Smoke and Mirrors: How You Are Being Fooled About Mental Illness - An Insider's Warning to Consumers

This book is an excellent source of truth when it comes to the truth of our mental health(care) system in America. Mr. Ruby certainly does fight his way through the Smoke smashing his way through the Mirrors of the myths of Psychiatry that we've all been told by our so called 'experts'. I highly recommend this book for anyone still believing in those myths. What is mental illness? Who defines it? and why are extremely addicting, very dangerous, deadly drugs their only solution when all we've done is somehow survived traumas or distress in life when life itself is 'Up, Down and All Around'. Does that make us mentally ill? Mr. Chuck Ruby breaks it all down succinctly, and what I thought was humorous in parts. And as one who also bought the 'chemical imbalance' 45 years ago, heavily drugged with ECT's and who's life has been completely destroyed, and that of my children's from taking over 50 prescribed psychotropic drugs they said I needed to take to fix my 'chemically imbalanced' brain they said I had, the best thing I ever did was withdraw from ALL my so called 'medicines', that almost killed me (while under mental health care that denied everyone of my cold-turkey Klonopin withdrawal they said was 'just fine' to do, severe symptoms leaving me pretty much to die at home, alone.) But,my reward is: now I own my own thoughts, feelings & behaviors, not Psychiatry. And dare I mention that now off all my psychotropic drugs, there is no mental illness lurking about, but there is an abundance of permanent cognitive impairment. So, I can't recommend this book enough and thank Mr. Chuck Ruby from the bottom of my heart for writing it.

This book! I hope this book gets into the hands of as many people as possible. It could prevent so much misunderstanding and damage.I first came across the non-pathologizing concept In Rosenberg’s, Non-Violent Communication, but I didn’t realize it was an orientation in psychology until I read Johnson’s, Attachment Theory in Practice, and she kept referring to “a non-pathologizing framework.” An essay led me to read Davis’ “chemically imbalanced” (from a sociological viewpoint) and that got me wondering about the origins of the medical model that has taken over psychology, so I searched and found this book.I appreciate that it’s written so that we laypeople can easily follow it. It’s structured to expertly dismantle the assumptions and claims of the medical model before introducing a different (and more ethical/compassionate) approach to facilitating the cultivation of psychological/emotional wellbeing.I hope many experts in the field will be inspired by the honest, informed, ethical, and compassionate message of this book so that more suffering people are helped rather than harmed.

Mental health practitioners are encouraged to “diagnose” patients so that they can be “treated” which often includes the use of pharmaceuticals. When people are told that they are completely capable of changing their unhealthy or dissatisfying ways of coping, it empowers them with the self-confidence to make those changes.In this book, you will read about real people who have become victims of a mental health industry that forced them to accept inappropriate diagnosis and/or medication in order to keep their occupations and in drastic cases their freedom to exist outside of the walls of a mental hospital. I strongly encourage you to read this book whether you accept it all, part of it, or if it just causes you to reflect and think about your own personal biases about "mental illness.”

For anyone working in the mental-health field, this is a must-read! The author provides a comprehensive argument supporting the deficiency of the term "mental illness." He believes that a diagnosis of mental illness is not supported by science and benefits primarily the psychiatric profession and pharmaceutical companies. The book is intensely academic—especially in the later chapters. Even if you read only the first three or four chapters, you will be disturbed by how easily society has fallen into step with the "mental-health” parade.

Dr. Ruby's book is well written and can be understood by lay persons as well as professionals. It makes crystal clear that psychiatric diagnoses are in reality, nothing but destructive moral judgments having nothing to do with real medicine and medical illnesses. Hopefully it will convince the professionals to stop "diagnosing" those who seek their help for emotional pain as well as convince the public to refuse to be "diagnosed" in order to receive that help.Laurence Simon, Ph.D.

This book fundamentally changed my relationship with the idea of mental illness. I recommend this book for anyone dealing with what we call mental illness, and perhaps more importantly for those that are trying to support someone who is struggling. The emotions are very real, and they don't mean something is wrong with you!

A most informative and insightful book that leaves no stone unturned in exposing the manipulation, deceptions and harm of psychiatry. As a person who was sent to a psychiatrist during grueling cancer treatments under the pretense I would “get help with sleep meds” for chemo-induced insomnia, this book was very validating as to the sheer absurdity, manipulation and deception I experienced during my encounter with the psychiatrist. Dr. Ruby clearly defines and illuminates how psychiatry “has no empirical evidence, logic or line of critical reasoning” to support their belief system and how psychiatric labels are simply personal judgment calls made about someone’s challenges or suffering. Written with plain language that everyone can follow and understand every chapter brings a profound revelation into the various deceptions and harmful protocols of the psychiatric industry. The last chapters of the book provide helpful suggestions and productive ways we can learn to manage our adversities or challenges without resorting to brain damaging psychiatric drugs. We are very grateful for professionals with such integrity and compassion as Dr. Ruby who speak out in order to prevent people from being harmed by psychiatry. I highly recommend every mental health professional, doctor, patient and lay person read this outstanding book!

I have rooms full of books and had drives full of e-books. This is one of my top 10 books.Chuck explains beautifully that for real diseases symptoms lead to tests which identify biological abnormalities. For mental diseases, the symptoms are the diagnosis. Someone says "I behave like this because I have BPD". In fact, they behave like that and it is labelled BPD. There is no biological illness causing the behaviour. People exhibit the symptoms of "mental illness" because they are rational short-term solutions to emotional pain. Drugs subdue people and mask the "symptoms". They do not address the causes of t emotional pain.This brief review does not do justice to a wonderful book.