Many people think that psychiatric disorders are the same as medical diseases or illnesses. While mainstream physical medicine deals with diseases such as malaria, bronchitis and hepatitis that have exact, identifiable physical causes, psychiatry deals with disorders.
Disorders are names given to undesirable feelings and behavior for which no exact physical causes have been isolated. These mental disorders are frequently referred to as “illnesses” or “diseases” but they are not the same thing. This difference sets psychiatry far apart from the usual practice of medicine.
Bipolar disorder is characterized by unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy and ability to function. Its symptoms are severe mood swings from one extreme of overly high and/or irritable (mania) to sad and hopeless (depression), then back again.
In the 1800’s, bipolar was known as manic depression, a term invented by German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin. In 1953, another German psychiatrist, Karl Kleist coined the term “bipolar.” Other psychiatrists have attempted to describe it, including Kleis’ student, Karl Leonhard.
Bipolar disorder was first officially introduced into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in the 1980’s, but was largely considered to be an adult “disorder.”
In January 2002, the Medicine Journal reported: “The etiology (cause) and pathophysiology (the function or action of ‘’abnormal’ states in people) of bipolar disorder (BPD) have not been determined, and no objective biological markers exist that correspond definitively with the disease state.” Nor have any genes “been definitely identified” for bipolar disorder.
Pediatric neurologist Fred Baughman, Jr., wrote: “The fact of the matter is—and a fact to which the country had better wake up—is that there is no abnormality to be found in any of psychiatry’s ‘diseases’—not in infants, not in toddlers, not in preschoolers, not at any age. Without invented ‘diseases,’ the psychiatric-pharmaceutical cartel would have nothing to treat. These are normal children with disciplinary and educational problems that can and must be resolved without recourse to drugs. Deceiving and drugging is not the practice of medicine. It is
criminal.”
Bear in mind that the “treatments” being prescribed are for “disorders” that are not physical illnesses—essentially, they are being prescribed for something that does not exist.
No one denies that people can have difficult problems in their lives, that at times they can be mentally unstable, subject to unreasonable depression, anxiety or panic. Mental health care is therefore both valid and necessary. However, the emphasis must be on workable mental healing methods that improve and strengthen individuals and thereby society by restoring people to personal strength, ability, competence, confidence, stability, responsibility and spiritual well-being. Psychiatric drugs and psychiatric treatments are not workable.
Click here for more information and to download and read the CCHR Report on Bipolar Disorder.