This is my last blog before turning ECTJustice.com over to the DK law group. It is a bittersweet moment for both myself and my web manager, Ron. ECTJustice.com has been a thrilling, heartbreaking, and joyous experience in which much has been learned. Much passion has gone into this. Thank you to those who supported me on this incredible journey.

My goal in psychiatric activism was to bring lawsuits around some aspect involving electroshock. The DK Law Group has just announced that it is joining forces with Baum Hedlund Aristei and Goldman, P.C. and other attorneys to prosecute on behalf of ECT victims nationwide. With our goal achieved, I can now happily investigate other interests outside of this area of activism.

In reflection, I realized I had one final warning to issue. The issue of turning over your power, and who you are, to an abusive person, whether it be a mate, or a professional treating you.

Are the “experts” always right?

I look back to my abusive marriage that fed me to psychiatry through gaslighting, minimizing, and other covert narcissistic maneuvers well hidden, in my marriage for almost 33 years. Coming from an extremely traumatic background, I became fodder for both my relationship in marriage and later psychiatry. I do not say this from the standpoint of a victim, but from one for whom this system is primed. In abusive relationships it is not uncommon for the woman to be identified having a mental health disorder, and is therefore identified as the “problem” in the relationship. We need more therapists trained in CPTSD and covert abuse.

Many of us want to be seen and heard. We want validation. We will agree to diagnosis and treatments for this. We will surrender our personhood it seems, to fit into a box that has an answer, whether medication, ECT, or therapy. I agreed to what they said of me. It seemed like the answer to all my difficulties.  Assigned an erroneous label, my responsibilities to myself seemed to evaporate.

I swallowed the pills and accepted the diagnosis, because all the experts had to be right. It was easier than admitting my life was messed up from beginning to present, and I had to take action to correct it. One wants the relationship so much for many reasons, that I found myself living up to the diagnosis, and trying to be “a good patient.” It is all so very dangerous and insidious one does not recognize in the moment. It nearly cost me my life.

It is a very rude awakening years later to realize what had all transpired. The lack of accountability by repeated providers around my care to include one psychiatric medical malpractice suit settled. The very next psychiatrist required reporting to the medical board for unethical conduct. The lack of accountability of a spouse who stood by and did little as I could have literally died daily. Before being plied by drugs and ECT, the lack of personal accountability to try and escape this system.

We turn our power, and opinions of who we are, over to people who have their very own issues, I believe often projected onto vulnerable patients. People go into this field often because they fight their own demons. We take the psychiatric labels they slap on us as gospel, and now we belong in some box, to be “treated.” We want to belong, and now we can join the groups that connect us, sadly through these labels rather than our personal defining strengths. I know I often went to a therapy session out of pure loneliness. The DSM should have loneliness at the head of their index.

Labeling

I acknowledge extreme states and suffering of many forms.  I know support groups are important in healing and have utilized them. But people should not be labeled for life.  A psychiatric label is based on someone’s opinion, on a given day, with given circumstances, and that can vary doctor to doctor. This will follow and impact you in all facets of your life.  It will become your “defining moment.” Don’t let it be that.

Drugs

In my opinion, psychoactive drugs should only be used after all other alternatives have been tried.  Due to their potential for serious side effects, drugs should only be used short term, in low doses, and only with the patient’s fully informed consent.  Patients deserve to know truth of drug side effects that may very well contribute to the worsening of their symptoms.

In addition to coming from a highly abusive background, I was put on SSRI drugs (for “depression” vs. CPTSD secondary to abuse).  That led not once, but twice to violent outcomes. Instead of the drug being removed to see if my condition improved or resolved, I was given many more drugs, labels, and eventually ECT. These drugs I feel are contributing to mass shootings in addition to increases in other forms of violence such as suicide.  The FDA requires a black box warning on SSRI packaging of the potential for increased suicidality.

Electroshock

Electroshock is brain damaging, and should never be used. Psychiatrists often justify electroshock by saying the patient is “treatment resistant.”  By shifting blame from the ineffective treatment (drugs that didn’t work) to the patient, they justify using a brain damaging procedure that many say does irreparable harm.  The much more likely truth is that before the shock, and before the drugs, the physician failed to search for and treat an underlying and undetected medical cause of the distress.  Or the physician simply failed to ask about possible physical or emotional abuse in the patient’s life, and help the patient deal with the actual source of the problem.

Disempowerment & Guilt

My abusive childhood and marriage made me compliant, in yet another abusive and dehumanizing system. It allowed me to swallow the truths of people who referenced a book verses referencing my personhood and my capabilities. They wanted to dis-empower me into being a “good and compliant patient”, by being patronizing and condescending towards me.  They tried to enforce compliance by using guilt and the love I had for my children. They set themselves above me, behind glass, so they could smugly label me.  They call themselves “healers” so they are able to sleep with themselves at night.

I know people suffer, because I too have suffered. I know many states labeling us as “ill” are often gifts to be managed and utilized. I believe there are those who do not want us to access what are, in many instances, Spiritual insights coming to fruition. Drugs and shock prevent us from being able to access these areas needed in our evolution.

In Reflection

NAMI is in the schools now.  It is principally funded and controlled by pharmaceutical companies.  It should be viewed for what it is, a marketing tool of Big Pharma.  Its purpose in the schools is to get our children on these highly addictive and dangerous drugs. Our children need to be taught boundaries and self-partnering skills. Skills such as meditation/yoga, conflict resolution and open dialogue. Focusing attention on wellness and creating community will lessen the need for mental health interventions such as labeling and drugging. Children will have positive attention toward healing and utilizing their struggles to benefit their growth and the growth of others.

A broken system

This system of accepting psychiatric labels, drugs, and shock, in order to be seen and heard in our suffering must change. The current system of us and them only separates.  The hierarchy will need to fall to establish the systems meant to evolve. I no longer accept the current system.

I look back at what I agreed to, what I tolerated, and I am angry at myself. To be seen and heard, I felt I had to live up to the diagnosis.  This is a sad revelation to me, knowing what I robbed my children of, and the harm I inflicted on them. In my immaturity, I did not recognize it.  I say all this, because I hope a parent may see themselves in my experience, and spare their children and themselves.

Rise up

Nothing is without purpose I have learned. We are all in this together, so please rise up.

Thank you and goodbye.

If damages around electroshock/ECT are so bad, why are more victims not speaking out?

Despite the stigma of having a mental health diagnosis, there are many reasons for this.  While I cannot speak for all my peers, I have had enough conversations to speak for quite a few.

All have traumatic brain injuries to one degree or another which involves apathy, and neuro/cognitive damages.  And in many instances there is a failure to even recognize damages secondary to the TBI outcome of anosognisia.

They have received little recognition and validation from providers, family and friends (who have been told their symptoms are psychiatric in nature). They have been actually blamed to a degree in outcomes “of not trying hard enough.” They come from a stigmatized background of psychiatric labeling, and are up against the societal structure of the most powerful. They have been gas lighted and minimized by those that should care the most.  When they ask for help it is often not provided. Many simply give up.  Suicide is not uncommon.

With post electrical injury there are outcomes of anxiety, depression, and PTSD.  It is difficult to risk speaking out. This greatly frustrates many because they so want to tell their truth and have it heard.

They are in jobs or in school, and their public revelations may make them fearful to come forward as this could impact their standings or how people may view them. Some may feel it is okay to have a mental health diagnosis.  But many may not want it known that “it got bad enough to require ECT.”

People have said they are so isolated in these outcomes that they cannot even share with family and friends the true devastation this has created. Often, family members encouraged ECT after speaking with the treating providers.  The victim may not want them to feel guilt for damages done, so they stay quiet. These are the concerns of many of my peers, their hearts!

Many come from trauma backgrounds where there was repeated gas lighting and minimizing of their distress.  It may just seem safer to not address and risk hostile responses on social media.

Many are still in relationship with providers that either performed the procedure or recommended the procedure. This is a double bind for the patient to know that this trusted provider was fully aware of the damages anticipated and did nothing to protect and warn. This greatly impacts their ability to trust anyone moving forward. Some of these providers are prescribing addictive drugs that another provider may not fill.  Victims will not risk exposing them for this reason.

Many cannot come to terms, and do not even want to acknowledge to themselves, what has happened.  It is just easier to not address. They give up hope.

If you have had ECT and can find it in yourself to comment or speak out when you see posts about electroshock it would help so much. Make use of your suffering and give it purpose in speaking out. In these times of biological psychiatry, you may find your family members and friends are at risk unless you speak out.

Your physician inflicted or recommended a procedure with known harmful outcomes. He or she took it upon themselves to use a device and perform a procedure that has had no FDA testing for safety or effectiveness. They did not bother to even let you know the device and procedure were classified as experimental.

They, in negligence of their lack of duty to warn, protect, and not cause harm, have impacted the rest of your life in outcomes you struggle with daily. Do not keep their secrets. You have a great deal to share to protect others. Please speak out. Lawyers can fight for justice for ECT victims.  Legislators can act to protect others from becoming future victims.  But, unless you speak out, how will they know?  How can they act?

Some time back I took a trip…

Who ever I come into contact with, for even a brief period of time, I cannot help but share my experience with electroshock. It unsettles many.  The common response is, “are they still doing that”?  Another response I find frequently is that they share their family secrets of a loved one having had this “done to them.” I find that interesting phrasing and poignant. I assure them this is happening now at leading medical institutions, including Kaiser Permanente, and it is happening a lot.

During one particular trip, in 36 hours I met two people whose mothers had had electroshock. I was very happy to cross paths with a director/producer from L.A, and his wife. Learning of his occupation and possible ties to media, I slipped him my card and asked if he would help? It was a brief interaction.

The next morning I joined him and his wife for breakfast. He stated he had not yet had a chance to look at ectjustice.com. He seemed very sad in that moment, and reflective. He shared that his mother had had electroshock, and shared her outcomes. Learning what had actually happened to his mother at the hands of psychiatrists brought needed support.  He stated he would take this back to L.A., and try to assist with this.

A short time later, my path crossed with a woman in conversation. She is a healer. After quite some time she shared her experience as a teenager with her mother having electroshock. She stated that she and her mother had many fights because her mother would say she did not remember her being her daughter. She did not remember her daughter’s life.

Psychiatrists blamed the mother’s mental illness for her disorganization, confusion, agitation, etc. verses acknowledging the actual brain injury. This woman related how out of hurt and frustration she said and did things. I shared that her mother was telling her the truth about her compromised condition and the true outcomes of electroshock. I asked if her mother was still alive in hopes of reconciliation, but she has since passed away. I felt very sad for the two of them.

Family members please research “low voltage electrical trauma” and “traumatic brain injuries”. Review, and please acknowledge and validate, your loved ones experience. Please get them appropriate testing and rehab. If they have 6 months before time frames expire in your state for medical malpractice, contact law firms for representation around damages. Most law firms specializing in brain injury have been prepped with the needed information (brain injury firms). When you see posts on social media please speak out about this to put an end to this battery of patients, please.

Many psychiatrists offer “maintenance” electroshock when patients begin to complain of worsening symptoms. I feel it is to create apathy in the patient so they cannot pursue suit. In addition to traumatic brain injury outcomes, your loved one may have had many medication changes made, and multi-system bodily signs and symptoms impacted by electrical trauma. They need medical intervention to address these outcomes. A baseline needs to be established so one can figure out what is causing what.

Electrical trauma also does induce PTSD, anxiety, and depression.  This will have to be carefully navigated so no further harm is incurred. Please have your loved one fill out the survey on ectjustice.com. Please speak out about this and comment when you see posts so that this practice will be stopped and those responsible held accountable. Thank you.

By Don Weitz

Edited excerpts from a speech delivered at the “Stop Shocking Our Mothers and Grandmothers” protest, Toronto, May 11, 2019

This year, more than 10,000 women will be electroshocked in Canada, at least half of whom will be in their 60s and older. As professor, antipsychiatry activist and feminist Bonnie Burstow has frequently pointed out, two to three times more women than men are shocked in Canada, as well as in the United States and elsewhere. This is a violent assault on women, triggered by misogyny, ageism and psychiatric lies, with the complicity of the Canadian and American Psychiatric Associations, the transnational drug companies (Big Pharma), and provincial and state governments. Yes, there is collusion between government, psychiatry, government, and the corporate media. A national and international crime and shame.

As an insulin shock survivor, antipsychiatrist and social justice activist, I am speaking out and protesting today to demand that psychiatrists stop electroshocking my sisters, including vulnerable elderly and disabled women. For more than 75 years — since the 1940s — Canadian and American shock doctors have targeted and permanently harmed hundreds of thousands of people, young and old. Predominantly male psychiatrists have fraudulently diagnosed as “mentally ill” (“bipolar,” “borderline personality” “schizophrenic,” etc.) women whom they have then forcibly shocked, traumatized and lied to. With their shock machines, psychiatrists have destroyed countless women’s memories, creativity, skills, careers and lives.

And then, these shock doctors and their fascist organizations unethically minimize or flatly deny all criticism of the permanent memory loss, brain damage, and trauma caused by their “safe and effective” shock machines…

Read full article in MadinAmerica ->

Don Weitz is an antipsychiatry and social justice activist and insulin shock survivor who has been arrested while participating in nonviolent civil disobedience. He is co-founder of the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault, co-editor (with Bonnie Burstow) of Shrink Resistant: The Struggle Against Psychiatry in Canada, and author of the e-book Speaking Out Against Psychiatry: Notes Toward Abolition.

By Bruce Levine, PhD

While not as well-known as “Walk on the Wild Side” and “Perfect Day,” and not one of the classics he wrote for the Velvet Underground (such as “Heroin” and “I’ll Be Your Mirror”), Lou Reed’s “Kill Your Sons,” about his electroconvulsive “therapy” (ECT) as a 17-year-old, gives voice to an event that majorly radicalized him to distrust authorities. That is the conclusion of Aidan Levy in Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed, one of several recent biographies about Lou Reed (1942-2013).

“All your two-bit psychiatrists are giving you electroshock,” is how Reed begins “Kill Your Sons,” and though in Lou’s case, ECT trauma would fuel his art, such trauma often only destroys; as the ECT that Ernest Hemingway and William Styron received late in their lives only served to hasten their end. And even in Reed’s case, his ECT fueled not just his art but his rage, which sometimes hurt people who cared about him.

As a teenager living in suburban Freeport, Long Island, Lou felt alienated. He became increasingly anxious and “resistant to most socializing, unless it was on his terms,” according to his sister Merrill Reed Weiner, whose parents were overwhelmed by her brother’s behaviors and by his disregard of them, and so they sought treatment for Lou. They would comply with a psychiatrist’s recommendation.

Read full article in Mad in America ->

Bruce E. Levine, a practicing clinical psychologist, writes and speaks about how society, culture, politics and psychology intersect. His latest book is Resisting Illegitimate Authority: A Thinking Person’s Guide to Being an Anti-Authoritarian―Strategies, Tools, and Models. His website is www.brucelevine.net