Mind freedom wins victory over forced electroshock in New York State

Update 18 April 2012

VICTORY!

Forced Electroshock of Glen K. in a
New York Psychiatric Institution Halted!

Within 48 hours of the launch of a MindFreedom International Alert Campaign, the Attorney General for New York State announced today that Glen K. will receive no more forced electroshock under his court order. Rockland Psychiatric Center was giving involuntary electroshock over and against Glen’s expressed wishes.

Glen has been told. He is thrilled.

He won! Thank you to everyone who spoke out for Glen!

Glen’s attorneys got a call from the NY Attorney General earlier today. Under the guise that Glen is doing so well, the Attorney General said they are no longer defending the court order to give Glen electroshock, and are withdrawing that order.

Glen won’t be forcibly shocked any more under this order.

Given this Attorney General decision, Glen may be creating an advanced directive to help protect him in the future.

MindFreedom contacted Mental Hygiene Legal Services, which has defended Glen and a number of other New York psychiatric survivors against forced shock. We spoke with Glen’s attorneys Dennis Feld and Arthur Bear, who made this public statement:

“We feel that our client has been vindicated, and what we thought was one of the most onerous for forced treatments we ever saw has now been nullified.”

And there’s no need to go to Brooklyn for Glen’s hearing tomorrow, 19 April 2012, because Glen won!

MFI director David Oaks said, “Thank you everyone for your quick response on this campaign. Keep contacting Governor Cuomo and ask him to issue a moratorium on all involuntary electroshock in New York State!”

BELOW are other updates from the last two days, including how to hear a brief recording of an interview with Glen conducted yesterday by MFI.

For live links and the original alert go to:
http://bit.ly/cuomo-forced-ect

~~~~~~~~~~

Updates from yesterday, 17 April 2012:

** You can now hear a nine-minute MP3 audio excerpt of a phone interview conducted today with Glen K., by MFI. You may also read the text notes of the interview. [Find links at http://bit.ly/cuomo-forced-ect

]

** The first 24 hours of Glen’s campaign already had an impact. MFI received a call from John Allen, director of Consumer Affairs for NY State Office of Mental Health, who claimed: “While we can’t comment on this individual case, we have suspended and are reviewing policy and procedure that would lead to these kinds of circumstances in the future.” While this is positive news, MFI will wait until Glen or his representative declare victory.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Update 16 April 2012:

Glen K. has reasonable objections to on his forced electroshock, and states:

“ECT causes profound memory loss, it causes universal brain damage , and it is a harsh, harsh treatment…”

~~~~~~~~~~~

BELOW is Excerpt from Original MindFreedom Alert that Apparently Helped Glen Win His Campaign to Say “No!” to Forced Electroshock

Thank you everyone! Congratulations Glen!

“No one is tired on victory day.” – ancient Persian expression

~~~~~~~~~~~

MFI News Exclusive

April 16, 2012

Your Tax Dollars At Work:

Does Governor Cuomo Know His NY State Institution is Forcibly Electroshocking Glen K.?

by MindFreedom International

It’s in the public record:

Glen K. is being forcibly subjected twice a week to electroconsulvive therapy (ECT), also known as shock treatment, in a New York state mental health institution – Rockland Psychiatric Centerphoto on right – where he is being held involuntarily. These shocks are administered to Glen K. over his clear and consistent protest, under the authority of a court order which authorizes a series of 120 shock treatments over a period of 12 months.

This order also authorizes the hospital to chemically restrain Glen K. with involuntary psychiatric drugs, when he refuses medical procedures in preparation for ECT. On many occasions, the hospital has also employed physical and chemical restraints to overcome his resistance to ECT.

FOR REST OF ORIGINAL ALERT, AND LIVE LINKS IN UPDATES, GO TO:

http://bit.ly/cuomo-forced-ect

 

Related articles

• New York patient under court order for 120 shock treatments over 12 months (examiner.com)
• The Illegality of Forced Drugging and Electroshock (bulletfame.wordpress.com)
• Electroshock Therapy and Its Applications (socyberty.com)

What is the evidence on anti-psychotics

Earlier this week I wrote about an article I found in Mad In America about the use of anti-psychotics. Today I read summaries of important studies that looked at the outcomes of people using these medications compared to those who do not. The studies showed that outcomes of people who became long term users declined compared to those who never used them or weaned themselves off the medications. All of this continues to poke holes in the theory that people who have had experience of mental illness suffer from a kind of chemical imbalance in their brains that must be corrected.

If anything, the opposite of what is currently believed may be true. That is, powerful psychiatric medications may be creating chemical imbalances in brains that worsen over time. Falling in love, developing close friendships, living in a supportive environment and getting regular exercise are far healthier and enjoyable.

So, check out these studies and let me know what you think. http://www.madinamerica.com/2010/04/schizophrenia/

Related articles

• Study: anti-psychotics should be avoided in young people (beyondmeds.com)
• psych drugs not the best option for people at risk of psychosis (recoverynetworktoronto.wordpress.com)
• Unshrinking Psychosis – Summary (ahmritanaturalmentalhealth.wordpress.com)

Wikipedia: N is the fourteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet. →

Am I Still the Same?

Image by soonerpa via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

This is my first full day of using the supplement SAM-e for depression. I found  out about it on the Dr. Oz show Monday and decided to give it a try.  I  have lived with depression for many  years. Apparently this is something that runs in my family. I have been using a prescription medication for the problem. But after some initial dramatic mood improvement I find that the blahs have returned. It  seems that my enjoyment, my get up and go had gotten up and left.

Yesterday I went to Walgreens after work and bought their store brand. SAM-e can be expensive. One reason I was curious about this supplement is that I suffer from some aches and pains which I hoped it would reduce. I took a pill  yesterday before eating lunch and took a calcium pill behind it. Today I took them first thing in the morning after a very sound sleep.

I decided that since I had not written anything for a week I would use my blog to let people know about this change. I will let people know about this as I go along. Will I be the same or will I start acting wacky again?

Related articles

• Soooo….72 Hours Off Meds = ? (pennicash.wordpress.com)
• Natural Alternative Treatments: Not prescriptions! (fufibro.wordpress.com)
• Steve Harvey After Dr. Oz Show “The Families Dependent On Me, So My Wife Forces Me To Dr.” [Video] (bossip.com)

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

For more than two  years Dan Crews has  battled Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa to remove his ventilator. Crews has been a quadriplegic since he was in a car accident at age 3. Paralyzed from the neck down, he can speak and eat, but his diaphragm muscles cannot move air through his lungs. A mechanical respirator, a clear box filled with pumps and tubes, connects to his throat and breathes for him. He is in a nether world: too weak to be able to kill himself and yet at the mercy of hospital doctors who have determined that he is too depressed to be able to act on his own behalf

The story of Dan Crews has gripped the local media this week repeating many of the same heat breaking details from past stories. http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/110948384.html. Here is the prognosis. He   could be maintained indefinitely at the same non-existent quality of life. His funds will be exhausted and he will be unable to leave the remaining money he received as a result of the accident to his mother. The newspaper notes that he had attempted to starve himself to death by not eating but ironically it was too painful so he abandoned the attempt.

I studied issues of death and dying last spring  at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. As part of the course I talked with my older sister and mother about their end of life wishes. Both of them made it clear that they would not want to be resuscitated. Unfortunately it’s an unfair comparison. My sister is in her 60′s and my mother is in her 80′s. It is easy to see that they have lived full lives. They are not in a hospital and thus have the means at their disposal to end their lives at any time. They have chosen not to because they believe there is something worth living for.

In my talks with peers who may talk about suicide I focus on the same thing. They are experiencing a rough patch from which there is reason to believe they will recover. I’ve looked at the proverbial bottom of the well, too and decided not to jump in. Having said that, I believe in the right to  die. Who wouldn’t be depressed to be in the situation Dan Crews is in? He missed out on all the wild and crazy experiences of the first kiss, the prom, getting to first base and staying out beyond curfew.

He did study and obtain an Associate’s Degree but ultimately decided that his dreams of a better life were beyond his reach. I think the hospital should summon the courage to let him go. If the situation was reversed and I was a 27 year old and paralyzed I would want the power to make my own decision.  Our ultimate power rests with our ability to decide our lives are no longer worth living. I hope Dan will be able to carry out his wishes. Like I said in the title of this message, whose life is it, anyway?

Octo More Babies Than Anyone Can Take Care of

In high school I had a relationship with a sweet poetic woman named Kathleen. Unfortunately I also had a tendency to be all or nothing in my relationships. I would love you one day and want someone else the next. In other words I was a typical hormonal driven kid. My  mother had warned me against getting girls pregnant. Given the state of girdles in those days it  would have been difficult not to follow her advice.

After high school I saw Kathleen one day and she was visibly pregnant.  was devastated and said something about her ending up on welfare. Fast forward to the story of the so-called octomom.  Nadya Suleman was a young American woman with few skills who decided that having had 6 children and no husband she would have a  lot more children. The only other thing she had going for her was a resemblance to a movie star. Better living through plastic surgery.

More children turned out to be eight and 15 minutes of fame.  Never mind that there were wars (which are still going on, by the way), innocent people on death row, and crazy people trying to turn America into some kind of theocracy (yes they’re still at it!) octomom was big news. I was in a class at a local community college taught by an instructor who devoted several minutes of each session to updating us about the octomom. How do you know you’re in a bullshit class? Your teacher shows you videos about current events that have nothing to do with your subject, or anything else.

Fast forward to today where yahoo is presenting information about the plight of Ms. Octomom  who had bought a huge house for herself and all those kids, the house has holes punched in it but she has to move fast because the bank is going to foreclose on her. Will Child Protective Services be far behind?

How do these things work out? I found Kathleen through Classmates.com and learned she had struggled, had 6 kids in all but graduated from college. For the woman with the overactive womb, the sky is the limit. Any clinic that considers working with her as a client should lose its license immediately. Children are not playthings but human beings who deserve to be brought up in an environment surrounded by emotionally mature adults. Not people who are trying to fill voids in their own lives.

I hope the octomom never has another child and I hope her present children end up in foster care. Just because it is possible to impregnate a woman man times over does not mean it should be done. Nadya, stop in the name of love.

Related articles

• Octomom Poses Nude for Rent Money (tmz.com)

Dr. Death has died

I heard on different National Public Radio programs that Jack Kevorkian, infamous for promoting the right to suicide, has died after a brief illness. He had spent 8 years in prison after his conviction following a suicide in which he injected a lethal dose into a patient. I am an advocate for the right to die and physician assisted suicide. I raised money for the Oregon Death with Dignity movement. But I’m certain that a lot of people were conflicted over Dr. Kevorkian’s methods. His last and most infamous assisted suicide involved the case in which he sent a video to 60 Minutes documenting what he had done and daring the district attorney to indict him. The jury agreed that this time he had gone too far and convicted him. I have heard about laws such as the one in Switzerland that regulate physician assisted suicide. What is needed is a national standard that ensures people like Kevorkian are not out there with death machines. I hope   there will be a more responsible advocate who will arise without polarizing methods who will fight for death with dignity. We must retake the end of our lives from the medical system.

This spring I saw a movie Suicide Tourist that told of a man with ALS who traveled to Switzerland to commit suicide. It was very orderly and professional. He was a retired professor who feared that the end of his life would be miserable. That was the kind of physician assisted suicide I would like to to be available. Dr. Kevorkian’s methods seemed crude by contrast. He persisted even after being acquitted in his earlier trials and he incorrectly believed that people would storm the prison demanding his release after he was finally convicted.

I believe that the laws should be changed to allow people who choose a quiet dignified death instead of one attached to all kinds of medical devices. Dr. Jack did his part but let us hope that better leadership will develop in the death with dignity movement.