Christina Schumacher: An Update

Christina Schumacher told Vermont legislators on Thursday night that she opposes involuntarily hospitalization.

Regular readers will know that last month I wrote about the plight of Vermont's Christina Schumacher.

Schumacher had been locked up for 5 weeks or so [against her will] at the secure psych ward at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT.

Mental health assessors [armed with their crystal balls] had deemed Schumacher a danger to herself and others after she had recently learned that her son, Gunnar, 14, was strangled by his father, Ludwig "Sonny" Schumacher Jr., 49, who later took his own life by hanging. Christina had separated from "Sonny" in July last year.

Despite her protests, and the protests of close friends, Schumacher was held under duress and billed for the 5 week stay.

Here's the latest...

On Jan. 24 Vermont Superior Court Judge Kevin Griffin ruled that he could not find "by clear and convincing evidence" that Schumacher was in need of treatment when she was admitted Dec. 19.

Last week, during a two-hour joint session of the Legislature, Schumacher to lawmakers she had gone through hell the day she was admitted to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington after learning about the killing of her teenage son by her estranged husband, who then killed himself. She added, "The bottom line is nobody should have to endure the death of their son and the death of their husband and then be put into the situation,"

USA Today takes up the story...

Schumacher said she was fortunate to have a lot of support from friends after the bodies were found Dec. 18, and she decided to keep her therapy appointment the following afternoon.

"I thought it would be a logical thing to do, to actually go to that therapy appointment," she said. "So I made a choice to go."

Schumacher said she was surprised to find that her therapist had been joined by the director of the counseling program, another doctor and two guards.

"They all made a decision before I even arrived that they were going to check me in. Check me into a mental health facility. A woman that just experienced the hell of her life," she said.

"That night I went through the fires of hell just dealing with what I dealt with," Schumacher said.

Schumacher said in an interview prior to the Senate hearing that she went public with her story in the Burlington Free Press while she was hospitalized to try to ensure nobody ever again has to endure what happened to her and also to be released so she could support her teenage daughter. Schumacher said her visit to the Legislature is a continuation of her fight.

The doctors told Schumacher they wanted her to take stronger drugs, she told lawmakers.

Once Lindsey Owen of Disability Rights explained to Schumacher her legal rights while she was hospitalized, she said she began to fight.

"I started standing up to the doctors," Schumacher said. "They did not know whether to kick me out or lock me up forever. So guess what? I fought for my rights, and I'm out of there."

"And no one should ever have to endure what I have gone through," she added. "It has been hell. I will not stop fighting this fight."

"The doctors told Schumacher they wanted her to take stronger drugs"

Since when has grief, or shock for that matter, been a mental illness?

This is yet another example of the white-coated jumped up little Hitler's wishing to play God...and failing miserably.

Thanks goodness Schumacher was able to show some fighting spirit. Who knows where she would be now if her natural instinct for survival had been suppressed by mental health services and the drugs they hand out like candy.

Heads should roll at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT.

This is for Christina Schumacher. She stood up to be counted... I salute her.

Bob Fiddaman

Woman In Chains

Not quite chains but one could argue that  Christina Schumacher, (Pictured) was held under duress for five weeks at the secure psych ward at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, VT.

So, is this just another case of a person who has found daily living unbearable, so unbearable that, overnight, they have developed a chemical imbalance in their brain thus rendering them mentally ill?

Well, if mourning the loss of a child is a mental illness then Schumacher deserved to be held. The thing is, and this is the crux of the argument, mourning is not a mental illness.

What this particular story shows us is how very easy it is to make money from the dead.

Schumacher's son, Gunnar, 14, was strangled by his father, Ludwig "Sonny" Schumacher Jr., 49, who later took his own life by hanging. Christina had separated from "Sonny" in July last year.

One day after learning her son was killed by her ex, Christina is admitted to a psychiatric unit because because mental health workers believed she posed a danger to herself and others.

It's called grief.

Schumacher has now been billed for her stay at the Fletcher Allen Health Care Centre.

So, let's just get this straight.

Your son is murdered.

You learn it was an ex-spouse who murdered him.

You then learn your ex-spouse killed themselves.

Ah, yes...most obvious reaction to this would be to become dangerous to yourself and/or others.

I'm not disputing that Schumacher felt suicidal, who wouldn't after hearing such devastating news? But who in their right minds would incarcerate a woman [because that's what it is] hours after she had learned her child had been murdered?

Mental Health Services had a couple of options here.

1. They could have, quite easily, "monitored" the situation.

As patients we are constantly told by antidepressant manufacturers that we may feel suicidal during the first few weeks of taking medication. We are told...or rather our doctor's are told, that the patient should be 'monitored' during this period. Why was Schumacher singled out for a 5 week stay at the 'Nutjob Hilton' then?

2. They could have listened to Schumacher and her friends who, according to reports, "disputed her need to be confined."

Her friends didn't have white coats and stethoscopes around their necks though...they did not have the skill to see Schumacher's chemical imbalance.

If indeed Christina Schumacher did pose a threat to herself and others then what changed over the five weeks she was held against her will? Did medication help her, is there some miracle pill that can, after five weeks, cure suicidal and homicidal thoughts?

I'm thinking there's money to be made here... I'm a bit late to jump on this particular bandwagon though as pharmaceutical companies and mental health services have been doing it for years.

I could, however, get some sort of loan and open up a motel or guest house. I'd pay the unemployed to scour the streets for anyone who looked remotely sad [Are you listening Cameron?].

My 'spotter' could then text me, "Woman, mid-fifties, looks sad, just saw her purchase a condolence card...obviously a danger to herself and others. I've attached a photo."

Great! A quick phone call to Mick "The Bruiser" Jones. "Hey Bruiser, get yourself down to the card shop on the High Street, attached is photo"

Mick "The Brusier" could then wait outside and nab the woman as she came out of the card shop.

I could then hold her for five weeks, bill her, and claim I was only acting in her best interests.

Isn't this, in essence, what Fletcher Allen Health Care have done with Schumacher?

Welcome to the world of mental health folks. A world where the actions of crazy people are actually committed by those employed in the system and not those dragged into it against their will.

Full story here.


Bob Fiddaman

The Counterfeit Shyness Epidemic

A few UK newspapers ran with stories yesterday regarding future proposals in the DSM.

The updated DSM [The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] is due in 2013 and those wacky white coated men have covered all bases when it comes to targeting children.

Not content with S.A.D. [Social Anxiety Disorder], the wannabe Gods have come up with O.D.D [Oppositional Defiant Disorder]

Let's just take a look at the acronyms used for each of these disorders. Sad and Odd.

According to the wisdom of these nutty professors, your child may have S.A.D. if he/she is quiet in the classroom, you know the kind of kid I'm talking about here, the one who chooses not to raise his/her hand and volunteer an answer. Yup, drug them.

On the other end of the scale we have O.D.D. These are the children, who unlike the S.A.D. individuals, choose to do the opposite. They talk back to 'adults' and may oppose what they are being asked/told to do.

For those in between these two labels, don't fear, you won't feel left out. Early intervention of "mental disorders" means you too can have a label just like your friends. Just tick a series of boxes and your destiny will be planned for you by the white coated soothsayers. Your parents will be informed, "Dear Mr and Mrs Jones, although the mental health screening of your child showed no apparent mental disorder, we feel, by the answers given in the screening survey, that your child has the early signs of psychosis. This may become full blown within the next five years or so. We highly recommend that they be monitored by our team.

Sounds absurd doesn't it? Did deep and you will find that this is already happening.

I foresee future disorders being invented, just so those DSM shills can report back to the pharmaceutical companies with cap in hand, "We did what you asked of us massa, all bases covered massa."

Gone are the days where children can have an imagination, if they are caught daydreaming in class, label them then drug them. If they answer a teacher back, label them and drug them. If they are seen to be mourning the loss of a parent, brother, sister, grandparent or friend, label them and drug them. Yup, another gem from the proposed DSM is "Depressive disorder". If a child mourns the loss of any of the above for longer than 6 months, label them and drug them.

Call me an old cynic if you want but isn't this push to drug children a reflection on decisions made by medicine regulators regarding SSRi's like Seroxat, Cipramil etc?

A while ago, the UK regulator, MHRA, made recommendations that antidepressants like Seroxat should not be given to children. That put a huge dent in the coffers for the pharmaceutical industry. Only way around this would seemingly be to invent a few more disorders. Hey Presto!... and the licence to print money starts all over again.

Don't expect the MHRA to intervene with the latest in the line of new mental disorders. They are spineless and, after all, wholly funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Give it about 10 years and they may send out warning letters to doctors regarding the medication used to treat children who are sad, mourning or just a little bit boisterous. They allow the pharmaceutical industry to make wads of cash before intervening, you see. Everyone, except your child, is a winner.

When the average person reads of the good deeds done by the pharmaceutical industry such as various donations to war-torn countries or vaccines to the poorer countries, it makes us sleep better at night, knowing that big pharma is really looking out for us. That is the image they like to portray, it's a confidence trick, one which they are past masters at.

Delve a little deeper and you may just find a more sinister reason behind the pharmaceutical industries apparent generosity.

As a child growing up I was always out playing games. I fear Hopscotch will now have rules attached. If your child lands on a crack in the pavement then they may just have a mental disorder... because those men in white coats want them to.

More coverage HERE and HERE




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Good Grief!...It's the DSM-IV

Image: Google Images

Just when you thought you'd heard of every mental disorder shortened to acronyms such as ADHD, OCD etc, along come those wacky puppets, namely the authors of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [DSM] with a label so hideously funny - Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "grief disorder."

DSM IV is set to be re-written by the end of 2013 and to keep the bible of psychiatry up to date with sheer lunacy its authors have come up with a gem of a "mental disorder."

Bereavement-related disorder, it appears, is going to make the final edit. A "disorder", that was originally thrown out in 1994 due to lack of evidence, is set to become a cash cow for the pharmaceutical industry.

Yes, that's right folks, a human emotion is being turned into a disorder, apparently prolonged grieving is unnatural and our inability to let it go means we each have a mental disorder.

This DSM proposal goes by different names;

"Prolonged grief disorder", "complex grief", "traumatic grief", "pathological grief" and, most commonly, "complicated grief."

We all grieve at some point in our lives, be it whether a family member, a friend, a dog, a cat or dog dies. Some of us take longer than others to mourn. It appears that the authors of the DSM now want to judge the length of our grief and then... deem it unnatural.

Are these people so distanced from reality that they cannot see people pointing and laughing at them?

It's genius marketing. We'd all love for that pain of loss to be taken away from us, we've all, I'm sure, wondered how long that pain lasts and we've all wished, at some stage of the grieving process, for someone to wave a magic want to make the pain go away.

Never fear...Pharma is here!

Your "disorder" can be eased with drugs, your sadness lifted because of that "chemical imbalance" occurring. Oh thank you DSM people...thank you, thank you.

I've seen this industry preying on the vulnerable, preying on children, preying on our minds and now, it would appear, preying on those that are suffering at the hands of grief. I half-expect the authors to hang around cemetery's and hand out leaflets to those wailing by gravestones or maybe Funeral Directors will be approached and asked to promote this latest scam from the field of the psychopharmaceutical monopoly.

Days of grieving will be but a blip in history.

"We're sorry to inform you Mrs Smith but your son was killed in a road accident...but fear not, once you have identified the body down at the local morgue we will show you how your grief can be managed."

Fuck, they may as well go the whole hog and promote "early intervention" of grieving. All of us will experience it at some point in our lives.

Box ticking forms at the ready.

I am left wondering when joy will be deemed a mental disorder.

I think it's time to collect copies of the DSM, arrange a huge bonfire on top of an ancient hill and burn each copy. 'Hubblebubble, toil and trouble' anyone?

Time is no longer a great healer... drugs are.

Read more about the proposal in the Canadian Medical Association Journal HERE


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