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“There is no end to the number of and the degree of complexity of problems that arise from our misplaced trust in psychiatrists, their diagnostic charades and their mind-altering drug solutions. Inestimable damage has already been done to individual lives and society.”
— Jan Eastgate, President
Citizens Commission on Human Rights International

INTRODUCTION A Drugged and Dangerous World

What is one of the most destructive things in your world today?

If you answered drugs, then you share that view with the majority of people in your community. Illegal drugs, and their resultant violence and crime, are recognized as a major threat to children and society.

However, very few people recognize that illegal drugs represent only part of today’s drug problem. During the last 40 to 50 years there have been major worldwide changes in our reliance on another type of drug, namely prescription psychiatric drugs.

Once reserved for the mentally disturbed, today it would be difficult to find someone—a family member, a friend or a neighbor— who hasn’t taken some form of psychiatric drug. In fact, these have become such a part of life for many people that “life without drugs” is simply unimaginable.

Prescribed for everything from learning and behavioral problems, to bedwetting, aggression, juvenile delinquency, criminality, drug addiction and smoking, to handling the fears and problems of our elderly, from the cradle to the grave, we are bombarded with information pushing us towards this type of chemical “fix.”

Little surprise then that worldwide statistics show that a rapidly increasing percentage of every age group, from children to the elderly, rely heavily and routinely on these drugs in their daily lives. Worldwide sales of antidepressants were more than $19.5 billion in 2002. Antipsychotic drug sales have reached over $12 billion.

Meanwhile authors Richard Hughes and Robert Brewin, in their book, The Tranquilizing of America , warned that although psychotropic drugs may appear “to ‘take the edge off’ anxiety, pain, and stress, they also take the edge off life itself … these pills not only numb the pain but numb the whole mind.” In fact, close study reveals that none of them can cure, all have horrific side effects, and due to their addictive and psychotropic (mind-altering) properties, all are capable of ruining a person’s life.

Consider also the fact that terrorists have used psychotropic drugs to brainwash young men to become suicide bombers. Additionally, at least 250,000 children worldwide, some as young as seven, are being used for terrorist and revolutionary activities and given amphetamines and tranquilizers to go on “murderous binges” for days. Yet these are the same drugs that psychiatrists are prescribing children for “learning” or “behavioral” problems.

Understanding society’s skyrocketing psychiatric drug usage is now even more critical than ever.

How did millions become hooked on such destructive drugs? We need to look earlier than the drug.

Before becoming hooked, each individual was convinced that these drugs would help him or her to handle life. The primary sales tool that was used was an invented diagnostic system, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM) and the mental disorders section of Europe’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Once diagnosed and the prescription filled, the destructive properties of the drugs themselves took over.

Forcing widespread implementation of this diagnostic sham, psychiatrists have ensured that more and more people with no serious mental problem, even no problem at all, are being deceived into thinking that the best answer to life’s many routine difficulties and challenges lies with the “latest and greatest” psychiatric drug.

Whether you are a legislator, a parent of school-aged children, a teacher, an employer or employee, a homeowner, or simply a community member, this publication is vital reading.

Our failure in the war against drugs is due largely to our failure to put a stop to the most damaging of all drug pushers in society.

This is the psychiatrist at work today, busy deceiving us and hooking our world on drugs.

Sincerely,

Jan Eastgate President,
Citizens Commission on Human Rights International

IMPORTANT FACTS

1. Psychiatric drugs have become a panacea for the pressures and stresses of modern living, pushed heavily by psychiatrists into schools, nursing homes, drug rehabilitation centers and prisons.

2. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants are now known to potentially cause neurological disorders, including disfiguring facial and body tics. Sexual dysfunction has affected 60% of people taking them.

3. The latest antipsychotic drugs can cause respiratory arrest, heart attacks, diabetes and inflammation of the pancreas.

4. More than 100 million prescriptions for antidepressants were written in 2002. Worldwide antidepressant sales have reached more than $19.5 billion. International antipsychotics sales are now $12 billion a year.

5. Despite the devastating side effects, in France, one in seven prescriptions covered by insurance includes a psychotropic drug and over 50% of the unemployed—1.8 million—take such drugs.

CHAPTER ONE Pushing Drugs as ‘Medicines’

What’s happening in the training of psychiatrists and in the quality of a psychiatrist is that they have become drug pushers. They have forgotten how to sit down and talk to patients as to what their problems are,” states psychiatrist Walter Afield.

Fifty years ago, people understood a drug to be one of two things: a substance legally prescribed by a medical doctor to help treat physical disease—in other words, a medication; or, an illegal substance which characteristically caused addiction, and could lead to a marked change in consciousness—such as the “street” drugs, heroin and opium.

Most people know that illegal drugs are one of society’s worst enemies, bringing crime and its associated ills to our streets, communities and schools. In the last few decades, however, a new breed of drug has moved into mainstream society. These drugs have become so much a part of life that many find it difficult to consider living even a day without them.

Psychiatric drugs have become a panacea for the pressures and stresses of modern living, used extensively in schools, nursing homes, drug rehabilitation centers and prisons. They are relied on to “help” with everything from weight control, and mathematical and writing problems, to flagging self-confidence, anxiety, sleeping disorders and minor day-to-day upsets.

While medical drugs commonly treat, prevent or cure disease or improve health, psychiatric drugs at best suppress symptoms— symptoms that return once the drug wears off. Like illicit drugs, they provide no more than a temporary escape from life’s problems. But psychiatric drugs are also habit-forming and addictive. Withdrawal from them can be far more difficult than from illegal drugs. The clearest evidence of the similarities between psychiatric and illegal drugs is the fact that addiction to psychiatric drugs now rivals illegal drug addiction as the No.1 drug problem in many parts of the world.

PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS A History of Betrayal

The evolution of psychiatric drugs has been a procession of claimed “miraculous” new developments that were all eventually found to be harmful, even deadly.

Early 1900s:
Barbiturates, which are sedative-hypnotic drugs, were introduced to control patient behavior. By 1978, the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs proposed restricting barbiturates because they were “more dangerous than heroin.”

1930s:
Amphetamines, used as antidepressants, were promoted as having “no serious reactions.” However, cases of addiction and “amphetamine psychosis” were almost immediately reported but the information was withheld from consumers.

1943:
LSD, initially developed as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant, moved into psychiatric ranks in the 1950s as a “cure” for everything from schizophrenia to criminal behavior, sexual perversions and alcoholism. Information was suppressed about its effects, which included panic, delusions, toxic confusion, depersonalization and birth defects.

1950s:
Ecstasy, which was originally and unsuccessfully developed as an appetite suppressant in Germany in 1914, was used as an adjunct to psychotherapy. Today, it is one of the most dangerous of the illegal or “street” drugs.

1950s:
Working in a lab in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942, researchers discovered a phenothiazine (yellowish crystalline substance used for dyes and insecticides) that depressed the central nervous system. In the 1950s, the drug was marketed under various names, including chlorpromazine, Largactil and Thorazine. It wasn’t until 1972 that patients were warned of the crippling effects of the drugs, including irreversible damage to the nervous system and a fatal toxic reaction that killed an estimated 100,000 Americans. Statistics of deaths in other countries are unknown.

1957:
Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs), originally developed to treat tuberculosis, but withdrawn from the market because they caused hepatitis, were used as antidepressants. Certain foods and drinks such as cheese, wine and caffeine interacted with the drugs to cause potentially life-threatening changes in blood pressure. In 1958, as an alternative, tricyclic longer-acting antidepressants were developed but caused sedation, drowsiness, difficulty in thinking, headaches and weight gain.

1960s:
Minor tranquilizers or benzodiazepines became known as “Mother’s Little Helper” because of the number of women prescribed them. The public was not told that they can be addictive within several weeks of taking them.

1960s:
Originally used to reverse a barbiturate-induced coma, the cocaine-like stimulant, Ritalin (methylphenidate) was used for childhood behavioral problems and “hyperactivity.” By 1971, Ritalin and other stimulants were scheduled in the same abuse category as morphine, cocaine and opium.

1980s-1990s:
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants were marketed as “a designer medical bullet” and virtually side-effect free. Fourteen years later, the public was finally warned that neurological disorders, including disfiguring facial and body tics (indicating potential brain damage) were potential effects, and that the drugs cause suicidal and violent behavior.

1990s:
“Atypical” (new) neuroleptic (nerve-seizing) or antipsychotic drugs for “schizophrenia” were hailed as a “breakthrough” treatment, despite studies in the 1960s linking one of the drugs to respiratory arrest and heart attacks. Cases are now emerging of the drugs causing diabetes and inflammation of the pancreas.

Today:
At least 17 million people worldwide are prescribed minor tranquilizers, with “Western European countries facing epidemic levels of citizens being hooked on tranquilizers as well as antidepressants,” author Beverly Eakman reports.
In Spain, the use of antidepressants rose 247% in the 1990s, with the sales of antidepressants increasing three-fold and anti-anxiety drugs by four-fold since 2000. In 2004 in Britain, scientists discovered that one SSRI is consumed in such large quantities that traces of it are now in the country’s drinking water. The pharmaceuticals travel through the sewage network and end up being recycled into the water system. According to an environmental spokesperson, Norman Baker, M.P ., “This looks like a case of hidden mass medication of the unsuspecting public and is potentially a very worrying health issue.”

Coincidentally, the world today is suffering from massive social problems that are international in scope, including increased drug abuse and violence.

MARKETING HARM FOR PROFIT: Negative psychiatric drug publicity has historically been countered with articles and advertisements in medical journals which routinely exaggerated the benefits of drugs, while blatantly ignoring their numerous risks. In the case of antipsychotic drugs, that included Parkinson symptoms, permanent nervous system damage and even death.

IMPORTANT FACTS

1. Psychiatrists redefined behavior and educational problems as “disorders” in order to claim insurance reimbursements. Literally by a vote, they decide which disorder should be included in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

2. In April 2003, in a Psychiatric Times article entitled, “Dump the DSM,” psychiatrist Paul Genova said that psychiatric practice is governed by a diagnostic system that “is a laughingstock for the other medical specialties.”

3. Bruce Levine, Ph.D., author of Commonsense Rebellion says: “… no biochemical, neurological, or genetic markers have been found for attention deficit disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, compulsive alcohol and drug abuse, overeating, gambling, or any other so-called mental illness, disease, or disorder.”

4. Psychiatrist M. Douglas Mar says, “There is no scientific basis for these claims [of using brain scans for psychiatric diagnosis].”

5. Dr. Sydney Walker III, a neurologist, psychiatrist and author of A Dose of Sanity, said that the DSM has “led to the unnecessary drugging of millions.”

CHAPTER TWO Fraudulent Diagnoses

It may be stating the obvious, but for a doctor to legally prescribe a drug, there has to be some sort of agreed-upon diagnosis, some standard by which to act, that would include agreed-upon, legitimate physical symptoms. This isn’t the case with psychiatry.

Harvard Medical School’s Joseph Glenmullen explains: “In medicine, strict criteria exist for calling a condition a disease. In addition to a predictable cluster of symptoms, the cause of the symptoms or some understanding of their physiology [function] must be established. This knowledge elevates the diagnosis to the status of recognized disease. For example, ‘fever’ is not a disease, it is merely a symptom. In the absence of known cause or physiology [function], a cluster of symptoms that one sees repeatedly in many different patients is called a syndrome, not a disease.” In psychiatry, “we do not yet have proof either of the cause of the physiology for any psychiatric diagnosis. … The diagnoses are called disorders because none of them have established diseases.”

The development of the sixth edition of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) in 1948, which incorporated psychiatric disorders (as diseases) for the first time, and the publication of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in the United States in 1952, provided an apparent diagnostic system.

The 1952 edition of the DSM contained a list of 112 mental disorders. In 1980, the third edition, DSM-III, was released, listing an additional 112 disorders, bringing the total to 224. In the “Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence” section, 32 new mental disorders were added, including: Attention Deficit Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Developmental Reading
Disorder, Developmental Arithmetic Disorder, and Developmental Language Disorder. By 1994, DSM-IV had taken the total count of mental disorders to 374.

For all its technical pretense, the DSM has never scored a scientific mark with any professional group except psychiatrists themselves.

The reason for this is very simple.

DSM-II reports, “Even if it had tried, the [APA] Committee could not establish agreement about what this disorder [schizophrenia] is; it could only agree on what to call it.” Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, Thomas Szasz, says that schiz- ophrenia is “defined so vaguely that, in actuality, it is a term often applied to almost any kind of behavior of which the speaker disapproves.”

Psychiatrists put their own finger on it in their introduction to DSM-III: “For most of the DSM- III disorders … the etiology [cause] is unknown. A variety of theories have been advanced, buttressed by evidence not always that convincing to explain how these disorders come about.”

As psychiatrist Matthew Dumont commented, “They say: ‘… while this manual provides a classification of mental disorder … no definition adequately specifies precise boundaries for the concept.’ They then provide a 125-word definition of mental disorder, which is supposed to resolve all the issues surrounding the sticky problem of where deviance ends and dysfunction begins. It doesn’t.”

Stated another way, while individuals do suffer from mental disturbances, there is no proof that any of psychiatry’s mental “diseases” exist at all; they exist because psychiatry says they exist.

So how does a “disorder” appear in the DSM? A “disorder” becomes qualified by a consensus process which involves a mere show of “expert” hands— the key question being, “Do you think this is a disorder or not, yes or no?” This unscien- tific procedure has prompted psychiatrist Al Parides to call the DSM “a masterpiece of political maneuvering.” He also observed that “what they [psychiatrists] have done is medicalize many problems that don’t have demonstrable, biological causes.”

Obviously, people can and do experience serious mental difficulties and need help. However, professors Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirk, authors of Making Us Crazy, warn: “The public at large may gain false comfort from a diagnostic psychiatric manual that encourages belief in the illusion that the harshness, brutality, and pain in their lives and in their communities can be explained by a psychiatric label and eradicated by a pill. Certainly, there are plenty of problems that we all have and a myriad of peculiar ways that we struggle … to cope with them. But could life be any different? Far too often, the psychiatric bible has been making us crazy— when we are just human.”

Junk Science

According to a 2001 international poll of mental health experts conducted in England, the DSM-IV was voted one of the 10 worst psychiatric papers of the millennium. The DSM was criticized for reducing psychiatry to a checklist: “If you are not in the DSM-IV, you are not ill. It has become a monster, out of control.”

In April 2003, in a Psychiatric Times article entitled “Dump the DSM,” psychiatrist Paul Genova said that psychiatric practice is governed by a diagnostic system that “is a laughingstock for the other medical specialties.”

Edward Shorter, author of A History of Psychiatry, states, “Rather than heading off into the brave new world of science, DSM-IV-style psychiatry seemed in some ways to be heading out into the desert.”

In July 2001, the Washington Post reported that while, traditionally, new drugs are manufactured for existing disorders, in the case of psychiatry, the business is “seeking new disorders for existing drugs.”

Dr. Sydney Walker III, a neurologist, psychiatrist and author of A Dose of Sanity, said that the DSM has “led to the unnecessary drugging of millions.”

Carl Elliot, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota, commented, “The way to sell drugs is to sell psychiatric illness.” With the DSM, psychiatry has at its disposal an expanding list of supposed mental disorders, for each of which a psychiatric drug can be legally prescribed.

PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS The Chemical Imbalance Lie

“There’s no biological imbalance. When people come to me and they say, ‘I have a biochemical imbalance,’ I say, ‘Show me your lab tests.’ There are no lab tests.” — Dr. Ron Leifer, New York psychiatrist

Reputable physicians agree that for a disease to be accurately diagnosed and treated, there must be a tangible, objective, physical abnormality that can be determined through tests such as, but not limited to, blood or urine, X-ray, brain scan or biopsy. It is the consensus of many medical professionals that, contrary to psychiatric assertion, no scientific evidence exists that would prove that “mental disorders” are “brain-based diseases” or that a chemical imbalance in the brain is responsible.

In his 1998 book Blaming The Brain, biopsychologist Elliot S. Valenstein wrote, “Contrary to what is claimed, no biochemical, anatomical, or functional signs have been found that reliably distinguish the brains of mental patients.” He also stated that this theory is held onto because it is “useful in promoting drug treatment.”

In 2001, Ty C. Colbert, Ph.D., author of Rape of the Soul: How the Chemical Imbalance Model of Modern Psychiatry Has Failed Its Patients , said, “We know that the chemical imbalance model for mental illness has never been scientifically proven.”

In 2003, Australian psychologist Philip Owen warned: “The claim is continually made that the drugs repair chemical imbalances in the brain. This claim is false. It is still not possible to measure the exact levels of neurotransmitters in specific synapses [a place at which a nerve impulse passes from one nerve cell to another]. How, then, is it possible to make claims about chemical imbalances?”

BOGUS BRAIN THEORY: Presented in countless illustrations in popular magazines, the brain has been dissected and labeled and analyzed while assailing the public with the latest theory of what is wrong with the brain. What is lacking, as with all psychiatric theory, is scientific fact. As Dr. Elliot Valenstein explained, “There are no tests available for assessing the chemical status of a living person’s brain.”

IMPORTANT FACTS

1. There are no objective scientific criteria confirming the medical existence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

2. Dr. Louria Shulamit, a family practitioner in Israel, says, “ADHD is a syndrome, not a disease. The symptoms … are so common that we can conclude that all children … fit this diagnosis.”

3. In 1987, ADHD was literally voted into existence by American Psychiatric Association committee members and enshrined in the DSM. Within one year, 500,000 American children were diagnosed with this; today, an alarming 6 million have been falsely labeled with it.

4. “Hyperactivity is not a disease,” wrote psychiatrist Sydney Walker III. “It’s a hoax perpetrated by doctors who have no idea what’s really wrong with these children.”

5. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says the main stimulant used to treat “ADHD” can lead to addiction and that “psychotic episodes, violent behavior and bizarre mannerisms had been reported” with its use.

CHAPTER THREE The Hoax of Learning ‘Disorders’

In today’s world, there are very few families or teachers whose lives have not been interrupted in some way by the widespread drugging of children with prescribed, mind-altering drugs.

For the millions of children around the world now on these drugs, trusted advisors were ready to answer their parents’ concerns about their children’s disorder necessitating the “medication.” Commonly, a psychiatrist or psychologist told these parents that their child suffers from a disorder affecting his or her ability to learn—commonly known as a Learning Disorder (LD). The disorder is also labeled Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), or most commonly today, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In Sweden it is known as DAMP (Disorder in Attention, Motor control and Perception), although this is now widely discredited.

Certainly parents were told that these are well-recognized, medical problems demanding continuous, prescribed medication. Wanting only the best for their child, and believing the advisors, these parents agreed to the drug treatment as the best solution available. However, as many parents have found to their tragic loss, the worst thing to do is to ignore their instincts in the matter and give in to the psychiatric propaganda.

What are the facts?

There are numerous risks associated with the prescription of mind-altering drugs for so-called behavioral or learning disorders. A short list of these follows:

In 1995, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said the main stimulant used to treat “ADHD” could lead to addiction and that “psy- chotic episodes, violent behavior and bizarre manner- isms had been reported” with its use.

A 2001 Journal of the American Medical Association study found the stimulant to be more potent than cocaine.

Known amongst children and teens selling drugs on the playground as “Vitamin R,” “R-ball” and the “poor man’s cocaine,” this stimulant is abused by grinding up the drug and snorting or injecting it.

Suicide is a major complication of withdrawal from this stimulant and similar amphetamine-like drugs.

Studies have found that children who take amphetamine-type or other prescribed, mind-altering drugs do not perform better academically. In fact, children who take these drugs fail just as many courses, and drop out of school just as often, as children who did not take them.

Psychiatrists misleadingly argue that ADHD requires “medication” in the same way that diabetes requires insulin treatment. On this, Dr. Mary Ann Block, author of No More ADHD, is adamant: “Let me clear this up right now. ADHD is not like diabetes and Ritalin is not like insulin. Diabetes is a real medical condition that can be objectively diagnosed. ADHD is an invented label with no objective, valid means of identification. Insulin is a natural hormone produced by the body and it is essential for life. Ritalin is a chemically derived amphetamine-like drug that is not necessary for life. Diabetes is an insulin deficiency. Attention and behavioral problems are not a Ritalin deficiency.”

Clinical psychologist Ty C. Colbert says that when behaviors are “viewed as pathology, however, doctors will prescribe drugs under the guise of balancing a chemical imbalance. Yet because there is no imbalance, all the drugs do is chemically restrict the brain’s capabilities.” Ritalin, he says, restricts blood flow to the brain: “Blood flow delivers the necessary energy source (glucose) to the brain. The brain cannot function without glucose. It has been observed that many children who take Ritalin (or other stimulants) exhibit zombie-like behavior.”

In his book, The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses , John Breeding, Ph.D., states, “Even the most ardent Ritalin/ADHD enthusiasts find absolutely no positive long-term outcomes on anything in their research reviews. Short term there is only one—conformity in the classroom.”

ADHD Is Not a “Disease”

There are no objective scientific criteria confirming the existence of ADHD, but its reported symptoms are revealing. According to the DSM, symptoms of ADHD include: fails to give close attention to details or may make careless mistakes in schoolwork or other tasks; work is often messy or careless; has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities; appears as if they are not listening, fails to complete schoolwork, chores, or other duties, often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat; often runs about or climbs excessively in situations in which it is inappropriate; often has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure activities quietly; and is often on the go.

In 1998, the U.S. National Institutes of Health held an experts’ “Consensus Conference on the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD” that concluded, “We don’t have an independent, valid test for ADHD; there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction … and finally, after years of clinical research and experience with ADHD, our knowledge about the cause or causes of ADHD remains speculative.”

In 2004, faced with a court order to hand over research to substantiate the existence of DAMP (the Swedish nomenclature for ADHD), coworkers of psychiatrist Christopher Gillbergs, who first asserted its existence, destroyed 100,000 pages of research so that his “findings” could never be challenged.

According to Dr. Walker, “a child who sees a DSM-oriented doctor is almost assured of a psychiatric label and a prescription, even if the child is perfectly fine. ... This willy-nilly labeling of virtually everyone as mentally ill is a serious danger to healthy children, because virtually all children have enough symptoms to get a DSM label and a drug.”

Dr. Block is unequivocal: “If there is no valid test for ADHD, no data proving ADHD is a brain dysfunction, no long-term studies of the drugs’ effects, and if the drugs do not improve academic performance or social skills and the drugs can cause compulsive and mood disorders and can lead to illicit drug use, why in the world are millions of children, teenagers and adults … being labeled with ADHD and prescribed these drugs?”

“Hyperactivity is not a disease,” wrote Dr. Walker. “It’s a hoax perpetrated by doctors who have no idea what’s really wrong with these children.”

Today’s Drugged Culture

In the United States today, more than 8 million children have been put on mind-altering psychiatric drugs. In Australia, the stimulant prescription rate for children increased 34-fold in the past two decades. In Mexico, sales of one stimulant increased 800% between 1993 and 2001. The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly reported that in 2000 the highest rates of methylphenidate (Ritalin) consumption in Europe were in Switzerland, Iceland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg. In Britain the stimulant prescription rate for children increased 9,200% between 1992 and 2000. Spain reports a steady 8% annual increase in Ritalin consumption between 1992 and 2001.

In 2003, the British medicine regulatory agency warned doctors not to prescribe SSRI antidepressants (such as Paxil, Zoloft and Effexor) for under-18-year-olds because of the risk of suicide. The following year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a similar warning, as did Australian, Canadian and European agencies. Over a 10-year period, one of these antidepressants was associated with more hospitalizations, deaths, or other serious adverse reactions reported to the FDA than any other drug in history. In October 2004, the FDA went further, ordering that a “black box” label be placed on SSRI bottles warning of suicide risk. However, children are dying, are killing others or being turned into addicts because of these, and other psychiatric drugs. Their future will only be safeguarded when the unscientific “mental disorders” they are diagnosed with are abolished and dangerous psychotropic drugs are prohibited.

IMPORTANT FACTS

1. Psychiatric drugs can only chemically mask problems and symptoms; they cannot and never will be able to solve problems.

2. There are many causes for the symptoms of “ADHD,” including allergies, malnutrition, lead poisoning, high levels of mercury in the body, pesticides and too much sugar.

3. Lack of exercise, thyroid problems, poor adrenal function, hormonal disorders, hypoglycemia (abnormal decrease in blood sugar), food allergies, heavy metals, sleep disturbances, infections, heart problems, lung disease, diabetes, chronic pain and even some psychiatric drugs can cause “depression.”

4. Hypoglycemia, allergies, caffeine sensitivity, thyroid problems, vitamin B deficiencies and excessive copper in the body can cause manifestations of “bipolar disorder.”

5. The true resolution of many mental difficulties begins, not with a checklist of symptoms, but with ensuring that a competent, non-psychiatric physician completes a thorough physical examination.

CHAPTER FOUR A Better Way

There is no end to the number of and the complexity of problems that arise from our misplaced trust in psychiatrists, their diagnostic charades, and their mind-altering drug solutions. Inestimable damage has already been done to individual lives. Wherever psychiatry intervenes, the environment becomes more dangerous, more unsettled, more disturbed.

While life is full of problems, and sometimes those problems can be overwhelming, it is important to know that psychiatry, its diagnoses and its drugs are the wrong direction to go. The drugs can only chemically mask problems and symptoms; they cannot and never will be able to solve problems. Once the drug has worn off, the original problem remains. As a solution or cure to life’s problems, they do not work.

Meanwhile, numerous safe and workable alternatives do exist, solutions that psychiatrists refuse to recognize.

“When a person remains depressed despite normal efforts to remedy the problem, a physical source of the depression should be considered,” states an alternative mental health group on its website. The site lists a number of possible physical sources, including: nutritional deficiencies, lack of exercise, thyroid problems, poor adrenal function, hormonal disorders, hypoglycemia, food allergies, heavy metals, sleep disturbances, infections, heart problems, lung disease, diabetes, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, liver disease and even some psychiatric drugs themselves.

Dr. Thomas Dorman, an internist, says, “… emotional stress associated with a chronic illness or a painful condition can alter the patient’s temperament. In my practice I have run across countless people with chronic back pain who were labeled neurotic. A typical statement from these poor patients is ‘I thought I really was going crazy.’” The problem may be “simply an undiagnosed ligament problem in their back.”

There are many childhood problems that can appear to be symptoms of so-called “ADHD,” but which are in fact either allergic reactions or the result of a lack of vitamins or nutrition in the body. High levels of lead from the environment can place children at risk of both school failure and delinquent or unruly behavior; high mercury (chemical) levels in the body may cause agitation; pesticides can create nervousness, poor concentration, irritability, memory problems and depression. And too much sugar can make a child “overly active” or “hyper.”

More often than not, children simply need educational solutions. Tutoring and learning how to effectively study can save the child from a life of unnecessary and harmful psychiatric drugs. If a child is struggling in class, he may also be very creative and or highly intelligent and in need of greater stimulation.

Mental healing treatments should be gauged on how they improve and strengthen individuals, their responsibility, their spiritual well-being, and thereby society. Treatment that heals should be delivered in a calm atmosphere characterized by tolerance, safety, security and respect for people’s rights.

A workable and humane mental health system is what the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is working towards.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. People in desperate circumstances must be provided proper and effective medical care. Medical, not psychiatric, attention, good nutrition, a healthy, safe environment and activity that promotes confidence will do far more than the brutality of psychiatry’s drug treatments.

2. Humane hospitals should replace coercive psychiatric institutions. These must have medical diagnostic equipment, which non-psychiatric medical doctors can use to thoroughly examine and test for all underlying physical problems that may be manifesting as disturbed behavior. Government and private funds should be channeled into this rather than abusive psychiatric institutions that rely on mind-controlling drugs rather than legitimate medical help.

3. The pernicious influence of psychiatry has wreaked havoc throughout society, especially in the hospitals, educational and prison systems. Citizen groups and responsible government officials should work together to expose and abolish psychiatry’s hidden manipulation of society.

4. If a person has been the victim of psychiatric assault, fraud, illicit drug selling or other abuse, they should file a criminal complaint and send a copy to CCHR. Once criminal complaints have been filed, they should also be filed with the state regulatory agencies, such as state medical and psychologists’ boards. Such agencies can investigate and revoke or suspend a psychiatrist’s or psychologist’s license to practice. You should also seek legal advice to look into filing a civil suit for compensatory, and as applicable, punitive damages. Fill out the Abuse Case Investigation Form found by clicking on the box in the upper LH portion of this page.

5. Protections should be put in place to ensure that psychiatrists and psychologists are prohibited from violating the right of any person to exercise all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights as recognized in the U.S. Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in other relevant instruments.

For further information:
CCHR International
6616 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA, USA 90028
Telephone: (323) 467-4242  (800) 869-2247  Fax: (323) 467-3720
www.cchr.org  e-mail: [email protected]

THE CITIZENS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights. It works shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded groups and individuals who share a common purpose to clean up the field of mental health. We shall continue to do so until psychiatry’s abusive and coercive practices cease and human rights and dignity are returned to all.