http://4thoutlawpsychiatry.blogspot.com/
Click on the title above to read the blog...
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Breastfeeding and Medications: "Experts" Lead Families to the Slaughter
I have analyzed some common advice given to moms with PPD about medications and breastfeeding. It's important to note that Hale only claims to have studied about 30 babies when he recommended Zoloft. Also, Prozac can cause COMA in the baby. SSRIs work the same way.
Also it's important to note that Omega 3s have been so successful for treating depression, that a recent study on bipolar disorder was halted because they considered it unethical to continue the placebo group and immediately put them all on 14 tabs of fish oil a day.
Please also see the home page of uniteforlife.org for some very important articles and announcements.
Also it's important to note that Omega 3s have been so successful for treating depression, that a recent study on bipolar disorder was halted because they considered it unethical to continue the placebo group and immediately put them all on 14 tabs of fish oil a day.
Please also see the home page of uniteforlife.org for some very important articles and announcements.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Unsuspecting Magazine Perpetuates Advertising Claims
I am republishing this as an open letter, due to the highly likely possibility that it will not appear in Mothering Magazine ever...
Dear Peggy and others at Mothering Magazine,
I found it very disappointing when I received my Mothering Magazine today and learned the magazine seems to be promoting or condoning anti-psychotic drugs for psychosis, especially duiring breastfeeding. These drugs are the equivalent of a chemical lobotomy and the drug companies, FDA, and psychiatrists warn that mothers who use them should not breastfeed. Please visit http://www.moshersoteria.com/ and http://www.doctoryourself.com/ for information on treating psychosis with nutrition and other non-psychotropic drug-based, but empathetic methods.
I have visited the Thomas Hale web forum for lactation professionals and read many of the messages on the board. I do not believe that Dr. Hale would advocate using anti-psychotic drugs in a breastfeeding mother based on the information I have seen. I am extremely appalled that your magazine would imply that such a decision could ever be safe for the child. I thought I was just about the most enthusiastic advocate of breastfeeding that you could find until I encountered this insane attitude that breastfeeding should continue even with the presence of drugs like anti-psychotic drugs, which are probably the most physically dangerous drugs I can think of next to perhaps chemo.
The sad thing is, drugs like these only damage the brain and cause life-long problems, yet people who take them and go into "relapse" or experience adverse effects often mistake the drug's effects for their underlying condition. See http://www.breggin.com/, especially the latest article on the spellbinding effects of psychiatric drugs.
On page 10 you stated that Bipolar Disorder is a chronic medical condition like diabetes or high blood pressure. But did you know that bipolar disorder has no objective method for diagnosis, and that it often arises as a reaction to SSRIs? Almost anyone can be diagnosed with it because the criteria are so broad and vague. There is no medical test that can tell you you have "bipolar disorder" and the criteria for diagnosis were voted on at a conference by a show of hands of psychiatrists.
The DSM itself grows each year, due to the fact that they have to have a numeric code to bill insurance for everything. The latest "disorder" to be added is DTD or developmental trauma disorder, used to describe children who were abused. How is this an example of something defective with the child, a chemical imbalance that is chronic, or anything biological? This is obviously the result of circumstances and not some mysterious brain defect or lesion or medical condition which a drug would treat.
Furthermore, your mention of multiple medical conditions that "explain" mental illness is an obvious and glaring contradiction. If you are going with the psychiatrist's definition of "mental illness" then it would have to be something that is not explained by an underlying medical cause. Check the DSM criteria for diagnosis! Having an underlying medical condition precludes diagnosis with all categories of their disorders. If you ask any psychiatrist what is the medical cause of depression or psychosis, they will tell you they don't know the origin of the "mental illnesses." Therefore, promoting depression, psychosis, etc. as medical conditions is a major error and only perpetuates the advertising claims and popular misinformation so prevalent in society.
The reference to stigma is the classic pharmaceutical advertising scam used to play on our fears while perpetuating misinformation, shame, and depriving people of informed consent. When we refer to the difficulty people have admitting they have a problem they need treatment for, it very conveniently hides the problems with the mental health system and puts shame back on the people who are suffering. People assume that if you won't go to a psychiatrist or talk about your problems, or voluntarily submit yourself to a locked ward, that you are in denial. However, as your articles did point out, there are multiple ways to address any underlying medical issues at play, and I was very glad to see those mentioned. I hope that people can find these alternatives helpful to them and not go down the road of anti-psychotic drugs while breastfeeding just because your magazine implied that it would be safe according to Hale.
The more we talk about "stigma" the more stigmatizing mental issues become. The people who are out here advocating for patient rights and informed consent do not "blame the victim" but rather we hope to empower them with information on the dangers of the "standard" methods of "treatment." Some people simply cannot accept that anyone would decieve so many people purely for a profit.
There was no mention of the real cause of the killings perpetrated by Andrea Yates. It was not PPP but rather abrupt withdrawal from two very dangerous drugs, Effexor, and Haldol, that led to those murders. Yates had been taking beyond the maximum dose of Effexor in combination with Haldol, but due to the fact that this can be extremely physically dangerous her doctor stopped the Haldol and lowered the Effexor. It wasn't the PPP that was responsible for the deaths of her children, it was the influence of psychiatric drugs making her so much worse in the first place, combined with the hellish withdrawal caused by such abrupt discontinuation.
All psychiatric medications are brain damaging and perpetuate problems and create new "mental illnesses" in addition to causing malfunctions in all of the body systems - ranging from liver damage to heart failure to thyroid and cholesterol problems, pituitary and breast cancers, even stillbirth and birth defects, genotoxicity, etc.
I also found it interesting that you mentioned that PPD was not evident before industrialism - this is so revealing! Yes, our society is messed up in many ways that leads to a lack of support, and that should be more evidence to you that these are not always medical conditions or mental illnesses caused by a mysterious chemical imbalance, but rather, many times, real symptoms of problems with our ways as a culture. It wasn't until psychiatry began to invade the society, around the same time you mention, that people began to suddenly be plagued by so many psychological "disesases."
Human behavior can be "abnormal" but as you rightly pointed out in your articles, there is sometimes a medical explanation. Depression and psychosis are not diseases, they are warning signs of either other physical illnesses such as nutrient problems, drug reactions, thyroid problems, etc. or else normal reactions to out-of-the-ordinary stressors. Emotions are often about events in our lives, so much more than chemicals.
Stress does take a toll on our bodies and brains, but if there is any chemical imbalance to be observed, it would not be treated effectively by psychiatric drugs.
To advocate drugs for psychosis and imply that they are appropriate for depression shows a complete lack of attention to the real and very widespread danger - the psychiatric drugs themselves - which have caused school shootings including Virginia Tech, workplace shootings, infanticide, murder-suicide, and likely SIDS and other permanent problems such as autism which might occur in an infant or young child exposed to the drugs.
"Benefits" of psychiatric drugs do not outweigh the risks. The drugs are ineffective and dangerous. Please visit http://www.ssristories.com/, http://www.drugawareness.org/, http://www.chaada.org/, and http://www.uniteforlife.org/ for more information as well.
In closing, I want to remind you of something you wrote about in a past issue. Women giving birth in hospitals had approximately a 67% (or higher?) rate of PPD or the "baby blues." The rate was a fraction of that for out-of-hospital and home births.
I have found this to be true. My first baby was born in a hospital in a highly medicalized fashion and I was given many drugs, including several shots of epinephrine, which is known to cause mental disturbance. Thanks in large part to information from Mothering Magazine, my second baby was born at home.
After my first baby was born, medical intervention led to a life-threatening choking incident for him and severe anxiety for me, followed by a Zoloft prescription for "Post-Partum Anxiety." I experienced many of the things that were mentioned in the PPP article, except that my reactions were mostly caused by drug adverse events. Once I got off Zoloft, I went back to being a normal person again. I have been on the other side, and seen the horrors that these drugs can do, and how horribly the "system" treats you when you are "diagnosed" with a mental illness.
For more than two years since that experience, I have researched the drugs and talked with dozens of people who have lost their loved ones to the drugs or other psychiatric interventions.
There is one woman in Australia who is being forcibly medicated (and has been so for 29 years) with anti-psychotic drugs by order of psychiatrists, because when she was a teenager a doctor force-medicated her with an "antidepressant" and she has experienced adverse reactions such as psychosis that were used to justify continued forced drugging. Despite numerous requests, petitions, appeals, et cetera, her father and advocates from around the world have been unable to convince psychiatrists to help her withdraw from the drugs. Instead they are attempting to commit her.
This is what I fear the most when I read articles that are simply unknowlingly promoting a pharmaceutical agenda. Innnocent people like the woman I mentioned above will be pulled into psychiatric "treatment" and a lifetime of drugs and more drugs, potential committment, and no doubt severely scarred lives. The author of your PPP article is fortunate that she was able to get a caring psychiatrist, and had the support and medical attention she needed from a variety of sources and disciplines to find a healthy alternative, wean from the meds, and recover from her psychosis.
In contrast, those living in poverty or without access to the best medical care are not so lucky. If a poor person is to receive benefits at all for mental illness, such as state benefits, they will only receive the standard bottom-rung treatment, which is to pile multiple drugs on them and get it paid for by the state. When this fails, they will probably wind up in prison or a locked ward or state hospital, yet more drugs will be administered with the pharmaceutical companies collecting the hefty paychecks.
Some people would even prefer that "mental illness" be culled out of society by eliminating it from the gene pool (and this would not be possible since we can't prevent human suffering by trying to breed happy people). How sad that the ideas promoted as our "salvation" are the very basis of evil notions such as these. For examples of the less extreme scenarios, there is the quite legitimate fear that mental illness diagnoses or complications from drug treatment could lead to discrimination in the schools and the workplace, loss of parental rights, or committment. If more people are exposed to the dangerous psychiatric drugs, then this reality will befall more and more people as they become sicker and sicker.
Yet out of fear of what might come, doctors are quick to drug anyone who shows remote signs of depression or anxiety because they believe it is a true medical emergency that drugs be administered to "prevent" tragedies. Misinformation, advertising, and plain lies by the spin doctors have convinced many people that drugs prevent suicide, homicide, etc. But the opposite is actually true. The drugs cause symptoms to become much worse, and people lose touch with reality, and can even enter an REM sleepwalk state and commit mass murder while thinking they are having a nightmare.
It is not more health insurance or government benefits that we need for mental "health," but more promotion of and benefits for wellness care from all of the "alternative" practices you mention in your articles. If you can consider that there are many movements to discredit the tremendous value of nutrition, vitamins, homeopaths, chiropractors, et cetera, perhaps you can see how this boils down.
The bottom line is that drug companies want more "mental health awareness" and more discrediting of alternatives. They want everyone to think about mental illness and then start to think they have some form of it. They want more people to take drugs for that "crisis" time in their lives, and more people to end up on them permanently.
I highly encourage you to publish a follow-up story about the dangers of prescription psychiatric drugs and the massive campaign to promote them, rather than allowing your magazine to be used as a gullible messenger from the drug companies to the health-oriented community you reach.
As I mentioned before, my second baby was born at home. As it turns out, with my first baby I had post-partum thyroiditis. My hyperthyroid state was not treated appropriately the first time, but the second time I knew I would have thyroiditis again, and I had my thyroid levels monitored. This time I haven't suffered the scary psychotic features like I did because of adverse drug reactions to Zoloft the first time around. I did breastfeed my first son while on Zoloft for a few months, and nearly weaned him to take anti-psychotic drugs because Zoloft made me psychotic, and I did not realize that it was the fault of the Zoloft for several months. Once I did realize what the real problem was, rather than wean him, I weaned myself from Zoloft and continued breastfeeding. Today he is nearly 3 years old and still nursing.
I have lived the nightmare of having suicidal and homicidal urges because of prescription drugs, and I have found victory over the drugs and the psychosis they caused. I hope that more women out there who are on SSRIs or other prescription psychiatric drugs will get the information that they need to consider whether they can become healthy again by getting off of the drugs gradually and while under close supervision.
Sincerely,
Amy Philo
http://www.chaada.org/
http://www.uniteforlife.org/
P.S. Several months ago, a thread of mine was deleted from the message board on Mothering.com. I had posted some information about the dangers of antidepressants, but apparently I was censored. After receiving such an insult, I was discouraged about the magazine & website. Today's issue is further discouragement. I am anxiously awaiting the next issue, so I can distract myself with good things about the magazine again. I hope you'll take all this information and alternate perspective into consideration and perhaps publish another perspective on psychosis.
Dear Peggy and others at Mothering Magazine,
I found it very disappointing when I received my Mothering Magazine today and learned the magazine seems to be promoting or condoning anti-psychotic drugs for psychosis, especially duiring breastfeeding. These drugs are the equivalent of a chemical lobotomy and the drug companies, FDA, and psychiatrists warn that mothers who use them should not breastfeed. Please visit http://www.moshersoteria.com/ and http://www.doctoryourself.com/ for information on treating psychosis with nutrition and other non-psychotropic drug-based, but empathetic methods.
I have visited the Thomas Hale web forum for lactation professionals and read many of the messages on the board. I do not believe that Dr. Hale would advocate using anti-psychotic drugs in a breastfeeding mother based on the information I have seen. I am extremely appalled that your magazine would imply that such a decision could ever be safe for the child. I thought I was just about the most enthusiastic advocate of breastfeeding that you could find until I encountered this insane attitude that breastfeeding should continue even with the presence of drugs like anti-psychotic drugs, which are probably the most physically dangerous drugs I can think of next to perhaps chemo.
The sad thing is, drugs like these only damage the brain and cause life-long problems, yet people who take them and go into "relapse" or experience adverse effects often mistake the drug's effects for their underlying condition. See http://www.breggin.com/, especially the latest article on the spellbinding effects of psychiatric drugs.
On page 10 you stated that Bipolar Disorder is a chronic medical condition like diabetes or high blood pressure. But did you know that bipolar disorder has no objective method for diagnosis, and that it often arises as a reaction to SSRIs? Almost anyone can be diagnosed with it because the criteria are so broad and vague. There is no medical test that can tell you you have "bipolar disorder" and the criteria for diagnosis were voted on at a conference by a show of hands of psychiatrists.
The DSM itself grows each year, due to the fact that they have to have a numeric code to bill insurance for everything. The latest "disorder" to be added is DTD or developmental trauma disorder, used to describe children who were abused. How is this an example of something defective with the child, a chemical imbalance that is chronic, or anything biological? This is obviously the result of circumstances and not some mysterious brain defect or lesion or medical condition which a drug would treat.
Furthermore, your mention of multiple medical conditions that "explain" mental illness is an obvious and glaring contradiction. If you are going with the psychiatrist's definition of "mental illness" then it would have to be something that is not explained by an underlying medical cause. Check the DSM criteria for diagnosis! Having an underlying medical condition precludes diagnosis with all categories of their disorders. If you ask any psychiatrist what is the medical cause of depression or psychosis, they will tell you they don't know the origin of the "mental illnesses." Therefore, promoting depression, psychosis, etc. as medical conditions is a major error and only perpetuates the advertising claims and popular misinformation so prevalent in society.
The reference to stigma is the classic pharmaceutical advertising scam used to play on our fears while perpetuating misinformation, shame, and depriving people of informed consent. When we refer to the difficulty people have admitting they have a problem they need treatment for, it very conveniently hides the problems with the mental health system and puts shame back on the people who are suffering. People assume that if you won't go to a psychiatrist or talk about your problems, or voluntarily submit yourself to a locked ward, that you are in denial. However, as your articles did point out, there are multiple ways to address any underlying medical issues at play, and I was very glad to see those mentioned. I hope that people can find these alternatives helpful to them and not go down the road of anti-psychotic drugs while breastfeeding just because your magazine implied that it would be safe according to Hale.
The more we talk about "stigma" the more stigmatizing mental issues become. The people who are out here advocating for patient rights and informed consent do not "blame the victim" but rather we hope to empower them with information on the dangers of the "standard" methods of "treatment." Some people simply cannot accept that anyone would decieve so many people purely for a profit.
There was no mention of the real cause of the killings perpetrated by Andrea Yates. It was not PPP but rather abrupt withdrawal from two very dangerous drugs, Effexor, and Haldol, that led to those murders. Yates had been taking beyond the maximum dose of Effexor in combination with Haldol, but due to the fact that this can be extremely physically dangerous her doctor stopped the Haldol and lowered the Effexor. It wasn't the PPP that was responsible for the deaths of her children, it was the influence of psychiatric drugs making her so much worse in the first place, combined with the hellish withdrawal caused by such abrupt discontinuation.
All psychiatric medications are brain damaging and perpetuate problems and create new "mental illnesses" in addition to causing malfunctions in all of the body systems - ranging from liver damage to heart failure to thyroid and cholesterol problems, pituitary and breast cancers, even stillbirth and birth defects, genotoxicity, etc.
I also found it interesting that you mentioned that PPD was not evident before industrialism - this is so revealing! Yes, our society is messed up in many ways that leads to a lack of support, and that should be more evidence to you that these are not always medical conditions or mental illnesses caused by a mysterious chemical imbalance, but rather, many times, real symptoms of problems with our ways as a culture. It wasn't until psychiatry began to invade the society, around the same time you mention, that people began to suddenly be plagued by so many psychological "disesases."
Human behavior can be "abnormal" but as you rightly pointed out in your articles, there is sometimes a medical explanation. Depression and psychosis are not diseases, they are warning signs of either other physical illnesses such as nutrient problems, drug reactions, thyroid problems, etc. or else normal reactions to out-of-the-ordinary stressors. Emotions are often about events in our lives, so much more than chemicals.
Stress does take a toll on our bodies and brains, but if there is any chemical imbalance to be observed, it would not be treated effectively by psychiatric drugs.
To advocate drugs for psychosis and imply that they are appropriate for depression shows a complete lack of attention to the real and very widespread danger - the psychiatric drugs themselves - which have caused school shootings including Virginia Tech, workplace shootings, infanticide, murder-suicide, and likely SIDS and other permanent problems such as autism which might occur in an infant or young child exposed to the drugs.
"Benefits" of psychiatric drugs do not outweigh the risks. The drugs are ineffective and dangerous. Please visit http://www.ssristories.com/, http://www.drugawareness.org/, http://www.chaada.org/, and http://www.uniteforlife.org/ for more information as well.
In closing, I want to remind you of something you wrote about in a past issue. Women giving birth in hospitals had approximately a 67% (or higher?) rate of PPD or the "baby blues." The rate was a fraction of that for out-of-hospital and home births.
I have found this to be true. My first baby was born in a hospital in a highly medicalized fashion and I was given many drugs, including several shots of epinephrine, which is known to cause mental disturbance. Thanks in large part to information from Mothering Magazine, my second baby was born at home.
After my first baby was born, medical intervention led to a life-threatening choking incident for him and severe anxiety for me, followed by a Zoloft prescription for "Post-Partum Anxiety." I experienced many of the things that were mentioned in the PPP article, except that my reactions were mostly caused by drug adverse events. Once I got off Zoloft, I went back to being a normal person again. I have been on the other side, and seen the horrors that these drugs can do, and how horribly the "system" treats you when you are "diagnosed" with a mental illness.
For more than two years since that experience, I have researched the drugs and talked with dozens of people who have lost their loved ones to the drugs or other psychiatric interventions.
There is one woman in Australia who is being forcibly medicated (and has been so for 29 years) with anti-psychotic drugs by order of psychiatrists, because when she was a teenager a doctor force-medicated her with an "antidepressant" and she has experienced adverse reactions such as psychosis that were used to justify continued forced drugging. Despite numerous requests, petitions, appeals, et cetera, her father and advocates from around the world have been unable to convince psychiatrists to help her withdraw from the drugs. Instead they are attempting to commit her.
This is what I fear the most when I read articles that are simply unknowlingly promoting a pharmaceutical agenda. Innnocent people like the woman I mentioned above will be pulled into psychiatric "treatment" and a lifetime of drugs and more drugs, potential committment, and no doubt severely scarred lives. The author of your PPP article is fortunate that she was able to get a caring psychiatrist, and had the support and medical attention she needed from a variety of sources and disciplines to find a healthy alternative, wean from the meds, and recover from her psychosis.
In contrast, those living in poverty or without access to the best medical care are not so lucky. If a poor person is to receive benefits at all for mental illness, such as state benefits, they will only receive the standard bottom-rung treatment, which is to pile multiple drugs on them and get it paid for by the state. When this fails, they will probably wind up in prison or a locked ward or state hospital, yet more drugs will be administered with the pharmaceutical companies collecting the hefty paychecks.
Some people would even prefer that "mental illness" be culled out of society by eliminating it from the gene pool (and this would not be possible since we can't prevent human suffering by trying to breed happy people). How sad that the ideas promoted as our "salvation" are the very basis of evil notions such as these. For examples of the less extreme scenarios, there is the quite legitimate fear that mental illness diagnoses or complications from drug treatment could lead to discrimination in the schools and the workplace, loss of parental rights, or committment. If more people are exposed to the dangerous psychiatric drugs, then this reality will befall more and more people as they become sicker and sicker.
Yet out of fear of what might come, doctors are quick to drug anyone who shows remote signs of depression or anxiety because they believe it is a true medical emergency that drugs be administered to "prevent" tragedies. Misinformation, advertising, and plain lies by the spin doctors have convinced many people that drugs prevent suicide, homicide, etc. But the opposite is actually true. The drugs cause symptoms to become much worse, and people lose touch with reality, and can even enter an REM sleepwalk state and commit mass murder while thinking they are having a nightmare.
It is not more health insurance or government benefits that we need for mental "health," but more promotion of and benefits for wellness care from all of the "alternative" practices you mention in your articles. If you can consider that there are many movements to discredit the tremendous value of nutrition, vitamins, homeopaths, chiropractors, et cetera, perhaps you can see how this boils down.
The bottom line is that drug companies want more "mental health awareness" and more discrediting of alternatives. They want everyone to think about mental illness and then start to think they have some form of it. They want more people to take drugs for that "crisis" time in their lives, and more people to end up on them permanently.
I highly encourage you to publish a follow-up story about the dangers of prescription psychiatric drugs and the massive campaign to promote them, rather than allowing your magazine to be used as a gullible messenger from the drug companies to the health-oriented community you reach.
As I mentioned before, my second baby was born at home. As it turns out, with my first baby I had post-partum thyroiditis. My hyperthyroid state was not treated appropriately the first time, but the second time I knew I would have thyroiditis again, and I had my thyroid levels monitored. This time I haven't suffered the scary psychotic features like I did because of adverse drug reactions to Zoloft the first time around. I did breastfeed my first son while on Zoloft for a few months, and nearly weaned him to take anti-psychotic drugs because Zoloft made me psychotic, and I did not realize that it was the fault of the Zoloft for several months. Once I did realize what the real problem was, rather than wean him, I weaned myself from Zoloft and continued breastfeeding. Today he is nearly 3 years old and still nursing.
I have lived the nightmare of having suicidal and homicidal urges because of prescription drugs, and I have found victory over the drugs and the psychosis they caused. I hope that more women out there who are on SSRIs or other prescription psychiatric drugs will get the information that they need to consider whether they can become healthy again by getting off of the drugs gradually and while under close supervision.
Sincerely,
Amy Philo
http://www.chaada.org/
http://www.uniteforlife.org/
P.S. Several months ago, a thread of mine was deleted from the message board on Mothering.com. I had posted some information about the dangers of antidepressants, but apparently I was censored. After receiving such an insult, I was discouraged about the magazine & website. Today's issue is further discouragement. I am anxiously awaiting the next issue, so I can distract myself with good things about the magazine again. I hope you'll take all this information and alternate perspective into consideration and perhaps publish another perspective on psychosis.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Psychiatric Torture: German 17-year-old institutionalized under authority of Hitler-era law outlawing home schooling
In a world in which political oppressors and insanely evil people masquerade as doctors and seem to control certain aspects of law and policy, and drug companies and other big corporations seem to control what's considered reasonable and medically necessary "for their own good" we can't be surprised that the masses are not engaging in any sort of peaceful resistance. They simply go along with whatever someone else tells them to do, feel, believe, or ignore.
Go to the website listed in the first paragraph of the letter below and find the email address and web form to leave a comment. Feel free to forward or notify human rights groups around the world.
Here is what I sent:
Hi,
I read a story about a 17 year old girl who had been expelled from school and was subsequently home schooled. Fifteen police officers went to her house, removed her from her home, had her evaluated and thrown in a psych ward, a.k.a. prison. http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07020502.html
This is so wrong. I can't believe that your country actually makes home schooling illegal. You need to free this girl immediately. Since when is being "developmentally delayed" a crime? Do you allow anyone who isn't "smart enough" to be thrown in a locked ward? How do you determine intelligence or developmental milestones? If I were to come and "evaluate" your psychiatrist who made the determination I am positive I would find him morally deficient. Should I be allowed to throw him into prison because I don't like his ideas?
If you find a toddler who isn't walking by 16 months do you put him in foster care? If you have a child who isn't talking early enough do you drug them? If you are going to establish a "norm" then there must be some allowance for people with "disabilities" to be able to live free in your society. Home schooling does not cause "developmental delays." I am appalled that a law established by the Hitler regime is being enforced today, and that anyone in your country can possibly justify this at all.
I have a friend who is German and Scottish - her child had a seizure disorder. She lives in Switzerland - she is a CPA and takes good care of her son. If the doctors had not been able to medicate him with an experimental drug that was fortunately successful in his case, he would have become mentally retarded. If he lived in Germany, would you go to her home and take him from his mother, traumatizing him for the rest of his life? Would you throw him in a psych ward and start drugging and restraining him?
This is political and unnecessary. I suspect there is some motive for this other than the supposed "developmental delay" or illegal home schooling. Exactly what is the real reason that authorities chose to remove this girl and not the rest of her siblings from the home? After all, if it's the parents' fault then the rest of the siblings are in danger of also becoming "delayed" (and we should ALL have to apparently conform to some sort of standard development to keep our freedom).
I feel so awful for the girl who was removed from her home. I can't believe you are allowing an ongoing holocaust of people your country considers unfit for the society. I thought your country encouraged trade school tracks for those who didn't intend to go into academia. Since when is failing Latin and Math a reason to put someone in a psych ward?
This is human rights abuse and I hope that the international community comes down hard on your outdated, unjust and evil policies.
As an American, I have many friends who home school. I cannot understand why this is still illegal, and why the girl is being taken from her family. Why not simply put her back in a public school? Why take her from the people she loves?
This fits into the category of psychiatric torture. I hope that you guys get in serious trouble for this. Your psychiatrists or judges or whoever is responsible should have to pay the family a huge compensation for this abuse, and the girl should probably find a way to escape to a more sane country not ruled by Hitler-age politics.
Amy Philo
Frisco, Texas USA
Go to the website listed in the first paragraph of the letter below and find the email address and web form to leave a comment. Feel free to forward or notify human rights groups around the world.
Here is what I sent:
Hi,
I read a story about a 17 year old girl who had been expelled from school and was subsequently home schooled. Fifteen police officers went to her house, removed her from her home, had her evaluated and thrown in a psych ward, a.k.a. prison. http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07020502.html
This is so wrong. I can't believe that your country actually makes home schooling illegal. You need to free this girl immediately. Since when is being "developmentally delayed" a crime? Do you allow anyone who isn't "smart enough" to be thrown in a locked ward? How do you determine intelligence or developmental milestones? If I were to come and "evaluate" your psychiatrist who made the determination I am positive I would find him morally deficient. Should I be allowed to throw him into prison because I don't like his ideas?
If you find a toddler who isn't walking by 16 months do you put him in foster care? If you have a child who isn't talking early enough do you drug them? If you are going to establish a "norm" then there must be some allowance for people with "disabilities" to be able to live free in your society. Home schooling does not cause "developmental delays." I am appalled that a law established by the Hitler regime is being enforced today, and that anyone in your country can possibly justify this at all.
I have a friend who is German and Scottish - her child had a seizure disorder. She lives in Switzerland - she is a CPA and takes good care of her son. If the doctors had not been able to medicate him with an experimental drug that was fortunately successful in his case, he would have become mentally retarded. If he lived in Germany, would you go to her home and take him from his mother, traumatizing him for the rest of his life? Would you throw him in a psych ward and start drugging and restraining him?
This is political and unnecessary. I suspect there is some motive for this other than the supposed "developmental delay" or illegal home schooling. Exactly what is the real reason that authorities chose to remove this girl and not the rest of her siblings from the home? After all, if it's the parents' fault then the rest of the siblings are in danger of also becoming "delayed" (and we should ALL have to apparently conform to some sort of standard development to keep our freedom).
I feel so awful for the girl who was removed from her home. I can't believe you are allowing an ongoing holocaust of people your country considers unfit for the society. I thought your country encouraged trade school tracks for those who didn't intend to go into academia. Since when is failing Latin and Math a reason to put someone in a psych ward?
This is human rights abuse and I hope that the international community comes down hard on your outdated, unjust and evil policies.
As an American, I have many friends who home school. I cannot understand why this is still illegal, and why the girl is being taken from her family. Why not simply put her back in a public school? Why take her from the people she loves?
This fits into the category of psychiatric torture. I hope that you guys get in serious trouble for this. Your psychiatrists or judges or whoever is responsible should have to pay the family a huge compensation for this abuse, and the girl should probably find a way to escape to a more sane country not ruled by Hitler-age politics.
Amy Philo
Frisco, Texas USA
Friday, December 15, 2006
SSRIs are Actually Depressants... The Big Suicide Loophole
Breggin says it best, so for now my comments are unnecessary.
http://www.breggin.com/AntidepressantSuicideLoophole.html
The Big Suicide Loophole in Antidepressant Drug Safety Studies
By
Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
On December 13, 2006 the FDA’s Psychopharmaceutical Drugs Advisory Committee (PDAC) is meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland to discuss antidepressant-induced suicidal behavior in adults. In 2004 the FDA held similar hearings on children and concluded that antidepressants do in fact cause suicide in humans under age eighteen. A warning has been placed in all antidepressant labels or package inserts.
Now the agency has given advanced notice of its new findings—antidepressants, all of them according to the FDA, cause increased suicidality in young adults. Suicide occurs more than twice as much on antidepressants than on sugar pills in individuals under age 25.
First the agency admits that antidepressants cause suicidality in children. Now the agency admits the drugs cause the same disasters in young adults. Meanwhile, an independent review of all antidepressant trials submitted to the FDA has shown that the drugs are no better than placebo.[i] America’s drug watchdog needs to come clean. It’s been approving depressants as antidepressants.
The Largest Loop Hole
But it gets worse. The primary data on suicidality has been generated in short-term controlled clinical trials planned by drug companies, carried out by drug company hacks, and evaluated by drug company employees at corporate headquarters. If that kind of carefully cultivated evaluation bears such bad fruit, imagine what the real data must show.
Since I first began working as a medical expert in product liability cases way back in the early 1990s, I’ve spent innumerable hours culling the sealed data contained within the files of companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly. Among other things, I long ago found evidence that Paxil and Prozac cause suicidality in adults. These discoveries then led to settlements in product liability suits brought against the two companies brought by surviving family members. I’ve also communicated my conclusions in books like Talking Back to Prozac and the Antidepressant Fact Book and in scientific articles but the primary data until recently remained sealed.
Drug company groomed data creates the biggest loophole in the FDA’s evaluations of drug safety. In May 2006 GSK published a Dear Healthcare Provider letter admitting that Paxil causes suicidality in depressed adults, but even that data was diluted before it was processed. The real picture is even worse.
Paxil Suicide Data Sealed in Company Files
I recently published analyses of previously sealed GSK data on Paxil suicide in the peer-reviewed journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. I combed the data out of GSK files during a several-day investigation of the company’s Paxil records. My original medical-legal report recently became unsealed and provided the basis for the published reports.
The first report shows how GSK omitted some suicides and suicide attempts from their tables and from the data sent to the FDA.[ii] The second shows how the company hid data on Paxil-induced akathisia (psychomotor restlessness) and its relationship to suicidality.[iii] The third shows how the company hid the basic concept of activation or stimulation that recently became a central part of the newly mandated antidepressant labels.[iv] [Go to Breggin Selected Scientific Papers for Paxil Special Reports 1 through 3]
Prozac Suicide Data Sealed in Company Files
The sealed Prozac data from Eli Lilly also came from my investigations of the company as a medical expert in product liability suits. BMJ (The British Medical Journal) recently obtained the sealed documents from an anonymous source and released them to the FDA and the U.S. Congress. The documents are contained in four Lilly PDFs that can be downloaded from my professional website [http://www.breggin.com/].v]
Lilly PDFs 1 to 3 show that the drug company knew in 1985 that patients taking Prozac had a 12 to1 increase in suicide attempts compared to placebo or to an older antidepressant. This original data and the analyses were never shown to the FDA until the BMJ recently forwarded them to the agency. The FDA has never responded. [Go to Lilly PDF 1] [Go to Lilly PDF 2] [Go to Lilly PDF 3]
Lilly PDF 4 contains several studies. Most important, two in-house memoranda show that Eli Lilly was purposely hiding suicide attempts and suicide ideation by coding them under false categories, such as “depression” and “no drug effect” (pages 3 and 4 of Lilly PDF 4). Eli Lilly employee Claude Bouchy expressed shame about going along with this fraudulent practice: “I do not think I could explain to the BGA [the German regulatory agency], to a judge, to a reporter or even to my family why we would do this especially on the sensitive issue of suicide and suicide ideation.” [Go to Lilly PDF 4] The data used to evaluate antidepressant-induced suicidality in adults is not reliable. This is a fact the FDA has yet to face. The data has been pruned, culled and manipulated by the drug companies before being tabulated and released. The FDA must send investigators into the original drug company files to search and analyze the primary sources of data, much as I have done as a medical expert in product liability suits against drug companies. I will be happy to share my knowledge with FDA officials on how to conduct these searches and analyses.
[i] Kirsch, I. and Sapirstein, G. (1998). Listening to Prozac but hearing placebo: A meta-analysis of antidepressant medication. Prevention & Treatment, 1, Article 0002a, 16 pages, posted June 26, 1998. www.journals.apa.org.
[ii] Breggin, P. (2006a). Court filing makes public my previously suppressed analysis of Paxil’s effects. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 8, 77-84, 2006. Available on www.breggin.com.
[iii] Breggin, P. (2006b). How GlaxoSmithKline suppressed data on Paxil-induced akathisia: Implications for suicide and violence. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 8, 91-100.
[iv] Breggin, P. (2006c) Drug company suppressed data on paroxetine-induced stimulation: Implications for violence and suicide. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 8, 255-263.
[v] Lilly Documents, Folders 1-4 (2006). Dr. Breggin analyzes Eli Lilly Prozac-induced suicide and violence documents now in possession of the British Medical Journal (BMJ). http://www.breggin.com/. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
Go to Scientific Papers of Peter R. Breggin, MD
Home - Books - Biography - Resume - Contact Dr. Breggin
Peter R. Breggin, MD101 East State Street, # 112 Ithaca, New York 14850 By Appointment Only Phone 607 272 5328 Fax 607 272 5329
http://www.breggin.com/AntidepressantSuicideLoophole.html
The Big Suicide Loophole in Antidepressant Drug Safety Studies
By
Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
On December 13, 2006 the FDA’s Psychopharmaceutical Drugs Advisory Committee (PDAC) is meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland to discuss antidepressant-induced suicidal behavior in adults. In 2004 the FDA held similar hearings on children and concluded that antidepressants do in fact cause suicide in humans under age eighteen. A warning has been placed in all antidepressant labels or package inserts.
Now the agency has given advanced notice of its new findings—antidepressants, all of them according to the FDA, cause increased suicidality in young adults. Suicide occurs more than twice as much on antidepressants than on sugar pills in individuals under age 25.
First the agency admits that antidepressants cause suicidality in children. Now the agency admits the drugs cause the same disasters in young adults. Meanwhile, an independent review of all antidepressant trials submitted to the FDA has shown that the drugs are no better than placebo.[i] America’s drug watchdog needs to come clean. It’s been approving depressants as antidepressants.
The Largest Loop Hole
But it gets worse. The primary data on suicidality has been generated in short-term controlled clinical trials planned by drug companies, carried out by drug company hacks, and evaluated by drug company employees at corporate headquarters. If that kind of carefully cultivated evaluation bears such bad fruit, imagine what the real data must show.
Since I first began working as a medical expert in product liability cases way back in the early 1990s, I’ve spent innumerable hours culling the sealed data contained within the files of companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly. Among other things, I long ago found evidence that Paxil and Prozac cause suicidality in adults. These discoveries then led to settlements in product liability suits brought against the two companies brought by surviving family members. I’ve also communicated my conclusions in books like Talking Back to Prozac and the Antidepressant Fact Book and in scientific articles but the primary data until recently remained sealed.
Drug company groomed data creates the biggest loophole in the FDA’s evaluations of drug safety. In May 2006 GSK published a Dear Healthcare Provider letter admitting that Paxil causes suicidality in depressed adults, but even that data was diluted before it was processed. The real picture is even worse.
Paxil Suicide Data Sealed in Company Files
I recently published analyses of previously sealed GSK data on Paxil suicide in the peer-reviewed journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. I combed the data out of GSK files during a several-day investigation of the company’s Paxil records. My original medical-legal report recently became unsealed and provided the basis for the published reports.
The first report shows how GSK omitted some suicides and suicide attempts from their tables and from the data sent to the FDA.[ii] The second shows how the company hid data on Paxil-induced akathisia (psychomotor restlessness) and its relationship to suicidality.[iii] The third shows how the company hid the basic concept of activation or stimulation that recently became a central part of the newly mandated antidepressant labels.[iv] [Go to Breggin Selected Scientific Papers for Paxil Special Reports 1 through 3]
Prozac Suicide Data Sealed in Company Files
The sealed Prozac data from Eli Lilly also came from my investigations of the company as a medical expert in product liability suits. BMJ (The British Medical Journal) recently obtained the sealed documents from an anonymous source and released them to the FDA and the U.S. Congress. The documents are contained in four Lilly PDFs that can be downloaded from my professional website [http://www.breggin.com/].v]
Lilly PDFs 1 to 3 show that the drug company knew in 1985 that patients taking Prozac had a 12 to1 increase in suicide attempts compared to placebo or to an older antidepressant. This original data and the analyses were never shown to the FDA until the BMJ recently forwarded them to the agency. The FDA has never responded. [Go to Lilly PDF 1] [Go to Lilly PDF 2] [Go to Lilly PDF 3]
Lilly PDF 4 contains several studies. Most important, two in-house memoranda show that Eli Lilly was purposely hiding suicide attempts and suicide ideation by coding them under false categories, such as “depression” and “no drug effect” (pages 3 and 4 of Lilly PDF 4). Eli Lilly employee Claude Bouchy expressed shame about going along with this fraudulent practice: “I do not think I could explain to the BGA [the German regulatory agency], to a judge, to a reporter or even to my family why we would do this especially on the sensitive issue of suicide and suicide ideation.” [Go to Lilly PDF 4] The data used to evaluate antidepressant-induced suicidality in adults is not reliable. This is a fact the FDA has yet to face. The data has been pruned, culled and manipulated by the drug companies before being tabulated and released. The FDA must send investigators into the original drug company files to search and analyze the primary sources of data, much as I have done as a medical expert in product liability suits against drug companies. I will be happy to share my knowledge with FDA officials on how to conduct these searches and analyses.
[i] Kirsch, I. and Sapirstein, G. (1998). Listening to Prozac but hearing placebo: A meta-analysis of antidepressant medication. Prevention & Treatment, 1, Article 0002a, 16 pages, posted June 26, 1998. www.journals.apa.org.
[ii] Breggin, P. (2006a). Court filing makes public my previously suppressed analysis of Paxil’s effects. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 8, 77-84, 2006. Available on www.breggin.com.
[iii] Breggin, P. (2006b). How GlaxoSmithKline suppressed data on Paxil-induced akathisia: Implications for suicide and violence. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 8, 91-100.
[iv] Breggin, P. (2006c) Drug company suppressed data on paroxetine-induced stimulation: Implications for violence and suicide. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 8, 255-263.
[v] Lilly Documents, Folders 1-4 (2006). Dr. Breggin analyzes Eli Lilly Prozac-induced suicide and violence documents now in possession of the British Medical Journal (BMJ). http://www.breggin.com/. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
Go to Scientific Papers of Peter R. Breggin, MD
Home - Books - Biography - Resume - Contact Dr. Breggin
Peter R. Breggin, MD101 East State Street, # 112 Ithaca, New York 14850 By Appointment Only Phone 607 272 5328 Fax 607 272 5329
Monday, December 11, 2006
Knowledge - The Anti-Drug
Plato wrote an essay called “The Cave.” A man lives in a cave his whole life, and one day the entrance to the cave is opened and a bright light shines in. He leaves the cave, and is at first completely blinded by the bright light. But after his eyes have had time to adjust, he sees the world as it really is for the first time. Life is brand new outside the cave; the darkness which he had been living in his whole life is no longer limiting his vision.
Are you as aware as you should be? The saying goes, if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention. Can you see what is going on around you and the way that people are manipulating others? Or do you take things for granted because they are the status quo? I sincerely hope you will choose to step out of the cave and see what a wonderful thing life can be when you work with your body and spirit, instead of suppressing it with drugs or shock or even unnecessary surgery. I hope that your perspective will be a light to guide others to the truth. We must shine that light for all to see. We must also show others the ways that they are being trapped in darkness.
Some people like to say that we don’t know why things happen, that everything happens for a reason, and it’s all part of a master plan. The plan is compared to a painting that God is working on, or a rug that he is weaving. The thread of our life may not make much sense the way it is being worked in the moment, but if you get some perspective you can see why it was twisted or bent in such a way. A dot of paint on a canvas may not make sense, but when you get back far enough to see the big picture, it’s very clear what the story is.
God is not the only one working on a rug. In case you haven’t noticed, there are some very powerful people in our world trying to work their magic. Usually this means they are trying to get the most money. But what will money do for them anyway? Life is fleeting, and you can’t take possessions with you.
If you have faith in a life after death perhaps you can grasp the idea that what is most important while we are alive is fulfilling our purpose rather than filling our pocketbooks.
Two years ago I had my first baby. The birth was the beginning of an experience I had not planned on. I wanted an unmedicated birth, but wound up with just about every drug and procedure available short of a c-section. After the birth I was crying a lot because I wasn’t dealing well with the challenges that I was facing. When my son nearly choked to death from trying to vomit some formula that he couldn’t digest, I became intensely frightened for his life. Feeding him was the only way to keep him alive but I was afraid to feed him because I was afraid he would choke again. I saw my doctor after having a panic attack, and he gave me Zoloft.
Today I help spread awareness about the harm that drugs like Zoloft can do. I met many people online who, like me, experienced psychotic effects from SSRIs or other meds. Now I know why that happens. It is definitely the drugs and not the person. I am thankful that I have survived that ordeal, not only for myself and my children, but also so that I can hopefully help to prevent the same thing, or something much worse, happening to someone else. Perhaps this is the reason that I went through the horrible pain of months of drug-induced psychosis. Perhaps the sacrifices my family made, and the risks we were exposed to were for a good reason in the end. Perhaps it was part of a larger plan.
Many groups have formed, and many survivors have been desperately trying to get the message out to as many people as possible. It is time for us to unite together to fight the massive machine of drug company influence in our society.
There are many issues facing us that need our action. I see them as opportunities. Together we can research, publicize, counsel, heal, and lobby for important changes in our country and the world. The impact we have will affect many lives.
People who doubt our stories, research, or points of view should realize that everything we say is out of a genuine desire to help others, not from greed like that of a giant pharmaceutical company or an industry that capitalizes on illnesses or weaknesses without offering any real solution. Skeptics should seriously question any of their defense arguments if they happen to be almost verbatim compared to those written in drug company manuals, advertisements, and official statements.
Please join the movement against harmful drugging and mistreatment of human beings. Help create a better future by uniting together for this worthwhile cause - bringing awareness to the risks of using psychiatric drugs or electroshock.
Are you as aware as you should be? The saying goes, if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention. Can you see what is going on around you and the way that people are manipulating others? Or do you take things for granted because they are the status quo? I sincerely hope you will choose to step out of the cave and see what a wonderful thing life can be when you work with your body and spirit, instead of suppressing it with drugs or shock or even unnecessary surgery. I hope that your perspective will be a light to guide others to the truth. We must shine that light for all to see. We must also show others the ways that they are being trapped in darkness.
Some people like to say that we don’t know why things happen, that everything happens for a reason, and it’s all part of a master plan. The plan is compared to a painting that God is working on, or a rug that he is weaving. The thread of our life may not make much sense the way it is being worked in the moment, but if you get some perspective you can see why it was twisted or bent in such a way. A dot of paint on a canvas may not make sense, but when you get back far enough to see the big picture, it’s very clear what the story is.
God is not the only one working on a rug. In case you haven’t noticed, there are some very powerful people in our world trying to work their magic. Usually this means they are trying to get the most money. But what will money do for them anyway? Life is fleeting, and you can’t take possessions with you.
If you have faith in a life after death perhaps you can grasp the idea that what is most important while we are alive is fulfilling our purpose rather than filling our pocketbooks.
Two years ago I had my first baby. The birth was the beginning of an experience I had not planned on. I wanted an unmedicated birth, but wound up with just about every drug and procedure available short of a c-section. After the birth I was crying a lot because I wasn’t dealing well with the challenges that I was facing. When my son nearly choked to death from trying to vomit some formula that he couldn’t digest, I became intensely frightened for his life. Feeding him was the only way to keep him alive but I was afraid to feed him because I was afraid he would choke again. I saw my doctor after having a panic attack, and he gave me Zoloft.
Today I help spread awareness about the harm that drugs like Zoloft can do. I met many people online who, like me, experienced psychotic effects from SSRIs or other meds. Now I know why that happens. It is definitely the drugs and not the person. I am thankful that I have survived that ordeal, not only for myself and my children, but also so that I can hopefully help to prevent the same thing, or something much worse, happening to someone else. Perhaps this is the reason that I went through the horrible pain of months of drug-induced psychosis. Perhaps the sacrifices my family made, and the risks we were exposed to were for a good reason in the end. Perhaps it was part of a larger plan.
Many groups have formed, and many survivors have been desperately trying to get the message out to as many people as possible. It is time for us to unite together to fight the massive machine of drug company influence in our society.
There are many issues facing us that need our action. I see them as opportunities. Together we can research, publicize, counsel, heal, and lobby for important changes in our country and the world. The impact we have will affect many lives.
People who doubt our stories, research, or points of view should realize that everything we say is out of a genuine desire to help others, not from greed like that of a giant pharmaceutical company or an industry that capitalizes on illnesses or weaknesses without offering any real solution. Skeptics should seriously question any of their defense arguments if they happen to be almost verbatim compared to those written in drug company manuals, advertisements, and official statements.
Please join the movement against harmful drugging and mistreatment of human beings. Help create a better future by uniting together for this worthwhile cause - bringing awareness to the risks of using psychiatric drugs or electroshock.
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