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IMPORTANT FACTS
1. Proper medical
screening by non-psychiatric diagnostic specialists could eliminate more
than 40% of psychiatric admissions.
2. In 2002, the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recommended more research
into �the impact of proper tutoring and educational solutions for children
exhibiting ADHD symptoms, into behavioral effects of such medical problems
as allergies or toxic reactions, and into alternative forms of treatment
such as diet.�
3. In 2002, the
U.S. President�s Commission on Excellence in Special Education found that
40% of American children [2.8 million] in Special Education programs labeled
with �learning disorders� had simply never been taught to read.
4. The DSM
is the key to escalating mental illness statistics and psychotropic
drug usage worldwide. Untold harm and colossal waste of mental health
funds occur because of it. The DSM diagnostic system must
be abandoned before real mental health reform can occur.
CHAPTER
FIVE Better Solutions
According to psychiatric
thinking, the �solution� for everything from the most minor to most severe
personal problem is strictly limited to:
1. Diagnosing symptoms
using the scientifically discredited Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders.
2. Assigning a mental illness
label.
3. Designating a restrictive,
generally coercive and costly range of treatments.
As decades of psychiatric
monopoly over the world�s mental health reflects, this unilateral approach leads
only to upwardly spiraling mental illness statistics, continuously escalating
funding demands�and away from cures.
Fortunately, many non-psychiatric,
humane and workable practices exist in the quest for the achievement and
recovery of mental health, even for the most severely disturbed individuals.
While psychiatry strenuously denies it, much knowledgeable and skillful help
is administered by non-psychiatric professionals.
The following perspectives
are presented in support of these courageous and caring pioneers who dare to
stand against the tide of psychiatric opinion. From their good work, the reality
is slowly emerging that, while answers to our mental health problems may already
exist, the wrong place to look for them is in psychiatry.
Medical studies have shown
time and again that for many patients, what appear to be mental problems are
actually caused by an undiagnosed physical illness or condition. This does not
mean a �chemical imbalance� or a �brain-based disease.� It does not mean that
mental illness is physical. It does mean that ordinary medical problems can
affect behavior and outlook.
According to a California
study, up to 40% of psychiatric facility admissions would be unnecessary if
patients were first properly medically examined. This represents enormous potential
savings in terms of dollars and suffering.
Former psychiatrist William
H. Philpott, now a specialist in nutritional brain allergies, reports, �Symptoms
resulting from B12 deficiencies range from poor concentration to stuporous depression,
severe agitation and hallucinations. Evidence showed that certain nutrients
could stop neurotic and psychotic reactions and that the results could be immediate.�
Anorexia nervosa , a condition
marked by loss of appetite and self-starvation to the point of death, can be
diminished with doses of zinc or amino acids. Medical doctors have established
that environmental toxins, mercury poisoning and allergies can affect behavior
and academic performance and can create symptoms that are falsely diagnosed
as ADHD. Laura J. Stevens, author of the book Twelve Effective Ways
to Help Your ADD/ADHD Child, says, �Gases, cleaning fluids, formaldehyde,
scents and other chemicals can make a child irritable, inattentive, spacey,
aggressive, depressed or hyperactive.�
Dr. L.M.J. Pelsser of
the Research Center for Hyperactivity and ADHD in the Netherlands found that
62% of children diagnosed with �ADHD� showed significant improvements in behavior
as a result of a change in diet over a period of three weeks.
Dr. Sydney Walker, author
of A Dose of Sanity, said that thousands of children put on psychiatric
drugs are simply �smart.� �They�re hyper, not because their brains don�t
work right, but because they spend most of the day waiting for slower students
to catch up with them. These students are bored to tears, and people who are
bored fidget, wiggle, scratch, stretch, and (especially if they are boys) start
looking for ways to get into trouble.�
If a child is labeled
with �hyperactivity� or a �learning disorder,� he or she should first be
tested for allergies, toxins or other medical problems. Tutoring and educational
solutions that consider the academic ability of the child should also be considered
of primary importance.
Funding should be directed
to those mental health facilities that have a full complement of diagnostic
equipment and competent medical (non-psychiatric) doctors.
It should be established
that before health insurance coverage for mental health problems is provided,
searching and competent physical examinations must be undertaken to confirm
that no underlying, physical condition is causing the person�s mental condition.
This alone would save countless people from being unnecessarily and falsely
labeled and then treated as mentally ill through the use of the DSM/ICD.
The same waste of lives
and funding occurs wherever the DSM is used to evaluate an individual�s
mental health or actions. Although a mammoth task, it is nevertheless vital
that the DSM diagnostic system is universally rejected before any chance
of meaningful mental health reform and advancement can occur.
While life is full
of problems, and sometimes those problems can be overwhelming, it is important
for you to know that psychiatry, its diagnoses and its drugs, are the
wrong direction to go. The drugs can only chemically mask problems and
symptoms; they cannot and never will be able to solve problems.
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