Something’s not right
//Trigger Warning - This post contains information about disturbing mental health practices and atrocities that are taking place in Australia. Please do not read this post if you think it is likely to upset or trigger you.
.....continued from part 1
Manifesto For Change
I was recently asked by one of the members of this forum to suggest a suitable “manifesto” for a mental health reform group. Without hesitation I recommended the World Health Organisation (WHO) Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030.
(WHO) Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030.
Another document worth looking at is the WHO world mental health report 2022.
WHO world mental health report 2022.
Is the World Health Organisation a Left Wing Organisation?
The WHO is considered by many to be a left wing organisation and in many ways it is. They typically advocate radical reforms that are unpopular with conservative interests. For example they acknowledge that social issues like poverty, housing and racial discrimination play a significant role in mental health. For me personally, this document is a fair and reasonable statement of reform objectives. I support it. To the best of my knowledge, no one on this forum who has looked at this document disagrees with it. I would very much like to hear from anyone who does disagree and why.
Blurred Battle Lines
At first glance it may seem that all people with mental health problems would be on "our side", i.e. the "progressive" school of mental health. That is not necessarily the case. Many understandably wish for a quick and effortless solution. The idea that some mental health problems can take years of hard work or even a lifetime to resolve is not something some people want to hear. Any reform that recognises that there is often no simple quick and easy fix may be rejected out of hand, sometimes with extreme hostility.
Anti Psychiatry
At this stage I haven't come across anyone on this forum who supports the "anti" crowd such as the likes of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) etc who want to ban psychiatry and medication. The WHO plan includes stopping cruel, inhumane and abusive practices and giving people choices over their individual treatment. This requires those who provide mental health products or services to also provide accurate, truthful information about them. It also involves treating those of us who suffer from mental health problems including those of us who have to deal with the very real challenges of psychosis as responsible adults, not little children.
Multi Nationals and Professional Unions
The multi-national pharmaceutical companies and the professional medical associations (unions) are often held responsible as being the traditional "them". Indiscriminate labelling like this however can be very misleading. Not all pharmaceutical companies are pushing a self interest agenda. This has nothing to do with altruism. Rather it is the realisation that in the long term this is not a winning game. Some have simply dropped out than rather risk putting more money into marketing driven propaganda that has been taking place for about the last 40 years. Many of these companies are also becoming concerned about the possible legal liabilities that their past antics could expose them to. (Ref 10)
Good Doctor, Bad Doctor
Likewise there are many completely honourable psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. Some of them have risked their careers and reputations to speak out about the lies and malpractices that have or are taking place.
Even the battle lines of the “traditionalist” and “progressive" schools of mental health are nowhere as near to black and white as I earlier portrayed. Things are already changing but at an alarmingly slow pace. Our objective is to speed up these changes.
All in all, drawing the battle lines for this war is not a trivial task but the supporters of the "traditionalist" school at the moment still appear to be in significant majority.
Advocacy For Reform
I have experienced more than 50 years of vilification, discrimination and physical abuse as a result of my so called mental illness. At the end of last year, the Victorian Mental Health Authorities attempted to take me into custody and involuntarily put me in a geriatric institute for the insane. They didn't succeed. This was probably more to do with good luck than good management. I decided that enough was enough. About the middle of this year I decided to become an advocate for mental health reform and to use the rest of my life to try and make the world a better place for others going through the same sorts of hell that I have had to endure.
Alliances and Actions
I have been going around talking to people and organisations who claim to have an interest in mental health reform and looking at the possibilities for forming working alliances with some of them. It is early days yet but so far so good. Some of the things I am looking into are various forms of legal challenges to state governments together with greatly improved advocacy for those facing tribunals. From conversations with a number of people both on and off this forum, I have come to the conclusion that the existing tribunals are little more than a farce. There are many more things on my longer term agenda but I believe these will make a good start.
Here is an example of mental health activism currently happening in New Zealand. We have made contact with these people and are closely watching what they are doing.
Academics challenge Mental Health Act for free
Going Public
I have never been comfortable talking about my mental health problems to friends or colleagues and certainly not in public. Shame and fear about being the way I am affects me in much the same way as it does many others. Shedding my anonymity to speak out publicly about my experiences and the problems I see within the existing system fills me with dread. It is certainly not a decision that I have taken lightly but I have come to the conclusion that it is simply not possible to be a public advocate for mental health reform and remain anonymous.
There of course is absolutely no suggestion that anyone else on this forum should or needs to do likewise in fact I would caution anyone thinking of doing so to carefully consider the possible consequences.
Our Lives Should Be Our Own Business
I number of people have already attempted to discourage me from speaking out publicly. Some have claimed that I am just wasting my time. Others have been more antagonistic.
At my age I resent people trying to tell me what I can and can't or should and shouldn't do. Having a psychotic "mental Illness" may mean that at times I see the world in a very different way to others but is my view invalid just because it doesn't coincide with the view of "the crowd"? Does a different point of view make me a dangerous or irresponsible person or an incompetent fool who others have the right to treat as a child? Does it give others who know far less about my mind and body than I do the right to decide what treatment I need and the right to coerce or force me to comply with their decisions? Does it give those who don't agree with my point of view the right to lock me up in an institution at their whim despite the fact that I have committed no crime other than to disagree with their often questionable opinion? Does it give those who receive substantial public funding to provide what I and many others regard as essential mental health support services the right to arbitrarily make decisions about what I can and can't say at any point in time and then humiliate me and threaten to withdraw those services because some person in a position of power and authority happens to have a point of view that disagrees with mine?
These are all important questions that need to be asked and answered by all of us.
What I chose to do with my life is my decision. As long as my actions are within the law of the land, they are nobody’s business but mine.
On top of all this, just like everybody else here, I still have to deal with my own significant day to day mental health issues and challenges.
The Problem and the Solution
The problem is that we are a minority group who are being subjected to discrimination and abuse as a result of other people's ignorance and self interest. This situation is little different to the discrimination that has occurred to other minority groups in Australia and elsewhere both recently and throughout history.
The solution that has worked before for minority groups before and will work again to resolve this problem is
Aggressive, Well Organised, Non Violent Activism
The Aim : To raise public awareness about the atrocities and injustices being perpetrated against people afflicted with so called mental illness.
What I need from people on this forum and elsewhere is good FEEDBACK in order to try to fairly and accurately represent those who for one reason or another are unable or unwilling to speak out for themselves. Constructive criticism is also welcome.
I am willing to be your voice. PLEASE SPEAK UP ABOUT YOUR CONCERNS.
And don’t forget to @Willy if you want me to see your post.
And never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead
Regards
Willy
References
1. Victorian Government :Mental Health Act 2014 Authorised Version No. 024
No. 26 of 2014 Authorised Version incorporating amendments as at 1 September 2022
2. Bruce Levine: Do You Still Believe in the “Chemical Imbalance Theory of Mental Illness”? May 1, 2022
3. Ang B, Horowitz M, Moncrieff J : Is the chemical imbalance an ‘urban legend’? An exploration of the status of the serotonin theory of depression in the scientific literature
Division of Psychiatry, University College London, North East London Foundation Trust, UK
4. Frances A. The new crisis of confidence in psychiatric diagnosis. Annual Internal Medicine 2013:720.
5. Alsopp K, Read J, Corcoran R, Kinderman P. Heterogeneity in psychiatric diagnostic classification. Psychiatry Research 279 (2019) 1522
6. Cooke A (editor). Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia. The British Psychological Society ISBN: 978-1-85433-748-1
7. Mate G: The Myth of Normal ISBN 978178504272, Penguin Random House Sep 2022
8. Edwina Light etc Involuntary psychiatric treatment in the community: general practitioners and the implementation of community treatment orders. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Vol 44 No 7 July 2015
9 Australian Bureau of Statistics (2020-21), National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, ABS Website, accessed 1 December 2022
10. Robert I. Field, Antipsychotic Medications Are Spelling Legal Trouble for Drugmakers
Pharmacy and Therapeutics Vol. 35 No. 11 • November 2010
