Misinformation can be hazardous to your mental health.
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/archives/article.asp?ArtID=6682
Wrong Answers
I'm signed up for Google's news alert service, which a co-worker
turned me onto. You sign up, choose a keyword or two, and Google sends
you emails linking to news stories related to your keywords.
I entered "mental health" and now I get several emails a day --
and sometimes a dozen or more -- with links to stories that all start
to sound the same:
This clinic's closing due to lack of state funds; that homeless person
was shot by the cops because they don't have mental health training;
these people are working against the odds -- always "against the
odds" -- to get the mentally ill in their community some help.
It's a bit of a downer, but it helps me to keep my eye on the ball.
Most often, the sources for the news alerts are national outlets like
USA Today, Christian Science Monitor or large regional newspapers like
New York Newsday and The New York Times. Sometimes I'll get something
from The Post and Courier out of Charleston, S.C., and that's pretty
interesting -- if only to confirm that mental illness is a stigmatized
plague in every corner of the nation.
There's plenty of international news courtesy of the International
Herald Tribune or the BBC, and the news-alert system as a whole is a
tribute to Google's never-ending ingenuity.
This week, though, I was shocked to see a link to a story on U.S.
Newswire about the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which
is a rabidly irresponsible organization that was founded by the Church
of Scientology. I didn't know what U.S. Newswire was, and though the
link had "press release" written above it, I quickly clicked
without seeing those words.
I found myself reading what I believed was an article headlined,
lengthily, "Crime, Fraud, Patient Abuse: Welcome to the World of
Psychiatry; Mental Health Watchdog Group Displays Exhibit in Chicago."
The "article" looked like an AP or Reuters-style piece with the
concomitant sheen of respectability. It was very long and included
this salvo: "As evidenced by the information in the exhibit,
psychiatrists have little or no accountability for the damage they
inflict on patients."
In what I thought was a news article, CCHR was described as a "mental
health watchdog," which is how the organization incorrectly
characterizes itself. "Wow," I thought, "they really pulled
the wool over this writer's eyes," and I felt sorry for the dumb
newswire stringer who got stuck talking to CCHR's mouthy president Bruce
Wiseman.
I was so distressed by the piece popping up on my news alert, I looked
into the source: U.S. Newswire. It's not a news service at all.
Instead, it generates press releases. More than likely, Bruce Wiseman
wrote this so-called article himself or hired some PR flak to do it
for him. No wonder the language and tenor of the piece were so familiar
-- and so very Hubbardy.
I think of myself as a savvy news consumer, but even I was misled
despite the "press release" slug. My experience begs the question:
Should Google be in the business of sending press releases from
Scientologists--or from anyone, for that matter?
I sent Google's media department an email asking that question and was
told I'd hear back. But as of this writing, I haven't.
As if that Googly misunderstanding weren't disturbing enough, I was
appalled to find a pile of Social Therapy brochures at my favorite
hipster-hangout coffee shop. "Change your life. Change your world.
Feel better," the brochures say.
After years of research on the group and interviews with ex-members
whose lives had been all screwed up by Social Therapy, I had no qualms
about taking the whole pile of dangerous propaganda and trashing it.
(If you're out there reading this, you weirdos, I dare you to come
after me for ridding the coffee shop of your brochures.)
Hipster-hangout coffee shops are, as the Social Therapists must know,
perfect for recruiting unemployed, aimless college grads who don't
have health insurance but who may need psychological help. There are
also a couple regulars at this coffee shop who are clearly mentally
ill: They're disheveled and talk to themselves, and the depressed
trucker-hat kids studiously avoid them. By dumping the brochures, I
hope I've spared both populations a potentially destructive
interaction.
So what's the moral to these stories? That there are more wrong
answers out there than right ones -- whether online, in coffee shops or
on a TV commercial for a pharmaceutical company's latest wonder drug.
People who grapple with psychiatric and psychological problems are
often desperate, and they'll look to all kinds of resources for help.
Problem is, we keep searching in all the wrong places.
My advice? Trust the people who actually know what they're doing, like
your general practitioner, who can be helpful for an initial diagnosis
and referral, and your mental health professional, who can determine
an appropriate course of treatment.
Whether because of inadvertent misinformation like that provided by
Google news alerts or deliberate Social Therapy-style attempts to
mislead you, it's a jungle out there. Please be careful.
LIZ SPIKOL (lspikol@philadelphiaweekly.com)
What they should say is this: "Come join our cult and, under the
pretense of getting help for your mental health problems, have your
life taken over by weird people who like Pat Buchanan and produce
terrible plays."
The name "Scientology"® is trademarked to the "Church" of Scientology. Neither this web page, nor this web site, nor any of the individuals mentioned herein assisting to educate the public about the Scientology organization's "Volunteer Minister" program are members of or representatives of the Scientology organization. Quotes used within this web page and within this web site are used according to the Fair Use laws of the United States.
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