I realized I haven't posted the recent Rachel Merhav plea.. I sent a copy of a letter I was emailing her to the listserv, and some people have written back including their comments which have also been sent directly to her. I will post some more updates about Rebecca's CTO appeal-appeal.

first comment:
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Hi -
 
I personally emailed Rebecca's mom - here is my already-sent email:
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Hello -
 
I'm sorry to hear you're going through such a terrible time.  As a mom, I can certainly empathize with your situation.  My son at age 9 was miserable "all of a sudden" - constantly nauseated, including vomiting and weight loss.  The doctors ran some tests and while we waited the 4 months (!) to see a gastroenterologist, and decided that a visit with a psychologist would be a good idea to "cover all the bases."  My husband and I very reluctantly agreed, because Ted was so miserable (57 pounds at the time, carrying a little bowl around to catch his frequent vomit).  The psychologist made alot out of that bowl - to her it showed a "Specific Phobia" found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM).  She wanted to recommend an "anti-anxiety" medication.  Luckily, Ted had just been put on an anti-nausea med used by Chemotherapy patients.  After talking to some GOOD doctors (NOT the gastroenterologist we waited the 4 months for, but much later, at the Mayo Clinic), we discovered that Ted had Helicobacter pylori (a bacterium that lives in the lining of the stomach and ultimately causes STOMACH CANCER), high Antigliadin antibodies (he was producing antibodies against gluten, found in wheat, barley, rye, oats), allergies to 25 different foods, low amounts of a chemical the body's autonomic system uses to release digestive enzymes (called acetylcholine), and other things.  Have you seen the program Mystery Diagnosis? 
 
It's easy for doctors to find a "diagnosis" in the laughable DSM, slap a label on someone and drug them. I know if I had folded under the pressure to put my son on "anti-anxiety" meds, he probably WOULD have been less anxious about vomiting every half hour or so.  He would've eventually developed stomach cancer if the doctors had given up looking for causes for his nausea.  Sure - I don't know if he would be less "anxious" about having stomach cancer...
 
I hope you are able to get your daughter into a doctor who will look for biological causes for her symptoms.  In Ireland, celiac disease (caused by gluten) is the most common illnesses; and schizophrenia is the most common mental illnesses.  Many studies in PubMed have linked gluten to schizophrenia.  The villi in the small intestine become damaged (flattened) by the gluten, and the body is unable to absorb necessary nutrients. Naturally, this can affect the brain directly. There are 187 illnesses caused by gluten (listed in the book Dangerous Grains by Dr. James Braly and Ron Hoggan).
 
I know it seems as though you are in a hopeless situation - we went through 22 doctors over a 2-year period to find help for my little boy.  It was maddening and exhausting, and I grew to hate any so-called doctor who told me, "Gee - I can't find anything so it must be in his head."  Those doctors were WRONG.  His nausea WAS biological, it was NOT "in his head."  Your dear daughter might be one doctor away from finding the true reason for her symptoms...
 
Karen in Oregon
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: membership@chaada.org

Dear CHAADA Members,
 
We don't have time to collect signatures for a formal petition. But if you agree with the letter, I ask you to please write to Rachel Merhav indicating your agreement. You can forward this letter to her and simply say that you agree with everything I wrote, or write your own comments and send them to Rachel Merhav, at merhavr@rabbit.com.au
 
She needs to hear from you ASAP - she has been pressuring her daughter to enter a group home and give up the last semblance of freedom that she has. Rebecca is meeting with the Chief Psychiatrist for Victoria on Monday. She has started to feel that it doesn't matter how she resists, her mother and the doctors will succeed in forcing her to do whatever they want. It's imperative that her mother hear from us so she can consider a way to turn things around, by actually supporting her daughter.
 
To read more about this case, visit our website or message board where we have chronicled 2 past petitions as well as provided details about Rebecca Merhav's case. http://chaada.org/smf/index.php?topic=272.0 or http://www.chaada.org/Petitions.html
 
Thank you so much!
Amy Philo
CHAADA Co-Founder


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: My experience in involuntary inpatient psychiatric care...
don't do that to Rebecca!!!!
From: amy@chaada.org
Date: Thu, June 29, 2006 8:51 pm
To: merhavr@rabbit.com.au


Dear Rachel Merhav,
 
I am writing to ask that you consider the information about Clozapine that I sent you in a previous letter. If you haven't read the links I sent you, please do. I also want to tell you about my personal experience with psychiatric hospitalization so you can see that your idea to move Rebecca to a group home can only make her worse.
 
I am not sure if you have read my story about my personal experience with Zoloft and psychiatrists (http://chaada.org/smf/index.php?topic=15.0). You may also be interested to read the story of Julie Yankowski, who was subjected to multiple drugs, anti-psychotics included, as well as electroshock. It is available at http://chaada.org/smf/index.php?topic=19.0. Also there is a story from a mother who lost her son to profound hypoglycemia caused by anti-psychotics at http://chaada.org/smf/index.php?topic=57.0.
 
The research I have done over the past 2 years has convinced me of several things. The first is that the vast majority of psychiatrists are not to be trusted. The second is that many doctors give bad advice and that natural approaches solve most medical problems much better than medicalized, prescription-centered care. The third is that a loving family and support and prayer from friends and loved ones, combined with some good therapy and self-help, are enough to overcome even the worst psychiatric symptoms (assuming the drugs are removed from the picture). Psychiatrists have three tools - drugs, electroshock, and chains (sometimes in the form of locked doors, other times, caged beds, and others, netted beds). They don't have any other strategies. They are unlikely to approve of anyone who exhibits symptoms (whether or not the symptoms are a reaction to a drug) ever going off of medication. The idea of a group home where Rebecca loses her personal autonomy is even worse than forced drugging alone. To deprive someone of their freedom is, in my experience, the most depressing possible thing you can do to a person.
 
While I was on Zoloft I was immensely psychotic - in my experience, and based on research, I can tell you that the drugs prescribed to psychiatric patients are ineffective - and worse, they make people sicker mentally and physically. But throughout my time on Zoloft I managed to stay in control even though the drug would have compelled me to do things I did not want to do. I prayed, I practiced "I'm in control" messages, meditation, relaxation, I went to a therapist, and I read the Bible and self-help books. It was not until I came off of Zoloft that I felt like myself again. The only path to full recovery for me was to rid myself of the drug that drove me mad in the first place.
 
One fantastic self-help book I read was Anxiety and Panic Attacks by Robert Handly. Another is Feeling Good by David D. Burns. There are other recommendations on our website, including the book, Soteria: Through Madness to Deliverance by Loren Mosher. This book tells about a center where schizophrenics received non-drug therapy and counseling from laypeople, and were able to recover permanently within 5 years. (See http://www.chaada.org/RecommendedReading.html)
 
My experience of being involuntarily hospitalized was the worst experience of my life. I was separated against my will from my newborn son and my husband. Visitation hours were limited. The walls were a bland color and I would look out the window of my very depressingly-decorated (ok not decorated at all) room at the cars going down the road and wish I could have my freedom back. To make matters worse, I had no dignity, and there was no counseling available.
 
When I originally went to the hospital for help and signed a voluntary admission form, I assumed that a psychiatric ward is a place to get help from a psychiatrist or a counselor, in addition to being medically screened and being given information about prescription options. But instead, I found a place with NO counseling other than one group meeting for 30 minutes, no right to talk to a doctor on call, no rights whatsoever. Instead of being allowed to discuss my case with a doctor or discuss drug options and side effects, the staff attempted to drug me with about 5 different drugs as soon as I got there. When I refused all but one of them because they were contraindicated for breastfeeding, I was labeled as non-compliant.
 
When I got my 7 minute interview with the doctor, I was labeled as paranoid and obsessive-compulsive. Apparently if you ask for personal care items (sanitary pads after giving birth) or insist on access to hot water to clean an episiotomy, or tucks pads for the episiotomy, you are being "difficult."  I witnessed some pretty drugged-out patients who were barely coherent, and I witnessed some more coherent but dissatisfied patients being verbally abused by the staff. I am certain that what Rebecca would find in any psychiatric group home facility will include an us vs. them mentality.
 
Did you know that the psychiatrists classify anyone who resists treatment with drugs as having a "Non-compliance with treatment disorder" or that if you have a psychotic reaction to a drug, it is also termed a "disorder?" When one drug does not work, the reaction of the psychiatrist is that the person has something wrong with them (as opposed to the drug being ineffective or harmful), and side effects of psychosis are usually determined to be "evidence" that the person needs anti-psychotics. And when the anti-psychotics do not work, well what is left? Stronger anti-psychotics? A higher dose? Being locked up forever? Electroshock?
 
If you really think about it and consider the alternatives, you will see that the psychiatrists' method of healing is not healing at all. The only chance Rebecca has to ever lead a normal life is to get OFF of drugs and get some real, "alternative" or natural therapy. She may never be the same as she could have been had she not been drugged for 28 years, but she stands a chance at recovery. I recovered from the psychotic effects of Zoloft, and now I am a functioning person living a full life. Rebecca still has her life - please don't take it away by trying to take away her freedom too. The longer she remains on Clozapine or any other psychiatric drug, the higher the chance that she will die from the physical adverse effects. Please consider supporting your daughter in her wishes and treating her with compassion.
 
This Monday, July 3, I understand that Rebecca is meeting with the Chief Psychiatrist for Victoria. It is my hope that should you choose to attend that meeting, you will ask the psychiatrist to overturn the CTO and allow Rebecca to choose her own path for care. If you do not attend, I hope that you will support Rebecca's wishes and give her a chance to recover in her own way - the only way that stands a chance of helping her at this point.
 
Psychiatry, drugs, and group homes ARE NOT the answer.
 
Sincerely,
Amy Philo
CHAADA Co-founder
Frisco, Texas, USA