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 10/19/03   webmaster@namiscc.org