Becky Cutting

For a review of the sum of studies done to test the effectiveness of psychiatric drugs, which shows the lack of supporting scientific evidence and the proof of the damaging effects of these drugs, read Dr. Elliot Valenstein's "Blaming the Brain". It was recommended on Dr. Michael J. Hurd's website a long time ago. In Canada, forced psychiatric treatment and drugging, and ECT (although not as common), are very common. I am currently forced to take an injection of Clopixol every two weeks. Every two weeks, my mental health case worker (whom I do not choose to have) calls me and says if I don't come in for my injection they will have to send the police, take me to the hospital, and force me to take the injection. I have been locked up in the psych ward at the Richmond General Hospital multiple times, against my will, when I was not a threat to myself or to other people. It has driven me crazy over the years, literally. I can order a review panel, with a psychiatrist, a member of the community, and a medical doctor to review my certification once every 6 months. But that review panel isn't much of a way of upholding my individual rights as the members of that review panel can (and did) order me to remain under certification, under forced stay in a locked psych ward. I got evicted from my apartment because the review panel wouldn't let me out to pay the $100 I owed in rent to my landlady. I ended up homeless. I'm worried because Clopixol has been known to cause heart defects in the long-term, but I am court-ordered to take it for the next year at least. There has been a class action law suit regarding the last anti-psychotic they had me on: Risperdone. I went totally psychotic while I was on that drug. Perhaps it was caused by the drug? I'll never know, since the effects of these drugs aren't even properly known. As a female, however, it devastatingly made me grow hair on my chest which has never gone away, and made me miss my period for a whole year. Thanks DreamSpirit for your story and opinions; they really gave me insight into my own experience and the courage to do something to stand up for myself. And I think you're right: Ayn Rand would have considered modern-day psychiatry as a violation of individual rights. And that one post, with the quote from Letters proves it; she said forced lock up and treatment would be a monstrosity. It is a monstrosity I am all too familiar with. It has F**&&##ed me up big time over the last 15 years.

As I said to my psychiatrist (whom I am forced to see and get medication from), "So your entire career is based on guesswork?". She replied, "Yes. That and experience." I just smirked inside my mind and looked at the floor, so as not to shame her by laughing out loud. Her claim that she bases her conclusions on experience didn't impress me, because she sees me once every 6 months for about 5 minutes, and then claims adamantly that I do better on than off medication. My experience has shown me that medication has never helped, and being off medication was never a predictor in whether or not I was mentally stable. So basically, as I know that studies do not support the medical model of psychiatric illness nor the effectiveness of medication, basically she told me that her entire career is a sham. She sits there and collects massive amounts of money from pushing diagnoses and medications, and pushes her weight around locking people up in hospital and forcing them to take medication, and meanwhile there is no solid basis for her entire career and every action she takes within it. To comment on the previous post, the difference between psychiatry and psychology is that psychologists give therapy while psychiatrists rarely do and pretty much just label and give medications.