> For speaking out, Spriestersbach was deemed “problematic” and given antipsychotic medications, including Haldol, which made him despondent and catatonic. > T

> For speaking out, Spriestersbach was deemed “problematic” and given antipsychotic medications, including Haldol, which made him despondent and catatonic. > The doctor concluded the amount of psychiatric medications he was on was “well beyond therapeutic levels, which is why he was acting catatonic and his expressions vacant,” Dumas-Griffith said in a sworn statement to the court. > Spriestersbach was prescribed powerful drugs, the doctor added, in “an effort to make him ‘competent’ when in reality he had always been competent.” This may be a bit of a tangent, but the willingness of many medical professionals to prescribe mentally altering drugs is extremely alarming to me and it only seems to be getting worse. Even outside the prison system it seems trivial to convince a doctor you have a mental disorder - especially if you're convinced of it yourself. I know several people who went through hell because they were misdiagnosed with a mental disorder or prescribed far more than what was appropriate. Pills are such a convenient solution for everyone involved; it's easy to see why they're abused. Of course I recognize that many people actually do suffer from such disorders and I want them to receive whatever treatment they need, but it's important to remember mentally altering drugs are very dangerous and their use should not be taken lightly.