Ways to get the mission of Invisible Youth Network spread to more and more people.  If you're reading this, you can help by both checking us out for yourself and e-mailing what I'm writing here to your own friends!

Designing an ideal handicapped shower for myself.  I hope that somebody can create it for me according to my plan.

Participating in my continuing recovery from allowing my body to deteriorate.  I had no idea just how sick I was until I ended up in the hospital.  I was also uninsured but, thankfully, found myself taken care of by a special program at St. John's Medical Center.

Go here for details of my life here recently.

Getting ready to finish my book.  I have three more chapters to go.

I would want to give up any lingering doubts that I might have that I can't go home again to 1977!

In 1977, I was at my ideal weight and was able to easily walk several miles at one time.

One of my goals at this time is to become an older and wiser version of my 1977 self, and I have little or no doubts that I can do this.

However, if I have any doubts at all, I would like to give them up!

TOWANDA!!!

Nothing!

I'm always present somewhere--aren't you!?!

Besides the typical life experiences of losing (temporarily) dear ones to death; losing romantic relationships; losing (sometimes, temporarily misplaced--at other times, permanently lost...for now, anyway) inanimate objects; and losing weight (sometimes, from dieting; sometimes, from illness, such as when I had scarlett fever at four and actually became skeletal; and, other times, from losing retained water).................besides those, I have another type of loss:  lost years of being at my ideal weight, thanks to being given meds that I didn't even need for a period of time back in the 1970s.

I now have gone from having edema (something I never had before the meds) to having lymphedema.

Thankfully, this is being addressed now, and my legs are now wrapped up in order to bring the swelling down.  I'm making great progress, praise the Lord!!!

After this therapy is finished, I will maintain the progress by using a massage pump for thirty minutes each morning and thirty minutes each night.  I will also be wearing circulation stockings except for when I'm bathing.

The drugs I was given were first Thorazine and, sometime after that, Navane--with Navane being the worst offender, though Thorazine wasn't entirely innocent.

These are antipsychotic drugs and are--though, also, used for other things at times--mainly used for the treatment of schizophrenia.

I have never had schizophrenia in my life!

It's a long story how I got to the place where I ended up getting put on these meds--a long and interesting story worthy of a book.  I'm now on the eighth of ten chapters.

I'm not out to rattle personal cages, and nobody responsible for my getting to this place is named by name.  I just want to warn people to think twice before going this route.

At one time, I believed that I had the various side-effects from these meds because I was given them when I didn't need them, and I assumed that those who needed them wouldn't have to deal with the side-effects.

However, I was so wrong there!

When I did some research on the Internet, I found out that what Ralph Nader said about the Corvair (and various other automoblies, though the Corvair got the most publicity in the news regarding this statement) could be applied to Thorazine, Navane, and their ilk:

"Unsafe at any speed!" 

That is, these meds are bad news for those in need of medical attention along those lines as well as those not needing them.

This isn't to tell people who are already on them to quit taking them, as it's far more complicated than that.  Stopping taking them after being on them could also cause problems.

There are several people taking them who actually say that they would go off the deep end without them--though I wonder if they would have ended up with an even cleaner bill of health had they gone another route, which brings me to this conclusion:

My advice is for those who haven't started yet to not go that route in the first place.

So, what do you do when you have mental problems and need to have them treated?

In order to be prepared for such a time when this might happen to you or someone you love, I would highly recommend that you read the book by Robert Whitaker called Mad In America (which has its own website) and Google the name of  Peter Breggin (a doctor--and I've gotten you started here with his website); and check out a website called Say No To Psychiatry.

I was one of the lucky ones who managed to get off of them safely--though I had no idea that I was playing with fire while doing so.   More details about this in my upcoming book--also, highly-recommended reading!  DUH!  LOL

If you would like to follow the progress of my book, you can go to this blog-entry in my latest blog called WRITEous Living.

In spite of everything, I see my experience as something containing some positives--among them, a greater awareness of this issue.

One aspect of the pilling of society that I especially detest is the administering of Ritalin to children.  I am 100% against Ritalin and am warning parents NOT to be pressured into going that route. 

Your kids don't need this! 

This trend is just something to make it easier for teachers and other staff to "manage" the kids put in their care while lining the pockets of one or more pharmaceutical companies.

In various kinds of meds, there might be trade-offs with the best known example being how chemotherapy often results in nausea, temporary hair-loss, etc.  However, I wouldn't go on the warpath against chemotherapy, though I believe that several options for cancer treatment should be open to patients.

I'm not going on the warpath against painkillers, even though we've just lost Michael Jackson to their effects (due to being overused) and even though part of the instructions for taking them restricts driving and being around dangerous machinery.

Let me add here that I believe that the problem of requiring higher and higher doses of traditional prescription painkillers would be lessened considerably--if not entirely done away with--if marijuana would become legalized where people would be more free to use it to lessen their pain.

FYI, I've never even smoked a single joint--and, at one time, believed that it should remain illegal, so I'm not looking for a way to feel more free to have wild parties with everybody getting high.  I've just become more informed about this issue--as well as the hidden agendas that ended up making it illegal in the first place.

However, I'm on the warpath bigtime against the so-called brain treatments (electroshock, lobotomies, anti-psychotic drugs), because they DAMAGE a person's brain instead of improving it.

Thank you for the opportunity to rant on this issue, and I would very much welcome discussion of the same in the comment thread, whether or not you agree with me (but try to be kind when posting, whether in agreement or disagreement).