Psychiatric Drug Users Experience Zombie-like State
A recent research study published in the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing [“Living with antipsychotic medication side-effects: The experience of Australian mental health consumers” DOI: 10.1111/inm.12110] reported that “Each participant reported between six and seven side-effects on average, which were often pronounced and had a major disruptive impact on their lives. Of these effects, the most commonly mentioned was sedation, which the participants described as leaving them in a ‘zombie’-like state.”
No surprise there. To date there have been 72 warnings against antipsychotics issued by regulators in eight countries.
Courts have determined that informed consent for people who receive prescriptions for psychotropic (mood-altering) drugs must include the doctor providing “information about…possible side effects and benefits, ways to treat side effects, and risks of other conditions…” as well as, “information about alternative treatments.” Yet very often, psychiatrists ignore these requirements. If you are taking these drugs, do not stop taking them based on what you read here. You could suffer serious withdrawal symptoms. You should seek the advice and help of a competent medical doctor or practitioner before trying to come off any psychiatric drug. This is very important.
There is no question that people do experience problems and upsets in life that may result in mental troubles, sometimes very serious. But to say that these are “medical diseases” or caused by a “chemical imbalance” that can only be treated with dangerous drugs is dishonest, harmful and often deadly.
What psychiatric drugs do instead is mask the real cause of problems, often denying you the opportunity to search for workable, effective solutions.
Imagine how it would be to believe that you could never overcome your personal obstacles, and come to lead a happy and rewarding life. Unfortunately, psychiatrists will most often tell you that your emotional problems or mental distress is incurable, and that you must take their drugs to “manage” it, often for the rest of your life.
But there is one thing they typically leave out—a concept called informed consent. This means that every patient has the right to be told the risks and benefits of the treatment the practitioner recommends; the risks and benefits of alternative treatments; and the risks and benefits of not treating the problem at all.
Psychiatrists routinely do not inform patients of nondrug treatments, nor do they conduct thorough medical examinations to ensure that a person’s problem does not stem from an untreated medical condition that is causing the mental disturbance.
Therefore, it is recommended that all patients first see a medical doctor (especially one who is familiar with nutritional needs), who should obtain and review a thorough medical history of the patient and conduct a complete physical exam, ruling out all the possible problems that might cause the person’s symptoms. According to top experts, the majority of people having mental problems are actually suffering from nonpsychiatric disease that is causing emotional stress.
There are far too many workable alternatives to psychiatric drugging to list them all here, though psychiatry insists there are no such options and fights to keep it that way. In the end, patients and physicians must urge their government representatives to endorse and support the funding of non-drug workable alternatives to dangerous drugs.