Antipsychotics / Neuroleptics For Mental Disorders- Comments

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'Next, one more thing worthy to take note would be that antipsychotics / neuroleptics would tend to manifest their disastrous irreversible side effects more quickly and severely onto the kids / small children compared to the other adults due to their more vulnerable and fragile physical conditions. '



That's something I have written and I have something to tell.


In fact, I actually suffer from the Tardive Dyskinesia / medication-induced non-stop rapid eyelid-twitching / eye-blinking (countless times in a split second) quite a few years back as a result of the nerve-disrupting side effects of antipsychotics / neuroleptics, and eventually I get fully cured through an alternative needleless acupuncture technique instructed to me by the acupuncture physician attending to my eye-related illness.


Next, I am also the one who have written my healing experience from such a disastrous visually-incapacitating illness into articles and then get them posted over the internet ever since the last year of 2008, and the suggested needless self-administed acupuncture technique is also included in in-depth details into those posts.


In such a connection, ever since the beginning of 2008, I have had lots of people seeking helps from me through emails, apart from the ones in my real life (prior to 2008 and now), to deal with their similar chronic rapid eyelid-twitching / eye-blinking illness, especially the ones caused by the disastrous side effects of antipsychotics and neuroleptics.


Though I have received lots of ongoing positive feedbacks (until now) from these people (all adults) seeking helps from me both in their real lives and through the emails, there have nevertheless, been one single case of failure, unfortunately and saddeningly, the person involved is a 9-year-old kid who have developed such a Tardive Dyskinesia symptom ever since 2 years back having taken the related medications for just mere 2 weeks. Hey 2 weeks ! Whilst the one seeking help from me to deal with her kid's illness is a caring but anxious mother who has, before that, fully exhausted all the existing formal medical aids, channels and solutions, like what I have done before for myself in my case, to save her kid. And my failure to help her kid actually and eventually distresses me and disappoints her very much.



'That pisses me off more than anything on the face of this planet.'


At that moment, I can tell you very frankly that I feel exactly the same thing.


So, for the ones, especially the parents and guardians, other medical personnel etc who are in-charge of taking care of the health care, welfare and well-being of the kids and young children, I would advise them to give extra and additional careful concerns and attentions to the medications meant to be given to these young persons (especially in regard of their potential side effects) owing to the very simple and yet harsh fact that, once they have developed such disastrous movement-incapacitating side effects, their chances of getting healed through any therapeutical channels (both formal and alternative medications), would be extremely far lower compared to the adults owing to the former's vulnerable and fragile physical conditions.


So, kindly do so for the sake of the better health care, welfare, well-being and then the very future of the younger generations, and please don't ever get them exposed to something as hazardous and disastrous as such side effects as Extrapyramidal Symptoms, Tardive Dyskinesia etc through those so-called 'good medicines' that are merely and ostensibly helpful to them at first, but actually and potentially will ruin their health, lives and perhaps their futures irreversibly in the end.

I take 2 Evil anti psychotics. Poison. I take Invega 9mg and Moban 10mg. I take it for Evil Schizoaffective disorder diagnosed by Evil doctors that graduated from Evil Medical School. I love that school! Its where they teach an entire class on how to call me schizo. A lot of people went to this school, even people on the boards! And they ain't even doctors! I love taking my poison.....oh I mean pills. Just look at the side effects! I just love those medicine commercials that tell about a certain med that they're advertising and they list the side effects... side effects include heart attack, stroke, and possible death. Who would want to take that pill after telling of those side effects?

'heart attack, stroke, and possible death'


Hmm...Actually I have never come across such symptoms as mentioned in your post about the side effects of antipsychotics and neuroleptics.


Now, let's consider the excerpts below :


Definition

Tardive dyskinesia is a mostly irreversible neurological disorder of involuntary movements caused by long-term use of antipsychotic or neuroleptic drugs.



Description

Antipsychotic or neuroleptic drugs are powerful tranquilizers generally prescribed for serious psychiatric disorders, as well as neurological and gastrointestinal disorders.



Causes and symptoms

TD usually appears after years of antipsychotic drug use, and seems to be related to the total lifetime dose of medication. The symptoms include the following:


tongue protrusion


grimacing


rapid eye blinking


lip smacking, pursing, or puckering


rapid movement of the arms or legs


other involuntary movements of the head, face, neck and tongue muscles



Next, I would very much like to ask you and the others a realistic and practical question.


Actually, are such illnesses like heart attack, stroke, and possible death, are they in any way less horrendous than the set of movements-incapacitating symptoms mentioned above ?


Could anyone just imagine what kind of scenario would it be like when the movements of one's muscles, organs, limbs, and possibly the entire body of a person are substantially or rather totally out of one's control (to the point that the body one's having is in essence no longer belonging to him / her anymore), when one were to develop the side effects of Tardive Dyskinesia through such antipsychotics and neuroleptics ?



'I love taking my poison.....oh I mean pills. Just look at the side effects! I just love those medicine commercials that tell about a certain med that they're advertising and they list the side effects... side effects include heart attack, stroke, and possible death. Who would want to take that pill after telling of those side effects?'



Well, my point of view is that antipsychotics and neuroleptics do have their tremendous curative and therapeutical values in treating the serious mental disorders.


However, such a medical truth can only be firmly established and asserted when they are used accordingly and correctly with all the necessary precautions and the right purposes and under the right circumstances.


Whilst the sheer abuse of them to the point of addiction, nevertheless, would just serve to undermine, or rather, negate their underlying medical values.


Lastly, losing control of the movements of one's own body...well, to me and the others, these are the scenarios of a life which is worse than death.

As a summary,



I'm suggesting the following as a solution to mental disorders :



1/3 of medicational helps + 1/3 of psychotherapies, interactive, interpersonal, emotional, communication, conselling supports from the others + 1/3 of self-determinations, self-initiatives, self-controls, self-wills and self-disciplines to think positively, rationally, realistically and practically as well as to lead a normal and healthy life



These are actually the advices I have obtained from many neurologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists and psychologists as well as the very conclusions I have experienced myself.



Lastly, I hope that the information given will be relevant and useful to the intended readers. Thank you.

Hallucinations / Delusions, symptoms of Schizophrenia - Brief Analysis




In fact, for the symptoms of hallucinations / delusions etc that might come along with certain mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder etc, well, I was actually informed by the psychiatrists and psychologists that all these hallucinations / delusions etc, 'they' are actually 'fed' on such negative feelings as fear, anger, frustrations, suspicions and all other fanciful, illogical, irrational, erratic and unreasonable senses of those suffering from such hallucinational disorders.



This is to say, the more and more, and the frequent and frequent that such people having hallucinations / delusions are to entertain / indulge / revel / be engrossed in such negative feelings of fear, anger, frustrations, suspicions and all other fanciful, illogical, irrational, erratic and unreasonable senses, and the stronger and stronger of those senses that such people suffering from schizophrenia / bipolar disorder tend to have, then the worse and worse their delusional and hallucinational conditions would tend to become / deteriorate over time.



Similarly, the same concepts and principles would fairly apply to certain mental diorders like depressions, anxieties, phobias, panic attacks etc whereby the more and more depressed, anxious, distressed, worried, dejected, panicked, desperate, emotionally impulsive, fearful (of certain things, surroundings, situations, people etc) a particular mentally-illed person can get, the more and more serious that such mental disorders would potentially deteriorate over the long-term.



So, one would really need to learn how to control oneself so as not to let their such negative senses running out of control.



In short, in dealing with such problems, just don't 'give' all these hallucinations / delusions etc what 'they' want (in these cases, that will be those negative unrealistic / irrational / wildly fanciful senses etc as described above) so as to prevent the symptoms from deteriorating from bad to worse. Whilst the same approaches would be effective for the other mental disorders too, such as the ones mentioned above.



So, the ways of overcoming these hallucinations / delusions, other mental disorders etc, on one point, would be to use certain related medications to temporarily bring such a condition under control (temporarily in the sense that medications have their limitations especially in terms of their effective curative period, whilst at the same time, such a 'temporary healing' is actually achieved through the artificial suppressing of negative nerve impulses to block all such negative feelings, thoughts - in this case, mainly the hallucinations, and finally the actions which arise from negative perceptions).



On the other hand, one's self-initiatives and self-efforts to exercise self-controls, self-disciplines, self-rationalisings, self-reasonings etc to overcome all those delusions and hallucinations would be of utmost essential in helping oneself to cope with such mental disorders.



This is to say, in order to overcome all those delusions, hallucinations etc, one would need to exercise all those self-initiatives, self-controls etc to exercise self-reasonings and self-rationalisings, so as to enable oneself to gradually and slowly think positively, rationally, realistically, reasonably, practically and sensibly, as well as, at the same time, to replace all those delusional, hallucinational thoughts, wild imaginations etc, bit by bit, with rational and reasonable thoughts and senses, just like the what the normal healthy people do.



In the meantime, one would reasonably require certain psychotherapy, emotional, interactive, interpersonal and communication supports in getting such goals achieved. In this regard, such other activities as doing sports, playing indoor games (such as chess, card games etc), engagings in one's favourite hobbies, watching comedies, reading something interesting, positively inspiring etc, would all be useful in both distracting one's mind from having delusions, hallucinations etc, whilst at the same time, subconsciously instilling into their minds all those optimistic and positive thoughts that one would need to deal with such disorders.



In short, having hallucinations, which to a certain extent might be associated with certain mental disorders, as well as the mental disorders themselves, well, they may be painful experiences to most people, however, it would take just the right treatments and other related remedial factors to achieve holistic healings for such disorders of hallucinations / delusions, other mental disorders etc.

Mental Disorders - Further Explanations




Actually, in terms of mental disorders which may come along with hallucinations / delusions, all those external aides of medications, psychotherapies, interactive, interpersonal and emotional supports etc, they are all meant for the same ultimate goal of bringing such disorders under control and there is simply no doubt for that.



Next, since it's the ones having mental disorders are who are actually suffering from such illnesses, which arise from negative perceptions, negative feelings and negative thoughts formed in their own brains / minds (instead of other people's brains / minds), it would eventually necessitate they themselves to put in their very own self- efforts, having received both external medicational and interpersonal helps from the others, to exercise self-controls and self-disciplines on their own to direct their own brains for self-reasonings, self-introspections and self-rationalisings.



This is to say, for the self-cognition / thinkings psychological part of the ones having mental diorders to form those positive feelings and positive thoughts in their own minds on their very own, and then to naturally develop postitive behavioural / personality changes, such a cognitive thought / thinking process actually can hardly be 'dictated' by anyone else other than they themselves. In such connection, as to the cognitive / thinking abilities / processes of different individuals, one of the simplest examples will be the process of learning a knowledge or something else whereby a person can get the best text materials, teachers, lecturers, tutors etc to assist one in his / her learnings, however, it would still ultimately depend on the very cognitive ability / process pertaining to that particular person which is then the key decisive factor in determining whether the knowledge is successfully acquired in the end or not.



In short, those self-efforts (related to self-cognitions), in the very end, will eventually be very much essential, or rather the decisive factor in determining whether the persons having mental disorders will achieve improvements / recoveries for their mental conditions or not.

Mental Disorders / Mental Illnesses - Its Two General Categories : Neurosis & Psychosis - Brief Explanations




Generally, mental disorders / mental illnesses can be summarized into the two broad categories of neurosis and psychosis as explained below : -



- In the case of mental disorders / mental illnesses which mildly disturb the normal functionings of one's cognitive / thinking abilities, functions and processes (of the brains), this would give rise to behavioural problems (that affects only part of the personality), which are quite uncontrollable and involuntary. Next, such scenarios are generally labelled as neurosis. Its common examples would be depression, panic, anxiety, insecurity, irrational fears, obsessive- compulsive Disorders (OCD), hypochondria / neurasthenia etc. In this regard, such antidepressants like Prozac etc are actually meant for such mental disorders / mental illnesses. As such, please refer to the website below for further details :



http://www.answers.com/topic/neurosis

http://www.drugs.com/mtm/prozac.html



- In the very much serious cases of mental disorders / mental illnesses whereby one's cognitive / thinking abilities, functions and processes (of the brains) are severely disturbed and impaired, this would then cause the much more serious personality disorders which may involve such mentally dissociative states of delusions, hallucinations and in the worst case scenario, insanities. The most common examples would be scizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, bipolar disorder, paranoia etc - which are generally labelled as psychosis . In such a connection, such powerful tranquilizers as the antipsychotics / neuroleptics etc will usually be needed to deal with such much more serious mental disorders / mental illnesses. As such, please refer to the website below for further details :



http://www.answers.com/topic/psychosis

http://www.answers.com/topic/antipsychotic-1

Just a few clarifying points...

-Antipsychotics, both typical and atypical, are not addictive. The only potentially addictive psychiatric medication class out there is the benzodiazepines (Klonopin, Valium, Xanax, etc.).
-Typical antipsychotics (Thorazine, Haldol, etc.) are dopamine (D2 receptors) antagonists. They help lessen the amount of dopamine in the synaptic cleft. SSRIs, which are not antipsychotics, are the type that increase serotonin by blocking the reuptake. Much evidence has been found that schizophrenic symptoms result from an excess of dopamine.
-The atypical antipsychotics (Risperdal, Seroquel, Zyprexa, etc.) are serotonin and dopamine (D2 and D4) antagonists.
-Serotonin is not involved in neuromuscular function. It is involved in appetite, mood, and the sleep-wake cycle.
-Dopamine is not involved directly in neuromuscular function; it helps initiate movements and make them smooth. Parkinson's is due to a lack of dopaminergic neurons.
-The neurotransmitter acetylcholine is the one that actually makes our muscles move.
-The atypical antipsychotics have a much lessened chance of causing tardive dyskinesia. That is why they were created- as an alternate solution to the typical antipsychotics.
-Atypical antipsychotics sometimes are used for OCD, not just for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder. This is because there is evidence that OCD is both a cause of too little serotonin (why SSRIs are used) and too much dopamine. By augmenting SSRI treatment with an atypical antipsychotic (dopamine antagonist), both neurotransmitter problems can be treated.

Neuropsych disorders are biochemical in nature. Thus, medication is needed. I do, however, agree that meds should not be the only answer, and that individuals should also have therapy/counseling. However, for some disorders, therapy doesn't work. I am one example of this. I tried CBT for my OCD three times. It never worked. For the psychoses (schizophrenia and bipolar mania), therapy doesn't work for the symptoms. Medication is needed. Therapy for these serious disorders is necessary for the person to learn how to cope with having such a severe mental illness.
-OddDuckNash99-

First of all, thanks for your valuable feedbacks. Well, I have some additional comments to add based on the points you have made in your post.



'-Antipsychotics, both typical and atypical, are not addictive. The only potentially addictive psychiatric medication class out there is the benzodiazepines (Klonopin, Valium, Xanax, etc.). '



Theoretically you are right. Antipsychotics / neuroleptics are not addictive. However, heavy dependencies and over-reliances on such powerful mind-altering tranquilizers, particularly by their users to control their mood / temper, calm themselves down etc, this might potentially lead to heavier and heavier emotional and psychological dependences upon such medictions over the long-term. Besides, for such atypical antipsychotics like Seroquel, Zyprexa etc, which tend to induced deep drowsiness in their users, those people taking them, over the long-term would just simply need the deep drowsiness effects of such medications at night, so that they are able to get to sleep, so, in a way, they are just no different from the real sleeping pills. In addition, in the case whereby certain dosages of such antipsychotics are skipped for certain practical reasons (such as to avoid the deep drowsiness effects of such medications when one is driving, working etc), their users would just end up becoming uncontrollably and involuntarily irritable and bad-tempered, and most of the times, they are simply and totally unaware of such a scenario, and so, they just need to continue taking the antipsychotics / neuroleptics to avoid the recurrences of such irritable moods which are beyond their self-controls. In fact, those were my experiences and those of many others with such medications.



'-Typical antipsychotics (Thorazine, Haldol, etc.) are dopamine (D2 receptors) antagonists. They help lessen the amount of dopamine in the synaptic cleft'



That's right, the antipsychotics actually work by changing / interferring the synaptic activities (through which neurotransmitters are secreted by the neurons) in the brain and the miscellaneous nervous systems. In the end, such a scenario, if left uncontrolled / unmonitored / unregulated, it would cause various movements / neuromuscular disorders like Dystonia, Tardive Dyskinesia etc. In the worst case scenario, such nerve-disrupting side effects may just move on to inflict some neuro-generative damages to the brains and miscellaneous nervous systems of the human body, one of the examples would be Parkinsonism, which falls under the category of Extrapyramidal Symptoms (EPS).



'SSRIs, which are not antipsychotics, are the type that increase serotonin by blocking the reuptake. Much evidence has been found that schizophrenic symptoms result from an excess of dopamine.'



You are right, SSRIs are actually antidepressants which are meant for neurosis symptoms (please refer to the prior post). One of the common examples will be Prozac. Though antidepressants are far less hazardous then antipsychotics / neuroleptics (which are powerful tranquilizers meant for psychosis), they nevertheless still carry certain undesirable side effects especially during the long-term. Please refer to the website below for further information.


http://www.drugs.com/mtm/prozac.html



'-The atypical antipsychotics (Risperdal, Seroquel, Zyprexa, etc.) are serotonin and dopamine (D2 and D4) antagonists. '

'-Dopamine is not involved directly in neuromuscular function; it helps initiate movements and make them smooth. Parkinson's is due to a lack of dopaminergic neurons.'


'-The neurotransmitter acetylcholine is the one that actually makes our muscles move.'



These comments are also true. And such antipsychotics / neuroleptics actually antagonize the neurotransmitter chemicals dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine etc by interferring with the synaptic activities of the neuron networks of the brains and miscellaneous nervous systems. And this could potentially lead to some really serious and disastrous consequences as mentioned in the related paragraph above.



-Serotonin is not involved in neuromuscular function. It is involved in appetite, mood, and the sleep-wake cycle.



Yup, that's right. And I would like to add that the neurotransmitter chemical serotonin is actually involved in the much more complicated cognitive functions like learnings, memory etc and various sensory proprioceptions (the ability to sense the position and location and orientation and movement of the body and its parts). Besides, In contrast to the neurotransmitter chemical dopamine which is only responsible for the very basic straightforward bodily movements, the activities of serotonin (in the brain) actually determine such complicated cognitive factors as how a person perceive/ feel about his / her surroundings, environments, the other people they interact etc and the kind of thoughts that one would form in one's minds. And all these cognitive mechanisms will then finally determine their resulting actions / responses based on the feelings and thoughts they form in their minds through the activitities of serotonin.




'-Atypical antipsychotics sometimes are used for OCD, not just for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder. This is because there is evidence that OCD is both a cause of too little serotonin (why SSRIs are used) and too much dopamine. By augmenting SSRI treatment with an atypical antipsychotic (dopamine antagonist), both neurotransmitter problems can be treated.'



To a certain extent, such comments are theorectically correct. However, please bear in mind that for the antidepressants and antipsychotics / neuroleptics, they are only able to treat these mental disorders in a totally artificial way by interferrng with the synaptic activities of neurons, artificially blocking, controlling and antagonizing the neurotransmitters involved, so as to artificially alter / change the chemical compositions / balances in a person's brains. As such, given that the 'curative effects' of such medications would hardly be genuine, and hence could hardly be permanently sustainable, due to all those artificial medical process and mechanisms, such medications are thus logically and reasonably not the long-term viable / practical / workable solutions for mental disorders.



In this regard, one could actually dictate the activities of serotonin by using one's natural brain / cognitive / thinking powers / abilities through such natural self-efforts of trying to think reasonably, logically, optimistically and always try to control their mood / temper, and remain cheerful and brightened up rather than immersing oneself in depressions, dejections, sadness, pessimisms and other negative feelings etc. Next, though it may sound to be easier said than done, one should actually at least give such efforts a try in order to obtain genuine healings and improvements for their mental disorders gradually and slowly step by step. In such connection, psychotherapies, emotional, moral, interactive, interpersonal, communication and counselling supports from the others, to a certain extent will be helpful in getting it accomplished.



-The atypical antipsychotics have a much lessened chance of causing tardive dyskinesia. That is why they were created- as an alternate solution to the typical antipsychotics.
-Atypical antipsychotics sometimes are used for OCD, not just for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder. This is because there is evidence that OCD is both a cause of too little serotonin (why SSRIs are used) and too much dopamine. By augmenting SSRI treatment with an atypical antipsychotic (dopamine antagonist), both neurotransmitter problems can be treated.



Yup, you are right. Though such medications are very effective for such mental disorders, the uses of them, nevertheless, should be closely monitored at the same time as safety precautions against their undesirable and sometimes, irreversibly disastrous side effects. In this regard, please take note that though atypical antipsychotics / neuroleptics are less likely to cause Tardive Dyskinesia and other Extrapyramidal Symptoms (EPS), they are, as a matter of fact, still mind-altering powerful tranquilizers that work by artificially changing the chemicals in one's brains / miscellaneous nervous systems. Therefore, it wouldn't be warranted to treat such atypical antipsychotics / neuroleptics as totally harmless.



Neuropsych disorders are biochemical in nature. Thus, medication is needed. I do, however, agree that meds should not be the only answer, and that individuals should also have therapy/counseling.



That's for sure.



' I tried CBT for my OCD three times. It never worked. For the psychoses (schizophrenia and bipolar mania), therapy doesn't work for the symptoms. Medication is needed. Therapy for these serious disorders is necessary for the person to learn how to cope with having such a severe mental illness. '



In terms of holistic approach for mental disorders, well, the external aids of medications and non-medication factors may be helpful and useful, to a certain extent in the treatment of mental disorders.



As such, I believe that the following excerpts drawn from my prior posts will get your comments meaningfully replied :



'Next, since it's the ones having mental disorders are who are actually suffering from such illnesses, which arise from negative perceptions, negative feelings and negative thoughts formed in their own brains / minds (instead of other people's brains / minds), it would eventually necessitate they themselves to put in their very own self- efforts, having received both external medicational and interpersonal helps from the others, to exercise self-controls and self-disciplines on their own to direct their own brains for self-reasonings, self-introspections and self-rationalisings.



This is to say, for the self-cognition / thinkings psychological part of the ones having mental diorders to form those positive feelings and positive thoughts in their own minds on their very own, and then to naturally develop postitive behavioural / personality changes, such a cognitive thought / thinking process actually can hardly be 'dictated' by anyone else other than they themselves. In such connection, as to the cognitive / thinking abilities / processes of different individuals, one of the simplest examples will be the process of learning a knowledge or something else whereby a person can get the best text materials, teachers, lecturers, tutors etc to assist one in his / her learnings, however, it would still ultimately depend on the very cognitive ability / process pertaining to that particular person which is then the key decisive factor in determining whether the knowledge is successfully acquired in the end or not.



In short, those self-efforts (related to self-cognitions), in the very end, will eventually be very much essential, or rather the decisive factor in determining whether the persons having mental disorders will achieve improvements / recoveries for their mental conditions or not.'



'As a summary,



I'm suggesting the following as a solution to mental disorders :



1/3 of medicational helps + 1/3 of psychotherapies, interactive, interpersonal, emotional, communication, conselling supports from the others + 1/3 of self-determinations, self-initiatives, self-controls, self-wills and self-disciplines to think positively, rationally, realistically and practically as well as to lead a normal and healthy life'




Next, I must admit that it's quite arbitrary for me to do so in the first place. However, given the fact that there are more and more people nowadays, especially the ones having the mental disorders who would tend to rely heavily, and if not completely, but at the same time, rather ignorantly upon medications as their sole and only means of dealing with their mental disorders, hence, by assigning the numerical proportion of '1/3' to each of those 3 variables for that 'equation' I'm just trying to convey a message to the intended readers that such factors as external psychotherapies, interactive / interpersonal, emotional / moral supports from the others as well as self-controls / self-efforts to think positively, they are just fairly as important as the medications when it comes to dealing with mental disorders.



In a nutshell, in terms of all those self-determinations, self-initiatives, self-controls, self-wills and self-disciplines to think positively, rationally, realistically and practically as well as to lead a normal and healthy life as mentioned above, well, that's simply a very down-to-earth reality of life that no pains, no gains.

'I disagree. Research and you will find that most people with a mental illness was locked away.'



You may be right, nevertheless, locking such persons away, well, most of the times may just worsen their conditons for the very fact that most of such mentally-illed people might actually have experienced extreme cases of oppression, interpersonal pressures, high stress and sometimes abuses by the other persons before they actually come to develop such mental disorders.



Next, the surroundings of a limited confined space / environment, which in many cases may just represent some form of oppressions to such people, and well, I don't think that such confined surroundings are, in any way actually conducive to the improvement of the mental conditions of such people, especially when such people are actually locked away for a long period of time, for that may actually constitute another form of extreme oppressions to such people.



And that's why psychotherapy and other interactive / interpersonal / emotional and communications supports are important for the mental health care of such people.



Well, I have something more to add about these quotations excerpted from the prior posts.



Actually as a part-time social worker, working along with other associates and dealing mainly with the in-patients of the government-funded psychiatric / mental wards and those of the special-care nursing homes, mainly by giving them our voluntary counselling therapies, one very common scenario that me and the other associates of social workers have observed so far, and yet pervasively concealed from the others, is actually the physical abuses, maltreatments and sometimes deliberate tortures etc inflicted by the related operatives-in-charge of such psychiatric facilities onto the mentally-retarded, senile and demented psychiatric in-patients of such medical facilities, which almost invariably go entirely unreported and grossly kept off the records. And most of the times, the victims involved may include those old senile people with impaired hearings, poor visions, severe cognitive problems, parkinson's disease, alzheimers, senile dementia etc. And whenever we come across such scenarios, we would try our best to stop such physical abuses, maltreatments and deliberate tortures from happening.



For your further information, for the psychiatrists and other medical personnel-charge of these medical facilities such as what we have observed so far, they would simply tend to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear on such physical abuses, mistreatments and sometimes deliberate tortures etc which happen in their very presences.



In such a connection, all these scenarios above simply remind me of certain past events, issues and scenarios about the supposedly right and correct way in which the mentally-illed patients should be treated in order to serve their best curative and health care interests in line with the very basic humanitarian grounds.



As such, please consider the following two websites included below :


http://encarta.msn.com/media_461539711/Bedlam.html


http://encarta.msn.com/media_461539709/ ... nsane.html



Next, what I wish to say is that, along with everything that has been revealed and established in the distant past, I firmly believe that mentally-illed patients by right should be treated with greater amounts of cares, compassions, kindness, considerations and patience which are in turn geared towards the very practical purposes of the gradual step-by-step improvements of their mental conditions and recoveries of their sanities.



In this regard, brutalities, cruelties, violences, maltreatments, physical abuses, tortures and any other harsh treatments, along with all those intentional, deliberate and purposeful mockings, jeerings, ridicules, derisions, disparagings, scornfulness, sarcasms, insults, humiliations and other hurtful things which are inflicted by the others onto the mentally-illed persons, well, all these malicious acts, such as what the medical histories have undoubtedly revealed, they are in fact far more detrimental and damaging to the mentally-illed persons than the very mental disorders that these pathetic persons themselves are having at the same time.



Well, by right the society should have adopted very much more tolerant, considerate and compassionate approaches towards the ones troubled with mental disorders. This is simply for the fact that treating such mentally-illed people harshly instead of compassionately, that would only serve to make things worse for such people and at the same time, I am in the in the opinion that for those persons choosing to behave like 'bullies', who are actually so unconscionable / conscienless enough to the extent that they would actually bring themselves to purposefully do hurtful things to the mentally-illed ones, the society and community as a whole should feel ashamed of such very malicious acts of theirs.



In addition, there may be certain psychiatric in-patients who tend to behave and respond violently and aggressively to the others. And as social workers, as well as some of the psychiatrists that we work with, we simply understand that they are behaving so substantially, if not totally out of their own free will owing to the overwhelming psychotic influnces of the mental disorders that 'force' them to behave so. However, this is barely and hardly a valid ground for these mentally-illed people to be alienated and denied of any compassions and right treatments that they deserve from the psychiatrists and other related personnel. For your information, whenever we come across such patients, we would always try our best to calm them down at first, and then do our best to get their personal trusts and confidence so that we could go about influencing them in positive and sensible ways later on.



In a nutshell, mentally-illed people, despite the fact that they are mentally-abnormal compared to the perfectly healthy individuals, they are after all human beings just like anyone else. And as such, they would naturally deserve the basic human rights, due respects, cares, compassions and patiences they need from the others for the gradual and step-by-step improvements of their mental conditions , and it is beyond any doubts that such a principle is at least justified on humanitarian grounds.



In this regard, for the brutalities, cruelties, maltreatments, phsycial abuses, deliberate humiliations, derisions, ridicules, disparagings and other purposeful malicious acts administered, or rather inflicted deliberately upon the mentally-illed ones, the society and community as a whole should, by obligations of humanities, put a stop on such heinous, sinister, outrageous atrocities and monstrosities which have been victimizing the mentally-illed ones over the centuries pervasively, ubiquitously, and yet almost totally concealedly.



So, God help us !

Though I haven't received any reply on that particular issue yet from anyone else, I would wish to say the following just the same : -



And I would like to add that in terms of all those brutalities, cruelties, maltreatments, phsycial abuses, deliberate humiliations, derisions, ridicules, disparagings and other purposeful malicious acts administered, or rather inflicted deliberately upon the mentally-illed ones especially at the hands of all those ill-trained and yet official paramedics, those are exactly the main obstacles and communication barriers that we as social workers often encounter when we try to reach out to and win the trusts and confidences, especially from the institutionalized mentally-illed people. This is due to the very fact that these mentally-illed people would often tend to 'liken' us to all those persons who always do hurtful things to them and as a result, they simply would choose not to co-operate with us in the very first place.



Whilst the key difference is that, when all those 'official medical personnel' who do hurtful things to these mentally-illed in-patients are actually get paid by the hospital administrations, we as social workers providing only unpaid voluntary counselling services to these mentally-illed people, actually need to 'take care of the mess' as well that are left over by all those inconsiderate, or rather inhumane, if not, barbaric 'uniformed medical personnel' working in such medical institutions. And as a matter of fact, sometimes these 'uniformed medical personnel' would simply 'display' their dirty looks and intense urges of 'bashing us up' too especially when we come to advise these people not to use especially unnecessary physical violences and abuses against the old senile demented mentally-illed in-patients who are simply unable to 'obey their orders'.

I was put on Haldol for 'paranoid psychosis'(i.e. EXTREME anxiety)following clinical depression and it was completely useless at alleviating either problem. What DID work to end the depression AND the anxiety was prozac(which I only took for about a month). So from what Ive been told by psychiatrists, antidepressants are a lot more effective at treating various mental disorders than neuroleptics like Thorazine which I believe has finally been banned in the US.

I've been taking Seroquel [in addition to a SSRI] for anxiety the past few days, and also certain symptoms of Autism. CBT doesn't work for the anxiety I now feel, as it's not based on thought like specific phobias and/or OCD; it's just there to a high and very uncomfortable level nonstop, which is possible in people with Autism, especially if they've had it lifelong and from an early age.

It works, I suppose; it's not as good as the minor tranquilizers for anxiety IMO. It makes me dopey, which I'm assuming is the Histamine that it's working on. However, it probably isn't working as good as I'm only taking a low dose, whereas with the Valium I was taking a much higher dose in comparison.

The psychic wanted me to try this major tranq before taking the minor one long-term.