Salon.com published a heart wrenching story yesterday about two parents' struggles to help their autistic son. The tragedy is that things grew worse once psychiatrists became involved. Medications were pushed on those parents that hurt their child, but instead of supporting the parents for wisely discontinuing the medication, the psychiatrists scolded the parents.
Unbeknownst to the psychiatrists, the neuroleptics they had prescribed were actually making the young man worse because he wasn't diagnosed properly. He wasn't schizophrenic. He wasn't psychotic. Thanks to the original antidepressants and further neuroleptics, he now had autistic catatonia. Why didn't they catch that? First of all, they were arrogant, learned men and women who set themselves above the parents. Their diagnosis - and the diagnosis of their networked peers - was not to be questioned. Second, they were uneducated and uninformed. Third, they make money by prescribing the very drugs that were hurting the young man. This triple combination made them highly certified fools.
Always. Always get a second opinion. That is advice I wish I had taken before ruining my mind years ago by trusting untrustworthy psychiatrists.
The solution to this type of problem is easy. Psychiatrists should not get financial rewards from pharmaceutical companies. How are we to trust the entire psychiatric industry if they are on the take?
I'm down today, but instead of popping a pill I will go draw. I've been itching to get to that all week. If you respond negatively to psychotropics, antidepressants, neuroleptics, and their ilk you may want to consider tapering off under the guidance of a cognitive behavior therapist or psychiatrist who is more interested in helping you be happy and successful than forcing you to receive a harmful cookie-cutter treatment. If your psychiatrist blindly adheres to medication only solutions for your issues, you may want to look for a new psychiatrist.
