Are We All Nuts

Anyone who watches any amount of television, particularly the three main networks, NBC, CBS, and ABC will know that there are a lot of advertisements for prescription medicines. If you suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome you are certainly aware of the ads from Requip. If you have trouble falling asleep you have probably seen the ads for Ambien CR. If you have high cholesterol you probably have seen the ads for Lipitor. Last, but not least, anyone having Erectile Dysfunction Disorder knows about Viagra.

These are all ads that have been paid for by the pharmaceutical companies to convince you to take their medication. Each ad has a disclaimer which lists the possible side effects to their medication.

For example, Requip may cause increased sexual urges, or an unusual urge to gamble. In some cases hallucinations have been reported in patients who take this medication. People who take Ambien so that they can sleep better may experience more outgoing or aggressive behavior, suicidal thoughts, confusion, and, once again, hallucinations. Folks who take Lipitor may experience serious muscle problems, liver problems and possibly even kidney failure. For those who wish to improve their sex life, Viagra may cause migraines, cerebral thrombosis, cardiac arrest and heart failure.

All these side effects were found on the webpage for each of the drugs listed, yet the pharmaceutical companies want you to believe that the benefits outweigh the possible side effects. What is happening is that we are being conditioned into believing that the manufacturers of these medicines know what is best for us, and that their medications are the only alternative to suffering, which quite often is only a result of poor lifestyle habits and dietary choices. Of course the pharmaceutical companies don’t want you to change your lifestyle or your diet to improve your health, that would mean their medication would no longer be needed. That would cut into their profits and they don’t want that at all.

Public Citizen’s Congress Watch published a report in 2003 which goes into great detail regarding the profits made by the pharmaceutical companies. According to their report, while the national economy was generally sluggish in the year 2002, the pharmaceutical companies raked in profits five and a half times greater than the median for all industries represented in the Fortune 500. These companies averaged a profit of 17 cents for every dollar of revenue compared to the median of 3.1 cents per dollar recorded by the other Fortune 500 companies. Pfizer alone recorded $9.1 billion in profits in 2002! Do you think they want you to get better after raking in that kind of money? If you are interested, the entire report can be read at,

http://www.citizen.org/documents/Pharma_Report.pdf

The reason I am bringing this up is because the pharmaceutical companies are making huge profits off medicating the American people. However there is a much more sinister side to all this. A side which has serious ramifications which many may not be aware of.

Over the past 30 years 543 million people have been given medication in an attempt to cure mental illness. What is worse is that 17 million of our children are taking medication for one form of mental illness or another. The psychiatrists who prescribe this medication all claim that mental illness is caused by some sort of chemical imbalance in our brains. However, Dr. Ron Leifer, a psychiatrist himself is quoted as saying, “There is not one shred of credible evidence that any respectable scientist would consider valid demonstrating that anything a psychiatrist calls mental illness are brain diseases or biochemical imbalances, it’s all fraud.”

Did you know that in the past 4 decades more than twice as many people have died in psychiatric hospitals, undergoing treatment for numerous mental illnesses, than have died in all the U.S. wars since 1776? It seems the psychiatric community doesn’t actually have a clue as to what they are doing. A brief look at the history of treatment for mental illness may be in order.

In 1927, Manfred Sakel introduced insulin shock treatment as a means of treating mental illness. Sakel stated "My supposition was that some noxious agent weakened the resilience and the metabolism of the nerve cells ... a reduction in the energy spending of the cell, that is in invoking a minor or greater hibernation in it, by blocking the cell off with insulin will force it to conserve functional energy and store it to be available for the reinforcement of the cell."

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n04/historia/shock_i.htm

Insulin shock treatments became widely popular as a means of treating mental illness yet in 40% of those treated the patients suffered severe spinal chord injuries due to the severe convulsions induced upon them while at the same time being strapped to a bed or table.

Ladislaus Von Meduna furthered the treatment of mental illness when he began creating brain damaging seizures using Metrazol. He noticed that none of his schizophrenic patients had epilepsy, and none of his epileptic patients had mental disorders. He concluded that to cure schizophrenia he would need to induce an epileptic seizure. By 1939 the use of Metrazol was so popular that it was used in 70% of U.S. hospitals.

In 1938, Italians Ugo Cerlitti and Lucio Bini found that they could induce the same type convulsions as Metrazol by introducing an electrical current through the brain. This was the first form of electroshock therapy. However it received criticism because of the severe convulsions in induced.

In 1936 Egas Moniz began drilling holes directly into the human skull and injecting alcohol into portions of the brain to kill off certain areas that he claimed were responsible for mental illness. Thus began the treatment of performing lobotomies to treat mental illness. Later, Walter J. Freeman simplified the technique by inserting an ice pick, or other sharp object, under the eyelid and into the brain where he would rake it back and forth until he was satisfied that he had destroyed enough brain cells to cure whatever form of mental illness the patient suffered from. In the 1940’s, 50’s, and early 60’s over one million people were lobotomized.

Lobotomies received severe criticism as well because they left many who were labeled as the walking dead. So the psychiatric community again returned to electroshock therapy, except this time the patients were given anesthesia and paralyzing agents to stop the screams and convulsions. The appearance was deceptive because although the patients no longer screamed and writhed in agony on the table, the damage was no less severe.

In the 1950’s the use of Thorazine, which was originally used to kill parasites in pigs, began to be used in the treatment of mental illness. Smith-Kline & French, now known as GlacoSmithKline, pushed for clinical trials of Thorazine and it as well became widely used until it was found to have severe and long lasting side effects.

Thus you can see that the history of psychiatry has had a dismal record when it comes to treating, and curing, mental illness. The whole time these various modes of treatment were being experimented with, the psychiatric community was growing rich by treating people. They were never successful in curing what they called mental illness, they only succeeded in causing severe damage to the brains of their patients.

The use of Thorazine opened the doorway for the use of chemicals, or drugs in the treatment of mental illness. In 1967, at a convention of psychiatrists, Dr. Nathan Kline stated, “the present breadth of drug use may be almost trivial when we compare it to the possible number of chemical substances that will be available for the control of selective aspects of mans life in the year 2000”. I can just imagine how much the pharmaceutical companies must have been drooling with anticipation when they heard that.

In 1952 the psychiatric community published the first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. The first edition contained 106 categories of mental disorders. The fourth revision, which is the most current has up to 374 categories of mental illness. It is currently undergoing another revision and will most likely be reprinted in 2012.

Did you know that if you have problems learning math you are classified as having a mental disorder? That same goes for people who have trouble reading or written expression, (sections 315.00, 315.2, & 315.3). Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, the list is almost endless. It is estimated that almost 60% of the people in the United States could be classified as having one form of mental illness or another according to the guidelines found in the DSM. I wonder, are patriotism, distrust of government, or respect for the Constitution considered mental illnesses?

Now we have psychiatrists prescribing drugs, which are merely silent forms of the same brutal techniques used by earlier psychiatrists. They all damage the subjects brain, making them more placid and their behavior acceptable to society in general. Those who are found not to be adapting well to medication are committed.
Are you aware that in 1956 the House of Representatives passed Hr 6376, which would have allowed psychiatrists to have anyone committed to a mental institution, even against their own will? Luckily it was defeated by the Senate when the public outcry was felt.

The reason I am going into such detail in regards to the history of psychiatry is this. It is almost impossible for anyone to go about their daily lives without falling under one category of mental illness or another. The list of mental illnesses continues to grow, and the pharmaceutical companies continue to get rich prescribing medications that do nothing but turn us into zombies.

I am sure everyone remembers when Seung-Hui Cho went on his murderous rampage at Virginia Tech. It was later found that he had slipped through the cracks, been allowed to purchase firearms after being diagnosed as being mentally ill. Immediately our lawmakers began working to tighten up that loophole.

My fear, and you can call me a conspiracy nut, is that our government knows that they will not be successful in passing enough gun control laws to stop the citizens of the United States from purchasing or owning firearms. Yet if they can make it a crime to sell to someone who is classified as mentally ill, even if that only means you had trouble learning algebra in school, then they can stop you from purchasing a firearm by shoring up the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

So, not only are we becoming a complacent drugged up society, I fear we are witnessing a new, and sinister assault upon our 2nd amendment rights. The pharmaceutical companies will continue to get rich as long as we continue to buy into their claim that we are all mentally ill, and their little pills are the only thing that can make us normal functioning members of society. In the mean time our government is working to use this myth of mental illness to take away our only means of defending the last vestiges of liberty we have remaining.

Call me crazy if you want, but at least I am drug free and enjoying it.