Why I see a shrink and take psych meds -symptoms of pd

[DanCa]

Here is a small complimation I rewrote this from www.yopa.org So maybe all you anti psych people without mds can step up to the plate and tell me why I shouldnt see a shrink or anti psych meds.

PD Symptoms

The first sign of Parkinson's may be as slight as a tremor in one finger. (Actually for me it was in the knee) Over time, the movement disorder may grow more pronounced, involving the hand and then the arm, usually on just one side of the body. Facial muscles may be affected, making the face appear less expressive than before. (I have problems with talking) As the illness progresses, walking may slow and the gait may become unsteady. Episodes of "freezing," where the legs are difficult to move, may occur. Swallowing and digestion may be slowed, and the voice may lose strength and range. Depression is common among those who have the illness, although not all people have the full range of symptoms.

Slowness of movement
This is the most disabling symptom. Initially, it often begins in one arm with a loss of manual dexterity. The slowness makes it difficult to get out of a chair or turn in bed. Fine movements such as buttoning clothing, handwriting, and using a fork or knife may become difficult. Later, the person appears to be in slow motion and if not treated may become virtually frozen like a statue. Because of the enormous energy it takes to overcome slowness the person with Parkinson's often complains of being "weak" although there is not true muscular weakness.

Tremor
Tremor occurs in about two-thirds of people with Parkinson's and is often the most visible and obvious sign of the disease. While the Parkinson's tremor usually affects the hands and feet it sometimes involves the lips, tongue, and jaw. The tremor is more visible while at rest or while walking and will usually stop during movement of the hand. On a side note my tremors tend to get more pronunced with music. If I had a orchestra wand I would be a hell of a conducter.

Muscle stiffness
Stiffness combined with slowness may cause aching muscles and joints, especially in the shoulders. This is sometimes misinterpreted as "arthritis" or "bursitis."

Masked face
Not yet but something I get to look forward too. Yippie . _ sarcasam
An often confusing characteristic of the disease is the presence of a "masked face," showing little or no emotion. Blinking and spontaneous eye movements are less frequent, giving rise to a staring expression. This can be misinterpreted as lack of interest or depression.

Walking difficulties

The gait may be slow with short steps. A person with Parkinson's may also intermittently freeze as if the feet were stuck to the floor. Freezing occurs especially when approaching doorways or if forced to hurry. There is a propensity to bend the trunk forward and to walk with out swinging the arms. It is common to have difficulties with balance.

Speech problems

About one half of all individuals with Parkinson's Disease develop difficulty with their speech. The most common problem is a soft or fading voice. Communication can be complicated further by a fast mumbling speech with uncontrollable repetitions of the first syllable.

Swallowing difficulties

Some individuals experience difficulty eating because their ability to swallow has become impaired. Food may collect in the mouth or the back of the throat resulting in choking or coughing. Friends and family members may wish to become familiar with the Heimlich Maneuver in the event of a choking episode. A physician or other health professional can explain this procedure.

Troubling inconsistencies

It is important to note that an individual's symptoms may vary from moment-to-moment and day-to-day. Symptoms may be nonexistent one minute only to suddenly reappear for no clear reason. These variations can be due to the disease or medications. Such fluctuations will often confuse or frustrate caregiver, family, and friends who are unaware of the fickle nature of this disease.

Welcome to my world friends. So now you guys dont want stem cell and want me to stop seeking medical help and drugs. Really shows you of what the culture of life group is all about.

[Sanity Claws]

1. I encourage you to take all your meds

There's no reason for you to suffer these symptoms without relief. The only thing I would recommend is acupuncture or nutritional advice to see if it can decrease your symptoms.

[DanCa]

2. Oh I agree

I just got tired of seeing the non medical anti psych people put everyone down all the time. Thats the reason I posted this.

[NMMNG]

3. You should post this in GD

Let the anti-psych vultures answer for themselves.

[undergroundpanther]

4. A "vulture" here

Listen up!

I am not demanding that you throw away your meds.


I am speaking on my OWN behalf against bio psychiatry because My experience has been VERY different than yours with it.

I was FORCED to take medicines I did not want to take,literally pinned down and injected with them..TRhese medicines that did nothing. I have mild Tardikive Dyskinesia from all the Thorazine,Haldol Loxitane etc forced into me.I was on these drugs for years. Drugs are used too much to solve complex problems in people or society..Drugs are used FIRST listening last because listening takes time,training and tolerance and time is MONEY.


I was tortured in the mental hospitals..Unlike some of you.. I was given obscene amounts of medications, I was misdiagnosed and hurt by therapy.I am not trusting of the therapies that hurt me.

Not everyone has a good therapy experience.. Some people fear and do not trust psychiatry for good or very personal reasons despite the reactionary fears you may have about us anti psych evil vultures stealing your Elavil or Pamelor in the dead of night. Or tying up your therapists hands so he will not write out your prescriptions for you.. Come on..Get real people medicines are not gonna go away.

But I'd like the COERCION of patients by authorities and experts to stop.

Big pharmacy in reality is not always working for the public good,they are a FOR PROFIT corporation first and foremost.The public are not the shareholders,they are consumers..big pharmacy does not always do good or valid science in it's making of drugs,it pays for it's own studies and picks and chooses what results the studies find too much of the time.Selling drugs is their job. Remember first and foremost big pharmacy is about making big money and big money is about serving the cause of social control.The two things are like hand in glove. And questioning this"relationship" is what keeps the drugs and therapies you all take SAFE.

Alot of what motivates people in the psych arena is either fear or authoritarian . I know Meds might help some people get better or at least feel better. Good for them. Meds can suppress symptoms and show down painful parts of healing to help manage the process.They have uses. Psych drugs can be useful in the hands of a compassionate anti-authoritarian shrink to avoid crisis.But some people like me are hurt by bad therapy,bad medicines, and therapy can be undermined by all this medicine too.Medicines affect your consciousness. THAT is the whole reason as to why you TAKE medicines to begin with to alter your consciousness and hopefully relieve symptoms.

The people hurt by bio psychiatry are speaking out because they've been hurt and were not helped..And they have a right to their voice and POV too.

Go ahead take your meds if it helps you. I don't care what you do,

I just don't want to be FORCED to do what you do because everyone believes as you do.


I' not forcing anything on you by having my own POV. I am speaking of MY own experiences. I have a right to QUESTION the authority and expertise of an industry that forced me to take meds and suffer bad abusive"treatments" against my consent or will..Things done"for my own good" that in reality further traumatized me.

Being forced to take meds that made me SICK and hurt my body is a ugly abuse of authoritarian psych models.I am fighting against coercive abusive treatment being forced on people first and foremost.Chemical lobotomy is one way such abuses occur.

I had a roommate almost DIE from being given too much meds.It was scary..I almost died from a "treatment" procedure too .Meds have been used to keep me suppressed and docile yet inside unable to express it because of the drugs I still was in great pain and rage..I got discharged because all looked on the outside like I was better but inside I was not.I made suicide attempts. I have had the sudden suicidal impulses they talk about with Prozac I ran in front of an oncoming truck...I have a different experience of psychiatry than you guys do..And I must speak out for no one should have to go through it if they are aware of the pitfalls before they fall in. Information is power. And I had no information about how the drugs work or don't work,there was no INFORMED CONSENT on my part when I was abused by the system.I just had to do as they wanted and take what they gave me.

And please tell me..How many anti-psych people have forced people like you guys calling me a vulture, forced Any of you AGAINST YOUR CONSENT to go off your meds?

Can you get me some instances, places or numbers where anti psych people forced people NOT to take meds? Some reports with context? because I would want to condemn those anti-psych fools for forcing people off meds against their will because that makes them NO BETTER than the authoritarian bio psychiatrists forcing people to take meds against their will.

I want to compare how many people are forced by anti-psych people to NOT take meds against their will ..How do anti-psych people force people to NOT TAKE MEDS? Do anti psych people just make them go cold turkey and lock them in a room so they won't get at their medicines?

How do they do it?

It'd like to compare numbers of how many people who are ADULTS are forced off all their psych medicines against their consent.. VS .. to how many people are FORCED to take psych meds against their consent?

I think it's a good question to ask on all sides.


My own experiences and this philosophy below is what motivates ME to speak out against forced psychiatry.


Universal Declaration of Mental Rights
We hold this truth.......

That all human beings are created different. That every human being has the right to be mentally free and independent.

That every human being has the right to feel, see, hear, sense, imagine, believe or experience anything at all, in any way, at any time.

That every human being has the right to behave in any way that does not harm others or break fair and just laws.

That no human being shall be subjected without consent to incarceration, restraint, punishment, or psychological or medical intervention in an attempt to control, repress or alter the individual's thoughts, feelings or experiences.

[NMMNG]

6. Undergroundpanther

Forced treatment of any kind is unethical. Everyone must have the right to refuse somatic or psychiatric treatment of any kind, even if that means they will die as a result.

I've worked with developmentally disabled individuals for 18 years now and been a strong advocate for their rights. They have a right, just as we do, to refuse treatments. At times due to their cognitive disabilities it is determined that they are unable to adequately make an informed decision for themselves about specific procedures/treatments. For example, the clients in the house I currently work in have a functioning level somewhere between infants and toddlers. In such cases surrogate decision makers, such as legal guardians, may make the determinations for them. However to the fullest extent possible the client's wishes are respected no matter how severe their disability.

When I protest against those who denounce psychology and psychiatry, it is not against people like you, UGP. You protest forced psychiatry, essentially chemical restraints, which may be combined with imprisonment in a locked ward of a hospital. People like you have valid complaints that need to be heard.

I protest against those who denounce psychology/psychiatry as an outright sham, devoid of therapeutic value or validity of any kind. These people are making blanket statements that can only cause harm, deterring people who need help from seeking it, stigmatizing people who are already far too stigmatized, and doing a great disservice to a profession that is designed to help people who are in pain.

With metta
Tara

[DanCa]

8. Thank you for the back up Buffy

I really am tired of everyone practicing medicine without a license. I thought that was illegal. Of course am not reffering to the people who have reservations about taking medicines i am talking about the hardliners that say no to all ends. Thanks for the back up :D You Rock.
PS love your name.

[undergroundpanther]

5. Parkinsons

Is not the same as ADHD.You can SEE the brain change with disoprders like parkinsons and alzhiemers.

Even trauma scars the brain.

But being too defiant to obey a rude teacher how is that a disease?
Feeling hopeless because the world is sick how is that a disease?


For issues like parkinsons or serious life threatening things it is imperative to do what you can to cope.


BUT right now psych meds are being handed out like candy for every minor issue like arguments with parents,not doing homework,or thinking differently or being too into a subject or not paying attention.

Some things meds can help,other things need a different approach.

One size does not fit all.

"the vulture"

A vulture called Maat.

[DanCa]

7. It's okay

I kind of agree with you. There is so much that adds to depression. Nutrition proper sleep daily hygyne and exercise if all that is done first then they should treat the depression with meds.
I also agree that there are some bad shrinks who dont do enough to treat the cause of depression. Oh but as long as you dont see it as a one size fits all type of thing I agree with you. Its just the hardliners that say no to drugs for any reason that I have a problem with. Especially since that they, like me dont have a medical degree. Hope were coolio.

[NMMNG]

9. Studies are showing that brain scans may be able to identify MI

If the person's illness can be determined (and/or ruled out) via brain scan, the need for treatment can also be fine tuned or ruled out. It will make the future of psychiatry truly cutting-edge.

[undergroundpanther]

10. If a physical causes are found and

can be fixed by all means fix it,

But do not neglect the other possible causes of duress,like our society being sick and controlling,parents with issues,
and pollution/nutrition etc.Our world has changed dramatically in the past 50 years and some people cope better than others.In reality our sick way of life is killing us and the planet.I think deep down we know this.Even when we pretend and act otherwise.

[Wordie]

14. The difficulty with those studies is to know what they are truly revealing

I know some of the studies that claim to reveal a brain difference for schizophrenia, for instance, really reveal brain damage from years of heavy narcoleptics. It becomes a question of determining what is cause and what is effect, much like determining which is the chicken and which is the egg. The problem with some of the studies, as well, is that they presume a biological, organic difference in the brain, but the studies that they provide show no such thing (scientifically).

And, even if there it was definitively shown that there are changes to the brain with some of these illnesses (and it seems entirely likely that there may be some sort of changes), are those changes a result of inherent differences, or of environmental causes of some sort or other? This is an important question, because the different answers imply totally different treatment approaches.

As you can see, I am on the anti-psych side of things, but like the earlier poster, I would never dream of making a decision on it for some other person...and I expect the same respect to be given to me. Each person needs to be honestly informed about the risks and benefits of any of the medications that is proposed, and make a decision for themselves.

I think often that the pro-medication people simply do not understand the grief that people can feel (and anger) when major life changes occur (and I mean highly negative ones) as a result of trusting and taking a medication that proves to be a disaster. And I know that many will say, "oh, well you have to work with the doctor to find the right one." But if your life has gone down the tubes, permanently, because of being put on the WRONG one, that is a message that does not go down well. And how many times can you be willing to work with the doctor, with negative results every time, before you become somewhat cynical when people say that. The anger is not in any way directed at those who have different problems, or who find that some medication or other really does work for them. (We worry about you, but aren't angry at you.) The anger MAY be directed at those who simply refuse to acknowledge that a substantial number of people DO have problems with these medications.

[kineneb]

11. just got new meds for depression

I have been dealing with a lot of stress related to Hubby's health and felt that I was going to "loose it". So the doc changed my meds. Without them, the cycle starts with overwhelming sadness and progresses to deep depression with panic attacks. I constantly work on the cognative side after years of talk therapy, but without medications I would soon become another suicide statistic. (My great-grandmother was not so lucky, she killed herself at age 27 by drinking carbolic acid, leaving a confused husband and two small children behind.)

My "choice" is to take the meds and stay functional. The anti-meds folks can take long walk off short pier, or better yet, spend a day inside my head.

[MaryBear]

12. You made me laugh, kineneb!

"spend a day inside my head" is the answer for them!

The only reason to take meds is if they help quality of life.

If someone could use meds and doesn't take them, fine, but then s/he better not bother my quality of life with their behavior, either!

[MaryBear]

13. BTW, DanCa - see the 60 Minutes thread here.