Tag archive for "Depression"

ADHD, ODD, & Depression

Kids

ADHD, ODD, & Depression

I recently joined Shaklee to help my 7 year-old get off medication  he was taking for his Depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). I wanted to start him on a good program of supplements.  Shaklee has helped tremendously!  We still have our days, but he’s doing much better.  We’re working with the psychiatrist to taper off his medication.

I listened to tapes on the effects of chemicals on children.  I’m talking about things you use everyday.  For example: when an open cleaning product container is in the same room with a “normal” child, the child can show false symptoms or exaggerated symptoms of dyslexia (they write a lot of letters backward and have difficulty reading), ADHD, ODD, allergies, sicknesses, etc.  When the chemical was taken out of the picture, the child was able to function “normally” again!

Our little ones are bombarded by these chemicals on a daily basis.  In schools they use VERY harsh chemicals.  In your homes, laundry soap stays in the fabric and can cause reactions. Cleaning chemicals under the sink release fumes.  There are chemicals on and in our foods, the list goes on and on.  I wanted to remove as much bad stuff as possible from my son’s environment.  We went completely Shaklee for home care (GET Clean™) and laundry and noticed a BIG difference!  After we cleared out the chemicals and started to clean and launder in Shaklee, a rash on his face disappeared, all of our sinus infections cleared up, my husband now comments on the smell of homemade bread, and, best of all, my son has calmed down a great deal.  After getting rid of the chemicals in our home, my son became uncontrollable after walking past the grocery store cleaning aisle one day.

– Catrina Larsen

Click HERE to search for the individual supplements mentioned above.

The above is NOT a prescription, and should not be treated as such.  This is simply a testimony of an individual who had a positive experience with the product(s) listed.  These are personal testimonies and are not endorsed by Shaklee Corporation.

Depression and Anxiety–Is Medicine the Solution?

Health, Men & Women

Depression and Anxiety–Is Medicine the Solution?

***Award winning Scientist, Masters Degree in Organic Chemistry
prescription-drugs1
I love Big Pharma. After getting a masters degree in drug design, I was fortunate enough to work within their stinky labs and learn the inner workings of corporate drug making (and dealing). My most important lesson: Not all drugs are bad. Some are really bad. Take the so-called antidepressant Prozac as an example.
In 1990, Prozac appeared on the cover of the pharmaceutically compliant Newsweek magazine with the headline “Prozac: A Breakthrough Drug for Depression.” It was designed almost twenty years prior. And during that time, some ghastly findings were made which proved the drug to be the antithesis o f what popular media touted it as. Such findings were kept hidden. Patients are learning the hard way.
Thirteen days after taking the SSRI Prozac, on April 28, 2003, Jordan’s wife of 56 years, Kathy, found his lifeless body hanging from a beam in a back room of their shop. Not depressed at the time of his appointment, Jordan was given a free sample of Prozac for “chest pains!” Apparently, a pretty drug rep convinced Jordan’s doctor that Prozac could be used for these types of “off-label” purposes. By FDA standards, this is totally illegal. But those standards are never enforced by the consumer watch dog turned Big Pharma lap dog. Regardless of what they are prescribed for, Prozac is a real and present danger to SSRI users.
SSRI’s strive to increase the levels of a “coping” molecule known as serotonin in the brain. It helps us FIND happiness when it’s covered in an avalanche of nastiness. SSRI’s attempt to boost serotonin by “selectively” stopping the “reuptake” of it among brain cells. This is where the whole SSRI acronym came from – “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.” It’s a slick name that seems to hypnotize medical doctors into prescribing submission, but it’s a really stupid idea.
human_brain_as_belief_engineNothing is selective in the body. While trying to block the reuptake of serotonin, SSRI8 0s can also prevent its release. The areas of the brain responsible for release and reuptake are so similar (after all, they work on the same molecule) that an SSRI isn’t smart enough to understand which one it is supposed to work on. So it does what any dumb drug would do, it blocks both. The end result: no coping molecules in the brain. Deep sadness, fear or anger can set in. Early studies proved this.
The first testing of Prozac was performed on dogs and cats. Every trial showed that Prozac use caused aggression amongst these normally calm and friendly animals, as could be seen by increased hissing and growling. When the animals were taken off of the drug, they returned to their usual friendly behavior. Researchers concluded that Prozac use causes aggressive behavior.
By mid 1978, Prozac testing moved to humans in controlled clinical trials involving more than 4000 patients. In an attempt to hide its aggressive tendencies, the study allowed for voluntary dropout of those who experienced the most severe side effects. Additionally, clinical investigators were allowed to administer concurrent sedatives to patients to further mask Prozac’s side effects that would most likely lead to violence/suicide. This is a common loophole used by drug company-funded drug trials and is known as “checkbook science.” Despite the lack of scientific methodology, this study concluded that Prozac works well to a “statistically significant” degree in a population of depressed patients.
Since its approval, the potential for Prozac calamity has become frighteningly clear amongst both professionals and the public. Reports of Prozac-associated suicide, written by James D. Hagerty and distributed by the Drugs and Devices Information Line at the Harvard School of Public Health, dominated the “Letters to the Editor” section of the American Journal of Psychiatry during the fall of 1990.
Under the FDA’s own analysis, there have been more than 20,000 Prozac-related suicides since 1987.
Clinical studies performed on Prozac show 191 negative side effects per 100 people. This equates to almost two negative side effects for every user of the drug.
The FDA continues to ignore the Prozac body count (they approved Prozac’s use for children in 2003). To make matters worse, the FDA granted its manufacturer, Eli Lilly, extended patent protection. In order to procure thirty depressionadditional months of earning power, Eli Lilly changed the name of Prozac to Sarafem, while at the same time labeling common personality and biological shifts as a disease among women; this “disease” being premenstrual irritability. As a result, thousands of unsuspecting women were given Prozac for premenstrual irritability while at the same time increasing their chances of suffering from the aforementioned negative side effects such as aggression, and suicide.
Such lessons got me out of corporate drug making. Thankfully, they taught me how not to be healthy: Take prescription drugs. You can do the same, just say no to Prozac.
About the Author
Ellison’s entire career has been dedicated to the study of molecules; how they give life and how they take from it. He was a two-time recipient of the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant for his research in biochemistry and physiology. He is a best selling author, holds a master’s degree in organic chemistry and has first-hand experience in drug design.
Do Anti-Depressants Dull the Conscience?

Health, Kids, Men & Women

Do Anti-Depressants Dull the Conscience?

Many of you have heard that so-called “aantidepressants2ntidepressants” dull the conscience.  So much so that some people commit horrendous acts that they never would have had they not been on the drugs.

Antidepressants and other “mood-altering” drugs affect the soul—the seat of the mind, will and emotions.  That is a very dangerous thing because the mind, will, and emotions must remain under the control of the conscience to provide the moral restraint necessary living as a human being.  When you use a drug to alter one part of the soul (i.e. the mood or emotions), you may also alter the mind and the will, and in the process wrest the soul from the constraints of the conscience.

depression-from-defence-magazineIf you look at each of the cases in recent years where some otherwise average person has done some unspeakable act of violence — mothers drowning their children, children committing crimes, the Columbine shooters and other school shootings, etc. — the perpetrators were all on “antidepressants” or mood-altering drugs.

That certainly doesn’t mean everyone who takes one of these drugs will commit some horrendous crime, but some will.  If not against others, against themselves—hence the dramatically higher incidence of suicide among those on these drugs.  But in almost all cases, these drugs, at the very least, have a spiritually dulling effect.

Here are two case, among many, that could be cited.  They may seem a little graphic, but keep in mind what these drugs are “supposed” to be doing for people, and what the patterns are showing that is “actually” happening.

Teen Gets 30 Years in Zoloft Murder Case
By BRUCE SMITH

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – A 15-year-old boy who claimed the antidepressant Zoloft drove him to kill his grandparents was found guilty of murder Tuesday and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Christopher Pittman hung his head as the verdict was read after about six hours of deliberations. He spoke briefly to the court before the sentence was handed down.zoloft

“I know it’s in the hands of God. Whatever he decides is what it’s going to be,” Pittman said quietly.

The trial was the first case involving a youngster who says an antidepressant caused him to kill, Pittman’s lawyer said. It came at a time of heightened scrutiny over the use of antidepressants among children.

Pittman cried Tuesday as his father and other family members asked for leniency.

“I love my son with all of my heart,” said Joe Pittman, whose parents were the victims. “And if my mom and dad were here, I know they would be begging you for mercy.”

Defense attorneys had urged the jury to send a message to the nation by blaming Zoloft for the killings. They said the negative effects of Zoloft are more pronounced in youngsters, and the drug affected Pittman so he did not know right from wrong.

“We do not convict children for murder when they have been ambushed by chemicals that destroy their ability to reason,” attorney Paul Waldner said.depressedboy

But prosecutors called the Zoloft defense a smoke screen, saying the then-12-year-old Pittman knew exactly what he was doing three years ago when he shot his grandparents, torched their house and then drove off in their car.

Prosecutor Barney Giese said the real motivation for the crime was the boy’s anger at his grandparents for disciplining him for choking a younger student on a school bus. And he reminded jurors how the boy carried out the killings – shooting his grandfather in the mouth and his grandmother in her head while both lay sleeping.

“I don’t care how old he is. That is as malicious a killing – a murder – as you are ever going to find,” the prosecutor said. He pointed to Pittman’s statement to police in which he said his grandparents “deserved it.”

Pittman was charged as an adult in the November 2001 murders of Joe Pittman, 66, and his wife Joy, 62.

Zoloft is the most widely prescribed antidepressant in the United States, with 32.7 million prescriptions written in 2003. Last October, the Food and Drug Administration ordered Zoloft and other antidepressants to carry “black box” warnings – the government’s strongest warning short of a ban – about an increased risk of suicidal behavior in children.
02/15/05 13:55

Man Holding Daughter Killed in Road Rage

The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 3, 2005; 12:12 PM  washingtonpost.com

BROCKTON, Mass. — A man lifting his infant daughter out of his car was killed in an apparent case of road rage by a motorist “who obviously exploded” and shot him four times at close range in front of dozens of witnesses, authorities said.

The victim’s 10-month-old girl was covered with blood but uninjured when police found her in a car seat on the floor ogunf the vehicle.

Walter R. Bishop, 60, who was taking medication for depression, was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Sandro Andrade. He pleaded innocent and was ordered held without bail; a hearing was scheduled for Aug. 26.

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said Bishop had made a calculated decision to “shoot a man in cold blood in broad daylight on the streets of Brockton.”

Police Chief Paul Studenski described it as a case of road rage.

Bishop’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, said Andrade had provoked his client during a traffic altercation.

“We have a homicide that resulted from a circumstance where somebody picked a fight with an individual who obviously antidepressantsexploded,” Reddington said. Bishop, a former soldier and security guard, had recently begun taking two medications for depression, he said.

Bishop told investigators he was driving his wife to the train station when Andrade’s vehicle backed toward him on Main Street, Cruz said. The two exchanged heated words.

“He said his wife was scared, and he said he was angry at that encounter,” Cruz said of Bishop. “He said he made up his mind right there that he had to do something.”

After dropping his wife off, he allegedly returned to the scene of the confrontation, pointed a handgun through an open window and fired, police said.

“Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Four shots. It sounded like a cap gun,” Louis McPhee, the manager of a car wash across the street, told The Boston Globe. “The guy was lying there in his own blood with a hole in his head and his arm still on the baby.”

Bishop left before police arrived, but witnesses gave investigators his license plate number and police found him at his home.

Police said Bishop has a valid handgun license.

Why is the doctor prescribing that “antidepressant”?

So if Anti-Depressants have this kind of effect on people, why are so many doctors prescribing them?  Below is an excerpt from a much longer article.  Read especially those parts that I have highlighted.

——————————————-

. . . And on June 27th, The New York Times reported, “As states begin to require that drug companies disclose their payments to doctors for lectures and other services, a pattern has emerged: psychiatrists earn more money from drug makers than doctors in any other specialty. How this money may be influencing psychiatrists and other doctors has become one of the most contentious issues in health care.  For instance, the more psychiatrists have earned from drug makers, the more they have prescribed a new class of powerful medicines known as atypical antipsychotics to children, for whom the drugs are especially risky and mostly unapproved.”

CCHR says that even high-ranking psychiatrists such as Dr. Steven Sharfstein, former president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), have pointed out the financial corruption in their field.  In 2006, Sharfstein admitted, “We have allowed ourselves to be corrupted in this marketplace with lucrative consulting to industry, speaker panels, boards of directors and visits from industry representatives bearing gifts.”

In May 2007, Daniel J. Carlat, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University, explained further, “Our [psychiatric] field as a whole is progressively being purchased lock, stock, and barrel by the drug companies: this includes the diagnoses, the treatment guidelines, and the national meetings.”

CCHR says the vested interests of psychiatrists underlie the profession’s vehement championing of dangerous money2psychiatric drugs to the public, particularly the growing market of children, despite international drug regulatory agencies warning that commonly prescribed psychiatric drugs such as antidepressants or amphetamines can cause suicidal ideation, mania, psychosis, homicidal ideation, heart attacks, stroke and sudden death.

Powerful antipsychotic drugs, which have been exposed for causing diabetes and death in patients, are increasingly being prescribed to children, prompting international concern—particularly given that the drugs are some of the most powerful on the market.  Moreover, the subjective nature of psychiatric diagnoses has created a cash cow for psychiatrists who can diagnose anyone as mentally ill based solely on opinion.

Source: Citizens Commission on Human Rights, July 5, 2007