The April 2017 issue of Scientific American has an article about epileptic seizures which says, “People who keep having seizures, especially convulsive seizures, may suffer progressive impairment of cognitive functions [as well as personality changes].”
This impairment of cognitive function is apparently what psychiatrists are going for during electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), as evidenced in this 1942 quote from psychiatrist Abraham Myerson: “The reduction of intelligence is an important factor in the curative process. … The fact is that some of the very best cures that one gets are in those individuals whom one reduces almost to amentia [feeble-mindedness].”
Epileptic seizures are a significant health issue for roughly one million people in the U.S. who do not respond to any known drug treatments.
The latest psychiatric billing bible Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) lists seizures as a mental disorder [“Conversion disorder (functional neurological symptom disorder), With attacks or seizures”]. A “conversion disorder” is a condition in which one shows psychological stress in physical ways.
Interestingly enough, the whole point of electroconvulsive therapy, also called shock therapy, is to force a person to have a seizure. The unproven theory is that the seizure interrupts whatever brain issue is causing the person’s mental disturbance. However, the brain is not the real cause of life’s problems. People do experience problems and upsets in life that may result in mental troubles, sometimes very serious. But to represent that these troubles are caused by incurable “brain diseases” that can only be alleviated with dangerous pills or electric shocks is dishonest, harmful and often deadly. ECT masks the real cause of problems in life and debilitates the individual, so denying him or her the opportunity for real recovery and hope for the future.
Here’s the conundrum: On the one hand, real medical doctors treat seizures as a serious health issue. On the other hand, psychiatrists artificially create seizures as a “treatment” for mental disorders. And on the third hand, psychiatrists also list seizures as a mental disorder.
So, is a seizure a good thing or a bad thing?
If you thought, “bad thing”, now we’re starting to make some sense of this conundrum.
Seizures are a bad thing; psychiatrists who shock people to create seizures are bad people. Electroshock should be completely banned. Psychiatrists who shock people should be criminally prosecuted for patient abuse.
Just keep sticking your finger into the light socket until you fall down kicking and screaming, and let us know if you feel any better.
Additional details about the harm caused by ECT can be found here. If you know someone who was abused by electroshock therapy, or who has witnessed such abuse, have them submit an abuse report here.