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Written in praise admiration for fellow writer Desha Blue
I highly recommend Desha Blue’s book, Abducted by Aliens, or anything else she has written. This is an amazing collection of poetry about psych abuse. All I can say is, wow. I can sure relate. Everything she says is absolutely true about what “they” do.
I write this to honor Desha and I support her efforts 100%. I truly believe in what she is doing to show the world precisely what psych abuse does to a person.
I can’t say it was that bad at first otherwise surely, I wouldn’t have ever gone back. I’d say the last 6 years for me were bad. The last three, Living Hell. As soon as they claim you lack insight, you become worthless shit.
It’s true that psych abuse wrecks lives, breaks families apart, and is the #1 cause of suicide.
I am writing this also remembering Diane Daw. She was a good friend of mine. We were hospital roommates. We laughed together many nights. After that, we remained friends.
Diane was an amazing artist. A painter. She was witty and, I’d say, brilliant.
In 1986, I left Vermont and moved to the Boston area. I begged Diane to move and leave the incompetent quacks she was seeing. Namely Carl Burak, MD and the other incompetent she saw. However, Diane was rather taken by these doctors and praised their expertise. In the same breath, she said she knew they were not only humbugs but that she was getting nowhere with them.
That’s how it is with folks that get immersed and too deeply into it. Psych abuse sucks you in just like spousal abuse and you can’t get away.
I sent Diane a letter in 1988 and her roommate wrote back that she had died. The letter said she had been buried in Connecticut. Nothing Read the rest of this entry
Healing from Psychiatric Abuse, embedded
I made this a month ago! It was originally a video, but it seemed that the audio and video didn’t line up properly. Rather than fuss with it, I decided to convert it to “audio only” and post to Spreaker.
With quite a bit of effort I finally got the Spreaker post up on You-Tube, and from there, to here.
I like that on the video I smile and laugh a lot. I’m not sure if you can tell in this audio that I was cheerful and felt uplifted. Surely, a year ago I didn’t look happy at all! Times have changed.
Is the only way to get validation to admit to a psych diagnosis? But….
It’s so contradictory. PTSD from psych abuse is real, yet to say, “I have PTSD from psych abuse,” is rather contradictory. First of all, I am using THEIR language to describe a normal reaction to some horrible things they never should have done to anyone. So in adopting their language, I am saying that I am diseased and thereby, excusing the terrible things they did.
I am not “overreacting.” No way. They abused me and that’s fact. Some get the trauma reaction worse than others, but whether I get PTSD or not from it doesn’t erase or lessen or excuse what they did. People’s reactions to anything are varied and no two are alike.
For instance, compare PTSD, or, shall I say simply “trauma,” to grief. It’s accepted now that every person grieves differently. We see this in kids and in older people, too. Say you have a family of many kids, and the family dog dies. Don’t we see some kids in the family taking it harder than others? Maybe one kid seems extremely sad about it for a long time. Some take a very, very long time.
Same with trauma. Some shake it off, others take it harder. That doesn’t mean the person who takes it harder should be labeled such newfangled things as “highly sensitive” (this excuses all the wrongs done to such person), or any DSM-sponsored mental illness, because again, stating this means that the person’s perceptions were incorrect, and the abuse itself ends up downplayed. All focus is on the diseased person and the abusers are excused.
What was done to me was wrong. I didn’t get a trauma reaction as badly as I did until 2011 when the abuse worsened.
It was a blessing to get off meds. I HAD to anyway due to organ damage. But now, I am able to see those quacks clearly for who they were. I am no longer blind to their deceit.
Every time I get into yucky arguments, I am off-kilter for days and I cry a whole lot, never mind the PTS__ stuff. I am aware of my irrational behavior…not that I am trying to excuse it, but it’s caused by a problem that currently has no solution.
I have no clue what to do. Continue on this way, or what? My own therapist denied that it happened. NOW do you understand what a terrible thing these therapists do by telling patients “psych abuse is all in your head”?
Thanks, Julie Greene and Puzzle
What do you do if you are raped or assaulted and then are told, “You are mentally sick.”
I would suggest immediately leaving the situation or “therapist” that claims you are sick. You maty have a broken bone or sexually transmitted disease or bruises, or other physical ailment that needs to heal. You may be traumatized. This is a normal fear reaction. But never allow a so-called “mental health professional” or anyone else (police included) to try to convince you that the rape was trivial or never occurred or that you should not legally pursue it. A doctor should not ignore abuse. However, many sweep these “complaints” under the rug or are too busy to pay attention to their patients.
I would suggest immediately going elsewhere. If you are being called “crazy,” for reporting that you were raped,
LEAVE,
because to stay is just as harmful as staying with the perpetrator.
NOTE: There is NO Article in Wikipedia on PSYCHIATRIC ABUSE! Why?
I am shocked at Wikipedia! I was looking up bullying because I am currently writing a short blog entry. There are many categories of bullying listed. I was only seeing if a legal definition of bullying existed. However, not one word in the bullying entry on psych abuse exists, nor anything on medical abuse. Why no article on psych abuse? This should be a separate article, a huge article, folks! Hop to it! Where are our journalists and researchers? And psych abuse causes so, so many suicides, and has been the MAIN cause of suicide for decades!
Please sign this petition to help stop forced drugging for our friends in OHIO!
I feel strongly about this. Please sign and share!
http://petitions.moveon.org/thanks.html?petition_id=74168&from_source=c.em.mt&id=-10574315-4ju%3Dug
I’ve been busy, folks, but I am certainly around!
Excuses we are told when we try to report abuse
Have you ever reported abuse? What excuse were YOU given for having to undergo such trauma, and for NOTHING to be done about what happened?
1) Your story isn’t credible. You don’t have enough cold hard evidence. Therefore, it’s not possible that it even happened, and we are going to assume that you are inventing the whole thing. We see no reason to pursue.
2) It was done for your own good, and the abuser was “just doing his job” to protect you and give you “care.”
3) You were misbehaving or acting out of line. Therefore, anything inhumane done to you is entirely justified within the Institution.
4) There were no witnesses. Therefore, it couldn’t possibly have happened.
5) When you reported the abuse, you approached the wrong person, and now, the statute of limitations is up. Therefore, the abuse never happened, and your trauma is nonexistent.
6) You are too poor to get a lawyer, therefore, we won’t pursue if you try to report the abuse. What’s the point?
7) You are a sick person with mental issues, therefore, nothing you say is credible. You don’t stand a chance, and the Institution and its personnel can do anything they damn please.
8) You were drugged, therefore, your perceptions may have been off. Probably, you imagined it.
9) You are a child and deserved what happened. Children don’t have rights. They deserve punishment, after all.
10) You are elderly, probably senile. Nothing you say can possibly be true. After all, you are a batty old lady full of silly notions. Go back to your teddy bear.
11) You are physically handicapped, blind, or you have had a stroke, or you are developmentally disabled. Who can blame someone for taking advantage of you? We assumed you simply wouldn’t notice that you were assaulted.
12) The perp wasn’t well educated. Try to see things from the perp’s point of view. I mean, consider the suicide rate among perps. We should have National Perp Day. A charity for perps. Have you loved your perp today? Please, have pity on these folks.
13) You have serious anger problems and that’s why you are complaining. Go to anger management. You are so sick and you need antidepressants.
14) Pray and forgive. And give money to our church. This is “help.” You’ll probably be abused more, but pray harder and forgive the church over and over, too.
15) Go to a hospital or mental health care if you have been abused. The hospital will see to it that you are made “happy” so you’ll never, ever speak of the abuse again. However, if their tactics don’t work, expect Medical Abuse or Psychiatric Abuse, in the form of forced drugging, further imprisonment, and the like.
16) Above all, do not form a support group or website about abuse. Never blog about it. This is a threat and this will make you a liability case. You will be blacklisted at medical institutions and denied even the most basic care.
17) Are you still speaking out? We can ignore you, but should you be found dead by the side of the road someday, surely it was only a random killing, right?
When I come across as too angry
I have to remind myself that it’s okay to be angry. That I don’t have to justify my anger anymore to anyone or to “prove” myself to anyone anymore. Or to say why. Or to say over and over that anger isn’t a disease. This is a fact and if no one likes it they don’t have to stick around.
If they don’t believe me they don’t have to. I am who I am. I choose to speak up and many others are grateful that I continue to speak up. The doctors that wronged me can do nothing to silence me now.
Either I die, or I won’t. Everyone dies eventually. Either way, those doctors and therapists that wronged me will lose. As long as I live, I will continue to speak out, and if I die, others who have also been abused will continue onward.
Never, ever shut up.
What has been started will not end. It was a spark, now a roaring fire. I was abused in so-called “mental health care” and in so-called “hospitals” and the reality stands. I am not delusional and I am not lying about what happened. This “help” is not help. This “care” is not care. Force isn’t ever healthy, nor does it lead to anything resembling wellness.
Do we want to live in a rigid police state? Or do we want love?
There is no gray area here.
There is no excuse for abuse.
There is indeed such thing as saying, “Julie, I am sorry.” I do, in fact, accept apologies. In fact, if those shrinks had only said to me, “I admit I was wrong, and I deeply apologize that I caused you such harm.” I surely would have accepted their apology. But no, they did not. Instead, they tried in every way they could to force-drug me and incarcerate me and take away every Constitutional right I have as adult citizen of this country.
That I know of, they will continue to attempt to do this until the day I die. They are so desperate to shut me up. I hate to inform them, but I have no plans to do so.
Another horrific story of abuse…please share! Stories should be told and we will NOT SHUT UP!
Please “like” and “share” the following link if you have a Facebook account, if not, the text is below…and my commentary, as usual….below that.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/157785354331129/permalink/498271443615850/
“At 14 years Michelle was bright sensitive child, a straight A student, but then was diagnosed with early schizophrenia at age 14. Her extreme mental and emotional problems took her life, her personality, her dreams, her dignity. She now believes she is a “retarded abnormal subhuman” with no quality of life.
“Doctors and social workers look through her. They see her as a label, not a person. She has been on every medication possible. Zyprexa’s side effects made her gain 300 lbs. in one year. Then it was discontinued because she was pre-diabetic.
“During her lifetime Michelle has been hospitalized over 30 times, often 100’s of mile away from family and friends with no Ronald McDonald house for me. At Merced California hospital her daily activity was to go walk in the graveyard. I have been her only caregiver and provider as she has never lived independently.
“Broken relations with self, society, family – this is the essence of receiving a psychiatric diagnosis. With no purposeful work or activities, she is brainwashed that there is NO Hope and will have to take drugs the rest of her life which destroy the mind, body and soul.
“We have witnessed many friends in their 20’s 30’s 40’s drop dead over the years from side effects, overmedication or horrific withdrawal. One young man jumped to his death a few blocks from the hospital after being denied services. Michelle has many, many times – wracked with unbearable emotional pain — been denied services and left to walk home in her jammies barefoot in the middle of the night, totally vulnerable.Many many times when she REALLY needed help she did not get it as no “crime” had been committed and no one was yet hurt. Police would laugh at us and tell us that we liked “to fight.”
“Lack of basic services, being hurt and afraid CONSTANTLY, taken advantage of, loss of dignity, inhumane treatment, discrimination, isolation, no voice in treatment, violation of rights, torture — these are accepted as the norm within the mental health system.
“I filed many grievances with the county and state for lack of basic services. My statement was “My daughter is like a drowning person, who, when thrown a lifeline , will l not touch it as she is afraid of it.” We won “services” that time.
“Four years ago, at the last grievance her counselor didn’t get her to court on time and we lost by default. I’ve written letters to the local paper titled “I can get help for my cat easier than my mentally ill daughter” but they didn’t print it. They refused to interview me or Shell and I was told by Paul Hurley with the Times Delta that lack of and inadequate mental health services was an “open secret.” I wrote to senators, representatives, mayors, governors, presidents, civil rights groups, lawyers, with a few replies for best wishes and a phone number but no end results.
“Then, in 2004, Michelle was sentenced to 90 days for small charges. Twice she was electrocuted by a TASER gun in Bob Wiley JAIL in Visalia, CA, WHILE SHE WAS PREGNANT and forcibly taken from her cell at least twice.
“Michelle spent 100 days in solitary with no treatment. Her charge? Being under the influence and resisting arrest. After serving over 100 days Michelle was involuntarily sent to California Patton State Hospital to “understand the charges.” There, she was locked up with murderers and rapists. She was then sent back to court, found guilty AGAIN and released. Total time for this? Almost 1 year. She was sent to Patton state hospital locked with rapists and murders. At Patton State Michelle gave birth to daughter Audri chained to a bed, and was not allowed to hold her own newborn baby.
“Michelle was a wonderful mother and she was happiest holding her babies, cuddling them, loving them. This was the happiest time of her life. Audri and Andrew were her whole reason for existing. After the birth of her second child she was given the wrong meds and she decompensated AGAIN. Then, she said an inappropriate comment to a social worker while in extreme emotional distress. CWS took her babies without a fight as she was locked in the hospital with no phone available and unable to speak up for herself. We have never seen the babies since. AudriAnna and Andrew were not abused, drug exposed nor abandoned. She was discriminated against and violated, for having a psychiatric disorder. She has never recovered from the grief. I call it legalized kidnapping.
“In 2002 she was hospitalized at Kaweah Delta In Visalia, CA. There she was assaulted with seven stitches to her face. In May of this year she was hospitalized at this same locked facility and assaulted AGAIN by another patient, this time receiving five stitches to her forehead. This month she was hospitalized AGAIN at this same facility I couldn’t even give flowers or balloons to Michelle she was shut away like a leper. I called her case manager and supervisor and didn’t get even a return phone call for five days. Michelle is now in a licensed group home and the last I heard she had been raped. She is now on Neurontin telling me she’s hearing voices again for the first time in many years.
“Housing is a huge problem as unlicensed , unsafe group homes cram Mental Health population into windowless rooms and move them at the landlords convenience. They suffer in silence as to speak up would not be tolerated and would be punished. Licensed group homes are rare.
“The MEDIA is guilty of generating misinformation and half-truths and misconceptions always portraying the MI as derogatory and dangerous. They laugh at them and point fingers. Would you laugh at a child with cancer? Psychiatry as we know it is not an exact science, often dangerous. My daughter is a human guinea pig.
“The Mental Illness System is broken and it doesn’t work. The discrimination against people diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities is shameful, talked about in secrets in the dark. The media portrays one suffering generally as to be pitied, a danger, one to be feared and not tolerated.
“The STIGMA and treatment itself are barriers. That must be smashed before the eyes of the general public so the community can understand and change old ideas into new methods of treatment, of healing. Lobotomies were inhumane and eventually outlawed. Electroshock therapy is a modern form of lobotomy. Ask ten people, “What is schizophrenia?” and I get ten different answers.
“Survivors need a voice AND choices in their own treatment, community based, family based treatment, compassion, Christian love, understanding. Gently guiding sufferers back to reality is a new form of treatment successfully working in the country of Finland. Dr. Jaakko Seikkula is pioneering and revamping the treatment of the people diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities, with approximately 80% success rate of restoring one’s dignity with minimal medication use. Canada and Australia are also working on more effective treatments. Our own Mr. Bob Whitaker is writing books on this tragic and terrible epidemic in our country.
“Med compliance has never been her problem. She does well in structured settings and can live independently with minimal supervision. There are many caring and concerned individuals here. Again, I wish to thank you all for coming and thanks to David Oaks for allowing me to share. As a MOM == Mother’s of MindFreedom – I urge you to support David and MindFreedom as his work is essential to end this living nightmare for our children. Mother’s of MindFreedom are uniting and breaking down barriers and searching for more effective treatment. We will never give up.”
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God bless moms that never give up! Yes, MindFreedom does do wonderful work.
Yes, it is true that this abuse does exist and it is indeed commonplace, the NORM for mental patients, not the exception. This is the life we live. This is what is the accepted truth of our existence. You must submit to “treatment” to get well. Treatment is supposed to hurt.
I do not for one minute accept that abuse is justified or acceptable. Ever. This needs to stop. It’s time to speak out. Never allow someone to yap to you about “acceptance.” Acceptance of what? The status quo? The status quo MUST CHANGE NOW.