Vol. 4 No.1 - Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto

Phoenix Rising 35EX-I N MATE: I want to testify asto the harmfulness of the wholepsychiatric machine - that a personcan become a victim just by stepping inthe wrong door. Psychiatrists say thatshock treatment is a "success" ifpeople are still breathing after the"treatment." No person who's everhad shock treatment can say that it's asuccess. I very innocently went to a psychiatristwhen I was in my senior yearin college, just because I wanted to'protest against the Vietnam War andcouldn't carryon in school as usual.And the minute I walked in the door,he said, "You're depressed." He gaveme a shot of medication, and a daylater I couldn't even walk out on thestreet - I was so disoriented. And Igot shock treatment. It was just amatter of being railroaded, beingcaught up in the machinery. And I havea degree in psychology and social work- it could be anybody.Now I see that everybody is entitledto growing pains, we're entitled toexpress anything we want, and weshouldn't be punished for it. And inthe hospital, all kinds of abuses occur.I was given an overdose of medication,my body was convulsing and thesadistic attendants there said, "It'syour imagination," until a doctor cameover and said, "Hey, you have toomuch medication." The psychiatristwho suggested that I go into thehospital had no idea that I was going toget shock treatment by the time I cameout.I didn't know what "depression"was until the antidepressants, and Iwas on them for nine years. I didn'tknow what was wrong with me. It'sbeen eight years since I've had themand I haven't been "depressed" since.Don't go to these institutions, don'tsupport them. They're a business andthey really don't know how to "cure"anybody. All they do is administer allkinds of poisons or whatever they haveavailable to support their business. It'sno joke. I can't blame myself now, butI just don't want any part of their"treatment. "EX-I N MATE: The communitymental health and rehabilitation programsfrom my personal experiencehave not worked right here in Manhattan.I refer specifically to FountainHouse, social and prevocational rehabilitationprograms which are in'Hell's Kitchen' on the West Side. Andit's (Fountain House) run by socialworkers, not psychiatrists, wherepeople are exploited. I've had it up tohere with the psychiatric social workersand rehab counsellors.SHARON HARRIS: I'm fromBaltimore, Maryland. I was hospitalizedin Creed more State Hospital(New York). First I was in hospitalbecause I was on Haldol and I wasdiagnosed "catatonic schizophrenic"when I was in a coma. And I had nobrain waves. I don't know how you canbe called 'catatonic schizophrenic'and have no brain waves - that wasmy "problem:" I was dead. Later on atCreedmore, I received shock treatment,without the permission of my parentsor myself. And I was given these shocktreatments to make me forget. I wasput on experimental drugs to make meremember that I was on shocktreatment. I also had a lobotomy. Afterthat, I could only cry, I couldn't speak.JEANNE DUMONT: I'm 31years old today ... Two months aftermy father's death (about 20 years ago),my mother was given shock treatment.If we had been a family that hadmoney, my mother would have beenable to go through her grief somewhereelse and be OK. She suddenly had toget her shit together and start takingcare of things and find a job to takecare of us. She voluntarily turnedherself over to psychiatrists for help.They thought shock treatment was theanswer, and even now my mother hasonly begun to start talking about that.She has memory losses. She used toplay the piano, she can't do that andother things.Several years ago, I had theunfortunate experience of ending up inhospital six times. I went through statehospitals, private hospitals, generalhospitals ... I was mainly angry abouta lot of things that I had kept quietabout when I was going through highschool and college. I had been veryupset by the Vietnam War. I kept in alot of stuff, and at some point I wasgiven a drug that got me very high. Itwas a steroid, Prednisone. I had asevere reaction as lots of people do.That was enough to get my anger outand when my anger finally came out, Iwas pulled into hospital immediately,drugged unnecessarily at one of thefanciest hospitals. I had cardiac arresttwice. I was fortunate. I was put in aseclusion room and given massive dosesof Haldol, Thorazine and all sorts ofdrugs at the same time; they thought Iwas dying and had to rush me toanother hospital to pump my heart.Three days later, they did it again: theygave me the same kinds of drugs allunder the guise of "sleep therapy" formy anger.The abuses are amazing.BATYA WEINBAUM: I feellied to by psychiatrists. One psychiatristsaid that if I came in and took thesedrugs and was committed for threemonths and changed my perceptions,my depression would be over. It's anoutright lie! It's like I'm a survivor ofan institution in the same way thatpeople who've come back from warsare survivors. The readjustment backinto society is so incredibly difficult.People who have been through it canidentify with it. They look at you andsee what's wrong with you, and afteryou've dealt with your early problemsin childhood-the fact that your motherdidn't treat you right when you were ababy-you're supposed to come out unscathedand be recovered and be able todeal with the world. IT'S A CROCKOF SHIT! And I don't like the condescensionthat I get from people oncethey know I've been in hospitals. I wishmy doctor had told me that, and I wishhe'd told me that he was giving me"anti-psychotic" drugs - he told mehe was giving me antidepressants.So this is just in favor of all of usfinding support and the truth fromeach other.