I’ve been told that sharing my story is a form of recklessness. Today I saw this quote by Albert Einstein: Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act. – Albert Einstein Some people seem to feel threatened by people’s personal experiences and stories if they differ from their own…
MHP: It can be questioned as to whether this was the best forum for such a speech as family members and patients were present. Would this be better served to have been presented only to professionals to prevent patients from grasping onto this view as a reason to stop their medications? ME: yeah...lets keep on infantilizing everyone...they can't handle the truth, right? Can't make analytical choices or listen to debate? This is exactly what has been wrong with mental health treatment as currently practiced....the truth is routinely withheld and people cannot make informed choices. It's nothing short of criminal when considered from that stand point. Some of us have been gravely harmed because we were not given choices. That's why we're motivated to share the whole truth...then people can decide what risks they want to take or not. MHP: Monica, some people really can't handle the truth, make analytical choices or listen to debate precisely because of their mental illness. On the other hand, many can despite any mental illness. That is what makes balance in this field so difficult to achieve. ME: I was a social worker for many years in social services with the "seriously mentally ill." The only people I routinely dealt with who couldn't handle the truth were some of my colleagues and the administrators...that was my experience. And it continues to be my experience now. Mental health professionals are often terrified of the truth to the detriment of those they serve.
Are you familiar with this oft-quoted statistic: “people with serious mental illness served by the public mental health system die, on average, 25 years earlier than the general population”? You see it everywhere...
The Short Answer: YES. At the very least, a definite "maybe"… Let me explain. The Long Answer: What I’m referring to is the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki, a list of ethical guidelines for medical human subjects research, itself not international law, but the international ethical standard. The declaration has been codified into national law in... Continue Reading →
(WARNING: this isn’t going to be pretty…) In the 1940s, the US Government deliberately infected mentally ill and incarcerated Guatemalans with syphilis – almost 700 people in total. The study design included arranging sexual encounters between prostitutes known to be infected and the male participants [you just can’t make stuff like this up]. After 2... Continue Reading →
We can easily assume that psychiatrists in general have the same habits as the residents talked about in the article below as many of our lived experiences suggest. When we are young, desperate and naive, how many of us think to ask the pertinent questions? And then when we are thoroughly brainwashed to believe meds are the only way, how many of us really want to know the risks? If we have no alternatives, as we are led to believe, doesn't it feel safer to just not know? These "passive" doctors are taking the easy way out to our great expense. ...
By far the most informative, well-documented critique on psychiatric drugs that I've come across is Grace Jackson's " Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide for Informed Consent." It is appropriate for both professionals and lay-people, it is succinct and concise and loaded with information. In 2004, an on-line medical newsletter posted an article with a captivating... Continue Reading →
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