Skyhawker Doug sent me this link
to SSRI Stories
Antidepressant Nightmares. Included is the chart
partially shown above.
"Seems to me the assault should be on the drug
companies not
the 2nd amendment."
Why? All this shows is that some (very high) percentage of
shooters
are unstable (duh), and that some of them have a prescription for an
antidepressant. It does not show how many were prescribed after
treatment by a psychiatrist, as should probably always be the
case, or were instead
diagnosed by the family MD who gave antidepressants to patients
with vague symptoms. La la La. My guess is most of them the latter.
Back in the 90's Ralph Nader, and also the Church of Scientology,
used
this same "Blame Game." They tried to have Prozac declared a dangerous
substance by the FDA. Ralph Nader's motive was to serve his
tort
lawyer clientèle with a basis for class action lawsuits against
pharmaceuticals. The Church of Scientology saw, and sees,
antidepressants as the
competition. The move ultimately failed, and it
would not surprise me a bit to discover some of the same people are
involved here.
In 1993 I was diagnosed (by a shrink) as suffering from severe clinical
depression. I had, like most people, equated "depression," or the
earlier, broadly used melancholia,
like, you know. Depressed, as when the Redskins lost the
Super Bowl and the Terps get hammered by NC State—on the same
day! It
is not the same thing. A few shots of Jack Daniels will restore
happiness there, but will likely aggravate Depression.
For
me it was, as best as I can describe it, like a dark curtain
descending, and enveloping you in the blink of an eye. With no
obvious trigger. Darkness. At its worst, it lasted
for days. But not once
did I find myself filled with rage. Instead, I simply didn't give
a shit. Couldn't get
excited about anything, and blamed myself for everything. Didn't
care about
anything, but I knew it was important to show, somehow, my family that I did care,
because they were the only thing I knew that I wanted feelings for.
This is a tough thing, when your employer is 100% dependent on your
productivity to keep the ship afloat. I fell unemployed.
The very
short bottom line is that, for me, Zoloft did two things. It
allowed
me to see sunshine, and it stabilized my mood so that there were no
sudden swings into that darkness. There was always some
sun. There is some downside; like your days as a porn star
are over (*wink wink*). I've had trouble sustaining long term
interest in a lot of
things. Where I once read three-four books a week, I now will
have six books
I've read partially lying about. But you learn to cope.
There have been constants through all this, and this one is
germane. I
was before, during, and after a close observer of American politics,
and spent most of my television time watching C-Span (or Mystery
Science Theater on Saturday). During all that time I had
recognized
that the Democrat Party's agenda was identical to the American
Communist Party's. They are massive liars, and survived only
because
big media are bodyguards of those lies. There is not a chance in
hell
however that I would employ violence. My upbringing (Catholic
schools)
left me with an ethos that forbids both suicide and wanton murder.
My greatest blessings have been my family; especially MoSup who
has
suffered without complaint and—wait! I know her trick! She
wants to
be canonized; and probably will be, with me as her first qualifying
miracle. Whoa!
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