_Saginaw News_: Forced psychiatric outpatient drugs

[Guest guest]

[bELOW is an article in today's _Saginaw News_ on

forced outpatient

_Saginaw News_: Forced psychiatric outpatient drugs

psychiatric drugging. It quotes MindFreedom

member Gabe Hadd who

escaped psychiatric drugging via an underground

railroad

~~~~~~~~~~

1 March 2006

_The Saginaw News_ Saginaw, Michigan, USA

Forced Drugging

by

~~~~~

Do you like my arts and crafts?

Is it time to take a nap?

Donahue is coming on.

Time for medication.

-- [from the song] " Psychos in the Dayroom " by

J. Hadd

~~~~~

J. Hadd is strumming away on his guitar,

finding his rhythm and

making up for lost time.

An unfailingly polite man with " Schizo " tattooed

across his right arm,

the 26-year-old likes to talk about his budding

music career and

ambitions to write cutting-edge rock songs.

The Saginaw man's lyrics speak to the

medication-induced fog and

insanity that once disrupted his life.

But they also hint at newfound autonomy — freedom

from years of

psychiatrists, state mental hospitals and

court-imposed medications

that he blames for driving him crazy.

Nineteen months ago, Hadd climbed into a

broken-down Oldsmobile and

fled Saginaw — and the doctor's syringe — to

Colorado. Now he's back,

trying to rebuild his life without the needle.

" I'm the same person I ever was before, but I'm a

hundred percent

better, " says Hadd, who doctors once diagnosed as

schizophrenic and now

say is bipolar. " I lost a lot of time, and I lost

a lot of ground. "

Hadd is an example of a growing number of

mentally ill people who flee

their communities to escape court-ordered

medications.

In recent years, a rising number of states,

including Michigan, have

adopted laws designed to make it easier for

judges to forcibly medicate

the mentally ill on an outpatient basis, and it's

spurred a backlash by

civil libertarians who call it a form of

" chemical lobotomy. "

" The monster of forced drugging inside the back

wards of state

institutions has crawled out over the wall into

our communities, " says

W. Oaks, director of Eugene, Ore.-based

MindFreedom

International, an advocacy group for the mentally

ill.

" You can break a person's spirit, and that's what

forced drugging does.

It terrorizes the person. "

But judges, mental health professionals and other

advocacy groups say

anti-psychotic or antidepressant drugs — even on

an involuntary basis —

sometimes are the best way to treat mentally ill

people who pose a

danger to others or who can't care for

themselves.

" The dilemma is that we want to protect

consumers' rights, but while we

want their rights protected, we don't want them

to wind up in prison, "

says Judith A. Hutchins, director of the state

chapter of the National

Alliance on Mental Illness, an advocacy group,

and an Ossineke mother

of two children with bipolar disorder.

An act of violence

Driving these new state laws is the

Virginia-based Treatment Advocacy

Center, headed Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, a

psychiatrist.

Since 1998, the group has helped push through

legislation in a number

of states — including California, Florida and

Michigan — calling for

forced treatment of mentally ill persons who

refuse medication.

Last year, Michigan lawmakers enacted " 's

Law " after a

schizophrenic Vietnam veteran beat to death

Heisinger, a

24-year-old college student, at a Kalamazoo bus

station in 2004. The

veteran, who was not taking medication, told

authorities that voices

made him pummel the student.

Proponents say the state law is designed to make

it easier to allow

Michigan judges to order medication or substance

abuse treatment on an

out-patient basis, even in cases when the

mentally ill are a danger

only to themselves.

But Oaks argued that blind fear drives these new

laws, saying

proponents grossly exaggerate the danger posed by

violent

schizophrenics or psychotics.

Even Saginaw County Circuit Court Family Division

Judge J.

McGraw, who sees medication as a vital part of

treatment for some

mentally ill people, believes " 's Law " is

unnecessary because

judges already had the authority to order

medication on an outpatient

basis.

McGraw, who handles nearly all mentally ill

commitments in the county,

says he occasionally orders outpatient medication

but has yet to use

" 's Law " for any person.

" It was a political gem for somebody to get the

law passed, " McGraw

says. " It was passed without input from mental

health professionals or

judges. I don't think it helps us at all. "

Family Division court typically has 120 to 150

people on either 90-day

or one-year mental health commitment orders, says

P. ,

supervisor of crisis intervention services for

the Saginaw County

Community Mental Health Authority, which aids the

court during the

commitment process.

In some cases, subjects have exhibited

threatening behavior or attacked

others; at other times, they are homeless on the

street because of a

debilitating mental illness.

Those committed are housed in a psychiatric ward

— often at

HealthSource Saginaw in Saginaw Township — but

many also serve part of

the commitment on an outpatient basis in which

McGraw retains authority

over them. Generally, the patient's family or

county prosecutors

petition for commitment, and three psychiatrists

evaluate the person.

" I rely on the testimony of medical

professionals, " McGraw says. " I

have to find (patients) are a danger to

themselves or they can't

provide for their basic needs. "

Eye of the needle

Regina Brown, formerly of Saginaw Township, never

guessed that one day,

she would ask a judge to commit her son, ,

to a mental

institution.

Early on, Her son showed a gifted intelligence by

talking at a very

young age, says Brown, who now lives in Las

Cruces, N.M. The toddler

said his first words at 7 months, and spoke in

rhyming sentences 11

months later.

Later in elementary and middle schools, Signs of

trouble emerged when

he was in elementary and middle schools, Brown

says. Hadd had trouble

concentrating on school assignments. and became

perfectionist about

many tasks. His performance varied wildly. from

well to poor.

Both Hadd and his mother agree that his major

downward spiral began at

about age 19 — perhaps fueled by his use of

drugs. Living at home with

his parents after dropping out of Ferris State

University, Hadd says he

attended a rave party in Detroit and likely

mistakenly took some

ketamine, a depressant with dissociative effects.

He passed out at the party, then couldn't sleep

for three days. Hours

slipped by as he lost his job at a video store

and then locked himself

in his bedroom with a bottle of liquor.

Still unable to sleep, ran from his home

to a friend's house

and eventually wound up on a church pew. His

mother finally persuaded

convinced him to seek psychiatric help.

A Bay City psychiatrist diagnosed him as having

schizo-affective

disorder, a form of schizophrenia, and placed him

on anti-psychotic drugs, a treatment Hadd says

worsened his condition

during the next several months.

" I went from the dean's list to not being able to

complete my

sentences, " Hadd says. " I tried to play my guitar

and my fingers didn't

work. "

Despite the medication, Brown says her son's

behavior worsened at

times, and he became threatening and agitated,

sometimes kicking a

bedroom door. She says she had to make a hard

choice.

She persuaded convinced a judge to commit her son

involuntarily for a

few days to a state psychiatric hospital, where

doctors ordered

anti-psychotic medication. That began a series of

involuntary

commitments during the next few years.

" It was very painful, very frustrating, " Brown

says. " You want the best

for your child. It's every parent's hope that

their child will be an

independent, happy, functioning member of society

with the gifts

they've been given. " " I wanted that for .

While he was having

those problems, he couldn't do it. "

A new diagnosis

As the months wore on, Hadd's disillusionment

with psychiatry

increased. He felt the drugs made him more tense

and heightened his

facial tics. He often felt lethargic.

His last hospitalization was in 2003. Doctors

finally diagnosed him as

having bipolar disorder, a condition in which a

person may can

experience attacks of depression and mania. He

received lithium.

Brown noticed a big change in her son.

" It was like a light bulb went on, " she says. " He

was his old self. His

mind was clear. He had his great sense of humor

back. He could take

care of himself. "

Although the lithium seemed to help, Hadd says he

continued researching

psychiatric medications on the Web and concluded

the " cure " was worse

than the disease. He set a goal of weaning

himself from the drugs.

He developed a plan.

More than medication

For decades, medication has remained at the heart

of much psychiatric

treatment — both in institutions as well as for

out-patients and an

out-patient basis — but groups such as

MindFreedom International

contend mental health professionals should focus

on using less-invasive

methods, such as peer counseling, to treat mental

disorders.

Since the 1950s, however, researchers have

documented the

behavior-stabilizing properties of

anti-psychotics and antidepressants.

Torrey a chief proponent of medicating the

mentally ill, has contended

some anti-psychotics work by changing the brain's

structure,

compensating for the abnormalities causing

psychosis.

Oaks, MindFreedom's director, considers it " brain

damage, " but he also

agrees mental health clients should receive

anti-psychotic medication

if they choose.

" Many of our members say they benefit from

prescribed psychiatric

drugs, " says Oaks, a diagnosed schizophrenic

forced to undergo

medication in the 1970s.

, the Saginaw County crisis intervention

supervisor, says

medication is not suitable for every patient —

noting side effects in

some cases — but is the only way for some to take

control of their

illness.

" In some situations, it's the only effective

treatment, " says.

" In some situations, it has to be a combination

of therapy, or a

structured living arrangement. You have to get

the right treatment and

the right dosage. "

A new life

Hadd carefully plotted his escape.

Through several Web searches, he finally

stumbled across

WelcomeWorld.org, an Ignatio, Colo., group that

offers shelter to

mental health clients fleeing forced medication.

After exchanging

e-mails, he arranged with the group founder to

stay at a home in

Ignatio when the time came. First Hadd would need

money.

For several months, Hadd worked as a cab driver

to save money for the

journey. He paid $200 for a 1992 Oldsmobile

Cutlass Sierra and $125 to

fix an axle.

In July 2004, during a fireworks show in Bay

City, Hadd figured it was

time. Without saying goodbye to anyone, he

climbed in the Oldsmobile

and drove West.

For two months, Hadd stayed at the residential

home run by

WelcomeWorld, participating in peer counseling

free of drugs —

recreational or prescribed — and doing odd jobs

around the house.

He eventually found jobs as a bartender and

caterer in nearby Durango,

Colo., and he developed a relationship with a

woman — his first in many

years. He says his mind cleared from the haze of

prescribed

medications.

" I started to feel a lot better, " Hadd says of a

drug-free life. " You

begin to feel like a human being again. "

Meanwhile, Hadd did not contact his mother. She

agonized over his fate.

" You worry constantly, " Brown says. " You worry

because you just don't

know. There are a lot of homeless people. They

are there because

they're mentally ill and not treated. "

Ten months later, work dried up, and Hadd finally

phoned his mother and

learned . After learning she was moving to New

Mexico. , he decided to

He returned to Saginaw in May.

Hadd now lives in a Saginaw apartment, but he's

leery about giving out

his address because he's afraid authorities will

show up at his door

with a straitjacket cq.

Even so, he says life is returning to normal — or

some version of it.

He's unemployed and collects a disability check,

but he's writing

several songs and is recording demo tracks that

he hopes will and hopes

to launch a music career.

He dates occasionally, and his and sees friends.

His only drug now is a

couple of cups of java a day, but he swears he'll

cut back. He now has

reconciled with his mother and talks weekly with

his mother.

long-distance.

" I'm not angry at my family anymore, " Hadd says.

" I feel we were all

misled. "

Brown, for one, worries that her son stopped

taking medication, but and

she attributes his improvement partly to a lack

of stress in his life.

Still, she's glad the warm, engaging son she knew

before has returned.

" He seems happy, " she says. " That's the Gabe that

I have back, and it

feels wonderful. "

Meanwhile, Oaks fears that more states will adopt

laws calling for

forcible medication of those with signs of mental

illness. He says

these laws play on stereotypes of the mentally

ill as violent, and they

strip away the element of self-enpowerment

crucial to mental recovery.

" People forget it may be their loved one at the

end of a sharp needle, "

Oaks says. " I wish that America's problem with

violence was as easy to

fix by spreading magic fairy dust. "

Hutchins, the woman who runs the state mental

illness alliance,

acknowledged that prescribed drugs aren't perfect

and don't work every

time. But she argued that mental illness

typically is a biological

disorder that often only medication can treat.

heal.

" The brain is an organ like any other, " she says.

" It's important for

the public to understand that (mental illness) is

no different than an

illness of any other organ of the body. "

is a staff writer for The Saginaw

News. You may reach him

at (989) 776-9665. E-mail:

sdavis@...

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ACTIONS:

Please forward to all appropriate places on and

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To read the _Wall St. Journal_ article about Gabe

see:

http://www.intenex.net/pipermail/mindfreedom-news/2006-

February/date.html

or use this smaller link:

http://tinyurl.com/hjddz

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