Many people wonder if the doctors are involved in the shady tactics of the drug makers to push their crappy medications on us or if, like so many, they have just been duped into believing the lies? I think we probably have a lot of both these days.
I know there are the doctors out there who are only in it for the money and power. They get paid ridiculous amounts of money to ensure that medications are promoted and pushed as being “safe” and “beneficial”. These heartless, cruel, people do not give a damn about anyone else or the damage they are causing.
Then there are the doctors who truly are good people and set out to help those in need. But along the way, someone put the blinders on them and they can’t see the reality of the situation. They are the people who want to believe in the best and just can’t see when someone is feeding them a bunch of lies. They just accept what the drug makers say as true and then pass it along as if it were “the gospel” (so they say).
You also will find doctors who started out as honest people, wanting to help others. Then along the way, they started to realize… this just isn’t right. They know that the drugs are hurting people, but they are now so used to the life that pushing these drugs provides, that they are too big a coward to do something about it. Instead, they battle their conscience every day and continue to do what they know in their heart is wrong.
And lastly, but never least, are the doctors who start out as honest people, discover the truth about drugs and drug companies… and speak out against them and unveil the truth to everyone. These doctors are the real heros here. Not letting the lure of money drag them into a life of lies and deceat.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against all prescription drugs. I realize there are many medications that are necessary and help people live better lives. I just think that certain types of drugs have turned into this terrible experiment of tremendous magnitute. And that we are in the hands of far too many money hungry drug companies, doctors, medical facilities, CEOs, and media giants.
I spent some time this morning reading some blog articles from another blog author about antidepressants, antipsychotics, and Abilify. You may already know that I have strong negative feelings towards these topics.
David (the blog author) speaks about the limited studies of these medications, the fact that we only see the results the drug makers want us to see, and that it’s pretty clear these medications are not worth the amount of potential side effects that come along with them. I have to say that I agree with everything he said.
I would like to add to that though. I believe that in a huge majority of cases of “mood disorders”… we have created these problems ourselves. We work entirely too hard, we worry too much, and we stress ourselves out to breaking point. We are living lives that we were not built by nature to live. As I heard someone else say once, humans are not meant to sit in front of computer screens all day. I agree with that 100%. We are not meant to do a LOT of what we do every day. Our bodies and minds are not designed to thrive and cope in the conditions we put ourselves in. Take our ridiculously long work hours, combine that with the relationship issues we all deal with, combine it more with our worries of how we are going to pay bills and provide for our families… it’s no wonder we are screwed up in the head! We make ourselves crazy a good majority of the time! It’s our own faults in many cases.
So wouldn’t the logical thing be to make some life changes to reduce the stress and physical strain? Stop accepting that this hard life is just the way it has to be. Everyone wants to be rich and famous. Everyone wants to live in the lap of luxury. But have you ever stopped to take a look at the people who have made it there? A large number of the rich and famous have terrible mental conditions, break downs, addictions, and end up bankrupt in the end. Why? Because the lives they are living are too difficult for them to handle!
In addition, I have personally seen far too often how everyone wants to deal with NORMAL day to day emotions. So your husband divorces you, your mother dies, you are in a terrible car accident, or you lost your job. All of these things would bring on the typical emotions of depression, denial, anger, and so on. That is NORMAL. So instead of coping naturally with your emotions and allowing TIME to heal your wounds, the doctors say “Oh you have DEPRESSION! You shouldn’t have to feel that way. Here, take these antidepressants and it will go away!” What?! Seriously?? This is what is wrong with people today. No one wants to face the facts and live through their natural emotions. And the doctors are looking for ANY reason to give you these drugs.
The doctors then make it seem like the side effects are few and far between. That it’s not really something you need to worry about. I have NEVER had a doctor sit down and explain to me all the side effects and how possible it is that I will have them. Never. I have always had to research myself. And when I ask about the side effects, they casually blow it off like it’s not a big deal and it probably wouldn’t happen to me. Everyone needs to stop and think about this seriously. The side effects from antidepressants and antipsychotics are LIFE ALTERING. Nearly everyone I have known in my life to take these medications has some other problem that manifested after taking these medications long term. You are essentially taking the chance that you will trade one problem for a series of other, more severe, problems. The side effects that they do not explain to you in detail are horrifying. Why would you take the chance of being one of those people you hear about on the Internet who’s life is ruined because of these drugs? WHY?
I can understand how desparate things can feel. I have been there. I have tried many of these medications. Every time, I just knew it was the wrong thing to do. My position on this now is… if you have not made drastic changes to improve your quality of life and significantly reduce your stress, if you have not tried every other means of natural stress release, then DO NOT take these medications! Don’t do it! They should be reserved for those people who have SEVERE mental conditions that have been proven unresponsive to ALL OTHER attempts to improve that persons quality of life.
We are making a big mistake allowing the media to promote depression as an illness. Media makes it seem like anyone who is depressed or TIRED for ANY REASON should not be feeling that way and that they should seek out medication immediately. We are teaching people that it’s ok to avoid dealing with your feelings naturally. That there is no reason why you should have to face the reality of life and let your feelings move through you naturally. Your job sucks? Take a pill. Your teenage son hates you? Take a pill. Your house is in foreclosure? Take a pill. What the hell people?! No one ever says… “Be strong and you will get through this. Time will make you feel better and this will pass.” What happened to those statements? Are they lost along with chivalry?
Anyway, as I mentioned previously, David wrote some good blog articles about antidepressants and antipsychotics. They are good reading and offer some valid points. Take a look…
As of today, I am finally putting my foot down and making a choice that I hope will be permanent for me. My whole life I have struggled with social anxiety disorder. No depression. No severe anger problems. Just anxiety of social situations. From a small child I was always afraid of people and constantly concerned with what they thought of me and had an illogical fear of social interaction. Because of that, I have always had problems keeping jobs, finishing school, making friends, and things like that.
Most of my life I never knew that there was medically something wrong with me causing me to feel this way. I just thought, growing up, that I was bad/unruly/lazy in the eyes of everyone else. So I just lived with the consequences my whole life. It wasn’t until several years ago that I finally spoke with a doctor about my problems. It was the beginning of numerous doctors trying to convince me that I needed to be on antidepressants.
Initially, I didn’t think twice about taking antidepressants. At that time, I believed doctors knew what they were doing and their word was right. The first one I tried was Effexor. It was unbearable. I lived alone in an apartment at the time. I ended up experiencing a good majority of the side effects that are listed on the packaging. I was so “drugged” up feeling that I couldn’t leave my apartment for two days and wouldn’t take any phone calls. Had I driven somewhere it would have the equivelant of drunk driving. The doctor insisted that I stick with it for at least two weeks and that the side effects would wear off which seemed ridiculous to me. I couldn’t make it through a week because I couldn’t survive like that.
After that, my mother reminded me how medications like that have messed up certain family members. So between that and research, I was always scared to try new antidepressants.
It’s always been the same side effects for the most part. Increased anxiety (which was my problem in the first place), feeling strange and not myself, moments that seem sureal, foggy head, memory and motivation impairment, tired, constant yawning, no sex drive, excessive sweating, insomnia, increased sleep disturbances, drunken feeling, and so on.
Over the next few years I tried a few other antidepressants with long periods between them where I wouldn’t take anything. Every antidepressant I took effected me terribly and I couldn’t function normally. They always ended with me swearing to never take an antidepressant again. But, I always end up in a desparate moment where my anxiety is just too much and I find myself willing to try something new again.
In all that time, no one ever had me take the mood disorder test. Just recently a new doctor had me do that and she now believes that I am bipolar and that all this time, the antidepressants were making it worse. Go figure. Hearing that freaked me out horribly. I have family who have been on antipsychotic medication for bipolar and they have seriously screwed them up. In fact, my uncle was one of the people who was in the Zyprexa lawsuit when he developed diabetes. And guess what the doctor handed me samples of…. Zyprexa. When I expressed my concern of this medication through my tears, she tried to assure me that the drug was “safer” now. Yeah right. I have seen how antipsychotics can literally change who you are. Let me just say, it isn’t pretty.
Unfortunately I wasn’t very happy with this doctor so I decided to try another. I had my first visit with her about a month ago. Before even getting my history with medications or my medical records from past doctors, she gave me samples of Prestiq (an antidepressant). No blood tests or anything. Just “here you go, see you later” sort of thing. At the time I was having an anxiety attack so I just took it and left. Two weeks went by and I didn’t take the Prestiq. I knew that if I am bipolar, I should not be taking Prestiq. So I scheduled another appointment which I had today to let her know about what the previous doctor said about being bipolar. She seemed suprised to hear it, but made no objections and recommended a psychiatrist and antipsychotic medication. Again, no blood work and she sent me home with samples of Abilify. She said she would do blood work at another time even though I have a family history of diabetes and Abilify can cause you to become diabetic.
I had also mentioned that I took the illegal drug Ecstacy when I was younger and that I was concerned it had an impact on my chemical balance and memory. After a lot of research on my own, I am aware that studies do show that excessive use of Ecstacy (MDMA) is shown to cause a decrease in Seratonine receptors which play a part in chemical imbalances. The doctor proceeded to tell me the opposite. That I shouldn’t be concerned with that because “there are no studies proving that”. What? Seriously. I just nodded and moved on to the next topic. No point in arguing with her about it. My impression over the years is now that the doctors only know what they are told and that is the only thing they believe and the only thing they will admit to. I have yet to meet an open minded doctor that would say “you know what, you’re right, maybe this drug is bad for people”. Oh no, if you tell them you think there is something wrong with the drug, they turn it around so it’s something wrong with you.
By the end of the visit I was pretty disgusted. I came home and started to look up information about Abilify on the internet. To my shock, I found a number of horrifying videos and personal stories of people who have taken Abilify and other antipshycotic medications. One thing that really scared me was the drug induced disease Tardive Dyskinesia where you start to lose control of your muscles. Look it up on YouTube.com and you will see how terrible it is. After seeing the videos, I am almost certain one of my family members has it. Doctors don’t know who will be effected by it either. So it’s hit or miss. Your playing with a loaded gun and hoping it doesn’t go off. And the list of life threatening and life altering side effects is long. And scary!
Well I say “NO!” I am not going to do it. I see what happens to these poor people who get duped into starting these medications and they become hooked for life. As this ex pharmaceutical rep said, once they’ve got you… there’s no getting out. It becomes an endless cycle of “try this drug and try that”. ”It’s just a matter of finding the right medication” soon becomes ”it’s just a matter of finding the right combination of medications“. Before you know it, you are taking 6 different medications that mess with your brain function and ten more just to help ease the side effects. Then you find yourself with more medical conditions then what you started out with.
I am just so thankful that I am ABLE to live with my condition as it is. I trule sympathize for those who cannot live with theirs unmedicated.
Maybe the drug makers really are trying to make safe drugs, but in the mean time, we are the guinea pigs. It’s not worth it people. I’m not going to be there experiment. I’m not going to be the unlucky one who ends up with some life threatening condition because I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I am tired of hearing “this is no way to live so take this pill”. No thank you. I would rather live with my anxiety, tell everyone around me to get over it because it’s the way I was made, and try every natural remedy I can rather then to become a slave to the drug companies and the doctors who push them.
Please take a look at this video I found on YouTube.com. I have to say that I agree with everything she has to say and that I too have seen a lot of what she is describing. It truely sickens me.
