“You will have to take the drugs for the rest of your life” – this is the comment said to Elizabeth by two consultant psychiatrists who I feel like naming.
Now there is the debate coming up shortly of the Institute of Psychiatry (Maudsley Debates) below and it is at last being recognised that the drugs can do more harm than good. So, I hope that I will get the chance to speak at this debate or better still my younger daughter is happy to get up and speak on behalf of her sister who has been classed as a case of no hope yet I am about to prove otherwise to everyone. Elizabeth’s sister has been diagnosed as having Schizophrenia as a child – can anyone explain why my younger daughter is on “top of the world” – well I put it down to the fact that I managed to successfully get her off the poisonous chemical – Risperidone given to her locally by a child consultant psychiatrist. It was not easy to get her off either- the drug made her more anxious than I’d ever seen before and caused enormous weight gain. From seeing this, I became very much against the prescribing of drugs to children in fact not only to children but also to the elderly such as my father with Alzheimers and anyone in fact. These drugs are not easy to come off and there is no help whatsoever and if someone tries to take themselves off these drugs instead of a doctor correctly recognising withdrawal symptoms they give a label and say there is a mental health problem so someone can easily be misdiagnosed like Elizabeth has been. With no school to go to locally due to problems I wont go into here, I searched for a good school in another area and it is thanks to the school SusieEarnshaw Theatre School that my daughter is on top of the world. Thank you so much.
With a father who had Alzheimers going downhill over a ten year period, that took up a good deal of my time to point it practically took over my life – suddenly I had other caring responsibilities for my younger daughter but I was determined not to put my father into a care home as this would have been against his wishes. I wish I had questioned to begin with the drugs given to my elderly father, instead of trusting the doctors -how I wish I had looked into this thoroughly. I would urge anyone that has elderly parents not to just place their trust in these doctors but to look up the drugs themselves and to question matters – why put someone elderly on anti-psychotics. My father was a placid man, this changed him into someone who could have mood swings – bouts of aggression like never before which of course doctors never associate with the drugs given but put down to symptoms of illness – this is rubbish. I now recognise the “symptoms” in both my father’s case and my elder daughter’s case as caused directly by the drugs themselves. The drugs caused my father to have a heart attack and were giving him no benefit whatsoever, just like the drug Clozapine is giving my elder daughter Elizabeth no benefit. The drug Aricept “worked” in preserving my father’s ability to prolong a better state of life but when this was withdrawn my father went downhill rapidly and ended up in a wheelchair. Never once did I wish to give up and put him into a home – constantly various staff members would say to me “why don’t you put your father into a home – he is taking over your life” – well I did not see it like this at all. Yes there were many sacrifices – I was working part time – I could not go far on holiday or even consider going abroad. There were many problems when my father went into respite and staff would contact me as they could not always cope. On one occasion he went missing and somehow found his way back to his old home that was miles away. Now the doctors have ruined Elizabeth’s physical health and I want something done about that, not just a debate – they do not care less – what would they do if this was one of their relatives? – would they give the maximum of drugs if it was one of their relatives? I can clearly see that Elizabeth is just a number to them – one more case of their enormous workload of MH patients left on long term drugging, prescribed drugs at the maximum levels and the care is not working and why – because emotional issues are not being addressed at all as described perfectly in the book Emotional Health by Dr Bob Johnson. They want to drug Elizabeth for the rest of her life yet are ignoring serious physical conditions that I have seen in the files recently acquired and proven further by having private endocrinology tests done. They are supposed to do no harm and are protected by the law so when things go wrong who is going to find out if someone is in such a hospital where visits are restricted and so is contact with family. Police and social services just back them to the hilt but I respect those who are against the system but understand how they just go along with it all because otherwise their jobs would be at risk. I personally would take the opposite course as I could not go along with anything that was not right. An example of professionals not caring less – a Neurologist at Queen’s Square said “optimise the drugs” -surely a decent doctor would not wish to optimise the drugs, causing harm to the patient’s physical health but I can prove the harm they are causing and who is responsible for this. The law protects them – the law is not helping people like my daughter. I wish I could say more here but I will in due course. So the Professionals that do care are afraid to speak out as it is more than their job is worth. Well I am not afraid to speak out against this kind of abuse.
I have just been invited to the Legalex Exhibition but this is on the same day as the debate for institute of Psychiatry – I do not know if I can get along to this but I have had the most shocking experience of solicitors and their handling of my daughter’s cases involving court- I might just contact the organisers of this event – I am far from happy by the way my daughter has been treated by the legal profession. If there was anyone that can help me at this wonderful Exhibition I would be happy to attend with Elizabeth and her sister.
If any of you that follow me on Twitter are attending the Institute of Psychiatry Maudsley Debates I would be most happy to meet you and introduce my two daughters and all the other mothers.
52nd Maudsley Debate: More harm than good?
- Location
- Denmark Hill Campus, Institute of Psychiatry (Main Building)
- Category
- Public Talk
- When
- 13/05/2015 (17:30-19:00)
- Contact
- nikki.whitelock@kcl.ac.uk
- Description
-
This house believes that the long term use of psychiatric medications is causing more harm than good. And the House I hope is going to do the voting fairly this time and count votes properly from those in the overflow room.
This event and the waiting list are fully booked. To receive details of future events please join the mailing list.
Chair: Professor Til Wykes, Professor of Clinical Psychology & Rehabilitation and Vice-Dean, Psychology & Systems Sciences, IoPPN
ForProfessor Sami Timimi, Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist; Director of Postgraduate Education, NHS Lincolnshire; Visiting Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, University of LincolnProfessor Peter Gøtzsche, Director, The Nordic Cochrane Centre, DenmarkAgainstProfessor Allan Young, Professor of Mood Disorders, IoPPN )Mr John Crace, Journalist, The Guardian ) I am looking forward to showing you evidence and for you to hear from my daughters directlyProgramme17.30–18.00: Refreshments18.00–19.15: Debate19.15–20.30: Reception