crow would be in place and worse, just with a budget for professional civil rights reform advocate grants added in.)
Thanks for sharing your views, Will! And for me I think the single most revealing factoid, which I mention in the main article, is that the P&As and NDRN have never done a national survey or hosted a national dialogue just to hear from all the PACs and get a sense of what's going on and identify if there are systemic problems that could be worked on. That would be extremely easy to do, and what better starting point could there be if one truly was concerned about fulfilling the mission and reducing infighting and ultimately creating a stronger united front.
Exactly, what is the metric for assessing "fulfilling the mission" - how is the mission defined, has it been fulfilled, what works and doesn't work to actually result in change, and if no change has occurred why on earth continue the same strategy?