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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great BOOK and a Great INTERVIEW
There is growing scientific evidence that happiness is directly related to our being mentally fit. So is it true that mental illness is caused by unhappiness, rather than chemical imbalances in our brains?

Dr. William Glasser has devoted over 40 years of his professional life proving that so-called mental illnesses can be cured (or made healthy again) by having happy...

Published on October 23, 2003 by Randy Gilbert

versus
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Helpful for the unhappy but well off.
If you are basically doing ok, not just mentally, but also
financially, career-wise, and do not have disabilities that
limit your choices in life, that this book could help you.

If the causes of your mental health stressors are mostly
relationships with other people, then this book is very likely to
help you.

But, if the...
Published on February 25, 2005 by zhivago


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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great BOOK and a Great INTERVIEW, October 23, 2003
By 
Randy Gilbert "Best Seller Mentor" (founder of 'BestSellerMentoring.com') - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health (Hardcover)
There is growing scientific evidence that happiness is directly related to our being mentally fit. So is it true that mental illness is caused by unhappiness, rather than chemical imbalances in our brains?

Dr. William Glasser has devoted over 40 years of his professional life proving that so-called mental illnesses can be cured (or made healthy again) by having happy marital, family, teacher-student, and manager-worker relationships. He believes it's time to remove the plague of the old school of psychiatry, which actually causes a physical impairment of the brain (where there once was none) and then hinders a person's chance for true happiness and mental health.

If you, or someone you know, have symptoms such as depression, attention deficit, anger, hyperactivity, migraine headaches, anxiety or panic attacks, then I urge you to get this book and read it.

Dr. Glasser is an internationally recognized psychiatrist who is best known as the creator of Reality Therapy, a method of psychotherapy that is taught all over the world. His approach is considered non-traditional, because he does not believe in a person being labeled mentally ill unless something organically wrong with the brain.

The major purpose of this book is to teach the world "Choice Theory," which is aimed at proactively creating mental health through happy human relationships. In a nut shell, Choice Theory says people can only be responsible for their own choices, and by forcing our choices on other people we cause a break down in the relationship, which in turn makes us very unhappy. In our unhappy state, our perfectly healthy brain acts in such a way as to try to regain control over the other person by inflicting symptoms that are commonly attributed to mental disease on ourselves.

For instance, when someone is diagnosed with depression, they are choosing to depress (they are "depressing") so that they can gain the upperhand (its a form of getting bad attention). However, when choose to proactively control their own thoughts and actions in a mature way, thus gainning the respect and admiration of the people they love and care for, they will return to a very happy state and not need to use the external contol mechanism of "depressing." The same works for paining, panicing, angering, crazying, etc.

Dr. Glasser points out there are "7 Deadly Habits" that lead to totally ineffective people. We use them to try to gain control over others, wrongly thinking that they will make us happy. They are:

Critizing
Blaming
Complaining
Nagging
Threatening
Punishing (Abusing)
and Bribing

I interviewed Dr. Glasser on "The Inside Success Show" and he was inspiring! If I hadn't already believed in the power of great relationships to make people happy, I would after talking with him.

Here's some other things I learned from Dr. Glasser:

** How Dr. Glasser found out about the 'dark side' of Psychiatry
** Why common brain drugs like Prozac and Ritalin make you ill
** What 7 good habits help you to avoid anger, depression, and anxiety
** How to quickly turn around sour relationships using Choice Theory
** Why it is always better to get rid of false beliefs than punish others
** How to supercharge your mental health with a little known "phrase" that you can say to yourself
** And much, much more ...

If you want to rid yourself of "UNHAPPY-itis" and be completely mentally fit (it's like the difference between being out-of-shape and being fit enough to run a marathon), then I highly recommend reading this book.

Randy (Dr. Proactive) Gilbert, Host of The Inside Success Show (www.TheInsideSuccessShow.com) and best-selling author of "Success Bound"

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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Real Prescription For Mental Health, August 1, 2003
By 
Matthew Birdsall (Commack, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health (Hardcover)
Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous To Your Mental Health pulls back the sheeps clothing that currently cloaks the rabid pharmaceutical industry and the misdirected psychiatric profession. In place of these modern day snake charmers and their magical elixirs, Dr. Glasser offers a sound explanation for, and solution to, the epidemic of mental illness that we have allowed (our choice) to overrun us.

Readers will learn why drug companies and current "mental illness providers" don't really want us to become healthy - Big Bucks! Rarely spoken of "mind drug" side effects (physical and mental) will also be discussed in detail, explaining why people on the current course of treatments seldom get better. And thankfully, Glasser offers a low-cost, no risk replacement remedy to help the millions of people out there, who are very unhappy and simply "mentally out of shape."

People who do not want to take responsibility for their problems or who demand instant gratification (even when pain and suffering are the long term consequences) will not find this book helpful. Those of us who think in terms of "internal control" and realize that depression (we all feel its touch now and then) is really a valid sign and symptom that we are currently not meeting one of our "basic needs" or reaching our personal "wants", will be enlightened and filled with hope after reading Bill's recent work.

Read it. Use it! Share It!!

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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Helpful for the unhappy but well off., February 25, 2005
By 
zhivago (Nashua, NH USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health (Hardcover)
If you are basically doing ok, not just mentally, but also
financially, career-wise, and do not have disabilities that
limit your choices in life, that this book could help you.

If the causes of your mental health stressors are mostly
relationships with other people, then this book is very likely to
help you.

But, if the stressors in your life (the onces that are pushing
you toward depression or other mental health problems) are
caused by a limited financial resources, cognitive limitations,
impoverished social contacts, poor employment prospects, or a
host of other common problems, then this book is close to being
a complete waste of money.
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20 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Good insight into the sham of biological psychiatry, February 1, 2004
By A Customer
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This review is from: Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health (Hardcover)
This book is a very good expose of the fraud of biological psychiatry and the alliance between psychiatry and the pharmaceutical companies to get as many people as possible on drugs for the longest possible time for the maximum profits. There is absolutely no science behind the idea of a biochemical imbalance which is nothing but a marketing device for drugs. Psychiatry used to be a noble profession with people such as Dr. Glasser but around 1980 when they saw their professional and financial existence threatened by the increasing number of nonmedical psychotherapists they decided to go with their unique market niche which was psychotropic drugs. They simply proclaimed without any scientific evidence whatsover and against all the accumlated knowledge and insights of the great psychiatrists that almost every mental disorder was caused by a biochemical imbalance in the drugs which they had available to prescribe. Then the pharmaceutical companies used their wealth to market this absurd idea to the public so as to convince people that they needed the "chemical balancer" that the company makes and that the psychiatrists have to prescribe. Other medical doctors who know nothing about mental disorders naively accepted this, and now they too can make money by including "mental health" in their practices.
The public finds it inconceivable that such a fraud could have completely permeated the medical profession, since they understandably assume that their doctors would base their practices only on real science. So what is the result of this: Among other things preschoolers given multiple psychotropic drugs for nonexistent diseases to correct nonexistent biochemical imbalances with drugs which have no evidence of efficacy and no proof of their safety. The drugs may now cause real brain damage while the child is psychologically damaged by being labeled with a mental disorder. But each such child will provide years of profits or become what Glasser aptly calls "the geese that lay the golden egg". This whole thing is fraudulent and terribly damaging to so many people and to our society as a whole.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on choice theory, January 11, 2007
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well recommended from councelor and great book on therapy without drugs.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite self help books, January 9, 2007
This, along with "Choice Theory" by the same author are probably my favorite self help books. Do you want an alternative way of dealing with the problems in your life? Try these books. I read many self help books, primarily related to Adlerian Psychology, and these are my favorites.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Exposes the Myth of Psychiatry, January 21, 2006
By 
G. Pederson (GRAND RAPIDS, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Some of the psychiatrists or psychiatrists in training that have reviewed this book are sadly influenced by the ideologies and pressupositions of their industry. The fact is, science has never proven that there is such a thing as a non-organic mental illness. The reason why people behave the way they do and have a variety of symptoms is far more complex than "they are lacking some serotonin." Most psychiatrists have already bought into the myth of chemical imbalance as CAUSATIVE of illness. Deep down they have to know this is a leap, if they are truly honest (the human mind is too complex to reduce to single neurotransmitters). Glasser and others have pointed out this leap for years. It is in the best interest of the patient to be honest with them and to genuinely help them get better and live better lives, not just hand them a prescription and say, "See you in a month." Drugs can be helpful for some but they are not the CURE of anything.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars It realy is - Your life - Your choice., September 4, 2004
This review is from: Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health (Hardcover)
For years doctors and scientists have been saying there is a direct link between health and mental states. What comes first the chicken or the egg? Well Dr William Glasser has devoted a lifetime to this research and he has come up with the result of unhappiness is the result of our choices. His research indicates that having a good strong family with and happy uplifting relationships can recreate wellness. Of course he does say that there are some people who do have physical and genetic conditions that cause depression, migraines and other mood related problems. Yet he goes on to say, that he believes the majority of our problems are the result of our choices. The DR also implies that its when we force our choices on others that our relationships break down, this is what I would call the control factor, the result is that relationships stifle, and break down due to the resentments and hostility.
Dr Glasser points out there are 7 bad habits, which lead to becoming ineffective. In the book Roadblocks to Communication they say there are 12, but Dr Glasser has condensed this to the 7 most destructive of them all. A mind opening read and I would highly recommend this book to people struggling with their relationships and life choices: TRUITY WILLIAMS {wanabelong(dot)com.} Author of BOOK OF CHOICES, WORKBOOK OF CHOICES AND The family board game TRUITY CHOICES
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5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Give Me Drugs, April 24, 2011
By 
Jaime L. Gomez "BornInWestLA" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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Who among us have not seen the destruction alcohol and drug use can do to our friends and loved ones? As an educator working with special education students, I have not known any students that have ever improved with the use of psychotropic medication. Yes, they become sedated and are easier to manage. But ultimately these students deteriorate and must use stronger doses to stay manageably medicated.

As an informed educator, I found it surprising that I would be pressured to medicate my adopted child. First it was recommended by a psychiatrist for ADHD (at 4 years of age!). His school support staff pressured me too. Eventually he was referred for a 24 hour hold by his elementary school and county mental health professionals (for his own safety), against the recommendation of myself and his special education assistant. I had to sign a waiver that I would not allow my son to receive medication recommended by the mental health institution. He was held against our will until five days later when a court hearing was held. If this can happen to me, I know that other less savvy people are simply going along with medicating their loved ones without fully understanding the repercussions of doing such.

I also have a sister who has been medicated 25+ years for mental illness, and I totally agree with what Dr. Glasser writes. I have always believed that with my sister it was all about being on drugs. Just give me drugs, and it will be all right. At this point she is probably too far gone. I am sure the drugs she has used over the years have damaged her brain. But I will give her this book, it can't hurt. This book is an excellent validation of common sense, which is contrary to the vodoo science used by the psychiatric establishment, upon which Dr. Glasser places the spotlight. Thank you Dr. Glasser!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Saved my relationship, November 9, 2010
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This brilliant book literally enabled me to save my relationship. I would recommend it to absolutely anyone experiencing difficulties in a romantic or family relationship. I think it most applies for a husband/wife (or boyfriend/girlfriend, partner) relationship, OR for parent/child. For anyone experiencing problems in these relationships, it will probably revolutionize the way you relate to each other forever. It was this aspect of the book that was the most relevant to me at the time that I read it (I have since read it many times, and in fact keep it by my bed to re-read parts of it when I feel I need a refresher), but there is a whole other section to this book - that is what the title is referring to. For anyone who is or has experienced a so-called "mental illness", or for anyone who knows someone who is or has, or for anyone currently taking psychiatric drugs, this part of the book is absolutely critical to a true understanding of why mental illness manifests, and the only way to really move beyond it.

Can't recommend this book to you enough! Do yourself a huge favor and read it.
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Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health
Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health by William Glasser (Hardcover - April 29, 2003)
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