{"id":20259,"date":"2025-11-15T17:43:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T16:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=20259"},"modified":"2025-12-07T18:07:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T17:07:33","slug":"cchr-warns-mental-health-awareness-masking-drug-and-shock-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2025\/11\/cchr-warns-mental-health-awareness-masking-drug-and-shock-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"CCHR Warns: Mental Health Awareness Masking Drug and Shock Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourvalley.net\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yourvalley.net\/images\/nameplates\/daily-independent.png\" width=\"194\" height=\"53\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"main-header container\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-3 search-col hidden-xs\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div class=\"search no-ad hidden-sm hidden-xs\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"new-navigation\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<nav class=\"main\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div id=\"navbar\" class=\"navbar-collapse collapse\">\n<div class=\"top-level clearfix\">\n<div class=\"main-option\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Posted by <\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;\">Citizens Commission on Human Rights &#8211; <\/span><span class=\"monthday\" style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;\">November 3, 2025\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"container pk-layer default noear\">\n<div class=\"row \">\n<div class=\"col-sm-8 maincontent-column\">\n<div class=\"content_bootstrap clearfix   stories display_keywords photos_clickable package_columns pageone\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>Opening Statement from NDPA:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>Commentary on psychiatry and its interaction with drug problems: Whilst this article sometimes includes CCHR\u2019s campaigning rhetoric (and CCHR do much good work) there is also much of generic interest and usefulness on this specific subject \u2013 both in the article text and in the sources listed. For this reason, we include this in NDPA\u2019s archive. (CCHR\u2019s background and work can be reviewed via<\/strong><\/span> <a href=\"mailto:info@cchr.org.uk\">info@cchr.org.uk<\/a>)<\/p>\n<div class=\"large_photos\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div id=\"top-carousel\" class=\"carousel slide\">\n<div class=\"carousel-inner\">\n<div class=\"item active\">\n<div class=\"photo-canvas\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2025\/11\/cchr-warns-mental-health-awareness-masking-drug-and-shock-abuse\/mental-health-lady\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20260\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20260\" src=\"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Mental-health-lady.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"505\" height=\"379\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"photo-canvas\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\"><em>CCHR says real mental health awareness must confront, not conceal, psychiatry&#8217;s coercion, <\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"photo-canvas\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\"><em>child drugging, and electroshock behind pharmaceutical influence. | <\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Each May and October, millions are urged to &#8220;raise awareness&#8221; for mental health through national and international campaigns, including World Mental Health Day in October. Yet, according to the mental health industry watchdog, Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), many of the advocacy campaigns driving these observances are dominated by pharmaceutical interests and a biomedical model reliant on psychotropic drugs, electroshock, and even psychosurgery.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"body main-body clearfix\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">LOS ANGELES, Calif., Nov. 3, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) \u2014 Each May and October, millions are urged to \u201craise awareness\u201d for mental health through national and international campaigns, including World Mental Health Day in October. Yet, according to the mental health industry watchdog,\u00a0Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), many of the advocacy campaigns driving these observances are dominated by pharmaceutical interests and a biomedical model reliant on psychotropic drugs, electroshock, and even psychosurgery. The outcome has been catastrophic: more than 76 million Americans take psychiatric drugs, and an estimated 100,000\u2014including children as young as five\u2014are electroshocked annually.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">CCHR warns that modern mental-health awareness campaigns are not about understanding the mind but promoting psychiatry\u2019s drug-driven model of \u201ctreatment.\u201d Since its founding in 1969, the organization has used these awareness months to expose psychiatric abuse and coercion\u2014particularly the drugging, electroshocking, and violent restraint of children in behavioral facilities. Working with parents, doctors, and lawmakers, CCHR has helped establish hundreds of laws globally to protect against psychiatric harm, including the first U.S. bans on electroshock for minors in California (1976) and Texas (1993), and the 1983 prohibition of Deep Sleep Treatment in Australia following 48 patient deaths\u2014now a criminal offense to administer it in New South Wales and Western Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">CHALLENGING DRUG-INDUCED VIOLENCE<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">CCHR has documented the tragic outcomes of psychiatry\u2019s drug-based approach, including its potential links to acts of senseless violence. It testified before the first inquest into the deaths of eight victims of a Kentucky mass shooting in 1989, where the perpetrator\u2019s psychiatrist acknowledged that the antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine) potentially contributed to the crime. A decade later, CCHR obtained confirmation that Columbine ringleader Eric Harris had the antidepressant Luvox in his system\u2014despite clinical trials showing the drug could \u201cform of psychosis characterized by exalted feelings, delusions of grandeur\u2026and overproduction of ideas.\u201d[1]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">The watchdog\u2019s efforts led to a 1999 Colorado government hearing on psychiatric drugs and violence, with the chair, State Rep. Penn Pfiffner, stating: \u201cThere is enough coincidence and enough professional opinion from legitimate scientists to cause us to raise the issue and to ask further questions.\u201d[2] Working with Patricia Johnson, then-member of the Colorado State Board of Education, CCHR helped obtain a precedent-setting resolution urging academic\u2014not chemical\u2014solutions for classroom issues.[3]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">CCHR also joined with medical experts and parents to press the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to issue its 2004 \u201cblack box\u201d warning that antidepressants can cause suicidal behavior in children, which was later expanded in 2007 to include young adults up to age 24. Today, studies confirm that 46\u201371% of antidepressant users experience emotional blunting, dulling empathy, and increasing detachment\u2014a factor present in numerous violent tragedies.[4]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Further reforms followed. In 2004, CCHR helped secure the federal\u00a0Prohibition of Mandatory Medication\u00a0amendment, banning schools from forcing children to take psychotropic drugs as a condition of education. Three years later, language CCHR helped introduce into the FDA reform bill required pharmaceutical ads to direct consumers to report drug side effects, causing adverse drug reporting to increase by 33 percent.[5]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">CCHR\u2019s investigations have also helped expose corruption and abuse in the psychiatric hospital and \u201ctroubled teen treatment\u201d industry. Working with whistleblowers and journalists, it uncovered coercive admissions and insurance fraud within major private psychiatric hospital chains, leading to multiple state and federal investigations, criminal penalties, and closure of hundreds of abusive facilities. New laws were enacted to prohibit \u201cbounty hunter\u201d practices used to capture insured individuals for involuntary commitment and billing exploitation.[6]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Raising awareness, CCHR emphasizes, means parents can make better-informed choices and seek non-invasive, evidence-based help for their children. One expert has described the psychiatric polypharmacy trend as creating\u00a0<em>\u201ca generation of child guinea pigs.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0As\u00a0<em>The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0reported, \u201cmany psychiatric drugs commonly prescribed to adolescents are not approved for people under 18. And they are being prescribed in combinations that have not been studied for safety or for their long-term impact on the developing brain.\u201d[7]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">In 2013, nearly 8.4 million American children were taking psychiatric drugs.[8] By 2020, the\u00a0IQVIA Total Patient Tracker Database\u00a0showed that number had dropped to 6.1 million[9]\u2014a notable decline that CCHR attributes in part to heightened public awareness, stronger warnings, and parental advocacy. However, millions of children remain drugged, underscoring that while progress has been made, the systemic overreliance on psychotropic drugs continues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">In addition to its feature-length documentaries, CCHR produces short educational videos on its YouTube channel to inform the public about mental health abuses and their prevention. Working alongside doctors, whistleblowers, parents, consumers, and civil and human rights organizations, CCHR continues to supply legislators and government agencies with documentation exposing psychiatric abuses and driving legislative reform to safeguard consumer and patient rights.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">Today, both the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations agencies are calling for an end to coercive psychiatric practices\u2014particularly those inflicted on children. Yet much of the mental-health establishment, including \u201cpatient-advocacy\u201d groups with deep pharmaceutical ties, remains silent\u2014endorsing mass drugging instead of confronting its documented dangers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #0000ff;\">For more than five decades,\u00a0CCHR International, which was originally established by the Church of Scientology and eminent professor of psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Szasz, has been a catalyst for reform, exposing human-rights violations in psychiatry and helping to achieve legislative and cultural change that has already begun to reduce child drugging and public acceptance of coercion. Its continuing campaigns seek a mental-health system based on transparency, informed consent, and respect for human dignity\u2014affirming that lasting mental health will come not through drugs or shocks, but through compassion, truth, and accountability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>To learn more, visit:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2025\/10\/31\/cchr-exposes-harms-behind-todays-mental-health-awareness-campaigns\/\">https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2025\/10\/31\/cchr-exposes-harms-behind-todays-mental-health-awareness-campaigns\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Sources:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[1]\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2023\/01\/16\/school-mental-health-programs-questioned-after-6-year-old-shot-teacher\/\">https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2023\/01\/16\/school-mental-health-programs-questioned-after-6-year-old-shot-teacher\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[2]\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2023\/01\/16\/school-mental-health-programs-questioned-after-6-year-old-shot-teacher\/\">https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2023\/01\/16\/school-mental-health-programs-questioned-after-6-year-old-shot-teacher\/<\/a>; Kelly P. O\u2019Meara, \u201cA Different Kind of Drug War,\u201d\u00a0<em>Insight Magazine<\/em>, 13 Dec. 1999<\/p>\n<p>[3]\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2023\/01\/16\/school-mental-health-programs-questioned-after-6-year-old-shot-teacher\/\">https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2023\/01\/16\/school-mental-health-programs-questioned-after-6-year-old-shot-teacher\/<\/a>; \u201cResolution: Promoting the Use of Academic Solutions to Resolve Problems with Behavior, Attention, and Learning,\u201d Colorado State Board of Education, 11 Nov. 1999<\/p>\n<p class=\"in-story-ad\">\n<p>[4]\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2022\/09\/05\/the-travesty-of-6-million-youths-on-psychotropics-a-expert-calls-it-a-generation-of-child-guinea-pigs\/\">https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2022\/09\/05\/the-travesty-of-6-million-youths-on-psychotropics-a-expert-calls-it-a-generation-of-child-guinea-pigs\/<\/a>;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.verywellmind.com\/can-antidepressants-make-you-feel-emotionally-numb-1067348\">https:\/\/www.verywellmind.com\/can-antidepressants-make-you-feel-emotionally-numb-1067348<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[5]\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/about-us\/cchr-accomplishments\/\">https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/about-us\/cchr-accomplishments\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[6]\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/about-us\/cchr-accomplishments\/\">https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/about-us\/cchr-accomplishments\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[7]\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2022\/09\/05\/the-travesty-of-6-million-youths-on-psychotropics-a-expert-calls-it-a-generation-of-child-guinea-pigs\/\">https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2022\/09\/05\/the-travesty-of-6-million-youths-on-psychotropics-a-expert-calls-it-a-generation-of-child-guinea-pigs\/<\/a>;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/08\/29\/the-ny-times-suddenly-discovered-were-giving-kids-dangerous-drugs\/\">https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/08\/29\/the-ny-times-suddenly-discovered-were-giving-kids-dangerous-drugs\/<\/a>;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/27\/health\/teens-psychiatric-drugs.html\">https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/27\/health\/teens-psychiatric-drugs.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[8]\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2016\/11\/30\/cchr-launches-parents-know-your-rights-campaign\/\">https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/2016\/11\/30\/cchr-launches-parents-know-your-rights-campaign\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[9]\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/psychiatric-drugs\/children-on-psychiatric-drugs\/\">https:\/\/www.cchrint.org\/psychiatric-drugs\/children-on-psychiatric-drugs\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">Source: https:\/\/www.yourvalley.net\/stories\/cchr-warns-mental-health-awareness-masking-drug-and-shock-abuse,630679<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posted by Citizens Commission on Human Rights &#8211; November 3, 2025\u00a0 Opening Statement from NDPA: Commentary on psychiatry and its interaction with drug problems: Whilst this article sometimes includes CCHR\u2019s campaigning rhetoric (and CCHR do much good work) there is also much of generic interest and usefulness on this specific subject \u2013 both in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,68,120,40,36,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brain-and-behaviour","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-mental-health","category-prevention-research","category-treatment-addiction","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20259"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20264,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20259\/revisions\/20264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}