URGENT: Mother requests support...

[spiritual_emergency]

The following was passed to me and I'm passing it on to any others who might be moved to either share it or respond to it. Here's a link to their immediate concerns: URGENT - I NEED YOUR HELP

There is an email link provided at that site that will allow you to contact Governor Gregoire directly. It is not necessary that you live in Washington state to respond.

Cindi, Siddharta's mother asks that you support their wishes to:

1) Ask Gov Gregoire to please contact CEO Jess Jamison of Western State Hospital and request that the petition to commit Siddharta Fisher for up to additional 180 days be DENIED!

2) Ask her to insure that a proper discharge plan is completed and that Siddharta be released no later than one week after the petition is dropped.

The second item was added after the following occurred:

On Wednesday April 13, I was told my son appeared to be gravely disabled and would probably be there a full 30 days and possibly longer. I insisted on a hearing with Dr. Watson. On Monday, April 18, he was evaluated as sane and with no real discharge plan in place, he was put on a bus that did not even stop in our home town; by midnight I placed a missing person's report with the police and at 2:00am in the morning he called me from the streets of Portland.

The local mental health team were shocked at the entire process and after their concern about the poor discharge plan fell on deaf ears at Western State, they told me they were going to file a complaint against western State...

This is why the mother has insisted that a proper discharge plan be in place. She does not want her son sent to some distant city where he has no means of getting back and no family support.

If you feel comfortable honoring her request, regardless of where you live in the world, please do.

[spiritual_emergency]

Additional information on their personal circumstances can be found at this page: A Mother's Fast

Here are some excerpts from their personal story...

My 33 year old son, Siddharta Fisher, has been incarcerated in the Clark County Jail for over 100 days. Why? On June 30, 2010, he was very clearly experiencing akathisia, (extreme restlessness, panic and psychosis) as evidenced by intense pacing, and the inability to sit or stand without intense agitation and unusual movement of his hands. This is one of the known side effects of psychiatric drugs and also their withdraw side effects. I made a mistake and inappropriately interrupted him in this heightened state of sensitivity. He reacted by punching me in the nose and breaking it. I knew he needed help, and wished there was someone else to call beside the police, but unfortunately there wasn't, so I called 911.

By law, it was considered domestic violence and he was immediately taken to jail and charged with a felony. I later found out that two days earlier he had spit on someone in a restaurant and he was also charged with a misdemeanor for that act. In his anger and frustration at being locked up, he later spit on a guard and was charged with a felony. All of the charges have been dropped except the felony for spitting on the guard.

Although it was a traumatic experience for me and the others, I truly believe my son was in a drug induced withdraw state of hyper inner turmoil. I actually experienced more pain about not having any alternative to get help for him, than the pain of having a fractured nose. It only took a 5 minute procedure in the hospital to place the separated bone back in place so that it would heal correctly and my band-aid nose cast was off in two days.

... Judge Hagensen, following standard protocol, placed a restraining order on my son that making it a crime for him to call me or write me. I can understand perhaps a week or two period, to allow for the intensity of the entire situation to lessen, but I have made 3 attempts, in the last 60 days, with very detailed letters explaining the situation, to get the restraining order lifted and today it still stands. I am my son's main advocate and source of support.

Connection NOT Protection. He needs support, I need support for his care, I need support for alternative treatments; he needs to have a voice in his treatment, I need to communicate with him, and he needs to communicate with me. There is absolutely no threat to my safety since he is locked up and all jail visits are through a plastic shield; communication is done by telephones through the shield.

... Siddharta is experiencing great distress after still being locked up over 100days! My son is still locked up behind bars after more than 100 days, still severely alienated and isolated, and thus in an even more traumatized state of mental distress. He has taken his exasperated anguish out on the guards; throwing food, spitting, and resisting their efforts to control him however he can. Not being equipped to work with illness of the mind, they have retaliated by denying him visiting privileges which now extend until January 5 2011 and charging him with a felony for spitting on a guard. He does not belong in jail. However, the involuntary commitment and forced drug "treatment" to restore competency at Western State Hospital IS NOT THE ANSWER either. Neither he nor I, want more of the same coercive treatment.

I remember a saying that I think is very apropos for what they are petitioning to do: "The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different result..."

TREATED OVER 8 TIMES WITH NO REAL VOICE OR CHOICE OR POSITIVE LONGTERM RESULTSHe has been "treated " against his will at Western State at least 8 times in the last few years. At the hospital, what is considered "treatment" is when you have NO REAL VOICE OR CHOICE in your treatment plan and THEY almost ALWAYS include the pharmaceutical model of drugging, even if it means getting a court order to forcefully override the desires of the patient. Siddharta did NOT and Does NOT want to go to the hospital. He hates being there and always ask me when he can come home. It would be difficult to take him hone now, because he has been so traumatized by the jail and the hospital and the money to support recovery is not given to him or me. Washington does not have a truly alternative recovery model that supports the choice of empowerment with or without medication; but such a model could easily be implemented at Western State through consulting with practitioners of "The Open Dialogue process"; a recovery model that has been proven to be very successful around the world.

SHORT TERM MASQUERADING LONG TERM DETERIORATIONHaving NO VOICE OR CHOICE has meant that he is often violently forced into 5 point restraints and then massively drugged against his will. The short term effect of the drugging sometimes achieves a temporary masquerading of symptoms to satisfy the court, but the long term effect of this invasive, extremely traumatic, and coerced treatment has resulted in a very sad and disturbing deterioration of his passion for life and his mental as well as physical well being. It has also created a greater risk to his safety, our family and the community as well. The heightened distortion of his reality after a 90 day or a 9 month treatment is evidenced by an ever increasing display of bizarre, rude, aggressive and unusual behaviors..

Pharmaceutical Companies settle out of court; Must pay hundreds of millions in 2010There are several lawsuits that were settled out of court, just this year, for hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars against the makers of these psychiatric drugs; more lawsuits are still pending. The plaintiffs charged that the drug companies KNEW these drugs, and the sudden withdraw of these drugs, could cause increased aggression, homicidal and suicidal ideations, bizarre and unusual behaviors as well as an increase in the exact same symptoms they temporarily masked in the short term. The drug companies said that settling for the millions of dollars they agreed to pay out, was/is not admission of guilt, but felt it was not in their best interest to prolong the court case. We all know better...

ELEMENTS OF AN EMPOWERING RECOVERY PROCESS

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL LONG TERM MODELS HAVE INCLUDED

the INDIVIDUAL'S VOICE and CHOICE;

and COMMUNITY SUPPORT and ACCEPTANCE!

This mother would like the option of Open Dialogue Treatment for her son. She knows she can't get it because all those alternative programs, even the highly successful ones, were forced out by the pharmaceutical industry and the biomedical model of mental illness. She has taken it upon herself to create her own treatment team:

I want him to come home and recover in a way that empowers him. Although the mental health teams, both local and state, do not offer support in alternative empowerment and recovery models, almost all of the non-mainstream research indicate that relationship building is the core of healing and empowerment. After many years of my own research and lots of prayers, I believe, I have the support of a team, now; counselors, mentors, peers, that will become like a Village for Siddharta.

Source: A Mom Speaks Out

[finding my way]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Spiritual Emergency. I hope the ongoing trauma ends soon for this family!

[spiritual_emergency]

They will likely have their work cut out for them, finding my way. It's possible however, that in rejecting a model that has not produced recovery for Siddharta, and seems to have added considerable stress and trauma to him and his family... they may find healing with approaches that are outside of the mainstream.

[spiritual_emergency]

Updates...

UPDATE March 3, 2011 : My son has now been on the maximum doseage of Geodon for 5 months. This drug causes increased aggression and bizarre behavior. Pfizer, the makers of geodon lost the biggest lawsuit in pharmaceutical history in 2010. They lied about the effects of geodon and several other drugs and were found guilty to the tune of 2.3 billion dollars. And yet they did not have to or choose to take any of those drugs off of the market. They are still being massively prescribed to adults and children. Where have all the flowers gone... On the graves of the childen and adults who were part of the lawsuits in which deaths by drugging (simply collateral damage to Pfizer and i guess others) were part of the evidence.

I pleaded with the doctor to lower Sidd's doseage even by 10% the last month prior to his release. He refused. The doctor is concerned that Sidd has criminal tendencies, since he has returned to Western State eleven times since 1995, often under a criminal charge. What is not acknowledged is that often those returns were drug induced behaviors which include toxic withdraw effects from a brain that attempts to compensate from massive doses of drugs that become toxic in the long term.

Siddharta is also now on diabetic medication, which is a known side effect of the drug geodon. His eyes are glazed over and he walks and talks slowly. Five months of massive drugging has left him interacting very little with staff or patients and on his birthday, we had a very limited conversation. Is this truly what 5 months of "recovery" treatment should look like?"

[spiritual_emergency]

At long last...

UPDATE: Monday, March 14, 2011: Celebrating Siddharta's return HOME! And tomorrow we are having a celebration dinner!

Sadly he is heavily drugged after 5 months of forced confinement in the hospital and the effects are of grave concern. It is our hope and prayer to help him recover while trying to keep him out of harm's way and the system's reach.