Arjun Walia, Collective-Evolution
Waking Times

It’s no secret that when society, as a whole starts thinking outside the box, or starts to question what’s really happening on the planet it faces a fierce opposition. It’s also no secret that authority figures throughout history have ridiculed ideas that simply did not fit the frame. In our not so distant past, new ideas and understandings were harshly opposed by those in control. A great example is Galileo, who was convicted (and worked banned) from the public domain, and labelled as crazy. Scientists during this time were also sought after and killed. Have things really changed today? Is the pharmaceutical industry another means of condemning and altering those who think outside the box?

**For those who believe this title is misleading, I think it’s great to open ones mind to the possibility that many psychiatric labels are used to push drugs, and discourage free/alternative thought. I believe many are made up in order to do so. At the same time, I believe there are people who experience very real differences that we have yet to understand. The science behind many “mental illnesses” is also very weak. Again, we understand very little and have much to learn.

“The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.” – Japanese Proverb

Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the latest addition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, it looks that way. The manual identifies a mental illness labelled as “oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD. It’s defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior.” (0) It’s also included in the category of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

The manual is used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental illnesses, and it seems that with each new issue a new, made up mental illness is added to the list. This isn’t something new, in the Soviet Union, a systematic political abuse of psychiatry took place and was based on the interpretation of political dissent as a psychiatric problem.  Mental illness has been used for political repression, those who were/are non-conformant and do/did not accept the beliefs of authority figures (like government agencies) face labels that do not represent them at all, and have no scientific backing what so ever. (1)

“On the first glance, political abuse of psychiatry appears to represent a straightforward and uncomplicated story: the deployment of medicine as an instrument of repression. Psychiatric incarceration of mentally healthy people is uniformly understood to be a particularly pernicious form of repression, because it uses the powerful modalities of medicine as tools of punishment, and it compounds a deep affront to human rights with deception and fraud. Doctors who allow themselves to be used in this way betray the trust of society and breach their most basic ethical obligations as professionals.” (1)

The entire psychiatric disease model today is based on the theory that a brain-based, chemical imbalance causes mental illness.  Dr. Mark Graff, Chair of Public Affairs of the American Psychiatric Association said that this theory was “probably drug industry derived.” (source)

“There’s no biological imbalance. When people come to me and they say, I have a biological imbalance, I say, ‘show me your lab tests.’ There are no lab tests. So what’s the biochemical imbalance?” –  Dr. Ron Leifer, New York psychiatrist (source)

“If a psychiatrist says you have a shortage of a chemical, ask for a blood test and watch the psychiatrist’s reaction. The number of people who believe that scientists have proven that depressed people have low serotonin is a glorious testament to the power of marketing.”  – Jonathan Leo, associate professor of anatomy at Western University of Health Sciences.  (source)

It’s quite shocking how medicine is convinced that the origins of mental illnesses are to be found in biology, when over three decades of research have not been able to provide any proof. There are no tests available for assessing the chemical status of a living person’s brain. Many psychiatric ‘disorders’ aren’t even real, we’ve just been convinced that they are. This is done to keep society in check, make money, and one method of controlling the masses to prevent them from thinking outside the box.

As an end note, if you’re interested you might want to check out a documentary titled Generation RX. It’s a documentary by a world renowned producer Kevin P. Miller. In the film he examines the rise in psychiatric diagnoses’ among children and teens. The film includes a number of experts, doctors, and researchers that are internationally respected in the fields of medicine, ethics, journalism and academia. He emphasizes that a lack of ethics goes hand in hand with psychiatric drugs that are prescribed to millions worldwide, yet have never been proven safe and effective for the very conditions they are purported to treat. He also uncovers a pattern of collusion between drug manufactureres  and the FDA, who literally hide evidence about the detrimental effects psychiatric drugs can have on a person.

**I don’t want this article to detract from the fact that many people do experience differences that are still not understood today. We still have much to learn about mental “mental illness.”

Sources:
(0) http://justines2010blog.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/dsm-iv.pdf
(1) http://jaapl.org/content/30/1/136.full.pdf
http://www.offthegridnews.com/2010/10/08/is-free-thinking-a-mental-illness/

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