Exposing the Mental Health system - Only Smarties exhibition

[LunySue]

I´m in love <3 pls pls pls.... a cup of ttea? ...and a chat?

May be a short chat... dont botter =) ... I have so much... I don' t know how to express... Love your art.

Be the great art and much more that u r.... u allready do... =)

[LunySue]

Marry me! =)

[ojewel]

I understand where you are coming from. The music is hideous in this but I do get what you are saying.

[aquarobinson]

i must agree with the editor regarding involuntary ECT as a human rights violation though thankfully it isn't done (involuntary) most places in america, or at least not in my state from what i have come to witness first hand. and it DOES do permanent damage to brain cells that is certain. overall, i'm glad that this man found a healthy outlet for his disgust of the mental health industry (best vid of this genre i've yet to come by).

[099kimi099]

thank you, I feel just the same way about it!

[jacquisyt]

Aidan. I am so pleased you are able to comment on your terrible experiences in such a creative way. I pray that this will get through to those who are in the business of sticking labels on people.

[eggbatter]

Every time I see crap like this it is produced by some failed artist etc who blames his treatment for his failure. This is yet another pack of lies based on practices that mighthave happened decades ago but do not happen today. There is no 'them and us' culture in mental health treatment today only when fools like this choose to adopt that stance. Service users - not even called patients anymore are treated as partners in their care. Absolute rubbish this.

[jacquisyt]

I am sorry eggbatter, but you are the one who is talking rubbish. As a "Survivor" of NHS treatment and daughter and sister of "Service Users", I know that in practice there is no such thing as "partners in care" in the NHS.

[CyborgDeathNinja]

Exactly!

This nonsense does nothing but hurt the very thing that offers so many others hope and an improved quality of life.

The irony of this sort of attitude is that it's usually the residue of a one off psychotic episode which was successfully treated by the system it damns. Because of the nature of the brain disorder most people who suffer from Schizophrenia don't know they are unwell (or have been), the very high percentage of schizophrenia amongst the homeless is testament to this fact.

[SenseMenace]

What a misleading comment by someone who doesn't appear to have even watched the video, where Aidan actually states that he's experienced FOURTEEN periods of what OTHERS called Schizophrenia - not a one-off brief psychosis.

The sweeping comments about the reasons for homelessness is the "nonsense" here.

The needle in the butterfly is genius in its simple puncturing of the pretensions of psychiatry (& drug company friends) that hide the "us and them" reality for many many people.

[wildchildplasma]

they say no one is out to get you yet there they are.

[wildchildplasma]

censorship of what the populous see do you want to go down this road.

[hollywoodartchick]

Art as a tool for social commentary - really well done, too. We need more who have been thru this brutality to speak out. Too many people are mesmerized by the mystique of "experts" who cover up the failures of a system that does nothing to heal and too much to control.

[Carex09]

It just reminds me of blood-letting back in the middle ages. Fortunately lobotomys were never even close to successful. One thing has been made clear to me, although most are not: people don't know hardly anything about themselves and how they think, let alone what others minds may be. Psychologists should assess their own minds and existence before laying a hand (or pill) on mine!

[nembhard600rr]

totally bummed? Go run around the block exercise strenuously..read several books designed to boost your psyche..try eating more natural and organic foods..turn off the lights and close your eyes..reflect..admit to yourself your guilt and design with yourself..the solution..Drugs sink you deeper into a co-dependency taking away your psyche lraving you only with a body(controllable)

[mew2dallas]

Satire as art, and good art with a message! This is a great video and a great message.

[garpstar]

Before taking everything he says for granted, let's do a little research first. For example, his claim that electroconvulsive therapy has no clinical benefit is blatantly false (any good research into it will tell you that). Furthermore, it is illegal to perform any type of therapy without consent. In the case of somebody suffering psychosis (who is unable to consent themselves), consent is sought from their next of kin. Any psychiatrist who does not follow this protocol loses their licence.

[RxChange]

As someone who's been there - please allow me to respectfully disagree. A practitioner can do just about whatsoever he chooses, short of committing severe bodily harm and get away with it. Remember it's his word against mine, and who do you think is going to be believed? The doctor or the "mental patient?" As for the ECT claim, you're both wrong. While there have been those who claim to have benefitted from ECT, there have been others who's lives were destroyed by ECT, such as Ernest Hemingway.

[garpstar]

There is no such thing as a therapy that works for everybody (which is why some people survive the same cancer that kills other people). ECT is one of the more effective therapies out there. Granted, it is indicated more for mood disorders than for psychotic disorders. However, there is recent evidence to show that it works in schizophrenia as well. Check out the most recent Cochrane review on the subject (2005) that shows that there is sufficient evidence to use ECT for schizophrenia.

[MSUKate]

I've heard the same things, that ECT Does Work, espically in the elderly.

As a person with mental illness, im offended when people say "oh you just need to eat right, and meditate and you'll be fine"

Guess what, tried it. Didn't work. Wont work, because that would be like telling someone with Cancer to meditate and they will be cured.

If you have never suffered from a mental illness, be thankful, but please don't judge our choices. Oftentimes its meds or maddness. Could you choose?

[silvasmart]

Even if ECT has a therapeutic benefit, for the majority it causes brain damage, often permanent. Your observation that someone experiencing 'Psychosis' who is unable to give consent, then it sought from next of kin', this may or may not be true and doesn't change the fact that human rights violations are endemic throughout the mental health system. I and many others who have received 'Psychiatric Assault' can testify to this. Aidan Shingler

[sociopathicregret]

Interestingly enough, most require 'maintenance' ECT for a bunch of sessions because they keep relapsing. If it really 'worked' I don't imagine this would be required. Why do I think it's required? I really do think it does partially block and confuse the thought processes, dull the brain overall, etc, and combined with a strong placebo effect and an attempt to 'reengineer' the person, this can seem miraculous if the person accepts it. But it doesn't nothing about the root of the problem.

[sociopathicregret]

I also love how the idiots do it to people for 'treatment resistant depression' and shit without considering that maybe their treatments just fucking suck.

[molyneux1000]

Whether ECT works or not is frankly irrelevant. The point is that we force people to take these treatments against their will. Day in, day out I see patients be told either take the medications orally or via IM through the use of force. It's horible.

[amasocialworker]

@sociopathicregret i totally agree. at one point all the psychological methods used in counseling fail and what the fuck does the counselor do? he refers you to a shrink to be medicated. aren't we all relieved that there are shrinks in this world?!

[jacquisyt]

The only time I, as next of kin, have been asked to consent to my sister's treatment was when they wanted to section her under the Mental Health Act and I objected. As a result, they went to Court and had me removed as next of kin!!

[windekindje]

thats the system

if you do nt cook a lobster a live you are fired

if you follow your conscience you lose your job

thats the price

who wants to pay it

like nelson mandela 28 years prison???

[jacquisyt]

ECT is a very inexact science. In 1985 I attempted to stop my sister being given ECT. I failed. On several occasions thereafter she was given it. In 1999 I attempted to stop my sister being given but failed again until I and several friends prayed and got some people who could afford lawyers to fight on her behalf. I liken ECT to kicking a door shut. It works for a time, then the door falls off!!

[ojewel]

@garpstar ECT comes into being by political vote of psychiatrists.

[oelte]

@garpstar Life is full of emotional challenges, and there are many ways of experiencing the rewarding results of taking on such a challenge. To disable the mind from feeling with psychiatric medications (which all have been proven to cause a chemical imbalance rather than attend to one) is hampering what life is about. People who get ECT (just like those who have suffered a concussion) have a feeling of euphoria afterwards. This isn't "clinical benefit." Do some research!

[redlisab]

Psychiatry psells psickness; psychindustry psychobabble psucks!  Don't psell your psoul to psychology!

[lumberjackfredd]

psychiaty has simply hurt me

[writers9065]

This is one of the best antipsychiatry videos I have ever seen. It tells it the way it is.

A well done video that gets to the point.

A video that exposes the oppression and human

rights violations done by psychiatry which continues today.

I was tortured by psychiatry from 1972 to 1990

for 18 years in Ontario hospitals in Canada. I am free of psychiatry since 1990.

[caralingus]

good film would like to see his work for real.

[mre4nygma]

thankyou for posting i found this very interesting

[500stars]

Wow - what a film - all mental health professionals should see this - stunning