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News :: Miscellaneous |
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world's worst knock-knock joke--we tried to warn you! |
Current rating: 0 |
by autonomous madvocate
(No verified email address) |
09 Jul 2001
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We've tried to warn you. Now it's already too late in forty states. If you're a U.S. citizen, you'd better be quiet, well-behaved and pleasantly conformist. Involuntary outpatient commitment (IOC) is law in 40 states and the District of Columbia. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), largely a drug company front group, has pushed hard for IOC in every state and territory - and NAMI is winning. |
In six states (Delaware, Idaho, Michigan, Rhode Island, Texas, Wisconsin) the "make your home a loony bin" law is backed up with a NAMI-inspired double whammy, the Program of Assertive Community Treatment. PACT, they call it. It calls for Nurse Nasty to knock at your door twice a day. You must answer the door with a beverage and swallow your dose on the spot. Otherwise, this "hospital without walls" can get a court order to stick you in a psych ward.
Your treatment team--police, professionals, loved ones -- will gather to
strategize on returning you to normalcy. Their strategy might be a quick trip to a lockup, or round-the-clock peer pressure to take your medicine.
The "medicine" might be Prolixin, Haldol, Clozapine or any of a hundred
heavy-duty neuroleptics. Your dose might even be what the industry calls a "depot injection," a subcutaneous implant that lasts for days.
See much more on this topic, including links about how you can help protect yourself or someone you care about at the link provided. Knowledge is power! |
See also:
http://home.kscable.com/madpride/knock-knock2.html
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a middle path |
by Joe Futrelle
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
10 Jul 2001
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As someone who was involuntarily locked down during a manic episode, something which probably saved my life, I can't agree with the strong antipsychiatry stance advocated here which seeks to do away with involuntary treatment.
I'm very sympathetic to the critics of the mental health profession. Psychiatry is primitive and the diagnosis of mental illness is often problematic. Drugs are vastly overprescribed, and conditions in mental health wards are often oppressive. Involuntary treatment is often used against people who aren't really mentally ill by their families or by law enforcement.
However I don't find fault with drug treatments per se or the involuntary treatment of those who cannot take care of themselves. I can say quite candidly that I was mistreated in the mental ward, but since then I have found other mental health professionals who treat me well and have been able to help me. Along the way I encountered some unscrupulous types, but I was able to walk away.
I think psychiatric treatment, voluntary or not, has the potential to help people who need help. Whether the treatment is or is not helpful and appropriate is the real issue for me. There are some instances where people really do not know that they need help. During my manic episode I was delusional and paranoid, and of course I mistrusted everyone, mental health professionals and my closest friends alike. So there is no way I would have voluntarily accepted the treatment that I needed. This is typical for people experiencing manic episodes. I'm glad that my need wasn't ignored out of a concern that I might be coerced into a treatment I didn't want.
Lest you think I'm some kind of brainwashed dupe, I should say that after leaving the mental ward I went off all the drugs they gave me. I wasn't just fine -- in fact, I suffered from anxiety and depression for several years. Then, I sought treatment voluntarily and after many false starts with various drugs, found a combination that seemed to work. Finally, when the drugs seemed to only partially help I started talk therapy and that helped me a lot. I don't think any of this treatment has "normalized" me; I'm still the same personas before. Only now I'm not miserable.
I'm disappointed at the strong antipsychiatry stance because I know that without psychiatric treatment, many people who suffer from mental illness are needlessly miserable and often suffer from addictions to alcohol and other drugs that they take in a futile attempt to ease their pain.
I think in this debate there should be a balance between people's right to autonomy and their mental health. Why anyone would choose to suffer mental illness is beyond me. I never needed that choice, and don't want anyone to protect it. |
