Psychiatry out of control

Why Therapy, Empathy, and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the New Psychiatry

Psychiatric drugs such as Prozac, Xanax, Halcion, Haldol and Lithium and dozens of other short-term "solutions" are being prescribed by doctors throughout the world as quick antidotes to depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other psychiatric problems, but at what cost?

In a searing, myth-shattering book Toxic Psychiatry, psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, MD, broke through the hype and false promises and showed how dangerous, even potentially brain-damaging, many of psychiatry's drugs and treatments are. He asserts that:

• psychiatric drugs are spreading an epidemic of long-term brain-damage;

• mental "illnesses" like schizophrenia, depression and anxiety disorder have never been proven to be genetic or even physical in origin, but are under the jurisdiction of medical doctors;

• millions or schoolchildren, housewives, elderly people, and others are labelled with medical diagnoses and treated with authoritarian interventions, rather than being patiently listened to, understood and helped.

His work is a passionate, much-needed wake-up call for everyone who plays a part, active or passive, in society's ever-increasing dependence on harmful psychiatric drugs.

Warning: Taking psychiatric drugs can be dangerous, but they can also become dangerous when discontinued abruptly. Stopping psychiatric drugs should usually only be done gradually and with medical guidance.

The following paragraphs are condensed excerpts from Chapter 1 of Toxic Psychiatry (produced with permission of the author).

Psychiatrists are fully qualified medical doctors who specialise in treating people defined as having psychiatric problems. As medical doctors, psychiatrists can prescribe drugs and electric-shock treatment, hospitalise patients and treat people against their will. Psychiatry is currently pushing the field of mental health in a more bio-chemical, medical direction.

In contrast, psychotherapists are a broad group which includes anyone helping people with their problems by talking with them, e.g. social workers, counsellors, therapists, ministers of religion and a variety of lay people. Not all psychiatrists are psychotherapists. Many psychiatrists have little or no training in how to communicate with people about their problems. Instead, they make "medical" diagnoses and prescribe drugs and electric-shock treatment.

You may still think of a psychiatrist as a wise, warm and caring person who will help you tackle your problem. But, the modern psychiatrist may have no interest in "talking therapy", being interested only in "medical diagnoses" and "physical treatment". You may receive all the empathy and understanding of a pathologists staring at germs under a microscope, and then be offered a drug. You may be told that your problem or your family member's problem is biological, treatable with drugs, electric-shock or hospitalisation. You may be relieved at the prospect of having the difficulty prescribed away by an expert, but beware: you are exposing yourself or your family member to effects from which they may never recover.

People suffering from what used to be thought of as "neuroses" and "personal problems" are being treated with drugs and shock. Children with problems once handled with remedial education or improved parenting are now being subjected to medical diagnoses, drugs and hospitals. Old people who used to be cared for by their families are being drugged in nursing homes where pills are more cost effective than a caring environment.

Hard to believe? Consider that many psychiatrists have never been taught how to talk with you or your family about problems, never been taught how to understand personal and family conflicts. In many training programmes, psychiatrists are not trained in the humanities or even in basic psychology and know little about the various fields that have contributed to our understanding of the human mind.

If you are educated in the humanities or have read a few good self-help psychology books, and if you like to think about yourself and others, you may have more insight into personal growth than your psychiatrist does; and if you've taken a few courses or read some academic psychology, you might know more theory as well. If you've also shared feelings and personal problems with some of your friends, then you may have more practise in "talking therapy" than your psychiatrist.

Read more of the practical alternatives of therapy based in love and empathy in Healing Presence.

You may still think of a psychiatrist as a wise, warm and caring person who will help you tackle your problem. But, the modern psychiatrist may have no interest in "talking therapy", being interested only in "medical diagnoses" and "physical treatment". You may receive all the empathy and understanding of a pathologists staring at germs under a microscope, and then be offered a drug. You may be told that your problem or your family member's problem is biological, treatable with drugs, electric-shock or hospitalisation. You may be relieved at the prospect of having the difficulty prescribed away by an expert, but beware: you are exposing yourself or your family member to effects from which they may never recover.

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