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Seances Not Responsible (Anonymous) There was a psychiatrist I met in a ward who said people who go to seances eventually get put into mental hospitals. I don't know what his reasons were-- he never said why, and he never had been to one himself so he couldn't know. He learned this from a patient he had whose mother took her to seances. But the reason she was put in the ward was because she was getting divorced and was afraid of losing custody of her kids. I wanted to refute him right there but I was on medication so I couldn't. Families have been putting people in mental hospitals since the beginning. And ice cream tastes very good but it's not for everybody. Superstitions (L. A.) Used to be that you would hear about people with butterfly nets running after people up and down hospital corridors. That was the biggest superstition I used to hear all the time when I was growing up. One day I found out that it was only a myth. Alternatives (Anonymous) Why do you have to take medications. How long do you have to be on them? All your life? Couldn't there be an alternative therapy that works just as well as medications? Like herbal remedies, things that have the least side effects, that work with your system. Lost Dignity (Anonymous) After you're 65, you shouldn't be on medication. I think they should at least cut down on it. How many old people are running around doing strange things at that age? They're not going to hurt anybody. When you ask your doctor, they say you're already on low medication and they can't take you off. Psycho (J. C.) I was picked up on the grounds where I live because I refused to answer the door. I was taken to hospital by my worker because I missed an appointment I didn't want to go to. So I ended up in hospital for 3 to 4 months. My belief is that he had no right to pick me up against my will. There's a group called Amnesty International that looks at people's rights-- psychiatry overrode my rights! So I'm now incommunicado with my doctor. She discharged me when I agreed to take my medication, which doesn't equate in my mind. It's a game she plays: "If you don't take your meds, I will form you." I expected treatment at modern hospitals would better than in third world countries. Suggestion (Anonymous) You come in here and you're a nobody. You lose all your rights, your memories are all erased and you don't think. If you can't make anything of yourself when you get out, then you come back here and you get stupider and stupider with every visit. Eventually you become a piece of shit and people step on you as you lie on the sidewalk-- it doesn't hurt because by then you have no feelings. How about we get a professional terrorist bomber to fly over and drop a few bombs over the units and take care of the staff problem? Especially the administration problem where they don't take patients suggestions correctly. Jesus is The True Way (Anonymous) I believe that Jesus is the only true way to salvation because he says, in his words, "I am the way, the truth and the life." He is also wisdom and reality. Jesus is the Only Good (R. B.) Only thing you can believe is Jesus. All other spirits lie to you. They lie so well you don't think they're lying to you. Cause Jesus don't lie to you. Jesus isn't out to get you like other spirits because he likes you. If you're not with Jesus, you're done. Spirits will tell you anything-- they'll tell you there's no such thing as spirits. If a spirit is telling you to do bad stuff, it's not Jesus; it's a demon. Everybody's so screwed up now, they don't know what good and evil is. But good is good. You have to read the bible, talk to God, just be nice to people-- it's very simple. We all have our cross to bear, our troubles. But we don't condemn each other. If you're sincerely trying to stop doing evil then you're with Jesus. If we do good to each other, it's only common sense. The bottom line-- do to other people as you want them to do to you. My Mission In Life (M. D.) I would be nowhere without God's guidance. He takes care of me, nurtures me, and gives me hope for tomorrow. My whole life is motivated by an understanding of values. I have gone through a lot of difficult experiences in my 50 years of life, and I must say that every one of them has been a learning experience from which I have derived a lot of good. I have a mission in my life now and that is to reach out to the community around me and offer them some of my knowledge and my positive outlook on life. I don't think my psychiatrist can help me very much, but he's very supportive and understanding. The medication helps, but it's not the answer to everything. You have to help yourself all the time and keep in mind what your purpose in life is. Second Hand Smoke (S.) I'm a non-smoker and when I come home from PARC I hang all my clothes in the shower rod in the washroom and I give about six inches between each item of clothing and the washroom smells of smoke. I had an occasion of taking the Toronto Star to PARC for a couple of hours and then brought the paper back home. The paper smelled of smoke for hours. I know I most of the people smoke at PARC but they should have a separate room for smokers. Confusion (L.) I've been worried about all the medication I've been on in the last few years. I think it's slowed down my thinking process, and my short term memory is almost completely gone. So I want to get an IQ test-- but will my psychiatrist be able to get a psychologist to do one for free? From there, I want to know if I can take any courses that I am interested in (such as computers, sociology, psychology). Right now I'm on an anti-depressant and an anti-psychotic and I don't feel delusional now, so I don't think I need the anti-psychotic. My doctor, an endocranologist, put me down as being "schizo-affective," and I really don't know what that means. I'm not schizophrenic, though I do have delusions. My psychiatrist had a different opinion about my diagnosis. He said I had major depression with psychotic symptoms. These terms are not clear and precise. I really don't know what they mean. Mental Health System (F.) The mental health system is primarily a moneymaking operation, not just for the mental health professionals but also for consumer/survivors. All are dependant for their livelihoods on the mental health system. The former by choice and the latter by coercion. In mental North America, this is a billion dollar industry. Professionals make it a career choice, of course. They are well-compensated for their efforts. Consumers are housed and fed, given small stipends to survive on. However, all are dependent on the system. This system has been in place for over 100 years and in the last 30 years attempts have been made to alter it so that it coalesces with modern thinking. However, whether a consumer is in or out of hospital, his relationships to society and professionals are relatively the same. The dichotomy between the professional and non-professional is one of the basic cruxes of the system. It's similar to all our societal systems in which one side uses the other for its own benefit. Both are dependent on each other for their mutual survival. It is ultimately the taxpayer who finances the entire operation and we should ask if this system should continue into the next century or be severely reviewed and altered. Nietzsche, Psychiatry and the State (I. J.) It's all in Nietzsche, the self-proclaimed anti-christ. At the dawn of the 20th century he proclaims that God is dead. He is dead. He died of pity for mankind. By the end of his "sane period," Nietzsche was saying there were two cultural forces in the world, the Greek and Jewish, and he straddled the chasm between them. The prophets, oracles and madmen have been warning us for centuries of the peril of the state and the death of true compassion. Today, 'compassion' is used by the state, it is not felt by individuals. One can kill with compassion! Nice people, under state law and order, destroy the genius of madness for the sake of their own personal security, their social niche. So much emphasis on psychology and psychiatry today at this historical juncture makes as much sense as devil worship inmedieval times. Nietzsche did not have children and he lived dangerously. Philosophers are traditionally misogynist. In fact the average wasp, well-placed property class guy in our country comes closer and closer to the fascist regime. There is no doubt the US is a police state. Nietzsche made a counter-affirmation to this. He never abandoned enthusiasm for life, especially a life that is hard to live. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR When is the Queen Street Patients Council going to stop toadying to the Queen Street administration and the admin-driven consumer movement? Whatever happened to representing the survivor element of the lunatic population? Where did your ideals go? The Council called for the closure of Queen Street two years ago, yet they're still at the trough. They called for survivor involved investigation of abuse of lunatics. So how's that going? They called for the creation of alternatives to the barbaric, coercive, tortuous handling of lunatics that passes for treatment at Queen Street. So how we doin'? It would seem that as with most organizations, the Council has succumbed to the age old problem of allowing itself to be assimilated by the system. I guess the Borg were right-- resistance is futile. (Randy Pritchard) As bio-psychiatry farts ahead into the next century with great confidence (in its corporate sponsors) the best that survivors can do here in the era of psychiatric slavery is to resist and remain present. Council's continuing demands for an end to abuses, an end to over-drugging and side effects, an end to warehousing, programming and poverty tracking... may mean little to administrations like the present one at Queen Street. But to other survivors and to people who may listen down the road, our demands may show that even people who are chemically and physically restrained every day will fight oppression. It may take centuries, we must engage. (Editor)
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