Through stigmatising labels, unscientific diagnoses, easy seizure and commitment laws and brutal, depersonalising treatments, millions around the world fall into psychiatry’s coercive system each year. It is a system that epitomizes human rights abuse.
Too many individuals and their governments assume that psychiatrists understand and practice mental healing. The reality is that what psychiatrists do bears no resemblance to help.
Basic Criteria for Real Mental Health
Consider the following basic criteria for the creation of real mental health:
- Effective mental healing technology and treatments which improve and strengthen individuals and thereby society, by restoring individuals to personal strength, ability, competence, confidence, stability, responsibility and spiritual wellbeing.
- Highly trained, ethical practicioners who are committed primarily to their patient’s and their patient’s family’s well-being and who can and do deliver what they promise.
- Mental healing delivered in a calm atmosphere characterised by tolerance, safety, security and respect for people’s rights.
An involuntary patient has fewer rights and less legal protection than a common criminal, even though he or she has usually broken no laws. Every minute another person is forced into a psychiatric facility to undergo brutal and unworkable treatment they do not want. Psychiatrists order parents to put their children on a mind-altering drug which constitutes child abuse. One-year-olds are now being prescribed psychiatric drugs. Six-year-olds have been restrained and killed in institutions without any criminal culpability. Electroshock assaults women and kills the elderly. Psychiatric patients are made submissive and emotionless – no joys, no sorrows, just obedient and manageable.
Do No Harm
The first option is not an option but a standing rule: Do no harm. That means not subjecting any person to brutal psychiatric treatments. These “treatments” are designed to control the individual, their behavior and their unwanted emotions, not to cure anything. And force is often used to accomplish this, in the form of harmful psychotropic drugs and other destructive practices. The result is physical and mental damage to the individual who is then less able to deal with the situations he sought to solve, and the situation worsens.
Most mental difficulties are caused by underlying physical illness which should be addressed with medical, not psychiatric, treatment. Article 3 of CCHR’s Mental Health Declaration of Human Rights states that all persons should have “the right to a thorough physical and clinical examination by a competent registered general practitioner of one’s choice, to ensure that one’s mental condition is not caused by any undetected and untreated physical illness, injury or defect, and the right to seek a second medical opinion of one’s choice.”
Focus on Workability
Because most psychiatric treatment includes the prescribing of psychotropic drugs, and non-drug options are rarely offered to patients, true informed consent is rare. Alternative options are buried by the marketing hype that “mental illness” is the result of some neurobiological dysfunction or chemical imbalance that can only be corrected with psychotropic drugs. There is no scientific merit to these claims, but they support drug sales of more than $27 billion a year in the United States and $80 billion worldwide.
How to Help Someone Manifesting “Psychiatric” Symptoms
No one denies that people have problems in their lives and that they can become mentally unstable, even psychotic. However mental healing methods should result in recovered individuals.
And workable healing methods do exist.

The first action to undertake with someone manifesting “psychiatric” symptoms is a full and searching medical examination.
Dr Sydney Walker III, a neurologist and psychiatrist wrote: “The moral is that very little is undiagnosable, but much is not being diagnosed.”
The California Department of Mental Health Medical Evaluation Field Manual – which the Citizens Commission on Human Rights assisted in introducing – states: “Mental health professionals working within a mental health system have a professional and a legal obligation to recognize the presence of physical disease in their patients … Physical diseases may cause a patient’s mental disorder [or] may worsen a mental disorder …”
Real Medical Problems can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as Mental Disorders
Real medical problems can produce symptoms which psychiatrists label as invented mental disorders such as ADHD, Depression, Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia.
There are many real and treatable medical, nutritional and dietary conditions that can produce such symptoms. The following is a small sample to illustrate this fact:
- Food Additive Sensitivity
can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as ADHD. - Fast Food Diet
can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as ADHD. - Vitamin B Deficiency
can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as Depression. - Vitamin D Deficiency
can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as Depression. - Chromium Deficiency
can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as Depression. - Under-active thyroid (Hypothyroidism)
can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as Depression. - Omega-3 Deficiency
can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as Bipolar Disorder. - Thyroid Imbalance
can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as Bipolar Disorder. - Folic Acid Deficiency
can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as Schizophrenia. - Heavy Metal Toxicity
can produce symptoms psychiatrists label as Schizophrenia.
There are many many more examples that could be added to the above list.
For this reason and as stated before, the first action to undertake with someone manifesting “psychiatric” symptoms is a full and searching medical examination.
Real Help without Drugs
Dr Giorgio Antonucci proved that communication, not enforced incarceration and inhumane physical treatments, can heal even the most seriously disturbed mind. In the Institute of Osservanza (Observance) in Imola, Italy, Dr Antonucci treated dozens of “schizophrenic” women who had been strapped to their beds or kept in straightjackets for years. He released the women from their confinement, addressed their untreated medical conditions and spent many hours each day talking with them. Within a few months, his “dangerous” patients were walking quietly in the asylum garden. Eventually they were discharged and many were taught how to work and care for themselves for the first time in their lives.
Soteria House
In the 1970s, Dr. Loren Mosher, director of the Centre for Schizophrenia Studies at the US National Institute of Mental Health developed the Soteria Project, designed to treat patients with “love and food and understanding, not drugs”. Without drugs, patients worked at significantly higher occupational levels, were able to live independently or with peers, and had fewer hospital readmissions. Said one young man: “If it wasn’t for this place, I don’t know where I’d be right now … Soteria saved me from a fate worse than death”. However, such success was a direct threat to American institutional psychiatry. The National Institute of Mental Health condemned the study and cut the project’s funding, forcing its closure and the end of its effective drug-free therapy. For more information on Soteria House, please click here.
Alternatives to Psychiatry exist and are in use
Psychiatrist Joseph Glenmullen says, most people can overcome the obstacles of leading satisfying lifestyles through the help of more natural alternatives that treat our whole selves, including physical, intellectual, and emotional.
Meanwhile, Dr Thomas Szasz says that the mentally disturbed do not need mental hospitals; they need asylums places of refuge where they would be protected from coercion by persecutors posing as protectors.
Thankfully, there are many non-psychiatric and workable ideas and practices in the quest for the achievement and recovery of mental health, even for the most severely disturbed individuals. While psychiatry is the last to promote it, a great deal of knowledge is skillfully applied by many non-psychiatric professionals. A great deal of help is being given.
The Way Forward
- Ban electroshock therapy labelling it a human rights abuse.
- Ban psychosurgery labelling it a human rights abuse.
- Anyone with a physical or mental condition should first see a competent, non-psychiatric physician to ensure that an undiagnosed, untreated, physical condition is not causing “psychiatric” symptoms.
- Install a full complement of diagnostic equipment in psychiatric facilities to locate underlying and undiagnosed physical conditions.
- Promote the use of the many non-psychiatric and workable ideas and practices that can bring about the recovery of mental health, even for the most severely disturbed individuals.
- Help those currently on psychiatric drugs to come off safely under the direction of competent, non-psychiatric physicians.
Adopt the following code of conduct for the mental health industry:
- Use only effective mental healing technology and treatments which improve and strengthen individuals and thereby society, by restoring individuals to personal strength, ability, competence, confidence, stability, responsibility and spiritual well-being.
- Employ only highly trained, ethical practitioners who are committed primarily to their patient’s and their patient’s family’s well-being and who can and do deliver what they promise.
- Deliver mental healing in a calm atmosphere characterised by tolerance, safety, security and respect for people’s rights.
The Right to be Informed
In general medicine the standard for informed consent includes communicating the nature of the diagnoses, the purpose of a proposed treatment or procedure, the risks and benefits of the proposed treatment, and informing the patient of alternative treatments so he can make an informed, educated choice. Psychiatrists routinely do not inform patients of non-drug treatments, nor do they conduct thorough medical examinations to ensure that a person’s problem does not stem from an untreated medical condition that is manifesting as a “psychiatric” symptom. They do not accurately inform patients of the nature of the diagnoses, which would require informing the patient that psychiatric diagnoses are completely subjective (based on behaviors only) and have no scientific/medical validity (no X-rays, brain scans, chemical imbalance tests to prove anyone has a mental disorder).
All patients should have what is called a “differential diagnosis.” The doctor obtains a thorough history and conducts a complete physical exam, rules out all the possible problems that might cause a set of symptoms and explains any possible side effects of the recommended treatments.
There are numerous alternatives to psychiatric diagnoses and treatment, including standard medical care that does not require a stigmatizing and subjective psychiatric label or a mind-altering drug. Governments should endorse and fund non-drug treatments as alternatives to dangerous drugs that have been proven no more effective than placebo, and more dangerous than most street drugs. Although CCHR International does not condone or promote any specific practitioner, medical organization, practice or group, we have found the below resources to be helpful for individuals looking for more information on the following topics:
Information about non-drug Approaches to Mental Health and/or safely getting off psychiatric drugs
Safe Harbor includes links to find medical doctors (by zip code) who can assist with helping people safely get off of psychiatric drugs and medical personnel who will treat people without the use of psychiatric drugs
http://www.alternativementalhealth.com
Alternative to Meds Center — Residential psychiatric medication withdrawal with medical and naturopathic oversight in Sedona, Arizona
http://www.alternativetomedscenter.com
Green Mental Health — Holistically-centered mental health care system which reflects traditional environmental, humanitarian, and health conscious values
http://greenmentalhealthcare.com
The Road Back — How to get off psychiatric drugs safely
http://www.theroadback.org
Soteria House — Alternative and non-drug solutions for people diagnosed schizophrenic
http://www.moshersoteria.com
ALTERNATIVES TO PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS FOR CHILDREN
The Block Center — Find and treat underlying health problems in children and information on how children can safely get off of psychiatric drugs
http://www.blockcenter.com
DrugFreeChildren.org — Informational website on issues surrounding the use of “chemical restraints” on children
http://www.drugfreechildren.org
The Doris J. Rapp Education Corporation — Vital information on environmental factors affecting health in children and adults
http://www.drrapp.com
AbleChild — Parents for a label and drug-free education
http://www.ablechild.org
MENTAL HEALTH PATIENTS RIGHTS GROUPS
Mind Freedom International — is a nonprofit organization that works to win human rights and provide alternatives for people labeled with psychiatric disabilities
http://www.mindfreedom.org/about-us
COMPLEMENTARY/ALTERNATIVE HEALTH
Whitaker Wellness Institute — Health care for a longer, more active life with a focus on elderly care
http://www.whitakerwellness.com/medical-services
Institute for Progressive Medicine — Conventional and complementary therapies
http://www.iprogressivemed.com
The American College for the Advancement of Medicine — A nonprofit medical society dedicated to improving complementary and alternative medicine
http://acam.org
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES & MENTAL HEALTH
American Academy of Environmental Medicine — Promotes optimum health through prevention and safe and effective treatments
http://www.aaemonline.org
Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry — Lead toxicity: What are the physiologic effects of lead exposure?
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/lead/pbphysiologic_effects2.html
DRUG INFORMATION
MedlinePlus — Information on drugs, supplements and herbal information
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html
Psych Drug Dangers — CCHR International’s psychiatric drug side effects search engine includes reported side effects of psychiatric drugs to the US FDA
http://www.cchrint.org/psychdrugdangers
REPORTING SIDE EFFECTS OF DRUGS
Medwatch — The FDA safety information and adverse event reporting program
http://www.fda.gov/medwatch
HEALTH OPTIONS & INFORMATION
Naturalnews.com — Independent news on natural health, nutrition and more
http://www.naturalnews.com
Natural Solutions — Natural remedies and healthy solutions
http://www.naturalsolutionsmag.com
Natural Health Education
http://www.thepeopleschemist.com
LEGAL RESOURCES
Bailey Perrin Bailey — Large civil litigation firm specializing in personal injury litigation
http://www.bpblaw.com
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman — Wrongful death and personal injury lawyers
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com
Vickery Waldner & Mallia LLP — Wrongful death and medical negligence lawyers
http://www.justiceseekers.com
Weitz & Luxenberg P.C. — Personal injury and medical malpractice lawyers
http://www.weitzlux.com