Robert Whitaker's Book, Anatomy Of An Epidemic (psych meds and you)
Robert Whitaker's book, The Anatomy of an Epidemic is an astonishing must read for all because who isn't touched by psych meds- either yourself, or a dear friend or family member? The topic is complex and is handled with ease in both looking through scientific data, making timelines make sense in tracking a drug's history, and weaving in stories from court cases and personal interviews.
Once you read this, you will never be the same and you will also wish your doctor would read it too. In fact when I heard a state psychiatrist speak as part of a Rethinking Psychiatry public panel about when she first read this book, she said it was like a knife in her heart knowing she was supposed to "do no harm." She knew that patients will come to her thinking that they should have a psychiatric medication and that now with the knowledge she gained from Whitaker's investigation, she cannot participate in the disabling of her patients in good conscience through an automatic prescription. I would highly recommend this well researched book as a gift to your doctors.
Anatomy of an Epidemic won the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism, covering not only the background to depression meds, but also those commonly used for schizophrenia, anxiety, bipolar, and ADHD conditions.
Most of us recall how Prozac was increasing users' suicidality so much so that a warning was created for use with children. Perhaps you even learned about the cover-up involved with the results of trials of the drug in Germany in the 1980's in which the BGA (the German licensing authority) concluded that fluoxetine was "totally unsuitable for the treatment of depression," (translate=people died by suicide-MUCH more than compared to other meds).
Whitaker will explain what happened next in that the psych drug company billion dollar industry began at that point to take the side effects of their experimental meds and instruct their investigators to begin recording these as "symptoms of depression."
Whitaker's investigation will also enlighten you as to the use of withdrawal studies-in which drug companies take symptoms of withdrawal from these brain altering meds and twist it to show you that because you suffer in withdrawal-it shows how ill you really are and how badly you need those drugs. In other words, if you get psychotic while going off meds-then aren't you lucky you discovered you are psychotic and need to add some new meds on top of what you are already taking? Apparently drug companies not only get to change data that reveals their psych drugs as dangerous, they get to lie about it to the public as well when marketing drugs like Prozac as effective and safe.
The shock is that psych meds are creating chronic and increasingly disabling illness, but the sadness is how we have been manipulated to believe the opposite and carry on this delusion by forcing medication on children and others as if it is the acceptable solution.
Or as Whitaker says, "But if we uncover a history of a different sort-a history that shows that the biological causes of mental disorders remain to be discovered and that psychiatric drugs are in fact fueling the epidemic of disabling mental illness-what then? We will have documented a history that tells of a society led horribly astray and, one might say, betrayed."
This last part is what the Rethinking Psychiatry movement is now tackling-overcoming the betrayal through creating a forum for voices of those harmed by the psychiatric billion dollar industry and together creating alternative paths of healing and resistance to force medicating children. Just wait till you read about ADHD and that whole scam. Pay attention to the part where they artificially used a cut off to the study right before all the horrible disabling effects of ADHD drugs hit the kids and worsened over time.
Please do not take a superficial read of this and think you can just drop your psych meds suddenly. Be warned that coming off psych meds has to be done with kid gloves-slowly over time and under some kind of experienced supervision in order to be safe.
Ok the above was my book review/comment for Powell's Books (you can use the Powell's search box at the bottom of my pages here) January 8, 2012. The part I did not include was about one of my best friends of 13 years, Ann Reydel who died just before her 37th birthday.
She was the worst kind of victim of psych meds when in 2003 she took her own life after suffering through severe psychotic symptoms-hallucinations telling her to die-after her doc added more meds to her life. I think when a loved one dies from suicide, it is a pain they take from their lives and put it in yours forever. It is sad and it makes the psych industry abuse of human beings through manipulation for profit more than a crime-it makes it personal.
Find more info on the Rethinking Psychiatry movement here:
