In my time as an inpatient, I was disturbed that the use of ECT(
electroconvulsive therapy) and "quiet rooms" were so widespread. I
thought these torture methods had gone the way of the dinosaur. About
1/3 of the patients on the ward I was on, were getting ECT. I'd stand
in the hall and watch the nurses wheel them out on stretchers,
unconscious.. These people would walk around like zombies for a few
causes, amongst other things, people to temporarily forget whether they
are a man or a woman. He said that this often occurs but passes after a
few days(!) I then launched into a half-hour tirade against the
biological model. The doc responded with "o.k. I'll give you some
medicine that will make you feel better." Totally hopeless. I asked a
young Hindu woman who was getting ECT about it., (she was in for a
suicide attempt and had given birth to a child while on the ward.--she
tried to hang herself while pregnant--I came to know her quite well) She
said that it helps and the most frightening thing is that you go under
general anesthesia where there is a few seconds when you can't breathe
before the nurses start breathing for you through one of those bags.
"Quiet Rooms" or solitary confinement are used for people who exhibit
"antisocial" behavior on the ward.IMO, the worst thing you can do to
someone who is losing their grip on reality is to put them into
solitary. One woman got put into the quiet room for 4 days. When she got
out, I asked her why they had put her in there. She replied "to drive me
crazy".ECT and solitary confinement should be banned for they do more
harm than good. This has been documented by, amongst others, Peter
Breggin in his many books. Breggin argues that ECT causes permanent
brain damage. The point of ECT and psychotropic drugs, it seems to me,
is to induce a chemical lobotomy amongst people deemed a nuisance to
society. We did art therapy too. They brought in this art therapist
who'd give these cool psychoanalytic interpretations of your artwork.
There was also this criminal defense lawyer speed freak on the ward who
had his wife bringing speed to him on the ward.He was in bad shape;he
looked like he was making his last stand. He was doing a drawing and the
whole sheet ended up completely black."My wife called the cops on me,
she said I was out in the backyard trying to dig myself to the center of
the earth". Many of the nurses and doctors themselves were heavily
medicated and had at one time been patients. A Felliniesque circus.
There was a brand new Yamaha stand up piano on the ward. A doctor came
goose-stepping behind me and said "Hmmm, your playing Chopin instead of
Scriabin today, I think your getting better. Maybe we will release you
soon." One morning I was sitting in the garden enjoying a cigarette
when a very old women sat beside me and said "My, I've forgotten how
nice it is here in the springtime."
"Have you been here before", I replied.
" Haven't we all?"
That would be a great beginning to a novel.
Sam Pawlett
p.s. I delivery man came into work the other day. The following
conversation took place.
DM:"Have you ever heard of a band called ZZ Top, man?"
SP:"yeah"
DM: "They wear overalls like us, eh."
