There is always a potentially difficult relationship between service users, carers and professionals. Open dialogue seeks to address this issue through allowing every party in the relationship to have a frank interchange, based on honesty and mutual respect. Hence it is disingenuous to attempt to misrepresent the idea of showing “insight”. Read more…
It has long been apparent to service users that their treatment has very little to do with therapy for the individual, and everything to do with social control, with disinhibition, hyperconnectivity and hypersensitivity being the main causes of concern for society. Thus the individual was treated for the benefit of his or her fellow-citizens, rather than as a means to help him/her recover. Read more…
John Sawkins gained an interest in thinking through the issues of mental health when he had a break down at the age of 52. He worked full time as a lecturer and taught for thirty years. Subsequently he made up his mind that he was going to recover from the break down and returned to work full time again in teaching for nine years. Read more…
The driver-less car is already here: how many of us knew that it will be pre-programmed to make its own ethical decisions? For example, unlike the human driver, who would understandably, if given the option, seek to protect his or her family if the worst were to happen and a crash with lethal consequences occurred, the driverless car would dispassionately choose the option with the least number of casualties as opposed to saving the lives of its own passengers. Read more…
I was forced to take haloperidol and procyclidine for bipolar. I stopped taking them after 6 weeks. (cold turkey – I never told the doctor). I have not taken any medication for bipolar or other psychiatric condition for 15 years.
One side effect of haloperidol is known to be stroke which I duly experienced one year after taking the drug – and that was only 6 weeks’ worth! (They missed the diagnosis of stroke and put it down to “hallucinations”. I eventually succeeded in persuading an optician to confirm my diplopia (double vision). Read more…