I decided to write this book after my next door neighbor’s child told me she was taking Ritalin. When I mentioned this to the neighbor on the other side of my house, I learned that their son was also taking Ritalin. I was shocked! I started a campaign of writing letters to the editor in our local paper, telling parents they could and should “Say No to Ritalin,” including my phone number at the bottom. The newspaper insisted I prove the sources of information before they would publish them. I supplied them with plenty of proof.
Fourteen people called me from my first letter to the editor. I sent each of the callers information about Ritalin and alternative sources of handling “hyperactivity” and “Learning and Attention Deficit Disorders.” Psychiatrists and psychologists then wrote in; a newspaper war ensued. The editor told me that he was criticized for printing my letters, but “it made interesting reading.”
Interesting reading? If the data on Ritalin and my viewpoints were interesting, how about the whole subject?
To answer the calls and letters I received, I did research at the library. I took out library books about psychiatric drugs to learn more about the side effects of Ritalin and books on mental disorders to learn more about Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD.) I looked at newspapers and periodicals and noticed “psychiatric ads” saying one in four suffer from “mental illness.”
I noticed the subject of psychiatry in the media; everything from the “Bobbit” case to a segment on the TV sitcom “South Central LA” about an African American boy’s regular visits to a therapist. In the “Bobbit” case, Lorena Bobbit cut off her husband’s penis, but was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. She was following an irresistible urge to wound her husband who had abused and raped her, so she was not liable.
I decided to write a book of personal anecdotes and observations about psychiatry. I had already crafted a humorous one about romance. When I read from it at an open mic called “Arts Alive,” I found people enjoyed the personal touch. Perhaps this same style would work for a more serious subject. The title, Psychiatry Makes You Crazy, came to me which later was changed to Does Psychiatry Make You Crazy . . . so it would ask a question, and a new book was born.
Completing my other manuscript had created havoc in my life: scores of undone chores, baskets of papers on my desk, incomplete projects and reports. I scoured my house and desk, filed, tossed and reorganized. When I came up for air, refreshed, I started in earnest. Telling others about my book, I had a startling revelation – stories were not hard to find. A high percentage of people had one. When I mentioned that I was writing stories about psychiatry and the title, people invariably told me about their experience or their mother, father, aunt, uncle, friend, or sister-in-law’s experience.
We talk easily about marital, even sexual problems. Girls hang out and discuss their problems with husbands, jobs and children. Guys don’t talk about these problems as much, but they are still discussed. People even talk about their indiscretions on national TV talk shows! But do they talk about who was shocked, committed or forced to take psychiatric drugs? No! This is not a subject of common conversation. It is non-confronted and withheld.
If it were confronted and discussed, people would compare notes and discover that what happened to them or a relative, happened to others. “Something isn’t kosher in the kitchen,” they would say.
Perhaps they feel ashamed or frightened. “If a relative or associate could go off the deep end, so could I.” This terrible thing, “mental illness” is shrouded in complicated terms and pedantic subterfuge by “professionals” with years of schooling. “With all that education, the professionals should know,” they think.
Whatever the reason, people are not talking about psychiatry and mental illness and they should be. If they were talking, they would be clamoring for reform!
Well, I am talking and the voices of others are heard too through my book, and I hope it starts the ball rolling.
As I began to write this book, I clarified my purpose. It was not to write a complete diatribe on psychiatry’s chicanery. It was not to fully inform people about psychiatric treatment, though readers will learn quite a bit from the true stories in my book. There are many very factual books on psychiatry that I will recommend, such as The Myth of Mental Illness, The Therapeutic State or The Manufacture of Madness written by Dr. Thomas Szasz, a professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse; Shock Treatment is not Good for Your Brain by John Friedberg, M. D., a neurologist, or Toxic Psychiatry by Peter Breggin.
MY BOOK AND ITS PURPOSE
I knew that I could write a book with an easy style – a soap opera style if you wish – for the average reader. My purpose in doing so is to raise questions and get people to think and TALK about it!
I invite my readers to ask friends, relatives, associates, as I did, if they know anyone who has been mistreated by psychiatry. If they know someone who is currently being treated, how are they doing? I invite them to go and visit a mental institution and observe the condition of the patients for themselves.
TALK ABOUT IT!
Look into the issue. Then write your congressmen and demand that those who give treatment be responsible for what they do.
It is still America. We have some semblance of free speech.