Moderator Emeritus Shep Posted November 29, 2018 Moderator Emeritus Share Posted November 29, 2018 (edited) North Jersey Video Collective - Robert Whiter - Eugenics Psychiatry video (2 hours) This video was posted five years ago, but it's one I had never seen posted before and it really should be seen. It's a great historical overview of the role of medical doctors - including psychiatrists - in the eugenics movement. This talk, especially the last 30 minutes of question-and-answer time, really gets into some key social justice issues, as books such as Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness comes up. For anyone not familiar with all of Whitaker's books, he not only wrote great books such as Mad in America and Anatomy of an Epidemic, he also wrote On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a Nation about one of the worst racial massacres in American history. In this video talk, Whitaker connects this book about a massacre a hundred years ago to the current trend of mass incarceration of people of color today, as well as the number of people labeled with "mental illness" (A shocking number of mentally ill Americans end up in prison instead of treatment). Whitaker also states we need a people's history (he's likely referring to historian Howard Zinn who wrote A People's History of the United States). There's clearly a lot of work to be done in the social justice areas of psychiatry, and I think this video is a great addition to the dialogue of psychiatry, race, class, capitalism, and who we are in this country. Edited November 29, 2018 by Shep fixed link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popsicletoes Posted November 29, 2018 Share Posted November 29, 2018 I was doing some research this morning (trying to find documentation for my son's decent but skeptical psychiatrist) and found this from January 2018: A Review of the Research Literature for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal I wondered if it had been posted here, so I did a search and found your post. Reading through the charts, I was particularly struck by the chart "Number of Studies That Sought to Promote Successful Withdrawal from Antidepressants of Antipsychotics" 😑 I am a mom trying to help my now 17 year old son taper off his current medications. June 2017 to April 2018 successfully tapered off 1mg of Risperidone. Currently DUEL tapering Citalopram and Buspirone. Current medications: (supplements: omega 3 and magnesium) citalopram: (starting dose 30 mg) 10/6/18: 27.5 mg 11/3/18: 24.4 mg 11/30/18: 22 mg 12/28/18: 20 mg 1/25/19: 18 mg 2/22/19 16.2 mg 3/22/19 14.6 mg 4/18/19 13.2 mg 5/17/19 12 mg 6/14/19 10.8 mg 7/13/19 9.8 mg 8/9/19 8.8 mg 9/6/19 8 mg 10/4/19 7.2 mg 11/1/19 6.4.mg 11/29/19 5.8 mg 12/27/19 5.2 mg 1/24/20 4.7 mg buspirone: (starting dose 20 mg - 10 mg am and pm) 2/22/19 18 mg 3/22/19 16.2 mg 4/18/19 14.6 mg 5/17/19 13.2 mg 6/14/19 11.8 mg 7/13/19 10.6 mg 8/9/19 9.6 mg 9/6/19 8.6 mg 10/4/19 7.8 mg 11/1/19 7 mg 11/29/19 6.4. mg 1/27/19 5.8. mg 1/24/20 5.2 mg Brief rundown of his medication history: 2007 to 2009: citalopram for mood issues from medications for cancer (note: as part of the cancer treatment protocol also sporadicallly received Ativan, morphine, oxycodone, dexamethasone, prednisone and other mood altering medications) / 2010: started back on citalopram for mood issues (in retrospect, suspect PANS, Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome) / 2010 to April 2018: 1 mg risperidone added / June 2014: attempted fast (Dr. recommended) taper of risperidone (3 week long) / summer 2014: tried my son on a variety of medications for 1 to 2 day trials - this caused nothing but increased mood issues / August 2014: reinstated risperidone / August 2014 to November 2014: prescribed Topamax for headaches, maxed at 150 mg I think. Dr. instructed FAST taper after EVERY documented side effect. Severe life-altering withdrawal that took months (years?) to resolve. / January 2015 to present: prescribed buspirone for severe anxiety after rapidly tapering off Topamax /June 2017 to April 2018: slow 10% reduction taper off 1mg of risperidone (note: decreased interval length toward the end per son's wishes) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiaK Posted November 30, 2018 Share Posted November 30, 2018 thank you. your post (along with a few other things going on in my life at the moment) prompted my publishing the above video and some comments on my website too. The eugenic history of psychiatry is in our bodies – Everything Matters: Beyond Meds https://beyondmeds.com/2018/11/30/eugenic-psychiatry/ Everything Matters: Beyond Meds https://beyondmeds.com/ withdrawn from a cocktail of 6 psychiatric drugs that included every class of psych drug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor FarmGirlWorks Posted December 1, 2018 Mentor Share Posted December 1, 2018 I am mid-way through watching it and just floored by how the upper classes brought eugenics to America and financially supported it in Germany. Now to the other half about psychodrugs... Prozac | late 2004-mid-2005 | CT WD in a couple months, mostly emotional Sertraline 50-100mg | 11/2011-3/2014, 10/2014-3/2017 Sertraline fast taper March 2017, 4 weeks, OFF sertraline April 1, 2017 Quit alcohol May 20, 2017 Lifestyle changes: AA, kundalini yoga "If you've seen a monster, even if it's horrible, that's evidence of divinity." – Damien Echols Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Emeritus Shep Posted December 1, 2018 Author Moderator Emeritus Share Posted December 1, 2018 On 11/29/2018 at 9:40 AM, popsicletoes said: I was doing some research this morning (trying to find documentation for my son's decent but skeptical psychiatrist) and found this from January 2018: A Review of the Research Literature for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Thanks for posting that PDF, popsicletoes. Have you seen the "source documents" section of Whitaker's Mad in America site? Anatomy of an Epidemic - Source Documents You may find even more information for your son't psychiatrist. There's also a Parents Resources section where you can get information. Mad in America - Parents Resources Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Emeritus Shep Posted December 1, 2018 Author Moderator Emeritus Share Posted December 1, 2018 On 11/30/2018 at 10:58 AM, GiaK said: thank you. your post (along with a few other things going on in my life at the moment) prompted my publishing the above video and some comments on my website too. The eugenic history of psychiatry is in our bodies – Everything Matters: Beyond Meds https://beyondmeds.com/2018/11/30/eugenic-psychiatry/ Great article, Gia. Thank you for linking it. I really like the tie-in to the "body keeps the score". I've been reading about transgenerational trauma and not only how the body keeps the score, but how this score is passed along to future generations. The process of absorbing the truth and the "full catastrophe of living", to borrow a line from Jon Kabat-Zinn, is to come to terms with the real horror of what's been done and what continues to be done by the so-called "healers" of our western tribe. Thank you for so bravely and mindfully continuing to share your insights with us as you continue the long journey into the healing spaces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Emeritus Shep Posted December 1, 2018 Author Moderator Emeritus Share Posted December 1, 2018 14 hours ago, FarmGirlWorks said: I am mid-way through watching it and just floored by how the upper classes brought eugenics to America and financially supported it in Germany. Now to the other half about psychodrugs... If you're interested in more about the historical aspects, Dr. Peter Breggin has written a lot about this area of psychiatry: The Role of Psychiatry in Nazi Germany and the U. S. Violence Initiative Psychiatry as an Instrument of Social and Political Control Psychiatry's role in the holocaust - PDF Not light reading for anyone in a wave, but it's important information to document for those able to tackle this type of reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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