Post by misterlister on Sept 18, 2015 23:08:07 GMT
In so called “mental health” forums and chat rooms on the Internet, inevitably the topic of psychiatric drugs comes up. A person will post that he or she or someone they know are in a psychic crisis and the common suggestion is for a person to go see a psychiatrist and get on drugs. The suggestions go as far as specific drug recommendations sometimes, which is the height of stupidity. I usually run into trouble and take heat, because this is not how I operate anymore. My primary goal in a forum or chat room, is to direct people in crisis to those who will support them, towards actual Help, rather than making myself an unpaid marketeer and sales person for psychiatry or pharmaceutical companies. I learned this the hard way.
Initially, when I first had problems I sought help, I was essentially steered from the start into taking psychiatric drugs. Now 13 years on and after a lot of research, I see that as a failure of the system. Essentially, things could have been done early on which would have radically changed out comes. Instead I was steered toward psychiatric drugs, from an early point when my problems at the time could have been worked out without drugs. The use of psychiatric drugs has become an obstacle to actually solving the problems which develop and new problems have been created because of the drugs that I am forced to deal with. It got to the point five years ago, where the main problem was the psychiatric drugs after about 8 years of using them, I drastically reduced them and pursued other avenues of care.
I am not saying that I have found a total resolution, what I have found is that today, getting real help is further out of reach than it has been in the past. A cursory history of Mental Health Care in the United States is laid bare historically as a cycle, going from generous support to brutality. It has all been laid out in plain detail, with supporting citations in the book 'Mad In America' by Robert Whitaker. Pick it up and read it. To my estimation we live in a time of the cycle where in the abuse of psychiatric patients (both out patients and inpatients) is very subtle and passes in the eyes of the general public as the best thing going.
I have written about what Real Help looks like and acts like when it encounters people in crisis. I will say a little about that again latter. Right now I am going to point out some instances and circumstances that seem reasonable for a psychiatric drug intervention for people experiencing a psychic emergency (or 'psychosis'). I will list them in order:
1. When no other intervention is available: Unfortunately, this is the most common reason for a drug intervention. The System in regions which are not oriented towards actually helping a person through a psychic crisis without drugs seem predominate. Others and I work for Real Help to be available to the majority of those in psychic crisis, now and in the future. As it stands we live in a product, market and consumer oriented culture (Capitalism) and in that context Real Help is not offered with out a price tag, everyone is chasing the Golden Calf ($$$). What is becoming the case increasingly lately, is that helpers and help are competing with quick mass market drug interventions and the zietgeist of even post modern culture.
It would be heartless for me to tell a person not to do psychiatric drugs, when their only other option is to suffer. I try to help those I encounter, find what Real Help is available in their geographical area and at prices that are affordable to them and direct them too it, the work is overwhelming. However, if no other help is available to them, psychiatric drugs can alleviate suffering for some people (not all).
2. In case of active Homicidal or Suicidal Obsessive Ideation: It is rare for a person in psychosis to be violent or suicidal: agitated, angry and upset? Yes … violent, not usually. Typically violence is more often perpetrated towards a psychotic person than the other way around. Sometimes psychotics become homicidal or suicidal and if a person is actively homicidal or suicidal and other interventions are not working, then I realize it is wise to chemically restrain that person – I hate to write that, but I think it would be a grave mistake to write anything contrary in such a case.
3. In some cases of severe retardation and laboratory proven brain damage: Though there are ways to help most people resolve a psychic crisis, not everyone can benefit from them, but Love goes a long way towards that aim. In the cases of persons who have severe retardation, brain damage, or cognitive deficits as a result of some sort of brain defect proven with laboratory results; those who are suffering from their psychic crisis and other attempts to resolve have failed: psychiatric drugs seem to be the best alternative.
I have written on the topic of what Real Help consists of in the past. In essence, real help provides a safe refuge from society. It provides a listening ear and mentoring from wisdom and a breadth of knowledge. It does not restrain or coerce. Helpers allow the person to fully express and receive the information with a open and non-judgmental attitude towards the hearer.
Helpers, hopefully are those that have gone through a psychic crisis and have transcended the experience. In the absence of those that have gone through the process, people that are in the process, peer supporters can be of great benefit unless they continually beat the drum of more drugs and the entropy that corresponds. In person association with people that have the same struggle as yourself, aware of the same range of suffering, with a solid hope of transcendence … that is the definition of a support group. You will not find it digitally really, I have tried.
Only with in-person relationships, with those that have abandoned the idea that what is labeled as “normal” or “abnormal”, realizing that it is generally taken out of context of a personal, subjective experience. All the rallying cries of sanity that orbit the concept of 'Objectivity' do not take in to account the variation and diversity of Human experience. Instead, the attempt is to categorize and process treatments which ultimately provide a “Widget” in a capitalist schema, responding to desires with more and more material success for the few that profit, on top of all the suffering.
I recognize that drugs are a convenient path towards equanimity in society. A kind of sorting and rendering. The battle cry of this method is: “Stop the process, apply the resolution which will flow up towards movers and shakers.” My question really is: “Who Is The Source, and How Many of us Must Come Down Here to confront Impersonation Of It?” Which sort of suffering are you trying to alleviate? Who wins? Why not all of us.
Initially, when I first had problems I sought help, I was essentially steered from the start into taking psychiatric drugs. Now 13 years on and after a lot of research, I see that as a failure of the system. Essentially, things could have been done early on which would have radically changed out comes. Instead I was steered toward psychiatric drugs, from an early point when my problems at the time could have been worked out without drugs. The use of psychiatric drugs has become an obstacle to actually solving the problems which develop and new problems have been created because of the drugs that I am forced to deal with. It got to the point five years ago, where the main problem was the psychiatric drugs after about 8 years of using them, I drastically reduced them and pursued other avenues of care.
I am not saying that I have found a total resolution, what I have found is that today, getting real help is further out of reach than it has been in the past. A cursory history of Mental Health Care in the United States is laid bare historically as a cycle, going from generous support to brutality. It has all been laid out in plain detail, with supporting citations in the book 'Mad In America' by Robert Whitaker. Pick it up and read it. To my estimation we live in a time of the cycle where in the abuse of psychiatric patients (both out patients and inpatients) is very subtle and passes in the eyes of the general public as the best thing going.
I have written about what Real Help looks like and acts like when it encounters people in crisis. I will say a little about that again latter. Right now I am going to point out some instances and circumstances that seem reasonable for a psychiatric drug intervention for people experiencing a psychic emergency (or 'psychosis'). I will list them in order:
1. When no other intervention is available: Unfortunately, this is the most common reason for a drug intervention. The System in regions which are not oriented towards actually helping a person through a psychic crisis without drugs seem predominate. Others and I work for Real Help to be available to the majority of those in psychic crisis, now and in the future. As it stands we live in a product, market and consumer oriented culture (Capitalism) and in that context Real Help is not offered with out a price tag, everyone is chasing the Golden Calf ($$$). What is becoming the case increasingly lately, is that helpers and help are competing with quick mass market drug interventions and the zietgeist of even post modern culture.
It would be heartless for me to tell a person not to do psychiatric drugs, when their only other option is to suffer. I try to help those I encounter, find what Real Help is available in their geographical area and at prices that are affordable to them and direct them too it, the work is overwhelming. However, if no other help is available to them, psychiatric drugs can alleviate suffering for some people (not all).
2. In case of active Homicidal or Suicidal Obsessive Ideation: It is rare for a person in psychosis to be violent or suicidal: agitated, angry and upset? Yes … violent, not usually. Typically violence is more often perpetrated towards a psychotic person than the other way around. Sometimes psychotics become homicidal or suicidal and if a person is actively homicidal or suicidal and other interventions are not working, then I realize it is wise to chemically restrain that person – I hate to write that, but I think it would be a grave mistake to write anything contrary in such a case.
3. In some cases of severe retardation and laboratory proven brain damage: Though there are ways to help most people resolve a psychic crisis, not everyone can benefit from them, but Love goes a long way towards that aim. In the cases of persons who have severe retardation, brain damage, or cognitive deficits as a result of some sort of brain defect proven with laboratory results; those who are suffering from their psychic crisis and other attempts to resolve have failed: psychiatric drugs seem to be the best alternative.
I have written on the topic of what Real Help consists of in the past. In essence, real help provides a safe refuge from society. It provides a listening ear and mentoring from wisdom and a breadth of knowledge. It does not restrain or coerce. Helpers allow the person to fully express and receive the information with a open and non-judgmental attitude towards the hearer.
Helpers, hopefully are those that have gone through a psychic crisis and have transcended the experience. In the absence of those that have gone through the process, people that are in the process, peer supporters can be of great benefit unless they continually beat the drum of more drugs and the entropy that corresponds. In person association with people that have the same struggle as yourself, aware of the same range of suffering, with a solid hope of transcendence … that is the definition of a support group. You will not find it digitally really, I have tried.
Only with in-person relationships, with those that have abandoned the idea that what is labeled as “normal” or “abnormal”, realizing that it is generally taken out of context of a personal, subjective experience. All the rallying cries of sanity that orbit the concept of 'Objectivity' do not take in to account the variation and diversity of Human experience. Instead, the attempt is to categorize and process treatments which ultimately provide a “Widget” in a capitalist schema, responding to desires with more and more material success for the few that profit, on top of all the suffering.
I recognize that drugs are a convenient path towards equanimity in society. A kind of sorting and rendering. The battle cry of this method is: “Stop the process, apply the resolution which will flow up towards movers and shakers.” My question really is: “Who Is The Source, and How Many of us Must Come Down Here to confront Impersonation Of It?” Which sort of suffering are you trying to alleviate? Who wins? Why not all of us.