Replies to '09/28 Overmedicating America: The Cruise Controversy'

Actually, experts who research Postpartum Thyroiditis estimate that between 7 and 15% of women get it. I think that number accounts for about half as many women as those who are affected by any degree of baby blues or PPD. This is a highly underresearched area. 

As for Andrea Yates, I would love to see the report you are talking about that claims she was not taking her meds at the time. Are you questioning the underlying issue of whether or not drugs can cause psychosis? If you are, then why do you say that it's terrible they had an adverse effect on me? It sounds like you're not being consistent. 

People like to claim that others who have committed violent acts off of their meds couldn't have done it because of the meds. Do you know how long it takes for a full withrdawal and recovery? When the medication builds up in your system to a therapeutic level, especially at higher doses, it can take as little as two weeks or as many as several months for withdrawal effects to surface. Withdrawal is not the same as an underlying condition, it's a severe reaction to being deprived of a FOREIGN substance. 

Eric Harris of the Columbine killings had a therapeutic dose of Luvox (I think that is the name of the drug he had been taking) in his system at the time of death. Some people claim that he had stopped taking his meds & they aren't to blame. 

But people also dismiss the severity of symptoms caused by withdrawal from a drug. The symptoms are often similar to or worse than the symptoms that caused the person to get the prescription in the first place. Many people experience terrible "side effects" (or main effects) on drugs every time they start or increase a dose of a medication. The withdrawal can be much worse than the dose adjustment symptoms. But for me, once I was finished with the withdrawal period, I felt better than ever. 

It's unfortunate that you really don't seem to care about the people who suffer on the drugs. 

A serious look at the data (hidden by drug companies, never published, covered up by the FDA, stuck in a file drawer and only recovered through the freedom of information act in trial preparation) will show much higher incidences of "side effects" than people are led to believe. 

For instance, Prozac was originally tested in clinical trials with benzodiazepines in conjnction with the "primary" medication, but this was not reported. The FDA and Ely Lilly covered this up. So all the people who become manic or psychotic on SSRIs should be given benzodiazepines in order to achieve similar effects as those in the clinical trials. 

You make a lot of assumptions and buy in to the drug company schemes. This is not about preventing women from having drugs, this is about allowing those adveresly affected by the drugs to have a voice and not be swept under the rug. You assume there are a handful of us. You completely trust doctors to tell you the truth, when the only truth they know is whatever their pharmaceutical sales rep has told them. 

Why do you think that with so many lawsuits going on against the drug companies, you never hear about them? Why do you think there is so much ignorance on the widespread negative effects of drugs? Because the drug companies settle these cases OUT OF COURT and make secret agreements with the families for silence in exchange for large sums of money. 

Prozac originally was supposed to carry the "depression" side effect on its label in 1986, but that was scratched off at the last minute by a high-up exec, with no explanation. Dr. Phil showed the common side effects of drugs on his show last week. Depression was listed as one of the common ones. 

It really baffles me why a layperson would be so unsympathetic to another. Are you really here because you care about people who have illness, or are you just here to defend drugs? It's not the drugs or the drug companies who are important, it's receiving proper medical treatment, therapy, and finding the best route towards recovery that is important. I would never wish PPD on anyone or tell any woman not to take a drug. I just want women to know that if they get worse on a med, consider getting off of it. If someone had told me the facts about Zoloft before I took it, I wouldn't even be on this board.  

Crap flows down. It flows from drug companies to doctors and then down onto the patients. When a patient then tries to spread news of the crap around to society, does society care? It seems you don't. You just want to pour it right back on the injured person. 

It's almost worse to try to tell others about this and get people responding with messages like yours, which are extremely insensitive and patronizing, then it is to just keep your mouth shut and let everyone else in the world deal with their own drug-induced misery with no way out. 

But I will continue posting, because if it weren't for people making news about this same experience, I never would have questioned the drugs, and I would never have gotten better. Perhaps I would be in a mental hospital now if I didn't ever get to hear the truth. 

I totally resent you for your comments. 

Actually, experts who research Postpartum Thyroiditis estimate that between 7 and 15% of women get it. I think that number accounts for about half as many women as those who are affected by any degree of baby blues or PPD. This is a highly underresearched area. 

As for Andrea Yates, I would love to see the report you are talking about that claims she was not taking her meds at the time. Are you questioning the underlying issue of whether or not drugs can cause psychosis? If you are, then why do you say that it's terrible they had an adverse effect on me? It sounds like you're not being consistent. 

People like to claim that others who have committed violent acts off of their meds couldn't have done it because of the meds. Do you know how long it takes for a full withrdawal and recovery? When the medication builds up in your system to a therapeutic level, especially at higher doses, it can take as little as two weeks or as many as several months for withdrawal effects to surface. Withdrawal is not the same as an underlying condition, it's a severe reaction to being deprived of a FOREIGN substance. 

Eric Harris of the Columbine killings had a therapeutic dose of Luvox (I think that is the name of the drug he had been taking) in his system at the time of death. Some people claim that he had stopped taking his meds & they aren't to blame. 

But people also dismiss the severity of symptoms caused by withdrawal from a drug. The symptoms are often similar to or worse than the symptoms that caused the person to get the prescription in the first place. Many people experience terrible "side effects" (or main effects) on drugs every time they start or increase a dose of a medication. The withdrawal can be much worse than the dose adjustment symptoms. But for me, once I was finished with the withdrawal period, I felt better than ever. 

It's unfortunate that you really don't seem to care about the people who suffer on the drugs. 

A serious look at the data (hidden by drug companies, never published, covered up by the FDA, stuck in a file drawer and only recovered through the freedom of information act in trial preparation) will show much higher incidences of "side effects" than people are led to believe. 

For instance, Prozac was originally tested in clinical trials with benzodiazepines in conjnction with the "primary" medication, but this was not reported. The FDA and Ely Lilly covered this up. So all the people who become manic or psychotic on SSRIs should be given benzodiazepines in order to achieve similar effects as those in the clinical trials. 

You make a lot of assumptions and buy in to the drug company schemes. This is not about preventing women from having drugs, this is about allowing those adveresly affected by the drugs to have a voice and not be swept under the rug. You assume there are a handful of us. You completely trust doctors to tell you the truth, when the only truth they know is whatever their pharmaceutical sales rep has told them. 

Why do you think that with so many lawsuits going on against the drug companies, you never hear about them? Why do you think there is so much ignorance on the widespread negative effects of drugs? Because the drug companies settle these cases OUT OF COURT and make secret agreements with the families for silence in exchange for large sums of money. 

Prozac originally was supposed to carry the "depression" side effect on its label in 1986, but that was scratched off at the last minute by a high-up exec, with no explanation. Dr. Phil showed the common side effects of drugs on his show last week. Depression was listed as one of the common ones. 

It really baffles me why a layperson would be so unsympathetic to another. Are you really here because you care about people who have illness, or are you just here to defend drugs? It's not the drugs or the drug companies who are important, it's receiving proper medical treatment, therapy, and finding the best route towards recovery that is important. I would never wish PPD on anyone or tell any woman not to take a drug. I just want women to know that if they get worse on a med, consider getting off of it. If someone had told me the facts about Zoloft before I took it, I wouldn't even be on this board.  

Crap flows down. It flows from drug companies to doctors and then down onto the patients. When a patient then tries to spread news of the crap around to society, does society care? It seems you don't. You just want to pour it right back on the injured person. 

It's almost worse to try to tell others about this and get people responding with messages like yours, which are extremely insensitive and patronizing, then it is to just keep your mouth shut and let everyone else in the world deal with their own drug-induced misery with no way out. 

But I will continue posting, because if it weren't for people making news about this same experience, I never would have questioned the drugs, and I would never have gotten better. Perhaps I would be in a mental hospital now if I didn't ever get to hear the truth. 

I totally resent you for your comments.