In a new article, mental health nurse Timothy Wand argues for conservative use of psychiatric drugs, for advising patients of the risks of the drugs, and for informing patients there is no known biological cause for “mental illness.”
He suggests that mental health nursing has a key role to play in helping people discontinue the drugs.
“With the knowledge that there is no clear or direct neuro-biogenic cause for mental illness or identifiable disease process, the indication is that psychotropic drugs provide no more than a crude form of chemical restraint,” Wand writes.
He adds, “While this may have appeal for blunting mental distress, the long-term trade-off for the adverse effect burden and consequences when trying to discontinue these agents needs to be considered by clinicians and openly discussed with people in their care.”
“If psychotropic drugs are prescribed then the overriding principle is that they should be used conservatively, at the lowest dose and for the shortest time possible,” he writes.
Wand is a full professor at the University of Wollongong, Australia. The article was published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing.
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The first “mind altering drug” I was prescribed, was Depekote – under the idea that it would prevent the hormonal migraine (in perimenopause) that I experienced everyday for 12 years (disappearing when I passed through “the change” – just as my mom’s had). I was very distressed. How was I to work with a migraine everyday? How was I going to feed myself, if I couldn’t work? A perimenopausal woman with a headache (cliche) must be crazy (bipolar). I was fed the notion that Depakote would treat both the headache and “the crazy”. The notion was of “kindling”, as in epilepsy (I have no idea if anyone believes this nonsense anymore – that was 25 years ago).
I read the FDA handout that came with the drug, and what stood out to me was they had no idea how this drug worked. I asked “What does this drug do to people that don’t have the brain disease Bipolar?” I was told “Nothing. They don’t have the brain disease. The drug does nothing to them.”
The drug scrambled my cognitive abilities. I couldn’t think my way out of a box. I still had the headache. What followed was the cascade of pills and “mixed states”, all to familiar to anyone who believes these quacks.
My brain is not a chemistry set for white coats to experiment on!
But I did learn the lesson. “They” don’t know!
We know lots more, now. Stop harming people!
I did ask. I was not informed. I was told “a story”.
The headache has been gone 20 years. The bipolar diagnosis lives on in an EHR.
What a pile of do-do!
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I agree, the psychiatric nurses should “establish and lead psychotropic drug deprescribing and discontinuation services.” One of my good friends is a retired nurse, who is now highly embarrassed by today’s medical community.
And it was, largely ethical nurses, who worked to save me, many thanks to them.
And the systemic betrayal of today’s psychiatric industry, of their “clients,” is appalling (see my last comment on this website, for the medical evidence of this comment).
Stand tall, and take control, nurses … the doctors have lost their way, due to their seemingly insatiable greed, and the insatiable greed of big Pharma and the insurance industries.
Maybe we should move back to a time where the doctors are actually working for their patients, instead of working for big Pharma, their hospital managers, and/or the insurance companies?
But we do need the nurses to stand up, and stop the systemic iatrogenic harm the psychiatrists are perpetuating. And I am grateful for the ethical nurses who helped me.
And, sadly, I do agree, “‘Psychiatric Drugs’ are ‘A Crude Form of Chemical Restraint.'” For goodness, sakes, the psychological and psychiatric industries have turned themselves into a bunch of systemic child abuse covering up satanists (again, see prior comments on this website for medical evidence of my legitimate concerns), of which I, of course, have both medical and legal proof.
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Psychiatric drugs are a crude form of chemical restaint FOR FUCKING WHAT??? This kind of stuff that follows – a psychotic who let the psychosis flower rather then repressed it with drugs and therefore became sane. But will you ever make sense of this sanity or will you see it as insane? Let your intelligence be the judge but if it’s wrong it will derail you into an illusory i.e. judgemental response, which is your funeral flower coffins…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfNMD9PwDQg
Human beings are flowers, and if we see a wilted and damaged flower we never talk of their worthlessness or low self-esteem. All human beings are flowers, some damaged, some thriving, but all are each other, not the listless damage of socio-economic machines.
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This is as concise and accurate a statement of the current situation as I’ve seen. Of course there’s an assumption here that the patients in question who are supposed to be being ‘informed’ so they can consent are in any way autonomous in the process. If you’re like me that was likely not the case and then the question becomes who is doing the chemical restraining and is being chemically controlled by someone else a long term solution to anyone’s issues? If the question addressed on the surface here is situated in the context of that larger question you’d really be getting somewhere.
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If we found the cure to death this would be the biggest catastrophe humanity has ever known. Today human mortality is the only crack that let’s the light through. All parents out there ought to be honest with their kids and tell them they have no future in this decaying and corrupt society. Vanishingly few people on Earth know a life that is natural and is free of tyranny, i.e. that are sustainable rather then destructive and if universal would make a human future possible. NO-ONE HAS A FUTURE IN THIS SOCIETY. Once you recognize this and accept this we can finally begin to move, and socially that means into destruction mode. We all see that for the Earth to survive, let alone humanity, most of the 8 billion socially conditioned greed machines presently destroying the Earth must die, but the most violent and greedy should not be the ones who survive even though they are the ones who would seek to do so at all cost. See our problem?
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“Similarly, the Mayo Clinic (Citation2024) website affirms that when brain chemicals are impaired, the function of nerve receptors change, leading to depression and other “emotional disorders”. ”
I read the article. Yes, that part is very true. When brain chemicals are disrupted, the function of nerve receptors changes (leading to depression and other emotional disorders.) So, brain chemistry disorder causes ‘mental illnesses’.
In psychiatric drugs cause exactly this. Psychiatric medications are (manufactured and) given to patients under the pretext of correcting this ‘chemical imbalance’, but they do not work. On the contrary, psychiatric medications create this chemical imbalance and cause mental illness. Psychiatric medications don’t work.
Because mental illnesses are not something that happens in the brain. Mental illnesses, which occur as a result of the disruption of the brain’s ‘chemical imbalance’, are something that is solely related to the soul (i.e. spiritual). The concept we call ‘mental illness’ is not a concept that concerns the brain and/or body. Mental illness is a concept that concerns the human soul.
There is a ‘chemical and electrical (in terms of energy) connection between the brain receptors and the soul. Brain receptors receive a kind of life energy from ‘brain chemistry’. Brain receptors are dependent on brain chemistry. The main task of both of these is to keep the ‘human body’ physically healthy. From a mental perspective, this is something that only concerns the soul (the human soul).
The soul uses ‘brain receptors’ (and therefore brain chemistry) to perform the physical and mental functions of the human body, ‘such as moving, talking, walking, thinking, etc.’ We call these functions ’emotional characteristics of the soul’. So.. These functions are the transformation of the soul’s emotional characteristics into human form.
The soul gives ‘life’ to the human body by giving its energy. The soul uses the human body to convey its emotional characteristics to the outside. It undertakes the task of performing the physical and mental functions of the human body. For this, it uses the brain (brain chemistry and receptors). In other words, the soul controls the brain. In this way, the soul, using the brain, transfers its own emotional characteristics to the human body. It makes the human body do whatever it wants.
“The basic rule here is; while the soul controls the brain, the brain controls the human body.” How it’s such a futuristic situation, isn’t it? Beware of! Be careful! Psychiatry may look at these as conspiracy theories.. 🙁 Anyway, let’s continue..
The human body uses brain chemistry and receptors to perform physical and mental functions such as speaking, moving and thinking. But he can’t do these things alone. Or rather, he can’t. In order to do these things, it needs a ‘mind’ and an ‘energy’. There is neither mind nor energy in the human body and brain. Neither of these exists. Both of these exist only in the human being’s own soul.
Mind and energy are something that only exists in the soul. The soul uses its mind (intelligence) and energy to revive the human body and perform its functions. The soul, by controlling the brain, activates the human body. There is a neural network between brain chemistry and the body. This neural network carries messages (commands) from the brain to the nerves of the body.
So.. The soul controls the chemical processes of the human brain in order to transform its emotional characteristics into human form. The soul transforms the messages (commands) belonging to that feature into electrical signals, whichever emotional feature it wants to transfer to external form. These signals are transferred to the body nerves via the brain nerves. This happens in a fraction of a second. When the body nerves receive these signals, they activate the body according to the incoming commands.
For example.. If the message contains the ‘talk’ signal (command), the mouth and jaw muscles start moving and the speech form occurs. If the message contains the ‘walk’ signal (command), the foot and leg muscles start moving and the walking form occurs. Of course, these things don’t happen that simply. They happen in a very complicated way.
Anyway.. In short.. The relationship between brain receptors (and brain chemistry) is pretty much like this. So… The concept we call mental illnesses actually consists of the inability to transfer ‘the soul’s own emotional characteristics’ to the outside (physical environment) in a healthy way. When the chemistry of the human brain is disrupted, the functional properties of brain receptors are also disrupted.
Since the brain controls the body, the soul has no influence on the body. The brain does not control the body alone. It does this with the ‘energy of the soul’ and ‘mind (intelligence) of the soul’ that gives it life.
Let’s repeat… Neither the brain nor the human body has any mind or energy. Mind and energy are something that only exists in the soul. If the brain does these things on its own… When the soul leaves the human body (i.e. when death occurs), the brain must perform these physical and mental functions. But he can’t do that. He can’t do that anyway. When the soul is separated from the body, the human body is doomed to decay.
As a final word.. Psychiatric medications do not correct chemical imbalances in the brain, on the contrary, they create them. The only thing that can fix brain chemistry is non-drug treatments and behavioral methods. This truth has been a truth that has continued throughout human history for centuries. No chemical can or will correct the chemistry of the human brain. All of these have been tried. All kinds of chemicals disrupt brain chemistry and brain health. They cause mental illness. What more can we say? There is nothing left to say. Point.. Kind regards..
With my sincerest wishes. 🙂 Y. E. (Researcher blog writer (Blogger))
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Mental health nurse Timothy Wand argues that diagnoses are socially constructed tools that are used to inappropriately prescribe drugs to individuals. Therefore, psychiatric medications are dispensed primarily to sustain the profits of pharmaceutical companies and prescribers. Given this perspective, one might wonder why he doesn’t advocate for the abolition of psychiatry altogether instead of recommending a more conservative approach to prescribing psychiatric drugs.
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The two times I went into the ‘psych ward’ or ‘behavioral health inpatient unit’ as an adult were markedly different for two reasons- the first time, I was eager to take medication. The second time, I was wary to take medication.
Both hospitalizations were very clearly brought on by life stressors, and by my relationship with my husband who always put an inordinate amount of pressure on me to remain at jobs that I couldn’t stand. I have been working in social work/ social services and have hated this career choice for years but have not been able to find any lateral career changes to leave the sector. Both hospitalizations were when I got to the point that the worker exploitation and toxic work environment at my job reached a point that I quit in frustration, and my husband was furious that I had. Both times I went to the inpatient unit because it was the only way I could get away from him, as I didn’t have any close friends or family I could stay with (my parents were, frankly, worse than him). The second time, on top of that, we had a young daughter, and the level of stress of caring for a baby on top of working full time was making me justifiably crazy, as many mothers in America can attest to. So, pretty super obvious environmental causes for my emotional distress. Not that any of the staff at the inpatient facility seemed to care or address these issues.
It was astonishing to me during my second hospitalization, the way I was treated for refusing medication. Almost every staff I interacted with – the psychiatric nurse practitioner who was assigned to me, the mental health technicians, the nurses, had a reaction of serious concern and alarm, and it was clear they were reading my ‘med refusal’ as a ‘sign of my mental illness’ and ‘treatment resistance’ and ‘unwillingness to get well’. I was treated like a misbehaving child who was not doing a good enough job of being sorry/ taking accountability. I tried not to get into a ‘global’ discussion of whether the medication was even effective for anyone (seemed overly antagonistic, when everyone else on my ward was taking several psych meds), and simply stated to the staff that I was going through life stressors that I needed to get away from, and did not feel like being medicated through them was what I needed right now.
At one point at one of my absurdly brief five minute sessions with my assigned psychiatric nurse practitioner, we discussed my discharge date, and he somewhat disdainfully referred to me not taking medication and said ‘I don’t even know what you’re getting out of being here anyway’. The implication was that the only reason for someone to stay in the psych ward was to be doped up with psych meds and monitored on them for a measly week, maybe two weeks tops. I mentioned that the most helpful thing was being able to spend time with and talk to the other patients on my ward, who were also struggling with life stressors. ‘oh, the milieu’ he said, using a clinical term for the unstructured social environment of residential treatment.
I had, actually, agreed to take wellbutrin on my first day there- I had taken it briefly for maybe eight months, about a year after my daughter was born. After one day of it in the psych ward, I felt more jittery and anxious than I had been before I took it, and said I was not going to take it any more. Rather than respect this decision, the nurses and techs all acted alarmed and concerned. “You haven’t even given it a chance to start working!” they said. “It hasn’t even gotten into your system- if you feel anxious that’s just your brain, NEEDING the medication”
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