Taking a Stand Against Psychiatric Drugs
Recently I attended the second Sunrise Center1 project workshop.
I’m a physician who has been working for many years in an urban setting with young people from low-income households. When I started practicing as a young adult, I decided that I wouldn’t prescribe psychiatric drugs to any of my patients. About thirty physicians who have worked with me over the ensuing twenty-five years have followed my lead, making the same decision. We have done this quietly, passing under the radar2. It is not considered “standard of care” in the present medical environment.
At the workshop I worked on being an agent of oppression who is trying to reform the system instead of revolutionizing it. “Mental health” oppression contributes to keeping me “in line” with the system.
I’ve been trained to not show any feelings. In the rare instance when I have, reprisal from the administration has been quick. I’ve been threatened with the idea that perhaps I’m unable to perform my duties in the professional manner that my position calls for. My struggle at work has always been for people to see me as a human being and not a machine.
I work under impossible conditions—seeing sixteen to twenty-four patients daily, listening to difficult stories without getting any discharge, having minimal time for lunch and bathroom and water breaks. I’m expected to provide the best possible medical care in the least amount of time, in the most cost-effective way for the system, staying within the boundaries of the “standard of care” so I don’t get sued by a patient or have my license revoked by the corresponding authorities. I’m chronically overwhelmed, exhausted, and scared.
At this workshop I decided to make “mental health” liberation a key issue in my RC Community, in which there are many other Co-Counselors in middle-agent roles (teachers, social workers, and other health-care providers). I’m taking a more visible stand against “mental health” oppression and the use of psychiatric drugs, and discharging the terror that comes up as I do so.
Anonymous
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of "mental health" liberation
1The Sunrise Center will be a residential drug-free recovery center based on Re-evaluation Counseling theory and practice. It will assist people to free themselves from psychiatric drugs and to teach others to do the same. Through the intensive use of RC, residents will get help with the symptoms of withdrawal as well as the emotional feelings that resurface as the drugs leave their system. They will be active partners in this endeavor, in collaboration with the staff. The goal will be for residents to get off the drugs safely, to return home in charge of their emotions and able to use the tools of RC, and to have a support system waiting for them.
2“Passing under the radar” means not being detected.