Door to the Beyond: Paganism and Mental Health

Part XIV

It has come to my attention that a MOST valuable guide has become available. It's a 40-page booklet from The Icarus Project entitled "Harm Reduction Guide To Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs". It's a free download. Get it at http://theicarusproject.net/alternative-treatments/harm-reduction-guide-to-coming-off-psychiatric-drugs.

There are many problems with psychiatric drugs. First there are the harmful side-effects. Then there is the fact that many drugs do not work at all for many patients (the doctors just pick another drug and switch you). Then there is the toxicity of long-term use. And what the doctors don't tell you, because most of them simply don't know, are the effects of withdrawing from the drugs.

The pharmaceutical companies don't tell them. It's that simple. They just tell your doctors to prescribe the drugs and tell you that you'll need to take them the rest of your life.

It ain't so. While there are a few psychiatric drugs which help a few people for a short while, not one of them has been shown to help long-term. They neither treat nor cure the problem they are prescribed for, but they do mask the symptoms for a while (in addition to all those wonderful side effects). One drug has been tested for as much as 4 months; to my knowledge, none other have been tested in a clinical setting for longer than 6 weeks. So the drug companies just look at their bottom line and decide it's cheaper to tell doctors to keep pushing the pills, rather than do real research into determining how long they are safe to use.

Doctors prescribe antidepressants to children or adults who have suicidal tendencies, and do little or no follow-up. The statistics show that these drugs cause a staggering increase in suicides, not a decrease. The United Kingdom attempted to ban all antidepressants for use in children, but under much pressure (very green pressure, I might add) they decided to allow the use of Prozac, which apparently had a smaller increase in suicides than, say, Paxil or Effexor.

Patients like me learn that the drugs are hurting more than helping, and then we learn that our doctors are not listening. (For more details on how much they are not listening, visit my friend Pat's blog at http://beyondthepsychiatricbox.com.) We then have come to find that there is nothing out there that will tell you how to get off the drugs. Many of us just stop them – and then get all those wonderful effects of withdrawal, which according to some European doctors may be worse than the symptoms we were being drugged about. One doctor also showed that it is almost impossible to tell the difference between your "disease" symptoms and the withdrawal symptoms. Apparently the drugs have been masking your symptoms, and when you remove the drugs you get all those stored-up symptoms.

There are safe and effective ways to do this. Nobody tells us, but there are. There have been some excellent books about surviving the process ("Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs", edited by Peter Lehmann, and "Broken Brains or Wounded Hearts" by Ty Colbert), and a book on withdrawing from the drugs called "Your Drug May Be Your Problem" by Peter Breggin M.D. and David Cohen, Ph.D. But this new booklet from Icarus Project may be the simplest and most concise.

If you're mad as hell and are not going to take them anymore, you might want help and support. If you're bipolar, the Icarus Project is a great place for support and information (they have expanded to include other conditions, but they are mainly for bipolars). Icarus Project also has some affiliates in cities other than New York; check their website for details. One of the joys of the approach Icarus Project takes is classifying our "symptoms" as "Dangerous Gifts", and then they take the extra mile to show you how many people with bipolar have helped humanity in a myriad of ways. This helps remove the "mental illness" stigma, so you can approach your life in more positive ways.

If you want to fight back, then join MindFreedom International (http://mindfreedom.org). One of the problems of the books I just mentioned is that they are largely available only through Mad Market at MindFreedom International – and you can only get to Mad Market by joining MFI. It's a $20 annual donation that I have found to be more than worth it, but that's a judgment each of us needs to make for ourselves. We are learning that the causes of schizophrenia, bipolar, depression, etc. are genetic protections built into our very fabric, not some "disease" to be "cured" (which could easily explain why there are no cures, only doped-up patients and rich doctors and pharmaceutical companies).

MindFreedom International has also revived a forgotten dream of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- International Association for Advancement of Creative Maladjustment. This concept was mentioned in several of Dr. King's speeches, but the media assumed he was joking and reported it as such. MFI has picked up the gauntlet. See the MindFreedom site for more information – anyone can join, it's simple and free!

What can we do as pagans to improve our own mental health? Ritual goes a long way, especially if you have a good coven or Family to work in. In terms of the Internet, a Yahoo Search "'mental health' +paganism" reveals that two of the top 10 results are mine – this article in PaganPages, and my personal website – and most of the rest are near misses. There is one exception on this page – Beliefnet's mental health page, which is found at http://www.beliefnet.com/index/index_472.html. You might also like to read "Spirituality Unbound – Mental Health and the Witch", found at http://groups.msn.com/SpiritualityUnbound/mentalhealthampthewitch.msnw

Obviously, there is need for more writing on this subject, and more rituals, spells, and counseling methods. Alternatively, the lack of such writing may show a lack of need... but is more likely to show a lack of thought or a denial of the issue. (See the Guest Article here in August)

The biggest thing you can do for yourself is to believe in yourself. God/dess believes in you. So do I. (See last month's article for some good ideas.)

Until next month, when we take another journey through the Door...

author: Moss Bliss