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Worzels World - The Myth of Mental Illness

 

The predominant idea that there is such a thing as ‘normal’ – and that this can be defined – is foolishness. There is a wide range of personalities within the human family. We are all different. Just like everyone else. Those judged to be a little too far beyond the pale have always been regarded suspiciously by the mainstream, yet it is only recently that we have begun branding such as having mental disorders.

Way back in the Middle Ages, perceived psychological deficiency was treated differently. They gave you a funny hat, called you the village idiot and frequently brought you quantities of mead or porter to keep you happy and quiet. How things have changed. Today the village idiot industry has seen extensive growth and makes massive profit.

A large percentage of the village and an even larger percentage in the towns and cities are now being treated with psych drugs and a tidy sum is being made by those who produce and market them.

In 1967 psychiatrist Nathan Kline of Smith Kline French wrote: “The present breadth of drug use may be almost trivial when we compare it to the possible number of chemical substances that will be available for the control of selective aspects of man's life in the year 2000.” This was a summary in a published report. It was never a secret but it is yet another example of a conspiracy and a very successful one at that.

More than 450 million people worldwide have now been diagnosed as having a mental disorder. The diagnosis and drugging of such people amounts to an industry worth $27 billion dollars annually. Eight per cent of the worlds population have been treated in some way or other.

It is only in the area of mental health that such things as forced treatment and involuntary commitment to institutions exists. After all, crazy people can’t be allowed to make their own decisions can they? I would personally support this view if it weren't so obvious that so many crazy people make their way into politics and end up making decisions for all of us.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, there are now 374 listed disorders, among which are bipolar, major depressive, social anxiety, post partem depression, attention deficit, manic depression, obsessive compulsive, adolescent rebellion, arithmetic learning, general anxiety, and chronic anxiety disorder.

With so many disorders there are, of course, a commensurate number of drugs to treat them – Lithium, Aropax Paroxatine, Zoloft, Lezapro. My own favourite is Wellbutrin simply because of its nice name. I don’t know what its for or what it actually does but neither do the people that prescribe it. There's also Halcion Xanax Atavan Librium, Disalpin, Kinetosin Guanutil, Obsidan Sinequan to name but a few. All these medications were selected for people by observing that rats seemed to like it and it didn’t kill them. At least not immediately.
I am not sure exactly what my own disorders are but suspect a combination of obsessive compulsive disorder and bipolar schizophrenia with a slight messianic complex. I am thinking of patenting the condition and calling it Middle-Aged Grumpy Curmudgeon Syndrome. I have recently been treating it by taking bacon and eggs for breakfast and playing squash more often. This appears to have alleviated the worst of the symptoms.

The children are not so fortunate. In 1987, 500,000 children were diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. By 1994 that number had soared to 4.4 million. There are only two possible scenarios here – either society has suddenly started producing staggering numbers of mentally ill children or a behaviour that has always existed to some degree in children was now being diagnosed as illness or disorder. Obviously something is wrong?
In response to this amazing epidemic of childhood mental disorders the US National Institute of Heath assembled a panel of prominent doctors and psychiatrists. It was tagged the Consensus Development Conference on ADD/ADHD, and was convened in 1998. Their conclusion was that ‘At this time we do not have a diagnostic test for ADHD, therefore the validity of the disorder continues to be a problem.’

So despite my obviously supremely maladjusted condition I have no plans to go on the meds anytime soon. Like so many things in life where sound judgement is required, it is a case of ‘by their fruits you shall know them’ and psychiatrists themselves admit that, over the centuries that psychiatry has been practised, it cannot lay claim to a single cure.

n prof_worzel@hotmail.com


Crazy people can’t be allowed to make their own decisions can they? I would personally support this view if it weren't so obvious that so many crazy people make their way into politics and end up making decisions for all of us.

 
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