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IMPORTANT
FACTS
1. In one study, 83%
of people referred by clinics and social workers for psychiatric treatment had
undiagnosed physical illnesses; in another, 42% of those diagnosed with �psychoses�
were later found
to be suffering from a medical illness.
2. There are many causes
of mental distress. Researchers Richard Hall and Michel Popkin list 21 medical
conditions that can cause anxiety, 12 that cause depression, and 56 that create
mental disturbance in general.
3. The most common medically
induced psychiatric symptoms are apathy, anxiety, visual hallucinations, mood
and personality changes, dementia, depression, delusional thinking, sleep disorders
(frequent or early morning awakening), poor concentration, tachycardia [rapid
heartbeat], tremors and confusion.
4. Dr. Stanley Jacobson,
Ph.D., says, �Oldness itself is reason to be sad if you dwell on it, and it
is in any event a matter of life and death to contend with.�
CHAPTER
FOUR The Elderly Deserve Better
According to internationally renowned author and professor of psychiatry emeritus,
Thomas Szasz, �Most elderly people can care for themselves, both economically
and physically, at least for awhile. � However, with the relentless advance
of age, these assets gradually erode. Unless the old person receives continuous
stimulation and support through human contacts at work or in the family, he
becomes idle and lonely, often ending up in a nursing home, drugged into mindless
passivity. If he remains alert, he may become depressed and tell himself something
like this: �No one needs me anymore. I am of no use to others. I cannot even
take care of myself. I am worthless. I would be better off dead.��
Dr. Stanley Jacobson, Ph.D., wrote that �depression� among the elderly is currently
a �hot topic� in the world of mental health: �If the elderly are not sad but
make too much of minor ailments, or imagine disease when none can be found,
the experts say they are depressed and need professional help. And if the elderly
are not sad or hypochondriacal but have problems relating to appetite, sleep
or energy, the experts say they are clinically depressed and need professional
help.�
Jacobson says the �experts� are wrong. �Oldness itself is reason to be sad if
you dwell on it, and it is in any event a matter of life and death to contend
with.�
�When all doctors are aware of the reactions of old people to drugs, specialists
will be out of business,� Australia�s Dr. Richard Lefroy said, adding that regular
hospitals should be the primary center for care for the elderly, just as they
are for everyone else, not nursing homes which are frequently run for profit
and do not have acceptable standards, especially where they are based on a psychiatric
model.
All psychiatric treatments amount to no less than a criminal assault on the
mental health of the elderly. Our seniors deserve and need our protection from
abuse.
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