Above is a picture of Steven Earl Wittenberg taken at Tim Horton's in Ottawa in 2006.I am Steven Earl Wittenberg. I am 47 years old and I was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada where I continue to live. I am married to Sue Clark-Wittenberg. She is an electroshock survivor. We are both antipsychiatry activists.
I experienced psychiatry as a child. I was labelled by psychiatry as a hyper active child.
I was put on Ritalin, a psychiatric drug. I went to the out-patient psychiatry department as a child to see psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. I have been free of psychiatry for many years.
I believe children should not be put on psychiatric drugs/medications nor should they be labelled. Label jars not people (not my quote).
I am a male incest survivor. I was sexually abused by one of my family members and it started when I was a teenager. I am seeing a counsellor to deal with these issues.
I have epilepsy. I developed the seizures when I was a baby after a bad reaction to the smallpox vaccination. I put on medication for epilepsy when I was 10 months old and I still on medication for epilepsy which is well controlled by these medications.
In my childhood, in my neighbourhood the stigma of having epilepsy was real. Some of the kids in my neighbourhood on First Ave in Ottawa were told by their parents not to play with me in case they caught my epilespy which is not true, but they did not know differently. It hurt me as I was lonely as a child as I had very few friends to play with.
I am a quiet and shy person. I don't open up to people until I know them well and trust them.
I am an honest person with high self esteem and I have integrity.
There still is a stigma about epilepsy. I function well as a person. I am a member of the group called Epilepsy Ottawa-Carleton.
I am the assistant director of the Wittenberg Center to End Electroshock, and my wife Sue is the executive director of the center. My wife Sue and I decided to open a center because we felt there was a need to lobby governments in order to make changes to the mental health laws to ban electroshock in Canada. We are looking for an office in Ottawa.
I want to help ban electroshock because no one should have to go through what Sue did.
Sue had 5 ECTs against her will in 1973 at the age of 17 at the Brockville Psychiatric Hospital in Ontario. Canada.
On her 5th ECT, her heart stopped and she was revived and suffers from permanent memory loss as result.
I classify electroshock as barbaric, torture, and it is horrendous. I can't believe that in this year 2007 that electroshock is being given more and more. There have been many studies and reports stating that electroshock always causes brain damage 100% all of the time. For more information on ECT, see Dr. Peter R. Breggin's website at the URL: www.breggin.com
"I want to help to close down all the ECT rooms all over the world because ECT is torture.
- Steven Earl Wittenberg
You can contact me by email: wittenbergcenter@gmail.com or by phone at 613-721-1833
