HOW DID I COME TO CHALLENGE THE PSYCHIATRIC ESTABLISHMENT?

When I first began academic training as a counselor, I was not exposed to any critical works at all. Part of the training was to accept that mental illness was cased by biological processes, basically chemical imbalances, and that psychiatric drugs were the main avenue of treatment combined with psychotherapy which was seen to be of lesser importance. I did not initially challenge any of this. I like most of my colleagues fell into this pattern of thought. However, it was my experiences visting children's psychiatric facilities, seeing situations of children being abused by staff and staff seeking to cover it up, as well as seeing the devastating effects of some psychiatric drugs (such as a 9 year old with tardive dyskinesia), that many questions were raised in my mind and conscience. From this point, I became exposed to some critical works and began to do thorough research on psychiatric drug effects. Later, I began working with a number of children, some given serious psychiatric labels, and I soon realized that the system really was not listening to their experience, it was not even treating them as human beings. As I began to listen and learn of the experience of many of my clients, I developed a sense of great compassion and vowed that I would take a stand from within the system. This has often been at great cost, but I know that it is my duty to stand up for the vulnerable and to promote social justice and humane treatment.

-Dan L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
www.humanepsychiatry.info