Psychiatric and Anti-Psychotic Drugs: Psychiatry damages people
"Doctors pour drugs of which they know little for diseases of which they know less into patients about whom they know nothing." (Voltaire, 1694-1778 AD)

Psychiatric Drugs Neuroleptic Drugs Psychoactive drugs Whether Shackled into submission, jailed into submission or drugged into submission, society always finds a way of controlling those who chose not to control themselves. Biopsychiatry is the atheist's system to control the uncontrollable with shocks, drugs and involuntary committal.

Master index of quick links within this document:

Introduction

A. Encyclopedia of psychiatric drugs effect on the mind and body

B. Psychiatric drugs don't correct biochemical imbalances in the brain

C. How psychiatric drugs create biochemical imbalances and the brain fixes them.

D. Drugs: chemical lobotomy, emotional anesthesia, pharmacological straitjacket:

E. Psychiatric drugs cause brain damage

1. Psychiatric drugs cause diabetes

2. Drug companies make billion from chemical imbalance myth.   

F. Psychiatric drugs work no better than placebo

G. The nocebo effect of Psychiatric drug withdrawal:

H. Painful withdrawal effects of psychiatric drugs:

I. Pregnancy and Newborn Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal

J. Drugs do not make us commit suicide, crimes or murder

K. The argument: "drugs improved the patient"

L. Psychiatric drugs prevent true recovery:

M. Getting off psychiatric drugs and becoming drug free

Conclusion

Recommended reading

Introduction:

1. See our reference section of all psychiatric drugs and the disorders they are prescribed for.
1. The first psychiatric drug, Chlorpromazine was created on December 11, 1950. This marks the beginning of the takeover of chemical psychiatry as the dominant force in psychiatry we see today. However huge side effects and little efficacy is causing every one today to rethink the utility of drugs to change simple human behaviours.
2. Chemical imbalances are a myth, with no science to prove they exist, only theory!

1. Enduring endless harmful drug trials, to fix mythical "chemical imbalances", coupled with debilitating and painful side effects, is the penalty society pays for accepting the theory of evolution as fact.
2. Pharmaceutical companies have successfully convinced the general public that that "mental illness" is caused by "biochemical imbalances" and represents a marketing scam unparalleled in history. TV advertisements shamelessly claim that their drugs work by correcting known "biochemical imbalances" in the brains. It is in the same league of evil as when executives of the seven largest American tobacco companies brazenly testified before Congress on April 15, 1994 that cigarettes were not addictive and science was inconclusive they caused cancer. Both drug and cigarette companies lie to the public for profit. Like cigarettes, psychiatric drugs in general and neuroleptics or antipsychotics specifically, are extraordinarily dangerous chemicals to the human body.
3. "The disanalogy between bodily disease and mental disease generates countless confusions, illustrated by the popular analogy between antibiotics and antipsychotics. It is reasonable to ask whether an antibiotic drug, say penicillin, cures gonorrhea, because there are objective criteria to determine whether a person has or does not have gonorrhea. But it is not reasonable to ask whether an antipsychotic drug, say Zyprexa, cures schizophrenia, because there are no objective criteria to determine whether a person has or does not have this alleged disorder. Hence, it is futile to debate whether psychotropic drugs "work." (Coercion as Cure, Thomas Szasz, 2007 AD, p" 177)
4. Psychiatric drugs are believed to correct biochemical imbalances in the brain. However, the overall effect of Psychiatric drugs is a reduction in executive function that amounts to a partial anesthesia or being drunk or stoned.

i. The first psychiatric drug Thorazine was first used in surgery medical patients because of how it made them indifferent and apathetic toward the fear and pain of conscious surgery.

ii. SSRIs appear to produce emotional blunting, apathy, and unconcern.

iii. Benzodiazepines are in fact used in both mental patients and surgical anesthesia.

5. Neuroleptic and anti-psychotic drugs do not fix this imagined "chemical imbalance" but merely tranquilize, stupefy and "numb your emotions down". They do not fix mental illness, they remove the symptoms. Most of the "good" Neuroleptic drugs are reputed to do, can be accounted for by the mere "placebo effect". Psychiatric drugs do not fix the problem, only numb the feelings. Putting a person on Anti-Psychotic drugs can cause brain damage.
2. Psychiatric drugs are dangerous, cause brain damage and work no better than a sugar pill in actually fixing life's problems.

1. Even if anti-Psychotic drugs were effective on the symptoms of mentally ill people, are they worth the cost to the individual? Neuroleptic drugs make people into walking zombies, cause brain damage, make them unable to work in most cases costing governments billions in welfare payments!
2. "Many of these drugs [Chlorpromazine, Reserpine, Imipraminc, Tranylcypromine, Lithium, Diazepam] bind to more than one brain protein and exert their effects in complex ways that involve multiple receptors, intermolecular interactions and long-term changes in the brain mediated by biological regulatory mechanisms elicited by their administration. Understanding of their mechanisms of action is, therefore, incomplete." (The Biological Approach to Psychiatry, Samuel H. Barondes, The Journal of Neuroscience, June 1990)
3. In 1806 AD, Pinel understood what most doctors of his day failed to accept: Drugs don't cure insanity because it is not a physical problem, but a spiritual one. Today drugs are the first thing doctors do, not the last. "My faith in pharmaceutic preparations was gradually lessened, and my scepticism went at length so far, as to induce me never to have recourse to them, until moral remedies had completely failed" (A Treatise on Insanity, Philippe Pinel, 1806 AD)

1. In 1750 AD, William Battie admitted there was no magic drug to cure madness. He predicted it would one day be found, but even today, no such chemical cures exist! Modern Neuroleptic drugs are no more a cure for madness than the opium that was perscribed by William Battie and John Monro in the 1750's. "altho' we may have reason to hope that the peculiar antidote of Madness is reserved in Nature's store, and will he brought to light in its appointed time ; yet such is our present misfortune, that either this important secret hath been by its inventors withheld from the rest of man-kind, or, which is more probable, hath never yet been discovered." (A Treatise on Madness, William Battie, 1758 AD, p 71)

When your life is in the ditch... Would you overhaul the engine, drug the engine with an "additive" to the gasoline or take driving lessons?
Mental illness is a spiritual problem, not a biological problem. Giving drugs to fix the brain of mentally ill people is like overhauling the engine of a car because the driver keeps hitting telephone poles. Imagine you have a habit of driving your car into the ditch. Each time this happens, you take the car to a mechanic who tells you the problem is a bad engine and recommends overhauling it. He tells you his scientific diagnostic instruments say there is no sign of a chemical imbalance inside the engine and all is OK. But he believes the engine (brain of the car) needs a costly overhaul. Then you then ask a Christian who tells you there is nothing mechanically wrong with your car, but that you need to take driving lessons. People find their life is in the ditch, so they go to a medical doctor who cannot find anything wrong with their body. So they go to a Psychiatrist who says they have a chemical imbalance in their brain, without any scientific proof, and need to start taking drugs. He doesn't know the cause or the cures and cannot find anything physically wrong with your body, but says drugs will keep you going. Metal illness is a spiritual problem of personal choices and circumstances, not a physical problem with the brain or body.
	· If your computer has a virus would you change the CPU or fix the software? · If you don't like the music on your radio would you take the radio in to be repaired or change the channel? · If you dislike the TV program would you hire a television repairman?
		When your lifestyle needs fixing... Disable the warning light or fix the engine?
The oil warning light goes off in your car and your mechanic just unplugs the warning light without fixing the problem! That is what drugs do. They remove the warning light, but never fix the problem. Neuroleptic drugs merely remove your pain and drug you into submission so you are not too much of a bother to society, at the least dollar cost. "The use of "emotional painkillers" is more questionable. If a person gets headaches because of the stress of a conflicted marriage or a frustrating workplace, it would ultimately be self-defeating to rely on pills instead of dealing with the issues involved. Besides, all psychiatric drugs have far more negative effects on brain and mind function than do aspirin or ibuprofen. Psychiatric medications are, first and foremost, psychoactive or psychotropic drugs: They influence the way a person feels, thinks, and acts. Like cocaine and heroin, they change the emotional response capacity of the brain. If used to solve emotional problems, they end up shoving those problems under the rug of drug intoxication while creating additional drug-induced problems." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 30)

A. Encyclopedia of psychiatric drugs effects on the mind and body:

1. Descriptors of overall effect: Neuropeptic-induced deficit syndrome (NIDS), deactivation, chemical lobotomy, medicinal lobotomy, zombie-like, robot-like, chemical straight-jacketing, Iatrogenic helplessness, intoxication anosognosia, neuroleptic Dysphoria, cognitive blunting, spellbound, cocoon of stupefaction
2. Drug induced physical effects: Disruption and impaired of normal brain function, drug induced chemical imbalance in brain, dystonia (motor restlessness), akathisia (inner restlessness), hyperkinesia (must keep moving), insects in blood, electricity in veins, drug-induced mania, overactivity, exhausting outbursts of energy, excruciating, indescribable torture, twitches, grimacing, leather face, Diabetes "moon face", hypokinesia (inactivity), fatigue, docile, tired, sedation, memory, concentration difficulties, headaches and stomachaches, seizures, sleep problems, bladder and bowel dysfunctions of various kinds, sensitivity to sunlight, eye disorders, skin problems, weight loss or gain, abnormal sugar levels, abnormal insulin metabolism, serious allergic reactions, fatal body temperature regulation disorders (febrile, heat stroke on hot days), diabetes, high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, hypotension/low blood pressure (especially upon suddenly getting out of bed or stand up), tiredness psychomotor retardation, drug induced stupor mistaken for depression, dangerous cardiac problems, parkinsonism (tremors and rigidity), sedation, drowsiness, slow monotonous speech, drowsiness, weakness, washed out, lack of physical energy, slow motion, zonked out, reduced reflexes and reactions, insomnia, sexual dysfunctions, a variety of gastrointestinal problems (bowel paralysis), hormonal abnormalities, swelling of the breasts and spontaneous lactation, disfiguring, facial hair growth, skin rashes, bone marrow suppression (aplastic anemia or agranulocytosis) involving immunological suppression, risk of serious intractable infections, fatal blood disorders, blood count anomalies.
3. Drug induced spiritual impairment effects:
1. Intelligence impairment: higher human functions, computation, concentration, memory loss, cognitive, losing 40 IQ points
2. Independence: lack autonomy, self-determination, little interest in themselves or environment
3. Drive: indifference , lethargy, initiative , apathy, emotional dulling blunting malaise, passivity, no psychic energy, lack of spontaneity, social interactions, exploration, reduced motivation, rousable stupor, disinterest, reduced will, paralysis of volition, reduced emotional reactivity, blunting, reduced drive, lassitude, lack of motivation, emotionally unresponsive, feeling of deadness, impaired initiative and planning, emotionally stifled and subdued, loss of will power, racing thoughts, frantic, flattening of emotions
4. Awareness: emotional dullness, inattention, inalertness, self-awareness, social sensitivity, self-concern, impaired self-monitoring, self-insight, confusion, like a shade came down, Feel improved, when in fact they are worse, delusions of grandiosity, fantasies of omnipotence and success, paranoia
5. Impaired Judgment: disinhibition from normal ethical restraints, diminished concern for consequences, lack of self-reflection, impaired executive function
4. Spiritual Choices:

1. Note: drugs do not drive choice, but can influence choice through apathy and indifference to consequences the same way a drunk (alcohol) will make very stupid choices he would never make sober.
2. Comprehension: denial, anxiety, impatience, mood swings, mania, crying, sadness, dysphoria, anger, hostility, devastation, psychosis
3. Acceptance: incurable, biologically impaired, submissiveness, dependency, emptiness, defeated, hopelessness, joylessness, compliance, melancholia, mental collapse, despondence, helplessness, depression
4. Action by choice: out of character choices, rebellion, revenge, public disturbance, violence, crime, murder, pilfering life's savings on ridiculous schemes, ruin a good job, get fired, quitting jobs, destroying marriages and treasured relationships
5. Suicide: Drugs do not force someone to commit suicide. Nor do drugs drive a person to kill themselves. However, with the impairment of judgement and consequences the person doesn't care about anything and then kills himself. Just as a drunk is held accountable for his choice to drive which results in the death of an innocent, so too a person on psychiatric drugs is held accountable for taking his own life. Drugs like Risperdal, Zyprexa, Haldol, Thorazine, Prolixin, Seroquel, Geodon do not drive choice against human will but can have strong effects by hindering judgment like when drunk. See the case of Egg.

B. Psychiatric drugs don't correct biochemical imbalances in the brain because they don’t exist! The biochemical brain imbalance myth exposed

1. The case of Amber Smidebush: "I've been on psychiatric medications since I was 10 years old. Today, I take six prescribed medications a day, plus three over-the-counter pills. Doctors seem to think that medications are the cure for everything, and because of that, I am stuck in a trap. A lot of people use drugs recreationally to feel better. I do that every day with my meds and hate it. How would you like to remember that you have to take three orange ones, a blue one, a white one, a red one and one that changes color every time they up the dose? If I forget one dose, I feel like crap.... Withdrawals from these can be worse than withdrawals from street drugs. When and where will this stop?... I have been on so many different psychiatric medications over the years it makes my head spin.... When my doctors told my Mom I was bipolar, they automatically gave me a bunch of pills to take. Wellbutrin, Neurontin, Seroquel, Depakote, Effexor, lnderal, Trileptal, Paxil, Zyprexa, Lamictal, Abilify—I've taken them all. I call them happy pills; they call them "chemical balancers." At one point I was on a type of speed, much like Ritalin, that messed me up really bad.... The doctors prescribe the pills to "make me happy." The pills just don't allow me to think. I don't have a chance to be happy or upset—I'm just...there.... I see commercials each day about this "change your life forever, and you'll never feel better," but I look at them and laugh. Especially because, nine times out of 10, I've taken the medication they're advertising. They never show the people who can't get out of bed, or the children taking their handful of pills each night before Mom tucks them in. They don't show the people who cry each day because they don't know what's going on and their meds make them worse than they were." (Happy Pills Don't Make Me Happy, Amber Smidebush, New America Media, Youth Commentary, Posted: Jan 19, 2006)
2. "One of the most challenging problems of psychopharmacology is to explain how such alterations of neurotransmitter dynamics influence behavior. The task is complicated because a given neurotransmitter is often widely distributed in the nervous system and appears to participate in many neuronal circuits. Furthermore, therapeutic doses of some drugs, such as imipramine and lithium, that reduce pathological behavior, have little or no effect on normal behavior. Another complication is that the palliative behavioral effects frequently are not manifested for days or weeks after administering the drugs at their effective levels, indicating that an adaptive response to these agents, rather than their primary actions, is the critical therapeutic phenomenon. So further developments in psychopharmacology will depend, in part, on understanding how biological regulatory mechanisms in the brain produce sustained reactions to various perturbations of synaptic transmission, which may actually be responsible for the palliative psychological effects." (The Biological Approach to Psychiatry, Samuel H. Barondes, The Journal of Neuroscience, June 1990)
3. "neurobiological evidence and explanations are being sought for such problems as trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder." And pharmaceuticals are being tested and dispensed for the treatment not only of depressive symptoms, but also of attention deficit hyperactive disorder (e.g. Ritalin), impotence (e.g. Viagra) and alcoholism (e.g. Naltrexone). This shift towards a biological orientation has spurred licensed psychologists to lobby for the right to prescribe psychoactive drugs. ... And all of this is being carried out by a profession that historically fought psychiatry, hospitalization and the use of drugs, arguing that psychotherapy was "just as effective."" (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 256)
4. "No longer do we seek to understand whole persons in their social contexts rather we are there to realign our patients' neurotransmitters. The problem is that it is very difficult to have a relationship with a neurotransmitter whatever its configuration. So, our guild organization [APA] provides a rationale, by its neurobiological tunnel vision, for keeping our distance from the molecule conglomerates we have come to define as patients." (L.R. Mosher, Psychiatrist, resignation letter from the American Psychiatric Association, 1998)
5. Chemical psychiatrists are atheistic evolutionists who deceptively select a small data set to draw invalid conclusions:
1. Evolutionists are all well experienced in the deceptive practice of taking 50 radio metric dates of a dinosaur bone, chucking 49 and keeping the one that fits the date they were looking for.
2. Likewise drug companies conduct 10 trials, then chuck all the trials, except the two that support the conclusion they need to get a new drug approved by the FDA.
3. "In 2002 a team led by psychologist Irving Kirsch at the University of Connecticut published an analysis of efficacy data submitted to the FDA between 1987-1999 for Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor, Serzone, and Celexa. In order to approve a drug, the FDA requires only two positive studies, but drug companies invariably have to conduct many clinical trials before they can come up with a couple of positive clinical trials. Kirsch and his colleagues looked at all the studies conducted by the companies—not merely those used to get approval by the FDA. After analyzing the entire group of antidepressant clinical trials conducted by the drug companies, Kirsch and his colleagues concluded that there was little or no evidence that the drugs worked. Their research demonstrated that any beneficial or positive effects in comparison to placebo were "negligible."" (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 7)

C. How psychiatric drugs create biochemical imbalances and the brain fixes them The only biochemical imbalance in the brain of a schizophrenic is the one put there by psychiatrists with their drugs. Leave my Neurotransmitters Alone! Dopamine, Serotonin, Norepinephrine, and GABA (Gamma Aminobutyric Acid)

1. THE LIE: The general public believes that schizophrenics have faulty brain chemistry caused by an imbalance in the complex, interrelated chemical reactions of the brain involving the neurotransmitters dopamine, glutamate and serotonin. Neurotransmitters like Dopamine, Serotonin, Norepinephrine, and GABA (Gamma Aminobutyric Acid) are substances that allow brain cells to communicate with one another. Psychiatric drugs restore the normal balance between synapse and receptor, and cure the person of psychotic behaviours and thoughts.

a. This is absolutely false because no psychiatric drug modifies schizophrenic behaviour into normally functioning individuals.

b. All psychiatric drugs have the same effect on schizophrenics and those who are not. Drugs given to a normal person create the same indifferent stupor as schizophrenics.

c. One drug is given to those suffering from opposite behaviour problems: anxiety and depression.

2. There is absolutely no difference in the brains of people who behave normally and those who are schizophrenic.

a. FMRI studies that "claim" to find differences in the brains of schizophrenic vs. normal, fail to realize that the real difference is between those who have been on long term psychiatric drug use vs. those who are drug free.

b. This is why we emphasize that the only chemical imbalance in the brain of a schizophrenic is the one caused by taking psychiatric drugs.

c. Any differences observed in the brains of a schizophrenic are caused by drugs.

d. Since schizophrenia is a behaviour choice, there is no scientific basis to predict that one unique set of behaviour choices alters the brain, whereas another does not.

3. The human brain is remarkable adaptable in regulating its own chemical and neuronal processes.

a. The brain closely regulates neurotransmitters into high precision equilibrium: Dopamine, Serotonin, Norepinephrine, and GABA (Gamma Aminobutyric Acid) Drugs destroy this equilibrium but the brain reacts to rebalance and regain equilibrium again.

b. For example, body temperature is maintained at 98.6 degrees F (36 degrees C) in spite of being exposed to extreme external conditions of cold and hot. While all systems can become ineffective, like when put in ice water or a hot tub for long periods of time, for the most part, complex chemical processes keep the body temperature very stable. The exact same is true with the human brain when psychiatric drugs alter the working relationship between synapse and receptor.

c. WHEN YOU STOP TAKING PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS THE BRAIN RESPONDS: The actual rebound of the brain to function without being stimulated by drugs, means that the brain has been compensating for this stimulation by functioning at a lower suppressed level (in the case of a stimulant to treat depression). When a stimulant (for depression) is removed from the brain, it sends the person into a natural depression because the brain had been trying to depress mental activity in response to the unnatural stimulating effect of the drug. The brain slows down when it encounters a stimulant prescribed for depression. When the drug is removed, it takes time for the brain to pick up speed to normal. The same is true with tranquilizers prescribed for anxiety. Tranquilizers for anxiety, artificially slow down the brain, which in turn reacts by speeding itself up. When the anti-anxiety drug is removed, the brain suddenly speeds up. When your brain is on an anti-anxiety drug, it is like driving your car at the speed limit of 30 miles per hour. When you take an anti-anxiety drug, it is like applying the brakes to the car, which means the brain must press the gas petal at the same time to keep the car moving at the same speed. You are driving your car with your foot on the gas and the brake at the same time to maintain the speed of 30 mph. When you stop taking the drug, it is like suddenly removing your foot off the brake, which causes the car to speed up to 40 mph. It takes time for the brain to slow the car down to 30 again. This is the rebound effect of drug withdrawal. Because the person immediately experiences painful and debilitating withdrawal symptoms, this convinces the person that they need the drug to balance their brain chemistry so they will not experience depression. So when they start taking the drug again, the withdrawal pains instantly go away (ask any junkie) and the brain is artificially stimulated once again, bringing it up to the previously abnormal equilibrium levels.

c. The brain changes in order to compensate for the drug induced chemical imbalance with an increase in D2 receptors: "In 1978, Philip Seeman at the University of Toronto announced in Nature that this was indeed the case. At autopsy, the brains of twenty schizophrenics had 70 percent more D2 receptors than normal. At first glance, it seemed that the cause of schizophrenia had been found, but Seeman cautioned that all of the patients had been on neuroleptics prior to their deaths. “Although these results are apparently compatible with the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia in general,” he wrote, the increase in D2 receptors might “have resulted from the long-term administration of neuroleptics.” [T. Lee, “Binding of 31-1-neuroleptics and 3H-apomorphine in schizophrenic brains,” Nature 374 (1978): 897-900.] … A variety of studies quickly proved that the drugs were indeed the culprit. When rats were fed neuroleptics, their D2 receptors quickly increased in number. [D. Burt, “Antischizophrenic drugs: chronic treatment elevates dopamine receptor binding in brain,” Science 196 (1977): 326-27.] … If rats were given a drug that blocked D, receptors, that receptor subtype increased in density. [M. Porceddu, “[3H]SCH 23390 binding sites increase after chronic blockade of d-1 dopamine receptors,” European Journal of Pharmacology 118 (1985): 367-70.] … "Finally, investigators in France, Sweden, and Finland used positron emission topography to study D2-receptor densities in living patients who had never been exposed to neuroleptics, and all reported “no significant differences” between the schizophrenics and “normal controls.”" [J. Martinot, “Striatal D2 dopaminergic receptors assessed with positron emission tomography and bromospiperone in untreated schizophrenic patients,” American Journal of Psychiatry 147 (1990): 44-50; L. Farde, “D2 dopamine receptors in neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients,” Archives of General Psychiatry 47 (1990): 213-19; J. Hietala, “Striatal D2 dopamine receptor characteristics in neurolepticnaïve schizophrenic patients studied with positron emission tomography,” Archives of General Psychiatry 51 (1994): 116-23.] (Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker, 2010 AD, p76).

4. HOW DRUGS CREATE CHEMICAL IMBALANCES:

a. A widely believed theory is that Depression is caused by low serotonin levels in the brain.

b. Let's assume the normal equilibrium level of serotonin in the brain is 50 units.

c. SSRIs (Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) are a family of psychiatric drugs that are currently in high use for depression.

d. The theory is that SSRIs increase the extracellular level of the neurotransmitter serotonin by inhibiting its reuptake into the presynaptic cell, increasing the level of serotonin in the synaptic cleft available to bind to the postsynaptic receptor.

e. Illustrations stated in laymen's terms:

i. THE HAPPY POTION and the DIPSTICK: Men have long sought for a chemical "love potion" that will make a woman fall in love with them. Think of serotonin as a chemical "happiness potion". Depression is believed by biopsychiatrists to be caused by too little of the "serotonin happiness potion" in their brain. Imagine the brain actually had a dipstick that a doctor could simply pull out of your head and check the serotonin level inside your brain. Normally you have 50 units of serotonin, but the dipstick indicates you are a quart low and need to add 25 units of serotonin. There are two ways to fix this. Add serotonin or reduce the serotonin from escaping the brain through some inhibitor. SSRIs drugs like Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro and Sarafem do the latter. They reduce (inhibit) the natural loss of the "serotonin potion" from your brain, which increases the net level. Adding an SSRI re-uptake inhibitor is like fixing a leak in a bucket you are trying to fill with water. By plugging the holes in the brain less of the "serotonin happiness potion" is lost so the net fluid level on the dipstick rises to normal levels. The theoretical result is to make the person happy instead of depressed. When the "presynaptic neuron" send out a single "happy potion" it delivers the message to the postsynaptic nerve but then is not reabsorbed into the presynaptic nerve. The result is the "happy potion" keeps delivering its message over and over and over to: "BE HAPPY", relieving the depression. The theory collapses for many reasons including the fact that the brain actually takes steps to remove these extra "BE HAPPY" serotonin signals by simply sending fewer of them. OOPs! There goes that wacky junk science psychiatric theory about depression!

ii. THE HOUSE FURNACE: Think of a house with R12 insulation where the furnace without a thermostat maintains an equilibrium temperature of 70 degrees F. There is a fixed amount of heat loss (serotonin) from inside the house (extracellular level) to the outside (absorbed back into brain tissue). If you suddenly double the insulation level to R24 (with an SSRI drug) by temporarily wrapping the entire house in a huge insulation blanket, there is inhibited/reduced the heat loss by 50%. (re-uptake inhibitors) The theoretical result is that there is an increase in temperature (serotonin) and the temperature rises to 90 degrees. The extra serotonin creates a surplus of "happy signals" (hotter) and the person is no longer depressed. Up to this part of our illustration, the furnace has no thermostat to maintain a fixed temperature of 70 degrees because this is how biopsychiatrists view the brain and the effect SSRIs have on brain chemistry. But since in fact the brain, like your furnace has a thermostat, does have a self-regulating system for all neurotransmitters including SSRIs, the extra flood of heat/serotonin signals the furnace to stop adding heat (serotonin) to the house in order to account for the artificially high R24 insulation level. The brain, under an influence of a chemical imbalance, begins to adjust its internal neurotransmitter ratios in order to achieve equilibrium, so it reduces the production of serotonin in half the same way a thermostat turns off the furnace. Although a house furnace can rebalance the house temperature within minutes, it takes the brain months to reach equilibrium. Herein lay the danger of stopping psychiatric drugs cold turkey: If you suddenly remove the temporary house insulation (R24) and restore the house to its normal R12 insulation level, the furnace, which has been enjoying a vacation from work, suddenly turns in a fury to add the extra heat needed. The heat loss to the outside is increased because the R24 insulation functioned as a re-uptake inhibitor" of heat has been removed. However unlike the furnace, the brain takes months to rebalance and almost immediately huge painful and dangerous drug withdrawal side effects kick in because the brain has have the extracellular level of serotonin. When the person "crashes" he attributes the pain and debilitation to his mental disorder instead of standard "junkie" drug withdrawal symptoms. So he starts taking his drugs after two days and instantly the pain disappears and the "feelings of crashing" are gone. Again, he wrongly assumes the drug is fixing the chemical imbalance in his brain that causes depression, when in fact every intravenous heroin user knows it is drug withdrawal pains.

iii. THE CAR ON CRUISE CONTROL: Taking any psychiatric drug is like driving a car with your one foot on the gas petal and the other on the brake at the same time. Imagine you are driving a car and set for 50 km/h. Normally, when you hit the brake, the cruise control automatically disengages, but when you take an SSRI drug it interferes with the electronic automotive brain so that it does not turn off cruise control. The drug creates a "chemical imbalance" in the cruise control of the car, which interferes with its normal design function. The result is that you can press the brake and it does not disengage the cruise control. In such a car with the cruise control set to 50km/h what effect would pressing the brake have on the engine? You would notice the cruise control press the gas petal more to try to speed up. It would be exactly the same as when you feel the gas petal depress when the car starts to climb a steep hill on the highway. The SSRI drug is like pressing the brake while the cruise control is on. The automotive computer responds by increasing the throttle. However, once the increased power allows the car to reach 50km/h, with "SSRI drug foot" on the brake, equilibrium is once again reached but now you are burning a lot more gas and wearing out your brake shoes. Driving a car with one foot on the gas petal and the other on the brake at the same time will soon cause damage to the car. This is why psychiatric drugs cause brain damage. Now imaging after driving with your foot on the gas and brake for 10 miles (10 years on drugs) you suddenly took your foot off the brake (stopped SSRIs cold turkey). The immediate result is the car would begin to widely speed up until the cruise control computer reduced throttle in order to bring the car back to its equilibrium speed of 50 km/h. It only takes a second for the cars computer to make the adjustment, but it takes your brain months or years to make the same adjustment. This is the period of time when painful and debilitating withdrawal effects are experienced. This is why it is dangerous to stop taking any psychiatric drug cold turkey without the direct supervision of a doctor.

f. "But the medicine clearly doesn't fix a chemical imbalance in the brain. Instead, it does precisely the opposite. Prior to being medicated, a depressed person has no known chemical imbalance. Fluoxetine then gums up the normal removal of serotonin from the synapse, and that triggers a cascade of changes, and several weeks later the serotonergic pathway is operating in a decidedly abnormal manner. The presynaptic neuron is putting out more serotonin than usual. Its serotonin reuptake channels are blocked by the drug. The system's feedback loop is partially disabled. The postsynaptic neurons are “desensitized” to serotonin. Mechanically speaking, the serotonergic system is now rather mucked up. Eli Lilly's scientists were well aware that this was so.” (Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker, p 81)

g. Summary chart of how SSRIs affect brain chemistry equilibrium of 50 units of serotonin in depression. It is assumed that although normally the brain needs 50 units of serotonin, the "depressed patient" has only 40 Units. In fact this is false. The brain of a depressed person is functioning normally and able to maintain and equilibrium of 50 units of serotonin just like people who are not depressed. So when you add a psychiatric drug like and SSRI you actually create a chemical imbalance when none previously existed.

"Depression patient"	biochemical imbalance in the brain: 50 units serotonin	Brain reacts to maintain neurotransmitter equilibrium
Depressed but never on drugs	No chemical imbalance in brain. Normal brain function: 50 units serotonin	No reaction, brain in normal neurotransmitter equilibrium
The depressed person begins psychiatric SSRI drugs	Drugs create chemical imbalance in brain of 100 units of serotonin by inhibiting re-uptake.	The person feels different until the Brain reduces serotonin production over several months to bring the net level down to equilibrium of 50 units of serotonin.
The depressed person, after being on psychiatric drugs for 5 years.	Drugs have created a chemical imbalance in brain that did not exist before the depressed person started taking SSRI drugs.	The brain is doing biological contortions to maintain equilibrium of 50 units of serotonin. It causes brain damage the same way driving with your foot on the gas and brake at the same time does.
The depressed person quits SSRIs cold turkey after 5 years of being on psychiatric drugs and experiences painful drug withdrawal like a heroin junkie.	The drug induced chemical imbalance is removed but the brain is suddenly out of equilibrium as serotonin levels drop to 25 unit.	The brain increases serotonin production but since it takes months or years to reach natural equilibrium of 50 units of serotonin the person immediately experiences painful and debilitating drug withdrawal effects.
The depressed person restarts SSRI drugs two days after quitting cold turkey and the painful withdrawal effect instantly stop.	Drug free but still a chemical imbalance until drugs are taken again after two days which restores the unnatural equilibrium back to its previous drug induced state.	The brain got the additional serotonin it needs and the painful drug withdrawal symptoms immediately end. The depressed person wrongly assumes the pain ended because the drug was correcting the chemical imbalance that caused depression rather than getting the "addicted junkie fix" to keep withdrawal at bay and relieve the pain.
The medical doctor reduces the depressed person's drug dose incrementally one month for every year on psychiatric drugs.	A small chemical imbalance is induced each time the dose of the SSRI drug is reduced over 5 months.	The brain's "God designed", automatic equilibrium mechanism can adjust to the small reductions in drug dose so as to maintain 50 units of serotonin until the person is drug free after 5 months
The only biochemical imbalance in the brain of a depressed person is the one doctors create when they prescribe psychiatric drugs. Depression is a behaviour choice not a medical disease. Depression is a choice made by the human spirit not an involuntary consequence of out of balance body chemicals. There is no difference in the brain chemistry of a depressed person and someone who is not depressed, until the depressed person starts taking drugs.

D. Drugs: chemical lobotomy, emotional anesthesia, pharmacological straitjacket:

1. See the case of "Zombie"
2. Neuroleptics truly are a chemical lobotomy because they work by reducing executive functions and impair the reticular activating or "energizing" system of the brain. The result, as summarized in the chart below is apathy, indifference, emotional blandness, conformity, and submissiveness, as well as a reduction in all verbalizations, including complaints or protests.
1. What these drugs do, in fact is dumb down the emotions through a chemical lobotomy, which have the effect of an emotional anesthesia.
2. Drugs only remove symptoms, not fix the problem. Psychiatric drugs to not fix chemical imbalances, but instead create them.
3. “The meds isolate you. They interfere with your empathy. There is a flatness to you, and so you are uncomfortable with people all the time. They make it hard for you to get along. The drugs may take care of aggression and anxiety and some paranoia, those sorts of symptoms, but they don't help with the empathy that helps you get along with people.” (Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker, 2010 AD, Quoting Cathy Levin, p19)
4. "The widespread acceptance and use of the so-called tranquilizing drugs constitutes one of the most noteworthy events in the recent history of psychiatry.... These drugs, in essence, function as chemical straitjackets.... When patients had to be restrained by the use of force—for example, by a straitjacket—it was difficult for those in charge of their care to convince themselves that they were acting altogether on behalf of the patient.... Restraint by chemical means does not make [the psychiatrist] feel guilty; herein lies the danger to the patient. (Some Observations on the Use of Tranquilizing Agents, Szasz, T. S., A.M.A. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 77: 86-92, January, 1957, p 91)
5. "As a practicing psychiatrist, I have watched with growing dismay and outrage the rise and triumph of the hegemony known as biologic psychiatry. ... I am a psychiatrist trained in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and I use both psychotherapy and medications in my approach to patients. I state these facts to make it clear that this is not an anti-psychiatry tract, and I am speaking from within the field of psychiatry, although I find it increasingly impossible to identify with this profession ... So what are the limitations of biologic psychiatry? First of all, medications lessen symptoms, they do not treat mental illness per se. This distinction is crucial." (Against Biologic Psychiatry, Dr. David Kaiser, Psychologist, Psychiatric Times, December, Dec. 1996, Vol. XIII, Issue 12)
6. "He began tonguing the antipsychotic medication and spitting it out when the staff weren't looking. “I could think again,” he says. “The antipsychotic drugs weren't letting me think. I was like a vegetable, and I couldn't do anything. I had no emotions. I sat there and watched television. But now I felt more in control. And it felt great to feel alive again.” (Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker, 2010 AD, quoting George Badillo, p 23)
7. "Ultimately, you may become convinced that there is something fundamentally wrong with you. But what if there is nothing "wrong" with you at all? What if, like virtually everybody else who suffers repeatedly from depression, you have become a victim of your own very sensible, even heroic, efforts to free yourself - like someone pulled even deeper into quicksand by the struggling intended to get you out? We wrote this book to help you understand how this happens and what you can do about it, by sharing recent scientific discoveries that have given us a radically new understanding of what feeds depression or chronic unhappiness: At the very earliest stages in which mood starts to spiral downward, it is not the mood that does the damage, but how we react to it. Our habitual efforts to extricate ourselves, far from freeing us, actually keep us locked in the pain we're trying to escape. ... As scientists and clinicians we came to a new understanding of what is and what is not effective in dealing with repeated depression by a somewhat circuitous route. Until the early 1970s, scientists had concentrated on finding effective treatments for acute depression—for that devastating first episode often triggered by a catastrophic event in one's life. They found them in the form of antidepressant medications, which remain enormously helpful in treating depression for many people. Then came the discovery that depression, once treated, often returns—and becomes more and more likely to recur the more often it is experienced. This changed our entire concept of depression and chronic unhappiness. It turned out that antidepressant medications "fixed" depression, but only as long as people kept taking them. When they stopped, depression came back, even if not until months later. Neither patients nor doctors liked the idea of anyone taking lifelong medicine to keep the specter of depression from the door. ... Through insightful lessons drawn from both Eastern [Buddhist] meditative traditions and cognitive therapy, they demonstrate how to sidestep the mental habits that lead to despair, including rumination and self-blame, so you can face life's challenges with greater resilience. (The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself From Chronic Unhappiness, [Eastern Buddhist meditative], Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, Jon Kabat-Zinn, 2007 AD, p 2, 4, cover)
8. "I once shared a conference with a fine Christian psychiatrist whose lectures were very true to the Word. "The trouble with psychiatry," he told me, "is that it can only deal with symptoms. A psychiatrist can remove a patient's feelings of guilt, but he cannot remove the guilt. It's like a trucker loosening a fender on his truck so he won't hear the motor knock. A patient can end up feeling better, but have two problems instead of one!" When a sinner trusts Christ, his sins are all forgiven, the guilt is gone, and the matter is completely settled forever." (W. W. Wiersbe, The Bible exposition commentary, 1989, Heb 10:11)
9. "I actually have no objections to real science in the field, if, for example, it can help me make better medication decisions or develop newer and better medications. But in general biologic psychiatry has not delivered on its grandiose and utopian claims, as today's collection of medications are woefully inadequate to address the complicated clinical issues that come before me every day." (Against Biologic Psychiatry, Dr. David Kaiser, Psychologist, Psychiatric Times, December, Dec. 1996, Vol. XIII, Issue 12)
10. Donald Klein, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, has a similar recollection: "So they [psychiatrists at the Lexington, Kentucky U. S. Public Health narcotics `hospital'] had this ward with prisoners and volunteers and they gave this guy a shot of chlorpromazine and asked him an hour later 'how is it' and he said `doc, I don't know what that shit is, but it will never sell.'" He was only half right. Chlorpromazine was not intended to be the kind of drug that persons who wanted drugs to fill their empty lives would be interested in using. He failed to recognize that chlorpromazine was a first-rate chemical straitjacket and would sell splendidly to the people who want to use drugs to subdue mental patients. Chlorpromazine/Thorazine and the other leading antipsychotic drugs, such as Haldol and Zyprexa—the drugs that are the pride and joy of psychiatrists—were never intended to be sold to mental patients or the public. They were intended to be sold, have been sold, and are being sold to the patients' keepers, just as mechanical straitjackets once were. ... It was obvious from the start that neuroleptic drugs benefit psychiatrists, not patients." (Coercion as Cure, Thomas Szasz, 2007 AD, p 188)

All psychiatric drugs hurt you and can cause permanent brain damage. It is a dangerous thing to visit a psychiatrist when all they do is shock you, drug you or commit you against your will to an asylum.

E. Psychiatric drugs cause brain damage:

1. The only chemical imbalance in the brain of a mental patient is the one put there by psychiatrists when they prescribe drugs. The brain is always negatively impaired when bathed with the chemical compounds of psychiatric drugs. When someone becomes lethargic or indifferent it is disrupting normal brain function exactly the same way as alcohol does. Long term use of psychiatric drugs can permanently "fry the brain" just as surely as if they were taking heroin or cocaine!
2. See also: Psychiatric drugs cause diabetes seen in the classic "moon face" appearance of users. It is ironic that psychiatrists commonly equate psychiatric drugs as a cure for chemical imbalances the way insulin cures diabetes, when in fact psychiatric drugs actually cause diabetes!
3. "The major antipsychotic drugs, such as Thorazine, Haldol, and Zyprexa, fall into the second group. It is clear that these drugs cause serious metabolic and neurological damage. ... Most psychotropic drugs used to treat so-called psychotic illnesses damage the extra-pyramidal motor system and cause complex metabolic derangements. Herewith a brief definition of two key terms. The pyramidal motor system controls voluntary movements. Injury to this system, for example by poliomyelitis or spinal cord trauma, results in paralysis. The extrapyramidal system--phylogenetically older that the pyramidal system-- maintains muscle tone and truncal stability and controls voluntary but not consciously modulated behavior, such as walking. Injury to this system, for example, by Parkinsonism or neuroleptic drugs, results in so-called movement disorders." (Coercion as Cure, Thomas Szasz, 2007 AD, p 178)
4. "The annual number of children prescribed anti-psychotic drugs jumped fivefold between 1995 and 2002, to an estimated 2.5 million, the study said. That is an increase from 8.6 out of every 1,000 children in the mid-1990s to nearly 40 out of 1,000. But more than half of the prescriptions were for attention deficit and other non-psychotic conditions ... The increasing use of anti-psychotics since the mid-1990s corresponds with the introduction of costly and heavily marketed medications such as Zyprexa and Risperdal. The packaging information for both says their safety and effectiveness in children have not been established. The drugs, which typically cost several dollars per pill, are considered safer than older anti-psychotics—at least in adults—but they still can have serious side effects, including weight gain, elevated cholesterol and diabetes." (Anti-psychotic drug use in kids skyrockets: Fivefold increase from 1995 to 2002, researchers find, Associated Press, March. 16, 2006) See also: Psychiatric drugs cause diabetes
5. Psychiatric drugs create chemical imbalances: "How does the brain react to the intrusion of psychiatric drugs such as Prozac, Ritalin, or Xanax? The brain reacts as if it is being invaded by toxic substances; it tries to overcome, or compensate for, the harmful drug effects. In the process, the brain literally destroys its own capacity to respond to the dr, It numbs itself to the drug and, in so doing, actually kills some of its own functions. So when a doctor tells us that Prozac is putting our biochemicals into balance, we are being badly misled. In actuality, Prozac is profoundly disrupting the function of the brain." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 26)
6. "led to the unnecessary drugging of millions of Americans who could be diagnosed, treated, and cured without the use of toxic and potentially lethal medications". (Dr. Sydney Walker III, neurologist, psychiatrist, A Dose of Sanity)
7. "Stopping medications began to restore their brains' physiology to their pre-medication states. Most had never been warned that the drugs would change their brains' physiology (or, worse yet, selectively damage regions of nerve cells in the brain) such that withdrawal reactions would almost certainly occur. Nor were they aware that these withdrawal reactions might be long lasting and might be interpreted as their "getting sick again." They are horror stories of what might happen (but does not have to happen) when attempting to return brains to usual functioning after being awash with "therapeutic" chemicals. Unfortunately, the suffering was usually necessary in order restore soul, self and mind—the essence of humanity." (Coming off Psychiatric Drugs: Successful Withdrawal from Neuroleptics, Antidepressants, Lithium, Carbamazepine and Tranquilizers, Preface, Dr. Loren R. Mosher, Edited by P. Lehmann.)
8. All psychiatric drugs including antipsychotics, stimulants, tranquilizers, antidepressants and mood stabilizers impair executive function in such a way as the person is totally unaware of their impairment even though it is very obvious to everyone around them.
1. "Over the years I have evaluated many dozens of clinical and legal cases in which individuals have endured severe and sometimes lasting mental impairment from taking psychiatric drugs. In many of these cases, the individuals committed horrendous acts that were wholly out of character for them. Recently when re-evaluating my extensive experience with these cases, I realized that all psychoactive drugs produce an effect that can he called medication spellbinding or, more technically, intoxication anosognosia. Anosognosia means the inability to recognize illness in oneself. Drugs that impair mental function at the same time impair the individual's ability to recognize that dysfunction." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 10)

Psychiatric drugs cause diabetes 25% of Psychiatric drug users develop diabetes and develop the classic "moon face" appearance of such users. It is ironic that psychiatrists commonly equate psychiatric drugs as a cure for chemical imbalances the way insulin cures diabetes, when in fact psychiatric drugs actually cause diabetes! "Perhaps the one telltale sign that the meeting was for people diagnosed with a mental illness was that a fair number were overweight. People diagnosed with bipolar disorder are often prescribed an atypical antipsychotic, such as Zyprexa, and those drugs regularly cause people to put on the pounds.” (Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker, 2010 AD, p13) Psychiatric drugs cause diabetes

	Psychiatry is not medicine, but a profit motivated business. Drug companies make tons of money off the bogus chemical imbalance myth that has no scientific support. Read more
Drug companies & media promote lies for money "At this point in history, in my view, psychiatry has been almost completely bought out by the drug companies. Psychiatrists have become the minions of drug company promotions." (L.R. Mosher, Psychiatrist, 1998) Read more

F. Psychiatric drugs work no better than placebo

1. The case of Janis Schonfeld: "Janis Schonfeld was a poster patient for this new generation of antidepressants. The forty-six-year-old interior designer, married with a daughter, was contemplating suicide when she found just enough hope to enroll in a drug study at UCLA. She put up with the greasy gel through which the EEG recorded her brain activity for forty-five minutes. But she couldn't wait to get started on those promising new pills. And the pills worked brilliantly. Yes, nausea was a tiresome side effect, but her competent and caring nurse had warned her about that. Much more important, her life got back on track. As Mother Jones magazine put it, Schonfeld seemed "yet another person who owed a nearly miraculous recovery to the new generation of antidepressants." (Gary Greenberg, "Is It Prozac or Placebo?" Mother Jones, November/December 2003) On Schonfeld's last visit, one of the doctors took her and her nurse aside and told them both the truth: Schonfeld had been in the control group. She was taking a sugar pill-in the research lingo, a placebo. Her recovery, the doctor hastened to assure her, was entirely genuine. But the only drug she had received was an immaterial and immortal substance- hope. Schonfeld's main challenge, given that she lived in a materialist environment, was to accept the evidence of her own experience-that a recovery based on her inner resources is real-rather than the urgent cultural messages that only a brain-bending drug could really help her." (The Spiritual Brain, Mario Beauregard Ph.D., Neuroscientist, 2007)
2. "Meta-analyses of data from controlled trials [of SSRI drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil] have not found reduced rates of suicide or suicidal behaviour in drug arms compared with placebo arms. Conclusions: The NICE review data suggest that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors do not have a clinically meaningful advantage over placebo, which is consistent with other recent meta-analyses. In addition, methodological artefacts may account for the small effect seen. Evidence that antidepressants are more effective in more severe conditions is not strong, and data on long term outcome of depression and suicide do not provide convincing evidence of benefit. In children, the balance of benefits to risks is now recognised as unfavourable. We suggest this may also be the case for adults, given the continuing uncertainty about the possible risk of increased suicidality as well as other known adverse effects. This conclusion implies the need for a thorough re-evaluation of current approaches to depression and further development of alternatives to drug treatment. Since antidepressants have become society's main response to distress, expectations raised by decades of their use will also need to be addressed." (Efficacy of antidepressants in adults, Joanna Moncrieff, senior lecturer in social and community psychiatry, Irving Kirsch, professor of psychology, BMJ. 2005 July 16; 331(7509): 155–157)
3. "Concerning antidepressants, for example, meta-analyses (overviews) of hundreds of published clinical trials are challenging the idea that such drugs, including Prozac, have any genuine antidepressant effect. Studies show that at least 80 percent of the antidepressant effect is a placebo effect—the positive response that people have to any treatment that they hope or think will work. But the remaining 20 percent of the positive result may be caused by the "active placebo" effect—which is related to the fact that the antidepressants, unlike placebos, have noticeable side effects that convince the subjects that they are getting "strong" or "real" medicine." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 55)
4. "Can neuroscience help alleviate or prevent the suffering and loss by mapping what happens when people succeed in voluntarily suppressing sad thoughts without recourse to medication? The answer is important because the current generation of antidepressants often performs barely better than placebos, as we shall see. In other words, if a patient can effectively self-heal by learning, through focused therapy, how to recruit existing inner resources, antidepressants can be targeted to specific, focused needs." (The Spiritual Brain, Mario Beauregard Ph.D., Neuroscientist, 2007, p134)
5. "Despite the current enthusiasm for Prozac, the FDA studies underscored the drug's lack of effectiveness, and recent analyses of literature indicate that antidepressants in general are no better than placebo" (Talking Back to Prozac, Peter Breggin, M.D, 1994, p. 57).
6. "Many patients with severe pain due to cancer or to physical injuries feel better for a while after an injection of plain sterile water if they are told it is a pain killer. Similarly, in clinical drug trials, forty percent or more of patients with anxiety or depression commonly feel better when given a sugar pill that they are told will be helpful to them. If the conditions are right—that is, if the patients have a lot of faith in what they are being given—a sugar pill may produce emotional improvement in 60 to 90 percent of patients. This is the placebo effect—improvement that comes from a positive expectation or faith in the drug or the doctor rather than from any chemical impact of the substance. The placebo effect can be helpful. The lowly sugar pill, which rarely causes any physical harm but can relieve physical or emotional suffering, has the best risk/benefit ratio in biopsychiatry. The placebo effect also explains much of the effectiveness of psychiatric drugs. However, when an individual attributes improvement to the physical characteristics of a pill, and to the expectation that it will work, that person's belief in his or her own psychological or spiritual power can be undermined. This experience can encourage reliance on the pill rather than on personal efforts." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 118)
7. "A zeal for anticonvulsants developed on the assumption that almost any anticonvulsant would act as a mood stabilizer. This produced, for instance, an explosion in the use of gabapentin (Neurontin) in the late 1990's, fueled, it appears, by a series of ghostwritten articles, planted in a series of journals by the drug's manufacturer, Warner Lambert, that suggested gabapentin would be effective for mood disorders." At one point gabapentin was grossing $1.3 billion a year, a very large proportion of which came from its off-label use as a mood stabilizer. The bubble was punctured when a randomized controlled trial demonstrated that gabapentin had little if any mood-stabilizing property." (Shock Therapy: A History of Electroconvulsive Treatment in Mental Illness, Edward Shorter, David Healy, 2007, p 275)
8. "Another example concerns Prozac, which, in many of the studies used for FDA approval, turned out to be no better than a sugar pill. Making it look effective required selecting from among the studies and then doctoring them statistically to include patients who had also been treated with tranquilizers. Prozac is now marketed as a generic drug and has lost popularity to other SSRIs. Predictably, interest in its effects and history has faded—which allows many of the errors and deceptions in its approval and marketing to be repeated with impunity for the drugs that follow." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 131)
9. "Schizophrenia, with its pervasive life impairments and the woeful lack of knowledge regarding its molecular pathophysiology, is a distressing mental illness. Its treatments have been empiric and serendipitously discovered, not rationally understood. Moreover, the treatments are partial, in that psychosis is the treatment-responsive symptom domain, whereas cognition and negative symptoms respond minimally. ... The hope that other new antipsychotics with fewer metabolic side effects might offer a similar effect was not fulfilled. Some have pointed out that older drugs like perphenazine, with their lower costs, may now once again become rational first-line therapies. The memory of patients with tardive dyskinesia still haunts many clinicians, however. ... This study strongly confirms what we have seen before, that clozapine is our most effective drug for schizophrenic psychosis. ... It is only clozapine that is superior, although its side effects are clearly challenging." (Practical Treatment Information for Schizophrenia, Carol A. Tamminga, American Journal of Psychiatry 163:4, April 2006)
10. For a full discussion of the nocebo and placebo effect, click here.

G. The nocebo effect of Psychiatric drug withdrawal:

The anticipated nocebo effect of drug withdrawal is a fourfold whammy:

1. First, the negative nocebo psychological effect of knowing ahead of time that there will be drug withdrawal pains, making them psychosomatically worse than they actually are.
2. Second, the actual physical pains of drug withdrawal. (and they are excruciating... ask any junkie)
3. Third, the actual rebound of the brain to function without being stimulated, means that the brain has been compensating for this stimulation by functioning at a lower suppressed level (in the case of a stimulant to treat depression). When a stimulant (for depression) is removed from the brain, it sends the person into a natural depression because the brain had been trying depress mental activity in response to the unnatural stimulating effect of the drug. The brain slows down when it encounters a stimulant prescribed for depression. When the drug is removed, it takes time for the brain to pick up speed to normal. The same is true with tranquilizers prescribed for anxiety. Tranquilizers for anxiety, artificially slow down the brain, which in turn reacts by speeding itself up. When the anti-anxiety drug is removed, the brain suddenly speeds up. When your brain is on an anti-anxiety drug, it is like driving your car at the speed limit of 30 miles per hour. When you take an anti-anxiety drug, it is like applying the brakes to the car, which means you must press the gas petal at the same time to keep the car moving at the same speed. You are driving your car with your foot on the gas and the brake at the same time to maintain the speed of 30 mph. When you stop taking the drug, it is like suddenly removing your foot off the brake, which causes the car to speed up to 40 mph. It takes time for the brain to slow the car down to 30 again. This is the rebound effect of drug withdrawal.
4. Fourth: All this convinces the person that they need the drug to remove their depression and they are insane because of a chemical imbalance in the brain . Of course when they start taking the drug again, the withdrawal pains instantly go away (ask any junkie) and the brain is artificially stimulated once again, bringing it up to normal equilibrium levels.
5. For a full discussion of the nocebo and placebo effect, click here.

H. Painful withdrawal effects of psychiatric drugs:

1. A junkie is a junkie, even when your doctor's prescribe the drugs. If you have been taking psychiatric drugs for more than 30 days, you are a junkie, and like all junkies, you will suffer greatly when you stop taking your meds.
2. "Coming off drugs is often accompanied by the return of some of the original distressing feelings and behaviors that led you to take drugs in the first place. In the psychiatric literature, this phenomenon is usually referred to as a "relapse." Once a drug's effects begin to wear off, your original problems may begin to resurface if their psychological or situational roots have been neglected. … Coming off drugs—especially strong depressants such as tranquilizers, neuroleptics, or lithium—often involves a potentially dramatic reawakening of the senses. This reawakening can lead to feelings of panic in people who do not realize the extent to which their hearing, touch, taste, or sensations of cold and heat can become unexpectedly acute after having been desensitized or anesthetized for long periods." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 152,153)
3. "Unfortunately what I also see these days are the casualties of this new biologic psychiatry, as patients often come to me with many years of past treatment. Patients having been diagnosed with "chemical imbalances" despite the fact that no test exists to support such a claim, and that there is no real conception of what a correct chemical balance would look like. Patients with years of medication trials which have done nothing except reify in them an identity as a chronic patient with a bad brain. This identification as a biologically-impaired patient is one of the most destructive effects of biologic psychiatry. (Against Biologic Psychiatry, Dr. David Kaiser, Psychologist, Psychiatric Times, December, Dec. 1996, Vol. XIII, Issue 12)
4. "We condone and promote the widespread overuse and misuse of toxic chemicals that we know have serious long term effects: tardive dyskinesia, tardive dementia and serious withdrawal syndromes. So, do I want to be a drug company patsy who treats molecules with their formulary? No, thank you very much. It saddens me that after 35 years as a psychiatrist I look forward to being dissociated from such an organization. In no way does it represent my interests. It is not within my capacities to buy into the current biomedical-reductionistic model heralded by the psychiatric leadership as once again marrying us to somatic medicine." (L.R. Mosher, Psychiatrist, resignation letter from the American Psychiatric Association, 1998)
5. "The modern medical system treats depression with anti-depression drugs which provide temporary relief but have harmful side-effects and do not remove the causes or prevent its recurrence. The harmful side-effects include gross liver damage, hypersensitivity, insomnia, hallucinations, a confused state, convulsions, a fall in blood pressure which brings on headaches and dizziness , blurred vision, difficulty in inhaling and urine retention. The plan of action for self-treatment of depression consists of regulating the diet, exercise, scientific relaxation and meditation." (Kevin Trudeau, Handbook Of Natural Cures, Depression)
6. "I am constantly amazed by how many patients who come to see me believe or want to believe that their difficulties are biologic and can be relieved by a pill. This is despite the fact that modern psychiatry has yet to convincingly prove the genetic/biologic cause of any single mental illness. However, this does not stop psychiatry from making essentially unproven claims that depression, bipolar illness, anxiety disorders, alcoholism and a host of other disorders are in fact primarily biologic and probably genetic in origin, and that it is only a matter of time until all this is proven. This kind of faith in science and progress is staggering, not to mention naive and perhaps delusional. (Against Biologic Psychiatry, Dr. David Kaiser, Psychologist, Psychiatric Times, December, Dec. 1996, Vol. XIII, Issue 12)
7. "Today's dominant theory of serious" mental illnesses" posits them to be genetically determined (i.e., inherited), biochemically mediated (via "chemical imbalances"), life-long" brain diseases"(with associated specific neuropathologic changes) whose cause(s) and course is more or less independent of environmental factors is not supported by existing evidence. A critical review of the scientific available evidence reveals no clear indication of hereditary factors, no specific biochemical abnormalities, and no associated causal neurologic lesion(s). However, a number of environmental factors have been found to be related to their cause(s) and course (bibliography in preparation). It is also generally held that the anti-psychotic drugs are the mainstay of treatment and should, in most cases, be taken for a lifetime. In fact, the data indicate that neuroleptic drug treatment is not usually necessary (especially in persons newly identified as psychotic) if a proper interpersonal environment and social context is provided in alternatives to hospital care. It also appears that has drug treatment has resulted in less favorable long-term outcomes than was the case before anti-psychotic drugs were introduced. Furthermore, anti-psychotic drug treatment is associated with the induction of irreversible brain pathology (resulting in reduced intellectual and abnormal motor functioning) and shortened life expectancy. Pre-neuroleptic drug era long-term follow-up studies indicate that recovery can not only occur, but is to be expected in the majority of cases. Ergo, so called "chronicity" in "mental illness" is likely the result of its medicalization, institutionalization with its social network disruption, marginalization, discrimination and the less specific social consequences (e.g. poverty) that accompany these processes. ... Conclusion: the brain abnormalities attributed causal significance in mental illness are most likely the result of neuroleptic drug treatment." (The Biopsychiatric Model of "Mental Illness", "A Critical Bibliography" by Loren R. Mosher M.D.)
8. "When you talk to your doctor about problems stopping or reducing the dose of your psychiatric drug, keep in mind that your doctor may not know much about the problem or may even be irrationally denying its existence." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 173)
9. "In 2003 she stumbled across some literature that raised questions about Zyprexa's longterm safety and the merits of antipsychotic drugs. That led her to wean herself from that drug, and while that process was “pure hell”—she suffered terrible anxiety, severe panic attacks, paranoia, and horrible tremors—she eventually did get off that medication. She then decided to see if she could get off the benzodiazepine she was taking, Klonopin, and that turned into another horrible withdrawal experience, as she suffered such severe headaches she'd be in bed by noon. Still, she was gradually undoing her drug cocktail, and that caused her to question her bipolar diagnosis. She had first seen a therapist because she cried too much. There had been no mania—her sleeplessness and agitation hadn't arisen until after she had been placed on an antidepressant. Could she just have been a moody teenager who had some growing up to do?” (Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker, 2010 AD, quoting Dorea Vierling-Clausen p 29)

I. Pregnancy and psychiatric drugs: Newborn Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal

1. Pregnant and taking any drugs of any kind? Are you kidding?
1. You made your baby into a junkie like you! If you are ok destroying your own body with psychiatric drugs, that is one thing. But you have no right to destroy the brain of another human that will suffer and cost the rest of us a lot of money to care for the rest of its life.
2. All for your own selfish needs and purposes you knowingly hurt your baby to make yourself feel better with drugs.
3. You are not even supposed to take an aspirin when you are pregnant and you are taking powerful, destructive drugs that alter brain function! Quit! It is now all about the baby, and none about you. Get used to it. If this information triggers an attack of postpartum depression, click here.
4. "To date, the FDA has not approved any psychiatric drug for use during pregnancy or lactation. Some physicians try to reassure pregnant or nursing mothers about their baby's safety while they are taking psychiatric drugs. But there is no scientific basis for offering this reassurance in regard to any drug that affects the brain. There are many reasons not to start taking psychiatric drugs and many reasons to stop taking them once you have begun." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 108)
2. Ok, you are a junkie on prescribed drugs by your psychiatrist. If you want to know what your baby is going to go through, try stopping your drugs cold turkey and see how it feels! That's what happens to your baby the moment it is born.

1. The constant trickle of drugs your baby was consuming from your bloodstream ends at birth and instantly triggers huge and painful withdrawal symptoms.
2. "In addition, over a dozen studies so far have implicated expectant mothers' use of antidepressants during pregnancy with the appearance of a peculiar "neonatal abstinence syndrome." In one well-controlled study a full 30 percent of 60 infants whose mothers took antidepressants for prolonged periods, including during the third trimester, developed the syndrome, which lasted up to four days; 13 percent of the infants had severe reactions. The most common symptoms were tremor, gastrointestinal problems, an abnormal increase in muscle tone (hypertonicity), sleep disturbances and high-pitched cries. None of the 60 infants without exposure to SSRIs developed the syndrome." There is some debate whether this represents an actual withdrawal reaction or a sign of direct drug toxicity in the serotonin system." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 203)

J. Drugs do not make us commit crimes, murder and suicide:

1. Since insanity is not a biological problem, but a spiritual choice, insanity is never an excuse for sinful or criminal conduct. We are always fully accountable for our actions. The insanity plea "not guilty for reasons of insanity" must be abolished.
   
2. A person's freewill is never violated by either "insanity", drugs or the withdrawal symptoms of drugs. Schyzophrenics are always in full control of 100% of their actions and must be held accountable in a court of law for any crimes they commit. Biopsychiatrists argue that chemical imbalances induce a person to murder, rape and commit suicide through an "irresistible impulse". We reject this outright!
1. "I maintain that neither mental illness nor psychiatric drugs cause suicide or murder. Self-killing and the killing of others are voluntary acts for which the actor is responsible. We must distinguish between a drug's, say a barbiturate, causing sleep, and a drug's, say Thorazine, "causing" suicide. Sleep is a biological condition. Suicide is an action. To be sure, an antipsychotic drug may cause involuntary movements and tormenting inner tensions, which may "drive" some people to kill themselves, as also may the loss of loved ones, bad marriages, and stock market crashes. Coerced drugging, as I have stated, is an evil, even if it has no biologically harmful effects. ... If a person ingests a drug voluntarily, he is and ought to be held responsible for his drug-influenced behavior. If a person is drugged against his will, the poisoner ought to be held responsible for the poisoned person's drug-influenced behavior." (Coercion as Cure, Thomas Szasz, 2007 AD, p 181)
2. "The pro-drug psychiatrist claims that psychotropic drugs treat mental diseases, often manifested by suicide and homicide. When a patient does not take his "prescribed medication" and then kills himself or others, he blames the patient's behavior on "untreated mental illness." The pro-drug psychiatrist attributes agency to mental illness, and non- agency to the persons he calls "mental patients"—and testifies in court that the patient was not legally responsible for his lawless acts. The anti-drug psychiatrist claims that psychotropic drugs predispose to (cause) suicide and murder. When a patient takes his "prescribed psychiatric" medication and then kills himself or others, he blames the patient's behavior on the psychotropic drug. The anti-drug psychiatrist attributes agency to certain psychotropic drugs (but not to others, such as alcohol and nicotine), and non-agency to persons whom he considers victims of psychiatric malpractice—and testifies in court that the patient was not legally responsible for his lawless acts." (Coercion as Cure, Thomas Szasz, 2007 AD, p 179)
3. "Psychiatric drug withdrawal symptoms can be so painful and disquieting, that sometimes people fail to possess enough self-control and chose to respond by committing suicide or engaging in violent aggressive crimes. It doesn't help that they have been coached that they are not responsible for their psychotic behaviour because it is the involuntary consequence of a genetic defect and broken brain chemistry. Psychiatrists argue that the drugs used to correct the "chemical imbalance" force a person to murder, rape and commit suicide through an "irresistible impulse" independent of free will. We reject this outright! Violent crimes, murders and suicides have been wrongly blamed on the effect of the drugs. Actions are always the result of free will choices that God will hold us accountable for in judgement.

1. A person who has a medical record of seeing a psychiatrist AND is on neuroleptic drugs, knows he can commit any crime he can imagine with full double legal immunity because his psychiatrist will argue he is not guilty because of insanity AND claim that the drugs themselves caused him to commit the crime. We reject this outright!
2. A person who has a medical record of seeing a psychiatrist AND is has recently withdrawn from neuroleptic drugs, knows he can commit any crime he can imagine with full triple legal immunity because his psychiatrist will argue he is not guilty because of insanity, not guilty because the drugs made him do it, and not guilty because even the withdrawal symptoms caused him to act out "of irresistible impulse". We reject this outright!
3. Our position is crystal clear and simple. We ultimately control how what we do. Mood altering psychiatric drugs, LSD, marihuana and alcohol can change how we feel, but never force us to act in any way. Pain, suffering, depression, anxiety, worry, guilt do not force a person to rape, murder, commit acts of violence or commit suicide. Drugs may affect our feelings, but have no impact on our moral responsibility because they do not affect our freewill to choose our actions.

K. The argument: "drugs improved the patient"

1. You will often hear the argument as a proof that chemical imbalances exist by showing how drugs returned a schizophrenic to a normal balanced life.
2. In other words, the persons behaviour improved while on the drug and deteriorates when he is off the drug. When you realize that antipsychotic drugs are chemical lobotomies that suspend executive functions and create apathy, indifference and "I don't care about anything" attitude, we do agree that these drugs modify behaviour. But this is no proof that the person has a biological problem.
3. Insanity is a moral choice of behavour and the drugs make the person not care to continue this behavour. A person may be sad or depressed and the drugs make him indifferent to his real life problems. The drugs to not solve any problems, they just remove the care and worry about these problems. When the drugs wear off, the normal emotions return to the person and they get sad again.
4. "The view that certain chemicals enhance productivity is hardly a new idea. South American Indians have long chewed coca leaves for this reason. Freud felt that smoking enabled him to be more creative. He did not claim, however, that the beneficial effect of nicotine is evidence that the smoker suffers from a disease for which nicotine is a treatment. Basing the claim for the disease status for depression and schizophrenia on the subject's allegedly favorable response to drugs rests on precisely that logic. If giving a particular drug is authoritatively classified as a "treatment," the subject as a "patient," and his posttreatment behavior as an "improvement," then, ipso facto, the disease that he had was a bona fide disease. Thus has "response to treatment" become one of our diagnostic criteria." (The Medicalization Of Everyday Life, Thomas Szasz, 2007 AD, p 23)

L. Psychiatric drugs prevent true recovery:

1. Since it is a fact that insanity is a spiritual choice, not a biological problem with the body, drugs dull the very feelings we need to solve our own problems.

a. We feel bad, because something is bothering us.

b. Removing the bad feelings through drugs doesn't solve the problem that is bothering us.

c. Depression, guilt, anxiety, shame, chronic anger, emotional blasé are signals that the choices a person has made are bad and new choices need to be selected.

d. A new regiment of lifestyle not new regiment of prescribed psychiatric drugs will correct most problems.

e. "In the arena of emotional problems, it is even more important to avoid suppressing pain [through drugs]. Attempts to suppress painful feelings can do more harm than good. These attempts give the wrong impression to clients—that their suffering is the problem, rather than a signal of their problems. Intense emotions should be viewed as indicators that something important is going on rather than as symptoms to be eradicated." (The Heart of Being Helpful, Peter Breggin, 1997 AD. p 33).

2. Psychiatric drugs make us reliant on new chemicals instead of new choices to solve our problems and dependent on outward solutions instead of inward soul searching and repentance.

a. The mental health industry has become a vending machine that dispenses a drug for each of life's common problems. We grow in spirit and wisdom when we endure a problem and take new steps to account for it.

b. "Psychiatric diagnosis has become so widespread that it is almost impossible to mention any kind of "feeling" to a medical doctor without being assigned a psychiatric label and prescribed the latest psychiatric drug. And this scenario is not limited to strong emotions or serious distress. Feeling fatigued? 'Take Prozac. Feeling as though you've lost your enthusiasm or direction? Take Paxil or Zoloft, especially if Prozac hasn't worked. Feeling trapped in an abusive relationship? Take Effexor, Luvox, or lithium. Feeling a little nervous? Take Xanax, Klonopin, or Ativan. Having trouble disciplining your child? Give the child Ritalin, or Dexedrine, or Adderall. Having trouble focusing on work that bores you? Try Ritalin for yourself. Having ups and downs of any kind? Take any number of psychiatric drugs." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 22)

c. Drugs have become an instant fix that short circuits the learning process of navigating through life's problems without being robbed of inner peace, joy and contentment.

d. Doctors and drugs never solve life problems, they make us indifferent so we don't care anymore which merely defers the time when we need to address the problem ourselves.

M. Getting off psychiatric drugs: Becoming drug free. You don't have to be a junkie for life! "When you talk to your doctor about problems stopping or reducing the dose of your psychiatric drug, keep in mind that your doctor may not know much about the problem or may even be irrationally denying its existence." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 173) It is important to find a doctor who understands that why you want to be drug free for the rest of your life.

1. The case of Sharon: "Sharon was told by her psychiatrist that she had a chemical imbalance in her brain and she would need to take antidepressants (Zoloft) for life for her persistent depression. However, after 4 years, Sharon wanted to become drug free so she quit cold turkey. After two days she collapsed emotionally into a deep lethargic depression and contemplated suicide. Her family doctor was completely unaware of the fact that sudden withdrawal from psychiatric drugs has huge side effects equal to that when you withdraw from long term heroin use. He told her that her depression when she stopped taking the drug was proof she really did have a chemical imbalance and he wrote her a new prescription and doubled the dose. However, Sharon wanted to become drug free or start taking different antidepressants that did not turn her into a zombie during her work day. Over a period of months, she went from doctor to doctor but each one had the same story: stay on Zoloft or suggest an alternative. She did a bit of reading and learned that you must withdraw one month for every year you are on psychiatric drugs. Unable to find a doctor to help her become drug free, she incrementally reduced the dose over a period of time and avoided any withdrawal side effects. Once drug free, she reflected how Zoloft had robbed her of her life and had turned her into a listless, indifferent robot merely acting out life's daily routines. She also realized that she had been depressed because of problems at home and work. Some were outside of her control, but several problems she had created herself. For all the years she was on Zoloft, these problems remained unchanged, waiting for her to take responsibility for her own actions, live with the one's she could not change and change the one's she could. A Christian friend at work gave her the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi “Lord, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." She treasured that little bit of wisdom and found herself starting to read the Bible more of the same wisdom. She began attending church, became a Christian and found new purpose and meaning in life. She also found new guidance in her own personal behaviour and her relationship with her husband and workmates improved dramatically. Sharon has now been drug free for over 10 years and regrets the harm psychiatrists did to her with their drugs.
2. The case of Jeff Demann: "Every other week, Jeff Demann drives to a clinic in rural Michigan, drops his pants and gets a shot of an antipsychotic drug that he says makes him sick. "If I don't show up, the cops show up at my door and I wind up in a mental ward," says the unemployed 44-year-old, who lives on disability in Holland, Mich. Mr. Demann's routine reflects a national trend toward forcing people with psychotic tendencies to get treatment -- even if they haven't committed violent acts. Driving the trend are E. Fuller Torrey, a 68-year-old maverick psychiatrist who believes the laws help prevent crime, and memorabilia mogul Ted Stanley, who has contributed millions of dollars to the cause. ... Mr. Demann, the 44-year-old Holland, Mich., man, says he has been in and out of institutions since 1987. That is when he was diagnosed as schizophrenic after he broke up with his girlfriend and accidentally overdosed on her antianxiety pills, he says. Branded as suicidal yet constantly refusing medication, Mr. Demann says mental-health authorities are forcing him to take a drug, Risperdal, that he says causes him to be moody, angry, restless and depressed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2004 found that Risperdal and some other antipsychotic drugs can increase the incidence of diabetes. Mr. Demann agrees he needs therapy but doesn't want drugs. "I don't believe in putting this stuff into my body," Mr. Demann says. "It's time for the system to let me go."" (Strong Medicine: More Forced Care for the Mentally Ill, Fritz, M., Wall Street Journal, February 1, 2006 AD, p. AI)
3. "Hence, the focus of this book—the stories of persons who were not listened to as they suffered torment of the soul, self and mind from psychotropic drugs—often given against their will, is very important. They are the stories of courageous decisions made against powerful expert doctors (and sometimes families and friends)—and the torment that sometimes ensued. Stopping medications began to restore their brains' physiology to their pre-medication states. Most had never been warned that the drugs would change their brains' physiology (or, worse yet, selectively damage regions of nerve cells in the brain) such that withdrawal reactions would almost certainly occur. Nor were they aware that these withdrawal reactions might be long lasting and might be interpreted as their "getting sick again." They are horror stories of what might happen (but does not have to happen) when attempting to return brains to usual functioning after being awash with "therapeutic" chemicals. Unfortunately, the suffering was usually necessary in order restore soul, self and mind—the essence of humanity." (Coming off Psychiatric Drugs: Successful Withdrawal from Neuroleptics, Antidepressants, Lithium, Carbamazepine and Tranquilizers, Preface, Dr. Loren R. Mosher, Edited by P. Lehmann.)
4. Important Note: Never stop taking prescribed drugs of a medical doctor or psychiatrist without first consulting them. Stopping cold turkey might kill you! If you are on Neuroleptics by a judge's order, get a job and show you can function on your own and ask for your drugs to be reduced by your doctor. The more you show your psychiatrist you can function independently, responsibly and normally on your own, the less drugs they will prescribe. It's all up to you! The first step is to tell your doctor that the drugs are interfering with your ability to work. Ask your doctor to cut your drug dose down. After six months of working, go in again and ask him to reduce it again. As long as you can function independently, responsibly and normally on your own they will keep reducing the drugs over time at your request. Always work through your doctor. Never make any decisions to make drug or dosing changes without a doctor's oversight. The key to your freedom from psychiatric slavery is when you prove to them you are self-sufficient and not in need of welfare. They key indicator psychiatrists and judges look for in releasing you from compulsory court ordered drug regiment is that you stop annoying people and are not dependent on anyone. If you are voluntarily taking psychiatric drugs, it is the sin of pharmacia (Gal 5:20) and just as sinful as if you were walking around constantly drunk or stoned or high on cocaine. Consult a doctor and work out a drug withdrawal program and then stay off these dangerous man-made chemicals that cause many problems and solve none.

Conclusion:

1. Chemical imbalances are a myth, with no science to prove they exist, only theory!
1. Psychiatric drugs cause brain damage. See : Reading list: Anti-psychotic Drugs cause brain damage by Loren R. Mosher M.D.
2. Psychiatric drugs don't cure, only remove pain and suffering of the spirit. When the drugs wear off, the pain returns.
3. Neuroleptic and anti-psychotic drugs do not fix this imagined "chemical imbalance" but merely tranquilize and stupefy.
4. "Conclusion: the brain abnormalities attributed causal significance in mental illness are most likely the result of neuroleptic drug treatment." (The Biopsychiatric Model of "Mental Illness", "A Critical Bibliography" by Loren R. Mosher M.D.)
2. Get a full medical examination: "doctors commonly give people psychiatric drugs without checking for obvious signs of serious physical disorder, such as hypothyroidism, estrogen deficiency, or head injury from a car accident. Moreover, they seem particularly prone to overlooking the importance of physical symptoms in women. Some women with obvious signs of a hormonal disorder or heart condition are put on antidepressants and antianxiety drugs without first being required by their internists or psychiatrists to undergo a physical evaluation." (Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD, p 24)
3. The case of Dorea Vierling-Clausen: “When I was 'bipolar,' I had an excuse for any unpredictable or unstable behavior. I had permission to behave in that way, but now I am holding myself to the same behavioral standards as everyone else, and it turns out I can meet them. This is not to say that I don't have bad days. I do, and I may still worry more than the average Joe, but not that much more.” (Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker, quoting Dorea Vierling-Clausen, p 30)
4. The case of Kevin: For most of Kevin's life, he had been on a wide variety of psychiatric drugs. The school told his mother that unless she put him on Ritalin, they would either expel him or transfer him to a school for children with learning disabilities. Through high school, Kevin was drug free, but as a young adult, Kevin was prescribed antidepressants (Prozac and Paxil), tranquilizers (Xanax and Ativan), and mood stabilizers (Lithium and Depakote). He felt like his life was a blur and he wondered how he would feel if he became drug free again. Most of the time, he was calculating how he could try new combinations of his drugs to balance the biochemical imbalance in his brain so he would feel normal again. However, nothing seemed to work. Strangely, his psychiatrist would diagnose him with a brand new "mental disease" including ADHD, Bipolar, Borderline Personality Disorder, Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Anxiety and Depression. He was unsure if one disease morphed into a new one, or if he had them all at the same time! He noticed, however, that he began to feel worse if he missed a dose. He wrongly assumed this was proof the drugs were correcting his chemical imbalance rather than the same drug withdrawal pain a heroin addict feels if they miss one of their 5 intravenous shots a day. Heroin addicts inject a small amount of the drug many times a day to stave off the pain of addiction. For example Jeff, a long time heroin user, became drug free after quitting cold turkey and literally spent 6 days writhing on the floor of his apartment by himself in excruciating pain and nausea without food. It almost killed him and he had been strongly warned not to do this. But he became drug free and Jeff is still is to this day. Kevin, however, did not have the basic understanding of drug addiction withdrawal pain and did not realize he was a "legal junkie". Kevin believed his psychiatrist when he told him that he had an incurable genetic and biological disorder. Kevin felt robbed of hope and believed he was a biological misfit. His psychiatrist looked him in the eye and sternly told him that he would need medications for the rest of his life. Kevin was not prepared to accept this but it troubled him that he was in denial about his mental disease. Kevin went to the internet and typed in "biological misfit" as a form of self-punishment late one night and what he read made him angry. He came to the "Clinical Textbook of Biblical Psychiatry" and learned that all behaviour is a moral choice and that there was no scientific proof that the schizophrenics have a biochemical imbalance in their brain. He was angry that these "stupid Bible thumpers" believed in a 6000 year old earth, Adam and Eve and Noah's ark but rejected all the scientific proof that the mentally ill have a biochemical imbalance in their brain. He woke up the next morning and said to himself, "I wish to God that they were right about biochemical imbalances being a myth because then I could become drug free". He started reading more and was stunned with the admission of top medical authorities that they really had no idea what caused mental illness but they ASSUMED it was caused by biochemical imbalances in the brain. Now he was angry at his psychiatrist. Kevin determined to become drug free. He went from doctor to doctor to taper himself off all psychiatric drugs but none would do it. They told him he was suffering from anosognosia but this made him even more determined. On one hand he could throw in the towel, believe everything they were saying and live with drugs for the rest of his life, or on the other hand, he could believe what his new church minister was telling him that it all came down to his own will power and moral choices in life. Kevin was referred to a new book, "Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families" by Peter Breggin, M.D. He learned the general principle of needing one month of withdrawal for each year he had been on psychiatric drugs. With book in hand, Kevin went to his family doctor and demanded to be tapered off all drugs over a 12 month period with his supervision. Kevin's doctor bought a copy Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal and began using it as a reference in his own practice as a medical doctor. Kevin was stunned with the idea that those "stupid Bible thumpers" were right and the top medical experts were wrong. He was glad he had hoped they were right and began to study for himself. As a churchgoer, Kevin learned in the weekly sermons and his personal daily Bible reading that he is responsible for his behaviour and how he feels. Kevin still has his good days and bad days, but now that he is drug free, he realizes that 90% of the problems he once experienced were actually caused by the psychiatric drugs the psychiatrist prescribed him. Find me a "stupid Bible thumping church" that believes in Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark in my own home town for me to attend.

Important Note: Never stop taking prescribed drugs of a medical doctor or psychiatrist without first consulting them. Stopping cold turkey might kill you! If you are on Neuroleptic by a judge's order, get a job and show you can function on your own and ask for your drugs to be reduced by your doctor. The more you show your psychiatrist you can function independently, responsibly and normally on your own, the less drugs they will prescribe. Its all up to you! The first step is to tell your doctor that the drugs are interfering with your ability to work. Ask your doctor to cut your drug dose down. After six months of working, go in again and ask him to reduce it again. As long as you can function independently, responsibly and normally on your own they will keep reducing the drugs over time at your request. Always work through your doctor. Never make any decisions to make drug or dosing changes without a doctor's oversight.

Recommended Reading
Buy Your Drug May Be Your Problem Peter Breggin, David Cohen, 2007 AD	Buy Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Peter Breggin, 2013 AD	Buy Anatomy of an Epidemic Robert Whitaker, 2010 AD

By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.

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