So-called "mental illness": a big source of pride

For years, when I've put the term "so-called" before "mental illness", that's exactly what I've meant. In modern America, the more sense a person makes, the more likely it is they'll be diagnosed with a psychiatric condition. Diagnosing people with a "mental illness" they don't have is a tool of repressive regimes to quell or lock up dissidents - and the United States today is one of the worst offenders.

It's a fact that Americans get institutionalized just for their political views. A proven, incontrovertible fact. Ask a Cleveland area woman what happened to her when she posted fliers for an anti-Bush concert on a telephone pole.

It's occurred to me that the definition of schizophrenia is disagreeing with a psychiatrist. Once when I was in high school, the school referred me to a shrink because I disagreed with the school admins. When I complained to the doc that a powerful, poisonous drug he prescribed caused me to urinate too frequently (which I now know is one of its listed side effects), he smugly replied, "Sounds like schizophrenia to me."

So it should be little wonder that more and more people are wearing psychiatric labels as a badge of pride! I guess more folks are realizing that psychiatry is a failed pseudoscience, so being labeled by a shrink is actually a measure of one's sanity rather than the opposite.

People diagnosed with a "mental illness" have even conducted pride rallies all over the world! These events - which have occurred in Canada, Ghana, and elsewhere - have drawn thousands of people.

Naturally, the movement has come under criticism from Dr. E. Fuller "Full Toilet" Torrey, a well-known right-wing critic of people having rights. He blasted the notion of allowing people to choose whether or not to take psychiatric drugs. (Torrey thinks drugging should be mandatory.)

Be proud, everyone!

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/fashion/11madpride.html)