Physician-caused death, illness, anger and despair? It happens. What to do.

There is an important read today at Mad in America by Bruce Levine about how to regain power from the medical establishment. Those of us who have been harmed and know just how serious it can be have an important role to play.

Below is a brief excerpt from the conclusion of the article:

What can halt this epidemic of physician-caused death, illness, anger and despair?

Medical Nemesis author Ivan Illich clearly acknowledged there are valuable aspects of modern medicine, but he knew that much of it is deeply problematic. And while Illich greatly admired dissident, whistleblowing physicians, he knew that there are not enough of them in places of power to transform healthcare, and so he warned, “What is dangerous is a passive public that has come to rely on superficial medical house cleanings.”

Illich instead hoped that “The crisis in medicine could allow the layman effectively to reclaim his own control over medical perception, classification, and decision making.” Recognizing the enormity of uncaring bureaucracies, greed-driven institutions, and arrogant doctors, Illich believed that change will not come from inside the medical establishment, and so he instead urged the public themselves to regain power, “My argument is that the layman and not the physician has the potential perspective and effective power to stop the current iatrogenic epidemic.”

Why then has the public not yet stopped this epidemic of physician-caused anger, despair and death? While many Americans have been touched by it and are keenly aware of it, my sense is that much of the public feels helpless to change it. Thus, the job of dissident healthcare professionals is to:

1. Validate the public’s perception of this medical nemesis,

2. Encourage patients, when it makes sense, to challenge authorities, and

3. To energize the public by describing how in fact they do have power.

Patients can demand to be taken seriously, and all of us—patients and dissident professionals together—can help one another to be taken seriously. READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

The article goes into many details of how the system can harm people. It’s well worth reading especially if you’re not familiar with the phenomena.

For more about how the medical and psychiatric establishment have harmed so many of us I’m cutting and pasting the Mental Illness System page below which can always be found at the top of the page in the drop-down navigation menus:

The Mental (Illness) system and thoughts on alternatives: a collection

“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

I can’t call the current system of care a “mental health system” when it’s so clearly one that generates, encourages and sustains mental illness. And so I’ve often referred to it as a mental illness system. Here I’m underscoring that as it’s important that we make big changes if we want to help not only the most vulnerable people in our society, but also society itself. We create one another. None of this happens in a vacuum.

Below is a list of posts from Beyond Meds that look at the system from many different perspectives. It will become one of the main drop-down navigation menu tabs at the top of the page. It will replace the Professional/Patient Divide tab and will be called Mental Illness System. The contents of it will include those posts that were included in the Professional/Patient Divide Tab.

This post will be updated as appropriate. Check the drop-down navigation menus often for updates and additional access to the archives. I’m always working on them.

The below are pieces written specifically about the divide between the professionals in the system and those who are subject to their care and/or abuse.

Bridging Patient-Professional Divide
Professional denial is a form of retraumatization (new)
Being the empowered patient
The divide between client/patient/consumer and professionals (with list of links)
healing journey — part 1 and 2 (brief thoughts from this morning to a friend)
A doctor who talks sense about the all too frequent use of coercion in medicine
Informed Choice: Pro-information and pro-choice when it comes to drugs and medications
Words for all in the “helping” professions (and for any human who wants to benefit others)
Medical compliance? Adherence? No. My MDs are my PARTNERS
Letters to my shrink

Other significant pieces:

Having well-being in general is simply about learning to live well. It really doesn’t need to called therapy or need medical intervention most of the time. What a concept! Here is a collection of self-empowering ways to view our health and well-being from a holistic standpoint. This list does not begin to be exhaustive. There are as many ways to wellness as there are human beings. The below list of links all include additional collections of links on the topic they cover.

People are recovering and thriving in spite of what psychiatry tells them everyday. Sadly many of us had to disengage ourselves from a system of “care” that harmed us gravely in order to do it. Non-compliance saves people everyday. This needs to change. It’s dangerous and tragic both.

If you would like to know more about coming off meds as safely as possible start here:

Psychiatric drug withdrawal and protracted withdrawal syndrome round-up

Please do not come off psychiatric drugs without thoroughly educating yourself on the risks involved. Do not assume that your MD understands those risks either. Most of them do not.