I would appreciate anyone signing and passing on the TeenScreen petition run by Teresa Rhoads Trhoades_teresa@yahoo.com
One day last winter, the 15-year-old daughter of Michael and Teresa Rhoades came home from her Mishawaka school with questions.
Hey Mom, she asked, what’s obsessive-compulsive disorder? How about social anxiety disorder?
These were not just innocent late-afternoon icebreakers.
The parents were stunned to learn that their “normal, well-adjusted” teen, a girl they call “a high achiever,” was told at school she had two mental disorders.
They were appalled to hear that this determination was the result of a test she took in class, an 11-page Q&A created by Columbia University in New York called TeenScreen.
Maybe we should call it Parent Scream, since that’s the sound you’re going to hear. The Rhoadeses are howling.
Working with the Rutherford Institute, a conservative defender of civil liberties, they have filed a tort claim, notifying their school system and the Mishawaka mental health center administering the test of their intent to sue. They want to protect their child’s constitutional rights. Indy attorney John R. Price is volunteering to represent the family
Please, don’t assume this is a bunch of “conservatives” putting heat on “liberal public schools.”
The test and the concept behind it have been endorsed by President Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, created in 2002.
And you didn’t even know mental health was one of our new freedoms, did you? Maybe we got this one to make up for those we’ve lost.
Actually, the TeenScreen goal sounds worthy: to cut the rate of teen suicide, said Robert Caruano, co-director for the TeenScreen Program at Columbia. When the testing works right, it is voluntary and requires parental consent. However, Michael and Teresa Rhoades say they received no notification.
The test takes 10-15 minutes. About one-third of students nationally get a “red flag” result, Caruano said. Those kids meet that same day with a mental health professional. “It helps weed out students who don’t have very serious problems and those with significant problems who will benefit from a full psychiatric or psychological evaluation.”
About 16 percent of the 33 percent will be in that “significant” category, he said. The next step is to reach their parents and recommend treatment.
So what sorts of answers can potentially trigger a red alert?
• “In the last three months, have you often felt very nervous or uncomfortable when you have been with a group of children or young people?”
• “Have you often felt very nervous when you’ve had to do things in front of people?”
TeenScreen is in 43 states. Seven school sites in Indiana use it.
Critics maintain it is a “front” to feed the pharmaceutical industry, since the result for some kids will be medication.
Stephen McCaffrey is the president of the Indiana State Mental Health Association. The state recently passed legislation to come up with a plan for similar screening, he said. Such screenings are not a diagnosis, he cautioned. He compares it to testing for eyesight and hearing.
Call me paranoid, call me anxious, but I don’t buy it. Mental health is far too complex to be reduced to a test. Also, one has to wonder: Who profits?
Entries (RSS)
July 30th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
Bush’s Mental Illness Screening Squad On the Move
By Evelyn Pringle The tax dollar funded mental health screening programs popping up in every corner of the nation represent an enormous gift to Big Pharma from the Bush administration. After all, drug companies can’t push drugs without a lucrative customer base, so the screening programs are a great solution for that little problem.
On April 29, 2002, Bush kicked off the whole mental health screening scheme when he announced the establishment of the New Freedom Commission (NFC) during a speech in in New Mexico where he told the audience that mental health centers and hospitals, homeless shelters, and the justice and school systems, have contact with individuals suffering from mental disorders but that too many Americans are falling through the cracks, and so he created the NFC to ensure “that the cracks are closed.”
In words relevant here, the late President Ronald Reagan aptly described government intervention this way: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
According to award-winning investigative reporter, Kelly O’Meara: “Nowhere is this quote more appropriate than when applied to George W. Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Heath.”
A little over a year after Bush announced the formation of the NFC, on July 22, 2003, government report was released that called for redesigning the mental health systems in all 50 states. A press release previewing the report stated:
“Achieving this goal will require greater engagement and education of first line health care providers—primary care practitioners—and a greater focus on mental health care in institutions such as schools, child welfare programs, and the criminal and juvenile justice systems. The goal is integrated care that can screen, identify, and respond to problems early.”
About 7 months later, on February 5, 2003, a subcommittee report was released titled, “Promoting, Preserving and Restoring Children’s Mental Heath,” and stated in part:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0607/S00120.htm
July 31st, 2006 at 10:50 am
Hi Kevin,
I am actually going through this sort of stuff with one of my teenagers. I just read a report that they sent out last night. (psychiatrist)
I made sure that I was in every interview (except for one that was with a crisis team) but I will tell you I am so angry that they have put my son as having a problem with sexual thoughts to women as if he is potential rapist. I detested when this sort of questioning went on because it was with 2 women and I could see where they were going. I told them that it is normal for teenage males to have sexual thoughts about females. I am so angry that they have included that on his records.
The only problem is that he doesn’t have a father to discuss sexual matters with.
July 31st, 2006 at 11:21 am
Its sad but sometimes the only way to learn about what the psyches are really doing is to get a personal reality on it, like you have just experienced. Most people just don’t believe it could be happenning in 2006
If you keep him in that system they will destroy him and you
http://www.rehabilitatenz.co.nz/pages/psych-flyers.html
Get him to do the online personality test below and we can see what is happening in his life. Once you have done it print it out and also save it to your pictures file, so you have a record. You can send a copy to me as well, if you like once you have saved it
http://www.scientology.org/oca.html
July 31st, 2006 at 9:54 pm
Thank you Kevin for your fascinating article on this topic. We often believe that what goes on in the States can’t reach ‘little ol NZ’ ; however it would seem that from what Julie has described, testing is happening here. We as parents need to be very close to what is happening in our schools and ensure we stay well informed. I urge all parents to share any stories of this kind.
Thanks again
August 1st, 2006 at 8:39 am
Thanks for your comments We do sometimes think that America can’t reach us here but we are closer than some think. We have 19 Psychiatrists that run the ministry of health. You could say they are puppets to the American Psychiatric Association etc.
If you duplicate that to every country on the planet that means allot of kids being diagnosed with invented illnesses to get them on prescription drugs.
How Psychiatry Creates
Permanent Insanity
http://www.rehabilitatenz.co.nz/pages/creates-insanity.html
In the some way that psychiatric drugs create
permanent derangement of the portion of the
brain associated with muscle control, so can
they also permanently sabotage the thought
processes.
STAGE ONE A person who has been on Powerful
psychiatric tranquilizes such asThorazine
Holopericdol, Prolixin, or any of many others only a short
time, may find himself thrown into a drug-induced psychotic state when he stops taking the drugs. This
state, which lasts only a few days, is often
interpreted by psychiatrists as are lapse and used as an excuse to force the person back onto the drug.
This is the first stage of a mental derangement
which,according to theory, results from a structural
alteration of the brain caused by the drugs.
STAGE TWO As the person continues to ingest the
psychiatric drug his brain can undergo extensive damage
without his knowing it. The powerful mind-altering effects
of the drug camouflage structural derangements
which are occurring. Only after the person comes off the
drug does the created psychosis of this,second stage
become visible, but at this point it may be too late. The
drug induced insanity has alreadly become
persistent, and in some cases may even irreversible.
STAGE THREE The person,not realising that his
brain is being destroyed by the psychiatric drug,will
likely continue regularly ingesting it.
If the damage caused by the drug proceeds into the third
stage, psychotic symptoms will pierce the straight
jacketing effects of the drug and throw the victim into an
overt psychosis while he is on the drug. At this point,”in
mostcases”the poor soul is doomed to suffer psychotic
symptoms entirely created by psychiatric drugs for the
rest of his life
August 1st, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Hi Julie, Hi everyone, nice blog…
This is an area I have lots of personal and professional experience in.
New Zealand is different from the States in that there is less corporate influence in government, not to mention not having any pharmaceutical companies to push product. However, every GP’s top draw is constantly full of glossy pamphlets sent out by drug companies from sales depots in Auckland.
Politically I think that power in psychological services should be shifted towards psychologists. It is great to have medication for people when they get really out of hand, but the first port of call should always be psychotherapy and other forms of personal work. While we implore our children not to get involved in drugs on one hand, on the other, too many parents easily allow their children to get into life long drug addiction through giving them too much medication. All too often Ritalin is used as a lazy answer to disciplining a child. ADHD and conduct disorder are simply clinical descriptions for unruly children.
Psychiatrists are doctors. Unlike psychologists they do not study and gain an understanding of human behaviour. Psychologists should be in charge of mental health, not psychiatrists. In addition ‘mental health’ is a misnomer and should be renamed ‘psychological health’, so that we talk of psychological health, and psychological services.
I could go on. There are a great many changes in psychological services that I would like to see happen.
Julie, if the report on your son was created by a psychiatrist, ignore it. If those two women you describe were just counsellors then their judgment is limited. Find a good psychologist.
August 1st, 2006 at 4:27 pm
I don’t know about ignoring it. The letter was written by a psychiatrist who is male and was not present on the interview. They interview was with a psychatrist and a nurse type psychiatrist.
I am very angry, New Zeal. Do you have any idea how something like that can affect my son in years to come.
What if he got in trouble with the police? Is he on a list of potential rapists and will he be called on if someone does get raped? What if a girl accuses him of rape, will this record be held against him?
I mean my head spins with scenarios. And I am going to make a big deal of it. I am in the process of making a full inquiry into this.
There are many places that will check records like this.
August 1st, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Psychiatrists are the ones who insist on using the diagnostic system, which is essentially put together by psychiatrists. Worldwide there is a shortage of psychiatrists, mainly because people don’t want to become them. On the other hand young people are filling out psychology courses to brimming point. At any time Massey has 2000 EFTs (equivalent full time students) in their psychology dept.
Psychiatrists control psychological health. They require psychologists to use diagnostic labels which psychologists are reluctant to use. There was at one stage a label called ‘adjustment disorder’. Many psychologists used this to label all cases that came to them, but the category soon got removed because of over use.
Are you sure the people were psychiatrists and not psychologists?
The implications depend on the situation which led to the interview. If there was an incident that came to the attention of authorities, school, or whatever, then that is what is going to be significant and not the label that gets attached to it. The psychiatric record remains with the psych unit and probably cannot be accessed by a third party without permission. I say ‘probably’ because I think privacy laws apply.
August 2nd, 2006 at 9:35 am
Hi New Zeal,
Yes, I agree.
I had asked for intervention myself and it has been great to have their support. This sex thing was way off topic and out of the blue. I am sure they will take it off the report easily.
But in my time dealing with them I have learn’t a few things. I am fortunate that I am a sticky beak and a bit of a controller as a parents but that has only come about from being a part of systems.
I made sure that we only had one psychiatrist and (Iwish I knew the word for their aids job) nurse for the whole time. Swapping and changing like they do makes you and your child just a number.
The personal touch just seems to not be there when you are new into a system and they make mistakes just like everyone else. But their mistakes are more crucial than say mum or dads mistakes.
You really cannot afford to trust any system and that is sad because they were all designed and put there to help the community.
In fact I think I should put some posts about this. People need to know beforehand how to deal with the Family Court (as I get people asking what is a psychiatrist wanting to see us for) and what to do if the police land at your door over your teenager or what are your rights with CYFS.
I can’t tell you how many people get done over because they have no idea of what to do. Ordinary people of NZ and elsewhere never dream of being faced with psychiatrists, psychologists, police or cyfs.
August 2nd, 2006 at 10:30 am
They have finally realized that the only workabilty antidressants have, is placebo effect? No placebo effect, no work. They don’t take into account the damage [side effects] the drugs are doing to the mind and body.
Study: Attitude affects antidepressants
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 1 (UPI) — A University of California, Los Angeles, study has suggested that hope about future treatment could help patients respond to antidepressant medication.
The UCLA Laboratory of Brain, Behavior and Pharmacology study, published Tuesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry, said specific changes were recorded in the brains of some depression patients in the week before beginning treatment, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The study said the brain pattern changes may be related to optimism on the part of the patients that their treatment will be successful.
Lead study author Aimee Hunter said the changes, measured by the electrical activity in the patients’ brains, are “a good indicator that you will do better than the other people” on antidepressant medication.
The study, which studied data gathered from 51 adults diagnosed with severe depression, indicates that a person’s attitude toward treatment could limit the treatment’s effectiveness.
“It’s entirely possible that the same drug could work at one point in time and not at another,” Hunter said.
August 3rd, 2006 at 9:13 am
Julie,
I think that some psych units are better than others. If you can imagine what it is like working in that area; they get lots of nutters and it is often hard to separate work life from other life, so they learn to maintain a wall between themselves and clients. Add to that the controversy that accompanies some patients being let out into the community and the element of ‘trust’ soon becomes hard to find. Essentially they are there to help you. It’s just a matter of finding the right person/people.
You keep mentioning psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses, but where are the psychologists in all this? They are the ones equipped with the knowledge and behavioural programmes that will help.
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:17 am
Hi New Zeal,
I don’t know where the psychologists in this field are. I am talking about the Waitamata Mental Health. They are part of the hospital. They have not once even metioned a psychologist.
I have a good relationship with this male psychaitrist and thanx for the psychiatric nurse label. Anyhow the nurse and I stay in contact and go out for coffee now and then. They have consistantly acknowledged how I am the best therapy for my son.
I understand why they work as a team instead of one psychiatrist working with certain patients as a local doctor does but this is what makes the whole thing alarming.
Each psychiatrist makes there own assessment when they see the patient.
At the end of a year you can be diagnosed with several different disorders. I have been fortunate because like I say I am somewhat controlling and another confession demanding for the best for my children and got the top male psychiatrist after a few months (because I could see where tis was going) and top psychiatrict nurse. You can reason with people who have nothing to prove and are life educated.
But between getting them and seeing a different Psychiatrist each visit look what happened. My son was being open and labeled what, “A potential rapist” My God he doesn’t even hang around girls. Just soccer, rugby, singing in his friends band and computer games etc.
It still doesn’t change the fact that these systems use labels far too easily and sometimes without medical proof.
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:47 am
Labeling someone with a disease that has never been proven and then treating that disease as if it is a proven Psychiatric Disorder is fraud but thats what the whole psychiatric system is based on.
Even the psychologists are labeling people with unproven mental disorders and treating them as if they were proven
See excuse below by New Zeal for this unethical, dangerous and immoral behaviour
Give me patients
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual:(DSM): A Psychiatric Hoax Video http://cchr.org/uploads/video/broadbandDSM.wmv
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:01 am
The corrections department employs most of them , that’s why we have an 85 - 100% re-offending rate and no signs of any improvement in the future. It has also been stated by New Zeal on the mens list that psychologists don’t rehabilitate anyone, they just treat mental disorders?
[invented ones] Those in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, used by psychiatrists
Correct me if I’m wrong?
I hope the above helps and look forward to your comments
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:36 am
Kevin,
I agree with you.
And just to add. Every year we have these reports from Universities about a new disorder. How many disorders do we have? Probably 1000’s.
Everything you do that doesn’t fit to a so - called normal line is a disorder. You sleep too little, it’s a disorder. If you sleep too much, it’s a disorder. If you have ups, it’s a disorder. ZIf you have downs, its a disorder. If you eat too little, it’s a disorder while eating too much is also a disorder.
We all have probably 100 disorders. I don’t know how psychologists/psychiatrists can keep up with them all.
I took a lady to the hospital to visit her husband. She was a little dizzy in the hallway because she was stressed out and had sleepless nights with her husband being sick. Next minute she is in hospital. Why? Because she is a smoker and the latest trend is ’smoking kills’ Sure it does but I told another friend that he will be looked after well because smokers are getting instant attention.
How bad do you think it is for England to start weighing kids at primary school. How many disorders will this cause?
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:40 am
I probably shouldn’t be so negative but for what happened to my son I am angry. There was absolutely no justification for that.
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:41 pm
Kevin, psychologists have never trained to rehabilitate criminals as such. Our justice system is a punishment based one, whereby the time in jail is supposed to act as a deterrent to future criminal behaviour. That is the political thinking behind the call for longer sentences. Maybe as we move towards a rehabilitation based justice system then psychologists might train in rehabilitation if such methods can be found. Until then, they restrict themselves to what they know about which is psychological disorders, which as I said figures largely in prison.
It is true that DSM is an expert consensus based categorization system and not based on empirical science, but it gives psychiatrists something to work on. Many people are relieved if someone can apply a label to their problem, but probably just as many, like Julie are the opposite. A clever psychiatrist/psychologist will only use labels where appropriate.
Yes, Julie the proliferation of labels is something that gets on my wick too. I did a research paper on the effect of labels. If psychologists are ever handed the power in psychological services then I believe their use will be stemmed.
There’s a widely known experiment done in the US years ago whereby certain actors admitted themselves to different hospitals with vague symptoms about hearing voices. They were labeled schizophrenic and admitted. These actors would take notes of what was going on around them as part of the experiment, and even this was recorded as errant behaviour and further proof of their need to be interred. Maybe your son said too much!!
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:03 pm
New Zeal,
Thank-you for seeing that.
His words were, “I look at sexy females and think of throwing them to the ground and having sex with them”
Don’t you ever think that for I think similar of men sometimes. It is our fantasy.
Females today are forever being coerced to buy sexy clothing and they seem to be maturing at a younger age. My son has remarked how he gets confused about their ages because 14 year old girls look 17 or so.
He mentioned this and he was feeling bad about having thoughts of girls walking down the street looking what we grew up as ’sluttish’.
Look at the songs on TV. The girls are teasing young guys. My son was making a stand. I will tell you what happened at school. He called the teacher a sexist because the girls were getting their way with the teacher. They were at the ice skating rink and the teacher made the boys let the girls on the bus first. But he was the only one who made a stand. This was supported quietly by the other males and even the girls admitted the teacher was a pushover.
My son is just like his mother. He calls a spade a spade. Anyhow he had to walk 20kms home because of this and the school said he was suspended because of it. He wanted to take it to the education department. The psychologist nurse was and is a friend of the school.
A girl at school at the time was upset with my son because he would not go out with her but kissed her friend. So she set him up with gang members. They were waiting outside the school for him to leave and then they planned to bash him. This went on for a few weeks before he reacted.
What was his reaction? He was at a friends house a few days after he turned 18. He and a group of friends decided to have a few drinks. But the friends mother and her boyfriend had a fight. So my son and his friends decided it was not a good time to have a drink. So they stayed sober.
The fight between these adults turned ugly and my son’s friend jumped in to save his mother. But then, since my sons friend was not doing any good, my son stepped in and grabbed a knife from the drawer and put it against the man’ s (fuul grown and big) eye. Next thing the police with dogs and helicopter arrive. And my son is now arrested with assualt with a deadly weapon.
I was so scared for my son as he could have gone to prison that I called in Mental Health hoping the could help. Oh, they helped alright. My son is homicidal and a potential rapist.
The court case was dropped because of having no witnesses as no-one wanted to go against my son but still ….. look at the outcome.
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Julie - What you have described is terrible. But thank you for sharing as it wakes us all up to what can happen. Its quite scary !
I don’t want to introduce another complexity, but would any type of legal help be worth considering?
You mention posting up ideas for dealing with certain types of situations i.e Family court etc. I think that would be really useful as many of us are at a bit of a loss when it comes to dealing with these departments.
You hang in there!
Kathy
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:16 pm
I just want to add New Zeal that if my son had someone to talk to like a male role model he would have. Boys protect their mothers from heart ache. This scenario at school did not come out until mental health was involved and they believed my son while the school did not. The school just denied it.
What sort of a society do we have when adults pretend things don’t happen. The school blatently called my son a liar yet kept saying ‘we will take him back if he admits he was wrong’ I teach my children honesty and yet the world I introduce them into is so dishonest.
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:37 pm
K. crispin,
Please bring up anything. This is all complex. Your input will be valuable.
August 4th, 2006 at 8:43 am
New Zeal or Kent. Which one are you.
Thanks for your comments
The above shows how dangerous the labeling system is. We here of some people being mis-diagnosed but in fact everyone is.
I hope we don’t have to wait that long. Maybe they could work out how to help themselves first.
Could you let us have a copy of the reseach paper?
Labeling someone for life with an invented unproven mental illness to make them feel better and to get them to take drugs is not being clever.It is corrupt.
August 4th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Hi Julie,
The story the way you wrote it appears to contain two quite separate incidents.
It would seem that, in a state school, having the girls get on the bus first could be some form of sex discrimination and your son’s stand justified. The problem though is how he dealt with it which led to him being asked to walk home.
The other incident with the knife is disturbing. It is not a good way to break up a fight. I don’t think you can justify that at all and I would say that your son needs to do some work in how he deals with heated situations.
Your son’s thoughts about girls are not that unusual. The problem I think, that the psychiatrists have is that he has acted on thoughts about using a knife to attack someone with (thoughts which we all have). They are extrapolating that he might act on some of those thoughts about girls.
Where is his dad in all this?
This is a complex situation and being angry is an understandable response. At the end of the day though we all have to be answerable to our actions. All I can say is that it is normal sometimes for us to go off the rails a bit and usually it is not something that permanently handicaps us. My advice is to stay calm and work with your son, the system and whatever else. Eventually your anger will die down and you will come across a psychological health professional who treats your son as a human being, not a syndrome, and with whom you can develop some rapport. I would say you need to keep your son close to you for a couple of years at least to help overcome whatever it is, rather than letting him out upon the world ‘untreated’.
One of the most positive things about this is that it should encourage you to work on your relationship with your son and his state of well being while he is still young and still more or less in your care. If there is stuff that needs to be sorted (quite unrelated to these incidents) then now there is an opportunity to do it. We all have stuff. Sometimes that stuff makes us do strange things. You might be surprised at what he is holding back inside that goes back many years which he hasn’t resolved and which will only come out through counselling, through your interactions with him, in his music (you mentioned he plays guitar), or in any form possible to humankind. One of the biggest obstacles to male development in our society is an inadequacy with dealing with emotional problems. The male ’staunch’ attitude encourages boys to hold stuff in.
August 4th, 2006 at 9:13 am
The point of this example is that if you admit yourself to psychological services and express certain symptoms, then you will get categorized according to whatever best suits your symptoms. At the time hearing voices was considered a symptom of shizophrenia. Julie’s problem was that she volunteered her son to psychological services and they heard him talk about his fantasies about girls and immediately allocated him with a label. If he’d kept away it wouldn’t have happened. If I go down and admit myself to the psyche unit and say that I felt sad yesterday, they would immediately label me with depression. The idea that I am just a troublemaker out to test the system would be the last thought on their minds.
Kevin, I think you are being extreme by saying it is corrupt. It is useful, however, I think that it has gone too far, especially with those ads on TV now. Also, I would say you have never experienced being with someone who is seriously off the rails, in which case sedatives are a blessing.
This is the same argument as the anti-biotics/no anti-biotics one. To medicate or not to medicate. While there has been a backlash against anti-biotics, the same is yet to happen for psychopharmaceuticals. Your extremist position is not going to convince the average moderate about the pitfalls of medication.
I will upload the research paper to my site and post the link for you on this thread when I have the time.
August 4th, 2006 at 9:51 am
Hi New Zeal,
Your last comment was right on the mark. Exactly what you said is what we are doing. This male psychiatrist and the psychiatriatic nurse are in agreeance.
The most important thing my son has is a stable home and a safe environment and a good mother. We put things in place that were practical and pulled him from the school because he was not safe there.
Because the professionals in this case are in fact long term in their careers they see all the goodness in my son. We together would have done everything in our power to stop him from going to prison. They just love my son and his honesty, good heart and the rest. He is a pleasure to work with although he is full on.
At one stage the school refused to take him if he was not medicated. So we (another specialist with my consent) put him on ritalin. The psychiatrist and nurse took him off as they knew he was not ADHD. In fact they are also against all this medicating.
But they are the top in the field with 20 years experience. They can see through all this crap that Kevein talks about. Many specialists do not.
My son is a lucky one because his mother will not take someone\’s word but questions everything. But I got hurt and burned along my journey of life to get to this stage.
Others will not be so lucky. But then look what happened. I just hope the Mental Health team can see reasoning with this whole \’potential rappist thing\’ as you do.
Kevin and New Zeal,
Do you know what else I see as a related problem?
Ordinary people are wanting answers for their children\’s behaviour or their own. It is as if the people in society have gone mad. They seem to want to put themselves and their children into boxes. This behaviour is just encouraging the use of labeling. Schools can\’t discipline children anymore so they either throw them out or medicate them.
I think all 3 of us are in agreeance of having people find other ways of dealing with thier probems.
On another note.
Doctors do get a pay off to prescribe certain drugs. And that pay off is money. In a surgery practice you will find that certain medications are given out as if we go through trends. It is a huge business and behind the small fish is even bigger corporation tactics to sell their brands of medication. So even though I am not a scientologist I am supportive of what they are doing to fight these corporations. And if Tom Cruise or the like are giving heaps of money for it, I will pay to see their movies.
August 4th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
It is useful as you can’t drug the person without a label and get paid. Thats the main use of it.
That would be a wild guess and wrong. There are many ways to restrain a person when he does go berserk. You could sedate him for a short period until he calms down. Then you could handle the factors causing the temporary insanity. If you had something that handled insanty and all its symtoms before it got out of hand you might not have that problem
As the ability and technique to do that is outside the field of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Criminology etc you have to label them so you can drug them.
Like you say, sedatives are a blessing if you have nothing else to offer.
Remeber you are not treating mental illness [invented labels] you are just sedating people. Your not even aware of what causes the person to go berserk, therefore only treating [sedating] the never ending list of symptoms with labels.
Maybe one day you can come and see me and I’ll bring you up to date on why the whole field of Psychiatry, Psychology etc are obsolete and will have nothing to offer in the future.
Thanks
August 4th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Comment: From another list
I have a friend/work associate whose son was put on the anti-convulsive drug Tegretol when only 9 months old. He was only taken off this drug he was 12 years old. He then proceeded to exhibit symptoms that were diagnosed as mental illness & prescribed a long list of different psychiatric drugs. He is now 24 years old & a complete “case” in that he is totally dependent on his now aging parents & bounces from “street” drugs to “legal” drugs. The government now controls his affairs & medication. I see this as a scary example of just what happens when children/babies are drugged for so long.
August 4th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Awhile back they [medico] were diagnosing people with a chemical imbalance in the brain [no such thing] and putting them on prozac.
Some are still recommending electric shock treatment.
See flyers below
PSYCHIATRY,
BETRAYING AND
DRUGGING CHILDREN
FOR PROFIT
The Hoax of “Chemical Imbalance”
http://www.rehabilitatenz.co.nz/pages/chemical-imbalance.html
Through massive promotion and
marketing campaigns, psychiatric drugs
are increasingly prescribed as the panacea
for life’s inevitable crises and challenges.
Psychiatry’s most recent campaign is the
much touted theory of the “chemical
imbalance” in the brain, or
“neurobiological disorder.”
Psychiatrist David Kaiser is unequivocal
about the lie of neurobiological disorder.
In 1996, he stated:
… modern psychiatry has yet to
convincingly prove the
genetic/biological cause of
any single mental illness…
Patients [have] been diagnosed with
“chemical imbalances” despite the fact that
no test exists to support such a claim, and …
there is no real conception of what a correct
chemical balance would look like.
When this pitch is successfully used to
secure the cooperation of unwitting
parents it establishes a dangerous
precedent.
ELECTRIC SHOCK TREATMENT
PAIN AND FRAUD IN THE
NAME OF THERAPY
http://www.rehabilitatenz.co.nz/pages/electric-shock-treament.html
“Electric shock should not be available as a choice just as thalidomide is not available to pregnant woman. After fifty years of practicing this hoax, psychiatrists are not likely to suddenly agree that it is harmful. As soon as they do, they know there would be a rush of criminal and civil suits from
which they would never recover. Governments should outlaw it.”
Dr. Michael Chavin
August 4th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Julie,
It sounds like your son has a lot of stuff to work through. Counselling is not the only way to do it and probably isn’t as useful for boys as it is for girls. Your son needs to find a way to channel his emotions constructively so that he has enough positive things going on his life to prevent him from putting energy into negative behaviours. The idea is to find things that he is showing some sign of being good at and encouraging them even if they appear not be career friendly, such as music or sport. I would say you and he need to spend some time just working on him. Time invested now will save the possibility of problems later. That was my thinking when I first took full time care of my eldest. They were difficult times, she was only 9 then, but now she is a different person and is grateful. However the older you get, the longer it takes to do the repair job and your son has to want to do things voluntarily. Any personal problem can be solved but it takes time and sacrifice.
August 4th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
Thanks Julie. It would of been better if they [psychiatrists etc] could put their own ethics in as we already have enough to do without bringing them back under the law. Many organizations over decades have tried to curb their corrupt behaviour but couldn’t stand up to the pressure it brings. We are the only ones that can do that job. They want change unless they are forced to.
August 4th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
New Zeal,
You are 100% right. And that is our reality. Everything you say is everything I do. And things just keep improving. Many teenagers go through bad times (as well as good) and we as parents just have to ride them through and sway them to make good decision. This will all be a past (history) one day and considered a time of learning.
It is still important to make sure there are no convictions or false information sitting somewhere about him.
Kevin,
Exactly. It has to be done. I understand and am pleased I got the chance to find out about it.
August 6th, 2006 at 11:50 am
psychologists/psychiatrists can keep up with them all.
Resarch in this field is a huge business. Like you said they come up with a new so called bit of reseach every week. What they say though is that it COULD benefit people in 5 years or so. Then its trashed and forgotton about. To date they have no idea of what they are even treating. A psychologist can’t even rehabilitate someone. Just study his invented disorder.
Millions Lost In Fruadulent Psychiatric Research
http://www.justicefreedom.org/Page44.htm
Among the National Institute of Mental Health projects, Cowdry was asked to explain were:
* A study of the brain circuits which control mounting and receptive sexual behavior of the unisex whiptail lizard. In nine years, this project cost $1.4 million.
* A five-year study of red-winged blackbirds to determine how humans make choices of mates, dwelling, reproductive areas, escape routes and foraging areas. Cost: more than $539,000.
* A five-year study of the hormonal mechanisms in the brains of rats which make them want to eat salt. Cost: $5 million.
* A study of tree frogs’ communications to their mates to determine the development and maintenance of speech communication in humans. Cost: over $91,000.
* A 12-year study in which the jaw muscles of pigeons and rats were monitored electronically to determine which brain mechanisms could be linked to eating disorders in humans. Cost: over $545,000.
And many, many more.
August 6th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Yes, Kevin,
I aware of all this. We in NZ only pay these researchers around $400 - $800 an hour so we are not yet in the millions. So the best they can do in their field is go to Europe and then America.
The whole aspect of socialism has got out of hand. And there will always be those whose who ecomically steer our future.
The sad part is that scientist put decades of their lives into studies that some rich company expliots. And the poor scientist are left shaking their heads for they never meant for it to all turn into cash cows.
January 6th, 2008 at 7:09 am
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article mental health, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.