Re: Healing Schrizophrenia, Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs

Hi North Star, and many kudos for your efforts to get yourself back to radiant health.

This information may be a good point for some investigation, Dr. Loren Mosher lived his life working with and for schizophrenia patients and adamantly advocated non-drug treatment. However, he strongly advises against stopping medication all at once, and without first learning about your own personal needs.

His book may just have some very good information for you, and his websites have articles links and other reference material that may help you ascertain his credibilty.

I do wish you the best in your efforts .... MadArt (ist)

*******
Loren R. Mosher, M.D.,
former Chief of the Center for Studies of Schizophrenia,
National Institutes of Mental Health.
http://www.moshersoteria.com


Excerpts: from the preface for "Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs"

"This book is a must read for anyone who might consider taking or no longer taking these mind altering legal drugs and perhaps even more so for those able to prescribe them."

“The many different methods of successfully withdrawing from psychiatric drugs cannot be represented in a single book. As the editor of this book, it was important to me that "my" authors, with the exception of the contributing professionals, openly describe the personal path they took as well as the wishes and fears that accompanied them. They were told that there was only one thing they should NOT DO, namely, to tell others what they should do or to offer surefire prescriiptions for how to withdraw. EVERY READER MUST BE AWARE OF THE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS AND THE POSSIBILITIES, OF THEIR OWN PERSONAL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES, AND OF THEIR INDIVIDUAL LIMITATIONS AND DESIRES SUCH THAT THEY CAN FIND THEIR OWN MEANS AND THEIR OWN WAY OF REACHING THEIR GOAL. These reports by individuals who have successfully withdrawn are intended to show that it is possible to reach this goal and to live free of psychiatric drugs. “

“Peter Lehmann, board-member of the European Network of (ex-)Users and Survivors of Psychiatry and former board-member of Mental Health Europe (the European section of the World Federation for Mental Health), has earned recognition for this difficult task as the first world wide expert to gather experiences from people themselves and their therapists, who have withdrawn from psychotropic drugs successfully or who have supported their clients to do so. In this manual 28 people from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA and Yugoslavia write about their experiences with withdrawal. Additionally, eight psychotherapists, physicians, psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists, natural healers and other professionals report on how they helped their clients withdraw. Via the internationality of the authors the book provides a broad picture of different experiences and knowledge. “

“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.

However, because the drugs were given thoughtlessly, paternalistically and often unnecessarily to fix an unidentifiable "illness" the book is an indictment of physicians. The Hippocratic Oath—to above all do no harm—was regularly disregarded in the rush to "do something." How is it possible to determine whether soul murder might be occurring without reports of patients' experiences with drugs that are aimed directly at the essence of their humanity? Despite their behavior, doctors are only MD's, not MDeity's. They, unlike gods, have to be held accountable for their actions.”


http://www.peter-lehmann-publishing.com/withdraw/prefaces.htm#loren