Unshrunk

[Skull]

By Laura Delano is a must read:

Unshrunk: Laura Delano’s Breakaway from Psychiatry ⋆ Brownstone Institute

 

[g5000]

The psych hospital industry is all about making money, not helping their patients.

I have a developmentally disabled immediate family member who has been hospitalized several times.

They spend all day making paper crafts, participating in "music therapy" which involves shaking maracas and banging on bongos, "art therapy" which involves coloring with magic markers and crayons.

Then they spend a total of five minutes with a drug dealer. A pill-pushing doctor who inflicts a different medication on them every 24 hours.

They are basically shooting bullets into the dark, hoping to hit the target.

The thing is, it can take up to two weeks for a psychiatric medication to take full effect. Swapping drugs every 24 hours is insane.

A patient is shoved out the door within 2 weeks, most often sooner.

There is absolutely ZERO one-on-one time with a therapist.

A pill does NOT change your thinking. It only tinkers with your emotions, often deleteriously.

There is a serious need to overhaul our mental health system.

What's worse is that my state, which is a big fat blue state, has only one state-funded mental health hospital, and there is so much more need than beds, the only way to get admitted is to be committed through the justice system.

So if you have no or poor insurance, you're fucked.

The mentally ill are trapped in a doom loop where they are unemployable and therefore can't get insurance.

As a result, we have thousands of homeless mentally ill people receiving no treatment or help.

I know all this because I spend a lot of time helping these people myself.

 

[Skull]

At the end of Delano's book is this:

If you are taking psychiatric medications—or if someone you care about is
on them—you might be at a crossroads. Perhaps your meds once afforded
you relief that’s since dissipated, or you’re now experiencing adverse drug
effects that outweigh any benefits. Maybe you’ve begun to wonder whether
the issues you’d previously assumed were symptoms of mental illness
might not be—or that lifelong, pharmaceutically managed mental illness
isn’t necessarily inevitable.
The good news is that there are countless pathways forward from the
place you’re in. Only you can and should choose where to go from here—
what’s right for you, given your personal circumstances and needs—but
meaningful choices are possible only if you have all the information
required to make them.
Figuring out where to turn for trustworthy resources and support can feel
overwhelming. When it comes to caring for ourselves—and caring for one
another as families, and in workplaces, schools, places of faith, and broader
neighborhoods and communities—we owe it to ourselves to reclaim
personal and collective power by connecting with reliable information.
If you’re ready to take your next step—whether that means learning
more, asking new questions, exploring safer ways to taper off psychiatric
drugs, or simply opening yourself up to the idea that a more vital, connected
life awaits you or the person you care about—you can find free resources at

lauradelano.com/unshrunk-resources

 

[g5000]

At the end of Delano's book is this:

If you are taking psychiatric medications—or if someone you care about is
on them—you might be at a crossroads. Perhaps your meds once afforded
you relief that’s since dissipated, or you’re now experiencing adverse drug
effects that outweigh any benefits.

Yeah, using a med for the rest of your life should only be for the most dire cases.

Every med has side effects which can become worse over time. Sometimes the med stops working, too. Then the doctors start bringing out the big guns. Some real heavy duty shit.

If a person thinks they don't need their meds any more, the best thing is to taper off the meds under the guidance of the prescriber and their primary care doctor.

Quitting some meds cold turkey is a very bad idea.

A diagnosis which says "situational" or "acute" is a short-term problem and should not require long term medication.

"Chronic" may need long term care.


Here's a thing about schizophrenics. In every person with schizophrenia I have encountered, as soon as they start feeling better, they get the idea they don't need their meds any more, and they go off them. Then their insanity returns.

It's a vicious cycle.

I've been told by more than one schizophrenic they don't like the way the meds make them feel.

For those who hear voices, they miss the voices. They consider the voice(s) to be their friend and they don't want to give that up.

Unlike the movies, in the vast majority of cases, the voices don't urge them to commit violence. They just keep them company and sometimes make them laugh.

 

[Flopper]

The psych hospital industry is all about making money, not helping their patients.

I have a developmentally disabled immediate family member who has been hospitalized several times.

They spend all day making paper crafts, participating in "music therapy" which involves shaking maracas and banging on bongos, "art therapy" which involves coloring with magic markers and crayons.

Then they spend a total of five minutes with a drug dealer. A pill-pushing doctor who inflicts a different medication on them every 24 hours.

They are basically shooting bullets into the dark, hoping to hit the target.

The thing is, it can take up to two weeks for a psychiatric medication to take full effect. Swapping drugs every 24 hours is insane.

A patient is shoved out the door within 2 weeks, most often sooner.

There is absolutely ZERO one-on-one time with a therapist.

A pill does NOT change your thinking. It only tinkers with your emotions, often deleteriously.

There is a serious need to overhaul our mental health system.

What's worse is that my state, which is a big fat blue state, has only one state-funded mental health hospital, and there is so much more need than beds, the only way to get admitted is to be committed through the justice system.

So if you have no or poor insurance, you're fucked.

The mentally ill are trapped in a doom loop where they are unemployable and therefore can't get insurance.

As a result, we have thousands of homeless mentally ill people receiving no treatment or help.

I know all this because I spend a lot of time helping these people myself.

I have a relative with schizophrenia who was diagnosis at age 15. He is 26 now. He has been in at least 14 hospitals, some several times. He has not ever been out of the hospital more than a month. He is just as crazy now as the day he went in for the first time. For the seriously mental ill, mental hospitals are holding places where the mentally ill are held to protect society and to protect them from society. He is in the hospital now. We talked yesterday about how he was going back to school, getting a degree in aeronautical engineering so he could become an astronaut. Last week, he was going to become a priest or was it an author, a politician, a teachers, etc. It all ends up the same way. He is released to a group home and within a few day the police pick him up wandering down the middle of a street nude or beating on the walls of the group home or trying to kill himself and it all starts all over again.

 

[Flopper]

I have a relative with schizophrenia who was diagnosis at age 15. He is 26 now. He has been in at least 14 hospitals, some several times. He has not ever been out of the hospital more than a month. He is just as crazy now as the day he went in for the first time. For the seriously mental ill, mental hospitals are holding places where the mentally ill are held to protect society and to protect them from society. He is in the hospital now. We talked yesterday about how he was going back to school, getting a degree in aeronautical engineering so he could become an astronaut. Last week, he was going to become a priest or was it an author, a politician, a teachers, etc. It all ends up the same way. He is released to a group home and within a few day the police pick him up wandering down the middle of a street nude or beating on the walls of the group home or trying to kill himself and it all starts all over again. Sorry, I know this is reviews forum but I needed to get that off my chest.

 

[g5000]

I have a relative with schizophrenia who was diagnosis at age 15. He is 26 now. He has been in at least 14 hospitals, some several times. He has not ever been out of the hospital more than a month. He is just as crazy now as the day he went in for the first time. For the seriously mental ill, mental hospitals are holding places where the mentally ill are held to protect society and to protect them from society. He is in the hospital now. We talked yesterday about how he was going back to school, getting a degree in aeronautical engineering so he could become an astronaut. Last week, he was going to become a priest or was it an author, a politician, a teachers, etc. It all ends up the same way. He is released to a group home and within a few day the police pick him up wandering down the middle of a street nude or beating on the walls of the group home or trying to kill himself and it all starts all over again.

I've known a few schizophrenics. They are given medications which mitigate their symptoms, but once they feel better they start believing they don't need the meds anymore and their illness comes roaring back.

Rinse, repeat.

There was one who heard voices, and he considered the voice to be his friend and he did not want to take meds which took his friend away.

The voice was not urging him to be violent like you see in the movies. From what I could tell, it was saying funny things because he was always laughing at whatever it was telling him.

Another schizophrenic I knew stopped his meds, and the next thing you know, he broke into a warehouse completely naked and was arrested.

While he was in jail, they got him the meds he needed, and when he came out he expressed boundless gratitude for them rescuing him.

Then he disappeared again and I have not heard from him since.

 

[Flopper]

Yeah, using a med for the rest of your life should only be for the most dire cases.

Every med has side effects which can become worse over time. Sometimes the med stops working, too. Then the doctors start bringing out the big guns. Some real heavy duty shit.

If a person thinks they don't need their meds any more, the best thing is to taper off the meds under the guidance of the prescriber and their primary care doctor.

Quitting some meds cold turkey is a very bad idea.

A diagnosis which says "situational" or "acute" is a short-term problem and should not require long term medication.

"Chronic" may need long term care.


Here's a thing about schizophrenics. In every person with schizophrenia I have encountered, as soon as they start feeling better, they get the idea they don't need their meds any more, and they go off them. Then their insanity returns.

It's a vicious cycle.

I've been told by more than one schizophrenic they don't like the way the meds make them feel.

For those who hear voices, they miss the voices. They consider the voice(s) to be their friend and they don't want to give that up.

Unlike the movies, in the vast majority of cases, the voices don't urge them to commit violence. They just keep them company and sometimes make them laugh.

I understand where you're coming from, and I agree with most of your points, but I think it's important to say that the voices aren't always friendly. For my family, they’ve been terrifying.

A couple of years ago, I found my nephew, who has schizophrenia, repeatedly banging his head against the wall. I rushed to stop him and asked what was going on. His answer haunts me: “I’m trying to run the demons out of my head.”

There have been nights, many nights, when he’s screamed into the darkness, roaring with laughter at 2 or 3 in the morning. It’s not just noise. It’s pain. It’s confusion. It’s his mind fighting itself.

What continues to astonish me is how long he can go without sleep when he’s in a manic phase, sometimes 48 hours or more. He won’t eat, won’t drink, just paces, raves, rants. And then comes the crash: 18 hours, sometimes a full day of deep, silent sleep. It becomes a cycle until we end up back in the ER, begging for help, usually needing involuntary commitment to keep him safe.

One winter, during one of these episodes, he wandered out in below-freezing temperatures. The police found him the next morning walking down a four-lane road. No shirt. No pants. No shoes. That incident led to an 11-month stay in a psychiatric facility.

Right now, he’s back in for a 90-day hold. He’s even asking for a jury trial. I can’t help but wonder: how do you find 12 people who can truly understand what it’s like to live in his mind?

One thing I want people to know is that the reason so many individuals with schizophrenia stop taking their medication isn’t because they love the voices. It’s because antipsychotics often take more than they give. My nephew once told me, “When I’m on the meds, I don’t feel anything. Not happiness. Not sadness. Just...nothing.”

These medications can dull the very emotions that make us feel human. Add to that the sexual side effects—loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, inability to orgasm—and it becomes even harder for someone to feel connected, loved, or normal.

No, they don’t miss the voices. They miss feeling alive.