Just finished reading Anatomy of an Epidemic today. and reading Mad in America about a week ago.
The books expanded upon what I already knew and suspected, namely, that psych meds do not correct an imbalance in brain chemicals, they create imbalances and that they are brain damaging. Whitaker provides of ton of evidence for this from studies and research going back decades. Not only that, but also that prior to drugs, schizophrenics, bi-polars, depressives, anxious, and “ADHD” people recovered at large numbers when given good environments and actual care (not tortured and given experimental treatments). The APA and the drug companies have known all of this all along, in the depths of those institutions, but because of money and interest in power, they hid the truth.
I intuited this for most of my life. Those times I reached out for help from the system, they would not help me, they always wanted to drug me. It was not until I was completely broken by the system and had no alternatives but to get on drugs, that I did. It was a huge mistake, but I really had little choice.
Once on the drugs I became a great proponent of them, for they actually reduced my symptoms. I became a believer in them and spent 8 years of my life on a full dose of an anti-psychotic. Over time, I began to experience other issues. I began to experience Anxiety and OCD. My dependence on cigarettes and alcohol grew. I had no idea why this was happening. They wanted to put me on more drugs, but something in me made me realize that would be a super bad idea – and it is. What has been happening to me over the past 13 years is ever increasing disability and its not from psychosis, but because of the effects of the neuroleptic drug on my brain.
Some of the most damning research is that done on the brains of medicated people after they die (which for a medicated schizophrenic means 15 to 25 years prior to the general population). What the research reveals is that, the brain compensates for the drugs. The drugs, by blocking re-uptake of neuro-chemicals, makes the brain build more synapses (some of which are malformed) which then makes the brain super sensitive to the neuro-chemicals. Not only that but the white matter and grey matter, in the brains of medicated psychotics is reduced, especially in the pre-frontal cortex (the area of the brain that makes a person a human being). Net effect is that it is like getting a chemical lobotomy (which is funny because that is exactly what thorazine, the first neuroleptic was hailed as doing initially).
If the drug is removed quickly, the relapse of symptoms are many times more severe than the first episode, because the brain is super sensitive. The worst thing of all, is that there is no evidence what so ever, quite the opposite, that psychotics have excess dopamine or depressives have excess seratonin to begin with. All the studies that tested that hypothesis, showed normal levels of those chemicals in the spinal fluid of psychotics and depressives prior to medication.
I essentially bought into a lie, which may have made me a chronic schizophrenic and disabled for the rest of my life. In the long term these drugs have not helped me recover, but have contributed greatly to my decline after 13 years on them.
I did have the insight to reduce my dosage about 4 years ago, after I was cut off from the drugs when I lost my insurance. I relapsed really hard and got back on through a drug program, but reduced, being threatened by my county psychiatrist that I would relapse soon. I reduced to a third of the recommended dosage and did not relapse for 3 years. The move to Kentucky and the enormous stress that it entailed did relapse me in June of last year, I went up to the drug company recommend dosage until symptoms abated and then titrated 20 mgs a month until I was on 40 mgs again.
The high cholesterol and high blood pressure is gone now with the reduction of the neuroleptic. But because of my use of the anti-psychotic drug I am on I am now experiencing sings of tardive dyskensia and Parkinsonian symptoms. I have uncontrollable mouth and tongue movements, tremors, and muscle spasms.
In retrospect, all of this could have been prevented. If I would not have been rail roaded to getting on the drugs, but instead to treatments that do work for schizophrenics (I have listed them in prior posts) which have been suppressed, but were available to me as I was initially having problems, I would be able to work full time and had a high potential of never having a psychotic episode again. Now instead, I live with greater and greater disability and the threat that if I do relapse its going to be worse than if I never got on the drug in the first place…
It makes me Mad and drives me to share my story and these two books and books and papers from other researchers. This crap has to end. Instead of healing the sick, pseudo science have driven mental illness into an epidemic. Now they putting 2 YEAR OLDS on these drugs. The lies and profiteering from those who have emotional, mental, or spiritual issues has GOT TO STOP.