Jane Mackintosh:

I have read the article. I stand by my initial criticisms. Moving on:

"McGorry terrifies a lot of people, not only here, but globally. This article isn't scaremongering, in fact, what is scary is how little critical thought has been applied to McGorry's dangerous positions, his millions of dollars worth of drug industry ties..."

In other words, you can't be a scare-monger if you're only joining in with a panic that has been started elsewhere.

You certainly haven't applied any critical thought to "McGorry's dangerous" position: like David Webb and Melissa Raven you have used McGorry's own public declarations of the sources of his research funding and some private consultancy work to insinuate that he is a hired shill of the pharmaceutical industry. You describe psychotropic drugs as "toxic chemicals" (as do the authors of the article) based, as far as I can see, on no other evidence than that of a self-help book written by a single author whose opinion may be influenced by a vested interest of her own: the desire to sell books and make money.

The really irritating thing about this article, and the responses I've received to my criticisms of it, is that I could be sympathetic to the position taken by David Webb & Melissa Raven. But their case is badly made. And it's not going to be made any better until some genuine critical *thinking* is applied to the question.

This, of course, is never going to happen in a public internet forum. If it did happen, it would be a first.

The first thing I thought about when I read this article was that maybe the writers were involved with some anti-psych group like Scientology.

Having listened to Doctor McGorry several times, the fact he was an Australian of the Year does not surprise me at all.
If he is looking at early intervention as a possible help to ward off the coming mental anguish in some people, then I say give it a try.

Having been involved in caring for many people with mental health problems over the years, I can tell you that it is definitely part of a Medical problem, not just psychological/mental/emotional problems.

If the psychiatric condition did not have many medical components we would not require Psychiatrists to have also been medical doctors as well. They are able to supply the scripts for antidepressant,
anti- anxiety and anti-psychotic medications for their patients.

As much as I have had many doubts myself about drug companies over the years, it is an unfortunate fact of life that we need their money to conduct research into providing cures, comfort, prevention and security in the form of new drugs.

The psychiatry world has come a long way since last century when most mentally ill people were simply locked away from sight in large institutions, left to live out their days in mental anguish.

Many people these days owe their lives (or at least their way of life) to these mental health medications.

Fix the illicit drug and alcohol problems in our current society, and we will go a long way to reducing the mental health problems.

Congratulations Melissa on bringing the truth about these issues out of the shadows.

Thank you for calling attention to the renegade and dangerous nature of McGorry's protocol. Thanks also for helping to highlight the naivete of our government, seemingly handing over unmetered credence to the likes of McGorry and Hickie (also former advisor to Beyond Blue) regarding mental health treatment and policy. Each of these men has too cosy a relationship with the pharmaceutical industry to be allowed the influence that they have.

How can we ever hope to obtain a true state of mental health for Australians so long as policy for it stays so heavily driven by such a sick and untrustworthy situation.

couldnt have said it better myself Jane!
well done.

Paul, open your eyes and your ears...
ignorence is not bliss, especially for our children.

The pharmaceutical companies also produce vaccines, antibiotics and chemotherapy medications.

Are we all going to stop taking these 'chemical cocktails' because the drug companies are making money out of them?

Are we understanding of why people need to take medications for physical illnesses but not for mental illnesses?

Why?

Here is an excellent article on this topic from Psychology Today, The former Chairman of the US Task force for the DSM citing the dangers of preventive psychiatry - what McGorry is asking Australians to implement:
"DSM5 'Psychosis Risk Syndrome'--Far Too Risky"

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dsm5-in-distress/201003/dsm5-psychosis-risk-syndrome-far-too-risky