Have a wonderful summer.
- Duane
June 23, 2009
Petition: “Free Our Health Care Now”
“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as the souls who live under tyranny.”
- Thomas Jefferson
Congressman Ron Paul on health care:
Notes from Discover and Recover:
Today, the AARP and President Obama announced that pharmaceutical companies will help those on Medicare (elderly and disabled), by reducing the costs of prescription drugs – easing the financial pain of the infamous “donut hole” faced by retirees and SSDI recipients.
This was an orchestrated, public relations move by Pharma – to appear to the American public as the “good guys” – willing to surrender some profit, as the details on a nationalized health care plan get ironed-out in the House and Senate….This move by Pharma was made to seal the deal on socialized medicine.
Specifically, Pharma promised to kick in ninety billion dollars over the course of the next ten years. This may seem awfully generous….Hardly. Once millions of people are placed on subsidized medicine, Pharma stands to profit considerably – with increased market share – and will likely get a ten-fold return on their investment.
President Obama continues to say that every American will have the choice to “keep their current plan.” Not true. Once employers are given the option, they will bail out of private care, leaving their employees with only one choice – government-run health care. This will take place, because the competition against private care will be subsidized – hardly a level playing field.
In the area of conventional psychiatry, this will lead to enormous profits for failed drugs, and rationed care for needed procedures outside of psychiatric medicine. Unless more doctors are immediately put into the system, seniors and the severely disabled will not have access to the level of care they need.
It poses a risk for those who have been diagnosed with “mental illness,” in terms of increased “mandatory outpatient treatment.” Will the federal government now introduce “standards of care” – to make sure the “mentally ill” receive “proper diagnosis and treatment” with psychotropics – as a payback to Pharma? With the history of psychiatric drug research, marketing, and FDA-approval, all bets are off with this partnership.
Pharma will be certain to get re-paid for their contribution to making the scheme successful. The FDA has approved numerous drugs for the “treatment” of “mental illness” – each of them dangerous. Ironically, only drugs are supposedly “safe and effective”….and, considered so-called “evidenced based” treatment. Due to the costs involved, which average almost a billion dollars for each “approval,” and the inability to place a patent on a naturally-occurring substance, supplement and herb manufacturers will be unable to compete against drugmakers if nationalized care requires mental health treatments to be FDA-approved.
So, it’s unlikely the federal government will coordinate treatment with a nutritional approach, and will be forced to use a “proven” method - mind-altering, brain-damaging, body-injuring, spirit-numbing drugs. Counseling and psychotherapy will hopefully be part of mix, but what about other methods – acupuncture, neurofeedback, etc? Will the partnership between the federal government and Pharma prevent these alternative treatments from being offered? It’s quite likely….Pharma has plenty of lobbying money, influence, political power, and a long track record of success on Capitol Hill.
This will leave the “mentally ill” in a tough spot. What would stop Pharma from turning to its partner – the federal government, to make sure patients are “compliant” with “treatment?” Stranger things are already happening at the state-level. What, if any, recourse will there be for civil and/or criminal lawsuits – for injury and death, if the government is making health care decisions. Afterall, the federal government has to “agree” to be sued.
What will happen with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine? Will the feds determine that it is simply “pseudoscience,” as the push to partner with Pharma continues? Will alternative medicine go by the wayside, with government-run medicine?
We now have hundreds of people being awarded either SSI or SSDI based upon a “mental illness” – both adults, and children – every day. These numbers are staggering, and did not exist prior to psychiatry’s involvement in launching newer, “atypical antipsychotic drugs” into the marketplace.
These drugs will have increased use in a socialized medicine system – leading to more dependence – on psychiatric drugs, and the federal government for payment. There will be more people on disability – unable to work due to the brain-injuring properties of these psychiatric “medications.” More people will become dependent on a broken mental health system, and drugs that do more harm than good.
Without question, there needs to be reform in our health care system - portability, coverage of pre-existing conditions, catastrophic care….But, this is being fast-tracked. The majority party has yet to take time to hear from those involved in alternative and complementary care. What about co-ops, more non-profit involvement - more choice, more freedom? Where is the dialogue? Where are the voices of dissent?
The Mothers Act was passed in the House recently – with zero votes from the majority party against it – in spite of the danger it poses – to babies, mothers, and freedom. Will government-run health care receive the same lock-step approval?
Our economy is now at almost ten percent unemployment, and the federal government has committed itself to spend nine trillion dollars over the next ten years for bailouts, and earmarks. We do not need to spend trillions of dollars for a nationalized plan that will only increase our debt, and add profits to Pharma - an industry that continues to push dangerous psychiatric drugs on consumers.
We need to make health care affordable, and assure Americans keep the right to manage their own health - with alternative means, if they choose – especially for those who have been diagnosed with “mental illness.”
President Obama promised not to raise taxes on middle-income Americans. If this plan goes forward, he will be forced to. After all the recent wreckless spending, we do not have the resources for a nationalized health care plan, without printing more money – lessening its value in the world market.
There are countless ways to make sure Americans have access to good medical care without socialized medicine – including using more alternative forms of treatment! We need the opportunity to have a dialogue – to hear the ideas of many – not a few. We need ingenuity, commitment, a willingness to get this done in a way that helps people – not one that crushes our economy, and leaves Americans dependent on rationed care from an ineffective, bureaucratic system.
We do not need socialized medicine in this country.
Let’s stop this!….Please read and sign the petition below:
[Photo]
June 17, 2009
Peter Breggin, MD: Psychiatrist and Patriot
In several weekly radio reports, Dr. Peter Breggin discusses his appreciation for American values – freedom, and personal responsibility….
In this particular broadcast, he takes on universal healthcare – with no holds barred….
From Psychiatric Drug Facts:
Ten Tragic Consequences of Universal Healthcare
Peter R. Breggin, M.D.“Live Like an American!” Radio Report No. 16 on the Savage Nation
May 11, 2009Audio available on www.breggin.com
This report may be circulated provided
the author and the source are identified.
Not an exact transcript.This is Dr. Peter R. Breggin. I am a psychiatrist and I want to help you to “Live Like an American!” Today’s subject: Ten Tragic Consequences of Socialized Medicine With the looming probability of a national healthcare system in the USA, no one seems to be looking at the most threatening and even tragic unintended consequences for our society and morality. Inevitably, universal healthcare will lead to bloated, unsustainable expenses. This will be followed by rigorous attempts at cost cutting. The cost cutting will be driven by progressive values. Progressives will have created the system and they will be deeply embedded in its bureaucracy. The first six inevitable consequences deal with cutting costs by suppressing or destroying human life: First, we’ll have increased birth control and slower population growth. Why an inevitability? Because in itself birth control is a strong progressive value and because preventing birth is the cheapest way to curtail the cost of pregnancy and child healthcare under universal healthcare. In Europe this has led to zero and to negative population growth with dire social and economic consequences. Much worse, an eventual resumption of involuntary sterilization is a real possibility. In the 20th century, the same people who pushed birth control successfully promoted involuntary sterilization, which was inflicted on tens of thousands of inmates of state institutions in California, Virginia and elsewhere. Second, abortion rates will rise. Again this is inevitable because abortion is already a progressive program and because next to birth control abortion is the most efficient way of eliminating the costs of pregnancy, delivery, and infant and child healthcare.
Third, euthanasia for medically expensive children will gain in popularity, especially those children who have limited potential to recover and to contribute to society. This will take two forms: passive euthanasia by withholding treatment and active euthanasia in the form of hurrying death.
Fourth, we’ll see the promotion of euthanasia for three other vulnerable groups: the chronically ill, the dying, and the elderly. They draw very heavily on healthcare resources as individual often incur their greatest medical expenses with severe chronic disorders or toward the end of their lives.
Fifth, patients will be pushed out of hospitals into homecare, hospice care, and custodial nursing homes. This will be done under the guise of utilizing more “humane” or even “caring” or “advanced” alternatives to hospital treatment. But in reality it will reduce costs by eliminating more costly care and by shortening lives.
Sixth, assisted suicide, already a progressive agenda item, will be pushed for depressed and suicidal people, pain management patients, and the chronically ill. Once again, cost cutting will masquerade as kindness.
The seventh through the tenth consequences are more general but also tragic.
Seventh, psychiatry will demand increased use of involuntary drug treatment. In the past people had to be committed to mental hospitals to force treatment on them, but laws in many states now permit involuntary outpatient commitment. Health practitioners invade the home to hold down helpless patients to inject them with mind-numbing toxic drugs against their will. This is far cheaper and more efficient than locking up the same patients in state in mental hospitals, or providing other genuinely helpful forms of rehabilitation or therapy.
Eighth, there will be the expected general rationing of healthcare. Rationing impacts on everyone, including the chronically or terminally ill, and the elderly. Even acutely ill patients with life-threatening illnesses will be affected. That’s why Canadians stream into the US to avoid waiting lines for treatments including lifesaving cardiac surgery. Ninth, medical innovation and medical investment will decline, and fewer physicians will bring vigor and intelligence to their work. Without our profit-driven system leading the way, new developments in healthcare will decline for everyone in the world. Tenth, socialized medicine will lead to the legalization of drugs like marijuana and heroin. There will be two purposes: first, to reduce the cost of the war on drugs, and second to provide a huge new source of tax revenue, similar to the tax on cigarettes, to support the bloated cost of healthcare.
I believe these are inevitable outcomes of universal or socialized medical care. Only the degree or extent is uncertain. Most if not all are already happening in Europe and to some extent in our more progressive states. But even in Europe these consequences have not yet come close to reaching their most tragic proportions. That is partly because the West still remembers the mass sterilizations in the US and Europe that spanned several decades of the 20th Century. Closely related were the euthanasia programs—the mass murders of state hospital patients and the chronically physically ill—that set the stage for the holocaust in Nazi Germany. Most importantly, the USA has thus far held back on fully socializing its medical care, thus continuing to provide the world with advances in medicine and moral restraints against the European Culture of Death. Americans must act now to stop the headlong rush toward socialized medicine. First, we must make every effort to maintain our healthcare system on a free enterprise footing. Second, we must re-emphasize basic American values of individual freedom and treasuring each and every human life.
Individual freedom of choice is written into all our founding documents, into our history, and into our hearts. Less tangible perhaps is respect for life itself—a treasuring of every individual human life, regardless of practical considerations like financial cost. This is written more into our Judeo-Christian ethics than into our political system. Once we start to weigh the worth of a life versus the cost of its healthcare or even its existence—we unleash dreadful moral consequences on our society and on ourselves as individuals.
And that brings us once again to the refrain of my weekly report, the Primary Principles:
Protect freedom
Take responsibility at all times
Express gratitude for all your gifts and opportunities
Become a source of loveThis is Dr. Peter Breggin urging you to “Live Like an American!”
The remainder of the Weekly Radio Reports from Dr. Peter Breggin
[Photo]
May 28, 2009
A Great Loss to the World: Doctor Abram Hoffer, Passes Away at Age 91
Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD
From the Times Colonist:
Controversial Victoria psychiatrist Abram Hoffer dies at age 91
The following is an obituary sent by Abram Hoffer’s son John Hoffer:
Abram Hoffer died in Victoria on Wednesday, May 27 after a brief illness and a long, healthy, productive and brilliant life.
Born November 11, 1917 on a farm in Hoffer, Saskatchewan, Abram Hoffer attended a one-room schoolhouse and studied on horseback, eventually graduating from the University of Saskatchewan (BSA, MSA), the University of Minnesota (PhD in nutrition) and the University of Toronto (MD). He specialized in psychiatry and was, for many years, director of psychiatric research for the Saskatchewan Department of Public Health and associate professor of medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. In these capacities he carried out groundbreaking research in several areas, ultimately authoring more than 500 peer-reviewed and popular articles and more than 30 academic monographs and popular books….
Notes from Discover and Recover:
Visit the International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine.
Related Posts:
Abram Hoffer, MD: ‘Nutritional Approaches to Mental Illness’
“Schizophrenia”: Dr Abram Hoffer
Dr. Abram Hoffer and Margot Kidder: ‘Masks of Madness: Science of Healing’
“Schizophrenia”: Abram Hoffer, MD and Vitamin B-3 (Niacin)
Orthomolecular Vitamin Information Centre: Finding the “Right Molecule”
Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD: Nutrition and Sobriety
Warning:
Withdrawal from psychiatric medication can be very dangerous.
See the ‘Warning’ page of this blog.
Alternatives to Psychiatry:
There is a better way than psychiatric drugs. In fact, there are many better ways. Visit the ‘Where to Begin’ page of this blog.
May 27, 2009
George Strait: CMA Artist of the Decade
George Strait was awarded Artist of the Decade tonight, by the Country Music Academy (CMA).
He makes history – with 57 number-one hits….more than any artist, of any music genre.
George Strait – Up Close
Visit the Official Website of George Strait.
YouTube Source: George Strait
May 27, 2009
Toby Keith: ‘Love Me If You Can’
I’m a man of my convictions
Call me wrong, call me right
But I bring my better angels to every fight
You may not like where I’m going
But you sure know where I stand
Hate me if you want to, love me if you can
- Toby Keith
Songwriters: Chris Allen, Craig Wiseman
May 27, 2009
Austin Wellness Clinic: 7 Steps to Better Mental Health
Visit the Austin Wellness Clinic.
YouTube Source: PsycheTruth
Notes from Discover and Recover:
Before you consider taking psychotropics, even for the “short-term,” read this:
Warning:
Withdrawal from psychiatric medication can be very dangerous.
See the ‘Warning’ page of this blog.
Alternatives to Psychiatry:
There is a better way than psychiatric drugs. In fact, there are many better ways. Visit the ‘Where to Begin’ page of this blog.
No organization promotes the use of psychotropics more than the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
May 27, 2009
Chair T’ai Chi: ‘Breathe Better and Energize with Arm Swings’
From Chair T’ai Chi:
Backward Arm Swings, Version 2:
Benefits - Use this exercise every day for more healthful breathing, increased energy, to uplift your spirits, and to improve your overall health.
Posture – Sit with your feet flat on the floor, legs shoulder-width apart as usual. Tuck your hips under you so that your back is supported by the back of your shoulder. Don’t roll your shoulders forward this time.
….Learn the rest, and practice in the comfort of your own home.
[Photo]
May 26, 2009
FDA: To Receive More Money from Pharma
An E-Alert from the American Association for Health Freedom:
May 26, 2009
FDA to Receive More Money from Drug Manufacturers, But Denies “Undue Influence”
The proposed budget of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is worrying the Democrats. They are concerned that FDA’s annual increases in industry user fees—$828 million from manufacturers of medical and food products, including hundreds of millions drug manufacturers pay annually to help speed the review of new medicines—might compromise the agency’s independence. For fiscal year 2010, FDA is requesting a budget of $3.2 billion. The acting head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Joshua Sharfstein, defended the agency’s request for more funding from drug companies: “I understand the concern that people . . . have expressed that user fees create a perception or a conflict of the agency’s work. I think these concerns reflect a broader lack of trust in the FDA.”
To alleviate unease, he said, the new FDA head, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, must “renew the public’s confidence by acting with integrity and transparency” and send “the signal inside and outside the agency that we will make decisions based on the best available scientific evidence and not on influence that’s inappropriate.”
The budget plan also seeks new fees to help clear a backlog of generic drug applications, and to reinspect food and medical product plants that fail to meet FDA standards.
Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey said the growing percentage of fees from drugmakers “is something of great concern for a number of people on this committee.” AAHF agrees. We believe it is time to reform the Food and Drug Administration from the ground up. If you have not done so already, please go to ReformFDA.org and sign our petition, which will be delivered to Congress.
Sign up for free E-Alerts from the American Association for Health Freedom.
May 26, 2009
Ron Unger, LCSW: Therapist’s Guide to Reducing Medications
Ron Unger, LCSW is a therapist, and author of the website, Recovery from “schizophrenia” and other “psychotic disorders.”
He’s put together some information for therapists – to help their clients who want to reduce psychiatric drug dependency….
From the website of Ron Unger, LCSW:
Helping Reduce Medications
In many people’s recovery, the time comes when they want to try reducing, or entirely getting off, psychiatric medications. Unfortunately, people too often find they must take this step without any assistance, even though competent assistance from a therapist who understands the issues might reduce the risk that something will go wrong.
I wrote the following guide to help therapists who may be interested in helping clients reduce or get off medications (and to do so without in any way crossing professional boundaries or appear to be “practicing medicine.”) Or, you might want to give a copy of this guide to your therapist, if you are wanting to work toward some reductions but your therapist is unsure of how to assist you in this!
Notes from Discover and Recover:
A Must-Read for Parents:
Warning:
Withdrawal from psychiatric medication can be very dangerous.
See the ‘Warning’ page of this blog.
Alternatives to Psychiatry:
There is a better way than psychiatric drugs. In fact, there are many better ways. Visit the ‘Where to Begin’ page of this blog.
No organization promotes the use of psychotropics more than the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
[Photo]
May 25, 2009
Constitutional Rights: Upheld for Mental Patients in Alaska
Jim Gottstein, President, CEO – Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
A landmark decision was made by the Alaska Supreme Court – upholding Constitutional rights for people diagnosed with “mental illness.”
This decision did not come about by a sudden awakening of the Alaska Justices involved. It was due to the dedication and the unrelenting work of Attorney, Jim Gottstein – who has been a champion for civil rights.
Thank you, Mr. Gottstein!
From PsychRights:
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22 2009CONTACT:
Jim Gottstein
907-274-7686
jim.gottstein@psychrights. orgAlaska Supreme Court Grants Mental Patients Constitutional Rights
In an important decision issued today, William S. Bigley v. Alaska Psychiatric Institute, the Alaska Supreme Court significantly advanced psychiatric patients’ constitutional due process rights when the state seeks to force them to take psychiatric drugs against their will.
“One of the things they held,” said Jim Gottstein, President and CEO of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights) and the attorney who handled the case, “is that if the State is holding someone in a psychiatric facility, they must provide a feasible alternative to the forced drugging if the alternative satisfies the State’s asserted justification. The State’s only other option is to let the person go.”
The Court also held that in order to allow the person a realistic opportunity to prepare a defense, when filing a forced drugging petition, the State must provide a written statement of the facts underlying the petition, including the reasons for the forced drugging, information about the patient’s symptoms and diagnosis; the medication to be used; the method of administration; the likely dosage; possible side effects, risks and expected benefits; and the risks and benefits of alternative treatments and nontreatment. “This is very important,” Mr. Gottstein said, “because up until now, they just checked a box that said the person was incompetent to decline and the facility wants to drug the person. Then the State comes in with a witness who testifies untruthfully and there is no way to have been prepared to rebut it.”
Equally important, the Court ruled the person’s lawyer must be given access to the person’s medical and psychiatric records in advance of the hearing and adequate preparation time. ”The problem is judges have been misled for years that these drugs increase safety and are beneficial to patients,” according to Mr. Gottstein, “The truth is they decrease safety, are ineffective for most, are physically very harmful, and prevent many people from recovering. The evidence on this is clear, but the way these cases have been rushed through without allowing adequate time for a defense, these facts have not normally been revealed to the judges.”
James B. (Jim) Gottstein, Esq.
President/CEO PsychRights®
Law Project for
Psychiatric RightsThe Law Project for Psychiatric Rights is a public interest law firm devoted to the defense of people facing the horrors of forced psychiatric drugging. We are further dedicated to exposing the truth about these drugs and the courts being misled into ordering people to be drugged and subjected to other brain and body damaging interventions against their will. Extensive information about this is available on our web site. Please donate generously. Our work is fueled with your IRS 501(c) tax deductible donations. Thank you for your ongoing help and support.
Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
406 G Street, Suite 206
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
USA
Phone: (907) 274-7686) Fax: (907) 274-9493
jim.gottstein[[at]]psychrights.org
http://psychrights.org/
May 25, 2009
Civil Immigration Law Violation: Detainment of the “Mentally Ill”
According to a recent report, Alvarado Parkway Institute (API), a private psychiatric hospital, serves as a immigration detainment facility for the federal government. APA is not alone. This is a scheme that involves a network of “private hospitals”….
Apparently, violation of civil immigration law, coupled with the diagnosis of having a “mental illness,” results in detainment that would be considered “cruel and unusual punishment” in a prison system.
This form of incarceration is reserved for psychiatry – where inhumane treatment is commonplace - deemed “therapeutic”….
From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Mentally ill detainees’ treatment at hospital worries advocatesBy Greg MoranUnion-Tribune Staff WriterMay 18, 2009
Federal immigration officials send mentally ill detainees to a private psychiatric hospital in La Mesa, where they are shackled to beds 24 hours a day, prohibited from watching television or using the telephone, and cut off from family.
Disability-rights lawyers and advocates for the mentally ill say the conditions at Alvarado Parkway Institute in La Mesa violate state and federal laws governing treatment of mentally ill people.
They also say the hospital, known as API, is one of a little-known network of private hospitals that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to hold severely mentally ill detainees around the country, often out of reach of lawyers and even their families….
Notes from Discover and Recover:
For investigations into this form of detainment, contact:
For legislation to address this scheme:
Links on Freedom and Legal Rights:
AAHF Blog – Health Freedom Issues American Association for Health Freedom American Bar Association Americans with Disabilities Act Citizens for Health Constitution of the United States Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 Freedom Center Health Freedom Action Center Health Freedom USA Law Project for Psychiatric Rights MindFreedom International National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy National Coalition of MH Consumer/Survivor Orgs National Council on Disability National Empowerment Center National Health Federation National Resource Center on Psychiatric Advance Directives Pre-Paid Legal Services School Rights State Attorneys General U.S. Department of Justice (and U.S. Attorney General) World Network of Users and Consumers of Psychiatry
[Photo]
May 25, 2009
Sleep: Melatonin Found to be Beneficial in Study
From Vitasearch:
| Summary# | 47203 |
| Topic: | Melatonin May Improve Sleep in Persons with Intellectual Disabilities |
| Keywords: | SLEEPING DISORDER, INSOMNIA, SLEEP – Melatonin |
| Reference: | “Exogenous melatonin for sleep problems in individuals with intellectual disability: a meta-analysis,” Braam W, Smits MG, et al, Dev Med Child Neurol, 2009; 51(5): 340-9. (Address: Dr. Wiebe Braam, ’s Heeren Loo Zuid, PO BOX 75, 6710 BB Ede, the Netherlands. E-mail: Wiebe.Braam@sheerenloo.nl ). |
For more information on nutrition and integrative medicine, visit Vitasearch.
May 25, 2009
Robert Whitaker: ‘The Scientific Literature for Antipsychotic Drugs’
Robert Whitaker, Author – Mad in America
You may have read that the newer antipsychotic drugs are much safer, and more effective than the older ones….
You may have been told that finding just the right “medication,” can help address a “chemical imbalance” – for conditions such as “schizophrenia”….
Before you take any of this information at face-value, spend some time looking at the facts – the scientific literature:
May 25, 2009
Japan: Takes Action Against Dangers of Antidepressants
Tokyo, Japan
The dangers of antidepressants are beginning to gain the attention they deserve – worldwide attention….
From the Alliance for Human Research Protection:
Japan Revises SSRI Warnings – Hostility, Violence
Vera Sharav
May 22, 2009
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has investigated news reports about antidepressant users “who developed increased feelings of hostility or anxiety, and have even committed sudden acts of violence against others.” In Japan reports of violence linked to SSRI antidepressants have raised public awareness to the danger these drugs can pose….
Notes from Discover and Recover:
A Must-Read for Parents:
Warning:
Withdrawal from psychiatric medication can be very dangerous.
See the ‘Warning’ page of this blog.
Alternatives to Psychiatry:
There is a better way than psychiatric drugs. In fact, there are many better ways. Visit the ‘Where to Begin’ page of this blog.
No organization promotes the use of psychotropics more than the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
[Photo]
