I have said this on this site several times and I'll say it again. What's wrong with Britney is the number of psych meds she's taking and the carelessness with which she ingests a wide variety of meds and doses -- nothing less, nothing more. It's true I don't have absolute proof but there have been intimations in the media -- Paxil, Xanax, Ambien -- all have been named. Even these three alone could wreak havoc. And we all know how Hollywood shrinks operate -- just ply on more meds when things start to go south. I shudder to think what she's taking so as for bipolar and postpartum -- it's not even relevant frankly until you sort out all the treatment effects of the junk she's on. I have a feeling if she tapered off everything in an intelligent and educated fashion (an impossible dream I realize) she'd be just like any person dealing with a number of stressors and dysfunction in her life. Sure she needs help dealing with all the damage but I don't really think she has any "disorder" other than being who she is in the situation she's in.

Posted by: Sara at January 7, 2008 11:36 AM

You said it more eloquently than I could. Thank you.

Posted by: susan at January 7, 2008 11:44 AM

No she won't. People will look at her and by like, "Wow, bipolar people are not scary monsters. They can even be the most successful pop-stars in the world. I want to be bipolar too!"

Posted by: Gwen at January 7, 2008 12:01 PM

Sara, I'm glad to see someone else speaking out about the medications causing this, along with the absurd way Britany's abusive, adulterous ex is using custody of the kids to control Britany. It is so sexist. Now a woman who doesn't want to hand over her kids is mentally ill.

Back to the meds, googling Britany Spears +medication turns up a court order ordering her to abstain from "non-'prescription" drugs within 12 hours of seeing her children. This implies she was taking "prescription" medication.

Her bizarre over reaction to alcohol is typical of someone drinking while suffering from the excessive thirst produced by an ssri.

It looks like she's fighting the label. More power to her.

Posted by: Sally at January 7, 2008 12:11 PM

"white trash" is not a term I'd expected to see here. It's just as offensive as any other ethnic slur.

Posted by: Alison Hymes at January 7, 2008 05:31 PM

When I did the search for "Britney Spears + medication" this first article I read indicated that she was drinking and taking OxyContin. This would fall under the non-prescription category of the court order is she doesn't have a valid prescription for that drug. She is an addict, just like many folks in her family. She may also have a psych diagnosis, but maybe she's just an addict -- out-of-control. Regardless of why she is out-of-control, she shouldn't have custody of her children.

Philip - To your point about her being "hounded by the press", you have to understand that she notifies the paparazzi of where she is going to be. She's dating a paparazzo who's taken pics of themselves since she's been out of the hospital and is selling them to the highest bidder. Britney has always needed attention and the paparazzi fills that need.

Posted by: Chloe at January 7, 2008 05:39 PM

In regard to Britney: On Dec. 8th, 2006, Hollywoodscoop.com quoted from "In Touch" weekly that Britney Spears dined at Dan Tanan's and was seen in the ladies room [two witnesses] with two bottles, one of Paxil and one of Xanax, spilling out of her purse.

I speculated then that she would be pronounced "bipolar" within the year - as they almost always are-------------

Posted by: Rosie at January 7, 2008 07:56 PM

Call me callous, cynical, whatever, but I'm still on the fence as to whether or not this is real or just another step in a prolonged publicity stunt.

Posted by: T at January 7, 2008 09:07 PM

I suppose you are gonna censor my 'malicious comment' phil. Wake up to yourself phil. You're an ideologue for pseudoscience with a half baked commitment to human rights and safe drugs.

Posted by: Forever at January 7, 2008 09:27 PM

hey forever, and what's your commitment to schizophrenics who are homeless? when you get off your lazy ass and do some work on that front, i'll respect you. until then, stick in in your ear.

Posted by: Philip Dawdy at January 7, 2008 10:56 PM

Hey Phil, You did censor my comment pal. Remember the long one that made sense that you just ignored.

Here's the upshot of schizophrenics who are homeless pal...are you ready?

Schizophrenics don't exist. There are only trusting troubled people who live the label and get medicated into submission and end up on the street.

Schizophrenia doesn't exist as a biological disease pal. So stick that in your censoring ear.

People who are homeless need their faculties and minds more than they need our help.

Wouldn't it be nice if their initial psychosis was viewed as just that and treated without psuedoscientific bullshit? If they experienced trauma and were kept safe until their ability to keep themselves safe returned and then set on their way with their identities and dignity intact?

Wouldn't that be nice Phil? But instead they are told without any evidence that can expect to get sick again and again, and then to add insult to injury they are force fed neuroleptics just to make certain that they don't have 100% of their cognitive function to help them figure out they've been sucked in to the greatest scandal ever.

And then they get fed statistics of all the other relapses which are just in and of themselves collections of other trusting individuals who have been told to expect to get sick again by the shrinks.

What do you say to that you censoring piece of white trash? I can use that phrase can I not. I believe you've set a precedent for that language pal.

Phil why don't you address the fact that you have allowed a lie to shape your entire life? And you still bang on about it being true while with the other hand claiming to fight for reform, you're a fool Dawdy.

Sit there on your meds on disability or whatever you are doing and write your blog about big pharma's greed without ever questioning the fact that you are too weak to live your life as nature made you, you to destroy your identity and your body no doubt for many years with the lies and pills you've swallowed.

You ARE an ideologue and a half baked human rights campaigner. You are like the slave who is happy to live as a slave, with the world calling you a genetic birth defect with no evidence of any sanctity to these claims.

You are the slave who campaigns heavily for a more comfortable bed in the plantation for your fellow slaves. You never once consider breaking free. This is why you will not post this comment like you censored the other one. Because it's fucking true and you know it phil. Keep on shining a light on all the injustice phil, apart from the injustice that happened in 1989, you're too weak to face the fact that you should never have spent 20 years convinced you had a bad brain phil.

Stick some lithium in your mouth and i'll stick it in my ear like you said

Posted by: Forever at January 8, 2008 12:49 AM

Forever,

I may not agree with many of Phil’s thoughts, postings and agenda and that of his followers but he brings a consciousness, reality and awareness that all is not well in the field of Psychiatry which in my mind might be considered a pseudoscience and in need of vast improvement.

Whether his efforts and commitment to human rights and safe drugs are half baked, in my opinion, his efforts are better than not baking at all or worse yet as you who have apparently no commitment other than as you stated the need for “malicious comment”.

Warmly,
Herb
VNSdepression.com

Posted by: herb at January 8, 2008 06:13 AM

Geez, Forever, what kind of useful comment is that? Please explain yourself. Instead of issuing personal slurs why don't you speak up in an objective fashion about what it is you disagree with?

The most glaring examples of pseudoscience I can think of are what's going on in clinical research at places like Stanford and Harvard, not here on this site. Human rights? Almost anyone being treated for a psych disorder is having their rights violated. Safe drugs? There aren't many of those in the field of mental health.

Posted by: Sara at January 8, 2008 08:12 AM

Schizophrenia does not exist??!! Are you kidding?

Posted by: Katherine Stone at January 8, 2008 09:29 AM

Forever,

If I am following your logic, you imply:

If schizophrenia does not exist, therefore there are no such things as schizophrenics by your logic.

I've just been diagnosed schizoaffective/schizophrenic. I;m a living, breathing human being. But according to your logic I don't exist.

So do I or don't I and why do I feel like I am in some type of existential play if I follow your logic? I;m not Gregor Samsa. I am a real person, subject to the same slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as everyone else.

Sincerely,

Susan

Posted by: susan at January 8, 2008 10:25 AM

Too bad Margotkidder.com is down. Maybe Margot will visit Britany. I hope contemplate what a sane response to a life like Britany's would be. If you are a preteen superhero, and they're really not delusions of granduer or paranoia, you really are having your every move watched and being followed, could it be something other than a genetic chemical imbalance causing your problems?

Also, Forever, Phillip is more on your side than you realize at this time.

Posted by: Sally at January 8, 2008 10:41 AM

Regard "Forever". Are you and I reading the same Website? I am at furiousseasons.com

What are you reading?

Posted by: Rosie at January 8, 2008 10:51 AM

I love people like 'forever' giving us ability to educate them out from under their rocks. clearly, this person is stirring the pot, and has no clue about mental illness/health or other issues. basically appearing to never have spent time with people in shelters, psych wards or living under tarps on the side of freeways or under bridges, or having to watch a loved one be tortured by their mind, having medication as the only mainstream treatment, oh and this has everything to do with brit spears.

let's change the subject to how Dr. Phil stormed brit's hospital room and invaded her space, privacy and not forget he is not a doctor. her own psychiatrist compared him to being involuntarily committed, based on forced visit from Dr. Phil.

I also would treat an anon poster's word like the un signed letter file. trash can.

Posted by: Stephany at January 8, 2008 11:40 AM

I get the feeling that Forever has not been following this site for long because he doesn't seem to have a clue what's really on here. Please read some of the archives more carefully. You seem to be attacking the wrong blogger. You clearly don't know PD.

Posted by: Sara at January 8, 2008 11:41 AM

Professionals question Dr. Phil.

"...veteran psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Sugar said of the 26-year-old Spears. "But there's a difference between being detained involuntarily for psychological treatment and being forced to endure Dr. Phil involuntarily."

Posted by: Stephany at January 8, 2008 12:17 PM

haha! Diet Coke just went out my nose.

Posted by: d at January 8, 2008 06:52 PM

Phil, and others.....

thanks for the front page billing.

Now let me address your response.

Some lady said "I've just been diagnosed schizoaffective/schizophrenic. I;m a living, breathing human being. But according to your logic I don't exist."

Hahaha..... Are you kidding me? Is that what I said, that you as a person do not exist in the world.

WHAT I SAID WAS that schizophrenia is a word. It doesnt't exist as a disease. There is no proven biological pathology involved in the person so labelled schizophrenic by the shrink.

There are no schizophrenics, and i'll say it again. There are only people who have been troubled and at their most confused state of mind, got totally disconnected for a few days. And in danger of harming themselves or others. There is no disease that disables you for years and controls your every thought and mood. THERE is NO such thing.

Once you are told that there is by Sigmund Fraud over there at his office or the hospital that you have a disease, you start pathologizing every single mood and critiquing every single thought and the way you felt each day in a way that you never did prior to diagnosis. So it is a self fulfilling prophecy.

So after a childhood of abuse, very bad abuse, and an adolescence of drugs, or maybe just the one of the two, or maybe a sudden death in the family, or maybe years of hating yourself, someone with authority, backed by the media, the corporate world, the state, tells you all your ills can be explained away by the fact you have a disease which they can't even diagnose by anything other than a checklist.

Psychiatry's a social science dressed up as hard science people.

Don't you ever even dare tell me I don't know a thing about mental health issues. I am clearly more intelligent than the woman who comes on here and tells me that I argued that she didn't exist as a person in the world. That is just childish logic, and the sort of nonthinking that leads someone to accept that they have a disease that they should be wary of controlling each day of their lives lest it get out control. Which is rubbish.

People with shattered lives and no love in their families and no love for themselves are unhappy and disturbed. The future could come good, they could find some self worth. Then with the stroke of a pen some ideological fool masquerading as a scientist uses his power to ensure that that person will never have any status in the broader community, and labels them as someone who will continue to be insane and unreliable their whole lives.

And to make matters worse, when this hammer drops on the person's life they have a few months to a couple of years to realize they have been taken for a ride, but they can't get out of that diabolical maze that the shrink has thrown them into. Why? Because they are now operating on 25% of their neurology (or lets say perturbed neurology to an unknown percentage, but definitely less)

You have absolutely no position to comment on what I am doing to save lives from what the 'psychiatric solution' does to compound people's problems. As a matter of fact I intend to dedicate my whole life to it in the time I am not ensuring my economic well being. I plan on spending thousands of hours of the next few years raising awareness and once people are fairly warned about the dangers they face in dealing with their troubles using a shrink and drugs, then my job will be done.

I had no idea of the danger that psychiatry posed in the time before it was thrust into my mind. After years of languishing in manufactured disability created by the diagnosis, I realized I had not been allowed to heal from my psychosis. Which was due to the sudden death of a family member, and taking illicit drugs.

Exhibiting the behaviors of psychosis, for a week out of a life of tens of thousands of days is ABSOLUTELY NEVER a reason to accept that you should agree that you have a brain disease. None of you have ever been presented with scientific evidence of any validity that the controlling organ of your body is any way defective. None of you.

So my anger problem with this blog is thus. Phil claims to be this guy who is just completely aware that the 'scientific' claims of shrinks and big pharma stink to high heaven.....yet he is completely in agreement that he has a defective brain.....as told to him by shrinks in 1989.

I fail. I fail dismally to see how anyone who walks around this world with a label on their face which stands up to no scrutiny, serves no purpose but to stigmatize and hinder, can effectively bring about positive change in the movement that tries to shine light on the mess of the mental health world. I fail to see this.

The ONLY reason. And I repeat the ONLY reason that I am not living in a subdued state of disability, drugged to the hilt, and walking around this world as self conscious as a person with a parasitic twin growing out of their face, is because i COMPLETELY detached from psychiatry. REJECTED OUT OF HAND their so called 'diagnosis' which is not based in medicine nor science, simply ideology.

THE ONLY reason I am an able bodied able minded man with a bright future and feeling like there are ABSOLUTELY NO LIMITATION on what I can decide to achieve in my life. The only reason I can CONFIDENTLY procreate and be ASSURED that my child is not going to have a "genetic mental illness", is because I completely walked away from it.

Only from the cold hard gaze of a former member of the oppressed labelled can anyone even begin to figure exactly what goes on when someone decides to 'live the label'.

Starting a blog and saying you are bipolar but kids aren't and saying we want safer neuroleptics is not going to stop ANYONE from being at immense risk from total identity destruction at the hands of psychiatry.

And once again just for good measure. Schizophrenia does not exist in the sense that you have been LED to believe.

Is it totally beyond the realm of possibility that troubled individuals pushed to breaking point by issues or drugs when they first become psychotic are kept in suspended animation by the doomsday song sung to them by the shrinks, and denied the right to return to balance and stability by the fact that state sanctioned drugs are CONSTANTLY screwing with their minds? Why is it that people will agree that illicit drugs mess with your mind and thoughts and personality but you seem to believe that the chemical compounds stamped with the authority are these laser guided missiles that stabilize your 'mood'.

I guarantee any so called bipolar label living unfortunate that he or she had a completely different conception of the concept of 'mood' before they came into contact with shrinks.

And Phil, or Philip whatever you want to be called, what does it serve pointing that I am anonymous or where I live? You're all anonymous here too. Your address isn't here...most of your real names are not here. Your PHOTO of your face certainly isn't here. I'm anonymous until the time is right as is my right. People so concerned about rights should respect them. When the time comes i'll run circles around you all. The reason for this is not that I am better than you, or smarter, I'm not.

The chief reason that I will be effective in my task is this. No part of my identity comprises of a man who believes he is defective in any way what so ever. No part of my identity believes in any way that I cannot rely on my mind to be completely at my disposal for the rest of my life, or at least until a REAL objective brain disease hits me.

No part of me believes that I should be facing any discrimination in any facet of life. No part of me at all. Why? Because I have never been presented with any plausible scientific objective evidence that was arrived at in a plausible, scientific, objective way, to think in ANY way that anything in my mood is organically defective.

And none of you should change the whole way you look at human beings, your own life, and others, the way you think, they way you critique how you are feeling when asked by others, none if it should have ANYTHING to do with a psychiatric diagnosis. Because psychiatric 'brain diseases' have never and will never be proven to have an organic basis. There is nothing wrong with any of you apart from the scars you bear from the damage of living in civilization.

The homeless men and women on the streets, lining up at the soup kitchen who you call the 'schizophrenic' that I should help by doling out the soup for them, are not people with an organic brain disease. They are people most likely with shockingly rough hands of cards in life, devoid of loving homes, and when society took away the status they had as human beings by labeling them crazy, they gave up. And also too, how are you supposed to get your life together on neuroleptics? Neuroleptics are a chemical straight jacket. These people's minds are in prison. They might be walking around with a shopping trolley and the daily news stuffed between their legs in lieu of a tampax, but remember one key thing THEIR MINDS ARE IN PRISON. HELP THEM ONE WAY.

Not be filling the stomach of the body that has the poisoned mind with soup, but by freeing the mind. It's too late for many. Millions will die. Millions have. The pharmacaust will claim and keeping claiming for decades to come. The key is in prevention. The minute you allow someone to 'cure' a few days of extreme mind thought disturbance by giving you a lifetime of label and drugs and time to reflect on how you should be according to them pathologizing your every thought , your every move, meanwhile see how it goes on your idea of self worth to be told without evidence that you have filthy genes that could click in and send you insane at any random moment. Oh wait, there are 'triggers' of course, another weasel word or phrase from psychiatry.

The enemy is all those who would without any evidence deal with life's troubles in a biological way using synthetics. The enemy is anyone who would accept to 'overnight' become the new black man, the new gay, the mentally ill, for life, based on no objective evidence. The enemy is lack of education about the dangers of this world. The danger of contact with psychiatry is so dire, that everyone should have a right to refuse it, and any contact with it should be voluntary, and between consenting ADULTS. We have no right to forcibly invade anyone's biology. Sure if they commit a crime, or lose the ability to determine that it is dangerous to cross a busy street, as I did once, (the street not the crime) detain me, allow me to sleep. Keep me safe. Let me rest. Tie me up I don't care. DO NOT, and I repeat DO NOT.....RAPE MY BIOLOGY AND NEUROLOGY with neuroleptics. I never gave you permission to use me as a subject for human experimentation, which is what psychiatry is, they add to the 'body of knowledge' with information about the 'efficacy' on poor individuals whose troubled state these individuals were NEVER allowed to sleep off in a safe environment. YOU WAKE UP WITH A LIFELONG GENETIC BRAIN DISEASE, and do you question it? How can you when you are being drugged into submission and threatened with violent coercion?

Nobody who self identifies as a bipolar, as an 'object' who dehumanizes himself and all of us indirectly, can ever save anyone from harm. I am serious. If the whole pile stinking shit that is psychiatry and public mental health policy and drug industry and its regulation stinks to high heaven and you say it every day and see it every day, how then can you allow any part of your identity to be labeled, dubbed, defined, by another group who harms us all. How is that conscionable? Feed all the soup you like to the homeless abused, you'll really help when you educate some kids or young adults about how to see some value in themselves and life and work out their issues without any contact at all with psychiatry. You'll really save some lives when you prevent ANYONE who isn't informed of the end result of such a thing, even getting a psychiatric diagnosis. You'll save some lives when you showed others so labeled and slandered and abused how you overcame, and how you learned what you needed to know. The internet is the future of information dissemination. I am going to make certain that there is a place where people can find out the real end result of allowing psychiatry to define any part of yourself. I never that luxury, no one warned me. That is why I nearly died. That is why my dignity was taken away from me and why I walked around a zombie in my community operating on half my cognitive function and tarred with filthy stigma. NATURE DIDN'T DO THAT TO ME. PSYCHIATRY DID. AND THIS IS THE REASON I LIVE. The reason I sit here with my mind free and clear is thanks to my own courage to walk away, and thanks also goes to the internet, and those who helped educate me about the stinking pile. In that sense philip, you're helping. But you're not bipolar in any sense other than what a general agreement among millions of humans about what mental illness is philip. And millions can be wrong, have been wrong, and are wrong. Reclaim your natural identity as a human being in this society, the way nature made you, the way you were until first contact, the beauty and dignity in doing so will move you to tears should you have the courage to completely turn your back on a false paradigm. Do not let others define you. It's weak and pathetic. And it gives power to the definer.

Posted by: Forever at January 8, 2008 09:00 PM

Didn't mean to double post.

Posted by: Forever at January 8, 2008 09:02 PM

Forever,
I don't think you're a regular reader of this blog. Please see the archives
http://www.furiousseasons.com/archives/2007/12/
specifically, 12/11/07 and Philip's post "Once Diagnosed, Never Undiagnosed." He's questioned, challenged, raged and ranted at labels, instant diagnoses and the excessive use of prescription drugs and through his own hard efforts, has become medication free and extremely skeptical of his original dx. I truly don't understand why you're lashing out at him---his perspective is much closer to yours, if you take the time to read his blog regularly.
What I personally find disturbing is how often readers of this blog & others are so quick to discount, criticize and judge other people's experiences/journeys. Our opinions are all colored by our own past and present experiences. I do not believe in the "one size fits all" approach, esp when it comes to
mental health issues and wellness. We can agree to disagree but we need to respect each other's viewpoints and take personal responsibility to stay informed, remain skeptical yet open-minded.

Posted by: Nancy at January 9, 2008 09:38 AM

Of course Britney and her "mental illness" are featured on the covers of People and US magazines and, as you predicted, Philip it's all about whether she's "bipolar" or not. It's really sick that the articles don't even mention all the treatment she's already had. In other coverage though she is described as having "Paxil eyes", a take-off I guess from the old "Prozac eyes", and yes, I certainly believe she is suffering from drug-induced mania. I shudder to think how she's probably chopping and changing doses and meds. And of course there could well be other substances thrown in for good measure, especially as SSRIs often induce a craving for alcohol (and not just because of dry mouth). I really view it as a travesty that the full story behind this breakdown is not coming out.

And just in case Forever comes back I'd just like to say that he/she should stick around because a lot of us (even PD I venture to say) share views that are not entirely inconsistent with his/hers. I for one have cited the book Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion? by Mary Boyle here on this site in earlier comments and just like bipolar I think labeling someone with these "diagnoses" and calling them "illnesses" can be very destructive and implies a life sentence that I don't believe in. The labels are virtually meaningless as far as I'm concerned compared to the life stories of the people so labeled. On the other hand I very much object to Forever's antagonistic and hostile tone and false assumptions about Philip and other commenters on this site when clearly he/she has read almost nothing here.

Posted by: Sara at January 12, 2008 01:17 PM

Criminies!



Forever -- you have got a LOT of energy! And a LOT of anger! And I can agree with some of your points, but I really can't agree that Phil is the enemy. I like Phil. I like his blog. I recommend this site to numerous people. I appreciate the time he puts into his posts and research. I'm not concerned with whether or not he takes medication. To me, those are his choices, just as your recovery (and methods) are your choices. I wouldn't want to deny you your way and I wouldn't want to deny him his either.



Listen, you obviously feel that you have something to say and you've got a lot of energy to say it. I seriously suggest that you go get a blog of your own where you can tell other people about your experience and why you feel it was harmful, and what you think needs to change.



But remember, Phil is not a psychiatrist, he didn't make any of the decisions that guided your treatment, and all things considered, I think he's more on your side than you realize.



Meantime, you could probably make better use of your voice by attempting to educate other people than to get angry at those who really are making a difference in their own way.



Best of luck.

Posted by: spiritual_emergency at January 14, 2008 10:50 PM

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