Medications, etc.

Mon Sep 10 15:24:20 CDT 2007

Monday--I told myself to stay out of this one, because
my own feelings about psychiatrists and medications
are pretty raw.  In the psych hospital where I worked,
the "old doctors" admired psychodrama, my use of John
Mosher's Healing Circle, and my attempts to help the
clients create therapeutic communities--the adult
clients wanted into the psychodrama group and my
therapy group, the adolescents got it and did great
with psychodrama and the Healing Circle, and then, the
new, just out of residency "baby docs" came on board. 
In a short time, I was threated with firing if I
didn't stop psychodrama, and forget therapeutic
communities.  Empowered and supported patients
question things--like just what does this medication
do anyway?  The old doctors were shoved out, and I was
assigned to create a new program for the folks who
were morbidly obese, and who wanted the gastric bypass
or lap band surgeries.  I have, by the way, a "state
of the art" program for the surgery folks.  So what am
I saying.  There were doctors present who really cared
about the clients as people, and who tried to help
them get the services they needed.  And then, there
were the others.  I agree that often, too often, these
are the ones who don't think of the social situation,
and other avenues of service--just which of the meds
will be the one to use today.  And fair is fair--I've
been around a long time; pre-medication, life was
often impossible for many people.  So, maybe this is a
good discussion topic for the ASGPP conference?
Georgia Rigg, TEP
--- Karen Carnabucci <karen at companionsinhealing.com>
wrote:

> Here's another one -- I go to a presentation by a
> psychiatrist who is
> presenting topic at a local hospital about working
> with children. The
> Dr. is talking about school phobia and the best and
> most useful
> medications to prescribe for the condition.
>  
> All I can think of is one of my younger teen clients
> who hates going to
> school, and has played sick, due to the fact that he
> his being horribly
> bullied by two kids at school. I ask the dr. if he
> aware that some kids
> might have really good reasons to fear going to
> school -- such as being
> hurt by a bully or otherwise threatened with harm.
> His face and body
> language expresses clear surprise and he says, "Oh,
> I hadn't thought of
> that."
>  
> And I think he really meant  it!!!
>  
> Karen Carnabucci, MSS, LCSW, TEP
> Companions In Healing
>  
> Lake House Health &  Learning Center
> 932 Lake Ave.
> Racine, WI 53403
>  
> (262) 633-2645
> karen at companionsinhealing.com
> <mailto:karen at companionsinhealing.com> 
>  
> www.lakehousecenter.com
> <http://www.lakehousecenter.com/> 
> www.companionsinhealing.com
> <http://www.companionsinhealing.com/> 
>  
>  
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> From: list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org
> [mailto:list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org] On Behalf Of
> PATRICIA DESERT
> Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 2:38 PM
> To: GrouptalkNewAddress
> Subject: Re: sociatry91007
> 
> 
> One most recent specific.  A former client of mine
> called me for some
> advice about his 12 yr old son who recently began
> having close to panic
> attacks when anticipating attending school.  He
> needs his dad to
> accompany him at this point and his dad does.
>  
> This boy has a bar mitzvah coming up next month, his
> dear friend who is
> also his sister just left for Israel, the school
> he's in just began a
> new policy of bell ringing to signal end of class
> and the new 2-minutes
> requirement required to get to next class, and some
> other stressors that
> I can't remember right this minute.  The
> psychiatrist who spoke to the
> father on the phone about this boy immediately
> wanted to put him on
> medication.  
>  
> I like to think this psychiatrist is the exception. 
> P.
>  
>  
>  
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> 
> 	From: HV Psychodrama <mailto:hvpi at hvc.rr.com>  
> 	To: Adam Blatner <mailto:adam at blatner.com>  
> 	Cc: list at grouptalkweb.org 
> 	Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 12:39 PM
> 	Subject: Re: sociatry91007
> 
> 	dear Adam/ You want specifics and I do not have the
> energy to
> write 
> 	them....you are welcome to call me and we can have
> a
> conversation...but I 
> 	suspect that anyone working in the trenches these
> days, as you
> once referred 
> 	to my work, could come up with many examples of
> kids being
> diagnosed with 
> 	all sorts of disorders rather than look at the
> problems  as
> being indicative 
> 	of the disorders of society.Or take the PhD
> psychologist who had
> his 
> 	daughter put on Ritalin because she was daydreamy
> and not
> getting straight 
> 	As in school. She was 7.
> 	  The director of a local child day treatment said
> to me that
> when children 
> 	get diagnoses bipolar, often the parental reaction
> is that
> because the 
> 	disease is biological there is nothing they, the
> parents, need
> to do, it is 
> 	the child's problem, no need for the family to be
> in treatment,
> etc.
> 	
> 	
> 	----- Original Message ----- 
> 	From: "Adam Blatner" <adam at blatner.com>
> 	To: "HV Psychodrama" <hvpi at hvc.rr.com>
> 	Cc: <list at grouptalkweb.org>
> 	Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 1:17 PM
> 	Subject: sociatry91007
> 	
> 	
> 	> Dear Rebecca and all, reviewing your response,
> feeling much in
> resonance!
> 	>    1. "The Politics of Therapy" and "Radical
> Therapy" -- Much
> of this was 
> 	> before the many writings on oppression were
> publicized.
> 	>     However, I find very few examples of people
> subjected to
> involuntary 
> 	> treatment today--- especially inappropriately.
> Yet there are
> occasional 
> 	> cases and it makes one think. I'm interested
> especially in
> what you all 
> 	> observe---specific issues in our practices. There
> was also a 
> 	> romanticization of schizophrenia as not being
> abnormal, out of
> control, 
> 	> but more a response to crazy family and society.
> I think this
> has been 
> 	> largely deconstructed. Admittedly, communications
> mixed
> messages (e.g., 
> 	> the classical "double bind") and other family
> stress can make
> any mental 
> 	> illness worse, but that's far from being a cause.
> 	>
> 	>    2. Just read in the New Yorker a story of a
> bright music
> critic who was 
> 	> relieved to recognize that the diagnosis of
> Asperger's
> Syndrome made sense 
> 	> of much that was bewildering in his life, and it
> also helped
> his caring 
> 	> family. Yet he also notes that such folks have a
> website for
> being 
> 	> considered just different, and many would not
> give up their
> condition even 
> 	> if it could be "cured"---and there is (by the
> way) not the
> slightest hint 
> 	> of a cure known or offered.
> 	>
> 	>    3. "Revolution not Adjustment." On the
> dramatherapy
> listserve a 
> 	> re-discussion of the shifts in Gay, Lesbian, now
> linked to
> Trans-gendered, 
> 	> bisexual, and questioning in their advocacy
> identity... and a
> case of the 
> 	> proper way to address a 5 year old child who is
> very possibly
> a little boy 
> 	> fascinated with and half into being a little
> girl...  I noted
> we have not 
> 	> only the social definition problems, but also the
> question of
> 
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