| Jeff - You had several other options when considering whether or not to send this material to my home. You could have sent me a link to the website and the information, maybe even offering to buy me whatever material I wanted if I found it interesting in any way, or you could have mentioned that the CCHR has specific beliefs about psychiatrists, and that if I wanted information about this specific belief, that you would be willing to send me literature about it, giving me the choice about whether or not I wanted this material in my home. Since my investments with you don’t have anything to do with my wife or her profession, you could have simply chosen to let it go, or told me that you didn’t want her as a client for personal reasons, and left it at that, while still being "true to yourself". But you didn’t. I’ve trusted you implicitly, but you’ve now sent me literature that, due to its extreme nature and beliefs, has made my small family feel less safe in our own home. After doing much research on the CCHR, I am now left wondering if someone from their organization is going to come knocking on my door, in their quest to rid the world of their misperceived “scourge” that are psychiatrists, one of which happens to be the love of my life. In my opinion, it’s flat out insulting. I’m not a paranoid person, but am also now worried that if I post my opinion on a website about any of this, that as CCHR’s lawyers have done previously, I might find myself in court with a lawsuit. I shouldn’t have to feel these things in my own home. Despite that, and always giving others the benefit of the doubt, I offer the following carefully thought-out response to rather controversial ideas, especially in relation to the love of my life, who (without immediately rising to her defense) does what she does because she’s passionate about helping children who are the victims of rape, assault, neglect, and countless other tragic, often life-threatening situations, and not because she’s “exploiting the vulnerable“ or “delivering death”. She went to medical school because she had a deep desire to use her gifts to help out in some way, and that desire manifested in the form a becoming a child psychiatrist. - Me |
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MY RESPONSE TO JEFF HAHN |
| Statistics can read any way you wish, and if there is
no opposing data, numbers like the 2,700 people who were killed in the
World Trade Center seem like staggering numbers, until you put it next
to the 699,697 people killed each year due to heart disease, most of
which have been linked to smoking and/or poor diet. With that in mind, here are some relevant statistics to consider: 1. Drug sales for psychiatric medicines total $76 billion per year, but that’s only 25% of the total pharmaceutical sales of over $300 billion per year, $224 billion of which is NOT for psychiatric medicines. Already, the “scourge” is from a different area than the CCHR purports it is. 2. Since 1965, there have been about 280,000 deaths in NON-psychiatric hospitals attributed to errors in medication alone. This does not take into consideration the large number of deaths in NON-psychiatric hospitals from misdiagnosis, surgical errors, and a slew of other unfortunate events that result in the death of a patient. 3. Dr. Richard Besser, of the CDC, in 1995, said the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was 20 million, the number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million, and the number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million. Many of these have resulted in the death of a patient. 4. The total number of iatrogenic deaths (a condition resulting from the action of a general medical doctor, typically not a psychiatrist) is 783,936 per year. 5. The 2001 heart disease annual death rate is 699,697, and the annual cancer death rate is at about 553,251. These numbers add up to untold millions upon millions of deaths that could be avoided. So, since the CCHR uses the alleged 1.1 million “asylum deaths” since 1965 as one of the cornerstones of their mission and purpose, consider this: In 40 years of the emerging medical profession known as psychiatry; a single year of NON-psychiatric asylum induced deaths (hospitals) of 783,936 almost tops the entire 40-year history of deaths that the CCHR places on psychiatrists’ hands! - Stretch that number out to over 40 years as well, and the medical industry could theoretically be held responsible and accountable for over 25,000,000 deaths in total; a number that vastly outpaces the deaths that the CCHR wants to attribute to “asylum deaths” at the hands of psychiatrists. Knowing this, why then isn’t there a cry to outlaw hospitals? - It’s obvious from these numbers that they are far more of a “scourge” than the 1.1 million deaths that could possibly be attributed to “psychiatric asylums” worldwide over the past 40 years. In addition, I can’t count the number of illnesses that the general medical profession has not found a “cure” for as well, such as diabetes (by which $12 billion/year in sales of diabetes medication is generated for the medical and pharmaceutical industry), herpes, AIDS, cancer, asthma, and even the common cold. The CCHR fails to make us aware of these numbers when trying to present their case, seeming to ignore the vast profits that medical instruments, NON-psychiatric medications, surgeries, insurance, and hospital visits and stays generates. Wouldn’t logic beg one to attack the profession that generates immense revenues from medications but has a paltry record of finding cures, while raking in billions of dollars each and every year for dispensing those very medications that don’t offer cures, rather than trying to rid the world of the psychiatry industry; the “Industry of Death” as the CCHR calls it? Also, of the 50,000 practicing psychiatrists in the United States, only a small percentage work at the “psychiatric asylums” allegedly responsible for the 1.1 million deaths since 1965. Trying to put an end to the entire field of psychiatry because of a few alleged bad apples is no different than blaming the entire 1.5 billion person Muslim population for Osama Bin Laden and his follower’s actions. Most of the 1.5 billion Muslims are appalled, and think that Osama Bin Laden is an insult to their religion and their beliefs. In essence, blaming the psychiatrists is no different than shooting the metaphorical messenger or blaming a devout Christian for believing that there’s a Hell. If nothing else, the CCHR seems to be misdirecting a massive amount of energy and money that could be far more useful and effective elsewhere to help their fellow humans. Another analogy: If we were upset with Microsoft’s monopoly on operating systems for personal computers, we wouldn’t go after the end user (people like you and me) for having Windows on our computers, would we? – Of course not. We’d go straight to the source; to Microsoft themselves, if we wanted justice and/or change. The end user is only using the operating system they were educated about, and we weren’t actually given any other choice when we purchased our PC’s, so how can anyone justify going after the end user instead of Microsoft? The simple fact is this: It’s NOT the psychiatrists who develop the plethora of pharmaceutical drugs available today, or the ones who sponsor multi-million dollar clinical trials, or have leaders in their industry sitting in powerful positions at the FDA, or who have powerful teams of lobbyists working around the clock at the Federal Government to ensure that big corporation and pharmaceutical legislation benefits them at their bottom line, often at the expense of people’s health. Keeping in mind that psychiatrists are one of the three lowest paid doctors in the medical field, they are also certainly not the ones who spend the billions of dollars in marketing seemingly countless new medications, or the ones who hide true results of clinical trials when deemed necessary under mountains of paperwork and rhetoric, or any of the countless other tactics that the pharmaceutical companies employ to on an unsuspecting world population to ensure their multibillion dollar profit margin. Truly, psychiatrists can only be as effective as the information that they are given. Every single psychiatrist goes through the exact same training that any Medical Doctor (MD) goes through, with programs so extraordinarily competitive, that out of thousands of hopefuls, only a few are chosen by the various medical schools around the world. All are at the top of all of their classes; Valedictorians and Honor Role students, passionate about helping leave their world a better place than when they found it, by reaching for something more, and seeking ways of giving back to the society in which they belong with the gifts they’ve been given. Knowing this, if one is looking to place blame and help stop this “scourge”, would it not be better to blame the medical schools for what and how they’re their teaching their young doctor students, rather than the psychiatrists themselves? Psychiatrists are not the drug pushers or the dropouts; they are some of the most intelligent members of our society, and to portray them as monsters bent on the destruction of our society as we know it, in my opinion, is not only irresponsible, it’s inexplicable. It also makes me skeptical and distrustful of anything that the CCHR might say. To me, if the CCHR is truly interested in addressing and solving a problem; their attacks really seem to be in the wrong place and at the wrong people. I feel that, if anyone, it’s the pharmaceutical companies (and big tobacco and oil interests) who need to be stopped before it’s too late, not the doctors in our neighborhoods who are passionate about helping those in need as best they can. Trying to stop psychiatrists from dispensing medication that the pharmaceutical companies and drug reps push on them, often with false data to convince them that their medication is safe and effective and without side effects is the fault of the companies who create these medications in the first place, not the doctors working with the best information they have been provided with. Paired with the extreme way that the information regarding psychiatrists is presented by the CCHR, who makes it seem as if psychiatrists were some superhuman, unstoppable force that is above morals and the law itself, who simultaneously control the government and the pharmaceutical industry, as if both were powerless to do anything about it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever to me. And this breakdown in logic is where most of my skepticism lies. I have this feeling that the CCHR knows it’s not the psychiatrists who are the problem, that if anyone is the problem, it’s the pharmaceutical companies developing, marketing, and pushing legislation in the Federal Government to ensure their profit margins. Maybe the pharmaceutical companies are too large of a target and the CCHR knows it, because honestly, if the pharmaceutical companies could be stopped, or at least held more accountable for the information and medication they dispense, then it wouldn’t be as available for doctors to prescribe, and doctors would stop prescribing it. In addition to the information that psychiatrists are provided with, they use their own diligent research and their extensive training to make the best decisions they can make, in the best interest of the patient. It’s far-fetched to suggest that the “psychiatrist conspiracy” goes so deep that every one of them is in it only to reap profits, living as soulless beings with a universal mission of “delivering death” to adults and children alike. Furthermore, the entire medical industry is one of the most tightly-regulated industries in the world. A doctor can’t make a move or prescribe a medication without the Federal Government knowing about it. It is the Federal Government and your elected officials who have set up and structured the stringent regulations in the medical industry. Maybe we should focus our strong words and energy on the Federal Government instead; with this line of thinking they are obviously far, far more of a “scourge” than our psychiatrists could ever hope to be. Also, psychiatric hospitals typically get only the most acute cases. Most are brought there by police, sent from schools, or brought in by their own families because none of them have anywhere else to turn for help. After discipline and counseling didn’t help, psychiatric hospitals are, in essence, a “last resort”, not a first one. Yet, even in these most acute cases, it has been reported that only 60% of them get recommended for medication, of which any patient over 18 gets to say “no” to, and any patient under 18 allows the parents to say “no” to. Psychiatrists get paid the same whether they recommend medication or not; there’s no “cut” for them out of pharmaceutical sales whatsoever. In addition, according to the CCHR’s logic, the psychiatry industry must not only have the entire Federal Government fooled, they also have the average citizen, our schools and the entire police force fooled as well. Does it really seem reasonable that 50,000 psychiatrists could hold such power, so successfully, for so long, over so many? – Really, they are just people like you and me, with hopes and dreams and families, wanting the world to be a better place for them and their children, just like us. If psychiatrists were truly the demons that CCHR states they are, surely someone other than the CCHR would notice and demand justice or answers as well. Somewhere, this complete and absolute power that the CCHR seems to indicate psychiatrists possess would be revealed by someone other than just the CCHR or the people and/or organizations who are affiliated with them. The CCHR has the power to choose to expend their time, energy, and money to work in a positive light, by educating and informing psychiatrists of the dangers of the pharmaceutical companies and the Federal Government’s vested interests in big business. With such resources at their disposal, it’s not inconceivable that they could even help create alternative, NON-pharmaceutical based therapies, or any other number of programs that could promote positive energy and results. But, for some inexplicable reason, they chose to demonize the entire psychiatry profession instead. Something continues not to add up for me. An example from the CCHR’s literature: “The report of deaths due to Ritalin…186 children died between 1990 and 2000.” Anthony Kane, MD counters with these statistics: “Though these deaths are not to be ignored, I would like to put the number in perspective: There were 186 Ritalin related deaths in a ten-year period. In contrast there are 11 million prescriptions for Ritalin a year. If you divide the number of children who died from Ritalin by the number of annual prescriptions, that is 186/11,000,000= .000017. That means .0017% of children who take Ritalin are at risk for death.” Therefore, it’s more likely for a child to die from a Tylenol or aspirin overdose than to die from Ritalin use. Both Tylenol and aspirin are available over the counter, and require no psychiatrist intervention whatsoever. In light of this, maybe the CCHR could focus its energy on getting all common pain medications banned, or at least work to stop the stores who sell it from dispensing any more of these “death pills” to so many of us. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which include Tylenol and aspirin, account for an estimated 7,600 deaths per year alone. And another example: In recent years, independent studies have shown that enormous strides have been made in the effective treatment of severe mental illness. Studies shave also shown that new treatments for mental illness, including medication therapy, can drastically reduce the costs associated with treating these patients, while often resulting in the patients returning to society as fully productive individuals. Because of this ever-increasing success in treating mental illness, a joint Congressional Resolution was passed recognizing the 1990s as the "Decade of the Brain." Instead of recognizing this progress, the CCHR characterizes the “Decade of the Brain” as a conspiracy by psychiatrists to “expand their drug client base”, making no mention that it was actually a Congressional Resolution, and NOT the doings of these dangerous “killers” who they feel leave only “death and destruction in their wake.” On a personal note, I had a dear friend named Wesley. In a nutshell, I saw him go through bouts of violence, both internally and externally, not knowing why or what or how. I saw his struggle as a voice in his head told him that he was worthless, that his music was poison, and that he should smash his CD player to stop the noise. He started to have difficulty taking care of himself, and ended up in a hospital looking for help. The hospital said that they couldn’t do anything for him. He was recommended to a mental hospital, and there, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was recommended medication and therapy, and then released, monitored weekly and then monthly to see how his medication was working out for him. I saw him go from a violent, conflicted person, who often lost touch with reality, to someone who was far more lucid, more often, who made more music, and could take care of himself again. It was a beautiful site to see, and I felt like I had my friend back. I owe this to a psychiatrist. A third example: The CCHR quotes a passage by John R. Rees from a talk they say he gave in 1940. Since I have been unable to obtain a copy of that talk, I am presently unable to comment about whether it was taken out of context or not. But, regardless, much time has passed, much knowledge has been gained, and both people and their missions evolve. The CCHR’s suggestion that the World Federation for Mental Health has been hiding a secret agenda for almost 70 years seems, in my eyes, more than just a bit far-fetched. Furthermore, it is important to note that the World Federation for Mental Health is NOT the authority or the voice of psychiatrists; they are an independent organization with their own philosophies and agendas, just as the CCHR does. Knowing that, it’s critical to also bear in mind that every psychiatrist I have spoken with has even never heard of the World Federation for Mental Health, and is both confused by and appalled at the alleged statements by John R. Rees in 1940, as any reasonably intelligent being would be. How can the CCHR fail to mention this critical detail in their arguments and portrayal of the field of psychiatry if they are truly interested only in presenting the facts? They are convicting an entire field based on an organization that is, in no way, the authority or representative for the field of psychiatry, and certainly not the authority on what the field’s mission is. On another note; the World Federation for Mental Health, at least to anyone looking in, appears to be genuine and have the best of intent. For them to be secretly infiltrating and brainwashing society means that every single person who has joined would have to be brainwashed into achieving those same sinister goals, and the brainwashing would have to be so successful, that not a single member would have ever left the organization in order to speak of these alleged secret agendas. Anyone would agree that, especially with human nature the way it is, this would be absolutely impossible for them to accomplish. To use the past as the sole basis for judging everyone who was a part of it, or is presently a part of it is hypocritical. To illustrate this point, I offer a few facts: Twelve of our presidents owned slaves and eight of them owned slaves while serving as president. Our president is the elected representative for each and every one of us. Using the same example as John R. Rees’ statements about the intent of the WFMH, the CCHR is holding psychiatrists responsible for the comments of someone in the 1900’s. Following that line of thinking, since 8 of our presidents owned slaves and spoke about how owning one or more was a “god-given right” in the 1800’s, then all of us (using the CCHR’s logic) would be racists and bigots, personally responsible for slavery, and we should all be put in jail as quickly as possible. That kind of thinking is absurd, leaving no room for the evolution of thought or intent. I can’t help wondering why they have chosen this battle, why they have not tried diplomacy and instead are calling for a war of sorts. The only logical solution I have so far is that the CCHR knows that the pharmaceutical companies, big tobacco, and big government are the problems, but they also know that they are far too powerful of foes to take on. Since the CCHR depends on funding from numerous sources, just as every other business does, unless they have an enemy that the world needs to rid itself of, they would have no purpose, no agenda, and no funding. This is a simple fact. So, maybe by demonizing an easier target; one that isn’t a centralized force such as the pharmaceutical companies, gives an elusive but easily identifiable enemy for those who trust or wish to believe the CCHR’s literature, with the added bonus that they never truly could successfully shut down an entire medical profession, perpetuating their mission indefinitely. If you are looking for a scourge, why not go after Big Tobacco, responsible for more deaths in just 2 years, that the CCHR claims the psychiatry industry and their “asylums” have caused throughout their 40 year history? In fact, let’s start from our few examples and work to rid the world of Tylenol and aspirin manufacturers, the companies who market it, and every single person and store that sells it. And that is just the beginning of the dangerous and deadly targets we could come up with, when combined, are responsible for millions of deaths each and every year, without fail. Really, have we progressed so little, and we are so reactionary that we no longer honor our individuality, our freedom of choice, and our belief that people are innocent until proven guilty? Why is the CCHR so willing and quick to convict psychiatrists? I can’t help wondering. Back to the medical industry: Statistics clearly show that Health Care expenditures in the US have reached 14% of the Gross National Product and a staggering $1.6 trillion in 2003. With such an appalling record of efficacy and such an unbelievable death rate for the treatments routinely administered, the current medical system, the pharmaceutical companies who provide these medications, the NON-psychiatric hospitals who diagnose them, and the schools who teach their medicine, seem to be in far greater need of reform than the psychiatrists. In short, I have difficulty aligning myself with any information that has shaky arguments based on one-sided statistics, with many items being spun to their advantage or taken out of context and then presented with such negative energy and vehemence, using words and phrases like “scourge” and “An Industry of Death” and “drugged society” attached to it. I need cold, hard facts to make informed decisions, not pictures of bloody syringes with rolls of dollar bills lying next to them, designed only to instill anger and fear in the readers; a classic technique of control by organizations looking to sway opinion in favor of their often extreme agendas. It makes me wonder if the use of any drugs or medication in any way, somehow threatens the foundations this organization, but I don’t know enough about the CCHR to comment lucidly. Personally, I believe that the way to evolutionary progress on this planet is through education and open conversations with open hearts and open minds, not hateful propaganda that uses one-sided statistics to present its case, and to further its agenda. It’s all an attempt to instill hate in our minds towards the wrong enemy, while using fear (an incredibly powerful weapon) to rally supporters who will help them pursue their agenda and achieve their goals. As I suggested earlier, might the time, energy and money be better spent fighting vastly more dangerous enemies, like the pharmaceutical companies and big tobacco, rather than concentrating so much energy on one small cog in a vastly larger and more sinister machine, which is far more in deserving of the moniker of “Industry of Death”, and far more in need of change? In a side note: The Chicago Tribune just reported that “Students in America's schools are groped. They're raped. They're pursued, seduced and think they're in love. An Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 [reported] cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic.” The number of abusive educators, nearly three for every school day, speaks to a much larger problem in a system that is stacked against victims. To me, this is a “scourge” against our children, our future, that needs immediate attention, especially since most of the abuse never gets reported. Those cases reported often end with no action. Cases investigated sometimes can't be proven, and many abusers have several victims. How come no one’s there to protect our kids from this? – This is a critically serious Human Rights violation, yet the CCHR is nowhere to be found. In closing, I suggest that we re-evaluate who our enemies truly are, while examining our beliefs about where the truth actually lies, undertaking our own diligent research to validate or debunk the words of a few. When we arm ourselves with what we know personally to be the truth, mined from our own research and experience, we can then choose to expend our energy in a more just and effective manner, truly making this world a safer place for us and generations to come. Maybe we can then try kindness, diplomacy, and positive reinforcement, rather than brutal attacks of words and images and action, giving those we know little about, the benefit of the doubt instead, rather than rushing to convict and destroy them without question, without personal research into where the facts and the truth truly lie. I refuse to accept a world where our fear of the unknown is used to breed more fear, contempt and hate for our fellow man or woman. Too many of those in power have used this tactic to their advantage, and it is up to all of us to break that cycle, to empower ourselves to tirelessly seek the truth, to question anything that is put before us, and to separate fact from fiction. It’s the least we can do for both our perceived enemies as well as our friends. I choose compassion and education, and will never stop questioning what is true for me, while never forgetting that ultimately, we are truly all in this together. |
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