Secondary to the brain injury in December I've now had raging hyperthyroid for months. It's clear that psychosis isn't something this body/mind does easily anymore since I do not sleep anymore than 2 hours a night and often less. The level of taxation on the body is through the roof. I'm in hell, for sure, and as lucid as can be. Sleeplessness is used as torture for good reason.
"How did this happen? You're the most resourced person I know. " That was one of my friend's response when they heard about what happened to me in December when I ended up in the ICU with the precipitous sodium drop (hyponatremia) that almost killed me. It happened after I took a pharmaceutical for 3 days -- the first pharmaceutical I've taken since I came off a massive cocktail of psych drugs 8 years ago. The above quoted question and sentence keeps coming back to me since, I too, have had my own version of that inquiry within.
Western medicine with it's penchant for suppression is a real political force. In suppressing the body's cries we are also denying the psyche. One need only look at US political process and our communities rife with racism, sexism and homophobia to see what this denial has created. Pharmaceuticals suppress symptoms and then keep one in the maintenance mode, creating customers for life and guaranteeing no real healing. ...
This was first published on David Healy's site, RxIsk: Making Medicine's Safer for All of Us, about 4 years ago. I've never published it on this site and thought I'd do so now so that it will be part of the archives here as well. It's a memoir of sorts up to that point 4 years ago.
By Richard Lewis -- As the benzodiazepine crisis spreads throughout the United States and other parts of the world so does the debate within the benzo victim/survivor community about important definitions of key medical terms and about safe and successful paths to healing and recovery. Does “iatrogenic benzo dependence” and “addiction” represent completely separate medical and social phenomena? If they are to have distinctly different scientific definitions, can they also (at the same time) intersect in multiple ways in people’s actual real life experience? And what is the medical and social significance of exploring these concepts and seeking unity of understanding and purpose? Before delving into the content of this debate let’s briefly review the social context from which this “Benzo Divide” has emerged.
I have a long history of being gravely harmed by MDs and western medicine. It started in early childhood with multiple courses of unnecessary antibiotics which primed my immune system and gut for later auto-immune disease. Later, as a teenager, my pediatrician told my mother I could only have gotten crabs by sexual transmission. I was a virgin.
The title from the ProPublica article from the other day was too good to not highlight and share. What does it mean that we are, indeed, a nation under sedation? I think it means we are not awake to what is going on around us in far too many ways and that we'd better take heed. I'm just sharing a link to the article and then cutting and pasting my benzo page below it. The benzodiazepine information page takes a critical look at the prescribing of benzodiazepines and offers suggestions about how one might free themselves if one already takes and is perhaps addicted to the drugs. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
This is supposed to be satire...in this instance it's pretty much straight up the truth...I actually have a hard time laughing at this stuff, but I did enjoy it. He's darn witty even if it didn't make me laugh. Too close to home is all. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
I find it ironic that practicing simple healthy habits is called "alternative" health and/or medicine.--I'm not using "alternative" health modalities. I'm getting healthy without medication after conventional medical treatment with drugs profoundly wrecked my wellbeing. Our language obfuscates. It's quite Orwellian, in fact.--Getting healthy in my mind means returning to or rediscovering what being in tune with our body/mind and spirit entails. Nothing alternative about that. It's about returning to our animal inheritance. It's foundational to simply being human. … [click on title to read and view more]
This is not the first time psych drugs have been linked to dementia, but it's certainly not something we hear about often enough. With an aging generation of people who've been on psych meds for their entire adult lives it's an issue that needs to be faced. It's yet another serious adverse effect that psychiatric drugs can cause. In this current NBC piece they are speaking only about benzodiazepines. All psych drugs have been associated with various sorts of mental decline, however.
What gets called treatment resistant mental illness is often drug iatrogenesis...people made worse by drugs...it's a sad loop to hell.
What happens is that the drugs make people worse. Different drugs are added to the cocktail and it spirals out of control.
People are made to believe it's something inherently wrong with them and not the drugs causing more symptoms and exacerbating existing ones
This is a tragedy when it happens. It happens a lot. Sometimes we figure it out and get off the drug merry-go-round and find our selves. … [click on title to read and view more]
You must be logged in to post a comment.