A
sample of 1.5 million Danish people reveals two devastating findings:
(1) at least 80% of the population will be diagnosed and/or medicated
for “mental illness” in their lifetime on two or more occasions, and (2)
they will end up with “subsequent” “long-term socioeconomic
difficulties” “including lower income, unemployment, and increased
likelihood to live alone and to be unmarried.”1
Does
this prove that mental illness ruins lives? No, when 80% or more of the
population is treated as mentally ill, the concept has no meaning or
relevance, except that it results in two powerfully disabling outcomes:
(1) psychiatric drugs that universally disable the brain temporarily and
too often permanently and (2) stigmatization and demoralization that
undermine how the individual is viewed by himself and others.
Psychiatric
drugs cause acute brain dysfunction, which makes it harder for anyone
to deal with the realities of whatever in their lives or within
themselves is causing them disability, distress, and suffering. The
brain dysfunction lasts at least as long as the individual is taking
drugs and can be mild to severe, depending on the intensity or length of
exposure. Brain dysfunction, sometimes accompanied by permanent damage,
can cause persistent mental, emotional, and spiritual decline, as
confirmed in the Danish study.
Studies
in the United States with children started on low doses of Ritalin
(methylphenidate) in the 1970s for minimal symptoms of ADHD showed they
did very poorly long-term. They had a lifetime decline in quality of
life compared to controls, including stunted growth, lower IQ, less
education, more psychiatric hospitalizations and imprisonments, obesity,
and a shorter lifespan. Ritalin became a gateway to becoming lifelong
mental patients on psychiatric drugs of every sort. Other studies have
shown brain shrinkage from stimulant drugs given to children. I have
reviewed the scientific literature demonstrating these outcomes in Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients, and their Families.2 These long-term catastrophes are primarily caused by drug-induced neurotoxicity3 but
also by the stigmatization and demoralization from doctors telling the
children and their parents that the children are genetically defective,
have biochemical balances, and need the drugs — lies to get them to take
the neurotoxins. For
many years, evidence has been increasing that taking psychiatric drugs
is among the most dangerous risks in modern society. For decades, I have
been explaining and documenting that psychiatric drugs overall do much
more harm than good. The drug-induced dysfunction or damage causes
“medication spellbinding”4 — the inability of patients to fully perceive the harm the drugs are doing to them.5 Stopping
psychiatric drugs can also be very dangerous because the brain has
adapted to the drug as an alien and harmful substance, and when the drug
is removed, the brain goes into a new imbalance due to withdrawal.
Depending on the type and number of drugs and the length of exposure,
psychiatric drug withdrawal must be done carefully, with support from
friends or family, and hopefully under experienced clinical supervision.
My book, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapist, Patients and their Families, describes the dangers of the drugs and how to safely withdraw from them.
The Stigma and Demoralization
Healthcare
workers who diagnose people with mental illnesses are stigmatizing and
demoralizing them. The labeled persons experience shame, guilt, and
anxiety from the diagnosis and feel less able to control their own
lives. They feel more helpless and dependent on others and on drugs. The
people around them may also change their views of the “patient” in ways
that undermine their self-esteem or sense of autonomy. When children or
adults are falsely told they have “biochemical imbalances,” it becomes a
prescription for them to feel helpless and unable to control their
feelings or overall mental life. As a psychiatrist, I often have to help
individuals recover from self-destructive lies they have been told by
everyone, from psychiatrists to family doctors, nurse practitioners, and
psychologists. Lessons for All Westernized Nations and All People
The
Danish study, which documents that nearly everyone is going to be
prescribed psychiatric drugs in their lifetime, holds true for America
and other large Western nations as well. The effects of psychiatric
drugs will be the same everywhere, causing varying degrees of decline in
the individual’s quality of life. Many people may not experience or
feel that they are undergoing a dramatic decline. But in my experience
as a therapist and psychiatrist who helps people withdraw from
psychiatric drugs, all or nearly all people who carefully withdraw from
psychiatric drugs realize for the first time that they were much more
blunted, remote, or disengaged from people and life when on the drugs.
They “find themselves,” “have their real feelings,” and become
“stronger” as they gradually recover from the neurotoxicity. Coming off
psychiatric drugs enables them to better deal with their problems and to
have much more fulfilling lives.
1 Lars
Vedel Kessing, Simon Christoffer Ziersen, Avshalom Caspi, et al.
Lifetime Incidence of Treated Mental Health Disorders and Psychotropic
Drug Prescriptions and Associated Socioeconomic Functioning. JAMA Psychiatry.
2023;80(10):1000-1008. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.220. Quotes
taken from the “Key Points,” “Abstract,” and “Conclusions and
relevance.” https://breggin.com/admin/fm/source/6905_breggin/Psychiatry/Eighty-percent-80-of-population-mental-health.pdf 2 Breggin, Peter. Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapist, Patients and their Families. New York: Springer Publishing Company. Available at bookstores and Breggin.com | Books.
Chapter 6 gives multiple citations to the scientific literature for
stimulants and other chapters document the harms from the whole range of
psychiatric drugs. Our website, www.breggin.com,
provides PDFs of my multiple scientific articles dealing with these
issues. A complete list of my books and articles is found in my resume
(on the dropdown menu labeled “About”) @ www.breggin.com. 3 Breggin,
Peter. Psychiatric drug-induced Chronic Brain Impairment (CBI):
Implications for long-term treatment with psychiatric medication. International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine (2011) Breggin2011_ChronicBrainImpairment.pdf 4 Breggin, Peter. Intoxication anosognosia: The spellbinding effect of psychiatric drugs, International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine (2007). Breggin2007.pdf 5 Breggin, Peter. Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide, and Crime. Available at bookstores and Breggin.com | Books.
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First Published on AmericaOutLoud.news Nov. 4, 2023
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