An Explanation of the Mental Health Liberation Movement

I need to write an article, but my brain is rather stumped. Not much happening in my nerdy world (except for the fact that Charlie the Unicorn 3 is out now), so I'm going to write another chapter of my antipsychiatry mini-series. Don't groan! No one's forcing you to read this...well, at least I'm not. At any rate, keep and open mind and go forth!

I've already posted my reasons as to why I am antipsychiatry, and also a follow-up piece. In the first article, I talked briefly about the myths surrounding the mental health liberation movement and antipsychiatry in general, explained the fundamental differences between psychiatrists and psychologists, and then began my choppy (the article was way too long to post, so it had to be edited) endeavor of debunking psychiatry as it stands today. Now, I would like to elaborate on those myths surrounding the antipsychiatry movement and explain the movement as a whole. Now that you know why psychiatry is a pseudo-science, time to read about how we're not all a bunch of quacks, hippies, alien worshippers, etc.

The first common myth is that all antipsychiatrists are Scientologists, and if you're not a Scientologist, then clearly your antipsychiatry beliefs are influenced by Scientology. First of all, I'm a Christian, not a Scientologist, and I don't believe just anything I read. I came to my conclusion after two years of psychology classes and independent study, not because Tom Cruise went on a rant on television and promted South Park to do a hilarious anti-Scientology episode. I will talk further on Scientology in this article, but for now you may rest assured that L. Ron Hubbard was neither the first antipsychiatrist nor the most influential.

Secondly, for some strange reason people accuse us of living in a dream world where no problems exist at all. It's as though we don't think that anyone suffers from extreme depression, hears voices, or knows anyone considered deeply mentally disturbed. What could be farther from the truth, I ask!

Anyone who read my first article is now well aware that I've seen it all. Between being severely suicidal (and pretty much given up on by every psychologist in the area) and watching my brother go through his own personal Hell due to his own problems, compounding upon by psychiatrists breathing down his neck, I can tell you that I do not live in a bed of roses, at least not on the part with the petals. In fact, a lot of people who have joined the movement in its various forms are people who call themselves psychiatric survivors. In other words, they were sometimes deeply disturbed people, or mildly disturbed people, who overcame their problems without medication, ECT (electroconvulsive therapy), and/or were actually harmed by their doctor. As I said before, we do not deny that people have problems, only that these problems stem from a biological basis, such as a chemical imbalance that no one can pinpoint or a genetic fault that cannot be traced.

All antipsychiatrists want to destroy psychiatry. This myth paints a broad picture if you ask me. Within the antipsychiatry sect, you will indeed find people like this, and admittedly, I sometimes wonder if I fit in with that train of thought as well. However, you will also find people who believe that psychiatry is simply in need of a severe reconstruction project. And then you will also find people who simply believe that psychiatrists should be more open to alternative solutions to problems and not so eager to force drugs on patients. There's a lot of different mindsets within the antipsychiatry community, some mild and some extreme and radical.

Finally, many people claim that antipsychiatrists are fear mongers. In other words, we have no problem spouting out why psychiatry is the devil's work, but cannot come up with how to actually deal with people who are severely depressed, have episodes of paranoia, ect. Actually, a lot of us do have solutions, and a wide variety at that. All the way from diet and lifestyle changes to special temporary retreats for healing, you'll find them all here!

With that, it's time to elaborate. The Mental Health Liberation movement consists of the general public (parents, grandparents, ect.), civil rights workers, psychiatric survivors, and even professionals, such as psychiatrists (go figure), psychologists, social workers, educators, etc. It also consists of people from all cultures and walks of faith. There are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Scientologists, Bhuddists, etc.

So, why is antipsychiatry almost exclusively associated with Scientology? I think the media (and Tom Cruise) has a lot to do with this. Let's face it, the best way to discredit an idea is to link it with an organization that everyone deems harmful, and Scientology is the perfect candidate! With its own horrendous human rights record, Scientology is very hypocritical in its crusade against the totalitarian regime known as the psychiatric industry.

Why is Scientology so against psychiatry, to the point of wanting it eradicated entirely? My personal theory, and I kid you not, is that Scientology is competing against psychiatry for converts. Seriously, think about this. One way that psychiatrists get clients is by administering a personality test. The questions are rather vague, repetitive, and can even conflict with faith (trust me, answering that you believe in the existence of demons doesn't reflect well when you take this test). As a joke, I once decided to take the online Scientology questionaire and found out it was astonishingly like the personality psychiatrists and psychologists hand out. The questions were so similar, I double-checked the address bar to ensure that I had it correct.

To make a long story short, I never got to see how Scientologists would "diagnose" me. You have to go to one of their bases in order to get that information, and I didn't want to do that (not to mention the nearest one is hours away from here), so I didn't get it. It probably would have said that I was depressed or anxious (they all do) and then encourage me to join their cult and get "cured". Sound familiar? This is exactly how psychiatry works! You're ill, so you need their services. It's a marketing ploy, and both of these industries use it.

I should also note at this point that one of the most aggressive protestors against psychiatry would be the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which was co-founded by Scientology and Thomas Sasz, who, as far as I've discovered, is not a Scientologist. Technically, the CCHR is a seperate entity from the Church of Scientology, although you can tell that their alien-loving buddies work closely with them. Their official site praises the Church of Scientology by noting their "remarkable" human rights activism. Riiiight....

At any rate, I don't discourage anyone from going to the CCHR web site and watching their videos, as they're highly informative. I once read a pro-psychiatrist guy say that the group's documentaries decieve people with half-truths and outright lies. I double-checked everything, and have found very few lies and few half-truths. The Skinner box from their Psychiatry: An Industry of Death consisted of lies and half-truths, but pretty much the rest of that documentary passed my scrutiny, and their other documentary, Making a Killing is great!

Also, the CCHR is open to all people, not just Scientologists, and I think the staff is pretty well mixed at that.

Okay, that out of the way, let's discuss the various goals of antipsychiatrists, starting the the ones we can all agree on.

First of all, regardless of how extreme you are, we can all agree that forced hospitalization and forced drugging and electroshock must come to an end. These are blatant attacks on a person's civil rights. I mean, even criminals have the right to stand trial! People who are deemed mentally unstable by the system should have that right as well. Let a jury decide if you're sane or not. Even better would be if psychiatry stood trial and had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that mental illness exists as a biological problem, but that's just too good to be true.

Second, I think we can safely say that psychiatrists should be more open to alternative solutions, not just the tools the pharmaceutical industry. Their training is almost funding entirely by Big Pharma while they're in college, and I don't think they do a whole lot of independent research regarding the safety of the drugs they are encouraged to push. There are many different things that could be causing emotional distress in a person's life, and drugs should not be the first option on the table.

Beyond that, we tend to differ a lot. I think that psychiatry's role in the mental health system should be restricted to that of caring for deeply disturbed people. Once upon a time, homes existed for the severely mentally disturbed. These weren't really asylums, but quite luxurious homes that would provide a safe haven for people until they came out of their psychosis on their own. Most of the time, if you remove a person from their stressors and give them a place to relax, pray, etc., they will recover naturally. Unfortunately, once the government got involved the quality of care at these homes decreased rapidly, and they fell out of existence. I think they should come back, unfunded by the government and Big Pharma (since I don't think psychotropic drugs should exist).

Some people think that psychiatry should be abolished entirely, and that psychologists, pastors and other religious leaders, etc. should take over for them. In other words, no psychotropic drugs would exist (good thing), but also no way to help people who may need a bit more than psychotherapy. I do believe that the Church should be more involved with helping people in distress, but Christians were infiltrated by psychiatry propaganda a long time ago. Without pscyhiatry, the Church could help more people who may be suffering from a spiritual crisis, nutritionists and alternative medicine practitioners in other areas, and psychologists for people who may just need to talk out their problems.

It's getting late now and I'm sleepy, so I'm going to mention the other organizations involved in the movement that are not affiliated with any religion, government, etc.

Able Child - They focus on school-aged children being drugged senseless.

MindFreedom - A great group that consists of many psychiatric survivors. If you're being coerced by psychiatry, trapped in the system, or are basically experiencing a loss of civil rights, these guys will help you out. They are aware that criminals have more rights than a psychiatric patient, and they will fight for you in any way that they can. Great, great group.

The Antipsychiatry Coalation - I don't think they do much other than write articles, but good reads anyway.

Well Mind Association of Minnesota - I presume this site is still growing. They provide information on alternative ways to treat mental illness.

Links coming soon! Not to mention a massive editing job!