Posts Tagged ‘Psychiatric Drugs’

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How to Cultivate Empathy

Monday, February 13th, 2023

Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing; to “walk in their shoes” so to speak.

[Derived from Ancient Greek ???????? (empatheia, “physical affection or passion”).]

We notice a huge amount of social media commentary about this concept, including a surfeit of pithy quotes. Wikipedia, for one example, discusses empathy extensively. We’re not going to go into it in such extraordinary depth, but we hope to add some useful observations.

One observation is that whenever there is so much back and forth discussion about a concept, there tends to also be major misunderstandings about it. We’d like to add our two cents.

Besides the obvious usefulness of empathy in the general social contexts of communication and understanding with others, there is also a practical application in marketing and public relations. For example, a product or service gets empathy by tying it in to one’s public using their local environment. This makes it more acceptable and improves its reach. As a local example, many products and services in the St. Louis metropolitan area are tied in name or picture with the Gateway Arch.

Some confuse empathy with compassion or sympathy. These are closely related but definitely different. Consult any good dictionary to understand the differences. (I recommend https://onelook.com/ to look up words online.)

One of the abiding concerns of commentary on empathy is how to teach it, how to develop it in a person when it is lacking. It is really a function of a living being’s awareness.

A large part of awareness training would be learning how to confront others and situations, while being open to all perceptions and remaining unrestimulated by noise and confusion. In this context, confront means to face without flinching.

People are not naturally aware of other people; they have to be drilled on observing others in order to bring about awareness. In many cases this normally occurs during one’s upbringing; in other cases this ability to observe may be lacking to greater or lesser degree and requires training. A century of psychological “know-best” that people are animals, not spiritual beings, has blunted this ability to observe in many unfortunate cases. Thus we get so much conversation on social media about how to develop empathy for others, which basically depends upon observing and being aware of others.

At the bottom of the scale of awareness there is delusion, in which a person sees one thing but thinks it is something else. This is more prevalent than one might suspect. Observational drills may not be enough to repair this failing.

Ways to Bring About a Heightened Sense of Empathy

A sensitivity to Human Rights is one way to cultivate empathy. Some notice that teaching about Human Rights brings about changes in attitude and behavior leading to more empathy toward others.

Another way to approach this is to recognize ways in which one’s awareness is turned to unawareness, and remedy those. A prime example of creating unawareness is psychiatric drugs.

These drugs create many of their effects by modifying the expression of neurotransmitters in the brain, which we call “playing Russian Roulette with your brain.”

Common and well-documented side effects of many psychiatric drugs include hallucinations, delusions, emotional disturbance, emotional numbing, confusion, akathisia (restlessness), brain damage, forgetfulness, memory lapses, hostility, aggressive behavior, and vision problems.

One can easily see that such side effects may contribute to one’s unawareness of what is going on around them, thus bringing about a destruction of empathy. The obvious remedy is to wean off taking these drugs and find non-drug alternatives for one’s troubles.

We hope these few observations have contributed to your understanding of empathy, and lead to a resurgence of your awareness of others.

Alien Mind Wipe

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Alternatives to Psychiatric Drugs

Monday, January 30th, 2023

There are non-drug alternatives for adverse mental conditions.

Any significant metabolic disruptions can impact brain function. Specific clinical biomarkers can reveal how to help correct a biochemical excess or deficiency having toxic side effects including mental trauma. Once these are identified, targeted non-drug nutrients may be enough to correct such an overload or deficiency, leading to recovery from such disturbing mental symptoms.

One place to examine is The Walsh Research Institute in Naperville, Illinois, a non-profit organization dedicated to unraveling the biochemistry of mental disorders and development of improved drug-free clinical treatments through scientific research and medical practitioner education.

Dr. Walsh’s book Nutrient Power: Heal Your Biochemistry and Heal Your Brain (2014, Skyhorse Publishing), presents a science-based nutrient therapy system that may help people falsely diagnosed with ADHD, autism, behavior disorders, depression, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, using individualized natural nutrient therapies tailored to such biochemical imbalances.

For example, patients with a copper overload may experience depression or high anxiety. Copper toxicity can be determined with diagnostic lab testing, and is treated with an individualized, prescribed treatment of vitamins, minerals and amino acids, instead of with harmful antidepressants or anti-anxiety drugs.

Another example is called Pyrrole disorder, diagnosed with a urine test. This condition can have side effects of mood instability, anxiety, depression, or other behavioral disorders, caused by an imbalance of zinc and vitamin B6. Without proper clinical testing, this can be falsely diagnosed as ADHD or autism, and fraudulently treated with harmful psychiatric drugs.

Current research suggests that more than 60% of ADHD, anxiety, depression and psychosis patients exhibit a serious methylation imbalance. Methylation is a set of biochemical processes in the body for which overproduction or underproduction are both known to exhibit deleterious mental symptoms. The interesting thing about it is that there are clinical tests that show up the imbalance and suggest non-drug targeted nutrient therapy which may correct many of these challenges.

We point this out to emphasize that a psychiatric diagnosis is not based on any clinical tests, it is strictly an opinion that is treated with psychiatric drugs that have known side effects of violence and suicide. Therefore we think it is worthwhile to investigate methods which do have clinical tests and can pinpoint actual imbalances that have natural nutrient treatments.

Psychotropic drugs are unworkable and dangerous, and while they may temporarily mask some symptoms they do not treat, correct or cure any physical disease or condition. Once the drug has worn off, the original problem remains. As a solution or cure to life’s problems, psychotropic drugs do not work.

It is dangerous to self diagnose these disorders, just as it is dangerous for a psychiatrist to do so. The correct action on a mentally disturbed person is a full searching clinical examination by a competent non-psychiatric medical doctor, since there are no clinical tests for the fraudulent psychiatric diagnoses used in the psychiatric industry.

Although CCHR does not provide medical advice, we have found various resources such as these to be helpful for individuals looking for more information about alternatives to psychiatry.

Contact your local, state and federal officials to express your opposition to funding harmful psychiatric “solutions.”

There are non-drug alternatives for adverse mental conditions.

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Wasted Billion$ Spent On Violence Prevention

Monday, January 23rd, 2023

Ignores How Psychotropic Drugs Cause Hostility, And Their Role In Mass Shootings & Stabbings

Although there are numerous reasons for acts of mass violence, funding poured into violence prevention mental health programs has ignored a potential pivotal source, especially in schools: the treatment.

By Jan Eastgate
President, CCHR International
July 11, 2022

Mental health professionals suggest that the latest spate of mass killings require more psychiatric services and stronger involuntary commitment laws to prevent future violence. However, this would most likely increase acts of violence because psychiatric drugs are usually the first line of treatment and carry a risk of inducing suicide and hostility in a percent of those taking them. Taxpayer appropriations have been funneled into everything related to prevention except investigating psychotropic drug links to acts of violence. A financial audit of violence prevention mental health programs should be conducted to show accountability for results.

Since the Columbine high school massacre in 1999 where two students—the ringleader on an antidepressant—killed 13 and injured 24, national violence prevention programs in schools have been implemented, with billions of dollars invested in this.

Another $1 billion of federal funds was recently allocated for community violence intervention (CVI), which includes mental health services.[1]

Funding has been a bottomless pit without a commensurate decline in mass violence. The Safe Schools Act of 1994 had a goal that by the year 2000, every school in America would be free of violence.[2] The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) passed in 2015 allocated more federal funds for school-based violence prevention programs.[3]

Yet school shootings increased by 37% between the 1990s and 2013 and continued unabated.[4] This figure doesn’t factor in acts of school violence that do not involve guns.

Since 2000, there have been at least 27 acts of mass violence in schools committed by those taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs or having undergone unnamed mental health treatment, resulting in 33 deaths and 83 wounded. At least seven of the killings involved stabbings.[5] Something drove them to kill.

Some 76 million Americans take psychotropic drugs, of which over 2.1 million are children and adolescents taking antidepressants despite a Food and Drug Administration suicide black box warning for teens and young adults. Between 1999 and 2014, there was a 64% increase in the percentage of people of all ages using antidepressants.[6]

Increased mental and/or physical agitation has caused about 5% of subjects taking antidepressants to drop out of clinical trials. When that percentage is applied to the 41 million individuals in the U.S. taking antidepressants, it begs the question how many of that 2.05 million could potentially become so agitated that they would kill?[7]

The antidepressant market is a highly lucrative one that would be protected at any cost. The global market was estimated at $5.2 billion in 2019 and over $80 billion is spent in a year worldwide in psychiatric drug sales. The Central Nervous System drugs (including ADHD drugs) market is expected to reach $131 billion by 2025.[8]

Psychiatrists, often backed by Big Pharma, misdirect policymakers by saying there is no “scientific” evidence of psychiatric drugs causing violence, even though violent behavior, including homicide are reported side effects.

“Most people who commit these kinds of acts of severe violence are only prescribed medication because of their horrible thoughts, moods, and ideas,” Dr. Gwen Adshead, a forensic psychotherapist stated.[9]

But that’s the point: having been prescribed the drugs, they acted on those thoughts and killed.

“Violence and other potentially criminal behavior caused by prescription drugs are medicine’s best kept secret,” international psychopharmacology expert Prof. David Healy says.[10]

What role such drugs may have had on San Antonio, Texas teen Rodolfo Aceves (19) who was arrested on June 27th, 2022, for planning a mass shooting at an Amazon Delivery Station where he worked in unknown. He has a history of mental health treatment and was institutionalized at age 16.[11]

Robert Crimo III, 21, the July 4th Illinois parade shooter was reported to have experienced personality changes a few years ago when he and his girlfriend broke up. He started taking psychedelic drugs, seemingly illicitly.[12] While not confirmed which hallucinogens he took, as an example, psilocybin adverse effects include: Impaired judgment and feelings of detachment, psychosis, anxiety and panic attacks.[13] In April 2019, police went to the family home after receiving a report Crimo had tried to take his own life a week earlier. They were told mental health professionals were handling the matter!

Psychiatrists are currently trying to have psychedelics re-introduced as mainstream mental health treatment after being banned in the 1970s.

Missing the Mark

The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) has been collecting data on school-associated violent deaths since 1992, defined as a fatal injury (e.g., homicide, suicide, or legal intervention). Only violent deaths associated with U.S. elementary and secondary schools, both public and private, are included.[14] CDC uses the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System that monitors “health-risk behaviors of students.” The high school survey, for example, is 21 pages of questions, none of which identify if the student is taking prescription psychotropic medications or abusing them—missing the mark entirely on a potential source of violent and suicidal behavior.[15]

Blaming the “Illness,” Not the Drug

Many psychiatrists deflect legislators’ attention away from iatrogenic drug-induced violence by arguing that no studies have been done on the association between the risk of committing homicide and the use of psychotropic drugs.[16] That’s also the point. It’s a safe bet that they won’t because, how could a legitimate study be ethically approved to deliberately induce violent behavior using a prescription drug?

Until now, this seems only to have been done clandestinely in the 1970s under the CIA’s MK-Ultra program when psychiatrists carried out experiments to search for a mind control drug that could be weaponized against enemies.[17] CCHR has copies of CIA documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showing psychotropic drugs were tested to see if a subject could be chemically induced to assassinate.[18]

While not excusing the crime, today, courts recognize the “overwhelming probable” relationship between antidepressant and murder, “treatment-induced psychosis” and, in one case a jury determined that the antidepressant paroxetine “can cause some people to become homicidal and/or suicidal” and that the drug was 80% responsible for a normally calm and caring father to kill his family.[19]

Drug Withdrawal Creates Violence (Not Mental Illness)

Another key point ignored is the debilitating withdrawal effects some people taking prescription psychotropic drugs can experience which are documented to include violent and suicidal behavior. Many of the studies on withdrawal effects are published in CCHR’s report Psychiatric Drugs Create Violence & Suicide.

Psychiatrists obfuscate withdrawal effects by blaming the person’s “untreated” mental illness. By involuntarily committing prospective aggressive individuals and keeping people incarcerated for longer periods (usually on psychotropics) they argue the person can get the treatment he or she needs.

But close inspection shows that not to be true. Consider the history of Brandon Scott Hole, 19, who shot and killed eight people and injured seven others at a FedEx building, before committing suicide in April of 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana.[20] From age 10, he’d received psychiatric treatment. In September 2011, his agitated behavior spurred his mother to take him to a center where he was given anxiety medication. A year later, after starting 5th grade, he was still aggressive and prescribed more of the same medication, with records showing only “mild benefit.” Yet another drug was added, and he also underwent behavioral therapy. In 2013, he spent a period in juvenile detention and put on probation for several months, then released. By 2020, he was suicidal. Medical records indicated that he suffered from six different disorders. The teen originated: “I can get very, very angry. I have very little control over myself when that happens” to which records say he will benefit from medication for psychiatric symptoms. On March 31, 2022, he meets a social worker for therapy. On April 15, he murdered eight innocent people described as an act of “suicidal murder.”[21] Hole had suicidal thoughts “almost daily” in the months prior to the attack and attempted suicide on “more than one occasion,” according to an FBI special agent.[22]  Clearly, the six different mental disorders he’d been given during his short life were not effectively treated and the medication may have exacerbated his thoughts.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) stresses, “It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness are not violent.”[23] But as one online writer puts it: Psychiatrists argue that “mental illness does not cause violence…. Why, then, do we think that expanding access to mental health services will reduce mass violence?”[24]

A man who allegedly attacked the Cuban Embassy, firing at it 32 times in April 2020, had been evaluated at a psychiatric hospital and prescribed an antipsychotic in March. Although he may not have been compliant in taking it daily, antipsychotic withdrawal effects include hostility. The drug remains in the system, potentially impacting upon mental faculties and emotional behavior.[25]

On July 3rd in Denmark, a suspected gunman, Noah Essenes, 22, said his antipsychotic drugs weren’t working before a shooting spree in a Danish shopping center that left 3 dead and 27 injured.  He was remanded into psychiatric “care”—which clearly had previously failed him—and charged with murder and attempted murder.[26]

John Read, Ph.D.’s article “The experiences of 585 people when they tried to withdraw from antipsychotic drugs,” published in the June 2022 edition of Addictive Behaviors Reports reported that in an online survey of 585 antipsychotic users from 29 countries, who had tried to stop taking the drugs, 72% reported classical withdrawal effects, including anxiety and agitation; 52% of these categorized those effects as “severe,” 18% reported psychosis as a withdrawal effect and 23% took at least one year to successfully withdraw completely.[27]

When an antipsychotic, and thereby the dopamine neurotransmitter blockade, are removed, or reduced, “the brain is overwhelmed with dopamine…. This can result in a withdrawal psychosis,” Read said.[28]

Antidepressants also have serious withdrawal effects that can last years.

In 2012, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics Journal published a study about persistent withdrawal effects six weeks after cessation of taking SSRI antidepressants. Researchers reviewed self-reporting adverse events and found post-withdrawal symptoms “may last several months to years.” Symptoms included disturbed mood, emotional liability, irritability, and poor stress tolerance.[29]
As Healy and others wrote in Children of the Cure: Missing Data, Lost Lives and Antidepressants, an antidepressant manufacturer that recognized the withdrawal effect, held a meeting of “opinion leaders” and invented the term “antidepressant discontinuation syndrome” to deflect from dependence problems.[30]

From the 14 studies that provided usable data, researchers calculated that 56% of antidepressant users experienced withdrawal symptoms when they discontinued the drug. The duration of symptoms varied widely, but some patients reported problems lasting up to 79 weeks after stopping the antidepressant.[31] 

Time magazine once listed the top 10 prescribed drugs linked to violence, of which eight were psychotropic drugs—five which were antidepressants.[32]

Finnish researchers published the findings in a 2015 study that determined benzodiazepines could increase the risk of a consumer committing a homicide by 45% and antidepressant by 31%. A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology also found that “…benzodiazepines and [SSRI antidepressants] are the main pharmacological classes able to induce aggressive behavior.”[33]

Funding Violence-Causation?

It seems that in the U.S. with the spate of mass killings involving teens, and with massive funding of violence-prevention programs in schools is not decreasing.

Funding continues to be invested in programs without ever looking at the potential psychotropic drug link to violence.

In the wake of Columbine, the School Emergency Response to Violence was Created, where “Project SERV” funds were used for a variety of activities, including mental health assessments, referrals, and services for victims and witnesses of violence. and more.[34]

In December 2012, the Attorney General’s Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence developed “Project Prevent” to provide grants for mental health services. Laudably, counseling was to be provided to help students cope with the effects of violence. But also funded was conflict resolution programs and other school-based violence prevention strategies, which have also been implicated in some of the cases of mass violence in schools. [35]

As of 2019, 15 states require character development or social and emotional learning in schools.[36]
CVI programs employ “violence interrupters” or “neighborhood change agents” who are skilled in intervention.[37]

Forced Treatment: The Wrong Way to Go

As for increasing involuntary commitment laws to lock up and maintain individuals on psychiatric drugs, an estimated 54% of admissions to psychiatric facilities in the U.S. are involuntary.[38]

Recent United Nations Agency and World Health Organization reports condemn coercive-forced psychiatric treatment, especially because there is an overreliance on mental health drugs, as a February-April 2022 Annual Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, points out.[39]
The Commissioner’s 2018 report noted that “forced medication, and other forced measures” should be repealed. “States should reframe and recognize these practices as constituting torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.[40]

An Alaska Supreme Court decision in 2006 was pivotal in protecting patients from forced “medication,” because of their risks. Represented by attorney Jim Gottstein Esq., Faith Myers challenged the constitutionality of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API) to force her to take psychotropic drugs when she was involuntarily committed to the facility on February 3, 2003. The court found in her favor because of “the nature and potentially devastating impact of psychotropic medications….” Further, “Psychotropic drugs ‘affect the mind, behavior, intellectual functions, perception, moods, and emotion’ and are known to cause a number of potentially devastating side effects…Courts have observed that ‘the likelihood [that psychotropic drugs will cause] at least some temporary side effects appears to be undisputed.’”[41]

WHO said that countries must ensure that patients have “the right to refuse admission and treatment is also respected.”[42] Importantly, “People wishing to come off psychotropic drugs should also be actively supported to do so, and several recent resources have been developed to support people to achieve this.”[43]

For good reason. No one should suddenly stop taking a psychotropic drug without medical approval and supervision.

Acts of Violence During Withdrawal

Of nearly 410 drug regulatory agency psychiatric drug warnings, 17 were for addiction or withdrawal effects.[44]

A small example of cases of killers going through withdrawal includes:

2008: DeKalb, Illinois: 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking prescribed drugs Prozac (antidepressant), and anti-anxiety/sedative-hypnotics, Xanax (alprazolam) and Ambien but had stopped taking Prozac three weeks before the shooting. Toxicology results showed that he still had trace amount of Xanax in his system.[45]

December 2006: North Vernon, Indiana: 16-year-old Travis Roberson stabbed a Jennings County High School student in the neck, nearly severing an artery. Roberson was in withdrawal from the antidepressant Wellbutrin, which he had stopped taking days before the attack.[46]

April 2006: Chapel Hill, North Carolina: 17-year-old William Barrett Foster took a shotgun to East Chapel Hill High School, where he took a teacher and a fellow student hostage. After being talked out of shooting the hostages, Foster fired two shots through a classroom window before fleeing the school on foot. Foster’s father testified that his son had stopped taking his antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs without telling him (which can cause severe withdrawal effects).[47] 

Acts of Violence Involving Antipsychotics

January 2019 – Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Dakota Theriot, 21, was accused of killing five people in Louisiana. The victims included his parents and three members of a family with whom he’d been living for a short time. Investigators said he smoked weed and drank alcohol that mixed poorly with the antipsychotic drugs he’d been prescribed.[48]

June 2018 – Westminster, Colorado: Jeremy Webster, 23, killed a 13-year-old and injured the boy’s mother and brother in a road rage shooting. A man in another car was also shot. Webster had a psychiatric history and had changed medication that day. He had been prescribed an antidepressant and an antipsychotic.[49]

December 2014 – Montgomery County, Pennsylvania: Iraq War veteran Bradley Stone, 35, killed his ex-wife, her mother, grandmother and sister, and the sister’s husband and 14-year-old daughter and then committed suicide. According to the Medical Examiner, he had both the antidepressant trazodone and the antipsychotic risperidone in his system at the time of his death. Just one week prior to the murders, he had seen his Veterans Affairs psychiatrist, whose evaluation stated Stone had no suicidal or homicidal ideation.[50]

November 2014 – Tallahassee, Florida: Myron May, 31, entered a library where hundreds of students were studying, began shooting and, wounding three before he was shot and killed by police. He had checked himself into a psychiatric center about three months prior. Shortly after this, his friends discovered a new pill bottle among his prescriptions, the antipsychotic Seroquel (quetiapine).[51]

June 2014 – Seattle, Washington: 26-year-old Aaron Ybarra opened fire at Seattle Pacific University, killing one student and wounding two others. Ybarra planned to kill as many people as possible before killing himself. In 2012, he reported that he had been prescribed the antidepressant Prozac and antipsychotic Risperdal (risperidone). A report from his counselor in December of 2013 said that he was taking Prozac at the time and planned to continue to meet with his psychiatrist and therapist as needed. His lawyer said Ybarra had a long history of mental health issues for which he was taking Prozac at the time of the shooting.[52]

February 2013 – Chalk Mountain, Texas: Eddie Ray Routh, 28, shot and killed Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL who was the subject of the movie, American Sniper, and Kyle’s friend, Chad Littlefield, at a firing range. He had been prescribed the antipsychotic risperidone and the antidepressant, Zoloft, the latter not recommended for anyone aged younger than 25 because of the risk that it may cause suicide. Routh’s father would later report that the cocktail of pharmaceuticals “made Eddie worse,” adding, “I ain’t no doctor. I ain’t no rocket scientist or nothing, but I could tell a difference in him.” He had various hospitalizations over the next few years and was said to be “paranoid and impulsively violent” and was prescribed a cocktail of psychotropic drugs that included two powerful antipsychotics, Haldol and Seroquel and the antidepressant Paxil. He was also mixing prescription drugs known to cause aggressive and psychotic behavior with alcohol and marijuana.[53]

Recommendation: A financial audit on all government funding of violence-prevention mental health/behavioral programs should be conducted with outcome evaluation to show accountability for results.

Psychiatric Drugs Create Violence & Suicide is a compelling resource detailing more than 30 studies and over sixty cases of mass shootings and acts of violence committed by those taking or withdrawing from prescribed psychotropic drugs. 

References:
[1] https://bja.ojp.gov/program/community-violence-intervention/overview; “APA Statement on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” Psychiatric Times, 24 June 2022, https://www.psychiatry.org/News-room/News-Releases/APA-Statement-on-the-Bipartisan-Safer-Communities

[2] “School Safety Policies and Programs Administered by the U.S. Federal Government: 1990–2016,” A Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress under an Interagency Agreement with the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice

[3] Ibid.

[4] Allison Paolini, “School Shootings and Student Mental Health: Role of the School Counselor in Mitigating Violence,” ACA (American Counseling Assoc.) Knowledge Center, Vistas, 2015

[5] https://www.cchrint.org/school-shooters

[6] https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/people-taking-psychiatric-drugs/; “By the numbers: Antidepressant use on the rise,” American Psychological Assoc., Nov. 2017, citing Pratt L.A., Brody D.J., & Gu Q. Antidepressant use among persons aged 12 and over: United States, 2011–14. NCHS Data Brief, No. 283. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2017, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/11/numbers

[7] Psychiatric Drugs Create Violence & Suicide, CCHR International, 2018, p. 3

[8] https://www.cchrint.org/2021/11/08/psychiatrists-and-the-hallucinogenic-drug-industry-are-seeking-to-replace-failed-antidepressants/; “A view into the central nervous system disorders market,” Nature, 1 Sept. 2020, https://www.nature.com/articles/d43747-020-01119-8

[9] https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/aug/16/whats-behind-dubious-claim-psychiatric-drugs-fuel-/

[10] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/06/01/drug-induced-acts-of-senseless-violence-need-investigation/

[11] Snejana Farberov, “Texas teen arrested for plotting mass shooting at Amazon warehouse: cops,” New York Post, 5 July 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/07/05/texas-teen-accused-of-plotting-mass-shooting-at-amazon-warehouse/

[12] Safia Samee Ali, Natasha Korecki and Corky Siemaszko, “Highland Park shooting suspect’s past littered with ‘red flags,” NBC News, 5 July 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/highland-park-shooting-suspects-littered-red-flags-rcna36766

[13] https://www.cchrint.org/2022/01/09/cchr-warns-against-psychedelic-trips-potentially-planned-for-55m-americans/;https://drugabuse.com/drugs/hallucinogens/psilocybin-mushrooms/effects-use/

[14] Op. cit., “School Safety Policies and Programs Administered by the U.S. Federal Government: 1990–2016”

[15] https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/questionnaires.htm

[16] “Psychotropic drugs and homicide: A prospective cohort study from Finland,” World Psychiatry. June 2015, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4471985/

[17] “The CIA’s Secret Quest For Mind Control: Torture, LSD And A ‘Poisoner In Chief,’” NPR, 9 Sept. 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief

[18] Project Artichoke Document, on file at CCHR

[19] Psychiatric Drugs Create Violence and Suicide, CCHR International, 2018, pp. 3-4

[20] https://www.cchrint.org/2021/04/20/cchr-renews-calls-for-investigation-into-psychiatric-drug-induced-mass-killings/; “Suspect in Indianapolis mass shooting was former FedEx employee, known to law enforcement,” Fox 59 News, 17 Apr. 2021, https://fox59.com/news/indianapolis-fedex-shooting/ap-officials-identify-suspect-in-mass-shooting-at-indianapolis-fedex-facility/

[21] Tony Cook and Johnny Magdaleno, “Timeline: FedEx shooter had over a dozen mental health care, law enforcement encounters,” Indianapolis Star; Yahoo! News, 16 Nov. 21, 2022, https://news.yahoo.com/timeline-fedex-shooter-had-over-155332886.html

[22] “Indianapolis FedEx Shooter Who Killed 4 Sikhs Was Not Racially Motivated, Police Say,” NPR, 28 Jul. 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/07/28/1021935687/indianapolis-fedex-shooting-sikhs-not-racially-motivated-police-say

[23] https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/news-releases/apa-statement-on-firearm-violence

[24] Megan Wildhood, “Expanded Mental Health Services Won’t Stop Mass Shootings,” Mad in America, 24 June 2022, https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/06/mental-health-services-mass-shootings/

[25] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/06/01/drug-induced-acts-of-senseless-violence-need-investigation/;https://web.archive.org/web/20220221184646/http://cubamoneyproject.com/2020/05/03/shooter-trump/

[26] James Crip, “Pictured: ‘Gunman’ charged with killing three in Copenhagen shopping mall attack,” Daily Telegraph (UK), 5 July 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/07/05/pictured-gunman-charged-killing-three-copenhagen-shopping-mall/

[27] John Read, Ph.D., “The experiences of 585 people when they tried to withdraw from antipsychotic drugs,” Addictive Behaviors Reports, 15 June 2022, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9006667/

[28] Ibid.

[29] https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/side-effects-can-persist/

[30] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/08/25/new-study-further-confirms-severe-withdrawal-effects-of-antidepressants/, citing: David Healy, M.D., Joanna Le Noury, Julie Wood, Children of the Cure: Missing Data, Lost Lives and Antidepressants, (Samizdat Health Writer’s Co-operative Inc., 2020), pp. 43-44

[31] https://www.cchrint.org/2021/04/06/antidepressant-withdrawal-warning-vital/; “How Hard is it to Stop Antidepressants?” American Psychological Assoc., 1 Apr. 2020; https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/stop-antidepressants

[32] https://www.cchrint.org/2021/04/06/antidepressant-withdrawal-warning-vital/, citing: Maia Szalavitz, “Top Ten Legal Drugs Linked to Violence,” TIME Magazine, 7 Jan. 2011, https://healthland.time.com/2011/01/07/top-ten-legal-drugs-linked-to-violence/

[33] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/06/01/drug-induced-acts-of-senseless-violence-need-investigation/, citing: David DiSalvo, “Common Painkillers And Sedatives Linked To Increased Risk Of Homicide, According To Study,” Forbes, 4 June 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2015/06/04/common-pain-killers-and-sedatives-linked-to-increased-risk-of-homicide-according-to-study/#1083a9581aef and Nadege Rouve, Haleh Bagheri, et al., “Prescribed drugs and violence: a case/noncase study in the French PharmacoVigilance Database,” European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 7 June, 2011, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21655992

[34] Op. cit., “School Safety Policies and Programs Administered by the U.S. Federal Government: 1990–2016”

[35] Ibid.

[36] https://www.childtrends.org/blog/state-laws-promoting-social-emotional-and-academic-development-leave-room-for-improvement

[37] https://www.vera.org/community-violence-intervention-programs-explained

[38] https://www.cchrint.org/2022/06/29/us-could-learn-from-reform-of-coercive-mental-health-practices/; “Involuntary Commitments: Billing Patients for Forced Psychiatric Care,” The American Journ. of Psychiatry, 1 Dec. 2020, https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.20030319

[39] Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, 49th session, Human Rights Council, “Summary of the outcome of the consultation on ways to harmonize laws, policies and practices relating to mental health with the norms of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and on how to implement them,” 28 Feb.–1 Apr. 2022

[40] Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mental health and human rights, 24 July 2018, A/HRC/39/36.

[41] Faith Myers vs. Alaska Psychiatric Institute, Supreme Court, 2-11021, Superior Court No. 3AN-03-00277, Opinion, No. 6021, 30 June 2006, https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ak-supreme-court/1004032.html

[42] “Guidance on Community Mental Health Services: Promoting Person-Centered and Rights-Based Approaches,” World Health Organization, 10 June 2021, p. 6, https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240025707 (to download report)

[43] Ibid., p. 201

[44] Psychiatric Drugs Create Violence & Suicide, CCHR International, 2018, p. 3

[45] “Report of the February 14, 2008 Shootings at Northern Illinois University,” NIU, https://www.niu.edu/forward/_pdfs/archives/feb14report.pdf; “Girlfriend: Shooter was taking cocktail of 3 drugs,” CNN, 20 Feb. 2008, http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/20/shooter.girlfriend/index.html; Dave Newbart, “NIU shooter had trace amounts of drugs in system,” The Chicago Sun-Times, 15 Mar. 2008, http://schoolshooters.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/41/

[46]  https://www.cchrint.org/school-shooters/; “Authorities: Teen’s Knife Attack At School Was Planned,” The Indy Channel, December 5, 2006, https://ssristories.org/teen-knife-attacks-fellow-student/

[47]  https://www.cchrint.org/school-shooters/; Meiling Arounnarath, “Forum to ponder school gun incidents, Fraser will discuss the situation nationally and locally,” NewsObserver.com, posted November 28, 2006, http://ssristories.com/show.php?item=1310; Leah Friedman, “Police keep tabs on teen suspect,” NewsObserver.com, February 24, 2007, http://sip-trunking.tmcnet.com/news/2007/02/24/2367179.htm; “Student Charged In April Hostage Incident At Chapel Hill School,” WRAL.com, June 19, 2006, http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1055759/

[48] https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/drug_warnings_on_violence/recent-murdersmurder-suicides/, citing: Emma Kennedy, “Sheriff: Dakota Theriot case is ‘extremely horrific example’ of failed mental health system,” The Advocate, 3 Feb. 2019, https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/crime_police/article_bef1127c-25c4-11e9-a111-8b4106437e1b.html; Emma Kennedy, “Dakota Theriot, accused of killing five, faces the death penalty. Coronavirus may delay his trial,” The Advocate, 8 July 2020, https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/communities/livingston_tangipahoa/article_a6b433fe-c151-11ea-a3da-5f0c20c13ed4.html

[49] https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/drug_warnings_on_violence/recent-murdersmurder-suicides/ citing: Janet Oravets, “Judge enters not guilty plea, sets trial date for Westminster road rage suspect,” 9News.com, 7 Jan. 2019, https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/judge-enters-not-guilty-plea-sets-trial-date-for-westminster-road-rage-suspect/73-fc8c9737-e6a7-4fd4-b80e-9ee7e8c458bc

[50] https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/drug_warnings_on_violence/recent-murdersmurder-suicides/, citing, Ralph Ellis, Susan Candiotti and Ashely Fantz, “Police in Pa. search for man suspected of killing ex-wife, 5 former in-laws,” CNN, 15 Dec 2014, https://www.cnn.com/2014/12/15/us/pennsylvania-shootings/; Jacqueline Klimas, “Bradley Stone cleared by Veterans Affairs doctor one week before murders, suicide,” Washington Times, 17 Dec 2014, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/17/bradley-stone-cleared-veterans-affairs-doctor-one-/; Dan Stamm and Vince Lattanzio, “Montgomery County Spree Killer Bradley Stone Dies of Drug Overdose: ME,” NBC 10 Philadelphia, 24 Dec 2014, https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/bradley-stone-death-overdose-report/159969/

[51] https://www.cchrint.org/school-shooters/ Michael Laforgia, “FSU shooter’s friends tried to get help for him months before the shooting,” Miami Herald, 22 Nov 2014, http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article4064977.html; Jordan Culver, et al., “Shooter identified as Florida State alum Myron May,” Tallahassee Democrat, 21 Nov 2014, http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/fsu-news/2014/11/20/shooter-identified-fsu-alum-myron-may/70007494/

[52] https://www.cchrint.org/school-shooters/; “Seattle Pacific University shooting: Gunman says he “wanted to kill many more,” The Independent, 9 Jun 2014, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/seattle-pacific-university-shooting-gunman-says-he-wanted-to-kill-many-more-9505394.html; “Suspect in Seattle Pacific killing had well-documented demons,” The Seattle Times, 6 Jun 2014, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/suspect-in-seattle-pacific-killing-had-well-documented-demons/; Steve Miletich, et al., “Report: SPU suspect ‘wanted to hurt himself and others’ in 2010,” The Seattle Times, 6 Jun 2014, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/report-spu-suspect-wanted-to-hurt-himself-and-others-in-2010/

[53] https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/drug_warnings_on_violence/recent-murdersmurder-suicides/, citing, Rick Jervis, “‘American Sniper’ killer found guilty in murders,” USA Today, 24 Feb. 2015, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/24/american-sniper-murder-trial-verdict/23896859; Nicholas Schmidle, “In the Crosshairs,” The New Yorker, 3 Jun. 2013, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/06/03/in-the-crosshairs; Mike Spies, “Inside the Tortured Mind of Eddie Ray Routh, the Man Who Killed American Sniper Chris Kyle,” Newsweek, 23 Nov. 2015, https://www.newsweek.com/2016/01/08/inside-tortured-mind-man-who-killed-american-sniper-chris-kyle-397299.html

Psychotropic Drugs' Role In Mass Shootings

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Emergency Room Visits for Children’s Mental Health Fails to Help

Monday, January 9th, 2023

A New York Times article (12/27/2022) proclaimed, “Families of children with mental health needs increasingly rely on the emergency department (ED) for care.”

The article goes on to say that, “Pediatric mental health ED visits are commonly repeat visits, and most revisits occur within 6 months of initial presentation.”

The article cites a research study published December 27, 2022 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, which analyzed 308,264 pediatric (ages 3 to 17) mental health ED visits at 38 hospitals between 2015 and 2020.

Such pediatric mental health ED visits made up 4.0% of all ED visits.

The NYTimes further said that, “The patients most likely to reappear in emergency rooms were not patients who harmed themselves, but rather those whose agitation and aggressive behavior proved too much for their caregivers to manage. In many cases, repeat visitors had previously received sedatives or other drugs to restrain them when their behavior became disruptive. … Patients who required medications to subdue them were 22 percent more likely to revisit than patients who did not.”

“Families come in with their children who have severe behavioral problems, and the families really just are at their wit’s end, you know,” said Dr. Anna M. Cushing, a pediatric emergency room physician at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and one of the authors of the study.

“The JAMA study found that overall visits to pediatric emergency rooms for mental health crises increased 43 percent from 2015 to 2020, rising by 8 percent per year on average, with an increase in emergency visits for every category of mental illness. By comparison, emergency room visits for all medical causes rose by 1.5 percent annually.”

The sad conclusion: “Emergency room treatment is comforting to caregivers but offers little long-term benefit.”

We see several serious issues with the situation here.

1. Mental health behavior problems for children appear to be increasing.
2. Parents and other caregivers generally do not know how to cope with this.
3. Psychiatric drugs used as chemical restraints, and other psychiatric treatments, are not helping.
4. Emergency rooms are not a solution.

Why is this happening and what can be done about it?

1. Drugging children in America has reached epidemic proportions. More than 8 million children and teenagers are prescribed harmful and addictive psychiatric drugs: antidepressants, stimulants and antipsychotics. And the targets are getting younger. Children five years old and younger are the fastest growing segment of the non-adult population using antidepressants in the United States today. Many health professionals question this rampant use of pharmaceuticals on children.

The truth is, in MANY cases children acting disruptive is not a symptom of psychological or chemical disorder but … A SYMPTOM OF CHILDHOOD!

Regardless of any social, economic, political, or other considerations, these psychiatric drugs are known to cause harmful side effects including behavior problems, violence and suicide. Small wonder that mental health behavior problems for children appear to be increasing.

2. When it comes to raising children, parents must always be the first defense and have the final word. Yet witness the social upheavals currently occurring as local, state and federal governments battle among parents, school boards, psychiatrists, pharmaceutical companies, and other “know-best” vested interests, about how children should be raised and educated. No wonder parents and caregivers are confused about who is lying and who is telling the truth!

In Missouri, legislators have to fight to pass laws giving parents the right to raise their children, a right which they should already have, but are consistently denied. This makes it exceedingly difficult to provide the sane education parents need to decide what is best for their children.

3. Not only are psychiatric drugs not helping, they are actively hurting. The trouble is that psychiatric propaganda has thoroughly duped well-meaning parents, teachers and politicians alike, that normal childhood behavior is a “mental illness”, and that only by continuous, heavy drugging from an early age can children make it through life’s worst.

Seventeen million schoolchildren worldwide have now been diagnosed with so-called mental disorders and prescribed cocaine-like stimulants and powerful antidepressants as “treatment.” Biological psychiatry has yet to validate a single psychiatric diagnosis as anything neurological, biological, chemically imbalanced or genetic. The rise in gratuitous and murderous violence amongst youth is linked to the introduction of and increases in these violence-inducing drugs.

4. If emergency rooms are obviously not a solution, then what is? Well, there isn’t a single magic wand, but there are multiple recommendations; pick those you can do, and do them.

a. Contact your local, state and federal officials, and your parents’ groups and school boards, and tell them what you think; and that coercive and unworkable psychiatric methods should not be funded by the State.
b. You have the right to refuse permission for your child to be subjected to psychiatric drugs or other psychiatric treatments or interference.
c. If your child has been subjected to psychiatric treatment without your consent, consult a lawyer to determine your right to prosecute criminally and civilly.
d. Support legislative measures that will protect children from psychiatric interference.
e. Educate yourself on sane and effective alternatives to coercive and harmful psychiatric treatments.

Stop psychiatric drugging of kids.
Stop psychiatric drugging of kids

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Are You Woke?

Monday, August 8th, 2022

“In an effort to raise awareness of social injustices, the woke Left has gotten Scrabble to ban 400 ‘offensive’ terms that refer to racial slurs, sexuality, and gender identity.”

[Washington Examiner, July 12, 2022]

Woke has evolving meanings due to rapidly changing social conditions and the speed of social media. It can also be used in a positive or negative sense.

[Past tense & past participle of wake, akin to Latin vegere to enliven.]

Examples:
A play on the word “awake”.
Spiritual and intellectual enlightenment; a higher sense of awareness.
A sudden understanding of what’s really going on.
A politically correct narrative.
Acutely aware of issues of social justice or injustice.
A state of intense self-realization induced by psychedelic drugs.
(Positive) Expressing admiration for someone who is au courant and in-the-know.
(Negative) Branding someone as pompous or stupid for being trendy, or for pretending to be of greater intelligence or awareness than they actually are.

Of course the psychiatric industry has its own take on the woke phenomenon. Those in the know call wokeism “Critical Social Justice Theory”, such as the woke doctrine of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and the scramble to find racism everywhere while insinuating that one’s mental health is at risk.

Interestingly enough, “woke mental health” has likely led to the Drug Enforcement Administration loosening its restrictions on prescriptions for Schedule II controlled drugs via telehealth appointments during a public health emergency. Such drugs previously required in-person physical evaluations. Nothing like a pandemic to increase the patient pool for psychiatric mental health care.

We call it “care” loosely. It isn’t really care; it’s coercive social control.

According to psychiatric thinking, the solution for everything from the most minor to the most severe personal problem is strictly limited to diagnosis with the fraudulent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), assigning a mental illness label, and prescribing a restrictive, generally coercive and costly range of harmful treatments, none of which have been shown to cure anything.

Ultimately, psychiatry must be eliminated from all social institutions and their coercive and unworkable methods should never be funded by the government. Contact your local, state and federal officials and let them know what you think about this.

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The Serotonin Theory Of Depression Is In The News Again

Monday, August 1st, 2022

While the fraudulent psychiatric “brain chemical imbalance” theory has been debunked for many years, it has been held firmly in place by the psycho-pharma public relations machine in order to sell more harmful and addictive psychiatric drugs. These drugs make patients for life since the drugs do not cure anything and have devastating side effects.

We discuss serotonin because many psychiatric drugs deliberately alter the levels of serotonin in the brain, in the mistaken belief that this is the cause of depression.

July 20, 2022 marks the publication of another study debunking the serotonin theory of depression, the so-called brain chemical imbalance theory.

To quote the study, “Our comprehensive review of the major strands of research on serotonin shows there is no convincing evidence that depression is associated with, or caused by, lower serotonin concentrations or activity. … This review suggests that the huge research effort based on the serotonin hypothesis has not produced convincing evidence of a biochemical basis to depression. … We suggest it is time to acknowledge that the serotonin theory of depression is not empirically substantiated.”

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter hormone synthesized in the adrenal glands and elsewhere in the body from the essential amino acid tryptophan, found in the brain, blood, and mostly the digestive tract, which allows nerve cells throughout the body to communicate and interact with each other.

Since serotonin impacts every part of the body, messing with it can cause unwanted and dangerous side effects. Obviously, the body must closely regulate and balance the level of serotonin, since both a deficiency or an excess can be extremely harmful.

Psychiatrists have known since the beginning of psychopharmacology that their drugs do not cure any disease. Further, there is no credible evidence that depression is genetic or linked to serotonin transport; these are just public relations theories to support the marketing and sale of drugs. The manufacturers of every such drug state in the fine print that they don’t really understand how it works. Psychiatric drugs are fraudulently marketed as safe and effective for the sole purpose of earning billions for the psycho-pharmaceutical industry.

Messing with neurotransmitters in the brain without totally understanding how they work is serious business, essentially one is playing Russian Roulette with one’s brain.

These drugs mask the real cause of problems in life and debilitate the individual, so denying him or her the opportunity for real recovery and hope for the future. This is the real reason why psychiatry is a violation of human rights. Psychiatric treatment is not just a failure — it is routinely destructive to the individual and one’s mental health.

Contact your local, state and federal officials and insist they stop funding this insanity.

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If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It!

Monday, June 20th, 2022

[Flaunt: To show oneself off or move in an ostentatious way.]

Social media often emphasizes a need for one to promote oneself, to have a “brand”, to make oneself and one’s abilities known and available.

Saying “flaunt it” is somewhat of a dramatic usage, perhaps even melodramatic, but it serves to emphasize that there are things one can do to make oneself and one’s abilities known and used.

A much less vivid expression, perhaps, would be “If you’ve got it, use it; if you can’t use it, get rid of it.”

Why is this important?

There are group insanities that suppress people from being effective. It can be manifested in a number of ways.

Here are some examples:
1. Exclusion of others — an obvious example is a refusal to employ someone or allow them to belong.
2. A failure to use people — Making practical and effective use of people; if they are well-trained in an area but not allowed to perform in that area. There can also be a disparity between what someone is doing and what they consider is their purpose or interest.
3. The substitution of violence for reason, all too common in this current society.

We’re sure you can think of other examples. One’s optimum survival, and the optimum survival of all the groups to which one belongs, depends on being effective, having a high worthwhile purpose, and demonstrating a mutual confidence between the individual and the group.

Yet there is one group dedicated to suppressing these things.

It should be obvious by now that psychiatry is not an encouraging industry, neither by definition nor by example. Psychiatry is an Industry of Death.

The main resource in consideration here is people, the most critical building blocks of society. Yet psychiatry has no cures, and depends on damaging their patients to continue in business.

Psychiatrists proclaim a worldwide epidemic of mental health problems and urge massive funding increases as the only solution. Yet Community Mental Health programs have been an expensive and colossal failure, creating homelessness, drug addiction, crime and unemployment all over the world.

The end result of psychiatric treatment is not a cured patient, returned to society as a well-adjusted, functioning contributor, but rather a person with the same or worse mental symptoms, told they must remain on debilitating psychiatric drugs for life, because psychiatrists know of no other cure.

Psychiatry defines “self-promotion” as an aberration of presenting oneself to others as accomplished, and that it is boastful and obnoxious. An entire category of psychological research is devoted to so-called “Imposter Syndrome”, making people wonder if they are really competent or not, and heavily suggesting that one may need psychiatric treatment for such. There is a psychiatric lobby for including this fraudulent condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

We’re totally sure that you can promote yourself effectively without bragging or being obnoxious. After all, the whole subjects of Marketing and Public Relations are involved with making things known and well-liked. Just don’t depend on psychiatry to help you with that!

The many critical challenges facing societies today reflect the vital need to strengthen individuals through workable, viable and humanitarian alternatives to harmful psychiatric options.

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As Nation Reels From Mass Violence, CCHR Calls For Mandatory Toxicology Tests

Monday, June 6th, 2022

Mental health watchdog joins others in wanting answers to what drives individuals to commit horrific, senseless acts of violence; toxicology tests should be part of every investigation into such acts.

By CCHR International 

[References are provided in the CCHR INT publication.]

The Mental Health Industry Watchdog

May 30, 2022

As the country reels in the wake of another tragic shooting, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International joins in sending condolences to the families of lost children and teachers. And, like many others, it questions what could have triggered the mindset of the alleged killer, an issue that needs responding to if we are to truly face preventing more tragedies like this and provide grieving families and the nation with answers.

Media quote experts saying that such individuals are “mentally disturbed,” or have “untreated mental illness,” but that doesn’t explain the level of violence we are seeing or what drives a person to pull a trigger. At the very minimum, CCHR says, mandatory toxicology tests should be required in each deadly incident to determine any prescription or illicit drug use, especially as today, most psychotropic drugs can be purchased from rogue online pharmacies, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Students abuse prescription drugs, with some 2.8 million teen students engaging in illicit drug use. Estimates are that up to 20% of college students abuse prescription stimulants alone.

A review of scientific literature published in Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry regarding the “astonishing rate” of mental illness over the past 50 years revealed that it’s not “mental illness” linked to increased acts of violence, but, rather, the psychiatric drugs prescribed to treat it.

“There is no evidence the shooter is mentally ill, just angry and hateful,” said Lori Post, director of the Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics at the Northwestern University School of Medicine. “While it is understandable that most people cannot fathom slaughtering small children and want to attribute it to mental health, it is very rare for a mass shooter to have a diagnosed mental health condition.”

One thing is for sure, the country’s mental health system has been an abject failure and investing more in it is not prevention but part of the problem. Listing 20 high profile mass killings since the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in 1999, or 19 since 2007, including two mass shootings in May this year, in 85% of the cases (17 of 20) or 89% since 2007, there was a potential history of mental health services or current taking of, or withdrawal from, prescription psychotropic drugs involved. In only several of the cases was a toxicology report mentioned.

The FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System reports that at least 31 out of 484 medications are disproportionately associated with violence, which includes 25 psychotropic drugs. This includes eleven antidepressants, six sedative/hypnotics and three drugs for treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The specific cases of violence included: homicide, physical assaults, physical abuse, homicidal ideation, and cases described as violence-related symptoms.

Experts have consistently raised concerns about this:

“The irritability and impulsivity” from antidepressants, for example, “can make people suicidal or homicidal.” – Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Joseph Glenmullen

“The link between antidepressants and violence, including suicide and homicide, is well established.” – Patrick D. Hahn, affiliate professor of biology at Loyola University Maryland

“Violence and other potentially criminal behavior caused by prescription drugs are medicine’s best kept secret.” – Professor David Healy, leading psychopharmacology expert and professor of psychiatry in Wales 

In a study published in the British Medical Journal, in January 2016, Prof. Peter C. Gøtzsche and other researchers reported: “Perpetrators of school shootings and similar events have often been reported to be users of antidepressants….” Antidepressants, including the use of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs), put at risk the lives of individuals prescribed them. Reviewing numerous studies of five different antidepressants, they found there was a doubling of the risk for both aggressive behavior and suicidality for children and adolescents.

The use of psychotropic drugs in schools is so rife in the U.S. that in 2004, a Prohibition of Mandatory Medication Amendment was necessary when it was discovered that, astoundingly, parents were being threatened with criminal child abuse charges if they refused to put their school-aged child on a psychotropic drug as a requisite for their education, or took them off it.

It is the sudden change in behavior that prompts questions in potential drug-taking. Salvador Romas, responsible for the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas raises questions on why Ramos, experienced sudden behavior changes. Authorities have said Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history. But no toxicology test has been done to determine if he’d acquired or had taken any psychotropic substance—licit or illicit.

Ramos had been a student at Uvalde High School but he dropped out of school and was not on track to graduate this year.  It is unclear what social services he may have undergone given the number of police visits to his home.  He apparently had a history of being “the nicest kid, the shyest kid,” according to a friend, but was bullied for stuttering. “He would get bullied hard, like bullied by a lot of people,” a school friend, Mr. Stephen Garcia said. “Over social media, over gaming, over everything.”

His behavior had apparently recently begun to deteriorate, with him admitting to cutting his face with a knife over and over for fun. About a year ago, Ramos posted on social media photos of automatic rifles he would have on his wish list. The teen had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, one state senator told reporters. “He suggested the kids should watch out,” a lawmaker said.

In the wake of the Sante Fe High School shooting in 2018 that left eight students and two teachers dead, the Texas Senate approved a school safety bill to prevent another such tragedy from happening. It established threat assessment teams to help implement safe ways to identify dangerous students. Every Texas district is required to have a behavioral threat assessment team tasked with preventing horrific acts like the Uvalde shooting at local schools. Of the 1,022 total districts – 80% (818) reported their board of trustees established a team. Of the 818 districts that reported establishing a behavioral threat assessment team, over 90% reported members appointed to their behavioral threat assessment team and were expert in behavior management (793), special education (n = 790), counseling (n = 783), and mental health/substance use (n = 746).

Unfortunately, like mental health services, behavioral threat assessment is not based on science, but mostly conjecture and such an inexact “science” means prediction can be futile. In the sample of 20 cases cited here, it was unclear how many may have been involved in social media well in advance of the act of mass violence. One “Big Brother” program in the U.S. scans billions of social media posts for indications of harm and violence, and relays messages in near-real time to safety and security professionals. It uses a software program that can examine language written on posts. It reaps the company up to $5 million a year in revenue.

Even an article on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Psychiatry Online pointed out that “Computer-generated recommendations may carry a false authority that would override expert human judgment” and “raises false hopes that machines will explain the mysteries of mental health and mental illness.” However, the real point is that psychiatry and psychology’s ability to diagnose any mental disorder is not based on science but on arbitrary whims that AI can only exacerbate this.

The use of AI and acceptance of AI and Applications (Apps) in mental health could contribute to the problem. AI is now marketed as a means to “prevent” or quickly identify the “growing” numbers of people, including children and youths, said to be mentally ill. Add to this, surging digitalization and growing smartphone & internet use increase the use of mental health apps. Peter Foltz, a research professor at the Institute of Cognitive Science stated: “Language is a critical pathway to detecting patient mental states,” says Foltz. “Using mobile devices and AI, we are able to track patients daily and monitor these subtle changes.”

AI identifies and diagnoses from speech patterns of young children and says it can monitor everything from their googling, texting, Facebook use and Twitter. One system asserts it can detect cyber-bullying, self-harm and grief sentiments in students’ emails and in Google/OneDrive. There is no standardized process for evaluating the validity of such research.

“It’s a recipe for disaster,” said Ann Cavoukian, the distinguished expert-in-residence leading the Privacy by Design Centre of Excellence at Ryerson University in Toronto. “I say that as a psychologist. The feeling of constantly being watched or monitored is the last thing you want.”

No amount of money expended on mental health services could have prevented what occurred in Texas. In 2021, Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) received more than $210 million in federal emergency grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for mental health and substance use disorder services. For the 2022 fiscal year, Texas Community Mental Health Grant programs saw increased funding of $2,910,409. For the same budget period, federal funding increased by $41,103,876. The 2022-23 budget has a projected $8.1 billion for mental health services.

Mental health screening and surveys in schools have notoriously been criticized for lack of science and validity. The late Karen Effrem, M.D., a renowned pediatrician and researcher, found that increased screening results in “the increased psychiatric drugging of children and adolescents,” with significant evidence of “harmful, if not fatal side effects, including suicide, violence, psychosis, hallucinations, diabetes, and movement disorders.”

Drug proponents argue that there are many shootings and acts of violence that have not been correlated to psychiatric drugs, but that is exactly the point. It has neither been confirmed nor refuted, as law enforcement is not required to investigate or report on prescribed drugs linked to violence, and media rarely pose the question. This is one reason why compulsory toxicology testing should occur and record of any drugs found added to all databases on acts of mass violence.

Read CCHR’s comprehensive report, Psychiatric Drugs Create Violence and Suicide.

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Bigotry – A Sign of the Times?

Monday, May 23rd, 2022

“You can tell a bigot, but you can’t tell him much.”

Bigot: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; one who regards or treats the members of a group (such as a religious, racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.

[From French bigot, a religiously intolerant person, hypocrite]

Psychiatrists love to debate whether bigotry is a mental illness.

They might qualify the condition as “pathological bigotry” to emphasize that they really mean a medical disease condition, rather than just plain ignorance. Although they’ve got ignorance covered as well, with a diagnosis of “neurocognitive disorder.”

Of course, they need to make it seem to be a medical condition in order to diagnose it as a psychiatric disorder and prescribe harmful and addictive psychiatric drugs for it.

The latest psychiatric “research” demands more funds to investigate how prejudice supposedly is biologically based in the brain.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) enshrines discrimination as a mental disorder: “Target of (perceived) adverse discrimination or persecution”. But notice that it’s the victim, not the perpetrator, who is labeled with a diagnosis.

To what might we owe the surging prevalence of bigotry and prejudice in modern society? How does an apparently rational person sink to the level of devious writhings of secret hate?

In truth, the hard core bigot is completely terrified of anyone becoming more powerful than them. To such a person, everyone else is an enemy.

When confronted by a bigot, what can you do about this? It is counterproductive to make someone wrong for their attitude. Here is what I do: With a big smile, I tell them exactly what they are doing. For example I might say, “That’s a particularly bigoted attitude.” They’ll usually deny it, because such a person cannot detect this in themselves. End of interaction. You are now forewarned; go cultivate better relationships.

As a way of fighting back, report instances of intolerance, discrimination, bigotry and prejudice by clicking here.

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The Truth About Drugs

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022

Drugs are essentially poisons. The amount taken determines the effect.

A small amount acts as a stimulant (speeds you up). A greater amount acts as a sedative (slows you down). An even larger amount poisons and can kill.

This is true of any drug. Only the amount needed to achieve the effect differs.

But many drugs have another liability: they directly affect the mind. They can distort the user’s perception of what is happening around him or her. As a result, the person’s actions may be odd, irrational, inappropriate and even destructive.

Drugs block off all sensations, the desirable ones with the unwanted. So, while providing short-term help in the relief of pain, they also wipe out ability and alertness and muddy one’s thinking.

[Drug — Derivation from Middle English drogge, from Old French drogue, perhaps (no one is sure) from Middle Dutch droge, dry.]

Why Do People Take Drugs?

People take drugs because they want to change something about their lives. They think drugs are a solution. But eventually, the drugs become the problem.

Psychiatric Drugs

If you are taking any psychiatric drugs, do not suddenly stop taking them based on what you read here. You could suffer serious withdrawal symptoms.

We use the term “drug” instead of “medicine” because medicines are drugs intended to make the body work better. Psychiatric drugs are intended to blunt sensations, not to cure any trauma.

Drugs can lift a person into a fake kind of cheerfulness, but when the drug wears off, he or she crashes even lower than before. Eventually these drugs will destroy one’s creativity.

Psychiatry’s bogus theory that a brain–based, chemical imbalance causes mental illness was invented to sell drugs. Misled by all the drug marketing efforts, 100 million people worldwide—20 million of them children—are taking psychotropic drugs, convinced they are correcting some physical or chemical imbalance in their body. In reality, they are taking powerful substances so dangerous they can cause hallucinations, psychosis, heart irregularities, diabetes, hostility, aggression, sexual dysfunction and suicide.

While not everyone on psychotropic drugs commits suicide or uncontrolled acts of violence, the effects of the many other side effects can be horrendous.

But what about those who say psychotropic drugs really did make them feel better—that for them, these are “lifesaving medications” whose benefits exceed their risks? Are psychotropics actually safe and effective for them? What else aren’t they told?

Psychotropic drugs may temporarily relieve the pressure that an underlying problem could be causing but they do not treat, correct or cure any physical disease or condition. This relief may have the person thinking he is better but the relief is not evidence that a psychiatric disorder exists.

The drugs break into, in most cases, the routine rhythmic flows and activities of the nervous system. Human physiology was not designed for the continuous manufacture of euphoric, tranquilizing, or antidepressant sensations. Yet it is forced into this enterprise by psychiatric drugs.

Once the drug has worn off, the original problem remains, and the body is worse off from the nerve damage. As a solution or cure to life’s problems, psychotropic drugs do not work. Sometimes real physical conditions can produce mental symptoms. The correct action on a seriously mentally disturbed person is a full, searching clinical examination by a competent medical (not psychiatric) doctor to discover and treat the true cause of the problem.

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