The “off-meds” hysteria

A cause worth promoting is to decouple the idea that people with a label of schizophrenia are, by definition, dangerous when off meds. Stephany of Soulful Selpulcher relates the story of how differently her daughter was treated by authorities when she somehow lost the label “schizophrenic.” In the first instance, her twenty-one year old daughter was slammed face down into the dirt by the police because word got out she was a schizophrenic “off meds.” An over-reaction worthy of the best horror films ensued. It’s the “off meds” part here that causes the violent reaction. OMG – they’re off meds! Nuke-em! When, on a different occasion, the same young woman was reported “mute and autistic,” she was treated with respect.

Remember the hunger strike that MindFreedom went on back in 2003 to try to force the American Psychiatric Association to produce actual scientific evidence backing the reason why only the medical theory of ‘chemical imbalances’ predominates when it comes to mental illnesses. (No evidence was produced.)

How about a bunch of people getting together to go down and picket the American Psychiatric Association, the offices of E. Fuller Torrey, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), most government funded health organizations and other proponents of the idea that people off meds need to be back on them? Not just any bunch of people but a bunch of people who got the label SZ and are fully capable of functioning off their meds. They can hold up signs saying “I’m off meds. What are you going to do about it?” Or, “I’m off meds. What next?” or “Off meds doesn’t mean off my rocker.” How about “Off meds – Back off!”