I edited some of this post to make my thoughts more clear before post originally went out.
I am no fan of drugs that are legal by the Government and made by drug companies. I am no freak when it comes to drugs (as I am not a Christian scientist) but drugs can do a lot of bad. I believe the body was designed to be a “self healing”, self correcting and self fixing of keeping the human healthy. Yes, I do take meds when its really necessary, but most often I say away from them.
I also believe that some medicines (read: drugs) are not good when its proscribed by a doctor that is probably paid by the drug companies.
I reported a while back from an article in The Wall Street Journal, when GlaxoSmithKline was found guilty of criminal charges for promoting “off label uses” of their medicines. They were found guilty of enabling doctors that it was OK to use Paxil for teenagers when it was clearly not supposed to be used for those groups and having marketing people to whore Wellbutrion as a “happy, horny and skinny” pill, and even used celebs like Dr. Drew Pinksy to promote the same pill for uses not authorized by the Food & Drug Administration.
I have issues with medicines.
How I (and my mother) felt like idiots for believing what these “doctors” were suggesting. In 1999, in the midst of falling apart, and when I was told I had autism, and experienced that hell from the local middle school; I was under the influence of Paxil. The neurologist, which had no practical knowledge of autism, suggested the acting out was made up so I could get off the Paxil. Wow! A doctor to make such shallow comment like that? Just WOW! Well what was worse, I had severe hyperventilation and had some chest pains. It was until May of the following year, that my psychologist, ordered my mother to call the doctor to detox off the Paxil.
My mother never had never had much of a skepticism. She believed that these professionals knew what they were talking about. The World Wide Web was still in its infancy when it came to medical information. (I remember the websites being 600 wide pixels – that’s equivalent to a website for a mobile device today!) Also the thought of using a search engine back then was just as effective as using a physical phone book – it was revolutionary, but not really that innovative until Google really took off a few years later. The other thing was until about 2008 I said to myself “why didn’t I think to search doctors?” to dig on dirt to see if the doctor was legit or not.
I was on the following medications (excuse the spelling issues in advance):
- Paxil
- Celexa
- Effexor XR
- Serquel*
- Risperdal
- Welbutrion*
*Ones I am on now
I might had been on others, and I can’t come up with them – one too many in my opinion
There shouldn’t be a surprise that some are being used as lab rats. The real and troubling concern is that these doctors are being seriously unethical. They are likely getting kickbacks from these horrendously managed and executed drug companies and doing this at the risk of young and innocent victims of society. My last psychiatrist had kept drawerful of samples, and would essentially make me think that he was a dealer for legal medications. It was just freaky and scary that doctors are allowed to do this. I have gone to many indie businesses, so there isn’t that many ethics policies they establish.
The last set of anti-depressants was Risperdal. The medication had made me balloon to 220 pounds by the end of 2008. Not only that, but my blood results started to get concerning, and for some f—d-up reason, it can cause hepatitis and not only that potential liver damage! Jeez, how can the drug companies push these meds with a straight face without laughing their assets off? (pun intended) So for the first time ever in my life, I had an ultrasound earlier that summer.
After dealing with 9 years of getting toxic treatment of such shitty medication, I asked to get off the drugs near the end of that year. My psychiatrist had bluntly asked me near that time after self-admitting that I was crying in my sleep, “Why were you crying? and “Well, should we look into another medication?” and it came off a little nasty too. I went through the detox process and at the same time a historic icestorm came through the northern New England, knocking out power in my area for a few days. I went to the local mall (which had power) and went and bought $200 worth of new clothes and jeans. I got one to two sizes up in case I ballooned even more, to only find out in less than one month after the detox, I lost 29 pounds instantly. I am now hovering around 180, though given my 5′ 4″ figure, technically I need to be around 160, but I am much better off than being at 220 again.
I understand that some kids need it but, these medications have long term effects if people aren’t aware. And “doctors” need to wake up and learn that medicine isn’t the answer to all problems. Better diet, better anxiety treatment, better exercise and better schooling and teachers can cut the anxiety by lets say 60% Medication for many cases only makes the problems even worse.