| Reference: United Nations Promoting Sustainable Development Resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2015 “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development“ Sustainable: Of, relating to, or being a method or lifestyle for using resources so that the resources can be maintained and continued, and are not depleted or permanently damaged. [from Old French sustenir (French: soutenir), from Latin sustineo, sustinere, from sub– (under) + teneo (hold, uphold, possess, guard, maintain)] The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and their 169 associated targets adopted in 2015 and accepted by all Member States seek to realize the human rights of all and balance economic, social and environmental factors towards peace and prosperity for all. To this end we examine some of the existing factors which block or inhibit the realization of these goals, and which must be eliminated so that the goals can be achieved in practice. SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Target 5.1: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere. How Psychiatry Obstructs Target 5.1 According to the European Union Parliament “Report on improving the mental health of the population” (A6-0249/2006), “women … are prescribed twice as many psychotropic drugs as men … [and] pharmacokinetic studies have shown that women have less tolerance to such products”. So, apparently psychiatrists know that women react more negatively to psychotropic drugs than men, but are given twice as many harmful and addictive psychotropic drugs as men. Furthermore, the same report “Criticises the growing medicalisation of the processes and stages of development of women’s and girls’ bodies, as a result of which puberty, pregnancy or menopause are increasingly being defined as ‘illnesses’ or ‘disorders’ …” Much of the expansion of psychiatry in the past few decades has been based on a fraudulent brain model that encourages psychiatric drug treatment as a panacea for multiple problems, many of which are actually real medical, social, ethical or spiritual conditions and not mental illnesses or brain abnormalities. The general term “medicalization” (or the equivalent spelling “medicalisation”) means that non-medical problems, such as normal life events, become defined and treated as medical problems, usually as illnesses or disorders, so that they can be “treated” by psychiatrists with psychotropic drugs, instead of finding out their etiology and appropriately treating the real issues. Here are some examples of medicalization: — Various forms of addiction are medicalized so that they can be suppressed with psychotropic drugs, rather than handling the root physical, social and ethical aspects of the addiction. — As referenced here, gender-related issues are being considered as mental illnesses and suppressed with psychotropic drugs instead of determining the actual medical, social, ethical, or spiritual underlying causes and addressing those. Gender Discrimination in the DSM The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) labels some specific gender-related behaviors as mental illnesses. There are four entries in DSM-5 of “Gender dysphoria” [dysphoria: a state of unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life, from Greek dusphoros “hard to bear”]. There are four DSM entries specifically for female issues: “Premenstrual dysphoric disorder”, “Female orgasmic disorder”, “Female sexual interest/arousal disorder”, and “Genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder”. Not to mention that the DSM considers that being a victim of sexual abuse is a mental disorder (“Personal history (past history) of sexual abuse”). And, as always, the catch-all category for everyone else, “Unspecified sexual dysfunction.” Psychiatric fraud and abuse must be eradicated so that SDG 5 can occur. |
