Feedback: We'd like to hear your comments and views. Please forward them to the e-mail address above. Contact information is below.

Also included on the site is an array of articles on topics ranging from the medical causes of schizophrenia to the effects of toxic metals on mental health.

Special AlternativeMentalHealth.com T-shirts and bumper stickers are available at our online store.

A bookstore page lists top books that cover many areas of alternative treatments with titles like Natural Healing for Schizophrenia and Other Common Mental Disorders and No More Ritalin.

AlternativeMentalHealth.com has been created to educate the public, practitioners, and government officials on the medical conditions that create "mental illness" and the many safe resources available for addressing and often curing severe mental symptoms.

This issue marks our fourth year publishing The Alternative Mental Health News and, my, how things have grown. In the past eight months, we have seen grassroots efforts to create Safe Harbor chapters in other cities in the U.S. and abroad. With current chapters established in Boston and New York City, we have had further inquiries and activity from Wisconsin, Chicago, Albuquerque, Germany, and two cities in India.

Of course, to accomplish all of this, we need continued financial support from the public. Many volunteers and I continue to work at no pay to ensure the work carries on, but we have staff, utilities, and other costs that must be met. These costs increase further as our growth continues.

Once a year Safe Harbor launches a fundraising drive to help cover our costs for the year and that time has arrived once again! It culminates on October 9th of this year in Los Angeles with our spectacular awards benefit (details below).

This year we honor one of the truly great pioneers in the world of autism, Dr. Bernard Rimland. For decades, Dr. Rimland's name has been synonymous with safe, natural treatments for autism.

Additionally, we are pleased to honor a tremendous friend of Safe Harbor and one of the earliest collegiate teachers of nutritional psychiatry, Professor James Croxton.

We hope you can be there. If not, buy a ticket (or part of one!) anyway or help us underwrite the event or just help us period, and your financial support will help forward our work in changing lives every day.

For those on the East Coast, we are super proud to present Safe Harbor's first "Free Your Mind" concert (details also below). It's hip. It's fun! And it doesn't cost much. Please come see us and help us kick off the opening of our NY chapter with a bang.

We hope to see you!

"I would like to thank you for the information on your site. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1998 and since have been battling with different antidepressants and mood stabilizers and I was still spending about 2 months a year out of action. Not very helpful when you are a student.

"During my last depressive phase, antidepressants stopped working and I was told by the mainstream doctors that there wasn't much left that they could do. It was suggested that I go on a disability pension and give up my university studies and I was devastated.

THE EVENT:

Southpaw, Brooklyn
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
$10 (Advance ticket sales at Ticketweb.com)
Doors Open at 8:00. Show starts early.
Directions: www.spsounds.com

Featuring:

• Nellie McKay
  "...looked like a 1940's movie star, banged the piano like a whirlybird, sang like Doris Day and penned couplets as divine as Cole Porter's." -NY Observer
  www.antifolk.net/artists/nelliemckay

And performances by:

• 33Hz
  www.33hz.com
   
• Flat Astronauts
  www.flatastronauts.com
   
• and special guest Jason Trachtenburg
  (of the Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players - recently featured on the Conan O'Brien Show) www.slideshowplayers.com
   

If you are in the Los Angeles area, we will have a support group meeting from 7 PM to 9 PM. There will be no lecture since we have had requests for longer time to discuss. Jeri Marston, R.N., will be running the support group, as always.

The meeting will be at the Safe Harbor office at 1718 Colorado Blvd. in the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles.

If you could not attend the conference this year in person, or you were there and would like a record of what was discussed, you can obtain recordings on Compact Disc, either singly for each session or altogether as a set. 
 

Center for Advocacy in Mental Health, an organization working in community mental health and advocacy in Pune, India, is organizing a Workshop on Alternative Mental Health between 27-29th of August 2003 in Pune.

As an organization, we firmly believe, mental health is an integral aspect of our day-to-day lives and that the causes of mental ill health cannot be traced back just to the bio-medical factors. Mental health cannot merely be a domain of psychiatric experts. In our search for such alternatives, we found an exciting range of mediums and therapies that address mental health in various ways in our locality.

We are looking forward to share this alternative paradigm of mental health with those working with people in various difficult situations as well as with those personally interested in mental health. The workshop aims at exploring the intersection of mental health with various mediums such as music, dance, stories, play, meditation, sports and self - help and therapies such as homeopathy, nutrition, orthomolecular psychiatry, flower remedy, neuro-linguistic programming and acumassage.

Our first support group meeting in this new space will be Monday, September 8, 2003, and we will be meeting there every Monday thereafter.

7-9:00pm every Monday.

On Saturday, August 16, 2003, a hunger strike begins to protest human rights violations in the mental health system. At least eight members of MindFreedom - Support Coalition International will arrive in Pasadena, California, to issue an unprecedented challenge to the psychiatric establishment.

These members will call upon the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) to produce actual reliable, valid, and replicable scientific evidence for claims about "chemical imbalances," "biological brain diseases," and drugs that allegedly prevent more suicides and violence than they provoke - or "admit that what they've claimed cannot meet the standards of orthodox science."

To back up their challenge, these MindFreedom members will announce that they intend to decline solid food for an indefinite period of time until the challenge is met.

They are demanding that government agencies, at every level, no longer give virtually exclusive financial, legal, and rhetorical aid to what they refer to as "biopsychiatry" and its contentions. They are asking the media to look behind biopsychiatry's public relations campaigns and press releases, and investigate whether the evidence available justifies "wholesale drugging of children, increased shocking of seniors, forced incarceration and restraint of the criminally innocent, and more."

Those who have agreed to fast include David Oaks, Vince Boehm, and Dawn Rider.

A panel of 14 academics and authors has been selected to analyze and publicly review any material presented by the supporters of "biopsychiatry." Panelists include Loren Mosher, Peter Breggin, Ty Colbert, and David Cohen.

The Coalition is asking for donations and volunteer help. To donate, click on "JOIN/DONATE" at www.MindFreedom.org and request in the "comments" section that the funds be directed to the hunger strike.

To volunteer your help, contact the SCI office in Eugene, Oregon, and contact Mickey Weinberg in Pasadena at (626) 449-0104. Email: Mickey37@earthlink.net.

For background on the "Fast for Freedom in Mental Health," including the initial announcement and fast statement, see:
www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/hungerstrike.shtml

White Oaks Lodge
Molly Baxter
HC 31, Box 19
Carrizozo, New Mexico  88301  USA
Phone: 505-934-1657
Email: rbaxter@gte.net

"The White Oaks Lodge is a remote and rustic facility in the mountains of South Central New Mexico accommodating up to 6 guests only. At 8,000 feet above sea level it is 3 miles from the closest neighbor and 12 miles from the closest town. A beautiful pond and spacious quarters allow someone to locate in a total change of environment.

"It is a stress free environment for individuals needing a place to get away for rest and relaxation. Nutrition, diet and supplements are emphasized in coordination with a local Naturopathic Doctor.

"24 Hour Care is available from our experienced staff."

In December 2002 I began a course of dexamphetamine, 6 per day. I had been diagnosed with Adult ADHD. For the 30 years of my life I always felt like I didn't fit in. I did extremely well at school; however, I got very bored and had difficulty sustaining friendships. It was a sad childhood, but one that has now made me stronger. My psychiatrist suggested that I have a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis. I had never heard of such a test. I was happy to pay, even though it is not rebated by health insurance in Australia.

The results revealed that I had copper levels of 39.4. (The optimum is 2.4). I also had a high level of aluminum. Although I still didn't quite understand what all of this meant, I began taking the vitamins that my doctor suggested. I was on the internet every night for weeks gathering as much information as I could.

For about 15 years I have suffered with migraines, back, neck and shoulder joint problems, eczema, anxiety and panic attacks. I was very withdrawn and avoided social occasions. When I was pregnant with my only wonderful boy I had Gestational Diabetes and was told to expect getting diabetes in the future.

Since taking the vitamins I have not had a migraine since January 6, 2003, my eczema has gone, I have had no back, neck or shoulder pain and I know longer have panic attacks and anxiety problems.

Due to my problems and recovery progress I am passionate about getting information out to as many people as I can. I wrote a testimonial and sent it to many friends, family and workmates. So far my influence has saved 7 people from serious health problems. I have 6 other close friends that I am still trying to help. It is very frustrating when I can tell what deficiencies they have, but they are reluctant to take my advice. We only have a handful of medical practices that deal with nutritional health, so there is not a lot of support.

My son has been on the same diet and vitamins as me, as he got the copper levels from me when I was pregnant. He was always sick and had ear infections on a monthly basis as a toddler. He suffered badly with discoid eczema, insomnia, paranoia, and also began showing signs of ADHD. He is nearly 6 and is a new child. He is very bright and extremely creative.

I now only take 11/2 dexamphetamine a day and expect to be drug free by the end of the year.

I now believe that it is my purpose in life to spread the word and make the government and the medical professions take responsibility for not letting the public be aware of the problems with the soil in our state and the problems associated with heavy metals in today's society.

My email is trankers@bigpond.com if there are any questions.

From Occupational Therapist Barbara Carr, in response to a psychotherapist/school counselor's question about effective approaches to severe emotional and behavioral disorders in kids:
 

A very high percentage of these types of kids have significant cranial strains from birth. See http://trainland.tripod.com/lawrencelavine.htm for one doctor's view on cranial strains and autism. The cranial strains put stress on the nervous system and cause dysfunction in very basic autonomic nervous system controls, which then makes it harder to adapt to biochemical stresses that occur as they grow (heavy metal toxicity from vaccines, poor diet, overuse of antibiotics causing dysbiosis, etc.) I don't think with most kids (particularly at the more severe end of the spectrum), there is one main thing wrong, although there might have been one thing that "broke the camel's back." They almost always have food and environmental allergies and/or sensitivities, carbohydrate sensitivities (and they eat way too many carbs on top of it), fatty acid imbalances, poor detox capabilities, poor digestive function and often have triggered auto-immune processes. I've seen the best results when cranial osteopathy is started early on (before 3 or 4 years of age), a good diet is implemented that avoids known allergens and food dyes/additives/preservatives and is low in carbs (often completely avoiding gluten and casein), and homeopathy is used to detox/support/drain along with nutritional supplements with an emphasis on minerals, probiotics (Primal Defense is a good one), B vitamins and liver detox support. There is a lot of talk recently of stealth organisms causing a problem for these kids (and adults with neuropsychological problems) and I have no doubt there is validity to this theory for some of them. I was just contacted by an MD doing research on a product that is targeting stealth organism and he gave me a particular protocol to try with the kids. His product is called Samento Plus and can be found at http://www.nutramedix.com. Along with this he uses Noni juice and a heavy metal detox product. You can read about stealth viruses at:  http://www.ccid.org I use electrodermal screening and metabolic typing to help determine what path to take with the kids. I do think some form of bioenergetic testing is useful (but certainly not definitive). Tests such as Signet Diagnostics' test for food allergies (888-669-5327) are a must, right from the start, to help calm down the immune system while you address the things that are setting it off. I'm working on writing a little guidebook for parents. Not all the kids will have the same underlying problems, but there are enough similarities to make some generalizations on where to start. I also think the basics are key - good, wholesome diet! Without the basics, a lot of the more specific interventions don't work as well. When the physiological problems are under control, therapies such as auditory integration and sensory integration work great to help develop and organize the nervous system once it is not so stressed by the structural and biochemical problems. I have been an occupational therapist for 18 years working with children who have autism, ADD, ADHD, learning disabilities, PDD, etc. In the last 9 years, I have been training in nutrition and homeopathy and other areas of natural health in recognition of the fact that these kids are physically ill and that their problems resolve with natural health interventions. I also end up working with adults who are depressed, anxious, etc, although my focus and main interest is with the kids. Barbara Carr

"I whole-heartedly support the statement passed by the NAACP concerning the discrepancies in special education and the use of psychotropic drugs on children and teens. This resolution is right in line with H.R. (House Resolution) 1170, "The Child Medication Safety Act of 2003, which prohibits school personnel from requiring a child to be medicated in order to receive education and stay in the classroom.

"Over the past few years there have been many reports that schools have forced parents to put their children on medication, such as Ritalin, in order to allow them to continue attending school. Some teachers and staff have gone as far as to keep children out of the classroom until the parents relent and agree to put their kids on various drugs. This is not the role of a teacher or school staff. Only licensed medical doctors have the ability to determine if a psychotropic drug is appropriate for a child.

"As a former school teacher, I understand that there is a need to have order in a classroom with few disruptions. However, psychotropic drugs are serious medications that have tremendous effects on the mind of a child. These drugs have potential for serious harm, addiction, and abuse. It is for this reason that they are listed on Schedule II and IV of the Controlled Substances Act.

Hundreds of thousands of children prescribed the drug Ritalin for hyperactivity might simply be the victims of lax parenting, reports Maxine Frith in a recent issue of Britain's Independent.

Behavioral expert Warwick Dyer, says the article, has developed a program that focuses on the way parents behave toward their children - and claims a 100 per cent success rate over the past five years.

"Remarkably, he never sees the child involved, and has just one face-to-face consultation with the parents. The rest of his work is limited to a daily telephone briefing with the parents on how to treat their child."

Dyer's approach uses a strict system of rewards and penalties for good and bad behavior, but requires that parents control their tempers as well.

Mr. Dyer said: "I am open-minded about whether ADD exists or not, but what is certainly clear is that a lot of symptoms ascribed to such disorders are in fact easily confused with basic behavioural problems that don't need to be treated with a drug.

"Parenting is not a democracy. You need to give your child what they want - love and attention - but on your terms, not theirs."

Mr. Dyer was a primary school teacher in the East End of London until he retired and set up the Behaviour Change Consultancy. He now sees about 30 families a year, and claims his techniques work with everyone, from the youngest children to teenagers.

He said: "The problem is that a lot of parents simply aren't being parents. In the last 20 years, parents have started talking to their children a lot more, but they have stopped being in control of them.

"Children are instinctively artful and will try to put themselves in control of their parents. I put parents back in control."

His "back to basics" approach worked to stunning effect with Fred and Diane from Essex, and their seven-year-old daughter, Georgina, who are featured in a new "Cutting Edge" TV documentary. Georgina had been prescribed Ritalin and been diagnosed with special needs because of her appalling temper tantrums and violent behavior. Within weeks of adopting Mr Dyer's techniques, Georgina's behaviour had improved.

Fred, who runs a wedding video business, and Diane, a civil servant, had to spend seven months in daily phone calls to Mr Dyer, where they had to describe her behaviour in detail, and accept castigations from the expert when they deviated from the sanction system.

At one point he told the couple: "It's not her fault that you can't control her. She has wrapped you around her little finger. You aren't accepting that there isn't anything wrong with your daughter."

By the end of the seven months, Georgina was having less than two tantrums a month and while her special needs diagnosis was being reviewed.

Diane said: "The change has been incredible. This has all been done without Ritalin. Before, I hated her. Now, she is a normal child. I feel guilty when I look back to how I treated her before."

New findings suggest that some people with depression might have problems metabolizing the B vitamin folate - supporting the idea that supplements could help ward off the condition.

Reuters Health reports that investigators in Norway found that depression occurred more commonly in people who had high levels of the amino acid homocysteine in their blood, and in those who carried a form of a gene that encodes a protein involved in processing folate.

Homocysteine is a normal byproduct of metabolism, and folic acid -- the form of folate found in supplements -- is known to aid in breaking down homocysteine.

"Lack of folate and/or a disturbed folate metabolism ... may partially be the cause of the depression in some people," study author Dr. Ingvar Bjelland of the University of Bergen said.

Bjelland and colleagues obtained their findings by scanning blood samples from 5,948 people between the ages of 46 and 49, and screening them for depression and anxiety.

The researchers found that people who had relatively high levels of homocysteine in their blood were almost twice as likely to be depressed than those with the lowest blood levels of homocysteine.

According to the report, depression was also linked to a form of the gene for a folate-processing enzyme associated with poorer efficiency in the breakdown of folate.

Another study, this one focusing on the relationship of depression and folate status in the US population, reports similar results.

The study by Morris, Fava, Jacques, Selhub, and Rosenberg examined associations between depression and folate status indicators in an ethnically diverse general US population sample aged 15-39 years.

After adjustment for sociodemographic factors, serum vitamin B(12) concentration, alcohol consumption over the past year and current status as to overweight and use of vitamin/mineral supplements, cigarettes and illegal drugs, subjects who met criteria for a lifetime diagnosis of major depression had folate concentrations in serum and RBC (red blood cells) that were lower than those of subjects who had never been depressed.

Having meningitis as a baby can lead to teenage behavioral problems, according to a recent survey conducted by Imperial College of Medicine researchers and published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The team surveyed the parents and teachers of 739 English and Welsh 13-year-olds who had contracted bacterial meningitis before their first birthday between 1985 and 1987. Parents and teachers of 606 children unaffected by meningitis as a child were also surveyed.

Forty-six per cent of parents whose children had contracted meningitis said their children's behavior was problematic, compared with only 20% of the other parents.

The parents were asked whether their children had emotional problems, and about their behavior, hyperactivity, peer problems and social skills, using a recognized scale designed to assess behavior.

The teachers were not told which of the teens had had meningitis.

Some of the cognitive deficits that occur in individuals with schizophrenia are similar to those found in individuals who have recovered from central nervous system infections with human herpes viruses, according to a study by Faith B. Dickerson, et al, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, the researchers measured cognitive functioning and serologic evidence of infection with human herpes viruses in 229 outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia. For each patient, antibodies with specificities for the following potentially neurotropic (nerve-changing) human herpes viruses were measured: herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, human herpes virus 6, and varicella-zoster virus.

They determined the association between serologic evidence of herpes viruses infection and cognitive functioning by univariate and multivariate analyses, including demographic and clinical factors associated with cognitive functioning.

Eight weeks of treatment with Kava-Kava extract LI 150 (400 mg/day) resulted in a similar percentage of responders and patients who achieved remission, compared to buspirone (BuSpar(r); 10 mg/day) or opipramol (Insidon(r); 100 mg/day), in a randomized, double-blind, three-arm, comparison study of 129 patients diagnosed with "generalized anxiety disorder." (Boerner RJ, Sommer H, Berger W, et al, Phytomedicine 2003;10)

Kava-Kava was also found significantly more effective than placebo against anxiety in six controlled studies reviewed in the Cochrane Library, Issue 2, 2003.

"Constraints on resources and time often render treatments for anxiety such as psychological interventions impracticable, while synthetic anxiolytic drugs are effective, but are often burdened with adverse events," begins the Cochrane article. "Options which are effective and safe would be of considerable interest and a welcome addition to the therapeutic repertoire."

All publications (regardless of language) describing randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of kava extract for anxiety were sought through electronic searches of EMBASE, MEDLINE, AMED (British Library), and many others, in addition to printed journals and material requested of manufacturers of kava preparations and experts on the subject.

To be included, studies were required to be randomized, controlled trials, conducted placebo-controlled and double-blind, i.e. trials with blinding of patients and care providers. Trials using oral preparations containing kava extract as the only component (mono-preparation) were considered. Data were extracted systematically according to patient characteristics, interventions and results.