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Just how close is the relationship between the American Psychiatric Association and the Treatment Advocacy Center? Giving each other awards and now swapping leadership. It's unseemly at best, but I have a suspicion it's not at best. Their message seems clear at least: civil rights are annoying anyway, it'd be silly to let something so petty get in the way of forcibly drugging people. | |||||||||||||||||
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awake| Forced Psychiatry by State - Updated | |||||||||||||||||
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blank| Non-Consensual Albuquerque | |||||||||||||||||
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Note to residents of Albuquerque: Talking to anyone about your feelings and thoughts may now cost you your freedom and liberty. This includes roommates, family, and mental health professionals. Do so only at your own risk.
Michael Wirts's days in NAMI are probably numbered like Mary Rives and many before her who have questioned NAMI's obsession with forced psychiatry. | |||||||||||||||||
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artistic| Eyes on the Eyes | |||||||||||||||||
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My therapist asked to see my LiveJournal today. There was a computer in the room, so I showed it to her. This took place near the end of our session, so she only got to look at it briefly. Nonetheless she found it helpful to understanding what's going on with me, and wants to look at it again in the future. She said that she'd only be looking at it with me, and never when I wasn't there. I know many of you are probably thinking something along the lines of "WTF? You're batshit crazy showing your therapist your LiveJournal!". Well, I am batshit crazy, but showing my LiveJournal to my therapist wasn't. First: While I distrust the mental health system as a whole, I do trust my therapist. Second: I live in a free state. Even if I am mistaken in trusting my therapist the worst she can do to me based on my journal is have me locked up for a couple weeks. I can do that time standing on my head. Third, my journal isn't really that much of a secret. It is the second hit when you google up Cahill 3 and the first hit when you google up Cahill 4, which are psych wards in the same health alliance that my therapist is part of. If she wanted to find my journal on her own, it would not have been difficult. I brought in printouts of journal entries to past therapists, but I've never let any look directly at it. Now we'll see how well this experiment works. | |||||||||||||||||
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mellow| Therapy Continuance | |||||||||||||||||
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I saw my therapist yesterday. She suggested that I use therapy as simply a sounding board and not necessarily focus on goals at this point. She also suggested that if I don't want to come in on a weekly basis, I could keep her number and set up appointments whenever I felt I needed one. In short she really doesn't think it is a good idea for me not to have access to therapy. Right now, I'm thinking "what the hell". She really believes I should stay, and I live in a free state so going to therapy isn't very dangerous. And fact going to therapy guarantees that I get to see ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} zarthon on a weekly basis, as he drives me. So I agreed to stay for the time being, and i have an appointment next Thursday. | |||||||||||||||||
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| And the Winner Is | |||||||||||||||||
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If there was ever any doubt that the American Psychiatric Association is completely in bed with TAC and its agenda of forced psychiatric "treatments" and drugging, it should be gone now. | |||||||||||||||||
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predatory| The Skewed Enforcement of New York's "Kendra's Law" | |||||||||||||||||
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Information on the enforcement of New York's "Kendra's Law" as of April 1, 2005, from the NYCLU:
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| Why I am Against Psychiatry | |||||||||||||||||
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I am against psychiatry because psychiatrists are now giving hard-core antipsychotics to kindergarteners and Prozac to toddlers. I'm against psychiatry because much of their drugs have nasty permanent debilitating side effects such as tardive dyskinesia, and deadly side effects such as significantly increased diabetes risk and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. I'm against psychiatry because no psychiatrist can adequately explain what a "chemical imbalance" looks like or what a proper "chemical balance" would be. I am against psychiatry because there are no objective tests for mental "illnesses", all diagnoses are made subjectively based on the opinions of individual psychiatrists who regularly come to differing conclusions regarding the same patient. I am against psychiatry because if mental "illness" actually is biological in origin, neurologists should be handling it on a medical basis. I am against psychiatry because psych drugs simply mask the symptoms and don't actually help patients get better. I am against psychiatry because a friend of mine was told that her son could no longer attend school unless he took addictive amphetamines. I am against psychiatry because of the ongoing campaigns to force dangerous drugs and electroconvulsive therapy on adults that have committed no crime. I am against psychiatry because the psychiatry has become more about selling drugs than helping patients. | |||||||||||||||||
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bitchy| New Mexico Still Free | |||||||||||||||||
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HB174 (assisted outpatient treatment a.k.a. forced drugging) did not pass the latest legislative session in New Mexico, which ended yesterday. HB174 was never voted on because the state legislature "ran out of time" due to Republican stalling tactics targeting a number of unrelated bills. As Governor Bill Richarson is currently in bed with NAMI/TAC and supports forced drugging, the bill is likely to come up again in the future. I hope for my friends in New Mexico that it fails next time, too. | |||||||||||||||||
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| The Whale and the Gull | |||||||||||||||||
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I'm very thankful that I ended up in Massachusetts. If I had instead ended up in an AOT state, I'm sure that I would have been forced to keep taking psychiatric medication. I don't think I would have ever gotten to state I am at now if I were on Geodon or Thorazine or whatever other zombiefying medication they'd want to stuff down my throat. My mind needed to be opened, not closed. Even anti-depressants would have hindered the process I've gone through, as their effect is that of a dissociation from sadness. I needed to address the sadnesses, and not feeling them would have prevented me from doing that. This process is not over. It will never be over. Every day is still challenging. Every day is still hard. But, the hope I have found shines through the difficulty. The brightness has always been there, I simply couldn't or wouldn't let it in. My shell has been cracked, and through those cracks the light now seeps through. I'm still not ready to hold down a job. I still have to take things in my day to day life slowly. I need to make sure I do my meditational prayers in order to keep myself mindful throughout each day. I didn't keep mindful Saturday, and had a very bad time towards the evening until I went to sleep. I felt a bit Flowers for Algernon that night, but when I woke up Sunday morning I drank coffee and did my meditations. I was able to move back into the place. It is important that I do not lose the path again. The path I am to walk is path I must take, if for no other reason than there currently is no other path that I can take. I may not ever be able to hold down a "real job" again; but if that is the way it is to be, it is the way is to be. I trust the winds. I am the way I need to be for me to do and see the things I need to do and see. Just as a whale is not able to see the expanse of the ocean from the sky, a gull is not able to see the depths of the whale's realm. Both experiences are gifts and neither the whale nor the gull is the less for what the other can see. | |||||||||||||||||
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cold| Political Poll | |||||||||||||||||
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Do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? Poll #661241 Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All Abortion should be legal.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Gun ownership should be considered a basic right.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Psychiatric medication should not be administered without consent.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Marijuana should be legal.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Porn degrades women.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Prostitution should be legal.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree The war in Afghanistan was necessary.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree The war in Iraq was necessary.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Iran should not be permitted to possess nuclear weapons.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree The United States should not be permitted to possess nuclear weapons.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Capital punishment should be abolished.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Suicide should be considered a basic right.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Capital punishment should be abolished.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree China should relinquish control of Tibet.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree The United States should relinquish control of Aztlán.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Too few hold too much power.
View Answers Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor disagree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Oops... put the capital punishment question in twice. Can't edit polls, so it's stuck that way. | |||||||||||||||||
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curious
69 (81.2%)