Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter # 235
New Psychiatric Survivor Group in Denver, CO: Otherwise Specified
http://www.otherwisespecified.org
Message from the founder:
http://www.otherwisespecified.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=7
Aubrey Ellen Shomo
Biography
aubrey%40otherwisespecified.org">aubrey
otherwisespecified.org
I am a twenty-one-year-old psychiatric survivor. I found my way into the
system at eight, by way of a child psychiatric hospital unit. Deemed to have
a chronic psychotic disorder, I would remain a mental patient for eight
years.
During that time, I was hospitalized seven times, all but the first two
against my will, treated with numerous medications, and diagnosed with
everything from Schizoaffective Disorder or Psychotic Bipolar Disorder
through emerging cluster B personality pathology. My most painful memories
are of being held down by five men in a seclusion room.
I left the system at 16, when I was old enough to fire my psychiatrist. The
last line in my chart is the conclusion that I was not certifiable at that
time. I am grateful my state does not have IOC.
I have now been off all psychoactive medications for four years and, aside
from the traumatic aftermath of my hospital experiences, I have a clean bill
of mental health.
Politically, I am quite anti-psychiatry. I believe all involuntary treatment
is unequivocally wrong, even if there are people who appreciate it
afterward. I feel that the violation of people (and their rights) inherent
in involuntary treatment cannot be overcome by the people it is said to
help. In a free and enlightened society, we do not tolerate harming a
minority, even if it benefits others.
I don't know how my life could have been made easier while I was a patient,
but I know that those treating me did not know what harm they were doing.
They couldn't understand the invalidation, the horrible effects of the drugs
on my ability to think and feel, or that I was genuinely traumatized by my
experiences of being bodily forced to comply.
When I tired to explain the harm that I felt, I was ignored. I was told I
lacked insight, or that I needed to take responsibility for my own
behaviors. The truth is that I did need to take responsibility, but that
didn't change a single thing about the harm. When they refused to
acknowledge the harm and the pain I felt, I refused to admit my problems.
That led to an impasse.
Most of the issues I faced later in my time as a patient - those that had me
deemed to be developing personality disorders - were reinforced, if not
caused, by the mental health system. In the end, though, I was lucky. I left
it and did well. Many others are not so lucky.
I am currently editing a book with Gareth Fenley about Psychiatric Harm.
That book's website is http://www.psychiatricharm.com.
I want mental health providers to understand that they can - and all too
often do - cause harm. I believe they don't intend to and, as healers, do
not want to believe they do. Only by recognizing that they do will they be
able to help some of those patients who become chronically stuck in the
system.
At this point in my life, I live in Denver, Colorado, and am employed as a
network engineer. I have friends, a social life, and hobbies. I am a writer,
activist, and dreamer. I never intend to return to being a patient.
.