___________________________________________________________________________________________________

AGAINST PSYCHIATRY!

survivors of psychiatric abuse, and our allies, united against psychiatry.

Psychiatrists like to display scientific looking brain scans of people labeled with Mental Illness, and claim that the abnormalities, such as shrinkage, found in their brains prove that Mental Illness is biological. But what the psychiatrists never tell us is that these are the brains of people who have been taking psychiatric drugs for many years. This brings up a number of questions; If these drugs are so helpful at “treating” Mental Illness, then why do the loyal patients brains look so terrible? and Why are we never shown the brain scans of a person labeled with Mental Illness, who has never taken any psychiatric drugs? The truth is, because absent the harmful effects of the drugs, all of the brains would look disappointingly normal. These brain scans are remarkably similar to the scans which claim to illustrate brain damage caused by illegal drugs such as meth, only worse, much worse. The structural abnormalities shown in these brain scans simply prove what psychiatrists themselves refuse to admit, that psychiatric drugs do indeed cause brain damage. Dramatic brain damage. Some of it may be reversible, but first the drugs must be withdrawn. Look! Kids! This is your brain on psych meds!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Did you know that people labeled with Mental Illness in The United States now die an average of 25 years before unlabeled people?

According to a 2006 study cited by a front page article in USA Today, that difference in life expectancy was only 10 years as recently as the early 90s, and allthough factors such as lifestyle and higher suicide rates were examined, the primary reason that people labeled with Mental Illness were found to be leading shorter and shorter lives was the increased use of psychiatric drugs, particularly the category called Atypical Antipsychotics, which are known to cause Heart Disease and Diabetes.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Writings by Fritz;

"Better Than Well" 2007 - How psychiatric drugs are used to cause brain damage and create an escalating pattern of drug induced mental illness, with children as the ideal target.

"Don't Listen To Him, He's Crazy" 2006 - How well meaning Radicals unknowingly enable psychiatric abuse, and the truth about the political use of psychiatry to silence abuse survivors and disempower the poor.

"Against Psychiatry! Why You Should Oppose The War On The Mind" 2005, revised 2007 - How the psychiatric system harmed me as a child, and how I escaped (long).

New! Fritz reads "AgainstPsychiatry! Uncovering the Harm Caused by Psychiatric Drugs, Exposing the Abusive and Oppressive Nature of the Psychiatric System, and Exploring What this Means for Radical Identified Communities" a two article zine featuring "Better Than Well" and "Don't Listen to Him, He's Crazy" on YouTube Video;

(suitable for those with vision or reading difficulties)

Featuring;

"Better Than Well"

and

"Don't Listen to Him He's Crazy"

Writings by Lauren Claborn;

"An apparent lack of concern about Electroshock - An Open Letter To The Icarus Project." 2006

"A Call Towards Prevention of Mandatory Mental Health Screenings" 2006

Video by Tuesday;

A First Hand Account of Psychiatric Abuse in the Social Services Industry.

"Tuesday's Story - Part 1" 2007 - Injustice and psychiatric coercion in a group home, a drug rehab center, a youth shelter, public housing programs, a psychiatric ward, and a jail.

"Tuesday's Story - Part 2" 2007 - Violence, inaccountability, and psychiatric coercion in a public housing program requiring the label of "Dual Diagnosis".

(suitable for those with vision or reading difficulties)

Writings by Other Psychiatric Abuse Survivors and Allies;

"Acorn - Spirit Within" 2007 - A brave woman fights to heal herself from years of psychiatric abuse, after developing Tardive Dyskinesia, a psychiatric drug induced disability.

"Leah - dear dr"

"Penny Rimbaud (of CRASS) - The Last Of The Hippies, A Hysterical Romance" 1982 - A group of revolutionary artists watched helplessly while the state used imprisonment, forced psychiatry, and toxic drugs to destroy a visionary friend of theirs.

Text Interviews With Homeless Youth In New York City About Their Experiences With The Psychiatric System;

"Tariq Muhammed - 22" 2007 - Subjected to severe psychiatric abuse as a child, an articulate young man still suffers.

"Anonymous Boy - 17" 2007

"Anonymous Girl -19" 2007

Useful Book Reviews by Fritz;

The book I recommend most is "Your Drug May Be Your Problem; How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications", the revised 2007 edition, by Peter Breggin, M.D. and David Cohen, Ph.D.

Other good books are;

Breggin, Peter R. The Anti-Depressant Fact Book: What Your Doctor Wont Tell You About Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Luvox.

Breggin, Peter R. Talking Back to Ritalin: What Doctors Aren’t Telling You About Stimulants and ADHD.

Breggin, Peter R. Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy, and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the “New Psychiatry.”

Whitaker, Robert. Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill.

"Cypress - drawing" 2007

More art by Cypress and Fritz is collected at; http://www.pigeonpress.org

Information and Resources in Other Languages;

El psiquiatra Dr. Thomas Szasz desenmascara el fraude internacional de la psiquiatría contemporánea. Video of how psychiatry is used to harm children, featuring Dr. Thomas Szasz, English with subtitles en Espanol ( Spanish )

Useful Links;

Mindfreedom Activist groups seeking to bring human rights to the world of mental health.

the Alliance For Human Research Protection Information about drug experimentation on humans, and the hidden dangers of approved drugs.

the International Center for the Study of Psychology and Psychiatry An organization of professionals dedicated to the critical study of the mental health movement.

Psych Rights A campaign for legal rights and protections from forced psychiatric treatments.

Benzo.org Information about Benzodiazapam Addiction, from the UK.

Antidepressants Facts Ignore the annoying popups, this great site has links to tons of medical studies proving the harmful effects of antidepressants (not to be confused with pro psychiatry propaganda site www.antidepressantfacts.com).

Breggin.org Homepage of Dr. Peter Breggin, for half a century "the conscience of psychiatry", and author of many informative books such as "Your Drug May Be Your Problem."

Szasz.com Homepage of Dr. Thomas Szasz, who for half a century has defended the virtues of personal autonomy and civil liberties against the encroachment of coercive psychiatry and the war on drugs, what he calls "The Therapeutic State."

"Gay Shame SF - photo" 2008

GAY SHAME is a celebration of queer resistance: All Are Welcome.

NEW! AgainstPsychiatry! on YouTube! Watch and listen to a growing collection of AgainstPsychiatry videos, and other related videos, at; http://www.youtube/AgainstPsychiatry

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Video Interviews with Foster Care Alumni Speaking Out Against Psychiatric Drugging in the Foster Care System;

Produced by Psychetruth

"I took my video camera to a Foster Care Alumni meeting and asked seven foster kids to tell me about their experiences in Child Protective Services while wards of the state. One thing they all had in common was massive over drugging with psychiatric drugs.

Child placement agencies, foster parents, RTCs (Residential Treatment Centers) and Therapeutic Foster Homes get paid a certain amount of money each day for taking care of a foster child. The amount of money they get paid depends on a level of care system. The more difficult the child or the more problems that child has, the more money you get. A child at the basic level of care is worth about 17 dollars a day where as a child in the highest level of care could be worth as much as a 1000 dollars a day. This puts the incentive on diagnosing children with behavior problems to justify raising their level of care. A child on psychiatric drugs is worth more than a child without problems.

It is not uncommon for a foster child to be placed on many different psychotropic drugs at the same time. Some investigations have found children on as many as 13 mind altering drugs prescribed by a psychiatrists at one time. These drugs include all categories of psychiatric drugs; antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, anxiety medications, anticonvulsant medications, etc. The SSRI drugs are common, such as Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, etc. Also a number of these children described taking Risperdal, Zyprexa, Geodon and other new generation antipsychotics which have been linked to weight gain, obesity and diabetes."

(suitable for those with vision or reading difficulties)

Go to http://www.fostercarealumni.org

Produced by psychetruth http://www.youtube.com/psychetruth

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Video of Tardive Dyskinesia Symptoms, and Important Information on the Tardive Dyskinesia Syndrome; Below is a short online video of a medication consultation with a young woman who has developed Tardive Dyskinesia from psych meds. I do not know who she is, and thus unfortunately can't ask her permission to post it, but the video has been floating around freely on YouTube for months. Hopefully it can do some good, by raising awareness about this terrible iatrogenic condition. If you know of anyone who is thinking about putting themselves or their children on psychiatric drugs, especially neuroleptic "antipsychotics" such as Geodon, Seroquel, Risperdol, Abilify, Clozaril, Zyprexa, Solian, Invega, Haldol, Orap, Mellaril, Compazine, Stelazine, Prolixin, Thorazine, Trilafon, Nozinan, Vesprin, Phenergan, Clopixal, Acuphase, Navane, Depixol or Fluanxol, they should first be compelled to watch this video. Simply being cautioned of "possible tics", or reading the words "side effects may include involuntary movements" in tiny print does not do justice to the severity of this condition. Psychiatric drugs cause brain damage, and while much of this damage is "invisible", Tardive Dyskinesia isn't. Unfortunately, most people have never heard of this drug induced disorder, so when they meet someone with bizarre movements, they just assume the person is moving like that because they are "crazy". Many psychiatrists, eager to conceal their responsibility for this drug induced disability, promote this public misconception by describing TD as a "symptom" of "mental illness". Tardive Dyskinesia is like a scarlet letter or a yellow star that follows victims for the rest of their lives. Often people with Tardive Dyskinesia are hidden from public view, many are kept institutionalized, others live as shut-ins, unable to find employment, facing a lifetime of severe discrimination.

The woman in the video below developed Tardive Dyskinesia after taking Geodon, a newer "atypical" antipsychotic that was promoted as being a "safer" alternative to older drugs regarding the risk of Tardive Dyskinesia. Many psychiatrists claim that these newer drugs are safer, or that these drugs are perfectly safe if taken for a limited time, but that is simply not true, and there are people who have developed Tardive Dyskinesia after only taking one pill once! Generally the longer you take them, and the higher the dosage, the greater your likelihood of developing TD, and the more severe it will become. Every year that someone is on a drug of this category, they have a 5% chance of developing TD, which means that one out of four people who take these drugs for only five years will be left with Tardive Dyskinesia! Even if the drugs are later stopped, this disability is usually permanent. If someone withdraws from the drugs when the symptoms first begin, it may remit, and at least it shouldn't progress any further, but few psychiatrists inform patients of this window of opportunity, usually they will just add more drugs to temporarily mask the symptoms, while the underlying brain damage continues to worsen. It most frequently starts by affecting the muscles of the face, but it also often affects the neck, torso, arms, legs, hands and feet. It is called Tardive Dystonia when the spasming muscles cause severe pain and stiffness, distorting the posture, sometimes to the point of paralysis. Tardive Dyskinesia and Tardive Dystonia may interfere with basic activities such as talking, eating, cooking, dressing, bathing, driving, chores, sitting, typing, and walking, not to mention the tremendous social humiliation.

Because of this disabling "side effect" these "antipsychotic" drugs were once only prescribed to people who were considered socially disposable, particularly poor adults labeled with Schizophrenia. Today they are used as a panacea for everything from Addiction to ADHD to Anxiety to Autism to Eating Disorders to BiPolar Disorder to Insomnia to Tourette's Syndrome, and are increasingly given to adolescents, children, and even infants. 38% of prescriptions for these TD inducing drugs to people under age 20 in the USA are for "Disruptive Behavior Disorders" such as Conduct Disorder, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. A widespread epidemic of Tardive Dyskinesia is in the making. Because raising awareness about Tardive Dyskinesia is such an important part of the mission of AgainstPsychiatry!, we have pasted this short video right here on our homepage, in hopes that everyone will watch it.

(suitable for those with reading difficulties)

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Withdrawal Warning! Psychiatric drugs are extremely addictive, and the withdrawal symptoms may be severe, some even life threatening, if you just suddenly stop taking them. Unless you have only been on them for a very brief period, please do not go "cold turkey" off of psychiatric drugs, if you can help it. Unless this concern is outweighed by immediate damage to your health, such as emerging symptoms of Tardive Dyskinesia, psychiatric drugs should be withdrawn from gradually, one at a time, and hopefully with the support of an understanding doctor or other responsible person, preferably with prior drug withdrawal experience, who is willing to commit to playing a pre-determined supportive role. It is best to have a team, but in the event that you cannot find anyone trustworthy who supports your decision and is willing to help, remember that you are the most important person in this process. A solo withdrawal experience need not be a sloppy one. Invest time in careful research, planning, and preparation before starting to withdraw yourself from these drugs.

Withdrawal from chronic use of benzodiazepines is probably best compared to the withdrawal syndrome experienced by a severe alcoholic, Delirium Tremens. Although having many symptoms in common with Heroin withdrawal, there is added danger, because of the very real risk of seizures, heart attack, or stroke. A person going cold turkey from a significant Heroin habit may feel like they are going to die, but it is extremely unlikely that they will actually die or suffer any lasting harm from the withdrawal syndrome. However, unlike most other drugs, a person going cold turkey from a significant alcohol, barbiturate, or benzodiazepine habit will not only feel as if they are going to die, but actually be at risk of death or permanent organ damage from the withdrawal syndrome itself. For this reason, it is very important for people who are on a benzodiazepine to taper off of the drug over an extended period of time, and not just go cold turkey (like I did).

Look up your drugs on http://www.wikipedia.org , the online encyclopedia, to see if you are on a benzodiazepine. Your psychiatrist may have obscured the true nature of the drug he prescribed you by calling it an "Anxiolytic".

Go to your public library and/or school library and see if they have "Your Drug May Be Your Problem" by Dr. Peter Breggin, preferably the revised 2007 edition. If they do, then read it, take notes, and photocopy the sections that you wish to keep. If they don't have it, put in a request for it. Sometimes it is available at bookstores, but you can always just order it straight from Dr. Breggin himself on his website. This is the best book that I know of for detailed, up to date information on the harms of various types of psychiatric drugs. The writing style is refreshingly neither sensational, nor overly technical. Everyone should read this book, find it at; Breggin.org

It is important to know what types of drugs you are on, both to understand what kind of harm they will likely cause if you choose to stay on them, and to anticipate what sort of withdrawal symptoms you should expect when first going off of them. For instance, although neuroleptic use promotes psychosis and causes Tardive Dyskinesia, the withdrawal syndrome from neuroleptics may trigger psychosis and temporary worsening of involuntary movements. In most cases you will feel worse before you feel better, and it it very important that you remind yourself of that. Keep a withdrawal journal to document your progress, and to remind yourself of the impermanence of your current feelings.

Withdrawal from all psychiatric drugs, but perhaps particularly SSRIs, is a very high risk time for suicidal, or even homicidal, thoughts and impulses. You may be familiar with this phenomenon from some of the bizarre murder/suicides that have been in the news, don't let it happen to you! Many people are uninformed, or have been misinformed by psychiatrists to think that these drug withdrawal symptoms are innate, permanent, "psychiatric symptoms" which the addicted person will suffer with for the rest of their life if left "unmedicated", and, terrified at this prospect, many people lacking proper information and support will fail their detox attempt while suffering uncomprehendingly from sometimes terrifying and bizarre seeming drug withdrawal symptoms, which may include blackouts and hallucinations. The truth is, these are normal drug withdrawal reactions, which any person who took these drugs long enough to become addicted would likely experience upon abrupt discontinuation, regardless of diagnosis or history, and do not reflect what the drugged person's "baseline" functioning will be like once they get off of the drugs and have a chance to recover. Do some research, have a plan, be prepared.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

From the start, founding members of AgainstPsychiatry! have been vocal critics of The Icarus Project for dressing up some very pro-psychiatry beliefs in a punk rock wrapper; from publishing articles which pushed the disease model of mental illness by glamourizing a "Bipolar" identity, to writing zines which supported forced drugging and institutionalization as acceptable interventions to support a friend in crisis, to hosting workshops which silenced folks who had experianced severe adverse effects from psychiatric drugs, to holding benefit performances that made light of psychiatric abuse, to accepting funding and rescources from mainstream "mental health" groups to promote the "diagnosis and treatment" of youth and those typically critical of the psychiatric system, to maintaining a web forum where questions about treatment risks would most often be answered with inaccurate pro-drug/electroshock feedback and dissenting opinions would be treated with hostility, to their mysterious and unacountable descision making body that typically ignored our questions and criticism. . .

Recently, however, things over at Icarus Project have begun to change and shift, there are new people involved that are doing some good work, and although this does not absolve them of their responsibility for some of the harm they have done in the past, or harm that may still be done, they have recently come out with an unprecedented Harm Reduction Guide To Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs, which seems to have been heavily influenced by some of the critisizms outlined above, and which is generally well laid out and I think very useful.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Chris Elliot - photo" 2007

AgainstPsychiatry! Policy and Philosophy; In the tradition of DIY punk zine culture we are anti copyright, so feel free to copy and distribute our literature, and quote from our articles. Just please always cite us as your source with the URL www.againstpsychiatry.com clearly visible, and email us to let us know how you are using our materials. If you want to post a link to this website from your website or blog, this stencil graffiti image can make a cute link "button".

New! for MySpace or Friendster or Tribe users, show your support by "friending" our Against Psychiatry Myspace profile, or our Against Psychiatry Friendster profile, or our Against Psychiatry Tribe profile.

Donations to cover research stipends, the printing costs of distributing so much free literature, and other outreach expenses, are always appreciated. We will gladly ship literature to you, anywhere in the world, if you cover the printing and shipping costs. When possible, we like to do this on a sliding scale, in the spirit of our literature giveaways, since it is poor people who are disproportionately targeted for psychiatric abuse. To facilitate this practice we are greatful when those who can contribute more do so. Unlike certain other projects, we don't receive any funding from mainstream "mental health" organizations. Infact, we don't receive any funding at all, so small contributions from generous people are very helpful. Contact Fritz fritzflohr@againstpsychiatry.com with any questions.

Loads Of New Content Coming Soon! Check Back Later.

Always Looking For More Great Voices and Visions Against Psychiatry!

Contact Fritz To Contribute Stories, Articles, Exposes, Zines, Art, Information, Poetry, Etc.

If you have a story that you want to tell,

Contact Fritz fritzflohr@againstpsychiatry.com

___________________________________________________________________________________________________