Thanks for keeping the Austin community informed
I want to thank the Austin Weekly News and Delores McCain for being the first publication to run the story regarding the hearings I called for concerning racial profiling in the Chicago Police Department. The media is the main source of communication to get out vital information to our community. Without sufficient news coverage, it becomes difficult to notify the public at large of events that have an effect on their everyday lives. I also want to commend Ms. McCain for being relentless in telling the good news that occurs in Austin more often then most people believe. Again, thank you for keeping the Austin community informed.
Isaac S. Carothers
Alderman & Democratic committeeman, 29th Ward chairman, Committee on Police & Fire
The main psychiatric disorder is psychiatry itself
Some people are having a hard time in life these days. Unfortunately, when they turn to psychiatry for help, things get much worse. Instead of providing even some small bit of help, psychiatry gets a person hooked on drugs that do not cure the problem, are more addictive than street drugs, cause side effects that are worse than the original problem and produce dangerous side effects when a person decides to stop taking them.
There is no medical basis for psychiatric theories and diagnoses. Psychiatrists use the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM) to diagnose “mental disorders.” A few examples from the manual are: “caffeine-related disorder,” “mathematics disorder” and “expressive language disorder.” The way a disorder gets listed in the manual is by a raise of hands by psychiatric insiders. To quote psychiatrist and author, David Kaiser M.D., “This is essentially a pseudo-scientific enterprise that grew out of modern psychiatry’s desire to emulate modern medical science.” (Quote from Against Biological Psychiatry by David Kaiser M.D.)
These “mental disorders” are not based on any medical or scientific fact. They are just a way to get more people taking psychiatric drugs, which is a multibillion-dollar industry.
Instead of appropriating millions of dollars to support psychiatry, our leaders should allocate money to programs that have helped improve our society. These include an excellent educational system that features sports and the arts so children can learn and gain the experiences they need to succeed in life, support of medical sciences that have proven effective, and support of roads and transportation to make it easy for people to be productive in their communities.
If there are individuals who are interested in risking their health by using psychiatric drugs, they should purchase these themselves. The state should not be responsible for the dangers involved in use of these drugs.
Marian Lobo
Chicago