Tom Cruise and Psychiatry

Tom Cruise has a history of Dyslexia which is what I have in common
with him,and so I did this post on him.

Tom Cruise:
"When I was seven, I was labeled dyslexic. I'd try to concentrate on
what I was reading,and then I'd get to the end of the page and have
very little memory of anything I read. I would go blank,feel
anxious,nervous,bored,frustrated,dumb.
I don't want people to go through what I went through. I want kids to
have the ability to read,to write,to understand what people are saying
to them,to be able solve life's problems."

That's what it's been like for me. Auditory therapy,speech therapy,and
phonics helped me develop the phonemic and phonological awareness to
speak, decode,write and spell words well,but they did not help me to
remember them well when it comes to reading and listening because I
have impaired immediate visual memory,borderline impaired verbal
memory,and borderline impaired sentence repetition according to
Veteran Affairs neurological testing.

Tom Cruise became a Scientologist and discovered the 'Study
Technology' developed by L. Ron Hubbard ,and it helped him realize
that he could learn absolutely anything that he wanted to learn. He is
the founding member of the Hollywood Education And Literacy Project,a
non-profit group that uses Hubbard's teaching techniques in a secular
setting.

'Dys' means 'difficulty' and 'lexia' means 'words'. Dyslexia is a
disorder that affects millions of people all over the
world,influencing their ability to read. A dyslexic learns at his/her
own level and pace, and typically excels in one or more areas. Some of
their experiences include difficulties with
concentration,perception,memory,verbal skills,abstract reasoning,hand-
eye co-ordination,social adjustment(low self esteem is a commonly
observed behavioral characteristic),poor grades,and underachievement.
Often,people with dyslexia are considered to be lazy,rebellious,class
clowns,unmotivated,misfits,or of low intelligence. These
misconceptions can lead to rejection,isolation,feelings of
inferiority,discouragement,and low self esteem.
http://www.audiblox2000.com/tom-cruise_dyslexia.htm

I am no Scientologist,but I do share some concerns with Tom Cruise
about psychiatry. This is because I am Dyslexic,Dyspraxic,AD/HD who
was misdiagnosed as having schizoaffective bipolar disorder by
psychiatrists because of my cluttering speech,and they tried to talk
me into taking an antipsychotic for a "slight thought disorder"
because of my speech. These people never asked me if I was in special
education and had speech therapy which I did. They just judged the
book by its cover and didn't do any testing. This all happened
because I got lost trying to find my way back to my maternal aunt's
house in an unfamiliar area. I had lost the directions that I wrote
down to find my way back to my aunt's house. I had hard time
remembering the names of the unfamiliar street signs and had problems
with directions(like left,right) even when I asked people for help. I
didn't know my aunt's phone number,and so I couldn't contact her.
Then I turned to the cops for help,and they thought my auditory
processing issues(delays in understanding when people are talking to
me) was disorientation like a psychotic thought disorder,and so they
had me taken to psychiatric hospital. I was told by a psychiatric
nurse that it wasn't normal to get lost,disregarding that it happened
in an unfamiliar place. My Dyslexic issues got me
lost,misunderstood,and placed in a psychiatric hospital against my
will. Even though it was a very traumatic experience that affected me
for years,it was one of the events that seem like it had to happen to
prepare me for my path as a learning disability advocate. That was
back in October 19, 1999,shortly after I was got out of navy. I was
even forced to take an antipsychotic because of my cluttering speech
when I was in psychiatric hospital for depression at the end of
january 2002. Luckily, Veteran Affairs neurologists confirmed my
Dyslexia,Dyspraxia in December 2006 after neurological testing and
neuropsyche testing. It was the test results/cerebellar-vestibular
dysfunction diagnosis of Dyslexic Expert Dr. Harold N. Levinson in
June 2005 that helped make that possible. A psychologist diagnosed me
inattentive type ADHD in April 2004. None of them told me that I had
any psychotic disorder. I pretty much stood up for myself and saw
people who listened to me,treated me like I was a human being,and gave
me accurate diagnoses after doing tests on me. Therefore, I succeeded
in getting my learning disabilities documented for the first time
since I was in special education in early childhood,and that would
give me the credibility of being an advocate who has first hand
experiences with learning disabilities.

Like Tom Cruise, I stirred up stuff about psychiatry...I did it in AD/
HD support chatroom and in AD/HD yahoo groups just my talking about
psychiatrists misdiagnosed me and that there is racism in psychiatry
and that they have problems differentiating people with learning
disabilities,ADHD from people with bipolar,psychotic disorders. I
didn't do it to start trouble,but they thought that I did and they
even accused me of being a militant..especially when I mentioned
racism in psychiatry. I was viewed the same way Tom Cruise was,and I
was negatively labeled by them. I only did it to raise awareness so
other learning disabled/ADHD people including ones that are ethnic
minorities don't get misdiagnosed like I did.So there is a fine line
between stirring up stuff to make trouble and stirring up stuff to be
an advocate,

I can relate to what Tom Cruise has said. However,I have to disagree
about Post-partum depression because it's serious and can be very
dangerous as we have seen from women killing their children. Maybe
medication can treat the problem,but I do agree that
vitamins,exercise,and even nutrition can help. Heck...I even believe
that fish/cod liver oil can help because the Omega 3 fatty
acids(docosahexaenoic acid aka DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid aka EPA)
are important for brain functioning which include
intellectual,emotional processes. I take that stuff for my
Dyslexia,Dyspraxia,AD/HD issues. It even tones down my sensory
integration issues by helping me be less emotional,sensitive. I know
that if I ever mention that in a psychiatry support group,I would get
accused of being irresponsible and dangerous like Tom Cruise,and so I
would keep that stuff to myself.

Raymond N. Andrews

my LD/ADHD Assessment,Dr. Levinson Testing, Veteran Affairs
Neurological/Neuropsyche Testing
http://astynaz.myphotoalbum.com/view...umName=album01