Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Jeff Bezos, the creator of Amazon.com, and to all the others that came before him and that will (hopefully) follow him in a concerted effort to improve intelligent communication, harmonious living and the democratic process. To the mom and grandmom that reared me and did the best they knew how (under extremely difficult circumstances) and to all the individuals I’ve loved and who may have loved me and who (most probably) have also experienced disillusionment along the way. Love and sanity is, I believe, the product of a healthy imagination. Yours Truly, Tom Shepherd_, World Citizen.

 

Tom Shepherd

 

a/k/a Tommy Separdi

 

 

 Society everywhere is in conspiracy against

 the manhood of every one of its members

~  Nothing can bring you peace but your self  ~

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

~ Hell is other people ~

Jean Paul Sartre

 

Every society gets the criminals it deserves.

Attorney–General Robert F. Kennedy

 

Imagination is more important than knowledge

Physicist Albert Einstein

 

Freud no doubt suffered from Freud’s own delusions.

Thus, Freud’s disciples and patients became victims

 of Freud’s delusions.

 

Psychiatrists share a common delusion –

that they know more about their clients

than their clients know about themselves

 

Man created God in order to justify

his self-righteous, inhumane acts.

 

I have fallen in love with other men, as well as with women.

And, most probably, so have you. Love is not a perversion.

It is human nature.

 

There is a homoerotic side to every man,

which society mandates every man suppress.

Thus, homophobia is an illness of society.

 

The greatest achievement is selflessness –

learning to subdue the passions.

 

Avoid idle chat. Speak only when necessary.

Avoid intoxicants and those who use them.

Keep a poker face.

 

If your shrink asks you if you hear voices,

ask your shrink the same question.

 

 A schizophrenic-prone individual

is not likely to be disturbed by imaginary voices.

He most probably is disturbed by real voices –

the cruelly disparaging remarks of real people.

 

If anyone asks you what you consider to be

an inappropriate question, simply rephrase the

question, directing it back at your  interrogator.

 

The pen is mightier than the sword.

 

Yours truly,

 Tom Shepherd

 Gifted Schizophrenic

 

NOTE: The term schizophregenic refers to any sensory or environmental stimulus that produces a schizophrenic reaction – erratic, unmodulated behavior. Schizophrenic-prone people tend to at times under-respond to social and environmental stimuli. At other times they tend to  over-respond to social and environmental stimuli – to sudden loud noise – honking horns, barking dogs, ghetto blasters – and most especially to the cruelly disparaging acts of others – bullying, humiliation, mockery, and sarcasm.

 

“The diathesis-stress model views schizophrenic behavior as occurring only in people with a genetic predisposition. This presumed inherited tendency may take the form of a chemical imbalance, which makes a person susceptible to either underresponding or overresponding.

 

“The over-responsiveness to the environment expresses itself as erratic, unmodulated behavior. A poor self-image, sensitivity to criticism, and a general weakness in defining one’s self result from inadequately meeting social expectations, which require increasingly controlled and predictable behavior as one gets older.

 

“Presumably, schizophrenia occurs when some environmental stress increases the biochemical imbalance beyond some threshold to cause gross disturbances in thinking, feeling, and behaving. The greater the genetic predisposition, the less stress is necessary to cause psychosis.”     [From Schizophrenia by Bernheim and Levine]

 

As an existentialist, my concern is with the reality of the here-now rather than with the illusion of an afterlife. My approach is inner-directed rather than other-directed. My mental energy is focused creatively, rather than competitively. It is my opinion that the typical psychiatric client/patient is one who, in spite of possessing superior levels of intelligence, has been checkmated out, as it were, primarily by his/her own family and school classmates. He/she has no one on his/her ball team, as it were. As a result of the ruthlessly competitive nature of our society, such an individual becomes the ultimate outsider.  – Tom Blaise Shepherd, author

 

   It is my opinion, based on my own life experiences and on my reading of the expositions of British existential philosopher and psychiatrist R. D. Laing and others, that there are no basic emotions or instincts or personality characteristics outside of the relationship an individual has within a social context. Our personalities and emotions are thus the cumulative result of our individual life experiences as we interact with other human beings, although somewhat tempered by genetic inheritance.

 

   Each of us is the sum product of genetic inheritance and what society as a whole has made us. It is for this reason that I believe psychiatry, as it is commonly practiced today, is barbaric. It is for this same reason that I believe our criminal justice systems throughout the world are inhumane and barbaric. No one deserves to be incarcerated in a prison, nor does a psychiatric patient deserve to be incarcerated in a locked psychiatric ward.  Prisons and psychiatric wards must be converted into healthy living and learning environments if we are going to eradicate poverty and crime. Churches and temples must be converted into owner-occupied condominiums for the poor.

 

   It is also my opinion that an individual who is born into an economically secure, serene, stable home in which the mother and father do not use psychoactive drugs (including alcohol and tobacco) and are available from the onset of life to provide love and nurturing, and which mother consistently breast feeds her infant during the first year of its life is not likely to develop schizophrenia or any other type of emotional or mental disorder. Being an effective parent is not a temporary job that ends when a child reaches the magic age of 18 or 21. It is a lifelong commitment.

 

   The terms mental health and mental illness are relative terms used to describe degrees of behavior that enable one to function adequately in society. Definitions of the terms vary widely even among individual members of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association.

 

   The terms schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (also known as manic depressive disorder) and major depression are often used, seemingly interchangeably, to diagnose the same individual, depending on who is making the diagnosis, such is the existing disagreement over the nature of so-called mental illness.

 

   According to R. D. Laing, British psychiatrist and phenomenologist and author of The Politics of Experience, there is no such condition as “schizophrenia,” but the label is a social fact and the social fact a political event. The label itself is stigmatizing and can literally destroy the life of the individual – the psychiatric patient - so labeled. For more about schizophrenia, read Weaving the Web of Schizophrenia by yours truly.

 

   Psychiatrist and social critic Silvano Arieti (winner of the National Book Award for Science) focuses on the influence an unhappy marriage of the parents can have in the inability of the child to form satisfactory interpersonal relationships with other children, adolescents and adults.   

 

   Schizophrenia is generally diagnosed when an individual becomes unable to function over a significant period of time as a self-supporting and functional adult as a result of an inability to form satisfactory interpersonal relationships. Hallucinations, delusions and thought disorders are not necessarily apparent to a casual observer, as a schizophrenic individual is not likely to consciously reveal his (or her) innermost thoughts and fears.

 

   A hallucination may take a variety of different forms. In its most common form, a hallucination is simply a flashback – a recurring, yet severely disturbing memory of past trauma or injustice – a flashback that is so disturbing that the individual momentarily loses contact with the reality of the present moment while experiencing a sort of daytime nightmare. During the hallucinatory experience, the individual may become so absorbed in the troublesome flashback that he begins carrying on a dialogue with a troublesome individual from his (or her) past.

 

   A delusion is a misperception of reality. However, schizophrenics generally are more perceptive, as well as more sensitive, than the average individual. Thus, what a schizophrenic’s parent or spouse or employer or other associate may pass off as delusion may in fact be a very accurate perception. It bears repeating: the schizophrenic has been checkmated out, as it were, by family members, by so-called friends, as well as by other members of the community. He has no one on his ball team!  He resultantly becomes the family scapegoat, as well as the community scapegoat!

 

   The schizophrenic individual no doubt has been severely traumatized – usually at an early age – perhaps even in utero – and is mentally ‘on guard’ as it were at all times in his (or her) relationships with other people – virtually all of whom are potential threats to his (or her) very existence. Only a schizophrenic individual can truly understand what is going on in the mind of a schizophrenic. Thus, most psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and psychiatric social workers do NOT understand what is going on in the mind of a schizophrenic and may have a tendency to minimize the severity of the inner turmoil a psychiatric patient is experiencing. Such so-called professionals have a very superficial understanding, if any understanding, of the dynamics involved in schizophrenic thought processes.

 

Social factors that produce suffering may indirectly facilitate schizophrenia through the intermediary action of psychological processes, especially when they decrease the likelihood of receiving good parental care and when they adversely affect the individual’s self-esteem. Schizophrenia is believed to be a condition with mixed etiology, in which biological, psychological and sociocultural factors act together to bring about  regressive forms of psychological function and behavior. Silvano Arieti, M. D. Undestanding and Helping the Schizophrenic  p. 101.  Simon & Schuster. 1980.

 

   At times, schizophrenics under-respond to social environmental stimuli. At other times schizophrenics tend to over-respond to environmental stimuli – to sudden loud noises or movements – an extreme startle reaction or response conjectured by some neurobiologists to be a result of damage to the hypothalamus section of the brain – possibly a result of having experienced severe trauma during the developmental years – from birth through adolescence and young adulthood.

 

   Over-responsiveness is reportedly indicative of the extreme difficulty schizophrenics have in dealing with other more mundane external stimuli in the course of a day. Some schizophrenics indeed tend to over-respond to stressful environmental stimuli – in domestic relationships, as well as in professional or vocational relationships, the reason they have difficulty in sustaining marriage relationships and employment.

 

   The human brain continues to develop – often up to the age of 30.  Thus, individuals still in their twenties are presumably still undergoing brain development. Exposure to trauma during these years can presumably permanently alter brain functioning, both structurally and bio-chemically.

 

   In many instances – and perhaps in most instances – the perceptions of schizophrenics are on target. However, the schizophrenic typically has been discredited by a close associate – a significant other (a parent, boss, spouse or even a total stranger) who has intentionally demeaned, slighted or harmed him (or her).

 

   Many schizophrenics are fired from their jobs and divorced by their spouses, not as a result of their own misperceptions or misconduct, but as a result of their perhaps normal responses to the inappropriate – and in many instances outrageous – behavior of their boss or spouse or other associates.

 

   It bears repeating: The schizophrenic typically has been checkmated out. He (or she) has virtually no one on his ball team. He (or she) is the ultimate scapegoat. Consequently, he typically becomes a well-seasoned loner.

 

    As a response to repeated failures in establishing satisfactory relationships, the so-called schizophrenic individual gradually withdraws from society, not wishing to risk additional conflicts with others. Unfortunately, many mental health so-called caretakers will often accuse such an individual of being lazy – of malingering – of being “unwilling work.”  Such is the arrogance of most of those working in administrative positions within the mental health field. They want government funding to be earmarked for their own salaries – not for the ultimate benefit of society as a whole or for their clients or patients, who for them are mere pawns.

 

It is not work that the schizophrenic individual fears; it is being repeatedly exploited (being paid an inadequate or insufficient wage), as well as being humiliated or mocked or discredited and even battered by significant others in the work place – as well as in non-work social situations – that the schizophrenic fears. The fear – known as paranoia in psychiatric jargon – is indeed understandable. Forcing such an individual back into mainstream group work situations and interpersonal situations is not helping the patient, nor is it helping society. The best help for such an individual is Social Security or Supplemental Security Income or Veteran disability benefits – to which any American citizen or armed services veteran is indeed entitled.  The individual should then be encouraged and enabled to develop his creative and vocational skills and to take the initiative in developing his (or her) own enterprising business or social service agency – one of his or her own choosing – utilizing the assistance of experienced and knowledgeable mentors. 

 

   It is an outrage that Congressmen and Congresswomen legislate generous annual salaries for themselves, currently upward of $130,000 per year, plus generous retirement benefits, yet deny adequate compensation for veterans – especially for those who served in the armed services enlisted ranks during their developmental teenage years – who are resultant psychiatric casualties – not due to enemy fire, but due to inhumane neglect and abuse by those military officers in charge.

 

   Ongoing trauma at the hands of one’s own comrades-in-arms – to include ongoing male-male sexual harassment – is indeed often more traumatizing and long-lasting than is being victimized by enemy fire, a fact recognized by leading neuroscientists, yet commonly denied by VA psychiatrists.  One who has been betrayed by one’s significant others – one’s comrades-in-arms – is more likely to suffer graver emotional consequences than are others.

 

   Much bizarre behavior that is commonly associated with severe mental illness, including hallucinations in various forms, is drug induced, the result of the patient having tried to medicate himself or herself through alcohol, barbiturates and other mind-altering drugs or it is the result of having been treated with prescription drugs, including anesthesia commonly used during surgical procedures, or psychotropic drugs, neuroleptics, tranquilizers or antidepressants prescribed by a physician.

 

   Other causes of bizarre behavior include encephalitis lethargica*, which incidentally has identical symptoms to some forms of schizophrenia and other viruses that affect the brain.

*Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill by Robert Whitaker, pp. 165-66. Perseus. 2002.

 

An Outsider in One’s Own Family

 

   Some observers of human behavior feel that virtually all mental illness, regardless of how it manifests itself, is simply a state of mind in which an individual feels discouraged about life as a result of finding himself or herself in a perpetual checkmate situation in which he/she, in spite of a superior intellect, remains at the bottom of the pecking order. The individual that winds up as a psychiatric client is invariably an outsider, not only in one’s own family, but also in the community. Such an individual finds himself without anyone on his or her ball team, as it were. Ironically, the male psychiatric patient typically IS indeed an individual who was probably the last man chosen to be on any sports team during his early developmental years.

 

   The primary underlying symptom of virtually all mental health patients is anger, which may be either covert (expressed through depression--withdrawal, silence and passivity) or overt (expressed through aggression, verbally or otherwise).

 

   In virtually all societies individuals and groups employ authoritarian manipulative tactics in order to gain and maintain control over others. Those who do not understand the nature of this game often becomes the victims and they invariably are convinced by those who are seeking to control their lives that they are inferior, wherein lies the root of their discouragement and their anger (towards those who have undermined their self-esteem).

 

   Parents can help somewhat in preventing mental illness or discouragement by being consistent and positive role models to their children. They can teach their children good communication skills, as well as industrial skills that they can utilize throughout their lives in order to earn a living.

 

 

Good Communication Skills:

–how to communicate confidently and effectively with others

 and thus prevent abuse by other children and adults.

 

   Religious platitudes that teach a child to merely turn the other cheek when he or she has been verbally or physically violated are the beginnings of self-defeating behavior –behavior that allows one to feel inferior. Also, the old adage that children should be seen but not heard is not a healthy attitude towards children, who need to learn the art of conversation at an early age. Parents who engage their children in free exchange of ideas on an adult-to-adult conversational level, instead of distancing themselves from their children with patronizing attitude of condescension are the ones who breed healthy, functional adults.

 

 

Industrial-Vocational Skills-

--enabling the child to develop his motor skills and his creativity

 --his or her capacity for creating useful objects.

 

   All people have creative ability. However, creative ability needs to be developed. If you smile at a child, the child will smile back at you. If you wave at a child, the child will wave back at you. Children learn by imitating older children or adults. When children observe adults going through a process of creating, they will attempt to imitate the process. When children observe adults engaging in violent, destructive acts with one another or against themselves, they will invariably attempt to imitate the process. Military boot camp training is designed to teach the adolescent recruits how to become violent in order to condition them to be more willing to kill. Military training and combat films shown on television only reinforce violence in our society.

 

   Confrontational therapy, a form of therapy sometimes incorporated in group therapy, encourages patients to act out their anger through play acting, often through verbal abuse, like calling your parent, your spouse, or someone from your past a “son-of-a-bitch.” Another patient is thus substituted for the actual parent. Thus, the other patient (or group therapy co-member) absorbs the abuse. It is not therapeutic at all, as it only reinforces anger and violent behavior. An effective therapist enables the patient to understand that the parent, spouse or other individual who was negligent or abusive to the patient was only repeating a pattern of dysfunctional behavior that he or she learned during his or her own childhood. An effective therapist enables the patient to practice more genteel methods for resolving problems.

 

Anyone seeking answers from a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist should keep in mind that perhaps most of those who become licensed psychiatrists or licensed clinical psychologists are people who have been and still are severely mentally disturbed themselves and their patients or clients, in effect, become scapegoats. It becomes a case of the blind individual seeking to find the way from another blind individual – the blind leading the blind.

 

    The Montessori Method, developed by Italian physician Maria Montessori, is based on a process of facilitating creativity in children. Children and adults who are taught methods for developing their creativity are more likely to be happier and more productive adults.  They are less likely to engage in violent behavior. The same methods can be applied to an individual at any age.

 

 

The Relationship Between Economics and Behavior

 

   America is not a true democracy. It is a representative democracy. In fact, a true democracy has never existed in the history of mankind. Although the concept of democracy originated with the ancient Greek philosophers, the democratic principles of the Greek nation-state applied to only two-thirds of Greece’s inhabits, who were the free people. The remaining one-third of classical Greece was comprised of slaves. They were non-participants in the so-called democratic processes.

 

   America, which is indeed based on democratic principles, at least in theory, is perhaps one of the most humane societies on the face of the earth; however, this is not any reason to blind one’s eyes to the fact that even Americans still live in a society that is feudalistic in nature, in that the landed gentry are in control. Thus, those who have power as a result of their large real estate holdings, as well as of their ownership of major industries via the capital enterprise system, do indeed often exert an uncanny amount of intimidating control over those without power.

 

   The roots of mental illness usually take hold during childhood when a child is not properly prepared to defend himself or herself in what realistically is a brutalizing world. Scapegoating, a method of ganging up on a particular individual that is considered an outsider by those who have control of the infrastructure of a community, is the method by which groups of people mercilessly terrorize other individuals.

 

 

   Child victims of scapegoating are usually those individuals who are perhaps handicapped economically, socially, mentally or physically—the child with a club foot, the stutterer, the poor child in a class of more affluent children, a homely child, a brilliant child, a fat child, an effeminate boy or a child who has a parent who is unpopular in the community, in which case others displace their anger or resentment for the parent onto the child.

 

   In some instances, a non-assertive boy or girl who perhaps does not have a strong and visible father present in the home as a leveraging agent in the community and to, when necessary, defend him or her, becomes a convenient target of abuse by other children, and sometimes by other adults. While a parent may not abuse his or her own children, he or she may very well abuse other peoples’ children.

 

   Children who are the target of scapegoating are usually, but not always, shy children. They are often shy simply because they have been so intimidated, and thus invalidated, by their own parents or by their siblings, playmates, or even their teachers, that they have not learned healthy survival or communication skills.

 

   The roots of mental illness or discouragement often begin with a shy child who ultimately rebels against an abusive parent—by either withdrawing or acting out, and finds himself or herself labeled crazy by the parent. This tactic is often intended to discredit the child’s testimony that his or her parent is abusive and out of control, and that the parent is using the child as a scapegoat.

 

   If the parent takes the child to a psychiatrist or psychologist, the child generally has already been stigmatized or tagged as crazy by the time he or she actually sees the doctor. The parent, of course, has sometimes painted a very unrealistic picture of what is really going on in the home. A smart psychiatrist or psychologist is usually prepared for such charades; but because the parent Is paying the bills some psychiatrists may not give credence to the child’s version of what is really going on. The child gets angrier and angrier because the problem at issue is not really being addressed. He or she is often thus treated with psychotropic drugs—tranquilizers and antidepressants, which is not the answer.

 

   If the child or adult mental health patient is institutionalized he or she is usually victimized further by drug therapy.

 

 

Bad Psychiatrists, Bad Clinical Psychologists and Bad Nurses

 

   Many mental health professionals are themselves alcohol and drug dependent and wind up reacting to their patients instead of genuinely trying to help them. Also, keep in mind that alcohol and drug dependent professionals are likely to encourage alcohol-drug dependency of their clients. Abuses by mental health professionals against patients are flagrant and often unreported. When they are reported, those in charge, including the directors of county mental health agencies, often do nothing about the abuses. When investigations are made they are often mere charades or cover-ups. Once a mental health patient becomes a part of the mental health system he or she is frequently discredited in any attempt to defend himself or herself against abuses within the system.

  

   Patients who cooperate with the mental health system and do not make waves are usually accorded minimum benefits, but not quality help. Those who complain about abuse often find themselves abandoned by the mental health system without help. They are often turned out on the streets without a proper social service support system or, worse still, placed behind prison bars on trumped of charges, such as having threatened the mental health professional.

 

   So-called mental illness or discouragement is indeed a reaction to an irrational society. The excuse that many mental health professionals use in order to administer psychotropic drugs – tranquilizers and antidepressants –to patients is based on the theory that mental illness is the result of a preexisting chemical imbalance, but in 99 percent of the cases patients are not even given a brain scan—a PET (positron emission tomography) scan to determine if they are indeed suffering from a chemical imbalance or other brain abnormality in the first place.

 

   Even though pharmaceutical manufacturers claim that a particular drug may inhibit or stimulate the production of a certain neurotransmitter that is believed to be the cause of the depression or anxiety, the fact is that physicians do not really know exactly how a particular psychotropic dug is actually affecting the brain of a particular individual. Even if there were a preexisting chemical imbalance, the drugs often cause serious chemical imbalances that do the patient more harm than good in the long run.

 

   The twin studies, commonly used to suggest that the brains of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia have different brains than other people, actually reveal that the brain abnormalities of individuals labeled schizophrenic are the result of brain damage caused by the use of neuroleptic drugs. Virtually all of the individuals examined in the study, as the study indicates, had been treated with neuroleptic drugs for an average of 10 years, prior to the x-rays. Dr. Peter Breggin, Dr. Bertram Karon, Dr. Theodore Lidtz (Yale) all have testified to the fact that neuroleptic drugs do not cure schizophrenia, nor do they alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia. They instead cause brain damage, damage referred to as NIDS (neuroleptic induced deficit syndrome), thus supporting the theory that schizophrenia is not a brain disease, nor is an inherited condition

 

   Psychiatric drugs, characterized as “chemical straight jackets,” are used by psychiatrists as a method of keeping their patients permanently dysfunctional in order to exploit them as patients. The reason virtually all patients eventually quit taking their prescribed neuroleptic or anti-depressant drugs is because the drugs indeed are injuring them, interfering with their ability think, to breathe normally, and to and relax.  They also destroy the immune system, making patients more vulnerable to infections, and they put an abnormal burden on the heart, liver and kidneys. They also make it virtually impossible for a male to obtain a full orgasm. Regular orgasms are absolutely  necessary in order for a male to reduce his tension and relax.

 

   Neuroleptic drugs, of which Thorazine (generic:chlorpromazine) was the first, are all relatives of a common antihistamine known as diphenhydramine, which is today the main ingredient in over-the-counter cold remedies, including Benadryl. Because diphenhydramine was noted to have a mildly sedating effect, it became used as an effective tranquilizer.

 

   Diphenhydramine can be an effective remedy for certain individuals,  when used sparingly as needed, as its mildly tranquilizing effect can enable one to get a good night’s sleep. If the individual also suffers from chronic sinusitis, dyphenhydramine can kill two birds with one stone

 

   The fact is that when diphenhydramine is used sparingly as a sleep aid or as a daytime tranquilizer or to treat sinusitis, by drying up the sinuses, it is relatively safe – no more than 50 mgs. at a  time. However, one needs to monitor one’s self in order to adjust the dosage.  The FDA has deemed diphenhydramine to be safe for over-the-counter purchase. Diphenhydramine may also slightly lower blood pressure, a plus for those who have a tendency towards high blood pressure. One word of caution: Do not consume alcoholic beverages at all.   Dyhphenhydramine does not require a prescription and can be purchased at 99 cent stores.

 

   Competitive drug manufacturers have marketed chlorpromazine under names like Thorazine, Haldol, Mellaril, Stellazine and Zyprexa, all of which are co-labeled as  major tranquilizers or as “anti-psychotic medication.” However, the dangerous side effects of these particular drugs, are commonly minimized by prescribing physicians, while the benefits are grossly exaggerated.

 

   To learn more from the experts, read: Blaming The Brain: The Truth About Drugs and Mental Health by Eliot Valenstein, Ph.D.; Toxic Psychiatry by Peter Breggin, M.D., and Mad in America by Robert Whitaker, medical journalist.

 

   Psychiatric medicine, as it is now practiced, should be outlawed! Tom Cruise has said it! Dr. Thomas Szasz has said it. Dr. Peter Breggin has said it. And I say it! I myself speak from experience!

 

   It must be born in mind that the brain is not static. The brain is in constant flux. The brain’s neurotransmitters configure in response to social-environmental stimuli. However, once the environmental-social stimuli change, the brain’s neurotransmitters reconfigure. Psychiatric drugs, namely neuroleptics, antidepressants and mood stabilizers are used because lame-brain psychiatrists seemingly do not recognize this fact. They apparently are unable to understand the fact that the brain adapts itself to change.

 

   When an individual is experiencing social-environmental stress or trauma, his or her brain releases the neurotransmitters known as adrenaline an dopamine. However, once the stress factors are eliminated, the neurotransmitters cease producing excess adrenaline and dopamine. However, if the causes of the stress continue for long periods of time, especially when a child is exposed to ongoing trauma in the home or at school, or when an adolescent or young adult is exposed to ongoing trauma during military service or combat, the brain’s neurotransmitters may continue to produce abnormally high levels of adrenaline and dopamine, as such individual lives in a more or less constant state of fear. Thus, the social factors that are producing the stress must be studied.

 

Psychotropic Drugs Are a Menace, Not an Aid

 

   Patients who accept psychotropic drugs are merely playing Russian roulette with their doctors, because the drugs are dangerous and indeed have permanent disabling side effects.

 

   It should be born in mind that psychotropic drugs are big source of income for the multi-billion-dollar-a-year pharmaceutical industry. Greedy investors are getting rich off this industry, which is no more ethical than the Columbian drug cartel. It’s just legal.

 

   Rather than alleviating mental confusion, the drugs actually cause mental confusion (neuroleptic-induced deficit syndrome), thus preventing the patient from thinking clearly. If the individual cannot think clearly then he or she may not be able to get on with the business of learning how to cope with persons or institutions that are the source of the problem. Effective and responsible mental health education involves teaching the client how to recognize when one is being violated by others. Once again, enabling the client to develop effective communication skills is perhaps the most important form of mental health education.

 

   Of course, those individuals who have indeed violated the patient, whether they be parents, spouses, friends, teachers, employers, the military or mental health professionals themselves, are going to insist that they had no intention of violating the client in the first place in order to absolve themselves from blame and responsibility. Mental illness is generally as vicious circle of inequities involving the client’s total environment—relatives, friends, employers, physicians and institutions that play a dominant role in his or her life.

 

   Some mental health professionals, i.e., psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and aids are themselves involved in the violation of the patient. They literally thrive on belittling, berating and patronizing their clients in a pathological effort to enhance their own feelings of superiority and because by undermining the client’s self-esteem the client, in effect, never gets ”well.” Having mental health patients who are unable to function in society is, of course, the primary source of revenue for unethical professionals.

 

 

Pharmaceutical Corporations Exaggerate Drug Benefits

 

   Pharmaceutical corporations exaggerate the benefits and minimize the risks of psychotropic drugs. In fact, it could be said that there are NO benefits to be derived from taking psychotropic drugs. The only people who benefit are the pharmaceutical corporations that manufacture the drugs, the physicians who write the prescriptions and the pharmacists who fill the prescriptions.

 

   Intellectual deterioration is, of course, one of the most readily noticeable results of psychotropic drug treatment. Many brilliant people who have been treated with psychotropic drugs begin to take on mental and physical characteristics similar to those with Down’s syndrome after only a few years on the drugs.

 

   The so-called side-effects medications that physicians administer to their patients to counter the side effects of neuroleptic drugs are a real joke because they do not counter perhaps 95 percent of the side effects.

 

   The side effects that are produced by psychotropic drugs include hypersensitivity to the sun, which can result in increased susceptibility to skin tumors or cancer; lowered white blood-cell count, which results in impairment to the immune system; dramatically increased heart rate is a side-effect of antidepressants; increased blood pressure; weight gain; skin rashes; impaired vision; tremors; thyroid problems (a side-effect of Lithium); tardive dyskinesia (symptoms of Parkinson’s disease), a permanent and irreversible form of nerve damage, which symptoms include a variety of nervous tics (pin-rolling of the fingers), and involuntary movements of the arms, hands and legs.

 

   The perhaps safest tranquilizing drug or sleep aid is diphenhydramine hydrochloride, commonly marked as Benadryl or Dytuss or as a nighttime sleep aid, marketed under a variety of brand names and available as an over-the-counter non-prescription tranquilizer, sleep aid or anti-hystamine. However, it is also available in  prescription form. Interestingly, diphenhydramine hydrochloride is prescribed by psychiatrists to counter the side effects of the most commonly prescribed (yet nerve damaging) neuroleptics, a/k/a anti-psychotic drugs.

 

   As has already been pointed out, most of the bizarre behavior of mental health patients is the result of their having been treated with psychotropic drugs or the result of anesthesia administered during surgical procedures. In some cases, bizarre behavior is the result of the patients having tried to medicate themselves with alcohol (which is highly encouraged by physicians and alcoholic beverage manufacturers) or other street drugs.

 

   The primary symptom of many mental health clients is simply alienation, anger and rage—a response to the abuse and mistreatment that they have endured by individuals in their immediate environment or simply a response to the intellectual dishonesty (including double-bind communication: you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t) of society-in-general.

 

   People are encouraged to drink alcoholic beverages to relax; they are also arbitrarily arrested and incarcerated for exhibiting the resultant dysfunctional behavior of alcohol use.

 

 

Human Sexuality

 

   It cannot be emphasized enough how misunderstandings about human sexuality contribute to so-called mental illness in virtually all of the ways it manifests itself. Although all people presumably have a capacity for developing romantic and sexual feelings for members of both sexes, mainstream society and mainstream psychiatry tends to deny this observable fact, claiming that homoerotic or homo-romantic or homosexual feelings are the result of the influence of “the devil” or of a “hormonal imbalance.” The denial is largely fostered by brainwashing, beginning in early childhood, by barbaric-sexist Jewish-Christian-Islamic educational institutions. Acknowledging the bisexual or ambisexual capacity of all people is not advocating a gay lifestyle. It is simply acknowledging reality.

 

   By the way, the word gay, as originally defined by the French, refers to any individual who engages in sexual liaisons outside of marriage – whether with a partner of the same gender or the opposite gender. Up until the 1960s, any man of socially well-connected American lineage was characterized as a gay bachelor – as was John Fitzgerald Kennedy prior to his marriage to Jacqueline Bouvier.

 

   Of course, perhaps a majority of American bars or saloons, public or private, prior to the Twentieth Century did not admit women. McSorley’s Old Ale House in what is now known as the East Village of New York City was perhaps the oldest American saloon that denied service to women until it was invaded by Female Liberationists in the late 1960s. Ironically, McSorley’s was operated by two women, one the widow of the original owner, the other her sister. It was never listed or characterized as a gay bar.

 

   The term gay originally applied to any man or woman who regularly engaged in romantic liaisons without the benefit of a marriage license – civil or otherwise. To refer to an individual as a homosexual is to objectify that individual. Yet it has become commonplace, so commonplace that individuals are taught to denigrate themselves by objectifying themselves with the term. Most young people who come out of the closet, as it were, and publicly announce that they are gay are merely rebelling against compulsively homophobic parents!

 

   Quite frankly, attempting to characterize any individual as either straight or gay is a rather barbaric custom, since only a minor of people – to include those who have experimented with same-gender partners – are not likely to openly talk about it. Responsible physicians should take the lead in discouraging the use of terms such as straight and gay to define individuals, the terms are indeed highly inappropriate.

 

   Individuals reared by well-educated parents, I should say classically educated parents, generally do not engage in such behavior. The Ancient Greeks considered everyone bisexual – rather ambisexual. The terms homosexual or heterosexual were not used by the Ancient Greeks to define individuals, since all individuals were considered to be inherently bisexual, meaning they have a capacity for experiencing strong feelings for both males and females, depending on the circumstances and the individuals involved.

 

   Men and women choose same romantic-sex partners primarily as a result of social conditioning. Men who are sequestered together for work and socialization purposes for lengthy periods of time are more likely to direct their sexual energy towards each other.

 

   Those males, who during the maturational process, from birth to about age 25, are sequestered away from females, are more likely to seek romantic and sexual satisfaction from other environmentally available males rather than females.

 

   During the maturational process, the brain is extremely pliable. The male brain typically develops more slowly than the female brain (on the average by about three years). Thus, a male who as a result of the socialization process has enjoyed reciprocated romantic-sexual feelings from females prior to the age of 17, if afterwards deprived of female companionship for long periods of time (such as during military service between the ages of 17 and 25) while his brain is still developing, may thus develop a preference for intimacy with someone of the same sex.

        

   The Spartan society of Ancient Greece, which revolved around the military, officially discouraged romantic relationships, especially with the opposite sex. The Spartan heterosexual union was for a single purpose: to provide warriors for the state.

 

   The primary factors involving the preference for a romantic-sexual partner of the same sex are: (1) the lack of availability of a compatible and receptive member of the opposite sex, and (2) the availability of compatible and receptive members of the same sex.

 

   Although the hormone testosterone is the cause of the sex drive in both males and females, testosterone does not determine the choice of a male or a female’s romantic-sexual partner.

 

   Mature men will often avoid becoming romantically-sexually involved with women as a result of understandable concern about being trapped by a woman whose motives are more financial than romantic, and vice versa.

 

   There are three primary reasons for avoiding sexual relations (the exchange of body fluids) altogether: (1) To avoid siring a child with an incompatible individual, (2) to avoid siring a child that one is economically incapable of caring for; and (3) To avoid the risks of contracting a communicable and incurable disease: syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes and/or AIDS. It should be born in mind that there are new, incurable strains of gonorrhea, as well as of herpes. Even if you or your partner withdraws from oral, anal or vaginal sex prior to actual ejaculation, an incurable virus can indeed infect your body. Even if you are faithful to your domestic partner, you have no way of knowing if your partner has been faithful to you. Thus, the only safe sex is to avoid having sexual relations with another individual.

 

   Society talks a great deal about being either homosexual or heterosexual, while ignoring one’s capacity for being celibate. As for myself, I repudiate the custom and identify myself as merely a man. I also repudiate the custom of identifying so-called manhood by a man’s willingness to engage in combative sports, fist fighting, risk-taking or other forms of reckless behavior. It is the barbaric way our so-called civilized society artificially defines masculinity or manhood that is the root cause of ongoing violence, alcohol and drug addiction.

 

  It is sad indeed that our society has come to associate celibacy and gentleman qualities – common courtesy – as unmanly qualities. Schizophrenia is quite typically brought on by an extremely sensitive individual being continually demoralized by the vulgar, belligerent and insensitive acts of domineering significant others – whether they be parents, surrogate parents (teachers, coaches, drill sergeants) or peers (classmates or colleagues), both male and female.

 

   Masturbation, whether while alone or with a partner, is indeed the safest form of sexual expression, as there is no risk of pregnancy or contracting a viral or venereal infection. In any event, celibacy is the best route – refraining from the exchange of bodily fluids in the process of lovemaking – except in a mutually- agreed upon committed relationship.

 

 

Depression

 

   Depression does not necessarily manifest itself in passive zombie-like behavior, the stereotype that many people have of depression, although passive zombie-like behavior can be a result of neuroleptic drug treatment. Neuroleptic drugs, as well as other psychotropic drugs and alcohol can indeed destabilize the nervous system.

 

   If not pharmaceutically or alcoholically induced, depression is can be a result of poor nutritional habits. The vitamins, minerals and amino acids found in a well-balanced diet are the building blocks of the brain’s chemical neurotransmitters (i.e. serotonin, dopamine, etc.). Regular exercise is also necessary in order to maximize optimum brain functioning.

 

   Other than the effect neuroleptic drugs and nutrition have on exacerbating symptoms of depressive illness, an individual who is trapped in an oppressive environment can also exhibit signs of depression. In such instances, depression generally sets in after many, many traumatic experiences in which the individual has been verbally, emotionally or physically violated by those around him or her (parents, teachers, drill instructors or peers).

 

   Depression is the ultimate reaction to frustration and is invariably accompanied by anxiety, resulting in a variety of symptoms, which include any or all of the following: withdrawal, isolation, extreme irritability with outbursts of indignation over injustices, obsession with past unresolved incidences of abuse, suicidal ideation and weight loss.

 

   Although depressed individuals may indeed stay in bed for long periods of time, they rarely sleep because their mind is racing on past-unresolved issues. In fact, it is lack of sleep that results in depression, not too much sleep. Those who do sleep for long periods of time are usually those who have been medicated with barbiturates or other prescription drugs. Although neuroleptic drugs may produce a lethargic effect, they do not induce relaxation or sleep. In fact, they severely interfere with getting a good night’s sleep.

 

   Responsible mental health education involves listening to a drug-free patient carefully and patiently with an intelligent and sensitive ear, enabling the patient to explain exactly what circumstances and situations he or she has experienced in order to understand why he or she is angry or discouraged or depressed.

 

   Hastily making judgments that the patient is out of contact with reality, is hallucinating or imagining what is in fact reality can only exacerbate a patient’s anger and depression. Many mental health professionals have grown up in protective environments and because they have not experienced such atrocities as their patients may report may be inclined to dismiss the patient as being out of contact with reality and prescribe psychotropic drugs, which in fact is usually what does happen.

 

   Many ignorant professionals and lay persons alike mistakenly think that when an individual is talking to himself or herself and expressing raging indignation that he or she is experiencing auditory hallucinations, when in fact the individual is probably not hearing an imaginary voice at all. Individuals who are isolated and alienated from society talk to themselves simply because they cannot find anyone sensitive enough, intelligent enough or patient enough to communicate with them. In fact, there is some dispute as to whether or not anyone who is mentally ill actually hears non-existent voices (experiences auditory hallucinations), that those who claim they hear voices are merely trying to fake mental illness for one reason or another in order to qualify for disability compensation.

 

   However, a patient whose hearing is more sensitive than others may actually be hearing a real voice that other so-called normal people would not hear. Many people diagnosed with autism or schizophrenia (studies have proven) actually have more finely tuned hearing than other people. For instance, military radio operators are usually able to pick up remote or high-pitched sounds (via Morse code) that the so-called normal person cannot even hear, which is why they are selected for such occupations.

 

   Many psychiatrists and psychologists are so fascinated with the occult and get so intrigued with contrived fictional versions of mental illness depicted in novels, in the movies with voices dubbed in, and even in text books, that they are relatively indifferent to those patients who do not exhibit the classic Hollywood version of mental illness, which probably does not really exist.

 

   The result? Many highly ethical men and women who are indeed are seriously disturbed and depressed as a result of abuse and violation of their rights are scoffed at as not being seriously in need of a support network. Yet those clients who have learned how to play the mythological role of what a mentally ill person is supposed to be, get most of the attention and most of the benefits available through state-managed programs for the mentally ill.

 

 

Disability Compensation

 

   The mental health system admits to giving priority benefits in the form of disability payments, treatment or other services to clients who demonstrate a desire to inflict harm on another person or on themselves. Consequently, the system teaches clients that if they don’t engage in dramatic antisocial or self-destructive behavior that they will not qualify for state benefits.

 

   Aside from carefully and patiently listening to the mental health patient, responsible mental health education includes apprising the client of effective ways to cope with hostile, indifferent and intellectually dishonest people and institutions.

 

   Many mental health clients-patients are indeed more ethical than the rest of society, which is why they are incapable of the type of duplicity that is so necessary to survive in our dog-eat-dog world. Most mental health clients cannot sustain employment merely because they refuse to tolerate abuse, they refuse to be a part of unethical business practices and because they find themselves berated merely for acting responsibly. They are often the so-called over-achievers. The fact is that coworkers, supervisors and even owners of businesses often feel very threatened by these people. They are afraid they will take their jobs away from them or become competitors. Therefore, so-called overachievers frequently wind up getting psyched out to the point where they either get fired or quit under duress.

 

   Such individuals are indeed deserving of state aid, including disability compensation. The military intentionally desensitizes recruits in order to make them more willing to engage in violent behavior and to kill. The process of desensitization, developed by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a West Point instructor and psychologist, rewires the brains of those exposed to such conditioning and according to Dr. Eliot Valenstein* is a major factor in behavior characterized as PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), even in veterans who have not actually experienced wartime combat. Exposure to stressful situations, according to Valenstein, can produce long-lasting brain neurochemical changes. It has been suggested that this long-lasting sensitization of certain neurons may be the cause of post-traumatic stress disorder.  *Blaming the Brain: The truth About Drugs and Mental Health. Eliot S. Valenstein, PhD.

 

   For more information on the effects of combat training on violence, go to Dave Grossman’s website: http://www.killology.com

 

 

Assertiveness

 

   While many mental health professionals acknowledge the need for their clients to have assertiveness training, they do not really make an effort to teach assertive skills, skills that might enable the client to become more independent. The psychiatrists and clinical psychologists don’t want to lose their clients!

 

   Assertiveness training is simply developing effective communication skills, learning how to express one’s self with words and body language—the art of effective repartee. Thus, those mental health professionals that are often enjoying salaries of $50,00 to $100,000 or more a year are of virtually no help to their clients if they are unable or unwilling to teach their clients such skills, an essential part of effective therapy.

 

   Permitting a client-patient to freely communicate his or her thoughts and feelings in a socially acceptable manner is perhaps the most effective method of assertiveness training. Continuous interruptions or questioning the validity of statements a client has made can often impede or inhibit the development of good communication skills and self-esteem, only exacerbating the client’s problems. Thus, a sensitive ear and intelligent feedback from the therapist on an adult-to-adult level of idea interchange generate respect for the therapist by the client and helps in building or rebuilding self-esteem for the client. A therapist who takes a condescending, patronizing or authoritarian attitude towards a client is a totally ineffective therapist. Intelligent therapists learn from their own clients. And an intelligent therapist is a good listener.

 

   It might be pointed out here that society is extremely conflicted on what is deemed appropriate language. While virtually all people occasionally use four-letter-words as a method of expression, there are social circumstances in which such language is either acceptable or not acceptable. Also, authoritarian personalities, often those in charge of a business or government office, will frequently censure or punish an employee who resorts to using the same language (epithet) that he or she uses. I’ve listened to Christian ministers, as well as office supervisors, who have no qualms about referring to another individual as a “bastard” or a “son-of-a-bitch” or even a “bitch.” yet will severely reprimand or even terminate an employee who uses the same language. It is commonplace!

 

   Perhaps the biggest myth of mental illness is that a mentally ill person is more irrational than other people. Hogwash! All people occasionally engage in what society calls irrational behavior, including psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses. Until mental health professionals learn to be more honest themselves about this fact, our mental health system will continue to be of no value to anyone except to those authoritarian personalities who are in positions of control and who financially benefit by violating the rights of others.

 

 

Paranoia

 

   The word paranoid has become a popular word in our society, often used to berate or discredit anyone who claims any form of abuse or conspiracy by another or others. Studies reveal that individuals clinically diagnosed with paranoid features are usually quite accurate in their appraisals of the malevolent intentions of others in their environment. It’s just that these individuals have experienced so much abuse that they are mistrusting of virtually everyone. They indeed have good reason to be. Their sensitivity to abuse (hypervigilance) is perhaps keener than that of other people and they reach a point there they simply refuse to continue tolerating it in others.

 

   Research indicates that individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, autism, PTSD and other behavioral disorders, often are not only more intuitive than others, but they frequently have more finely tuned hearing than others. Noises or sounds that others may not hear at all may be very audible to those with more finely tuned hearing – so audible that the ‘jump out of their skins’ as it were. Sounds that may be at a very tolerable decibel level for most people are intolerable to those who have more finely tuned hearing, which is why such people will often so-to-speak  jump out of their skin or go into a rage when exposed to high-decibel sound levels, which are highly irritating to their nervous systems!

 

 

Intuition

 

   While women have been characterized, via folklore, as having greater intuition than men, the fact is that intuition is neither a male nor a female characteristic. It is a human characteristic. It is an essential part of the make-up of all intelligent human beings, regardless of how they may score on an intelligence test. Intelligence tests are designed to test problem-solving skills that are acquired through the social-developmental process rather than to test native ability. In a highly sexist, stratified society, men and women are nourished and educated to repress or suppress certain native abilities or inclinations. As a result, they do not exercise parts of the brain that would enable them to develop certain skills. Thus, generally speaking, neither males nor females develop their full mental potentialities. *The Right Brain by Thomas Blakeslee

 

   Once again, intuition is not a female trait. It is a human trait.

 

   People who have survived in civilized societies are usually those who are in positions of power and are therefore often highly manipulative and unethical autocrats. They also have developed good communication skills.

 

   Most people find the road to sound mental health through the expression or communication of their ideas through the industrial arts, whether that be through drawing, painting, writing, film production, inventing or any number of other ways. The creative process is the essence of being. Designing and/or building one‘s own cabin or house, cultivating a garden, building or rebuilding an engine and designing textile products are all healthy and productive ways of achieving sanity.

 

   Typically, people are assigned or cast into subservient roles as automatons, as cogs in a machine owned by another individual. As a result people engage in inauthentic behavior in their efforts to suppress their humanity as automatons. They are told they will get their rewards in an afterlife, which is why the world’s great religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and even Hinduism have survived. Without such barbaric religions (that serve the purpose of reinforcing inequality) the rich and powerful, the kings and queens, would not exist.

 

   The initial step in changing behavior from inauthentic to authentic is reaffirming to one’s self: I am going to refuse to accept a role that demoralizes either another individual or myself.

 

The Existential Formula

 

   The essential ingredients for sound mental health are (1) sound nutrition, (2) moderate exercise, (3) transcendental meditation, and (4) application of the creative process.

 

 

Sound Nutrition

 

   The vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and amino acids found in food are the building blocks of the brain’s chemical neurotransmitters. The soybean is one of the best all-round foods because it not only contains essential vitamins and minerals, but it is also a complete protein, meaning it contains all of the essential amino acids that the body cannot manufacture on its own. The soybean is also an excellent source of triptophan. In fact, it is one of the best sources of triptophane. The soybean can be eaten as a steamed whole soybean, as powdered soy, as soymilk, or as tofu, a soft cheese-like food made from curdled soybean milk.

 

   Soy milk is a processed food to which corn syrup is commonly added as a sweetener.  Thus, consume soy milk with restraint. Corn syrup is not  particularly healthy, nor is granulated cane sugar. Fresh fruit is the only safe sugar source. Thus, as a source of calcium and protein, one is advised to drink cow’s milk, preferably non-fat cow’s milk. Suggestion: Drink a glass of one part non-fat whole milk and one part soy milk. Milk that is shelved in plastic containers generally loses its potassium as a result of exposure to fluorescent supermarket lighting. Thus, you re better off buying milk that is contained in cartons.

 

   Boiled or baked potatoes with skins is an excellent source of the amino acid tryptophan, which is the primary building block of the brain’s relaxation neurotransmitter serotonin. Sweet potatoes are also an excellent source of beta carotene (vitamin A). Potato skins are an excellent source of niacin, a necessary vitamin for the stabilization of the nervous system.

 

   Other natural sources of niacin are seafood, both finfish and shellfish. Tiny sardines contain not only niacin, but also Omega-3 fatty acids and calcium, all nutrients that are essential for maximum brain functioning. Wild salmon, rather than farm-bred salmon is a healthier choice of salmon. Fresh or steamed greens are an excellent source of vitamin A, and citrus fruit, oranges and grapefruit, are the best source of vitamin C.

 

   Poultry is also an excellent source of  tryptophan, niacin and other vitamins, although the white meat is preferable because it is significantly lower in saturated fat than the dark meat. However, limit your intake of poultry to 3 to 4 ounces. Use the poultry as a garnish in a salad or other dish, rather than as an entrée. Since all meats, seafood and poultry do not contain any fiber or carbohydrates, it is essential to  always include a side-dish vegetable. Without a carbohydrate, the tryptophan cannot reach the brain once it enters the body. Thus, a steak and NO potatoes diet is a prescription for trouble.

 

   Nuts, especially, cashews, are also high in tryptophan and other nutrients. However, nuts are also rich in fat and when salted can produced excessive weight gain. Use caution.

 

   Onions, garlic and peppers are not only an excellent source of vitamin C, but they are also a natural remedy for colds and allergies. A simple onion sandwich: one slice of onion placed between two slices of whole grain bread, is far better than any pharmaceutical drug. Onions, by the way, contain a mildly sedating ingredient, known as quercetin.

 

   Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, an essential ingredient for preventing heart disease and cancers. Lycopene is necessary for muscular regeneration of the heart muscle, as well as the prostate gland and other muscles of the body.

 

   Although legal, alcohol is not a health food for children or adults. It is a brain-disabling drug.  Alcohol also elevates blood pressure, which in turn puts an added strain on the kidneys, as well as the heart. And other internal organs.  Thus, anyone with a tendency toward high blood pressure would be wise to avoid alcoholic beverages altogether. Advertising that promotes alcoholic beverage use is deceptive. Keep that in mind.

 

   Alcoholic beverages also have a tendency to significantly lower testosterone levels in both males and females. Bear in mind that testosterone is the hormone that regulates the sex drive in both men and women. Testosterone also regulates the brain’s capacity for critical thinking. Interestingly, alcohol reduces testosterone levels in both men and women. At the same time, it decreases serotonin production, a primary cause of depression and insomnia. Alcohol use, even occasional or moderate alcohol use is not an intelligent choice.

 

   As for all the hype over red wine, it is the red grape, not the fermented red grape, that prevents clogging of the arteries and that resultantly promotes a healthy heart and a healthy circulation system.

 

   Distilled vinegar (preferably apple cider vinegar) helps to destroy salmonella bacteria. It’s also a good idea to briefly soak green leafy vegetables (lettuce, spinach, mustard or collard greens, etc.) in a little vinegar with water just prior to using in a salad. Mustard also contains vinegar, as does sauerkraut.

 

   As for caffeine, caffeine increases the brain’s production of dopamine and norepinephrine, a primary cause of schizophrenic and manic episodes. If used in moderation, caffeine can be a positive stimulate. However, caffeine, like alcohol, has a tendency to elevate blood pressure. Keep that in mind.

 

    Although some health faddists recommend limiting yourself to only one cup of coffee in the morning, and limiting yourself to a glass of red wine with a meal, it is my own recommendation to o avoid coffee altogether, as well as alcoholic beverages, including wine. It is also wise to avoid socializing with those who do consume alcoholic beverages. Such individuals an be a very unhealthy influence.

 

   The alcoholic beverage industry is very aggressive and creative in its marketing strategies – be it through magazine and newspaper advertising, television advertising, or on-line advertising – creating the false impression that alcoholic beverages are beneficial to good health – to being popular – to being sophisticated – to being athletic. Most athletic events are sponsored by alcoholic beverage manufacturers and distributors. The advertising is dangerously misleading. Keep that in mind. It is my observation that the most mentally gifted, the most physically fit, and most sophisticated people do not use alcoholic beverages.

 

   Suggestion: Say NO to all alcoholic beverages. Avoid becoming closely with people who habitually drink alcoholic beverages. They are, I have found, usually very troublesome people to be around.

 

   For a beverage, make yourself a fruit-vegetable drinks.  Fresh fruit is high in potassium – a plus. Make certain that your potassium intake exceeds your sodium intake. Read labels when purchasing beverages and other foods.

 

Blood Pressure

 

   Blood pressure can generally be stabilized through proper nutrition and moderate daily exercise. By taking potassium and magnesium supplements and avoiding alcoholic beverages and caffeine products, one can generally lower blood pressure to normal ranges – at virtually any age. The minimum daily requirement for potassium is 1,875 mgs. per 1,000 calories of food intake. For magnesium, the minimum daily requirement is 350 mgs. per 1,000 calories for men and 280 mgs. for women. Most people take in far less than the required minimum. Read food labels. Fresh orange juice is high in potassium, as is unsweetened grape juice. Also, consider using a salt substitute of one part sodium chloride and one or two parts potassium chloride for seasoning.

 

 Purchase a blood pressure monitor and test yourself on a daily basis

 

. You may ultimately discover that you don’t need prescription drugs in order to treat psychiatric problems OR hypertension. You’ll no doubt be better off by treating your nervous system, as well as your cardio-vascular system, through the implementation of sound nutrition practices and regular exercise. Recommended reference: The Encyclopedia of Nutrition & Good Health by Robert A. Ronzio, Ph.D.

 

Exercise

 

   Daily walking and the body movement involved in performing routine chores is sufficient exercise not only for maintaining supple muscles, but also for brain circulation. However, bicycling is an excellent form of exercise. It stimulates blood flow to the brain and is one of the best methods for stabilizing the brain and the cardiovascular system. Mental exercise is equally important: working puzzles, playing games, reading, writing, drawing, assembling, etc.

 

 

Transcendental Meditation

 

   Transcendental meditation, a method of taking your mind off unpleasant thoughts, involves (1) closing your eyes; (2) totally relaxing your body and mind, preferably in a quiet place where you are alone, so that even your respiration processes are reduced to a minimum (no deep breathing); (3) refraining from talking; (4) and (with your eyes still closed) focusing only on pleasant fantasies, you thus open up your unconscious, intuitive (right brain) processes.

 

   Suggestions: (1) dim the lighting around you; (2) if you desire music as a background, select low-volume music created by stringed instruments (classical guitar, piano). It is wise to avoid rock and roll music, as well as rap music.

 

   Practice subduing your passions by avoiding idle chat, by speaking only when necessary and by avoiding the use of harsh words that are likely to offend others. Remember, when you say and do things that offend others, those significant others are likely to respond to you in a similar manner. You yourself can, however, save yourself added emotional turmoil by politely avoiding responding to the offensive behavior of others. Learn to politely walk away from such individuals or situations.

 

The Creative Process

 

   The creative process*, which was outlined by G. Wallas in a book titled The Art of Thought (1949), and later outlined by Thomas R. Blakeslee in The Right Brain, involves four stages: preparation, incubation, illumination and verification.

 

   The preparation stage consists of gathering relevant information and narrowing the focus until the obstacles are visible.

 

   The incubation stage is that in which the unconscious processes of the mind seem to work on the problem. This process involves occasionally thinking about the problem, with no pressure for a solution. (Note: The pressures involved in competition and in meeting deadlines can actually hinder the creative process)

 

   The illumination stage evolves either spontaneously or as a result of conscious effort. In this stage, intuition and insight produce solutions to the problem.

 

   The verification stage, the final stage, is that in which one’s intuitive solutions are logically tested for validity, then organized and elaborated into a finished solution.

 

   Effective thinkers learn to interweave the four stages of thought so that while one problem is in the preparation stage, another can be “stewing” in the incubation stage. The first and last stages of the creative process are well-defined left-brain tasks that we learn to do in school. The middle two stages are not so easy because they really involve unconscious processes. If one can just learn to let the left brain do other work or stand aside during these stages, the right brain will often fill the gap.

 

   The idea is to be aware of the problem and to be open to an intuitive solution. Creative people learn to trust their intuition at this stage and let the ideas flow.

 

   Sketching and diagramming thoughts and other nonverbal thinking aids can help disengage verbal thinking. By using nonverbal thinking to generate ideas and verbal thinking to verify them, one can improve creativity. Since each kind of thinking has its own strengths and weaknesses,  the idea is to use the appropriate one for the task at hand.

 

   French poet Paul Verlaine wrote: “It takes two to invent anything. One makes up combinations; the other one chooses …”  This synergistic relationship between the left and right brains is the real basis of creativity.*

 

Note: In some individuals the left brain and right brain are believed to be biologically reversed. Indication of this is presumed to be evident in the case of a left-handed individual who does not write or draw with an inverted hand, and the right-handed individual who does write or draw with an inverted hand.*

 

 *Blakeslee, Thomas R. 1983. The Right Brain, pp. 49-51. Berkley Books, New York.

 

 

Suggested further reading:

 

Biology and Schizophrenia: Examining the Evidence by Thomas Blaise Shepherd. Shepherd-Xandex Press. 2010.

 

Blaming the Brain: The Truth About Drugs and Mental Health by Elliot Valenstein. Free Press. 1988.  

 

Cruel Compassion: Psychiatric Control of Society’s Unwanted by Thomas Szasz.

 

Doctor Yourself: Natural Healing That Works by Andrew Saul, Ph.D. Basic Health Publications. 2003.    www.doctoryourself.com

 

The Die Song – the story of serial killer Herbert Mullin – remarkably well written  by Donald T. Lunde and Jefferson Morgan. Norton Press. 1980. RECOMMENDED READING.

 

Interpretation of Schizophrenia by Silvano Arieti, M. D. (winner of the National Book Award for Science)

 

The Myth of Psychotherapy by Thomas Szasz. Syracuse Press. 1988.

 

The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness by R. D. Laing. Penguin Books. 1969.  More on R. D. Laing

 

The Natural Medicine Guide to Schizophrenia by Stephanie Marohn. 2003.

 

The Politics of Experience by R. D. Laing. 1967. 1975.

 

Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia by Bertram P. Karon & Gary R. VandenBos. 2004 edition

 

The Right Brain by Thomas R. Blakeslee. Berkley. 1983

 

Toxic Psychiatry by Peter Breggin.  St. Martin’s Press. New York. 1991.

 

Transcendentalism: a lecture read to members of the Masonic Temple (Boston) by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1842

 

Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill by Robert Whitaker. Perseus. 2002

 

Understanding and Helping the Schizophrenic: A Guide for Family and Friends by Silvano Arieti, M. D.

 

Weaving the Web of Schizophrenia by Tom Blaise de Shepherd. 2006.

 

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Love and sanity I believe to be the product of a healthy imagination

 

Tom Blaise Shepherd

 

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