Thank you for the updates to your original post about SSRIs.
The FDA and drug companies have long been aware of the link between antidepressants and violence/suicide. Here's my Substack post I originally wrote for Dr. David Healy's website about the long history of antidepressants. (If you don't know his work Healy was instrumental in getting the UK warnings and has been an expert witness in many of the lawsuits against the companies on suicide/violence.)
Akathisia is often a precursor to violence/suicide. Most prescribers have no idea what akathisia is or looks like. When patients describe akathisia, many times the doctors think it’s their “disease” getting worse and layer on more pills. Pfizer intentionally kept akathisia from GPS as noted by internal company documents released in my lawsuit. I can send you the documents.
Since neither the FDA nor the companies are doing their job, my friend who lost her 58 year old husband to Paxil suicide established an organization called MISSD.org. The sole mission is to educate public and doctors about akathisia. I am proud to be on Wendy Dolin’s board.
Also, to date, there has never been a formal investigation into the meds after a mass shooting. The “fixers” get in there and quickly shut up any link to pills or their mental health records. It is high time that the public demands Congress to hold investigations like they did back in 2004/2005 on suicide link. We need to push for shooters list of medications and prescribers to be released. Privacy laws shouldn’t cover in these cases. It’s just a question that we need to ask.
Just this week Medpage reported ...
"In its Annual Report to Congress, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force picked anxiety disorders, depression, and suicide risk prevention requiring urgent research."
Remember this is the same group who recommended that EVERY person under age 64 should be screened for anxiety. We know that antidepressants or some other psych drug are often prescribed.
We will need to watch this closely to see $$$ for behavioral health/school clinics/services and psych meds/vaccines/treatments.
Aside from our pediatrician trying to force Covid shots on our kids, the other reason I had to discontinue having them followed by this group is the constant screening for anxiety we had to face at every appointment. After reading all of the above the root of problem is big pharma and their constant mission to get people hooked on these meds. And just as the companies like Pfizer did with the Covid shots, they did the unthinkable & hid the evidence of dangerous adverse events because they were motivated by profit.
Most people aren’t aware that the PHQ9 screening form was created by Pfizer marketing guy. They wanted to move prescribing out of psychiatrist’s office and make more accessible for GPs/internal med/pediatricians to write scripts. There are a lot more of them than psychiatrists. If you look at the bottom of these screening forms it will say generous donation by Pfizer and three key opinion leader doctors in the field of psychiatry. It is a widely accepted form for screening and a lot of health systems use it.
FYI - You can refuse to fill out. It is in my records that I won’t complete this screening form. It is a classic marketing tool. Bring them to the funnel and once they are in the system, the company has a customer (aka patient.).
Ugh! This I have such a problem with. It’s even used in schools to screen kids and at the beginning of the school year when parents are bombarded with pages of registration forms, there you will find your local school districts mental health screening tool. The Emergency data card that is also in the stack of registration forms, a parent’s signature gives the school a blanket form of consent to all screenings and other interventions that might be needed. It’s easily abused by our “trusted” school administrators, counselors, school nurses and teachers who know enough to be dangerous.
AND - most of the problems with prescribing these drugs are coming from GP's, not psychiatrists. Not all (psychiatrists are excellent gaslighters) - but most.
This must be why every visit to a doctor asks if I have any anxiety or suffer from depression. Response is always NO. Next visit, same question. After the visit sometimes get a call from insurance provider for my Medicare supplement asking about my emotional health. 😩🤦♀️😩
Ditto. I have to see my doctor monthly and now when I get the form I either leave questions unanswered or just write at the top no changes from last visit. Tomorrow I’m only going to write my name and leave the rest blank. Once I wrote about a serious incident I had and they didn’t give a damn about it. Why ask then?
At this point, for those who still continue to even visit doctors, strongly consider lying about all of your medical history because it’s in reality just a data mining questionnaire that will be used against you.
They hold people with problems hostage by testing their new concoctions of addictive antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications, often making them worse due to suppression of energy.
Psychiatrists and therapists cost hundreds of dollars an hour now without insurance.
Fortunately I’ve never answered yes. It’s a shame that the medical community can’t ask because they are concerned about seniors but because they have a quota.
Yes, I have heard Wellbutrin (bupropion) being used to help quit smoking although it was originally approved as an antidepressant for depression. It's the same as Zyban which was approved for smoking cessation. Both made by GlaxoSmithKline. It is similar to how Prozac was repackaged as Sarafem and got approval for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Same drugs.
Most people including the doctors have NO idea that the FDA removed the blackbox warning of neuropsychiatric language describing serious mental health side effects from the smoking cessation drugs in 2016. Pfizer went to the FDA to get the warning removed from Chantix. This was after they settled over 2700+ lawsuits prohibiting the victims to ever tell their stories in public as part of the settlement. This was an unprecedented move by FDA to remove a blackbox warning.
I was on the FDA Advisory Committee and was excited to ask where all the victims were as well as the lawyers. I truly believe Pfizer learned from the antidepressant hearings and wanted to shut up all the victims/lawyers. Days before the FDA ad com, I received a call from the FDA that it had come to their attention that I had an "intellectual bias" and was being removed from serving as Consumer Rep for this meeting. I still attended the meeting as a member of the general public so that I could speak up during the Open Public Hearing. The unfortunate thing is that the advisory committee members voted to remove the warning did NOT know or discuss the fact that Pfizer had just settled 2700 lawsuits for the exact problem that Pfizer now said their new EAGLES study showed doesn't exist.
There was even a lawsuit filed on behalf of the plaintiff experts: Tom Moore (Institute of Safe Medication Practices) and Dr. Joseph Glenmullen (Harvard Psychiatrist) to get the court sealed discovery documents with major public health consequences released. The premise of the lawsuit was based on the tobacco litigation BROWN & WILLIAMSON, 710 F.2d 1165, 1180 which says “The societal interest in knowing what went wrong and why is great.
•••Judges should [] consider the interests of litigants in other suits,
the needs of regulatory agencies to have access to information,
concerns of public interest groups, and the interests of future plaintiffs.
•••Indeed, common sense tells us that the greater the motivation
a corporation has to shield its operation, the greater the public's need to know. ”
Ultimately the case was dismissed by a judge that sided with Pfizer.
Again, this was a Pfizer initiative, but ultimately the FDA removed the warnings for all smoking cessation.
Absolutely I have heard reports of people having violent nightmares like this person describes.
I don’t often mention that days before Woody died he told me that he was having nightmares that scared him.. When I asked him to describe the nightmare, he wouldn’t repeat it as it was too disturbing.
At the time I remember thinking that’s odd because Woody used to think he didn’t dream become he never recalled them.
Just saw an article at Stat News crying that the suicide warnings on antidepressants are causing suicide, by inducing people to not take the drugs. Won’t send people there. Since so much of medical education comes from drug manufacturers, doctors are going to continue to miss the signals of adverse drug reactions. We should not couch side effects in euphemistic or even soft sounding medical terms from foreign languages, or last names of first publishers.
Especially since, after COVID mandates, policies & lockdowns, the MSM is proclaiming that we are in a "mental health crisis," and guess what is the #1 "standard of care" answer to that? I am watching with trepidation. Surviving Antidepressants (website) catches as many as we can, but we are all volunteer, and cannot intervene in the distresses caused by these drugs - it's the internet, and we're only peers. And how long can we continue? All the volunteers also have lives.
" It is high time that the public demands Congress to hold investigations". The special committee on vaccines has yet to meet. Nobody is being held to account. I suspect the corruption has become total. Just like the "war on drugs" for illegal drugs, the profits are so large that the corruption touches nearly all involved.
Feeling depressed, naturally, is painful and needs to be addressed, but even worse is "anti-depressant depression". It's like your thoughts become oily, and slither around in strange ways.
As far as the disconnection, it can be experienced in a couple of ways in addition to what others have mentioned:
a) the colors in the world are less vivid, less saturated. It's similar to seeing a digital image that has been slightly made blander, but at the same time the edges become sharper.
b) the world becomes drier. It's like there used to be a moisture between you and everyone else - a warm, joyous liquid, but on the drugs it becomes diluted, and no longer nourishes.
I know a single mom who kept her daughter sedated like a potted plant from age five until 16, when the girl was finally removed and the drugs cut back, but it was too late. A rambunctious little girl with a mind able to make verbal connections blisteringly fast is now almost mentally disabled. Her speech patterns are broken and stilted. It's really hard to see this as anything but organized abuse.
So oddly enough, frequently when I do something that is profoundly healing for someone (or a patient gets that result with someone else) they will share that everything looks more vivid and they see more colors..
It is hence quite intriguing that SSRIs do the exact opposite of that. I appreciate you sharing this and will pin the comment.
Thank you
ps poor girl, I've seen similar cases to that too :(
Very common. I've described it on Surviving Antidepressants (tapering, coming off the drugs) as walking out of a swamp. First, your eyes clear the water, and you start to see & be able to think. As you slowly trudge through the mud & slime, your shoulders & chest get above the bog, you start to feel, you start to love. Time passes - it's a slow process, trudging through the quagmire. You get your belly out of the mud, and all those traumas start to return - all the feelings you suppressed (and if you started antidepressants at a young age, never even learned) start to ravage you - but - look, you can see the horizon, you can see the sun. Being able to see is what helps you to keep plodding along.
The mud sucks at your lower extremities for many years - fatigue, pain, myriad "weird" disorders, but your head is above the mire, so you continue. Gradually, you come out of the swamp and begin to move more freely.
I believe, after 10 years of working on this, I'm only about ankle deep now. I will never again take a drug which requires this level of tapering, No ma'am! (by comparison, I can come off an opiate in one month or less).
I believe that (thank you MWD) learning about zeta potential (and my regular tai chi / qigong practices) is helping to turn the corner & speed the process - but - the fact of the matter is, that neurotransmitters adjust at the speed they will adjust. The process cannot be rushed. Time is the best healer.
These concepts are most difficult to explain, when someone comes to Surviving Antidepressants (tapering website) after a cold turkey or too-fast (usually doctor supervised) taper - they come in crisis, and they want to be better now. Sometimes they report every 6 hours that "it's not better yet." It is disheartening to hear that it may take years to escape what has been done to them. It is horrible to have to teach people this level of patience.
Those that learn it - learn to manage their moods on their own. Learn a lot about health & wellbeing. Self-regulate. We call it "SA University," the graduates are truly amazing people. But sadly, most people come to us too dysregulated to manage their own taper. It's too hard to believe that you should go so slowly.
Are you familiar with William Walsh's work, identifying metabolic/biochemical issues that cause mental disorders and treating them with nutrient supplementation (and sometimes detoxification) protocols?
Walsh-trained physicians treat many patients who come to them taking psychiatric medications. Patients are told that when they've been on their Walsh protocols for a few to several months (depending on diagnosis) and have seen good improvement, they can go back to the practitioners who prescribed their drugs and ask about reducing their dosages.
Walsh says many patients on his protocols are able to get off their psychiatric drugs. Some, particularly schizophrenic and bipolar patients, do best if they continue drugs, but at a much lower doses than pre-Walsh-treatment.
I suspect the Walsh protocols would significantly speed the tapering process for most people attempting to get off psychiatric drugs, because the protocols work to normalize neurotransmitter levels.
I highly recommend Walsh's book "Nutrient Power: Heal Your Biochemistry and Heal Your Brain." The Walsh Institute website has a list of Walsh-trained practitioners.
Yes, orthomolecular and functional medicine has been an important part of the healing process.
HOWEVER, Walsh does not help with getting off pharmaceuticals. He helps balance the brain from it's natural state. It can be dangerous to send people tapering directly to orthomolecular lest the practitioner go into "detox" and "pyroluria" protocols which can be harmful in withdrawal.
THERE IS NO "SPEEDING" THE TAPERING PROCESS!!!!!! (sorry for yelling) Transmitters adjust at the speed they will adjust, it does help to support the brain, but you cannot taper any faster.
I would be a wealthy woman if I had a dime for all the people who regretted a fast taper. I have yet to hear a single person complain that they tapered too slowly.
I stopped Effexor in 2002 and that choice is still affecting my life today. At the time, my withdrawal was classified as a nervous breakdown. I made the decision myself to do what I did but I was in some distress over a lifetime of negative interactions with medical professionals and felt like I was on my own. Anyway, my point is, thank you for what you are doing!!
Eff is effing horrible! Don't know how you did it (assuming cold turkey or something close) - but I know many many people who go back on it - or stay on the last 37.5 mg indefinitely. It hits so many receptors and fiddles a lot of systems. WELL DONE!
And the symptom set for Eff is pretty special, too. Irritable skin, akathisia, headaches, insomnia . . . but the irritable skin thing seems specific to Eff.
I was on Eff for about 5 years, and didn't taper properly (cross-taper to another drug, gawd knows you can't have an "unmedicated bipolar" - which I now am!). I'm certain that my "bipolar symptoms" got worse during that transition - but it's fuzzy. The sensations while drugged - it's not really me, is it? I couldn't believe that these people were giving Eff to a "bipolar." It seemed contraindicated. But 2 diff psychiatrists did so.
I talked to a psych NP who told me parents commonly badger him to prescribe ADHD meds to their kids. He says he tries to talk them into using other methods to address behavior they don't like. But they're not receptive and push for the meds.
Yes, patient demand (ads on TV) does drive a lot of prescriptions!
Social, peer & school pressure contribute. My brother had dyslexia - instead of drugging him (in the 60's & 70's), they held him back a year. There was a bit of stigma with being "held back," but he went on to be much more successful than myself (for whom school was a breeze).
When Johnny might get "held back" for his behaviour, this is a lot of pressure on the parents. Snowflakes might not survive being "held back." It might even get to the level of, "Johnny cannot attend here unless he's 'fixed'," which, in this day and age, really throws it back onto the parents.
I was on Dex for ADD, the only one that worked for me, for 30 years. My primary doctor said she'f prescribe it so I didn't have to travel & pay big bucks for a specialist.
It was a godsend for for a long time but it is addictive and tolerance builds up.
When I switched doctors I couldn't find a local Dr. who will prescribe it.
After a year without it I am still withdrawn, listless, depressed, paranoid in public and I want to die. I avoid groups and won't answer the phone.
I can't bear traveling to find a new doctor & pleading my case only to be refused. I never could have anticipated it.
Well I hear you. If you were managing well on it with no abuse then that should carry some weight. Fwiw the ephedrine sulfate (brand name Bronkaid) tablets I use for seasonal asthma feels like a pep pill so I can only tolerate it when I really must have a bronchodilator. It feels like Dex I toyed with in college. Those meds are really dangerous for most people but to be yanked off after 30 years is really not right. Best of luck to you.
When ADHD became a thing even family doctors diagnosed and prescribed it . I find that after covid became king, and locked down what doctors can and can't do, primary doctors will not prescribe it. There must be a penalty like writing extra reports or something.
They want me to go to a Psychiatrist 20 miles away.
My original neurologists changed their field of specialty to other areas - sleep studies & pediatrics, so something must be going on. They probably found out it does permanent damage or it's not profitable, or too much gov't red tape oversite.
I had 30 years able to function more normally but now I'm worse off than before.
Thanks for your input. That ephedrine was bad stuff unless you were dying from lack of air.
sports parents do this, fyi. I was advised around 7th grade when my kid was a good athlete to "get an athletic asthma prescription and get them on adderall" - with recommended doctors to facilitate this (by other parents, who were trying to be helpful!). the steroid inhaler helps with their run speed and the adderall is well, actual speed.
Sports industry is an all around moneymaker for the medical industry, and you will see health systems with contract relationships with sports teams.
Orthopedics is much more fascinated with getting a pro player or even a kid player back on the field than a little old lady's knees from a social standpoint as well as financially.
Now that there have been shortages of ADHD meds, imagine the complications for patients caused by the balance of these and the other psych meds.
A kindergarten student at my nieces' private school in Howard County, Maryland, died of a brain bleed last spring. A first responder friend tells me he's never encountered that before. The residents of that metro-DC/Baltimore county are lunatics and all stampeded to get the COVID-19 jabs. Especially the parents at that private school: one didn't allow her three children to leave house and yard for over two years after COVID-19 hit the news. And she was heard saying: if only every single human being at that school were jabbed then MIGHT let her kids return. I found myself pondering what kind of psychosis this will create in her children. In my long life I don't remember anything like this insanity and I grew up before polio was completely stamped out.
Polio profoundly affected my family and I don’t understand this attitude either.
I found out this week that my seven-year-old friend across the hall is not allowed indoor playdates. Ever again. This is a child I cared for regularly between the ages of one through four (at which point her parents began shouting “get back, get back!!!!!” whenever she tried to run to me in the hallway. By the way, I live by myself and work from home. Her dad thinks that keeping this kid germ free is the most important thing. This child is the most open hearted, social kid I’ve ever met. Maybe that will see her through somehow. P.S., the dad is a bartender who goes to work and picks up the germs of the public he serves several times per week.
If anyone can make out what the last few words in the patient note I transcribed were, I'd very much appreciate that. The best I could do was:
[Pt. began to verbalize feelings of killing other people and then himself. Pt. ..…. much more anxious and depressed than baseline; even though this is not reflected in …..]
Doctors sadly are not known for having the most legible handwriting...
PT begin to verbalize feelings of killing other people, and then himself. PT LOOKED? Much more anxious and depressed than (at) baseline; ... I think maybe that one word would be ‘LOOKED’
Great article....at the VERY LEAST, it's clear that the correlation requires more study, but I think we all know why there's no studies being done......
The day that the Big Pharma empire comes crashing down can't come soon enough.
That day will not come until after Corporate Media is held to account for being completely bought out and in bed with Big Pharma (simply look at the % of ads on TV), and Big Government Uni-Party. Who was it that said the media was the enemy of the people? The outsider who did not need to be bought...
The Durham-Humphrey amendment makes all drugs prescription-only unless the FDA specifically allow OTC sale. This is the main precedent to both the drug war, and banning ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, etc. IP (patents, copyright, FDA licensure, etc.) provides Big Pharma, etc. their excessive profits. You can't sell a generic until the patent expire, and then must get an FDA license. Trademark must be kept so others don't claim to sell "authentic" David O'Halloran products. Some customers may want to be sure you get the profits. Why not post a discount sahibamd Substack (Wordpress, etc.) with all the exclusive and proprietary material? Who knows what a drug, etc. be if you can't believe the name on the label. Sure, the FTC or something may "require" accuracy in labeling, but drugs can have unmentioned differences. Some tryptophan had an unlabeled impurity causing toxicity, and different brands of the same drug have differences in assimilation and efficacy.
If AMD develop a much safer and more effective according to him antidepressant, let's call it "Amdexa" (not to be confused with dextroamphetamine, even if it contain some), generic name "garbatine", go ahead and sell your own garbatine, but don't call it Amdexa.
I suspected long ago that SSRIs were a factor in homicides by young men as soon as it was confirmed that they could lead to suicide.
It isn't much of a stretch for a young man who has decided on suicide to decide he might as well take out his perceived 'enemies' as well. And so he does.
As with the rash of unexpected deaths of young, healthy and vaccinated people that did not occur before the introduction of the Covid vax, I am old enough to recall that mass shootings were almost unheard of decades ago, in fact before the age of SSRIs and, likely, some other drugs. The 1966 University of Texas Tower shooting stunned the country. It turned out the shooter, Chapman, had a brain tumor. Thede days nobody is stunned and no brain tumors show up, but SSRIs do.
Incredible reporting on such an utterly disturbing subject! From the full series of anthrax shots I was given in the Marines (1998); to my first gastroenterologist appointment in 2005, where the doc prescribed me Paxil for "IBS"; to the recent Covid criminality: I've not a morsel of respect for the pharmaceutical industry. It's also chipping away at my regard for physicians, barring the Author(s) and others like Dr. Malone, of course, who are speaking out against the pharmaceutical racketeering machine. In the case of the aforementioned gastroenterologist, during my intake, he quickly discounted any dietary-related possibilities. After the colonoscopy came back clear and he checked all his boxes, he determined that it was my anxiety causing the chronic diarrhea, and therefore prescribed Paxil. It made me feel so bizarre after two or three days of ingestion that I immediately discontinued and never returned to him again. It doesn't surprise me one bit that this poison leads people to commit these heinous acts. It's high time to proverbially "chop the head off the big pharma snake", as well as the scoundrels who lobby, politicians who accept their bribes, the PR industry for painting them all in such a favorable light, and everyone else in the chain who profits from their ill-gotten gains!
The founder of Surviving Antidepressants (www.survivingantidepressants.com) was caught in this trap. She started going through menopause, and a well-meaning doctor thought that was the thing to do (early 00's). Paroxetine. When menopause was well & truly over, she thought, I'll get off the drug. That started her journey - and - she founded Surviving Antidepressants to help others survive these effing drugs.
Turned out it was only a gluten sensitivity. After visiting 3 subsequent gastroenterologists (and two additional colonoscopies) over the span of a decade, and none of them having an interest in my diet, my chiropractor put me in contact with a really great food allergist and she had me cured in a matter of weeks. In fact, in the first 5 minutes of my meeting her and explaining my symptoms, she asked if I was ever tested for gluten sensitivities, to which I replied, "no".
Good dissertation! I think the basic issue is that if we embrace the concept that psychotic drugs drives the shooters it negates the push to eliminate guns from the hands of American patriots and citizens! In addition, the psychotic drugs have to be cleared through the hepatic function, and when they can’t be cleared and the drug impact builds up in the brain, we have shooters acting out! The mass media is the beneficiary of 6 Billon dollars per year and you don’t bite the hand that feed you! Consequently, they won’t touch the subject and we keep killing each other needlessly
That would imply the person has liver failure. And even if he/she did, the drug would not build up in the brain, ammonia would. People in end stage liver disease with high ammonia levels are in no condition to shoot a gun. Their sensorium is clouded, not in an angry way, but in a sedated way. The doctor who is prescribing should have access to recent labs and a CMP, which covers liver enzymes is a very commonly ordered panel. So your theory is not physiologically sound.
Deficent liver function is not the same as liver failure. Western medicine often has a great deal of difficulty recognizing suboptimal function of a critical part of the body and just makes it a binary good vs. bad absolute thing.
Are psychiatric drugs implicated in liver problems? I know someone who died of liver disease in their early 30's who was bipolar. Do not know what specific drugs they took.
Thanks AMD for another great article. I can't thank you enough for all the information you are providing. Just trying to assimilate and process it all (the stuff about zeta potential and CDR therapies more than this one, but someone I know well was prescribed Buspirone for anxiety and I could see negative personality changes, and persuaded them to quit taking it).
How can one find a practitioner to deal properly with the kinds of issues you talk about, like anxiety/claustophobia disorders caused by the C19 shots (started right after 2nd Moderna)? I'm convinced that the zeta/CDR issues being addressed would likely help, based on what I have read in your articles.
I remember being so shocked when I told a psych resident that I knew someone who had some negative effects after starting strong antidepressants, and he said something like, “that proves she needed the drugs, her going crazy would only happen if she needed them”. What a horrible thing for him to believe and be taught at Med school.
Hmm. I had a very weird chocolate lab that I ultimately had to take to the university veterinary school for diagnosis. OCD. They said the drug likeliest to reduce or eliminate her symptoms was Paxil, or rather the first generation of Paxil, I forgot the name.
However, we were then warned that if we did go that route, she would have to be leashed at all times as it was more than likely she would become vicious. PASS. NOPE.
So. We lived with a really weird dog for ten years. But she was as sweet as pie.
The vets knew how bad these drugs were for animals. Pretty small leap to humans.
I didn't know any better. I had a bizarre situation with 2 rescue cats, and the little one was frightened and freaked out all the time. The vet put her on some sort of tricyclic (anafranil?) at a very young age - 6 months (the time when her brain was forming). She was only on the drugs for about 6 months (the other rescue cat was re-homed, she became a solo cat) . She was calmer, and by age 5 was a nice cat. - but she was forever stupid. She just never developed properly. She lived to 16 - but her potential to be an excellent companion was stunted.
It makes me look at children on these drugs in a very nervous light.
I think this issue is exceptionally complicated, especially as it relates to American young men. While it appears that some people do react violently while on SSRIs, many do not. I think a bigger issue for young American men—all American men, really—is the complete destruction of America, and the traditional values most American men could embrace with pride only a generation ago. If you are straight, European-American, Christian—the identity of most Americans until the last couple of decades—is there a recognizable, optimistic
future? Does it not appear that some of the enemies many of us believed wanted the destruction of America only a short while ago, have taken control, have “won?”
What I discovered after taking many SSRIs is that they merely muted my very real childhood trauma. And while I do not believe it will ever be fully resolved, I would rather feel and deal with the trauma rather than push it down, hide it. I am not sure how this relates to those who react violently to SSRIs, but I do think that my own anger and pain have real causes in my childhood—not misperceptions caused by “chemical imbalances.”
While my SSRI experience was short-lived (thank God!), I self-medicated heavily with alcohol for the same reason as you for dealing with past traumas. 27 years of blackout-induced drinking, basically from 14 to 41 years old. I'm 49 now, and have been completely alcohol-free for 8 years. And while reality sucks sometimes, I'd take it over drunken oblivion any day of the week. I don't disagree with your thoughts on the state of America, either. As a Marine veteran, knowing what I know now, I would not be so keen in gearing up for combat under the orders of this criminal administration. Keep fighting the good fight!!
The theory of serotonin deficiency causing depression has always been suspect and for years we have known now that it is invalid. Anything that increases serotonin is very bad news. But the serotonin deficiency theory has sold a lot of drugs, to the detriment of all of us.
Years ago I took Wellbutrin specifically for weight loss. I remember very clearly I was having an argument with my boyfriend at the time and instead of feeling angry I just felt nothing. My brain was angry but I didn’t have any emotional response. It felt extremely WEIRD. I had only taken a few doses but stopped immediately. I can’t imagine having no strong emotions. It’s inhuman.
The sad thing about modern science is that a lot of it essentially wants you to be like that and I feel your story is an excellent anecdote for what is wrong with society.
Well yes the powers that be love these drugs because everyone around you thinks you are so peaceful, easy going and easy to control, but inside your brain is pissed because you lost the desire to get what you want out of life or stand up for yourself…. Until you explode. Emotions make life worth living. We need to learn how to be emotionally intelligent not erase them.
Interestingly, in my general practice days, which ended about 20 years ago, I always found SSRI's a particularly useless treatment for depression or anxiety disorders. Though not hugely better, I did find tricyclics helped some people quite well. Conversely, in my sports and exercise practice, I find amitriptyline (a tricyclic antidepressant) significantly better in doses of 10-20 mg daily for treating neuropathic pain and radiculopathy than either gabapentin or pregabalin. The latter two drugs are again a victory for marketing over efficacy, and the former is seldom used. For depression, the evidence for regular exercise over SSRI's in treatment for depression as well as my anecdotal evidence is strong.
I think overall that of the existing drugs, the monamine oxidase inhibitors are the best for depression, and I think there was a long campaign to scare everyone about the tyramine syndrome so SSRIs could be made to look safer than the and win the market.
Wonderful article! I’ve felt this way since the Phil Hartman incident, mainly because I’ve taken several SSRIs and one of them—Zoloft—had this effect on me. Fortunately, I noticed that things were much worse (MUCH worse) within a week of starting them and stopped taking them. I consider myself extremely lucky, and it is a relief to see you speaking out about this.
The best case scenario I’ve personally observed with these drugs is a lack of emotional engagement from friends taking them. We usually drift apart because the person is a bit dimmed down, if not completely switched off. I’ve also seen mania in one friend and I experienced it myself with another SSRI, Celexa. Before it was prescribed to me, I told the doctor I could not take that class of drug. His answer? “This one is new.”
I developed a sudden obsession with designer labels and began purchasing $800 bags and $3000 coats.
It’s hard to understand why more people I know don’t notice these changes in themselves or those around them after starting SSRIs. Thankfully, I have been free of psychiatric drugs since 2006 myself!
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You do not have to take the survey in one sitting. You can start the survey and save your progress so that you can continue when you preter.
Feel free to flick us an email if you have any questions.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to this study. Doing so, provides one concrete way for each if us that are vax injured to add to the knowledge base so that we can better understand what so many of us are facing.
Elizabeth, I'll ask you a question I also asked AMD: have you encountered C19 vax injury victims whose primary problems were claustrophobia and anxiety (which were never present at all pre-shots)? Has anything worked for these patients? I will also look at your site.
As I recall, claustrophobia was not identified as an explicit query in the survey. I do believe that general anxiety was listed explicitly as a survey question, and has been experienced by many people. Who knows if it was directly caused by the vax or more generally by the state of fear that was whipped up around the illness. Also, the creators of the survey include a general comment box at the end, where it is possible to list explicit items that may not be called out in the survey.
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The survey will be open for several weeks still. Feel free to reach back out to me or the organization in general when the data is in.
Please take care of yourself and feel free to reach out to REACT19 for more information.
Thank you for the updates to your original post about SSRIs.
The FDA and drug companies have long been aware of the link between antidepressants and violence/suicide. Here's my Substack post I originally wrote for Dr. David Healy's website about the long history of antidepressants. (If you don't know his work Healy was instrumental in getting the UK warnings and has been an expert witness in many of the lawsuits against the companies on suicide/violence.)
https://acceptablecollateraldamage.substack.com/p/guns-mental-health-and-drugs
Akathisia is often a precursor to violence/suicide. Most prescribers have no idea what akathisia is or looks like. When patients describe akathisia, many times the doctors think it’s their “disease” getting worse and layer on more pills. Pfizer intentionally kept akathisia from GPS as noted by internal company documents released in my lawsuit. I can send you the documents.
Since neither the FDA nor the companies are doing their job, my friend who lost her 58 year old husband to Paxil suicide established an organization called MISSD.org. The sole mission is to educate public and doctors about akathisia. I am proud to be on Wendy Dolin’s board.
Also, to date, there has never been a formal investigation into the meds after a mass shooting. The “fixers” get in there and quickly shut up any link to pills or their mental health records. It is high time that the public demands Congress to hold investigations like they did back in 2004/2005 on suicide link. We need to push for shooters list of medications and prescribers to be released. Privacy laws shouldn’t cover in these cases. It’s just a question that we need to ask.
Just this week Medpage reported ...
"In its Annual Report to Congress, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force picked anxiety disorders, depression, and suicide risk prevention requiring urgent research."
Remember this is the same group who recommended that EVERY person under age 64 should be screened for anxiety. We know that antidepressants or some other psych drug are often prescribed.
We will need to watch this closely to see $$$ for behavioral health/school clinics/services and psych meds/vaccines/treatments.
Aside from our pediatrician trying to force Covid shots on our kids, the other reason I had to discontinue having them followed by this group is the constant screening for anxiety we had to face at every appointment. After reading all of the above the root of problem is big pharma and their constant mission to get people hooked on these meds. And just as the companies like Pfizer did with the Covid shots, they did the unthinkable & hid the evidence of dangerous adverse events because they were motivated by profit.
Most people aren’t aware that the PHQ9 screening form was created by Pfizer marketing guy. They wanted to move prescribing out of psychiatrist’s office and make more accessible for GPs/internal med/pediatricians to write scripts. There are a lot more of them than psychiatrists. If you look at the bottom of these screening forms it will say generous donation by Pfizer and three key opinion leader doctors in the field of psychiatry. It is a widely accepted form for screening and a lot of health systems use it.
FYI - You can refuse to fill out. It is in my records that I won’t complete this screening form. It is a classic marketing tool. Bring them to the funnel and once they are in the system, the company has a customer (aka patient.).
Ugh! This I have such a problem with. It’s even used in schools to screen kids and at the beginning of the school year when parents are bombarded with pages of registration forms, there you will find your local school districts mental health screening tool. The Emergency data card that is also in the stack of registration forms, a parent’s signature gives the school a blanket form of consent to all screenings and other interventions that might be needed. It’s easily abused by our “trusted” school administrators, counselors, school nurses and teachers who know enough to be dangerous.
Thanks for the information. I’ll refuse next time that form is asked to complete, usually at start of a new year they ‘need to update.’
AND - most of the problems with prescribing these drugs are coming from GP's, not psychiatrists. Not all (psychiatrists are excellent gaslighters) - but most.
This must be why every visit to a doctor asks if I have any anxiety or suffer from depression. Response is always NO. Next visit, same question. After the visit sometimes get a call from insurance provider for my Medicare supplement asking about my emotional health. 😩🤦♀️😩
Ditto. I have to see my doctor monthly and now when I get the form I either leave questions unanswered or just write at the top no changes from last visit. Tomorrow I’m only going to write my name and leave the rest blank. Once I wrote about a serious incident I had and they didn’t give a damn about it. Why ask then?
At this point, for those who still continue to even visit doctors, strongly consider lying about all of your medical history because it’s in reality just a data mining questionnaire that will be used against you.
We need legislation to make giving doctors financial incentives, and doctors' taking them, to prescribe any given drug or treatment flat-out illegal.
Like this X infinity.
Wouldn’t this be wonderful?
It would be a game-changer.
Indeed, but you know what, I think this might actually be politically possible in 2024, at least in some states. Well, we shall see.
It’s always about the money, not our health.
They hold people with problems hostage by testing their new concoctions of addictive antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications, often making them worse due to suppression of energy.
Psychiatrists and therapists cost hundreds of dollars an hour now without insurance.
Fortunately I’ve never answered yes. It’s a shame that the medical community can’t ask because they are concerned about seniors but because they have a quota.
And now schools are giving kids surveys "screening" for depression.
“Do you feel safe at home?”
This is what I was thinking about: https://citizenslighthouse.substack.com/p/you-asked-kids-what
If it's happening in Florida, I think you can bet your sweet bippy it is happening in many other states, and under the parents radar.
Quick question Kim. Have you ever heard of what this reader is describing?
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/there-is-decades-of-evidence-that/comment/43068727
Yes, I have heard Wellbutrin (bupropion) being used to help quit smoking although it was originally approved as an antidepressant for depression. It's the same as Zyban which was approved for smoking cessation. Both made by GlaxoSmithKline. It is similar to how Prozac was repackaged as Sarafem and got approval for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Same drugs.
Most people including the doctors have NO idea that the FDA removed the blackbox warning of neuropsychiatric language describing serious mental health side effects from the smoking cessation drugs in 2016. Pfizer went to the FDA to get the warning removed from Chantix. This was after they settled over 2700+ lawsuits prohibiting the victims to ever tell their stories in public as part of the settlement. This was an unprecedented move by FDA to remove a blackbox warning.
I was on the FDA Advisory Committee and was excited to ask where all the victims were as well as the lawyers. I truly believe Pfizer learned from the antidepressant hearings and wanted to shut up all the victims/lawyers. Days before the FDA ad com, I received a call from the FDA that it had come to their attention that I had an "intellectual bias" and was being removed from serving as Consumer Rep for this meeting. I still attended the meeting as a member of the general public so that I could speak up during the Open Public Hearing. The unfortunate thing is that the advisory committee members voted to remove the warning did NOT know or discuss the fact that Pfizer had just settled 2700 lawsuits for the exact problem that Pfizer now said their new EAGLES study showed doesn't exist.
I tried to get the mainstream media to pick this story up. It is HUGE and the doctors and patients have no idea the back story of how the blackbox warning was removed. Now they think it is "safe" and no neuropsychiatric issues like hallucinations, violence, psychosis, etc. https://www.namd.org/journal-of-medicine/1930-white-washing-a-black-box-warning-what-went-wrong-with-chantix.html
There was even a lawsuit filed on behalf of the plaintiff experts: Tom Moore (Institute of Safe Medication Practices) and Dr. Joseph Glenmullen (Harvard Psychiatrist) to get the court sealed discovery documents with major public health consequences released. The premise of the lawsuit was based on the tobacco litigation BROWN & WILLIAMSON, 710 F.2d 1165, 1180 which says “The societal interest in knowing what went wrong and why is great.
•••Judges should [] consider the interests of litigants in other suits,
the needs of regulatory agencies to have access to information,
concerns of public interest groups, and the interests of future plaintiffs.
•••Indeed, common sense tells us that the greater the motivation
a corporation has to shield its operation, the greater the public's need to know. ”
Ultimately the case was dismissed by a judge that sided with Pfizer.
Again, this was a Pfizer initiative, but ultimately the FDA removed the warnings for all smoking cessation.
Sorry, my question was specifically was in regards to having dreams of the violently psychotic behavior.
Absolutely I have heard reports of people having violent nightmares like this person describes.
I don’t often mention that days before Woody died he told me that he was having nightmares that scared him.. When I asked him to describe the nightmare, he wouldn’t repeat it as it was too disturbing.
At the time I remember thinking that’s odd because Woody used to think he didn’t dream become he never recalled them.
Just saw an article at Stat News crying that the suicide warnings on antidepressants are causing suicide, by inducing people to not take the drugs. Won’t send people there. Since so much of medical education comes from drug manufacturers, doctors are going to continue to miss the signals of adverse drug reactions. We should not couch side effects in euphemistic or even soft sounding medical terms from foreign languages, or last names of first publishers.
Especially since, after COVID mandates, policies & lockdowns, the MSM is proclaiming that we are in a "mental health crisis," and guess what is the #1 "standard of care" answer to that? I am watching with trepidation. Surviving Antidepressants (website) catches as many as we can, but we are all volunteer, and cannot intervene in the distresses caused by these drugs - it's the internet, and we're only peers. And how long can we continue? All the volunteers also have lives.
" It is high time that the public demands Congress to hold investigations". The special committee on vaccines has yet to meet. Nobody is being held to account. I suspect the corruption has become total. Just like the "war on drugs" for illegal drugs, the profits are so large that the corruption touches nearly all involved.
Feeling depressed, naturally, is painful and needs to be addressed, but even worse is "anti-depressant depression". It's like your thoughts become oily, and slither around in strange ways.
As far as the disconnection, it can be experienced in a couple of ways in addition to what others have mentioned:
a) the colors in the world are less vivid, less saturated. It's similar to seeing a digital image that has been slightly made blander, but at the same time the edges become sharper.
b) the world becomes drier. It's like there used to be a moisture between you and everyone else - a warm, joyous liquid, but on the drugs it becomes diluted, and no longer nourishes.
I know a single mom who kept her daughter sedated like a potted plant from age five until 16, when the girl was finally removed and the drugs cut back, but it was too late. A rambunctious little girl with a mind able to make verbal connections blisteringly fast is now almost mentally disabled. Her speech patterns are broken and stilted. It's really hard to see this as anything but organized abuse.
So oddly enough, frequently when I do something that is profoundly healing for someone (or a patient gets that result with someone else) they will share that everything looks more vivid and they see more colors..
It is hence quite intriguing that SSRIs do the exact opposite of that. I appreciate you sharing this and will pin the comment.
Thank you
ps poor girl, I've seen similar cases to that too :(
Very common. I've described it on Surviving Antidepressants (tapering, coming off the drugs) as walking out of a swamp. First, your eyes clear the water, and you start to see & be able to think. As you slowly trudge through the mud & slime, your shoulders & chest get above the bog, you start to feel, you start to love. Time passes - it's a slow process, trudging through the quagmire. You get your belly out of the mud, and all those traumas start to return - all the feelings you suppressed (and if you started antidepressants at a young age, never even learned) start to ravage you - but - look, you can see the horizon, you can see the sun. Being able to see is what helps you to keep plodding along.
The mud sucks at your lower extremities for many years - fatigue, pain, myriad "weird" disorders, but your head is above the mire, so you continue. Gradually, you come out of the swamp and begin to move more freely.
I believe, after 10 years of working on this, I'm only about ankle deep now. I will never again take a drug which requires this level of tapering, No ma'am! (by comparison, I can come off an opiate in one month or less).
I believe that (thank you MWD) learning about zeta potential (and my regular tai chi / qigong practices) is helping to turn the corner & speed the process - but - the fact of the matter is, that neurotransmitters adjust at the speed they will adjust. The process cannot be rushed. Time is the best healer.
These concepts are most difficult to explain, when someone comes to Surviving Antidepressants (tapering website) after a cold turkey or too-fast (usually doctor supervised) taper - they come in crisis, and they want to be better now. Sometimes they report every 6 hours that "it's not better yet." It is disheartening to hear that it may take years to escape what has been done to them. It is horrible to have to teach people this level of patience.
Those that learn it - learn to manage their moods on their own. Learn a lot about health & wellbeing. Self-regulate. We call it "SA University," the graduates are truly amazing people. But sadly, most people come to us too dysregulated to manage their own taper. It's too hard to believe that you should go so slowly.
Are you familiar with William Walsh's work, identifying metabolic/biochemical issues that cause mental disorders and treating them with nutrient supplementation (and sometimes detoxification) protocols?
Walsh-trained physicians treat many patients who come to them taking psychiatric medications. Patients are told that when they've been on their Walsh protocols for a few to several months (depending on diagnosis) and have seen good improvement, they can go back to the practitioners who prescribed their drugs and ask about reducing their dosages.
Walsh says many patients on his protocols are able to get off their psychiatric drugs. Some, particularly schizophrenic and bipolar patients, do best if they continue drugs, but at a much lower doses than pre-Walsh-treatment.
I suspect the Walsh protocols would significantly speed the tapering process for most people attempting to get off psychiatric drugs, because the protocols work to normalize neurotransmitter levels.
I highly recommend Walsh's book "Nutrient Power: Heal Your Biochemistry and Heal Your Brain." The Walsh Institute website has a list of Walsh-trained practitioners.
Yes, orthomolecular and functional medicine has been an important part of the healing process.
HOWEVER, Walsh does not help with getting off pharmaceuticals. He helps balance the brain from it's natural state. It can be dangerous to send people tapering directly to orthomolecular lest the practitioner go into "detox" and "pyroluria" protocols which can be harmful in withdrawal.
THERE IS NO "SPEEDING" THE TAPERING PROCESS!!!!!! (sorry for yelling) Transmitters adjust at the speed they will adjust, it does help to support the brain, but you cannot taper any faster.
I would be a wealthy woman if I had a dime for all the people who regretted a fast taper. I have yet to hear a single person complain that they tapered too slowly.
I stopped Effexor in 2002 and that choice is still affecting my life today. At the time, my withdrawal was classified as a nervous breakdown. I made the decision myself to do what I did but I was in some distress over a lifetime of negative interactions with medical professionals and felt like I was on my own. Anyway, my point is, thank you for what you are doing!!
Eff is effing horrible! Don't know how you did it (assuming cold turkey or something close) - but I know many many people who go back on it - or stay on the last 37.5 mg indefinitely. It hits so many receptors and fiddles a lot of systems. WELL DONE!
And the symptom set for Eff is pretty special, too. Irritable skin, akathisia, headaches, insomnia . . . but the irritable skin thing seems specific to Eff.
I was on Eff for about 5 years, and didn't taper properly (cross-taper to another drug, gawd knows you can't have an "unmedicated bipolar" - which I now am!). I'm certain that my "bipolar symptoms" got worse during that transition - but it's fuzzy. The sensations while drugged - it's not really me, is it? I couldn't believe that these people were giving Eff to a "bipolar." It seemed contraindicated. But 2 diff psychiatrists did so.
I talked to a psych NP who told me parents commonly badger him to prescribe ADHD meds to their kids. He says he tries to talk them into using other methods to address behavior they don't like. But they're not receptive and push for the meds.
Yes, patient demand (ads on TV) does drive a lot of prescriptions!
Social, peer & school pressure contribute. My brother had dyslexia - instead of drugging him (in the 60's & 70's), they held him back a year. There was a bit of stigma with being "held back," but he went on to be much more successful than myself (for whom school was a breeze).
When Johnny might get "held back" for his behaviour, this is a lot of pressure on the parents. Snowflakes might not survive being "held back." It might even get to the level of, "Johnny cannot attend here unless he's 'fixed'," which, in this day and age, really throws it back onto the parents.
The pressure to conform is now greater than ever.
I was on Dex for ADD, the only one that worked for me, for 30 years. My primary doctor said she'f prescribe it so I didn't have to travel & pay big bucks for a specialist.
It was a godsend for for a long time but it is addictive and tolerance builds up.
When I switched doctors I couldn't find a local Dr. who will prescribe it.
After a year without it I am still withdrawn, listless, depressed, paranoid in public and I want to die. I avoid groups and won't answer the phone.
I can't bear traveling to find a new doctor & pleading my case only to be refused. I never could have anticipated it.
Well I hear you. If you were managing well on it with no abuse then that should carry some weight. Fwiw the ephedrine sulfate (brand name Bronkaid) tablets I use for seasonal asthma feels like a pep pill so I can only tolerate it when I really must have a bronchodilator. It feels like Dex I toyed with in college. Those meds are really dangerous for most people but to be yanked off after 30 years is really not right. Best of luck to you.
When ADHD became a thing even family doctors diagnosed and prescribed it . I find that after covid became king, and locked down what doctors can and can't do, primary doctors will not prescribe it. There must be a penalty like writing extra reports or something.
They want me to go to a Psychiatrist 20 miles away.
My original neurologists changed their field of specialty to other areas - sleep studies & pediatrics, so something must be going on. They probably found out it does permanent damage or it's not profitable, or too much gov't red tape oversite.
I had 30 years able to function more normally but now I'm worse off than before.
Thanks for your input. That ephedrine was bad stuff unless you were dying from lack of air.
Best of luck & blessings to you to live & to chart a new path. ❤️🙏
sports parents do this, fyi. I was advised around 7th grade when my kid was a good athlete to "get an athletic asthma prescription and get them on adderall" - with recommended doctors to facilitate this (by other parents, who were trying to be helpful!). the steroid inhaler helps with their run speed and the adderall is well, actual speed.
Sports industry is an all around moneymaker for the medical industry, and you will see health systems with contract relationships with sports teams.
Orthopedics is much more fascinated with getting a pro player or even a kid player back on the field than a little old lady's knees from a social standpoint as well as financially.
Now that there have been shortages of ADHD meds, imagine the complications for patients caused by the balance of these and the other psych meds.
A kindergarten student at my nieces' private school in Howard County, Maryland, died of a brain bleed last spring. A first responder friend tells me he's never encountered that before. The residents of that metro-DC/Baltimore county are lunatics and all stampeded to get the COVID-19 jabs. Especially the parents at that private school: one didn't allow her three children to leave house and yard for over two years after COVID-19 hit the news. And she was heard saying: if only every single human being at that school were jabbed then MIGHT let her kids return. I found myself pondering what kind of psychosis this will create in her children. In my long life I don't remember anything like this insanity and I grew up before polio was completely stamped out.
wow that's insane
Polio profoundly affected my family and I don’t understand this attitude either.
I found out this week that my seven-year-old friend across the hall is not allowed indoor playdates. Ever again. This is a child I cared for regularly between the ages of one through four (at which point her parents began shouting “get back, get back!!!!!” whenever she tried to run to me in the hallway. By the way, I live by myself and work from home. Her dad thinks that keeping this kid germ free is the most important thing. This child is the most open hearted, social kid I’ve ever met. Maybe that will see her through somehow. P.S., the dad is a bartender who goes to work and picks up the germs of the public he serves several times per week.
If anyone can make out what the last few words in the patient note I transcribed were, I'd very much appreciate that. The best I could do was:
[Pt. began to verbalize feelings of killing other people and then himself. Pt. ..…. much more anxious and depressed than baseline; even though this is not reflected in …..]
Doctors sadly are not known for having the most legible handwriting...
FYI don't think you want a person like Bilbo'sBitch posting on your site. Just a heads up
PT begin to verbalize feelings of killing other people, and then himself. PT LOOKED? Much more anxious and depressed than (at) baseline; ... I think maybe that one word would be ‘LOOKED’
Yaa, you're right.
Thank you! That's definitely it.
Great article....at the VERY LEAST, it's clear that the correlation requires more study, but I think we all know why there's no studies being done......
The day that the Big Pharma empire comes crashing down can't come soon enough.
That day will not come until after Corporate Media is held to account for being completely bought out and in bed with Big Pharma (simply look at the % of ads on TV), and Big Government Uni-Party. Who was it that said the media was the enemy of the people? The outsider who did not need to be bought...
Repeal Durham-Humphrey and all Intellectual Property except trademark.
The Durham-Humphrey amendment makes all drugs prescription-only unless the FDA specifically allow OTC sale. This is the main precedent to both the drug war, and banning ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, etc. IP (patents, copyright, FDA licensure, etc.) provides Big Pharma, etc. their excessive profits. You can't sell a generic until the patent expire, and then must get an FDA license. Trademark must be kept so others don't claim to sell "authentic" David O'Halloran products. Some customers may want to be sure you get the profits. Why not post a discount sahibamd Substack (Wordpress, etc.) with all the exclusive and proprietary material? Who knows what a drug, etc. be if you can't believe the name on the label. Sure, the FTC or something may "require" accuracy in labeling, but drugs can have unmentioned differences. Some tryptophan had an unlabeled impurity causing toxicity, and different brands of the same drug have differences in assimilation and efficacy.
If AMD develop a much safer and more effective according to him antidepressant, let's call it "Amdexa" (not to be confused with dextroamphetamine, even if it contain some), generic name "garbatine", go ahead and sell your own garbatine, but don't call it Amdexa.
"How Dangerous Must a Drug Be Before it is Pulled from the Market?"
It seems like that depends on its profitability.
Bingo! That was the point of this series.
Exactly. What are a couple broken eggs when they get to drug up all the chickens?
"Just a cost of doing business."
Perpetually drug up all the chickens.
"It's on the schedule, nothing I can do" -- "doctors" these days.
It usually is not discovered that a drug is harmful until it is out of patent.
Discovered or disclosed?
I suspected long ago that SSRIs were a factor in homicides by young men as soon as it was confirmed that they could lead to suicide.
It isn't much of a stretch for a young man who has decided on suicide to decide he might as well take out his perceived 'enemies' as well. And so he does.
As with the rash of unexpected deaths of young, healthy and vaccinated people that did not occur before the introduction of the Covid vax, I am old enough to recall that mass shootings were almost unheard of decades ago, in fact before the age of SSRIs and, likely, some other drugs. The 1966 University of Texas Tower shooting stunned the country. It turned out the shooter, Chapman, had a brain tumor. Thede days nobody is stunned and no brain tumors show up, but SSRIs do.
Bingo, this is the point 100%
I hear my inside
The mechanized hum of another world
Where no sun is shining
No red light flashing
Here in this darkness
I know what I've done
I know all at once who I am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YxK-swFREo
Incredible reporting on such an utterly disturbing subject! From the full series of anthrax shots I was given in the Marines (1998); to my first gastroenterologist appointment in 2005, where the doc prescribed me Paxil for "IBS"; to the recent Covid criminality: I've not a morsel of respect for the pharmaceutical industry. It's also chipping away at my regard for physicians, barring the Author(s) and others like Dr. Malone, of course, who are speaking out against the pharmaceutical racketeering machine. In the case of the aforementioned gastroenterologist, during my intake, he quickly discounted any dietary-related possibilities. After the colonoscopy came back clear and he checked all his boxes, he determined that it was my anxiety causing the chronic diarrhea, and therefore prescribed Paxil. It made me feel so bizarre after two or three days of ingestion that I immediately discontinued and never returned to him again. It doesn't surprise me one bit that this poison leads people to commit these heinous acts. It's high time to proverbially "chop the head off the big pharma snake", as well as the scoundrels who lobby, politicians who accept their bribes, the PR industry for painting them all in such a favorable light, and everyone else in the chain who profits from their ill-gotten gains!
I am still meeting people who have weird disorders I realized came from their anthrax shots 20 years ago :(
I would love to see an article from you on the topic of Anthrax, if you'd be inclined to do so at some point!
Paxil for IBS. Yaaaaa, extra dumb. Worst prescribing I saw was Prozac for pancreatitis.
I think. at least temporarily, paxil was marketed for those in menopause
The founder of Surviving Antidepressants (www.survivingantidepressants.com) was caught in this trap. She started going through menopause, and a well-meaning doctor thought that was the thing to do (early 00's). Paroxetine. When menopause was well & truly over, she thought, I'll get off the drug. That started her journey - and - she founded Surviving Antidepressants to help others survive these effing drugs.
My personal one is Percocet for a scratched cornea, which actually turned out to be allergy.
90% of your serotonin is in the gut . . . . it might reduce symptoms, anyway, even though it wouldn't fix the problem.
Turned out it was only a gluten sensitivity. After visiting 3 subsequent gastroenterologists (and two additional colonoscopies) over the span of a decade, and none of them having an interest in my diet, my chiropractor put me in contact with a really great food allergist and she had me cured in a matter of weeks. In fact, in the first 5 minutes of my meeting her and explaining my symptoms, she asked if I was ever tested for gluten sensitivities, to which I replied, "no".
Good dissertation! I think the basic issue is that if we embrace the concept that psychotic drugs drives the shooters it negates the push to eliminate guns from the hands of American patriots and citizens! In addition, the psychotic drugs have to be cleared through the hepatic function, and when they can’t be cleared and the drug impact builds up in the brain, we have shooters acting out! The mass media is the beneficiary of 6 Billon dollars per year and you don’t bite the hand that feed you! Consequently, they won’t touch the subject and we keep killing each other needlessly
Methylphenidate and THC (and Bernaysian programming; esp. in conjunction with HDTV) appear to also contribute.
Lots of adjunct. Factors that may contribute to it! Ritalin has a black box warning because it can cause death! FDA bends over backwards position to
Favor big Pharma! That is why there are about 500 more drugs still on the market with a black box warning!
That would imply the person has liver failure. And even if he/she did, the drug would not build up in the brain, ammonia would. People in end stage liver disease with high ammonia levels are in no condition to shoot a gun. Their sensorium is clouded, not in an angry way, but in a sedated way. The doctor who is prescribing should have access to recent labs and a CMP, which covers liver enzymes is a very commonly ordered panel. So your theory is not physiologically sound.
Deficent liver function is not the same as liver failure. Western medicine often has a great deal of difficulty recognizing suboptimal function of a critical part of the body and just makes it a binary good vs. bad absolute thing.
Are psychiatric drugs implicated in liver problems? I know someone who died of liver disease in their early 30's who was bipolar. Do not know what specific drugs they took.
Thanks AMD for another great article. I can't thank you enough for all the information you are providing. Just trying to assimilate and process it all (the stuff about zeta potential and CDR therapies more than this one, but someone I know well was prescribed Buspirone for anxiety and I could see negative personality changes, and persuaded them to quit taking it).
How can one find a practitioner to deal properly with the kinds of issues you talk about, like anxiety/claustophobia disorders caused by the C19 shots (started right after 2nd Moderna)? I'm convinced that the zeta/CDR issues being addressed would likely help, based on what I have read in your articles.
Not necessarily. If the P450 enzyme system has trouble clearing the drug..it becomes an overdose!
I remember being so shocked when I told a psych resident that I knew someone who had some negative effects after starting strong antidepressants, and he said something like, “that proves she needed the drugs, her going crazy would only happen if she needed them”. What a horrible thing for him to believe and be taught at Med school.
Yup, it's horrible logic but one of the most common forms of gaslighting.
Same gaslighting happens when one goes bonkers after quitting the drug. "Shows you need the drug, eh?"
All the algorithms point to "you need the drug."
Right, it makes no sense. That's gaslighting.
Hmm. I had a very weird chocolate lab that I ultimately had to take to the university veterinary school for diagnosis. OCD. They said the drug likeliest to reduce or eliminate her symptoms was Paxil, or rather the first generation of Paxil, I forgot the name.
However, we were then warned that if we did go that route, she would have to be leashed at all times as it was more than likely she would become vicious. PASS. NOPE.
So. We lived with a really weird dog for ten years. But she was as sweet as pie.
The vets knew how bad these drugs were for animals. Pretty small leap to humans.
Correct. Drugging of pets with SSRIs is another huge can of worms. Could I use your comment in a future article?
I didn't know any better. I had a bizarre situation with 2 rescue cats, and the little one was frightened and freaked out all the time. The vet put her on some sort of tricyclic (anafranil?) at a very young age - 6 months (the time when her brain was forming). She was only on the drugs for about 6 months (the other rescue cat was re-homed, she became a solo cat) . She was calmer, and by age 5 was a nice cat. - but she was forever stupid. She just never developed properly. She lived to 16 - but her potential to be an excellent companion was stunted.
It makes me look at children on these drugs in a very nervous light.
Of course!
I think this issue is exceptionally complicated, especially as it relates to American young men. While it appears that some people do react violently while on SSRIs, many do not. I think a bigger issue for young American men—all American men, really—is the complete destruction of America, and the traditional values most American men could embrace with pride only a generation ago. If you are straight, European-American, Christian—the identity of most Americans until the last couple of decades—is there a recognizable, optimistic
future? Does it not appear that some of the enemies many of us believed wanted the destruction of America only a short while ago, have taken control, have “won?”
What I discovered after taking many SSRIs is that they merely muted my very real childhood trauma. And while I do not believe it will ever be fully resolved, I would rather feel and deal with the trauma rather than push it down, hide it. I am not sure how this relates to those who react violently to SSRIs, but I do think that my own anger and pain have real causes in my childhood—not misperceptions caused by “chemical imbalances.”
While my SSRI experience was short-lived (thank God!), I self-medicated heavily with alcohol for the same reason as you for dealing with past traumas. 27 years of blackout-induced drinking, basically from 14 to 41 years old. I'm 49 now, and have been completely alcohol-free for 8 years. And while reality sucks sometimes, I'd take it over drunken oblivion any day of the week. I don't disagree with your thoughts on the state of America, either. As a Marine veteran, knowing what I know now, I would not be so keen in gearing up for combat under the orders of this criminal administration. Keep fighting the good fight!!
The theory of serotonin deficiency causing depression has always been suspect and for years we have known now that it is invalid. Anything that increases serotonin is very bad news. But the serotonin deficiency theory has sold a lot of drugs, to the detriment of all of us.
I tried to convince people of that for over a decade but they only started to believe me recently after a few mainstream publicatinos on it came out.
Years ago I took Wellbutrin specifically for weight loss. I remember very clearly I was having an argument with my boyfriend at the time and instead of feeling angry I just felt nothing. My brain was angry but I didn’t have any emotional response. It felt extremely WEIRD. I had only taken a few doses but stopped immediately. I can’t imagine having no strong emotions. It’s inhuman.
The sad thing about modern science is that a lot of it essentially wants you to be like that and I feel your story is an excellent anecdote for what is wrong with society.
Well yes the powers that be love these drugs because everyone around you thinks you are so peaceful, easy going and easy to control, but inside your brain is pissed because you lost the desire to get what you want out of life or stand up for yourself…. Until you explode. Emotions make life worth living. We need to learn how to be emotionally intelligent not erase them.
One can really dig into this with James Tunney's Plantation of the Automatons.
Interestingly, in my general practice days, which ended about 20 years ago, I always found SSRI's a particularly useless treatment for depression or anxiety disorders. Though not hugely better, I did find tricyclics helped some people quite well. Conversely, in my sports and exercise practice, I find amitriptyline (a tricyclic antidepressant) significantly better in doses of 10-20 mg daily for treating neuropathic pain and radiculopathy than either gabapentin or pregabalin. The latter two drugs are again a victory for marketing over efficacy, and the former is seldom used. For depression, the evidence for regular exercise over SSRI's in treatment for depression as well as my anecdotal evidence is strong.
I think overall that of the existing drugs, the monamine oxidase inhibitors are the best for depression, and I think there was a long campaign to scare everyone about the tyramine syndrome so SSRIs could be made to look safer than the and win the market.
I remember that, and remember, in my blue pilled days, being reluctant to prescribe MAOI's. Oh for insight in my youth!
Wonderful article! I’ve felt this way since the Phil Hartman incident, mainly because I’ve taken several SSRIs and one of them—Zoloft—had this effect on me. Fortunately, I noticed that things were much worse (MUCH worse) within a week of starting them and stopped taking them. I consider myself extremely lucky, and it is a relief to see you speaking out about this.
The best case scenario I’ve personally observed with these drugs is a lack of emotional engagement from friends taking them. We usually drift apart because the person is a bit dimmed down, if not completely switched off. I’ve also seen mania in one friend and I experienced it myself with another SSRI, Celexa. Before it was prescribed to me, I told the doctor I could not take that class of drug. His answer? “This one is new.”
I developed a sudden obsession with designer labels and began purchasing $800 bags and $3000 coats.
It’s hard to understand why more people I know don’t notice these changes in themselves or those around them after starting SSRIs. Thankfully, I have been free of psychiatric drugs since 2006 myself!
I just want to note you have my all time favorite SSRI side effect (being compelled to purchase the designer bags).
But on a more serious note, I have so many friends this happened to and it was really depressing to watch that blunting happen.
Ha ha about the bags! I still have them all—they’re very nice.
Thank you for confirming about the blunting. It’s happening to a good friend right now.
;)
I have seen the blunting.
Hi Everyone - REACT19 is a non-profit dedicated to helping the vaccine injured get treatment. Recruitment is now OPEN for our patient-led research collaboration: react19.org/study.
The study will help all of us understand many aspects of what we are experiencing, including treatments that people have tried.
The study is a collaboration between React19 and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. We plan to publish the results in top research journals and through our platforms.
Many have already joined and interesting patterns have already started to come out.
However we need all your contributions to send a clear message through the scientific community! You can truly make the difference if you participate.
You do not have to take the survey in one sitting. You can start the survey and save your progress so that you can continue when you preter.
Feel free to flick us an email if you have any questions.
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#Vaccinelnjuries #CovidVaccine
Thank you for taking the time to respond to this study. Doing so, provides one concrete way for each if us that are vax injured to add to the knowledge base so that we can better understand what so many of us are facing.
Thank you so very much,
Elizabeth
Elizabeth, I'll ask you a question I also asked AMD: have you encountered C19 vax injury victims whose primary problems were claustrophobia and anxiety (which were never present at all pre-shots)? Has anything worked for these patients? I will also look at your site.
Thanks.
As I recall, claustrophobia was not identified as an explicit query in the survey. I do believe that general anxiety was listed explicitly as a survey question, and has been experienced by many people. Who knows if it was directly caused by the vax or more generally by the state of fear that was whipped up around the illness. Also, the creators of the survey include a general comment box at the end, where it is possible to list explicit items that may not be called out in the survey.
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The survey will be open for several weeks still. Feel free to reach back out to me or the organization in general when the data is in.
Please take care of yourself and feel free to reach out to REACT19 for more information.
Best wishes to you,
Elizabeth
Thanks.