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Chapter 13

Don't Lose Your
Mind To "Psychiatry"

In an earlier chapter we saw how a faulty diet can give rise to so-called psychiatric disorders. In the previous chapter we saw how silver/mercury fillings can also give rise to a wide variety of complaints of a `mental' nature. Yet in both cases, the `mental disorder' was nothing other than a symptom of a deeper cause, and in both cases that deeper cause was physically unrelated to the mind.

It takes no amount of genius to realize, therefore, that in either of these cases any kind of psychiatric therapy aimed at treating the mind would be aimed at no more than a symptom - and, as we all know, we cannot cure any ailment by treating symptoms - we have to remove the cause.

Before I discovered that mercury was the root cause of my problem, there were a number of occasions when I toyed with the idea of undergoing psychiatric treatment. Having exhausted every other avenue, and not having slept properly for some years, I was becoming rather desperate. Being the person that I am, however, I felt that I had to research the matter thoroughly before making any decision in this direction.

It was my good fortune to have in my private library a number of excellent books covering the subject. The most noteworthy of these books being Mental and Elemental Nutrients by Carl C. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., M.D. and Toxic Psychiatry by Peter Breggin M.D.. Dr. Breggin is a highly qualified psychiatrist and a former teaching fellow at Harvard Medical School. If you are being given any manner of psychiatric drug, or if anyone you know is contemplating undergoing electroshock therapy, or any manner of psychiatric treatment, then you should move heaven and earth to lay hands on his book. Here is the link for Dr. Breggin's website.

The following is no more than a brief summary of the outcome of my research. These highlights are included in the hope that they will encourage you to study further into this matter for yourself. By so doing you will be able to fill in the obvious gaps. It is for good measure that we repeat a little of what has already been covered in an earlier chapter.

Psychiatry today involves three primary therapies - counseling, psychiatric drugs, and electroconvulsive (electric shock) therapy. . . .

Psychiatric Counseling

In line with the theories of Dr. Freud, Dr. Breggin has much to say in favour of psychological counseling - and who can deny that there are times in life when we need friends with whom we can share our burdens, friends to hold us up, and sometimes even friends who will lend us a shoulder to cry on.

Yet it would appear that many psychiatric counselors have become so absorbed with the idea of relating our malady to some negative experience in the past that they seldom entertain the idea that our condition might well have an immediate physical cause - such as a faulty diet, nutritional imbalance, mercury fillings in our teeth, too much copper in our drinking water, intolerance to gluten, or some or other prescription drug, etcetera.

For example: In my early 40's, it took me all of three gloomy years to discover that I was allergic to cheese. For some reason I become severely depressed the day after eating any kind of cheese. But what was the solution to my problem? Clearly, even though my allergy gave rise to psychiatric symptoms, any amount of psychiatric treatment would have done nothing to alleviate my suffering. The only solution was for me to stop eating cheese.

So while we do not want to discredit balanced supportive counseling, we must never discredit the possibility that the cause of our "mental" complaint could have nothing whatsoever to do with our distant past - and possibly nothing whatsoever to do with our mind.

Psychiatric Drugs

On one occasion I consulted with a `sleep therapist.' All that she had to offer, however, was `a new clean variant of Prozac.' I very kindly refused, sent her a copy of Dr. Breggin's book, and promised to study further into the matter of psychiatric drugs. (See Notable Quotes below). The following is a fitting summary of what I have subsequently discovered.

`While much of the psychiatric leadership continues to minimize and to misrepresent the risks of psychiatric drugs, the courts have become more convinced of the menace. In a supreme court case in Indiana in 1981, Judge Evan Goodman gave the following opinion:

` "At the heart of this case is the virtually undisputed allegation that a person medicated with anti-psychotic drugs has a 50% risk of contracting tardive dyskinesia, a disease exemplified by twisting tongue movements, puffing cheeks, smacking of lips, sucking movements of the mouth, and face and body movements characterized by continuous rocking motions, tremors, and bizarre postures, and other symptoms, and which at this time is incurable." ' (Dr. Peter Breggin, Toxic Psychiatry, p. 93)

Then, besides this very real risk, there are many other side-effects, withdrawal symptoms, and drug induced mental and physical imbalances. As Dr. Breggin comments, . . .

`The only biochemical imbalances that we can identify with certainty in the brains of psychiatric patients are the ones produced by psychiatric treatment itself.' (Ibid, p. 14)

No doubt it was in this light that Dr. Abram Hoffer, Ph.D., M.D. once declared . . .

`Standard psychiatry (tranquilizers and talk) has proven itself bankrupt.' (As quoted by Dr. Carl C. Pfeiffer, Ph.D., M.D., Mental and Elemental Nutrients, p. xiii)

Electroshock Therapy (ECT)

Many people are under the impression that electric shock therapy is one of those bizarre treatments that belong to our `unenlightened past.' Yet, surprisingly, this method of treatment has been very much revived in recent decades. Dr. Breggin gives us a brief description of this `therapy.'

`Electroshock or electroconvulsive therapy involves the passage of an electric current through the brain of the patient to produce a grand mal or major epileptic seizure. The shock induces an electrical storm that obliterates the normal electrical patterns of the brain. A shock induced seizure is typically far more severe than those suffered during spontaneous epilepsy. In earlier times, when the patient's body was not paralysed by pharmacological agents [drugs], it would undergo muscle spasms sufficiently violent at times to crack vertebrae and break limb bones.' (Dr. Peter Breggin, Toxic Psychiatry, pp.241-242, emphasis my own)

Now if this somewhat radical treatment yielded positive results, some would no doubt claim that the end justifies the means, but it would appear as though the end of this therapy can be even more frightening than the means. Dr. Sidney Samant tells of his personal observations.

`As a neurologist and electroencephalographer [one qualified to administer electroconvulsive therapy], I have seen many patients after ECT, and I have no doubt that ECT produces effects identical to those of a head injury. After multiple sessions of ECT, a patient has symptoms identical to those of a retired, punch-drunk boxer . . . After a few sessions of ECT the symptoms are those of moderate cerebral contusion [bruising], and further enthusiastic use of ECT may result in the patient functioning at a subhuman level. Electroconvulsive therapy in effect may be defined as a controlled type of brain damage produced by electrical means.' (Dr. Sidney Samant, M.D., Clinical Psychiatry News, March, 1983)

Yet what scares me most of all about electroconvulsive therapy is the claim that it, like certain psychiatric drugs, produces a lobotomy-like effect. In other words, it disables or partly disables the frontal lobes of the brain. Yet, according to Dr. Breggin, . . .

`The frontal lobes are the seat of higher human functions, such as love, concern for others, empathy, self-insight, creativity, initiative, autonomy, rationality, abstract reasoning, judgement, future planning, foresight, willpower, determination, and concentration.' (Toxic Psychiatry, p. 66)

Now if a lobotomy disables the frontal lobes, and if the frontal lobes are the seat of these `higher human functions,' is it any wonder that some who undergo repeated sessions of ECT resemble `a punch-drunk boxer?'

Yet the intrigue does not end there. The theory has long been advanced that it is through the frontal lobes that we receive spiritual impressions. If this is in fact the case, then we must conclude that any treatment that produces a lobotomy-like effect could not only obliterate our personality, but even knock out the "modem" that enables us to communicate with God. A frightening thought indeed!

Knowing what I now know, and having overcome the worst of "psychiatric" symptoms without having to submit to psychiatric treatment of any kind, if ever I am again troubled by any condition of a "mental" nature, I will upturn all the closets of my life in search of a present physical cause, I will follow the best detoxification and exercise programme available and, if necessary, I will go on a fruit and water diet for weeks on end in the hope that my symptoms will abate. Then I will carefully monitor my condition as I slowly introduce other food types into my diet. In all probability, I would undergo a colonic irrigation once a week for anything from five to ten weeks. Most certainly I will consider the metals in my mouth and take appropriate action. Then I would pray without ceasing that I would never lose my desire for study - for this alone would enable me to make an informed, rational decision as regards any other therapy that might improve my condition.

Notable Quotes

`More than 14,000 adverse reactions [note - reactions not cases] by Prozac users have been reported to the Food & Drug Administration since Prozac's release in 1987 [5 years]. These include delirium, hallucinations, convulsions, violent hostility and aggression, psychosis and attempted suicide. Major medical journals have reported the emergence of  suicidal thoughts in persons taking Prozac. In the last year [1991], nearly 50 lawsuits have been filed against Eli Lilly seeking almost 1 billion dollars in damages by families of people who have committed suicide while on Prozac, families of people who have been murdered by patients on Prozac, and people who have been damaged while taking Prozac.' (Dr James P. Carter, Racketeering in Medicine,  p.190-191)

`In 1990, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights investigated and exposed a treatment at Chelmsford Hospital in Australia which put patients into a deep sleep and, while they were sleeping, administered electric shock therapy. These treatments were also sometimes administered without patient consent or knowledge. Through the Commission's persistent efforts, the medical records of those patients were made public, and the cases of forty-eight men and women who died as a result of this therapy were exposed. The public outrage which followed led to the banning of deep sleep followed by electric shock therapy, the closing of Chelmsford Hospital, and the establishment of a Royal Commission of Enquiry in Australia, which ultimately recommended prosecutions. All over the world, the Commission has documented psychiatric crimes. Laws have been enacted in many states in the U.S. to prevent psychiatric sexual abuse of their patients, again as a result of the Commission's work.' (Ibid, p.187-8)

Proceed To Chapter 14: The next chapter deals with germ infection, and should liberate you from any fear you might have been entertaining about germs . . .

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