Treating Oppression and Depression

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> JustSayNo

> Thu, 15 Jul 2004 21:14:43 -0400

> [sSRI-Research] Treating Oppression and

> Depression

>

> Treating Oppression and Depression

>

> http://lark.phoblacht.net/treatmentsf.html

>

> Sean Fleming . 14 July 2004

>

> It is known that in the north of Ireland there

> is a very high rate of prescription in relation to

> anti-depressants and tranquilliser 'medication'. In

> areas where there has been serious conflict and poor

> economic investment this is particularly in

> evidence. It has been established that these drugs

> are often addictive, harmful, disabling and

> debilitating in their effects. It reflects a

> world-wide trend whereby psychothropic drugs are

> seen as the answer to severe mental distress. It is

> important to note that psychiatry views depression,

> certain states of anxiety and various forms of

> mental suffering as illnesses related to brain

> pathology. The fact is that psychiatry has never

> been able to prove a physical cause to any of the

> so-called mental illnesses. Given the symbiotic

> relationship between psychiatry and the drug

> companies it is in their interests to perpetuate the

> myth that 'mental illnesses' are the result of brain

> pathology and that drugs help to redress some

> supposed biochemical imbalance.

>

> One of the tragedies of our time is that a

> social model of psychiatry has not emerged to

> replace the biological bias in the present model.

> This model views 'mental illness', or to use its

> preferred term, severe mental distress, as often

> being the result of poverty, unemployment, poor

> housing and many other social ills or interpersonal

> conflicts. If one looks around the world the

> 'disease' or biological model of psychiatry doesn't

> stand up. It is the Irish in Britain and other

> ethnic minorities who are more likely to end up in

> psychiatric hospital, detained, given a diagnosis of

> 'mental illness'. African Americans are also much

> more likely to suffer the same fate, Aborigines in

> Australia, The Maori in New Zealand and black people

> under the old apartheid regime in S.Africa suffered

> appalling psychiatric abuses. It is very often

> minorities and those suffering poverty and

> deprivation who are much more likely to be affixed

> with the label 'mentally ill'.

>

> Psychiatry argues that certain groups show a

> genetic vulnerability to psychosis yet no biological

> marker or genetic defect has ever been found in

> relation to any of the many and increasing number of

> invented psychiatric disorders. These ever expanding

> 'disorders' create new markets for the drug

> companies. Their drugs often have serious adverse

> and devastating effects.

>

> Psychiatry is without doubt a force for social

> control and serves Big Pharma. George Bush's plans

> to screen the entire US population for 'mental

> illness' as recently reported in the British Medical

> Journal, beginning at pre-school level, will provide

> enormous profit for these companies. This plan has

> grown out of a political/pharmaceutical alliance

> with strong drug company ties to the Bush

> Administration. The reader can check out this link

> to the journal's website:

>

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7454/1458.

>

>

> It is essential therefore that the issues

> surrounding psychiatry be politicised. The proposed

> Community Treatment Orders which may be introduced

> under the new Mental Health Bill in Britain will

> ensure that 'patients' living in the community are

> forced to take drugs if it is thought they are not

> taking their 'medication'. It will provide no choice

> or availability of other ways in which the person

> feels they could be helped. Only presently in

> Britain and Ireland if someone is 'sectioned' can

> they be forced to take drugs against their will and

> even given electro-conlusive 'therapy' (ECT). The

> British government also intends to pre-emptively

> lock away some people who've been 'assessed' as

> being dangerous, even if they've never committed a

> crime. This is fundamentally against the spirit of

> human rights and a policy that panders to the

> prejudices of the right wing press and elements in

> society. It is psychiatry itself which stigmatises

> people. They apply a non-existent disease to them

> and deny them their rights when they are deemed to

> 'lack capacity'. Their problems are objectified as

> being inside their brains and their bodies poisoned

> with psychiatric drugs.

>

> Instead of telling the poor, the marginalised,

> the alienated and those simply 'different' within

> society that they have brain illness or disorders,

> we need a new radical approach to psychiatry which

> will help to build better societies by drawing

> attention to the societal and environmental factors

> involved in severe mental distress. Let's take the

> deeply distressing and painful subject of suicide.

> Suicidal thinking is increasingly being seen by

> psychiatry as related to psychiatric comorbidity, in

> other words, 'psychiatric illness' related to

> alcohol/substance abuse, etc. This then provides

> further justification for psychiatric expansive

> interventions in communities where people have

> tragically taken their lives. They then advocate the

> use of drugs that paradoxically increase the

> likelihood of suicide as the recent scandal

> surrounding the drug Seroxat has shown. This drug is

> worth £2billion a year to GlaxoSmithKline -

> Britain's biggest drugs firm which recently caved in

> under pressure and revealed hidden research which

> showed that its so called anti-depressant can cause

> children to attempt suicide. It has also been linked

> to suicide in adults and the drug regulators have

> now banned its use in under-18s in Britain. There is

> a further irony in that this same shamed drug

> company donated a grant of £25,000 in 2002 to the

> Institute for Counselling and Personal Development

> in Belfast which offers support to the victims of

> the conflict and those experiencing mental health

> difficulties. This group's work tends to be

> concentrated in areas like North and West Belfast

> where there has been an alarming number of tragic

> deaths as a result of suicide. It is highly likely

> that in its work this group supports the so-called

> anti-depressants as being essential in treating

> depression despite the growing doubts about their

> efficacy and the corrupt activities of the drug

> companies involved. The behind the scenes

> machinations that were involved in the approval and

> promotion of Prozac is another case in point. It is

> also a fact that all the state funded 'mental

> health' organisations support the present biological

> psychiatric model. It is also a sad but hardly ever

> reported fact that there is a clear link between the

> heavy psychiatric or neuroleptic drugs and suicide.

> Many psychiatric patients in the end take their own

> lives after suffering the lethal ' side - effects'

> of these drugs for many years. Psychiatry is also

> targeting children now with drugs for so called

> Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and

> 'conduct disorders'.

>

> Instead of masking problems with drugs we need

> to understand how oppressive structures in society

> affect people and cause disharmony, stress and

> tension which can then precipitate severe mental

> distress and even suicide. There needs to be a much

> clearer focus on these economic, social and class

> structures and the effects they have on mental well

> being. It is becoming increasing clear that in the

> future people and communities may have to find a way

> of managing their own mental health by not leaving

> it to psychiatric propaganda eager for 'cash cows'

> in a system that would collapse if it actually made

> efforts towards truly helping others. A new social

> or holistic psychiatry would therefore seek to

> understand and explore'life experience' and the

> 'problems of living'. The north of Ireland could

> take a leading role here. We know that the levels of

> mental distress are greater here than in other parts

> of Ireland or in Britain. Instead of a system

> inextricably linked to pharmaceutical companies,

> which supports delusional projects like the Genetic

> Epidemiology of Mental Illness In Northern Ireland

> (GEMINI) in its search for the elusive defective

> gene in 'mental illness', why not put money into

> projects that help people to rebuild their lives and

> deal with the root causes of their mental suffering.

> Forums could be established whereby people could

> make their voice heard and their mental/emotional

> distress understood. For psychiatric 'patients'

> therapeutic housing could be set up where they are

> helped to withdraw from neuroleptic drugs and to get

> their lives back again. The Soteria therapeutic

> housing project founded by radical American

> psychiatrist, Loren Mosher, who sadly just died (12

> July 2004) proved to be a great success for many

> psychiatric patients and yet was totally ignored and

> arrogantly dismissed by the psychiatric

> establishment. This is a model for the future and a

> common-sense alternative run by ordinary caring

> people that actually worked.

>

> Instead of creating depressed and alienated

> communities awash with addictive

> benzodiazepines,'anti-depressant' and other

> psychiatric drugs, activists for a radical or

> holistic approach to mental health should seek to

> build supportive communities. In this model strong

> social ties and inclusive networks would bind

> communities and ensure that people are not left

> isolated, disempowered and impoverished by a system

> driven by pharmaceutical interests. The great

> radical psychiatrist, R D Laing recognised the need

> for this wider social change if the psychiatric

> establishment was to be overthrown. Biological

> psychiatry is also seen today in the current fashion

> for Western medical and mental health agencies to

> develop projects for victims of war in other

> countries, often wars provoked by Western

> governments. They seek to objectify mental suffering

> as an entity apart. They make it into a clinical

> problem to which they apply Western 'treatments'.

> They often dismiss indigenous knowledge or ways of

> treatment. Often they ignore the fact that what

> people really want is not to look inwards at their

> own mental lives but help in rebuilding their

> devastated social, economic or cultural ways of

> life. It is this exclusion of the wider context that

> makes the present system so reprehensible. This is

> in clear contrast to the innovative work of the

> British Inter-war years psychiatrist, Harry Stack

> Sullivan, who for a period helped to steer the

> traditional psychiatric focus away from the

> individual to the interpersonal and who highlighted

> the need for more socially orientated and holistic

> therapies.

>

> A social model of psychiatry better serves

> societies and communities that have suffered

> conflict, war and economic deprivation. Those

> labelled mentally ill or are seen as suffering from

> one or other 'psychiatric disorder' are being

> demeaned and harmed by the present practice. It

> seems to me that by building therapeutic housing

> projects and communities those who have been

> targeted with psychiatric drugs could draw attention

> to the societal, environmental and political causes

> of severe mental distress and thereby help to effect

> real and radical change in society by exposing

> biological psychiatry for what it is - pseudo

> science and psycho babble that serves Big Pharma. A

> new radical psychiatry would work with people in a

> non- pathologising way and help to understand the

> real origins of their mental pain. The way forward

> is through self-determination for those who suffer

> severe mental distress and a new social and healing

> model of psychiatry that understands and relates to

> the experience of the person in context with others

> and the wider society. This clearly calls for a

> strong and active movement not afraid to challenge

> and end the present oppressive psychiatric system.

>

>

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