well, i am left-handed, but hardly sinister. but for decades i've seen the damage possible. from groups where half the members have tardive dsykinesia---nobody warned them, and it's irreversible once seen, to my cousin put on zoloft take off into mania, divorce her architect husband and join a biker club. i have truly seen a lot of shrink damage, and if you surf, you will see i am not trying to scare you or be sinster, rather protect you from an area of medicine that is just plain dangerous. if you search and read the article on lithium being superior to depakote at stopping self-harm, you will read a story of an older, non-patentable drug being replaced by drug cos. with a more exspensive 'improvement', which they hold a patent on. shrinks rely on drug co. data---like asking the wolf to guard the hen-house. the goal of these cos. is profit. your well-being is secondary. mortality among depakote users is much higher than lithium patients. search 'lithium and suicide'---the article is there. and consider this, 'atypical neuroleptics' (zyprexa-risperdal) are being marketed for bipolars, even though made for the schizophrenias. while they may have use for acute mania patients---short-term---many shrinks just put patients on them indiscriminatly---and don't keep up to date. my 4th daughter, ex regent berkley scholar went manic---zyprexa steadied her---but now, only a year later, she can't control her tongue motion---tardive dyskinesia pure and simple---she's only 26. i was put on librium, with no warning it was addictive and that after months or years, withdrawal is harder than heroin. my current dr. is truthfull---'you're almost 60. you don't have time to 'come-back'---it's a year's taper, then recurrent withdrawal horror until death.'--- these drugs are illegal for more than 28 days in europe and the uk. they have their short-term uses, but decades after 'the valley of the dolls', now no resonsible dr. will script them long-term. as a perhaps 'newbie' to shrinkdom, i've only tried to keep you from walking in blind. that's not sinister---that's a firend.

pirate