I've been watching the SSRI-Autism stuff since last night...
It's terrifying the contortions people will go to in order to continue to believe the Emperor's wearing a regal robe when he's been dancing around flashing us every day for years now.
I'll never get the logic...why, in America, is alcohol verboten for a pregnant woman to the point that women end up on the news for having a single drink in public while pregnant or nursing, but medication that rewires the brain, and causes suicidal and often homicidal ideation when overdosed or withdrawing from is perfectly fine to consume while pregnant?
Exactly. The only way this makes sense is from the standpoint of a depopulation supporter or scientist with no morals who wants pregnant women to consume SSRI's for the purposes of a study.
Here's where it makes sense, and it's chilling. Next time you hear about a mother killing her children, or someone generally doing something bizarre like murdering their whole families or trying to cut their arms off in the middle of a Home Depot (there are at least two stories a week like this nationally, usually more on the local level), read the articles and comments closely.
If the perpetrator recently had a dosage change, that will typically not be noted (it was in the Elliot Rodger case, though, which is interesting). If they instead went off their medication, that is noted much more often. See also articles about Miriam Carey, Omar Gonzalez, Catherine Hoggle, Adam Lanza, many, many others. Just search "Murder suicide" and "recently medication" or "murder suicide" and "mental illness."
Let's look at math here. 13% of the US is on an SSRI. An SSRI. Doesn't count other meds that fit this profile and can cause delusion and violence on withdrawal for a subset of takers - antipsychotics, anti-convulsants, anti-anxiety meds, hell, even nerve pain meds and Tamiflu and even St John's Wort! Some subset of these people, if their dosage is too high, are more likely to have an issue. And some subset of these people, if they discontinue their medication, are likely to have an issue.
So, what do you do? Do you want to publicize that the medications cause autism, all the pregnant women go off them at once, and we get something worse than autism? Ask Connecticut's Assistant Attorney General, when pressed as to why he wouldn't release Adam Lanza's medication record. His answer? It "would cause a lot of people to stop taking their medications."
Why is that a problem? Because withdrawal can be as bad and as dangerous as overdosing.
It kills me though, because every single day, there's another death or suicide, another life ruined. And the people who know this and know why are sitting on it because they've dug themselves into a hole. And every day, doctors put more and more people on these addictive and dangerous classes of medication, digging the hole deeper.
Yep. And monitored really closely with help from doctors (and free correctly-sized meds from the pharmaceutical companies that put them in this situation to begin with, for fuck's sake. It's ridiculous that if someone's insurance screws them, they are forced to beg for medication. Or that they have to break pills to wean off--this can be really dangerous if the capsules are slow release, breaking interferes w/that action).
The monitoring and support is really important--according to Miriam Carey's sister, her doctors had "successfully" slowly weaned her off of her meds, but she somehow still ended up driving down to DC to tell the President that her baby in the back seat was his. :( Her boyfriend had called the police several times telling them that she was delusional and endangering her child. There's zero support for people in this situation, and it's not an uncommon situation anymore, unfortunately.
I'm on an SSRI (started about 4 months ago) and I don't want to know the side effects because for me it's helped me feel normal again and I take something for anxiety as well. Hopefully I will be taken off of them in about a year but it will be done slowly; I won't just stop taking them.
But after reading what you wrote I'm kind of afraid now. How long does it stay in our bodies? I plan on having another child in 3-5 years, is it going to cause issues then?
Hey I just wanted to offer you some support. I've been off an on an SSRI for about 6 years now. It's not something you want to do long term but if it's working for you don't be ashamed of it or scared because of these stories.
If you have a good doctor you should already know that you should be monitoring your attitude and mental health and as soon as you notice anything weird you should be back to the doctor for either a dosage change or to take you off of it completely. It shows how little we know but the regular thing a doctor should do is monitor you closely and if one SSRI doesn't work then you try another until you get one that works for you. If you anxiety is having a negative impact on your life then it is probably worth giving it a try.
Here's a key think I want you to know though. If you want to be off of SSRIs in a year and not have the anxiety problem again you need to practice being healthy while you are on it. Use the time on the SSRI as a chance to learn what it feels like to be 'normal'. (everyone is different, but debilitating anxiety shouldn't be normal for anyone). It's like a form of cognitive behavioural therapy. Things that triggered anxiety in the past won't necessarily do it while you're on the SSRI and you need to examine yourself so that you understand the patterns that you could fall back into once you go off of it.
It's different for everyone, this has just been my experience. I hopeyou can get something out of it.
Depends on the drug itself's halflife and your body, and you should definitely work closely with your doc, but I don't think you need to worry about 3-5 years...usually, I think it's between 12 hours to a week for most drugs to clear, depending on what it is, but your brain is another matter; I know people who weren't completely "back where they were" after a year or so of discontinuation, but that's their body learning to cope without the "assist" and eventually they were back to normal, not the drug still in their system. One of the major issues itself is the fast withdrawal from your system - they leave your body quickly, leaving your brain to try to figure itself out. That's why you want to work with your doctor to wean off really really slowly (and tell your loved ones so that they can keep an eye out for any weirdness).
I also really think knowing the side effects helps people deal with them--if you get a strange impulse to do something and can stop and say, "This isn't me, this is the medication, let's take a breath, let me talk to my loved ones about this and get help," serious badness can be averted. I've seen some people successfully walk away from some scary cliffs this way. More and more doctors are thank goodness educating patients before they give them this stuff to watch out for these reactions, but it's never enough. More education and prep == better safety.
My doctor was good about explaining the drugs to me and he's trying to be "conservative" with the dosage. Thankfully I've had a good experience and haven't done anything out of character. The only thing that's out of character is I'm not acting like a hermit but I would consider that to be a good thing.
I was given depression meds many years ago. I was told I have a chemical imbalance and that these meds would stabilize my brain. I discontinued use after a short while because I googled how to relieve depression. I found out that 5000 iu vitamin D daily, exercise, and a good diet was a better solution.
So I guess my brain no longer has a "chemical imbalance" since my depression is completely gone. I'm not a psychiatrist so I won't recommend anything, but I thought I should share my experience.
The ground was ripe for a better pill, and it wasn't long before scientists produced a new, highly targeted class of antidepressants, led by Prozac, which hit the U.S. market in 1987, followed by Zoloft in 1991 and Paxil in 1992. Instead of blanketing a broad range of brain chemicals, the drugs — known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) ...
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14 comments
15 dejenerate 2014-09-23
I've been watching the SSRI-Autism stuff since last night...
It's terrifying the contortions people will go to in order to continue to believe the Emperor's wearing a regal robe when he's been dancing around flashing us every day for years now.
I'll never get the logic...why, in America, is alcohol verboten for a pregnant woman to the point that women end up on the news for having a single drink in public while pregnant or nursing, but medication that rewires the brain, and causes suicidal and often homicidal ideation when overdosed or withdrawing from is perfectly fine to consume while pregnant?
7 InternetPropagandist 2014-09-23
Exactly. The only way this makes sense is from the standpoint of a depopulation supporter or scientist with no morals who wants pregnant women to consume SSRI's for the purposes of a study.
8 dejenerate 2014-09-23
Here's where it makes sense, and it's chilling. Next time you hear about a mother killing her children, or someone generally doing something bizarre like murdering their whole families or trying to cut their arms off in the middle of a Home Depot (there are at least two stories a week like this nationally, usually more on the local level), read the articles and comments closely.
If the perpetrator recently had a dosage change, that will typically not be noted (it was in the Elliot Rodger case, though, which is interesting). If they instead went off their medication, that is noted much more often. See also articles about Miriam Carey, Omar Gonzalez, Catherine Hoggle, Adam Lanza, many, many others. Just search "Murder suicide" and "recently medication" or "murder suicide" and "mental illness."
Let's look at math here. 13% of the US is on an SSRI. An SSRI. Doesn't count other meds that fit this profile and can cause delusion and violence on withdrawal for a subset of takers - antipsychotics, anti-convulsants, anti-anxiety meds, hell, even nerve pain meds and Tamiflu and even St John's Wort! Some subset of these people, if their dosage is too high, are more likely to have an issue. And some subset of these people, if they discontinue their medication, are likely to have an issue.
So, what do you do? Do you want to publicize that the medications cause autism, all the pregnant women go off them at once, and we get something worse than autism? Ask Connecticut's Assistant Attorney General, when pressed as to why he wouldn't release Adam Lanza's medication record. His answer? It "would cause a lot of people to stop taking their medications."
Why is that a problem? Because withdrawal can be as bad and as dangerous as overdosing.
It kills me though, because every single day, there's another death or suicide, another life ruined. And the people who know this and know why are sitting on it because they've dug themselves into a hole. And every day, doctors put more and more people on these addictive and dangerous classes of medication, digging the hole deeper.
1 ImASharkImAShark 2014-09-23
That's why people should not just all of the sudden stop taking meds, but rather get off of them slowly with lower dosages.
2 dejenerate 2014-09-23
Yep. And monitored really closely with help from doctors (and free correctly-sized meds from the pharmaceutical companies that put them in this situation to begin with, for fuck's sake. It's ridiculous that if someone's insurance screws them, they are forced to beg for medication. Or that they have to break pills to wean off--this can be really dangerous if the capsules are slow release, breaking interferes w/that action).
The monitoring and support is really important--according to Miriam Carey's sister, her doctors had "successfully" slowly weaned her off of her meds, but she somehow still ended up driving down to DC to tell the President that her baby in the back seat was his. :( Her boyfriend had called the police several times telling them that she was delusional and endangering her child. There's zero support for people in this situation, and it's not an uncommon situation anymore, unfortunately.
Bonus points in wtfness re:Carey - look at the police response on display here, for a single unarmed woman driving one car with a baby inside: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2442703/Capitol-Hill-lockdown-Miriam-Carey-thought-Obama-stalking-taking-schizophrenia-medication.html This article also states she was on schizophrenia medication, the sister says she was off it in another article--another example of the (intentional?) confusion around the medication involvement in these incidents.
0 DiscoLollipop 2014-09-23
I'm on an SSRI (started about 4 months ago) and I don't want to know the side effects because for me it's helped me feel normal again and I take something for anxiety as well. Hopefully I will be taken off of them in about a year but it will be done slowly; I won't just stop taking them.
But after reading what you wrote I'm kind of afraid now. How long does it stay in our bodies? I plan on having another child in 3-5 years, is it going to cause issues then?
4 shadowofashadow 2014-09-23
Hey I just wanted to offer you some support. I've been off an on an SSRI for about 6 years now. It's not something you want to do long term but if it's working for you don't be ashamed of it or scared because of these stories.
If you have a good doctor you should already know that you should be monitoring your attitude and mental health and as soon as you notice anything weird you should be back to the doctor for either a dosage change or to take you off of it completely. It shows how little we know but the regular thing a doctor should do is monitor you closely and if one SSRI doesn't work then you try another until you get one that works for you. If you anxiety is having a negative impact on your life then it is probably worth giving it a try.
Here's a key think I want you to know though. If you want to be off of SSRIs in a year and not have the anxiety problem again you need to practice being healthy while you are on it. Use the time on the SSRI as a chance to learn what it feels like to be 'normal'. (everyone is different, but debilitating anxiety shouldn't be normal for anyone). It's like a form of cognitive behavioural therapy. Things that triggered anxiety in the past won't necessarily do it while you're on the SSRI and you need to examine yourself so that you understand the patterns that you could fall back into once you go off of it.
It's different for everyone, this has just been my experience. I hopeyou can get something out of it.
1 dejenerate 2014-09-23
Depends on the drug itself's halflife and your body, and you should definitely work closely with your doc, but I don't think you need to worry about 3-5 years...usually, I think it's between 12 hours to a week for most drugs to clear, depending on what it is, but your brain is another matter; I know people who weren't completely "back where they were" after a year or so of discontinuation, but that's their body learning to cope without the "assist" and eventually they were back to normal, not the drug still in their system. One of the major issues itself is the fast withdrawal from your system - they leave your body quickly, leaving your brain to try to figure itself out. That's why you want to work with your doctor to wean off really really slowly (and tell your loved ones so that they can keep an eye out for any weirdness).
I also really think knowing the side effects helps people deal with them--if you get a strange impulse to do something and can stop and say, "This isn't me, this is the medication, let's take a breath, let me talk to my loved ones about this and get help," serious badness can be averted. I've seen some people successfully walk away from some scary cliffs this way. More and more doctors are thank goodness educating patients before they give them this stuff to watch out for these reactions, but it's never enough. More education and prep == better safety.
2 DiscoLollipop 2014-09-23
My doctor was good about explaining the drugs to me and he's trying to be "conservative" with the dosage. Thankfully I've had a good experience and haven't done anything out of character. The only thing that's out of character is I'm not acting like a hermit but I would consider that to be a good thing.
2 InternetPropagandist 2014-09-23
I was given depression meds many years ago. I was told I have a chemical imbalance and that these meds would stabilize my brain. I discontinued use after a short while because I googled how to relieve depression. I found out that 5000 iu vitamin D daily, exercise, and a good diet was a better solution.
So I guess my brain no longer has a "chemical imbalance" since my depression is completely gone. I'm not a psychiatrist so I won't recommend anything, but I thought I should share my experience.
1 DiscoLollipop 2014-09-23
My vitamin D is good, I eat good, and exercise 6 days a week and still suffer from depression. I've tried natural remedies but I never had any luck.
I'm very happy that it's worked for you and I hope you continue to do well :)
1 mastigia 2014-09-23
This is interesting, graph of autism rates by year: http://i.imgur.com/ZH96tRe.jpg
Then we got when SSRIs started being used here.
Excerpt from that article:
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3 InternetPropagandist 2014-09-23
NP doesn't matter since the posts were removed.