Speech at Occupy the American Psychiatric Association by Ted Chabasinski Lyrics
[Ted Chabasinki]
In the middle of the 1930s, a young immigrant woman, who worked in a garment factory, called Anastasia, had a breakdown and was committed to Brooklyn State Hospital in New York. In the following year she gave birth to a baby boy. And the year after that, soon after she was committed again to the state hospital, she spent the next 35 years getting insulin shock and electroshock and a whole bunch of drugs and she died pretty young at age 63. The little boy she gave birth to was me. Anastasia Chabasinski was my mother and I'm her son.
And so, because I was child of a schizophrenic, as you've already heard, I was grabbed by the mental health system and by the child welfare system that pretty much means the same thing now since about 70-90% of all foster children get drugged. But I'll talk about that a little more in a minute.
Anyway, I was 6 years old when I was taken to Bellevue Hospital and I was experimented on with electroshock by a famous child psychiatrist called Dr. Lauretta Bender who is the 1940s equivalent of Dr. Joseph Bierman now. I was given that, I was sent to Rockland State Hospital and spent all of my childhood there until I was 17 years old, after which, being the unmedicated schizophrenic that I was, I worked my way through college. I got active in the movement, I had some responsible jobs, finally went to law school. I'm a lawyer now and here I am.
But in the past few weeks, I've sort of gone back into being a patients' rights advocate. I'm working for a survivor-run organization that does the contracts for patients' rights in Southern California. I've been representing people at commitment hearings including adolescents and children and my heart's just been broken for each of these kids because, you know, I talk to them and tell them about my own experience and they open up to me and they know that I'm not one of these adults that they better close up to and I heard their stories.
There was a 17 year-old boy that reminded me of myself when I got out. He was about to get out of the system, and he got committed because he was running around saying he wanted to kill himself. Well of course he did; he just spent the last 7 or 8 years being bounced from institution to institution being drugged.
I spoke to a 14 year old girl who was pregnant, who was wondering what was going to happen to her baby. I know what will happen to her baby. And again, I just felt so identified with these children.
There was a 13 year old girl, she just turned 13, just starting to be a teenager. Her mother abandoned her, her father was beating her up and so, naturally of course, she was unhappy. Well, you know, I don't know what the psychiatrist would say would be the appropriate response to that. I guess you sing and dance in the streets when your parents beat you up and abandon you, right? That's the appropriate and normal way to respond. And being unhappy-that's mentally sick.
And then the last one who I couldn't really speak to very much was this 5 year old girl who I first came in contact with when she was in this so-called quiet room screaming and crying and throwing her body against the wall because she had nothing; she had nobody. She was just in the system and being told basically, "you're not human." I asked the staff person who was there, and I suppose this is an improvement because when I did that, see that's what I did, after my shock treatment (being thrown into Rockman State Hospital and thinking that my life was over). I used to cry and scream and throw things and throw my body against the wall. And I've actually sort of forgotten about it but, anyway, they used to throw me into seclusion. I suppose things have gotten better because the staff person was outside the room telling the little girl that she was manipulating people. And I asked him, "why don't you just hold her and comfort her because that's what she's asking for." And he looked at me like I committed-no, not like I was crazy- like I had committed some sort of blasphemy. Because psychiatry is a cult. And this guy, who probably was a half-way decent guy, the concept, he said, "Well we can't do that; she's suffering from" -I forget the bull-shit diagnosis- "reactive abandonment syndrome" or something like that. Oh yes, seriously, I'm mean I'm not exaggerating the stupidity of this and the concept of the people that are taking care of these children, that they should hold them and comfort them and treat them like real human beings was just beyond this person because he'd been totally brainwashed by the psychiatric religion. And I just stood there and all I could do to keep from crying-and I have to say when I saw the 13 year old, that was the last one I saw, I was crying in front of her., which probably wasn't a good idea because I don't think she could wrap her mind around that. But I'm crying now, I guess. Not as much as I thought I would.
So I want to say what they do to children is the worst and, some of you I've already met, that have been locked up as kids, you know what it means. You're very young, you don't have a picture of yourself yet. You need love and support to grow. It's like a human need, just like food and water. And I think everybody in this room grasps that and, in fact, any decent parent grasps that but it seems to be beyond the understanding of psychiatrists.
So I want to say to those, I hope I meet more of you, anybody who was locked up as a kid, I really want to get to know you while we're here. And the the issue of the day that's very important is for us to deal with the new DSM.
I'm an unmedicated schizophrenic, that's my label. I was told all that all through my childhood.
This little 14 year old was telling me how she was-, "I'm autistic" she says. Well there is such a thing, I believe. You know what that is. You can't pick up social cues, you know, they don't know how to relate to people. We were having the most marvellous conversation. She was so sensitive to what I was saying to her, so able to--okay I'll finish this up.
So anyway, next year, we'll be in San Francisco. I'm going to try and focus it on the abuse of children, especially the famous Dr. Bierman who, I've said, has taken the place of Dr. Bender.
While we're here, anybody who has been locked up as a kid, I wish you would contact me. Let's go get em' this afternoon. We all have stories to tell.
In the middle of the 1930s, a young immigrant woman, who worked in a garment factory, called Anastasia, had a breakdown and was committed to Brooklyn State Hospital in New York. In the following year she gave birth to a baby boy. And the year after that, soon after she was committed again to the state hospital, she spent the next 35 years getting insulin shock and electroshock and a whole bunch of drugs and she died pretty young at age 63. The little boy she gave birth to was me. Anastasia Chabasinski was my mother and I'm her son.
And so, because I was child of a schizophrenic, as you've already heard, I was grabbed by the mental health system and by the child welfare system that pretty much means the same thing now since about 70-90% of all foster children get drugged. But I'll talk about that a little more in a minute.
Anyway, I was 6 years old when I was taken to Bellevue Hospital and I was experimented on with electroshock by a famous child psychiatrist called Dr. Lauretta Bender who is the 1940s equivalent of Dr. Joseph Bierman now. I was given that, I was sent to Rockland State Hospital and spent all of my childhood there until I was 17 years old, after which, being the unmedicated schizophrenic that I was, I worked my way through college. I got active in the movement, I had some responsible jobs, finally went to law school. I'm a lawyer now and here I am.
But in the past few weeks, I've sort of gone back into being a patients' rights advocate. I'm working for a survivor-run organization that does the contracts for patients' rights in Southern California. I've been representing people at commitment hearings including adolescents and children and my heart's just been broken for each of these kids because, you know, I talk to them and tell them about my own experience and they open up to me and they know that I'm not one of these adults that they better close up to and I heard their stories.
There was a 17 year-old boy that reminded me of myself when I got out. He was about to get out of the system, and he got committed because he was running around saying he wanted to kill himself. Well of course he did; he just spent the last 7 or 8 years being bounced from institution to institution being drugged.
I spoke to a 14 year old girl who was pregnant, who was wondering what was going to happen to her baby. I know what will happen to her baby. And again, I just felt so identified with these children.
There was a 13 year old girl, she just turned 13, just starting to be a teenager. Her mother abandoned her, her father was beating her up and so, naturally of course, she was unhappy. Well, you know, I don't know what the psychiatrist would say would be the appropriate response to that. I guess you sing and dance in the streets when your parents beat you up and abandon you, right? That's the appropriate and normal way to respond. And being unhappy-that's mentally sick.
And then the last one who I couldn't really speak to very much was this 5 year old girl who I first came in contact with when she was in this so-called quiet room screaming and crying and throwing her body against the wall because she had nothing; she had nobody. She was just in the system and being told basically, "you're not human." I asked the staff person who was there, and I suppose this is an improvement because when I did that, see that's what I did, after my shock treatment (being thrown into Rockman State Hospital and thinking that my life was over). I used to cry and scream and throw things and throw my body against the wall. And I've actually sort of forgotten about it but, anyway, they used to throw me into seclusion. I suppose things have gotten better because the staff person was outside the room telling the little girl that she was manipulating people. And I asked him, "why don't you just hold her and comfort her because that's what she's asking for." And he looked at me like I committed-no, not like I was crazy- like I had committed some sort of blasphemy. Because psychiatry is a cult. And this guy, who probably was a half-way decent guy, the concept, he said, "Well we can't do that; she's suffering from" -I forget the bull-shit diagnosis- "reactive abandonment syndrome" or something like that. Oh yes, seriously, I'm mean I'm not exaggerating the stupidity of this and the concept of the people that are taking care of these children, that they should hold them and comfort them and treat them like real human beings was just beyond this person because he'd been totally brainwashed by the psychiatric religion. And I just stood there and all I could do to keep from crying-and I have to say when I saw the 13 year old, that was the last one I saw, I was crying in front of her., which probably wasn't a good idea because I don't think she could wrap her mind around that. But I'm crying now, I guess. Not as much as I thought I would.
So I want to say what they do to children is the worst and, some of you I've already met, that have been locked up as kids, you know what it means. You're very young, you don't have a picture of yourself yet. You need love and support to grow. It's like a human need, just like food and water. And I think everybody in this room grasps that and, in fact, any decent parent grasps that but it seems to be beyond the understanding of psychiatrists.
So I want to say to those, I hope I meet more of you, anybody who was locked up as a kid, I really want to get to know you while we're here. And the the issue of the day that's very important is for us to deal with the new DSM.
I'm an unmedicated schizophrenic, that's my label. I was told all that all through my childhood.
This little 14 year old was telling me how she was-, "I'm autistic" she says. Well there is such a thing, I believe. You know what that is. You can't pick up social cues, you know, they don't know how to relate to people. We were having the most marvellous conversation. She was so sensitive to what I was saying to her, so able to--okay I'll finish this up.
So anyway, next year, we'll be in San Francisco. I'm going to try and focus it on the abuse of children, especially the famous Dr. Bierman who, I've said, has taken the place of Dr. Bender.
While we're here, anybody who has been locked up as a kid, I wish you would contact me. Let's go get em' this afternoon. We all have stories to tell.