A FORMER EMPLOYEE ADMITS THEY ARE BAD TOO

We've heard from several patients now that this unit is terrible. To this we can add the testimony posted about a month ago on a website for employees to review their working experiences.

You can see below that this reviewer makes it clear that patients are not receiving quality care, they are not receiving proper treatment.

And a word from me. Maybe in the past people could get away with mistreating vulnerable populations. But that is going to end real soon. 

Walks a fine line to be closed from FERPA violations.

Mental Health Counselor (Former Employee), Louisville, CO – November 17, 2015

Pros: None

Cons: Patients are not receiving proper treatment.

Patients do not receive quality care. 

CEO CONTACTED ME

Cenntenial Peaks CEO Elicia Bunch contacted me the other day.

She seemed a decent person who wants to do right.

She was interested in doing the food better. I explained how it had been done on other psych wards I had been on.

She was interested also in using more holistic remedies like vitamins.

We're going to meet.

But I insisted that first the unit must be shut down. The doctors are incompetent, cruel, ignorant, and arrogant. The staff except for the marvelous TONI takes their cue from the doctors. 

And when you have read this account of ECT at Cenntennial I think you will agree too.

And I know some other people who want to tell their stories.

If you are Elicia and you are reading this, I apologize for being so

aggressive but this a life and death matter. It is. You work with me and shut it down and I will praise you to the skies, I will. No hatred here. It's about people's lives, people's health, that's all.

HOW I ESCAPED

First my husband and I were told I could be discharged on July 21. 

Then I was told it was not to be the case. Whether I was lied to in 

the first instance is not for sure, but something was strange. My 

liaison Nina with Mental Health Partners told me I did not have to 

make an appointment with a therapist as I felt I had been very well 

served in that area for nearly 25 years. But then the social worker 

said I would not be discharged unless I promised to go these 

appointments. She and Nina finally worked it out and I was 

discharged the next day. How did I achieve discharge?

The fact is, I knew I was still manic and indeed the next day after 

discharge I went to Dr. Rosenthal and I volunteered to take the 

following medications: 300 mg Seroquel, 35 mg Lithium orotate, 

150 mg Lithium carbonate, 240 mg Verapamil plus as needed .5mg 

Clonazapem. Yes, I have been willingly taking these heavy hitters, 

more drugs than in the unit because I believe that for the time 

being, they are just what I need.

I knew that in order to be discharged so I could get on the right  

meds before it was too late, I had to pull a reverse Nelly Bly (about 

her, see this post). With support from my husband and a co-patient I imagined it was  already the most sorrowful day of the Jewish year, 

Tisha b’Av. I dressed in  black. I put my unruly hair up in a neat 

bun. I applied conditioner to my hair and eyebrows. I stood 

differently. I walked more slowly. 


I spoke less. I was extra appreciative of staff. I got discharged  

despite being manic. Years of teaching safely while moody had 

turned me into a better actress than I thought I was. Yet the extra 

day of discharge was worthwhile. Because of this extra day I 

witnessed the instance of the violent patient that I can now share 

with the world at large. For this I am grateful. If I can help a single 

patient being tortured by this unit, my stay will not have been in 

vain.

HUMAN DIGNITY DENIED AT CENTENNIAL PEAKS

Respect, Empathy and Personal Responsibility

A remark made at the nursing station while I witnessed a poor woman who had been starving for 20 hours while waiting for ECT encapsulates another problem. “Oh I know what you’re going through,” smiled the young woman at the counter, “I’m hungry too.“No, you do not”, was my remark. “You may be missing lunch. This patient feels like she is starving to death” (the actual wording I do not fully remember.) Taken as a whole, aside from the occasional rudeness, the staff was generally polite and friendly but not compassionate. The CEO of Centennial can rejoice that she  could not have found a more loyal set of employees who (from the very bottom to the top of the totem poll) will consistently stick to the rules and be less inclined to find solutions that satisfy patient and said rules and will be guaranteed to pass the buck, abstaining from any desire to take individual responsibility for the well-being of the human being standing before them. In the upper levels,

she can be confident that those staff will generally not answer patient questions nor let them finish speaking when they are making an important point. One high level person even told me, “I wish I were as compassionate and open as you” — this person’s favorite word to me otherwise was “denied.”

 Even a minor example shows a patent unwillingness to go the extra inch on the part of the staff I knew for a fact that there was some juice in the back room when I asked for some. But the young female insisted there was no juice. When I reminded her that I had been given said juice by another staff worker not long before, only then did she bother to look and indeed there was juice. I received no apology.

As an empath, I can entirely understand the stress of the nursing station. Moreover, in 1990 I spent over 100 hours volunteering in a Nursing home and I have served a patient advocate on numerous occasions, including when my beloved teacher John Strugnell was recovering from a stroke. I understand the hierarchy, sociology and anthropology involved. I know that the staff are ever concerned with safety and indeed are in fact concerned with patient well-being, up to a point. They have to make quick and sometimes cold decisions to keep things running smoothly and safely. They have to be very careful with the rules for all sorts of reasons, not simply to keep their jobs. For this reason, I do not blame the individual staff members so much as I blame the ethos of the institution which is thoroughly rotten.

THEY GAVE US THE WRONG FOOD THE UNHEALTHY FOOD THE FOOD THAT GOT IN THE WAY OF OUR HEALING

Long ago, Hippocrates proclaimed, “Let food be your medicine and let medicine be your food.”^[1] I will now outline the problems with (1) the food supplied by the kitchen and (2) the foods and beverages available for snack.

When I came to the unit, I met with a woman to explain my dietary needs. Both she and I can agree that I stated that I needed a gluten free, dairy free diet. At a certain point, probably on a later instance I believe I also told her I would like kosher meat. I most emphatically told the Executive Chef later that I wanted kosher meat and if no kosher meat was available, to please let me know if it was not kosher so I could make my decision about whether to eat it.

I will now explain why these three dietary concerns are important for my healing. Although not universally acknowledge, there is significant scientific evidence that diet is intrinsic to thde health of all and especially individuals with mental health challenges.

On the scientific studies related to gluten and bipolar as well as other mental conditions, please see http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenintolerance/a/Gluten-Bipolar-Disorder.htm.  On the scientific studies related to both gluten and dairy and bipolar see http://kellybroganmd.com/article/two-foods-may-sabotage-brain/. The importance for meat for the bipolar individual lies in that it is a heavy, grounding food complete with important vitamins and amino acids.

I will now quote an excerpt about diet from noted Buddhist Jack Kornfield’s  A Path with Heart page 131.

A student who sat a three-month retreat that I taught was an over-zealous young karate student seeking the extremes of spiritual intensity. Rather than follow the instruction, he decided to get enlightened as quickly as possible . . . . he began to experience all sorts of altered states. . . . he was very fearful and agitated, moving in a wild and manic state, as if he had temporarily gone crazy . . . What did we do with him? . . . We changed his diet. While everyone was eating vegetarian food, we put him on meat loaf and hamburgers.

Kosher food is not only important as part of my spiritual practice, it has implications for bipolar health. When animals are killed according to Jewish rules of slaughter, the animal feels no pain and thus does not release toxic stress hormones. Please see further 

http://www.naturalnews.com/022446_kosher_meat_foods.html

It has been thus established that I and many of my co-patients would benefit from a gluten and dairy free diet and even from kosher food. These concepts are firmly backed by science.

I will now share with you three of the breakfasts I received. I believe that each of these came after my extensive meeting with the Executive Chef, who although well intentioned and skillful could not ensure proper meals.

No one expects hospital food to taste good and unfortunately one rarely expects hospital food to be that nutritious. But to repeatedly violate patient requests for diets necessary for their healing is a crime.

I absolutely do not tolerate gluten or dairy. They both make me manic.

Other patients had similar needs. And even though my experience in 1991 at the University of Chicago Hospitals was negative, even there and on  the other units I have been, my diet has been respected.

1.      Gluten french toast — in desperation I ate this. meal with dangerous gluten

2.      Hash browns and pineapple — I requested some actual protein and was then provided with egg. meal without basic nutrition needed for a breakfast

3.      Hash browns, melon and a very small amount of egg with cheese. I requested protein and a complex carb and received eggs and oatmeal. meal with insufficient protein with dangerous dairy.

As you can see, breakfast, argued by some the most important meal of the day was compromised. Other meals were compromised. Co-patients of mine who were gluten free were given gluten pasta. A patient who begged for quinoa got it sometimes but also received moldy broccoli. When I got meat I was not informed whether it was kosher or not. The Executive Chef had stated that finding kosher meat might be difficult. I did receive one glorious meal of chicken and veg in two large containers. I ate one container and the staff said I might have the other later. But because of the hullabaloo involving the violent patient, they discarded my meal as it had been out too long, leaving me quite hungry.

A patient, especially one recently arrived should not have to constantly send back for a proper breakfast and many of my co-patients were not as empowered as I. For patients with a gluten problem, the wrong meal is not merely manic inducing as was mine, but can be life-threatening. The kitchen blamed the person who took down our dietary information and that person blamed the kitchen or sometimes the person temporarily in charge of the kitchen was blamed. It does not matter whose fault it was: patients on the ITU were consistently exposed to harmful and potentially lethal food. This is the second reason why some form of compensation is in order and why the unit needs to be shut down.

Snacks: Unit-based food and drink

The water from the water fountain had an off-taste and co-patients informed me it was probably recycled although I have no direct evidence. As a result I stuck with the hot water but again not all patients had the wherewithal to do so.  The following are the snacks that I can recall:

apples, oranges and bananas

cheddar flavored popcorn with lots of unhealthy ingredients

mozzarella sticks

pudding with lots of unhealthy ingredients

decaf coffee for am with sugar, sometimes splenda and offered with a creamer with unhealthy ingredients

apple juice

cranberry juice with a heavy dose of sugar

I did enjoy the fruit but I also was very hungry. Seroquel, the drug administered to me in fact leads to increased hunger. I did not have a single gluten or dairy free option for carbs and protein. And as apple juice was sometimes out, if I wanted juice it was going to be with substantial sugar, a substance that science has shown to be damaging and needless to say is especially damaging to the bipolar individual — see http://bipolar.newlifeoutlook.com/sugar-bipolar/. I note here also that one of my breakfasts from the kitchen contained sugar laden rice chex.

I recommend the following snacks instead:

Vegetable crudite with salsa, hummus/bean dip/tahini, etc

Rice crackers

Trail Mix

Almond butter in individual packets if safe

Incidently, the kitchen is not nut free so if a patient really is deathly allergic to peanuts, it is not clear how they would protected.

---

^[1] See for instance Hippocrates et Corpus Hippocraticum Med., Vectiarius: Oeuvres complètes d'Hippocrate, Vol. 4, ( ׀Ed. Littré, É.;  Paris: Baillière, 1844, Repr. 1962, Section 36, line 20. I thank noted Classicist Leonard Muellner for this reference..

MORE ABOUT THE OVERUSE OF DANGEROUS ECT

ECT

I can acknowledge literally that today’s ECT is not my grandmother’s ECT as my grandmother suffered profound memory loss when she was given Electroconvulsive therapy. And I believe my hero Kay Redfield Jamison said somewhere she would be willing to undergo it in cases of extreme depression. It obviously can be an effective treatment for some — see http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/electroconvulsive-therapy. However, I have never been in an inpatient ward where it seems to be being employed so frequently. I do not have the medical authority to judge whether my co-patient’s depressions warranted the treatment or not. I can say that it seemed unusually common as a treatment and that a person of some authority who is familiar with the unit told me that it was believed by many that this for-profit hospital was using the treatment excessively in an attempt to help cover the costs of the equipment although the CEO whom I spoke to recently said this is not so and she may correct, 

But ECT is no harmless treatment. Read all about how it can still  cause long term memory damage- 

But Centennial Peaks was especially brutal in this potentially dangerous treatment.,

Apparently you have to fast 20 hours before you have the treatment. One day as a co-patient was waiting for his/her treatment, the treatment was delayed. Watching this person experiencing full on starvation was painful enough — and fasting is entirely contraindicated for someone with a mental condition. It is no wonder that the great bipolar genius Virginia Woolf who was most insightful into her condition pointed out that one of the best ways to work against mania was to eat continuously, a statement supported by Ayurveda and probably by most Western physicians as well for anyone with issues of psychosis. As time went on and on, the co-patient suffered and suffered. I myself broke down and begged the nursing station staff to help. Why coudn’t they just let her/him eat and skip it? My co-patient also confided to me that he/she did not want to undergo ECT anymore but was afraid that if he/she refused, she/he would be sanctioned. I beg CPH to please stop forcing ECT on people who don’t want it!


ECT is also abused elsewhere!!!!!! This is a story from Australia  https://www.change.org/p/help-save-garth-daniels-from-brutal-electric-shocks-and-toxic-brain-chemicals

Stop Garth Daniels from violent, forced and life-threatening mental health treatment in the State MHS. Return him to a caring family situation and implementing a  nonviolent, humane management plan and treatment. This will immediately & significantly improve Garth's quality of life, and most probably also save him from self-harm or being harmed by other patients - and save you, the taxpayer, upwards of $1 million per year.

Garth Daniels has been in and out of state psychiatric hospitals for the last 20 years. He is now 40. 

He has been seen by a huge number of psychiatrists and possibly by more than any other patient in the history of psychiatry in Australia. 

The direct costs of his treatment are in the order of $1.5 million per year of taxpayers’ money. 

A recent private, independent psychiatric report concluded that Garth Daniels does not have  schizoaffective disorder and although he has been subjected to 2 decades of standard treatment for schizophrenia (including forced electric shock therapy, harmful psychotropic drugs and forced bed restraints) he has totally failed to respond in any predictable way. 

Once in hospital, he is given drugs that cause him incredible distress and so his reaction is to panic and become hostile. This is misconstrued that he is a violent person. Allegations of violence are perpetuated in the hospital... which is a direct result of inappropriate management. 

The general consensus of people who know Garth well - and the private psychiatric report mentioned above supports this view – is that he is a shy person with significant interpersonal anxiety. 

He is not a violent man and he is definitely not a criminal. 

Garth Daniels has an Advanced Statement (dated 19 09 2014) in which he explicitly stated that “I do not consent to ECT under any circumstances – lesions in left lateral ventricle/ memory problems. I do not consent to clozapine due to high cardiac risk – enlarged ventricle – adverse reactions”.  And yet the treating staff continue to ignore Garth’s legal wishes and the wishes of his father Bernard, who has medical power of attorney. 

His current treating staff have run out of options... recycling failed treatments... but refuse to accept the views of the patient Garth and the medical power of attorney Garth assigned to his dad. 

There are alternative, less restrictive management and treatment options ...but, the hospital services refuse to change their destructive path of damaging Garth’s brain.

They also want to take over the Guardianship of Garth’s affairs! If this happens his treatment will be even more secretive.  Why in hells’ name would they want to do this unless they have something to hide? 

Under the current treatment regime, Garth’s future is grim. He has been suicidal in the past and it seems unlikely that he would want to continue his current dreadful life indefinitely. 

His family and private psychiatrist believe there is only one other realistic life-saving possibility for Garth - that his management should be transferred immediately to a psychiatrist with particular expertise in managing withdrawal from psychotropic drugs, in conjunction with psychological management of his anxiety problems. It is painfully obvious that the psychiatric hospital / State mental health system is not able to provide this form of management or duty of care. 

We request that Garth Daniels be transferred immediately to the care and treatment of the private psychiatrist/ psychologist that his family have recommended. 

We strongly believe that Garth Daniels life is currently at risk from either suicide or the effects of his forced, brutal treatment in hospital. abused elsewhere!

THEY FRIED HER BRAIN-- GUEST POST ON BAD ECT AT CENTENNIAL PEAKS

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT GUEST POST

TO PROTECT HER, HER NAME IS BEING WITHHELD

I SALUTE HER COURAGE IN TELLING HER STORY HERE

CENTENNIAL PEAKS MUST BE SHUT DOWN -- NOW!

I was committed to CPH the first time a few years back to start a course of ECT because I simply could not get any recovery from severe depression after managing for 40 years to avoid the twin indignities of being locked up in a mental hospital and having my brain fried. They lied about the process and the aftereffects. The first time I had it, I peed my pants and was forced to pull off my wet clothing and stand half naked in a room full of waiting staff and patients of both sexes to put on scrubs.  The only nod toward my privacy and common decency was to allow me to turn my back so they got only a great view of my bare ass instead of my crotch.  I was too dazed and confused to object, so they blatantly took advantage of that instead of troubling themselves to walk me to the bathroom 6 feet away with a FEMALE staff member. I am an over-60 year old woman!

I got committed there again more recently when I was also diagnosed with dementia in addition to BPDll. I lost my job because I could not perform the sophisticated work anymore, lost 45% of my IQ points, can no longer express myself well, can’t perform any hobby activities, can’t read well, can’t write without multiple rewrites (I have always been able to write each piece ONCE, perfectly) and face a future of sitting in a pile of shit, drooling down my face.  I accidently let it slip to a counselor in Boulder that I preferred to die and they sent me to this hell hole to punish me for admitting that.

They locked me up on a ward full of addicts because they obviously lied and claimed to have a mental health unit bed available.  I worked in addictions for years and observed very large numbers of people who checked themselves in to avoid prosecution, avoid paying child support, have an excuse to quit working, manipulate spouses, become better addicts, decrease the amount of drugs they need for a while, nor just take all-expense-paid vacation on somebody else’s dime.  It was no different here, given the laughing, gaming and partying that went on all evening long.  Aside from all that, I’m not an addict and shouldn’t have been stuck in there under any circumstances. I RAN much bigger, better, and professional programs for 30 years.

They sat me on a metal and plastic chair in a hallway in a hospital gown, in full view of EVERYONE, including men, freezing, for an hour and a half. No one even bothered to speak with me though I was crying constantly. (One male patient expressed his concern for my humiliation. NO staff member did.) They didn’t even bother to give me a drink of water, a robe or a blanket to cover myself.

Eventually, they proceeded to make me stand up with my butt hanging out (I am a 60+ year old woman!) to weigh and measure me for the entertainment of a ward-full of people, male and female. I objected as well as I could given my state but they didn’t care and refused to stop.  They mocked me for my embarrassment. (“NOBODY CARES WHAT OTHER PEOPLE WEIGH ANYWAY!” Nyah nyah nyah.) Did you ever get to be the fat kid shamed by the school nurse by being weighed and measured in front of the whole school? They thoroughly enjoyed publicly humiliating a geriatric mentally ill demented woman.

They kept me there for almost two days with no treatment and refused to provide any vegetarian food. I placed a call to the patient “advocate” who despite my 11 day stay there, NEVER showed up at all. 

A couple of addiction counselors showed up to interview me, obviously having not troubled themselves to read the record ahead of time or they would have known that I was being warehoused there and was not an addict at all.

When they eventually transferred me to the mental health unit, the staff STILL never bothered to even talk to me about why I was there.  The whole time I was there, ONLY ONE STAFF MEMBER ever even bothered to listen to me (and pointed out to me that she only had 5 minutes “to spare!”) to even hear my circumstances,  and that was only after I laid in bed and sobbed for an entire shift. Neither she nor any other staff member ever asked me again how I was doing other than in casual, passing remarks.

They continued their cruel and unprofessional practice of weighing, measuring and taking vital signs in public with a bunch of patients sitting in a row watching the whole process.  I am mentally ill, therefore I deserve to be shamed, right?

They provide NO therapy at all. (Oops, they did have coloring books!)

You see a random psychiatrist for MAYBE 5-7  minutes a day to answer a couple of yes or no questions of THEIR choosing.  

To trick insurance companies, government agencies and hospital accreditation organizations, they schedule moronic classes during the day, which are also NOT any type of therapy.  The content might be appropriate life-skills training for very stupid 10 year olds.  The whole thrust of these classes is that if you weren’t too stupid and incompetent to run your own life, you wouldn’t have been locked up in here.  So much for the medical model of mental illness. I asked both of the psychiatrists WTF I had to do to get out of that place and they both told me to attend these stupid piece-of-shit, social work 101 classes. I asked THEM if either one had ever bothered to actually attend this crap they are peddling but they refused to answer and got defensive.

Only ONE of the “mental health professionals” (read that “NO real professional qualifications”) ever sat with and talked to any patients at all, and he limited that to the partying, smoking loud-mouthed moochers.

The unit was packed with a bunch of Medicaid frauds who were definitely NOT depressed at all, but were mostly frequent flyers who check their butts into the place for free food and a vacation. (Free to THEM of course since I WORKED my whole life for the privilege of paying for medical insurance, taxes and then paying thousands of dollars in copays to subsidize their free vacations.  

The majority of them of them laughed, played games and partied loudly all evening, every evening and showed absolutely NO signs of depression.  I believe there were a total of 4 people over an 11 day period who were not malingering. Even the staff at that place could not possibly be stupid enough to be unaware of that. But as long as they get to keep sucking money out of the pockets of working people, they’ll keep these frauds as long as they can.  Did any member of the staff EVER quiet down their screeching, squealing and laughter?  OF COURSE NOT!  Those of us who were actually suffering were totally disregarded and trampled. Interestingly, these oh-so-poor public assistance guests that I ended up paying for were with two exceptions well able to afford to burn up my tax money in cigarettes at $6.00/pack and got the privilege of stinking up the only outdoor area with smoke, making breathing non-carcinogenic air too damn much for the rest of us to expect.

The place itself is crappy and tacky with dirty plastic and metal chairs that lack even basic comfort for people who aren’t allowed to do anything except sit in them all day. Those nasty germy things were NEVER sanitized. There is not one comfortable, decent-quality piece of furniture in the place except under the MDs’ butts. The beds are not much better than jail cots.

In 11 days, my room was NEVER swept or mopped and the bathroom was never cleaned-NOT ONCE-despite the fact that I was forced to share it.  At almost $2000/day, they could cut loose and buy some Pine Sol. Interestingly though, when I approached the desk to ask the ”nurse” (I’d be surprised if she were a real one) a question, I was snapped at, ordered to step away from the desk and reprimanded for touching the desk and spreading germs.  Other patients were treated the same way.  Guess they can’t extract big enough copays for antibacterial wipes.

There were three vegetarian/vegan persons on the unit but the hole refused to provide appropriate meals.  When I asked what the vegetarian protein source was for one meal, the employee poked his fork at a piece of broccoli with a sprinkle of cheese on it.

The three of us ate virtually nothing because we could not be sure whether ANYTHING was animal-flesh free and because the rest of the food looked like previous patients had already eaten it.  NOBODY cared.  I personally mentioned this to 2 different psychiatrists on 3 separate occasions, to nurses and “mental health counselors,” and left messages for the patient “advocate”[sic] but the imaginary advocate never contacted me and none of them did anything about it.  The other two persons also complained and were ignored as well. This was particularly problematic because if you are scheduled for ECT, they are supposed to send a snack late in the evening since you cannot eat in the morning before the procedure regardless of how late they take you, and they don’t give a rat’s ass how ill they make you waiting.  What did they send?  Animal carcass sandwiches.  Once they sent a "vegetarian meal" – a half of a dry curled up raw pepper. The three of us asked for a less-disgusting alternative but were told that they "couldn’t find any other food!"  And ONCE AGAIN, no patient advocate ever showed up at all, and NONE of the staff would do a damn thing to fix this.

This scummy place also forces ADULTS to LINE UP in the hall like little children to march to and from dinner. They liked to make everyone line up early and then just stand there and wait until someone got good and ready to escort us. Lots of respect for our dignity, right? They have excellent passive-aggressive skills.

All night long, every night, the staff members stomped on and off the unit slamming the double fire doors behind themselves.  Complained to the psychiatrists but again, too damn bad. 

The unit was kept so cold that patients had to sit around wrapped in blankets all the time.  Did any staff member give a rat’s ass about this absurd situation?  No, of course not. People were sleeping under multiple (3-5) blankets, but that place is way too cheap to provide adequate central heating apparently! 

I approached the desk once to ask the ”nurse” (I’d be surprised if she were a real one) a question and was snapped at and reprimanded for touching the desk and told to step back because I was spreading germs.  Other patients were treated the same way.  Guess they can’t extract copays for antibacterial wipes.

I was eventually was forced to acquiesce to ECT a second time to get out of there.  They make a point of SAYING they are not there to pressure anyone into it, but they just won’t let you leave, and since they don’t provide any other treatment, you have no choice. (Read that:  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$) Once you’ve submitted, you can’t stop because your will is fried right out of your brain. 

When I said I would leave AMA, they threatened to tell the insurance company so they would refuse to pay for the WHOLE stay and said they would go after me for it. I was tricked into signing financial commitment papers when I was not competent to do so.

I woke up with a terrible, terrible headache after the first brain-fry, crying and holding my head in pain.  They still made me get off of the bed before I was ready and sit in a hard metal and plastic chair where I couldn’t even sit upright, hunched over, neck twisted and trying to avoid breathing because it hurt too much. They kept checking in every few minutes to see if I was ready to leave. I wasn’t, but they kept at it because the next person on the assembly line needed to get out of bed and sit up so the NEXT cog could lie down so I just submitted. I don’t blame the staff on that particular service for this.  They are being forced to provide substandard care to shove as many money-paying victims through as fast as they can.

The aftereffects of the ECT left me as dumb as a box of rocks for well over 6 months though they promised me that the memory problems were short-lived and were around for only the time of the frying.  That is bullshit. The smoke never really cleared. The decrement is broader, deeper and has permanent effects. Do they really not KNOW this, or are they just lying to trick sick people out of their money? Or maybe they just prefer to believe other self-serving doctors instead of their patients.