Hunger Strike by Psychiatric Survivors
Starting today, Saturday, August 16, 2003, five former psychiatric patients
and a social worker, have begun a hunger strike to protest human rights
violations.
WHO:
Hunger Strikers -- Vince Boehm (Wilmington, DE), Krista Erickson (Chicago,
IL), David Gonzalez (New York, NY), David Oaks (Eugene, OR), Hiromi Sayama
(Riverside County, CA), Mickey Weinberg (Pasadena, CA).
WHERE:
Ahiah Building
277 N. El Molino Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101
Parking available in front of the building.
The strikers are part of a movement of former patients who call themselves
"survivors" of (what the President's Commission on Mental Health called) a
"dysfunctional" system that it must be "fundamentally transformed."
They charge that the pharmaceutical industry and psychiatry are medicalizing
an ever-widening spectrum of human emotion and behavior for financial gain and
self-interest, and are willing to deceive the public while they too frequently
stigmatize, humiliate, and harm their clients in the process.
The hunger strike comes in the wake of the enactment of draconian state laws
that permit forced drug treatment for psychiatric patients. People who have
recovered from an emotional / mental crisis, have had first-hand experience
with the "dysfunctional mental health system. The strikers are challenging the
psychiatric establishment to provide scientifically valid evidence to support
their claims that mental illnesses are biologically based and that the
psychotropic drugs that are being forced on psychiatric patients are safe.
In fact, a body of scientific evidence, published in peer reviewed journals,
shows that psychotropic drugs --such as are prescribed and administered
forcibly-- have severe adverse effects leading to debilitating chronic
physical illness.
The American Psychiatric Association and a subservient family organization
(The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) are being publicly
challenged to show scientific evidence that validates their claim about the
biological basis for mental illnesses. NAMI which purports to represent the
interests of disabled psychiatric patients is financially dependent upon
pharmaceutical companies, and the National Institute of Mental Health. NAMI
chapters are dependent upon the psychiatric establishment and state
governments.
Fourteen mental health academics and practitioners stand ready to review and
reply to responses. Loren Mosher, MD, former head of schizophrenia studies at
the National Institute of Mental Health said, "What we are dealing with here
is fashion, politics, and money… I want no part of a psychiatry of oppression
and social control."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are the questions being asked of the APA / NAMI:
WE ASK THAT YOU PRODUCE scientifically-valid evidence for the
following, or you publicly admit to media, government officials and the
general public that you are unable to do so:
EVIDENCE THAT CLEARLY ESTABLISHES the validity of "schizophrenia,"
"depression" or other "major mental illnesses" as biologically-based brain
diseases.
EVIDENCE FOR A PHYSICAL DIAGNOSTIC EXAM -- such as a scan or test of
the brain, blood, urine, genes, etc. -- that can reliably distinguish
individuals with these diagnoses (prior to treatment with psychiatric drugs),
from individuals without these diagnoses.
EVIDENCE FOR A BASE-LINE STANDARD of a neurochemically-balanced
"normal" personality, against which a neurochemical "imbalance" can be
measured and corrected by pharmaceutical means.
EVIDENCE THAT ANY PSYCHOTROPIC DRUG can correct a "chemical imbalance"
attributed to a psychiatric diagnosis, and is anything more than a
non-specific alterer of brain physiology.
EVIDENCE THAT ANY PSYCHOTROPIC DRUG can reliably decrease the
likelihood of violence or suicide.
EVIDENCE THAT PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS do not in fact increase the overall
likelihood of violence and suicide.
FINALLY, that you reveal publicly evidence published in mainstream
medical journals, but unreported in mainstream media, that links use of some
psychiatric drugs to structural brain changes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Source:
ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)
http://www.ahrp.org
Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav
Tel: 212-595-8974
e-mail: veracare@ahrp.org.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phone to Support the Hunger Strike for Human Rights in Mental Health!
The Fast for Freedom in Mental Health starts tomorrow, Saturday, 16 August
2003. You are encouraged to join in a peaceful PHONE-IN to the National
Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)!
NAMI has so far refused hunger strike requests.
Starting today Friday, 15 August 2003, and *every* weekday until the hunger
strike ends, from 8:45 am to 5:30 pm eastern time, please make a civil phone
call to NAMI at (703) 524-7600 or TDD at (703) 516-7227.
PLEASE POLITELY ASK THIS OR USE YOUR OWN WORDS:
"I would like evidence of your claim about the 'biological basis of mental
illness.' I support the Fast for Freedom in Mental Health."
If you would like, you may also phone NAMI back and discuss this reasonable
request with:
Rick Birkel, Director of NAMI
Tom Lane, consumer affairs, NAMI
Elizabeth Adams, Director of Public Relations, NAMI
You may also try your state or local NAMI. You may obtain the contact
information here:
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Your_Local_NAMI
* * * Print & Save This Reminder -- Keep It Handy! * * *
Please Keep Phoning Every Weekday Until Hunger Strikers Announce That Their
Requests Are Met!
If a NAMI representative provides you with evidence, please forward to the
Fast for Freedom so a scientific panel may review the studies. .
Check http://www.MindFreedom.org for
updates on a news conference on Mon. 17 August 2003 at 11 am, bio's & photos
of fasters & the scientific panel, statement of demands, fact sheet, free
lecture series, solidarity fasters, links to other web sites, other actions
you can take, contact info & more.
~~~~~~~~~~
Last Updated on
04/14/04
webmaster@namiscc.org
