Alternative Treatments To Mental Illnesses

This blog is aimed at any person suffering from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety/depression, autism etc...

These videos are very insightful. I'm positive you'll gain from them. They portray possible alternatives to the mental health system, shamanism, nutrition, psychotherapy, meditation and protest against draconian mental health legislation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h12_kRYITTA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0agtlyiNW4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRqN-X3an1Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gFB4wVPpAU&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=C27A8C0755C33527

I'm not sure if this stuff is real but it's really cool...and scary.

http://www.livevideo.com/liveshow/ExtraordinaryRendition/archive_729006.aspx

http://www.livevideo.com/liveshow/ExtraordinaryRendition/archive_728990.aspx

Someone left an excellent comment for one of them:
"Now you let the cat out of the bag.
Establishment Big Pharma has been feeding Big Brother this idea of feeding and bringing forth a submissive population. When the population at large have each a chronic body imbalance, they will not be at liberty to agitate for change. They will be complacent. Like drugged sheep and cattle. In other words, easy to handle. Now you start people thinking, That's dangerous."

"People are difficult to govern because they have to much knowledge."
(Lao-tzu)

When you think of it, there are a lot of strange people out there. What makes them their strangest, is the inability to fit into the conforms of society. 'Crazy' people don't want to admit that they're crazy. Well who wants to admit there is something wrong with them? Perhaps people being seen as unstable are just more sensitive to the tragities in life. They have a heightened sense of awareness. Reason can be very unreasonable. There's no right or wrong. You just have to follow your own intuition.
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-John Lennon

This is the story of John F. Nash Jr. and how he overcame schizophrenia without the use of debilitating medications.

"John's mental state was beginning to deteriorate. It is thought that his psychotic break occurred primarily from anxiety about his work and Alicia's pregnancy. His friends first noticed his odd behaviour when he arrived at a New Year's Eve party dressed as a baby and spent the entire evening curled up on Alicia's lap, sucking his thumb. In his game theory course, he appointed a graduate student to teach and disappeared for several weeks, suddenly appearing in the commons at MIT. There, he began exclaiming that aliens were sending him encrypted messages through the New York Times. He also interrupted a lecture to say that he was on the cover of LIFE magazine, disguised as the pope, and he knew this because twenty-three was his favorite prime number.
On the campus, he began noticing many people wearing red ties. He thought that the men were members of a secret communist organization and began watching them carefully. When the University of Chicago offered him a prestigious position in their faculty, John turned it down, saying that he was scheduled to become the emperor of Antarctica. He talked to his colleagues about extraterrestrial creatures and secret government agencies working to destroy his credibility and reputation, greatly disturbing them.
The math department chairman relieved John of his teaching responsibilities, thinking that he was having a nervous breakdown. Eventually, John was hospitalized at McLean private hospital near Boston. John was terrified of being locked up, thinking that he didn't belong there. He was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and given Thorazine to calm him down. His treatment there was psychoanalysis and his doctors referred to him as "Professor". After he was released, he resigned from MIT and withdrew his pension to move to Europe. In Europe, he made various attempts to renounce his citizenship in the United States and declare refugee status. Alicia followed him to Europe and had him deported back to the United States. Although he was flown back to the United States, he claimed that he had been put in chains and sent back in a ship, like a slave. Back in the US, John started hanging around at Princeton, talking about himself in the third person, writing bizarre postcards, and lecturing endlessly about numerology.
Alicia took up a job in Princeton and managed to support their family. She managed to convince the faculty at Princeton to give her husband small amounts of work in mathematics in an attempt to help him back into the society. However, he refused to sign W-4 forms saying that the government was conspiring against him. He continued to make pay phone calls to his family members using fictitious names.
In 1961, John was committed by Alicia and his sisters to Trenton State Hospital in New Jersey. There, he was subjected to insulin-coma therapy, which involved injecting the patient with large amounts of insulin to put them into a coma, often causing seizures. His colleagues in mathematics were outraged and wrote a letter to the hospital, urging the doctors to protect his mind for the good of humanity. He was discharged after six months of the insulin treatment and looked absolutely terrible to his family members.
His former colleagues at Princeton found him some research work and he published a paper on Fluid Dynamics, his first work in four years. He left for Europe again, sending bizarre postcards to his family with cryptic messages and mathematical theorems. He returned shortly afterward, looking rather haggard. In 1962 Alicia filed for a divorce and John moved in with Eleanor and his first son. She complained that he had deserted her without child support and resented her for committing him. His colleagues in Boston got him an apartment and arranged for him to meet with a psychiatrist, who prescribed anti psychotic drugs. He began to improve dramatically, beginning to look like the old Nash for the first time in years. He was much nicer and his egotistical nature had completely disappeared. He even began meeting with Eleanor and seeing his first son.
Less than a year after moving to Boston, he stopped taking his medicine, causing his symptoms to resurface. He said that he stopped taking the medication mainly because of his feeling of exhaustion and inability to concentrate on his work. This time, he heard voices along with his visual delusions. The voices constantly criticized his behavior and greatly deteriorated his mental condition.
In 1970, Alicia allowed John to move in with her and their son, promising to never commit him again to a hospital. She took him not only as a husband, but to prevent him from living on the streets as a homeless beggar. He began showing up on Princeton, writing mathematical formulas all over campus and developing a reputation as "The Phantom" due to his extreme introversion. Myths developed, with students telling each other that he had been driven to madness as a result of trying to solve an overly complex mathematical problem.
Over the next decade, he continued to wander the campus, working independently on mathematical problems. Some time in the 1980s, he finally overcame his mental illness learning to reject the voices that he heard in his head. His recovery was gradual, but allowed him to slowly become mentally fit, allowing him to regain a role in society. He said that his recovery was as a result of his decision to think rationally. Over time his idea of an equilibrium point in game theory had finally caught the proper attention and became a cornerstone of modern economics. Economists mostly used his ideas to attempt to predict occurrences in the world economy. Members of the Nobel committee finally decided to award Nash the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994, despite fears of him causing a major embarrassment. People were shocked that a man suffering from schizophrenia for so many years was able to recover and receive such a prestigious award.
Today, Nash serves in the department of mathematics at Princeton. He has since remarried Alicia and found that his own son also suffers from schizophrenia. He has also reconnected with his oldest son, John Stier. His life was immortalized in the film "A Beautiful Mind", with his character portrayed by Russell Crowe."
......................................................................................

"Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively”
-Voltaire
Most people aren't aware of it yet but psychiatry tends to over diagnose people, without mentioning what the real reason for their problems are in the first place. Society never takes the blame for screwing us up. The problem is always a personal one. This type of propaganda keeps us in line so we can still pay the bills and go to work, no matter how stressful and unrewarding life has become for us.
There are 4.5 million americans with depression. That's enough people to make a whole country in itself. The number of people taking anti depressants has doubled in only a decade. Something isn't right about this. It pains me to think of what might of happened to someone like Albert Einstein if he would have been treated for his eccentricities. Some say he had high functioning autism. His brain processed large amounts of information at once. But he had the logic to formulate his thoughts and establish a career. Einstein said that he would go away for weeks at a time in a state of confusion. The guy had to many ideas is all. He was busy all the time thinking and experimenting. If he would have been drugged for his condition I doubt he would be able to think as well. Instead of developing his theory of general relitivity and winning the nobel prize for physics, he might have just stayed at the patent office in Bern, Switzerland.
“As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.”
- Einstein
http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96mar/einstein.html <<<<< Einstine bio
You can always trust the information given to you by people who are crazy. They have an access to truth not available through regular channels.
- Sheila Ballantvne
Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.
-Norah Ephron
There are some that would never have made it where they are today if their disorder was treated early on in life. Your pain is your muse. And crazy people can be strangely admerable when they're in the publics eye. The media loves following them. Their condition made them famouse!

A few years ago I started reading activist journalism stuff like Adbusters. Then I learned about how to live off of wildlife. Hey I'm no nomad. But at least I try to live as naturally as possible. It's better then nothing. We live in an either/ or world. If you can't do one or the other, shoot for the middle I always say. I've taught my parents about this stuff and they're slowly changing their lifestyles for the better. Mom's growing her own garlic, because she's tierd of getting the stuff that's been shipped all the way from China. In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

I highly recomend the book Man And His Symbols by Carl G. Jung. His work was aimed at the public as a whole, rather then just phsyciatrists. His theory is that imagination must be taken more seriously, as one of the most distinctive characteristics in human beings. Some of his theories will blow your mind. They're such a different way at looking at things, but yet they make absoulutly perfect sense. "
“It is true however that in recent times civilized man has acquired a certain amount of will power, which he can apply where he pleases. He has learned to do this work efficiently without having recourse to chanting and drumming to hypnotize him into the state of doing. He can even dispense with a daily prayer for divine aid. He can carry out what he proposes to do, and he can apparently translate his ideas into action without a hitch, whereas the primitive seems to be hampered at each step by fears, superstitions, and other unseen obstacles to action. The motto “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” is the superstition of a modern man.
Yet in order to sustain his creed, contemporary man pays the price in a remarkable lack of introspection. He is blind to the fact that, with all his rationality and efficiency, he is possessed by “powers” that are beyond his control. His gods and demons have not disappeared at all; they have merely got new names. They keep him on the run with restlessness, vague apprehensions, psychological complications, an insatiable need for pills, alcohol, tobacco, food – and, above all, a large array of neuroses. “

The sad truth is that that man’s real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites – day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain. Life is a battleground. It always has been, and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.
It was precisely this conflict within man that led the early Christians to expect and hope for an early end to this world, or the Buddhists to reject all earthly desires and aspirations. These basic answers would be frankly suicidal if they were not linked up with peculiar mental and moral ideas and practices that constitute the bulk of both religions and that, to a certain extent, modify their radical denial of the world.

There is, however, a strong empirical reason why we should cultivate thoughts that can never be proved. It is that they are known to be useful. Man positively needs general ideas and convictions that will give a meaning to his life and enable him to find a place for himself in the universe. He can stand the most incredible hardships when he is convinced that they make sense; he is crushed when, on top of all his misfortunes, he has to admit that he is taking a part in a “tale told by an idiot”. -Jung
......................................................................................

I have a problem with trying to save people instead of focusing on myself. In, pop phsycology, they call this "wounded bird syndrome" I call it empathy. There's nothing wrong with wanting to help people. Society has been trained to be extremely competitve. But some people still have a nurturing insticnt to protect from harms way. We evolved helping eachother to brave the elements in order to survive. There's no better therapy, then talking to omeone who cares about you.

STRESS
Now that we have no need to hunt or gather, we find ourselves at a loss with each other. With no wild beasts left to conquer, man turns on his fellow creatures. Suppose this world is chaotic and stressful. It takes allot of consentration, focus and logic to succeed. People grow up away from home in organised learning institutions called schools, wich are governed a hell of allot like correctional facillities (prisons) both run by the government. In this stage of developement kids need all the experience they can get to develope a mind of their own for the upcoming "real world" they keep hearing about. But everything in the civilized world goes against their natural developement. Just when they get used to living in captivity, they must quickly learn to fend for themselves. We develope mental problems in our teens and twenties because of the overwhelming stress upon entering the real world. Every single person, I've met (or have seen in the media), with mental problems like manic depression/ anxiety, bipolar disorder and even skitsophrenia, all seem to have one thing in common. They are all highly intelligent. (As well as sensitive.) Every single one of them. A bad combination in these violent times. Perhaps the terror of knowing what's really going on drives us over the edge. Being aware of the truth can be a bitter pill to swallow. There are many ways to controll people in society and make them obedient. Some people just feel like they want to live life alive. If they feel trapped it drives them crazy. Science has proven that the instinct to escape repression is incoded in our DNA. As long as we're living creatures, we'll crave freedom. Like a bird in an open cage, No matter how long it's lived in captivity, it will try to fly free.
......................................................................................

When was the last time you sobbed? Bad things happen all the time. There are many reasons to cry these days. People get fired, divorced, die, and no news is good news. You should see people crying away their blues everywhere. But you don't. Especially men. In America, after the great war, emotions as well as any display of affection between men, were seen as being emasculate. In family photos predating the war, men could be seen leaning close together, without the bias of homosexuality. But in most other countries around the world, showing emotions isn't a sign of weakness. When we hold in our tears, the chemicals that make us emotional build up inside of us. They don't go away unless there's some sort of release. We can't get full control of ourselves untill these feelings are expressed.

Popular Medications Part 2

PART TWO


Dear Diary:
In my own experience, I'm only 22 and have experienced depression several times in my life. I had all the symptoms. Lack of interest in activities I usually enjoyed, fatigue, everything I tried to do seemed hopeless, trouble making decisions... when I was 12 I cried all the time. It was one of the hardest years in my life. when I was 18 I was bedridden because of it. When I went to my first therapist I was so depressed I could hardly get out a sentence. I badly wanted to jump off a bridge. He said I was socially inept and needed to get out more often. That screwed me up so bad. I thought he was a moron. My boyfriend went to see him before we met. He thought he was a moron too but that's a different story.I got over it for awhile but then again between 19 and 20 I slept all day and thought of suicide. I felt so worthless to people. I also developed an eating disorder. When I went to my doctor he said to get a therapist. I asked him about the drugs and he did for a while put off the suggestion. But I said I already ate healthy and exercised. So he offered the drugs. Going to therapy didn't help me at all. At times I felt my therapy was a freakin sales pitch from a drug dealer or something. Her first advice was "try the drugs. Allot of people take them. " "Buy this book it'll come in handy if you can afford it, it's $60. " I asked a psychologist about them and he didn't seem to know much about them. "Sometimes people get tics" he said. "Tics?" "Yes, small electric shocks that travel down to their hands. This is only after they've been on them for a while and stop taking them." He explained it was because of the brains reaction to having the electric impulses changed suddenly. It freaked me out. I didn't take them and went on with my depression. I slept for months.

Did any one ever think of WHY over 57.7 million Americans are suffering with mood disorders?
What was it like 220 years ago? Did they have children with such low self esteem issues?

What ever happened to the words...

*THEN/ NOW
sad /depressed
cloudy disposition/ clinically depressed
emotional/ bipolar
adventurous/ ADD
energetic/ ADHD
tired from work and life/ chronic fatigue
lively imagination/ delusional
temper tantrum/ mania
different/ disorder


TODAY
All too often people fight back tears when their going through allot of stress. People are often ashamed of their feelings and asked to put on a conservative smile for work because when you take time off when a family member dies you risk losing your job. In the past when children had to much energy they were told to go out and play. When you live in a city today it's to dangerous to go out alone and theirs nothing for kids to do but go to the mall. The mentality for children to be seen and not heard is still in play, and if kids have too much energy their dubbed hyper active and given Ritalin. This generation of youth has seen more violence and sex in the media then ever before in history. There is very little family time for these children anymore so they are left to process what it means alone. Adolescent violence and bullying is at a rise and schools have become dangerous. There is a lack of education about the real world we live in. People are misinformed. The environment is going extinct from pollution and urbanization. There are millions of homeless around the world and in our country and we're still told to buy SUVs and big screen LCD TVs with digital cable. There are There is allot of pressure on people to look perfect, have the perfect career of their choice, the big house, the nice car... America is a very competitive place where in the past neighbours and families helped out one another. Now it's every man for himself and if you aren't working on becoming something you're a loser.

And we wonder why we're so depressed?




But that is the American dream. Not the American reality. People don't question the media with critical thinking. You don't need to be a celebrity to be important. All of humanity is important and we all need to realize that.

Read to your kids and teach them about the world. Don't leave all the teaching up to the schools, day cares and television. Spend time with your family and get fresh air if you can. Go for a walk. Do activities together. Don't let technology be your only source of amusement. You'll get bored and depressed.

Popular Medications Part 1

PART ONE

If you suffer from depression, ADD or any of the common problems modern people face, please consider doing your own research about drugs and alternative therapies, before a doctor or pharmacist prescribes you something you know nothing about.

This is really disgusting ....

I watched a documentary last night called the medicated child. Before seeing it I wondered if I could handle it considering all the other terrible things I've learned about capitalism in the passing year. But curiosity got the best of me.

ADD, ADHD, Bipolar, Disorder, Manic, Depression, OCD and some extras Asthma, Diabetes and Childhood Obesity. some kids have these all at once and take a load of 'medication.'


Scientists say that the brain is a complex thing and the study of the human brain is in its infancy. That being said one should keep in mind that medications used to treat the above 'illnesses' are RARELY TESTED.

Can you believe that? It's mind boggling to think that the drug industry experiments on people like that. But what a stagering amount of money they make. They fund allot of things unfortuately. They have quaint little names like PAXIL,ZOLOFT,PROZAC,CELEXA ( I took that stuff for a short time.)EFFEXOR e.t.c.the list goes on.
amitriptylin
amoxapine
anafranil
asendin
desipramin
doexepin
elavil
imipramin
klomipramin
lofepramin
ludiomiln
maprotilin
matprotilin
norfranil
nortriptylin
pamelor
pertofranil
sarotem
sensaval
sinequant
surmontil
tofranil
trimipramine
tryptizol
tymelyt
vivacti

Drugs and drugs and drugs, oh my!

So many to choose from. Most people don't get to choose though.

Many doctors just write out a prescription and send you on your way. So do therapists. Did I mention they get money or kicks when they prescribe these things? Funded by the drug industry of course.

Some more information
http://www.upliftprogram.com/depression_stats.html
and
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/27/business/27DRUG.final.html?ei=5007&en=d74fd7b7eb933e39&ex=1403668800&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=all&position=
and
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/OtherSports/2007/11/02/4626501-cp.html

In the documentary "the medicated child" There was one kid that was on as much meds as an old lady. It started with one pill causing anxiety. So He had to take another pill to calm it. Then that one caused high blood pressure so he had to take another and another and so on. He ended up living off of eight pills. It reminds me of the old poem Their was an old lady who swallowed a fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Then she took a spider to eat the fly then a mouse to eat the spider and so on. The poem tragically ended in death.

His main problem was mood swings. He looked healthy as a child but as he grew older and higher dosages were required, he began to look very unhealthy. As much pills as he was on he was still irritable and having problems. ( nobodies perfect) He suffered from 'ticks' uncontrollable body movements. He couldn't stop rolling his neck. He looked like he had developed Turrets. His eyes looked tired like he hadn't slept right for months. He didn't look over weight but he was really bloated, especially around the neck. He was always drowsy and irritable and found it hard to get through school.

He finally went to a therapist who said she saw allot of kids come to her heavily medicated with the same amount of problems they had as before they were medicated. She personally believed allot of the children didn't really need the medication and were missed diagnosed.She tried alternative methods of therapy (in my opinion they should be the first in most cases) like Yoga, exercise group therapy etc. And wouldn't you know it the kid got happier.