The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill continues to censor the information it gives to the public and to its members.

A few years ago, I had a spirited email exchange with a NAMI board member over the fact that they continued to publish a statistic about electroshock that was made up. The person who made it up ADMITTED it, yet NAMI continued to put out this statistic as fact. I repeatedly asked this board member why they continued to promote misinformation such as that.

His response was that it was more important to make sure people weren't scared off by electroshock, even if it meant lying.

This is the same organization that sent tips and tricks to its members on getting "help" for a mentally ill relative. One of the "tips" was to turn over the furniture and trash a room, then call the police and tell them the ill relative did it.

Dan E. Weisburd is speaking out. He was the editor of one of NAMI's publications until he crossed the line and dared speak the truth. Not only was he fired, but NAMI had a group of "mentally ill clients" spend time gluing pages of the publication together so that members couldn't read what Weisburd had written.

Here are the two articles that NAMI wanted censored. God forbid people would find out that the new and improved antipsychotics can cause elevations in cholesterol, or that the figures regarding mental illness and violence are not substantiated. (Gee, there's that funny thing they've got going about using false statistics where it will suit their political agenda!)

So read them in all their glory, and god bless freedom of speech.

The original Dendrite News Release about the firing and censorship.

Second Dendrite News Release - NAMI continues to come unglued...

Thanks for your message, David. Here are the two "censored" Publisher's Notes that you requested...the ones that were glued together by a paranoid and malicious NAMI California Board who completely ignored that way back in 1989 I was given carte blanch to create what became The JOURNAL as long as I took no money from liquor or tobacco interests. For 11 years and some 44 issues I have published and edited what has become an internationally acclaimed quarterly where consumers and their families had equal access to the pages along with researchers, educators, mental health professionals and policy makers. Needless to say, along the way there were some rocky times with some board members, but until recently there was a majority that supported allowing me to continue this venture uninterrupted. The past two presidents have showed a willingness to do anything they could to disrupt and now to kill The JOURNAL with me at the helm.

So be it! I am ready to continue my work elsewhere. NAMI California has a leadership in place that will, I believe, bankrupt the organization. Morally, what they have done to The JOURNAL, indicates they are already intellectually bankrupt.

Here are the two Publisher's Notes that were glued together. Dozens of readers of The JOURNAL have requested to see what they have been denied. Essentially the notes say that E. Fuller Torrey has had articles published in the country's best papers, printed without substantiation, claiming that more than 1,000 murders a year are committed by unmedicated patients with mental illness. Apparently he has found that dangerousness sells, and he and his TAC people are pushing involuntary treatment in that manner. The WELLNESS Note calls for decent access to Medical care for persons with mental illness. And, in the case of my son David, it points out that the new atypical antipsychotic meds significantly elevate cholesterol and triglycerides, but that information has not been broadly disseminated because of heart attack risk!

Thanks for your support and that of your colleagues.

Dan

Publisher's Note by Dan E. Weisburd

WELLNESS issue

"What does it take to make you wake up, Dan?" A voice broke into my sleep. I sat up startled. The clock read, 3:15 A.M. "Why hasn't David had a physical?" Was I asking myself? Where had I been? My eldest son has had schizophrenia for 19 years--as many years as he hasn't had it. Do I remember getting him a physical? No. "Where have you been, Dan?" the now exasperated voice demanded. It sounded somewhat like my stern, long-dead father, or maybe it was my internal scolding severest critic--myself. "You'd know full well if David had a physical. He'd have told you. And you'd know the results! You've let him down again, guy. You're just another negligent know-it-all fraud of a family member telling the world he deserves better, and how much you love him!"

It was 10 A.M. before I could reach Martha Long, the director at The Village ISA in Long Beach, the excellent psychosocial rehabilitation program I'd helped to conceptualize, and where my son was now a member. "No, we don't routinely get them physicals, Dan," she answered apologetically. "I'll be happy to pay for a simple Lipid panel, if there's no budget for it," I said. "He eats lots of Chinese food--grease and sugar--loves steaks, and burgers and cheese-- and we both know he rarely gets any real exercise." She agreed to get David an appointment for a blood draw, because, after all, he probably had my genes and I've had a heart attack, five bypasses and three heart surgeries. Given David's life style and genetic inheritance, he could be courting disaster at age 39.

"He is doing well at his job. And he has a lot of friends, here, He seems much happier." She ended on that optimistic note, and I knew it was true. David was thriving on the life the Village staff had helped him attain. He was committed to recovery.