Spring Fundraiser, Day Two (Includes Reader Testimonial)

So far, $80 from four contributors has come in to date, leaving $3,920 and 96 contributors to go before the fundraiser reaches its goal of $4,000 and 100 contributors sometime around March 6.

Thanks to all of you for the contributions to date. I know a couple of others are coming via USPS, but for the rest of you it would be great if you'd make a contribution, however large or small.

As ever, the PayPal button is on the right or if you prefer using snail mail, send me an email and I'll send you my mailing address.

BTW, I am in the process of doing some reporting for what promises to be a major bit of news and I hope to be able to write about it by the end of next week.

So yesterday, I got what's got to count as one of the most satisfying bits of reader feedback in 15 years of journalism:

"I would also like to thank you for Furious Seasons. My daughter was 13 when she received a diagnosis of 'bipolar.' The doctors never seemed to understand that before they started medicating her (26 medications in all) she had zero symptoms for the disorder. Your site gave me the information I needed to support my decision to withdraw her from all medication in spite of extreme opposition from her doctors. Within 2 weeks she said for the first time in two and a half years she did not feel depressed (which is what she was originally seen for) and she no longer acted psychotic. It took another year before she was completely recovered. She is now 19 and working. More importantly she is happy and healthy. Furious Seasons played a crucial role in restoring her health and happiness. I can only say thank you thank you,thank you,thank you."

I asked her for some more detail:

"Her original diagnosis was made by a social worker after a 45 minute conversation. The social worker immediately had her admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Once there a psychiatrist talked to her for about 10 minutes before he put her on Zyprexa. They did not ask for permission from her father or me to do this. Within 1 day her condition worsened dramatically. When we told the doctors we believed the medication was making her worse their position was that they had caught it just in time and without medication she would be much worse.Through 5 psychiatrists, 3 hospitalizations, 26 medications (in more combos than I could count), through daily episodes of rage or depression when she would sob for hours, even through watching her gain 80 pounds while at the same time losing her cognitive abilities and short term memory to the point where she had to drop out of school, her psychiatrists held firm to that opinion. While she was going through all this I was searching for every bit of information I could find about being bipolar and the medications they were giving her. Furious Seasons was the first site I found that logically and calmly exposed the lack of real scientific facts and evidence which would support the pharmaceutical treatment my daughter was receiving. It was when my daughter seemed to be developing T.D. (she had been on antipsychotics for 2 1/2 years at that point......I did not learn about the risk of developing movement disorders from medication from any of her doctors, I learned about it from your site) that we decided we had to stop listening to the doctors. It took about 2 months to withdraw her from the medications. It took another year for her metabolism, memory, and ability to learn to return to normal. She lost all her high school years and most of her friends. Thankfully she says she can't remember much of what she experienced. I remember almost every minute of it."

I'll leave it at that.