My only addition to this article is to answer this question “How safe are Psychiatric Medications?” with a resounding, “Not safe at all!” And then to ask the even more important question that the USA FDA doesn’t ever ask: How Effective are Psychiatric Drugs? That should be the fundamental question but I don’t think anyone dares ask it let alone answer it honestly, not at least someone without a large stake in the answer.
I challenge anyone to ask and answer that question next: How EFFECTIVE are our psychiatric medications? It would I think be extraordinarily difficult at this point, at least in this country, even to think about such a question, so set are we in our thinking about such things that we cannot even begin to consider the notion that perhaps these drugs were NEVER effective ever, or no more effective than just placebos all along. It would take extraordinary courage to acknowledge that it was always the doctor/patient interaction that mattered more than anything, this and the natural history of each mental or emotional disturbance,..In fact, I have yet to meet any single person who would consider this to be a possibility…But oh how refreshing it would be were that person to step forward!
Anyhow, this reblog is very interesting indeed, and as good a place to start as any in a reconsideration of how safe such meds really are.
The American Recall Center/Personal Experience
by – Sheri de Grom
Far Too Many Pills – Photo Courtesy of Death to the Stock Photo
Each day begins with my swallowing a handful of pills and injecting a shot. Each medication has more side effects than I care to think about. Four of the pills I swallow in the a.m. are for panic attacks resulting from a nasty case of PTSD. I’ve worked hard in therapy and thought I had managed to put everything in a pretty box and handed it to God. The move to DC I’ve talked about a lot brought on other events leading to more severe panic attacks. After my second brain injury, I was diagnosed with Narcolepsy and here came another pill and more panic. I suddenly found myself in one dangerous situation after another and I had no idea when my body would betray me and…
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WAGblog: Dum Spiro Spero 
I posted this as a comment on Sheri’s blog but I wanted to post it here too.
Medications only buy the insurance companies assurance that patients will NEVER reach stability in terms of emotional health and the ability to cope with life’s vicissitudes and natural changes…That is what meds do by their very nature. Psychotropic medications are not intended for true mental health and well-being but to deliberately induce chronic illness and disability and patient-hood in millions or people who will finally have been hoodwinked into believing they have a permanent and disabling “mental illness” that can only be “treated” never cured. Bullshit, I say. The emperor has no clothes!
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I have quit taking drugs. These substances should not even be called medications when they hurt people as much as they hurt me. The years I spent on the drugs were the most frightening and humiliating time of my life. Until these drugs become a whole lot safer, I’m going to do anything I can do avoid consuming them.
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Thank you for passing along my blog. I honestly believe the most important component of mental health care is a dedicated provider plus an advocate that’s willing to go the extra 150 miles required.
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WOW, you guys ROCK! I want you on my team, right now, right here. Will ya? No more doctors, just bloggers!!! Thanks, both you guys! You are amazing. I mean it.
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I’d have to guess that medication for mental and emotional issues indicates victory on the part of the “Nature” (over Nurture) crowd, which suggests a denial of the power of human interactions to cause our problems. Which, ironically, goes to a denial of science, because the “Nature” argument is based in the idea that we are what we are, because we’re “just born that way,” which comes from “the way God made us” kind of thinking.
Medicating is an attempt to modify our “Natures,” and as such, although it sounds like biochemistry, which sounds like science, it still adds up to denial that what what happens with our minds and our lives is mostly what we are doing to each other in the here and now, meaning it still adds up to us not taking responsibility for ourselves and our actions, as though there were some other agency to blame.
So, “sciencey” as it appears, I kind of see it as psychology avoidance, and therefore really “thought avoidance.” Nature over Nurture crap – which again, indicates the presence of religion ultimately, not human science.
– hey! That might be some ‘outside-of-the-box’ thinking that deserves it’s own thread some day . . .
when I say “responsibility for ourselves and our actions,” I want to be clear, I don’t mean us, the patients, I mean human beings. I mean our parents and caregivers, I mean each other. I’m trying to talk about the human reasons for many psychiatric problems, abuse and such.
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You are so right Pam, safe aint enough to ponder, how effective is the keynote. Hellas, as you challenge, who can be that courageous up there? We r down here and by doing our nagging bits, we’ll someday get the kankerworm burst!
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