Review on Electroshock Therapy - Part 2

Diana Loper: They told me that they would give me a mild sedative or they would give me something, I wouldn't feel anything, and that the electro -- Dr. John Breeding: Mild sedative means a general anesthesia, which has all the effects that anesthesia have, and it follows with the process in the system. And the reason you have long informed consent things, that when you go to the doctor for a general surgery. That's a general anesthesia. Diana Loper: And he said, well, it's not blind surgery, this is not -- you are not being cut on, this is really -- when you come out of this, you are going to be happy, you are going to be -- all the sadness is going to go away. And I said, well, you know what, the sadness is going away, I said, so why don't we just not do this? Well, no, it is my decision as the doctor, I have made the decision that you will have a series of; I don't remember how many treatments. And I said, you have made the decision that you are going to take me and knock me out, give me electroconvulsive therapy, against my will, that's what I am hearing you say to me. As a 24-year-old, that has a new baby at home, who is going to take care of my son? Well, you are not able to take care of your son, there is no telling what could happen to your son with you in the shape you are in. So they are even planting things in my mind that I could do something to my son, because I am just not in the right character today. Well, of course then as a young mother, I am thinking, wow, wouldn't that be terrible? Now, you see how they can take and turn everything to make it look like everybody is going to be in harm's way if they don't do something for you. Dr. John Breeding: Anybody out there believe in civil liberties, believe in like freedom and dignity, believe in adult human beings have a right to make decisions for themselves, anybody believe in that? How did it happen that this woman has suddenly turned into a child or an incompetent person if the doctor makes a decision for that person? That's what has happened here. That's what happens everyday in a psychiatric mental health system. There is always a story behind it. Diana Loper: There is. And I am just one of many. The only reason I am here today is to get everybody organized, to realize that this did happen to me. They took me, they shocked me against my will. They straitjacketed me. They shocked me. They threw me in a room, where I didn't know where I was. They might as well have just taken a sledge hammer and hit me over the head with it, because I am just walking around going, duh! Alright, they say to you, they say to you -- I said, well, how does this work? How does this work? Well, it's going to take these -- and they really didn't have any scientific anything. It's just going to take all this bad away. Well, what I know now is it is like a baby effect. They had not idea where that shock was going to go, they just take it and go... like this. So what happened to me is, I didn't have anything to be -- I mean, I wasn't depressed which is what I am trying to tell you. I was not depressed. Dr. John Breeding: You certainly didn't sound like "depressed" person. If you define depressed person it's kind of shut down and unable to move, I just wanted to share this great quote from Dr. Peter Breggin, one of our activist psychiatrist allies. "Psychosurgery remains the only treatment surrounded by more controversy than electroshock." Psychosurgery is pretty controversial. We managed to get lobotomy outlawed about three decades ago. But it is used much less frequently than electroshock. The two treatments are closely related in many ways. Electroshock can accurately be described as closed head electrical lobotomy. So your question was really right on. They took away your rights. They took away your physical rights, your civil rights, your rights as a citizen. And they took away your mental freedom. They took away your -- Diana Loper: Well, they took away everything. Dr. John Breeding: Well, they took away your -- everything; your child. Diana Loper: My whole life, because when they got through with me I didn't know who my child was, I didn't remember being married. Dr. John Breeding: Everybody got that? Diana Loper: I had no idea who everyone was. Dr. John Breeding: Here is a young mother, whose whole life-instinct is based on this boy, and taking care of this boy, and a little while later, she doesn't even remember being married and having this child. Diana Loper: So when I didn't know who my husband was -- and I can understand this now John, I didn't then, but I try to look at him now and I try to picture him walking up to me one day, with my baby in his arms, putting his arms around me, and I don't know either one of them. So it destroyed his life too, it didn't just destroy my life, it destroyed my son's life, it destroyed my life. So what happened to me then is, my husband was very bitter at me, because I didn't know who he was, and asked me how this all gets turned, but it does, and you will see on shock survivors, it will get turned. And so he was bitter at me so he took me to court to divorce me, and take my son away from me, because I couldn't take care of my son. My Judge was Ruby Sondock, and the interesting thing about shock is don't ask me what in the world I was supposed to forget that they shocked me to forget, because the good things I forgot, and I don't really have -- didn't really have that much bad to forget. So they took me to court and the judge said, I have no alternative Diana, but to give your son to your husband, because you don't know who he is. But in six months after, I hope, you get on your feet, you can get yourself back together again, and you have a job, I want you to come back to court and we will reevaluate this and see where you are. I started trying to get back on my feet. My memory -- now, but this time I was on, what you call, just a high, just a euphoric high. It was just like, okay, whatever, don't know him, yeah, see you, bye. Just don't care. Just something -- Dr. John Breeding: About 10% or so of people who get electroshock, which is basically a massive amount, 120 or more volts of electricity directly through the temporal lobes of the brain, more than a common electrical outlet, enough to induce a convulsion. 10% at least of people who get electroshock experience this kind of euphoria, which is directly attributable to a closed head injury. So in fact, the same people who get concussions, who get hit on the head, certain percentage of them experience this kind of euphoria, and that was your experience. Diana Loper: Well, see, the judge realized this too, I know that she realized this. I had my son -- she told my husband, who is still an evangelist, still preaching, told my husband that he was not to take my son out of Harris County. I was to have him every weekend, but my mother was to be with me at all times, and I understand that, I didn't even know who he was, but she wanted that child in my presence every weekend, with my mother. My mother agreed to do it. She wanted me to have every holiday with him, and then six months be back in this courtroom. Christmas, I don't know what year, but Christmas we were supposed to be back in court to rehear. I was beginning to get stable. My mom was working with me. I was going to Christian counseling, all these things were going on. I was holding down a job, I was working at a dry-cleaners, holding down a job. Seeing that I was able to handle my son, my mother was showing me pictures of when I was pregnant, and helping me regroup with my son. I was beginning to do that, and my husband picked him up for the Christmas holiday. And I remember this like it was yesterday, I was finally getting close to my son, and my ex-husband took him to take him away after the holiday, my baby turned and looked at me and said, no, I want my mommy. And that's the last I saw my son. My husband ran off with him, and told him that I was dead. Shock is a crime against the spirit, and it's a rape of the soul. It takes you and destroys your life, and how you get on top of it, sometimes you -- some survivors, I don't know if they do or they don't, but that's why we are here today, is anyone who sees this show, I want them to see that we are trying to stop this. [Music Playing]