UNMedicated

“If you talk to God, you are praying;
If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia” Thomas Szasz

The word ‘disease’ has to do with a condition affecting living organisms, (plants, animals and humans)  that impairs normal functioning and has distinguishing signs and symptoms.  To qualify as a  true disease, the ability to be measured or tested in a scientific method must be present.

A  ’mental illness’ on the other hand refers to thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are undesirable.

When faced with  distinguishing everyday problems in living from a  bodily disease, physicians,  politicians, health insurance providers, and legal professionals,  systematically set out to control those who strayed from societal norms and created a new specialization ….psychiatry.

It wasn’t that long ago that these behaviors were classified as diseases….

* black slaves who ran away to freedom suffered from ‘drapetomania’
* women who rebelled against being controlled by men suffered from ‘hysteria’
* until a few years ago, men and women who engaged in sexual acts with members of their own sex suffered from the dreaded disease of ‘homosexuality’

And least we forget that psychiatry’s two favorite mental illnesses at one time were  masturbatory insanity and homosexuality!

Of course, none of these behaviors are diseases.

Nor is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder a disease.

Labeling a child as mentally ill is a stigmatization, not a  diagnosis.  Giving a child a psychiatric drug is a poisoning,  not a treatment.

Mental illnesses are  labels for disapproved thoughts, feelings and behaviors,  used to stigmatize people who offend or disturb us.  Mental illness isn’t a disease to be covered up..it’s a behavior with roots to be dug up and examined.

Classifying behaviors as illnesses allows members of an Association to vote into existence specific terminology that makes conflicts in human behavior and relations more acceptable.  There is a scary collaboration going on between government and psychiatry which provides pseudo-medical treatment as a justification for government and state-sponsored social control to repress or ‘cure’ disapproved thoughts, emotions, and actions.

In this therapeutic state, a psychiatrist can diagnose someone with views  s/he disagrees with as being mentally ill.  The alleged patient now suffers from ‘delusions’ and can be controlled in a drug-induced disability.

Categorizing  illegal drug use, smoking, overeating, gambling, shoplifting, sexual promiscuity, shyness, anxiety, unhappiness, racial bigotry, unconventional religious beliefs, and suicide as diseases or symptoms of diseases, undermines an individuals responsibility.   The human experience with all its agonies, is a story to be told, and should be respected for the truths it reveals about the individual, family and our society.

Having a brain disease does not cause criminal acts.  If someone commits a crime, that person should be punished, not treated as mentally ill and relieved of criminal responsibility.  If he has not violated anyone’s rights, he should be left alone, no matter how bizarre his behavior.

We are shaped by success and failure, pain and pleasure.   The insanity of normal deprives us of imagination and creativity.  Giving away our power is the ultimate pain.

Remember, the people  who are crazy enough to think they can change the world..are the ones who do.