Topic : 09/28 Overmedicating America: The Cruise Controversy

The fact that this has gone so far has just blown my mind. Who is tom cruise? Hes an actor. Hes an actor with no training in psychology and who has a degree from a performing arts college. He knows nothing of what he is talking about. Hes never had a bout with a serious mental illness. Hes just doing what actors do to make themselves seem more human: taking up a cause. At least some celebrites get involved with things that they have first hand knowledge of, and actually know something about, like Tori Amos with RAINN. This guy is ridiculous. Only after the scientology Elders or whatever started shoving their opinioMy mother is a psychologist, several members of my family have psychological disorders and several friends as well. I also, have had major OCD since age 12 and Im now 22. Ill admit that I dont know much about ADD and ADHD and whether kids are being overmedicated or not, but for this pompous guy to sit there and say that, Psychiatry is a crock. is absolutely ridiculous. Conditions like postpartum Depression and Schizophrenia are extremely serious, potentially deadly conditions. There have been women who have killed their children from PPD and many more who have thought about it. I currently have a friend who is recovering from it. To say that that can be fixed with some vitamin b and a walk around the lake, is absolutely ludicrous. The fact that people are actually taking his uneducated comments seriously just blows my mind. Women with PPD need therapy, if nothing else and they probably need medication. The fact that he is ragging on his ex for taking meds while she had PPD is evidence that nothing that comes out of this mans mouth should be taken seriously. He has no first hand knowledge of PPD, or any other type of serious mental illness. He doesnt have a psychology degree from an accredited institution. He has not hosted any types of studies or experiments. All the information he has to go on, is the one-sided information he is given by these Scientology people. Thats it. How dare he chastise her for something he knows nothing about. Schizophrenia is the same thing. It is a deadly condition that again, cannot be fixed with some calcium and a run on the treadmill. These people need medication daily to function minimally. Although I wouldnt wish Schizophrenia or PPD on anyone, I would love to see how his views would change, if he or someone close to him had the misfortune of having one of these diseases. While theyre sitting on the couch day after day deteriorating, not able to function/go to work/ or leave the house, having random outbursts and mumbling incoherently, would he be nonchalantly be giving him/her B12 shots and trying to get him/her to go to Golds Gym to exercise and FLUSH the Schizophrenia out of his/her system? My guess would be NO.

ns down his throat, is when he came out and took on this issue. Soon after that while hes getting all this press, he begins trying to recruit people like Oprah and Katie to join his religion. Perfect timing. To me, Tom Cruise speaking about psychology is like Jessica Simpson speaking about aeronautical engineering, and he should be disregarded.

After many trials, I finally found a medicine that made my OCD bearable. Without this medicine, along with cognitive behavioral therapy, I would still be flushing the toilet 42 times, washing my hands 42 times, brushing my teeth for 42 minutes, etc. Trust me, I couldnt be more healthy physically. Ive been a marathon runner since age 16 and a vegan since age 18. None of that worked, because its BS. I finally have my life back and Im now in med school. Medicine may not work for everyone and it may take awhile to find the right one, but for many it changes lives for the better. This so-called Cruise Controversy is ridiculous. He is an actor with no education on the subject, adopting a cause like actors do, trying to recruit new members and gain publicity by talking about stuff he knows nothing about.

I am seventeen years old, and I have been on psychotropic medications since my fifteenth birthday. I am bipolar and I have an anxiety disorder.While I was unmedicated, I cut (up to 44 six inch gashes per arm), I burned myself, I banged my head, I physically attacked both of my younger brothers (now 11 and 12), I accidentally put the youngest in the hospital (and I had only missed a dose!), I was psychotic and delusional, and I attempted suicide three separate times. These medications (Effexor XR and Seroquel for bipolar/anxiety, Yasmin (a birth control pill that helps to stabilize my moods in addition to the other two psychotropics), and three others for asthma) are essential for me. I hate taking them – they make me gain weight, they make me sleepy, they can make me very mentally fuzzy and forgetful…but without them, I would do so much damage to both myself and others that it is just not worth it. I understand that people don’t want their children medicated when it’s not necessary, and I believe EXTENSIVE testing needs to be done first, but for kids like me, you may as well just shoot us as take us off our meds. I have had an MRI, two CT scans, two EEGs (one sleep deprived), countless blood tests, a seven-day hospitalization, and five psychiatric evaluations by two separate psychologists, two separate psychiatrists, and my family physician. Four out of the five agreed on their diagnosis, though to different severities (one thought I was cyclothymic – until my hospitalization, when she realized it was more severe than she’d realized). I’ve had the testing. I’ve suffered enough. Please help people understand that sometimes drugs are needed, and they shouldn’t always be a LAST resort (a LOT of damage can be done before you reach a ‘last’ resort sort of mind. I spent 32 months in therapy because of doctors’ hesitancy to give me even mild medications). If we need it, we need it; there’s no getting around it. There’s no ‘controlling’ bipolar disorder by pure will. When you can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy, you can’t very well control it, can you? I wish people would just leave me be and not rag on me about being on six medications, three of which are to help me stay stable. 

I have nothing to say about Tom Cruise because I did not see the clip, but there IS such a thing as a chemical imbalance and there are PROVEN differences in the manic brain, the normal brain, and the depressed brain. Look up some PET scans from manic, normal, and depressed people, and look at the difference. Don’t tell me it isn’t real – I feel it every day. I was no normal hormonally-crazed teen until I WAS on my medication. Meds don’t eliminate teenaged angst – they reduce out-of-whack moods to normal so we can actually experience the teenaged angst. Major depressive episodes are definitely FAR worse. You people that’re telling us mental illness and chemical imbalances don’t exist…are you mentally ill? Are you sick? Then don’t tell me what I am and what I’m not.