Urgent: Call for support for Alison Hymes

I don't often veer far from the core purpose of this blog but situations as what I describe in this post justifies an exception....


Please consider going to this web site to read the complete petition for Allison, sign it then share it amongst your own network and communities. 

Friends of Alison Hymes Demand Investigation

Alison Hymes trusted her psychiatrist and followed their directions for years. She also suffered kidney failure because of this treatment protocol. In 2008 Alison had a kidney transplant due to this iatrogenic induced kidney failure. Alison was prescribed steroid in connection to this transplant. And - in spite of living free of psychiatric issues for many years and being a valuable and contributing member of her community, in 2009 she was forced back into the mental health system.

As anyone who has taken steroids knows, they can cause some nasty side effects and as often happens with those who have been labeled with psychiatric diagnosis, these drug induced side effects are often overlooked and attributed to this label.

Following is an excerpt from this online petition:

Alison Hymes of Charlottesville, Virginia, suffered from iatrogenic kidney disease due to psychiatric malpractice and misdiagnosis more than a decade ago. Alison underwent a kidney transplant in October 2008 to save her life from the iatrogenic kidney failure. As a former therapist and a user of psychiatry, Alison dedicated her time and her life to mental health advocacy and the rights of users and survivors of psychiatry and the mental health system. She served as President of the Mental Health Planning Council in her area for several years, remaining an active advocate even while dealing with such very critical personal health issues. 

Alison was thrown back into the psych system at UVA hospital by commitment in 2009 when she had a reaction to the steroids prescribed for the kidney transplant. This reaction was also due to a pattern of neglect by her outpatient psychiatrist who did not adequately follow up with the transplant team when Alison began to report negative psychological effects from the steroid drugs. She eventually went into a steroid-induced crisis. 

Instead of addressing her mental status as a steroid reaction, it was inappropriately diagnosed and treated as a "bipolar episode", and she was committed to UVA hospital and prescribed psychiatric drugs that nearly caused the loss of her transplanted kidney and underwent a procedure that almost destroyed her bladder. She was totally re-traumatized, and has been threatened with commitments and coerced into taking psychiatric drugs that are severely impacting her functioning and health in numerous ways.


There is nothing that any person can do that can justify forced psychiatric interventions - especially when there are other alternatives available.


Regardless of your personal stance on psychiatry or psychotropic drugs, Allison deserves to have her human rights protected and her civil right to choose and direct her own health care honored. 


Until you have been subject to this kind of treatment you cannot understand how traumatizing this can be. Please consider signing then sharing this petition by following this link.

Read more on Steroid Induced Psychosis or just google it yourself.

For more information on Iatrogenic PTSD and links to the full article by Dr. Charles Whitfield see this article: Psychiatric Drugs as Agents of Trauma


Seek Knowledge, find Wisdom, live your Truth!