The Truth About Psychiatry

Janna

New Member
Hopefully this works. I think sometimes we all need to be reminded that psychiatrists take guesses just like we do, and there is no "cure", and maybe we, as parents, need to have more patience, too. I know I could have used this reminder years ago when I was expecting our first psychiatrist to have the magic "pill" that was going to make Dylan listen, be good, behave, and be calm.

http://www.cchr.org/videos/psychiatry-an-industry-of-death-1.html
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
OH MY GOSH....I think my son is a psychiatrist. He's been saying everything they just said for years! He refuses to take his medications, he clams up in therapy, and says it's all a bunch of crapola.

BUT.....nonetheless

VERY interesting. They guys that laughed don't need to be treating anyone.

This affirms my belief in CBT. Congnitive Behavior Therapy. No drugs, and YOU actually cure yourself by talking through your problems with guided suggestions from a trained professional. IT takes years, but mental illness untreated lasts a lifetime.

Thanks and I'm checking out the cchh.
 

smallworld

Moderator
In the interest of full disclosure, this video was produced by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology.

Here's a link to some background information on this organization:

http://www.cchr.org/
 

Janna

New Member
I found it interesting, too, Star. Not to bring up fires and big debates ~ wasn't why I put it here.

I just happen to notice on this board alot lately that people blame the psychiatrists for things that the psychiatrists have no control over, i.e. giving the medication that doesn't work, or diagnosis'ing wrong. As you can clearly see, everything is pretty much a guess from a bunch of psychiatrists out of a book.

In my own case, I do see some mania in Dylan, and I do see some quirks from the Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), but it wouldn't surprise me in 5 years if the Bipolar diagnosis disappeared and he turned out to be solely Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) or vice versa.

Our psychiatrist, who I love, isn't sure. The kid is 10. He's trying with the medications. Some work, some don't.

Don't expect miracles. They don't happen.

And no, there is no "test".

I'm off to bed lol.

(All those docs were laughing, Star ~ eek)
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
In our case, we blame the psychiatrist for over medicated and not trying anything different. The 2nd psychiatrist I blame for just being a total arse. Funny, if I had seen this before I had seen him, I would have asked him how many patients he's cured.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Good point Janna. That's why I stress 2nd opinions if you don't like the results you're getting.

Psychiatry is still very much in it's infancy. Lord only knows what new discoveries are down the road. And just as with anything else, some docs are just better at it than others.

Heck, I've run across bad docs in many fields, not just psychiatrists by far.
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
The intent of that little film is to discredit the field of psychiatry. There are physical health conditions, also, for which there are no definitive tests for; they are diagnosed by ruling out things which they can test for.

I think most of the complaints about psychiatrists are re: the unwillingness to listen to the parents.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Psychiatry has changed considerably since L. Ron Hubbard's days. mother in law is very scathing about psychiatry because back when she was a nurse, it was even more inexact than it is now. It is far more precise these days, has far more cohesion in terms of the same or similar diagnostic standards applying regardless of where you are or who you see; it still is far from anything as specific as a blood test to determine if you are anaemic, or have recently had glandular fever. But there is a value in GOOD psychiatry, and a need for it. We still shouldn't expect too much in terms of fine detail and precision, but there have been times I've been very glad there are good psychiatrists out there, doing what they do so well. I'm also very glad that they HAVE developed psychiatry much further, as a field, away from Freudianism and towards more relevant and appropriate management of people who need their services.

In the past a lot of psychiatry was simply observation of a few unfortunate individuals, from a very subjective point of view. Now there is much more emphasis on actually doing something to help people, even as far as preventing major problems by alerting families to warning signs of depression, for example.

In the car yesterday mother in law & I were listening on the radio to a psychiatrist I've worked with, talking about problems of suicidal depression especially in men. mother in law initially commented, "I wish they wouldn't talk about this, it is likely to encourage people to attempt suicide."
I pointed out that far from encouraging suicide, talking about it (especially in the way this professor was doing) actually allows the people concerned to raise the topic and talk about it, instead of feeling like they have to lock away those feelings because they are so taboo. There were no sad stories, no sense of shame surrounding the various histories of people who rang up to talk about their experiences, only a sense of relief that the topic was out in the open.
A lot of good strategies were discussed as well as some myths dispelled. This is modern psychiatry working positively, I feel. When they are actively working to support people BEFORE they become disaster cases, this is healthy, preventive medicine. It's good to see psychiatry having a go at this too.

We know it's still inexact. We know there is still a fair bit of guesswork - but there is less guesswork than there used to be.

mother in law was impressed at what she heard, she is slowly realising that the field of psychiatry she knew compared to how it's practiced today is like comparing the pre-anaesthetic, pre-antiseptic amputations to modern surgery with all its cleanliness and facilities.

Let's hope the improvement continues - we do know it's needed.

Marg
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
The Church of Scientology (like Tom Cruise) doesn't believe in mental illness and, even if the article makes some points that are pretty obvious, I understand their agenda. John Travalta is another Scientologist. His son Jett has autism, but he refuses to call it that or treat it (read an article on this). I think that's insane. Psychiatry is still a flawed science and there are many mistakes, but some people need medication to live normal lives. I'm one of them. So I take this article with a grain of salt, considering the source. That doesn't mean some things aren't true, but if our kids need help, in my opinion, we have to try and often that includes medications so that they can actually function. If our kids had diabetes, we wouldn't withhold the insulin.
 

WhymeMom?

No real answers to life..
Where's Tom Cruise? He knows psychiatry..........


Many times I thought it was a guessing game, what to diagnose, what medication to give.....but for those who find medications that work its hard to deny them something that would help lead a more "normal" life......
 

LittleDudesMom

Well-Known Member
MWM, I think the point of the "film" was that diabetes has a blood test, mental disorders don't. It is their way of proving it does not exist because it cannot be proved or cured.


You always have to consider the "source" when professionals give their opinions!

Those of us on this site know that mental illness is real and know that sometimes medications make all the difference. The study of the brain is really in it's infancy, especially in this country. There are no absolutes, that's for absolutely sure!

Sharon
 

Janna

New Member
I don't think part of the point was to show mental illness doesn't exist.

I didn't see that at all.

I think there were several points, depending on how you look at it. If you go in with guns blazing assuming this is some Tom Cruise type stint, well, it's not even worth looking at it for you.

What I got out of this is that psychiatry is a guessing game. And it is. There are no tests to prove my son is Bipolar or Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) or ADHD or anything else. And there's no cure. They ask, "have you cured any of your patients". Well, of course not. Where's the cure for Bipolar? Autism? Schizophrenia? Where's the cures for the cutters, the burners? The suicidal ones? There's no cure. Get it? NO cure. No test.

And not always are drugs the answer. My son has had, now 24 drug trials. What's it done? Not much, and some have made things much worse.

There's many sides to psychiatry. Conduct Disorders.com is not the only side.
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
Janna,

I watched the video before reading the other posts and discovering where it came from and I took from it that they are trying to discredit the field of psychiatry. Anytime only one side of the argument is presented that is what's being done. And by one sided I mean asking loaded questions such as, "How many people have you cured?", knowing what the answer will be and putting up the risks of psychiatric medications, but not the benefits for those who need them. Why didn't they ask how many people the psychiatrists had helped? Why didn't they ask how many people are now leading productive lives because of psychiatry and psychiatric medications? Why didn't they post how much untreated mental illness costs Americans every year?

I wasn't aware the ConductDisorders.com had a side in this argument. This board is made up of many people with many opinions.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
I'm With Wyntersgrace. I wondered why they were so adamant about discrediting the profession.

I'm also with Star, to a point. CBT is the way to go. Sometimes medications can help you to face up to your roadblocks that keep you from facing your problems in CBT. But even CBT won't work for someone who doesn't take an active role in and have a strong desire to change.

And I stand on my own as well in that if a person is trying and making improvements, more power to them. If that means CBT great. If it means medications every day for the rest of your life, that's great too.

Life is too darned short to be miserable every day.
 
It is true that there are no "cures"... yet. by the way, my Mom who has Diabetes , has been wanting a cure too, but she hasn't stopped taking her insulin..

Just tell a schizophrenic who has never had any normalcy in their life, who takes Clozaril and suddenly has a life..... that Psychiatry is not real or valid. I don't believe that they would be agreeing with that !
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
I watched the clip and didn't have a big problem with it either way. I chuckled at some of their comments. They polled psychiatrists coming and going from a psychiatric convention so I don't see anything wrong with it. Someone can do the same poll and edit it to show other responses, it wouldn't bother me.

I think that I am intelligent enough to make my own judgement and certainly wouldn't take someone's comment coming out of a convention as the only truth. I laughed because we began asking our therapists after many unsuccessful attempts what they were going to do to help our difficult child and they couldn't even answer that question. Yet we continued to go and get whatever help they could offer. At one point my husband asked our psychiatrist how many children actually got cured and he laughed too, we all did. We all knew you don't speak in terms of cured.

The wonderful thing about our country is that there are all sorts of expressions of speech and all speech serves a purpose. People make their own opinions and assumptions and I actually was interested in what they had to say.

Nancy
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
If this wasn't the Church of Scientology, I'd look at it more closely. They have been trying to discredit psychiatry (with fervor) for a long time. I'm really glad psychiatry exists, even if it's in it's infancy and flawed, and it's both of those things. I'm glad the Scientologists haven't been able to stop research. Just because you can't "prove" something, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Multiple Sclerosis has no test; it can't be proved. Does it not exist? I just don't buy it. People like me would have spent our lives in institutions in the 1950's. I'll take the medications, which have not harmed me, in fact have helped me. Peter Breggin, a Scientologist and Psychiatrist, does talk shows about the harm of Prozac and Ritalin and all medications. I think he's nuts. It's who you want to believe, I guess. One day I believe there will be tests for bipolar and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). They are already isolating genes. Until there are tests that offer proof, we and our kids will always be vulnerable to misdiagnosis and maybe the wrong medication. Yes, it's a risk, but it beats living behind a locked door or sitting in jail, in my opinion. Scientologists have been ranting against psychiatry for a long time. It's against their religion. I'd like to offer me divinitive proof that THEIR religion is the true religion. They can't. I find it ironic. JMO
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Yup. It has Scientology written all over it!
L. Ron Hubbard hated psychiatrists, ergo, his followers must hate it.
I dread the day when Travolta's son turns 18 and moves out. Sigh.

Still, there are 2 sides to every coin. While the Q was a set-up (are there any biopsies or tests that can confirm mental illness), there ARE tests that can determine unnatural hormone levels, serotinon levels, etc., as well as PET scans that clearly show brain abnormalities.

The psychiatrists blew their chance, in fact, by not mentioning alcholism and Alzheimer's, both of which show up on PET scans and both of which can cause mental illness.
 
Top