CLEARWATER, Fla., June 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In keeping with the designation by the National Center for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for June as PTSD Awareness Month, the Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog organization co-founded by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz, is hosting a weekly seminar throughout June on the subject: “Are PTSD Suicides Connected to Psychiatric Drug Treatment?”. The seminars will be held at CCHR Florida’s headquarters in downtown Clearwater.
Life-threatening situations such as assault, wartime combat, terrorism, and natural or human-made disasters may lead to PTSD with symptoms such as “distressing dreams, persistent thoughts and recurring flashbacks about the traumatic event or events, numbing or avoidance of memories of the trauma and triggered emotional responses.” [1]. But according to CCHR there is a dark side to the PTSD Awareness campaign that centers on the issue of treatments, and whether some of these are in fact causing more harm than good.
80% of veterans labeled with PTSD receive psychotropic drugs, many so dangerous they are labeled with the strictest warnings issued by the FDA. Additionally, the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration collectively spend $9 billion a year on their mental health budgets. [2]
Coincident to these statistics, twenty veterans are committing suicide every day, and although military veterans make up 9 percent of the population, they account for 18 percent of all suicides. [3] The epidemic of suicides among the U.S. military has increased in proportion to the number being prescribed dangerous psychiatric drugs. From 2005 to 2011, the US Department of Defense increased its prescriptions of these pharmaceuticals almost seven times.
Former US Army Sergeant Joel Kort said of the PTSD-type treatment he received as a soldier, “I didn’t see the emergence of psychiatry in the Army until I suffered my own injury, and then it was like a flood. It was a flood of doctors and it was a flood of meds…. I know that I’ve been on Ambien, Seroquel, Paxil—that was one of the big ones. A very dangerous drug…called Abilify. It kind of puts whatever meds you’re on, on steroids.” [3]
“In Florida alone, two of our veterans commit suicide every day”, said Diane Stein, President of Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida. “Suicidal ideation is a black-box warning on the labels of psychiatric medications given for PTSD to military vets. These medications have never been shown to reduce risk or incidence of suicide – on the contrary. Shouldn’t this information be part of 'PTSD Awareness Month'?” [4]
For more information on this topic and the seminars, contact CCHR Florida 727-442-8820
About CCHR: Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. It was L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, who brought the terror of psychiatric imprisonment to the notice of the world. In March 1969, he said, “Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the ‘free world’ tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of ‘mental health.’” For more information visit, www.cchrflorida.org
Sources:
[2] https://www.cchrint.org/issues/the-hidden-enemy/
[4] https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/data-sheets/Suicide-Data-Sheet-Florida.pdf
Media Contact:
Diane Stein
President, CCHR Florida
727-442-8820
diane@cchrflorida.org
www.cchrflorida.org