Today is my 500th blog post, and I was planning to mark this auspicious occasion by being statesmanlike and uplifting. However, real life intervenes and there is always some article or e-mail that cries out for my critical comments. Two have come my way, one from the New York Times and one from my perennial source of schizophrenia disinformation, namely NAMI.
The New York Times article on anorexia nervosa prompts me to bang on about the way schizophrenia is seen as a “special case” in our Western society, apparently way different than anoxeria nervosa, which appears to have family causes. The article refers to anorexia nervosa a “mental illness” and discusses it entirely in terms of community and family pressures. No mention of medication in this article.
As a teenager, Naomi Feigenbaum developed bizarre eating habits that had nothing to do with Jewish dietary laws………………….Young Orthodox women are also expected to conform to a rigorous code of conduct, with few outlets for rebellion. They are expected to be chaste until marriage and do not date until they start looking for a husband. Even gossip is considered a sin.
Your child and mine started having equally bizarre habits when they were teenagers or in their twenties, which I fully suspect is rebellion, but apparently schizophrenia is impervious to the kind of psychological understanding that this article promotes.
Then there’s NAMI, always quick to inject the need to medicate and oblivious to the fact that the medications your doctor gives you are prescription drugs and they are addictive. I couldn’t dream this stuff up if I tried. I’m so glad NAMI is there to reassure stupid, hysterical mothers.
The following is an account from a NAMI Helpline associate:
“I spoke with a person this morning who was crying because her 26-year-old child with mental illness had been in and out of hospitals and was refusing to take her medications, but also had a prescription drug addiction.
I let her talk for a while and when she calmed down, I told her about NAMI progams and support available in her local community. I also shared support options to help with addiction issues.
By the time we got off the phone, she stopped crying and thanked me, saying that she was so grateful that I listened and that she had learned so much about the various support options available to her.”
Wow.
Rossa, you were pretty tough on NAMI with this post…
Wow.
Tell us all how you feel about NAMI, Rossa… would you?
Oh, wow!
Maybe I’ve met my match when it comes to bashing NAMI!
There is such a “group-think” with the NAMI crowd…
It reminds me of a quote –
“If everyone is thinking the same thing, then somebody isn’t thinking.” – George S. Patton
NAMI.
I’m not sure I’m ready to join NAMI just yet… Actually, I’m pretty certain NAMI wouldn’t want to have me as a member!
Which reminds me of another quote –
“I’m not sure I would want to join a club that would have me as a member.” – Yogi Berra
Ha!
Duane Sherry
P.S. – Friends don’t let friends join NAMI.
Duane,
I think you missed a post or two along the way. I have been criticizing NAMI all along. I joined NAMI years ago and quickly decided that I did not go along with its view that schizophrenia is a brain disease. I think NAMI is a close friend of pharma. I only know NAMI through its website. One day I got the bright idea to get their e-newsletter so I could penetrate the belly of the beast. It’s a rich source of material for my blog. I’ve had the sense that you have been taking my NAMI posts at face value, so now you know that’s not the idea at all. NAMI extracts are here so my blog readers know what the organization is up to, and, if I can have some fun at its expense, all the better.
…Rossa
P.S. I should have said “NAMI extracts are here so my blog readers know what DASTARDLY things the organization is up to”
Look at this!!!
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/04/06/frightening-story-behind-the-drug-companies-creation-of-medical-lobotomies.aspx
Interesting. I’ve been watching it all day. Is this doc Brazilian? Was the program originally shown there or Portugal I wonder. I do hope that at the end, there is not some reference to http://www.cchr.org (Scientology)!
Good detail at any rate.
B’ham
And >facepalm< Scientology it was.
B’ham
Rossa,
Yes, I’ve read some of the “dastardly” exerpts from the NAMI literature (propaganda) that you cite on this blog.
Not sure why this post hit me like a ton of bricks, when there are been plenty of others…
Maybe it was the timing…
Sometimes, I feel all-alone, wondering if anybody else notices the obvious… namely, that NAMI is the right-hand of Pharma.
Thanks for all the information you give your readers.
Duane Sherry