SSRI Drugs Impair Judgment, Wisdom, Understanding, Love And Empathy

Barliman

Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2013
Messages
71
Age
62
Location
Melbourne Australia
I bet this revelation on national news is not what any person expects to hear are the effects of drugs prescribed for every age group starting at age two (2). SSRI, together with PPI are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the USA and probably most other Western countries as well. In addition, drugs like Prozac and Celexa apparently make one "unable to form intent", which is one of the hallmarks of learned helplessness. If these effects are common knowledge, I wonder what is the mysterious tremendous benefit these drugs are supposed to be providing to justify these horrible side effects. If you remove judgment, wisdom,understanding, love, empathy, and intent then what's left - a human or a zombie?!
Wow, just wow!

Texting suicide trial: Girlfriend 'intoxicated' by antidepressants, doctor says - CNN.com

"...A woman on trial for urging her boyfriend to kill himself was delusional after becoming "involuntarily intoxicated" by antidepressants, a psychiatrist said Monday."

"...Michelle Carter "was unable to form intent" after switching to a new prescription drug only weeks before her boyfriend committed suicide in July 2014, Dr. Peter Breggin testified. She even texted his phone for weeks after he died, Breggin said."

"...Breggin, testifying for the defense, said that Carter had no nefarious intent but genuinely thought she was helping Roy. She had been on Prozac for years before switching to another antidepressant, Celexa, in April 2014 -- three months before Roy's death, Breggin said. Such drugs can impair judgment, wisdom, understanding, love and empathy, he said -- especially in the adolescent brain, which is still developing and is "more susceptible to harm and all intrusions." At the time of Roy's death Carter was 17. Breggin told Bristol County Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz, who will decide the case, that he reached his conclusions after reviewing Carter's educational records, text messages and police files and interviewed a half-dozen people who knew her. Carter is being tried as a youth because she was a minor when her alleged crime took place. She waived her right to a jury trial, so the judge will render a verdict after testimony concludes. Before age 12, Carter had seemed to be loving, caring and helpful. But as a teen she became "a very troubled youngster," Breggin said. Carter began taking Prozac in 2011, when she was 14, after developing anorexia, Breggin said. She later transitioned to Celexa, which he said can increase suicide risk in people under age 24 along with agitation, panic attacks, grandiosity and not understanding the trouble one is getting into."

Peter Breggin follows a quite extreme anti medication line, and over generalises from the cases he sees.

You need to remember that because he focusses on failure of medication, that is what he sees. He would only see a few people who have positive effects. It is the same with all specialists. There certainly are patients who have very good experiences on these antidepressants, and in close relationship to taking them. The side effects listed do occur, and commonly. What is needed is a sensible doctor who can look at the whole picture and not rush to medicate.
 
OP
haidut

haidut

Member
Forum Supporter
Joined
Mar 18, 2013
Messages
19,798
Location
USA / Europe
Peter Breggin follows a quite extreme anti medication line, and over generalises from the cases he sees.

You need to remember that because he focusses on failure of medication, that is what he sees. He would only see a few people who have positive effects. It is the same with all specialists. There certainly are patients who have very good experiences on these antidepressants, and in close relationship to taking them. The side effects listed do occur, and commonly. What is needed is a sensible doctor who can look at the whole picture and not rush to medicate.

The argument of the lawyer was that these are generic effects of these drugs - i.e. apply to most people and thus to his client. Not that this was a peculiar reaction that only she had (which would be much more difficult to prove and use as defense).
 
M

member 6316

Guest
thats because of the increas in serotonin, serotonin is useless only good when it converts to melatonin
 

LUH 3417

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2016
Messages
2,990
Yes it is such a problem... I feel it just in my daily life. People on it are monsters. With what we know about health, if we had a loved one on this, what could we do about it? Is this endotoxin? Excessive iron?
my mom was on klonopin and paroxetine most of my life. i truly believe they made her incapable of loving anyone. i think anyone defending benzos and SSRIs has simply never been close enough to someone on them. my mom has also recommended these drugs to her sisters, all four of which are quite difficult to be around.
my mom was really a nightmare, i spent most of my adolescence running away from her and trying to understand why i had such a crazy mom (who in turn tried to convince people i was crazy). she had 0 empathy but would become fixated on cases of childhood torture and murder, like jean benet ramsey and other sad pathetic news stories. maybe this was an outlet for feeling, because of her incapacity to feel anything. i dont know, but i do know SSRIs and benzos are simply evil and dehumanizing, and based on my experiences i am not exaggerating.
 

REOSIRENS

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2017
Messages
339
Location
Europe
. i dont know, but i do know SSRIs and benzos are simply evil and dehumanizing, and based on my experiences i am not exaggerating.
You are right...my sister became very erratic after taking this... She seems empty most of time... These drugs are very dangerous... They calcify brain and it is proved but still they are out there legally through incompetent doctors ...


PS ssri are very addictive drugs once you start you will be hooked ...

Other thing I noticed on her ... She lost mental airbags against bad news or bad situations... Every time a small bad situations arise it's the end of world for her...and before she was very brave and mentally resilient girl ...

She craves for sweets ... Sun... And sleeps a lot ... Showing hypoglycemia high prolactin depression and low energy
 

Hugh Johnson

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
2,648
Location
The Sultanate of Portugal
You are right...my sister became very erratic after taking this... She seems empty most of time... These drugs are very dangerous... They calcify brain and it is proved but still they are out there legally through incompetent doctors ...
Perhaps they are not incompetent. One of the functions of psychiatry is social control, and SSRIs make people weak. Only weak people can be controlled. Sure, there is the occasional mass shooting but that just futher scares the proles into submission. Using chemicals to control people was the plan a long time ago:
Screenshot 2017-06-01 at 18.23.53.png
 

Constatine

Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2016
Messages
1,781
Perhaps they are not incompetent. One of the functions of psychiatry is social control, and SSRIs make people weak. Only weak people can be controlled. Sure, there is the occasional mass shooting but that just futher scares the proles into submission. Using chemicals to control people was the plan a long time ago:View attachment 5820
It is not the doctors that have this intent. It is the result of Big Pharma's influence and the ideology of performance over functionality. As long as a symptom is quenched you are considered cured. Lacking a wholistic perspective has plagued western medicine since it's creation.
 
M

member 2106

Guest
Yes but the focus should be curing the mental illness. Not trading one for another.

Psychiatric drugs are not a cure, and shouldn't be considered as such. When they work, they're simply a relief.
 

LUH 3417

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2016
Messages
2,990
Psychiatric drugs are not a cure, and shouldn't be considered as such. When they work, they're simply a relief.
Numbing feelings can be a short term relief but can also have detrimental net effects on families and societies.
 
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
1,045
my mom was on klonopin and paroxetine most of my life. i truly believe they made her incapable of loving anyone. i think anyone defending benzos and SSRIs has simply never been close enough to someone on them. my mom has also recommended these drugs to her sisters, all four of which are quite difficult to be around.
my mom was really a nightmare, i spent most of my adolescence running away from her and trying to understand why i had such a crazy mom (who in turn tried to convince people i was crazy). she had 0 empathy but would become fixated on cases of childhood torture and murder, like jean benet ramsey and other sad pathetic news stories. maybe this was an outlet for feeling, because of her incapacity to feel anything. i dont know, but i do know SSRIs and benzos are simply evil and dehumanizing, and based on my experiences i am not exaggerating.

sounds like cluster B personality disorder. narcissism or borderline. They will get on psych meds in middle age when they are no longer attractive and can no longer get the narcissistic supply (validation, attention) that sustained them during their youth.


It is not the doctors that have this intent. It is the result of Big Pharma's influence and the ideology of performance over functionality. As long as a symptom is quenched you are considered cured. Lacking a wholistic perspective has plagued western medicine since it's creation.

You know the pharmaceutical corporations are owned by the rockerfellers and other money men...there's a reason all major corporations have the same inhuman, money hungry, sociopathic behavior. And it's not because of some laws that incentivize profit over people (who do you think got those laws passed in the first place?).
It's because they're all owned by the same bad people. The free market is a scam.
 

Constatine

Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2016
Messages
1,781
sounds like cluster B personality disorder. narcissism or borderline. They will get on psych meds in middle age when they are no longer attractive and can no longer get the narcissistic supply (validation, attention) that sustained them during their youth.





You know the pharmaceutical corporations are owned by the rockerfellers and other money men...there's a reason all major corporations have the same inhuman, money hungry, sociopathic behavior. And it's not because of some laws that incentivize profit over people (who do you think got those laws passed in the first place?).
It's because they're all owned by the same bad people. The free market is a scam.
Yeah I agree with this. I don't think such men have quite as much influence as many believe but it is certainly a large factor. Nevertheless the doctors themselves have no say regarding the plans of the powerful.
 
M

member 2106

Guest
Numbing feelings can be a short term relief but can also have detrimental net effects on families and societies.

Yes, they're not perfect. I just think a more nuanced, less hysterical, conception of them on this forum wouldn't go amiss. Talk of them as an evil conspiracy is pretty unhelpful. Even Ray admits they can have good effects, and lots of people think they ultimately reduce serotonin activity; at the very least, his views seem to have softened somewhat since this article.
 

Constatine

Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2016
Messages
1,781
Yes, they're not perfect. I just think a more nuanced, less hysterical, conception of them on this forum wouldn't go amiss. Talk of them as an evil conspiracy is pretty unhelpful. Even Ray admits they can have good effects, and lots of people think they ultimately reduce serotonin activity; at the very least, his views seem to have softened somewhat since this article.
I think a lot of our hysteria comes from the fact SSRI's are so promoted. Such a "sketchy" drug should not be prescribed so nonchalantly for such a wide variety of conditions. Thus we have somewhat of a counterculture here.
 

LUH 3417

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2016
Messages
2,990
Yes, they're not perfect. I just think a more nuanced, less hysterical, conception of them on this forum wouldn't go amiss. Talk of them as an evil conspiracy is pretty unhelpful. Even Ray admits they can have good effects, and lots of people think they ultimately reduce serotonin activity; at the very least, his views seem to have softened somewhat since this article.
I imagine that ultimately reducing serotonin would be beneficial, but then why not just start off by reducing serotonin in the first place? I understand your request for nuance but we are dealing with a hysterical culture. Most people get prescribed ssris and other drugs after 15 minutes of speaking with a doctor. Therapy may be recommended, although therapy often works to help you "function" in an often times dysfunctional environment. I just don't see any instance where making yourself numb to the world will help anyone in the long term. But then again few things in our culture integrate the long term.
For instance I would rather deal with my emotions and face the reality of them, even if it is incredibly painful. I think the conspiracy is not really a conspiracy. Dealing with emotions means you can't "function" and so you miss work, drop out of college, take some time off... there is a cascade effect and industry is hurt. It just all seems too obviously interconnected to be part of some tin foil hat wearing lie. What better way to keep people going and the agenda proliferating than by prescribing a drug that acts like an emotional screen?
 
M

member 2106

Guest
I imagine that ultimately reducing serotonin would be beneficial, but then why not just start off by reducing serotonin in the first place? I understand your request for nuance but we are dealing with a hysterical culture. Most people get prescribed ssris and other drugs after 15 minutes of speaking with a doctor. Therapy may be recommended, although therapy often works to help you "function" in an often times dysfunctional environment. I just don't see any instance where making yourself numb to the world will help anyone in the long term. But then again few things in our culture integrate the long term.
For instance I would rather deal with my emotions and face the reality of them, even if it is incredibly painful. I think the conspiracy is not really a conspiracy. Dealing with emotions means you can't "function" and so you miss work, drop out of college, take some time off... there is a cascade effect and industry is hurt. It just all seems too obviously interconnected to be part of some tin foil hat wearing lie. What better way to keep people going and the agenda proliferating than by prescribing a drug that acts like an emotional screen?

The serotonin point was simply to stress that their mechanism isn't fully understood. Reducing serotonin is one thing, but there's clearly more to antidepressants than just that. Also, I don't think everyone would describe them as simply providing an emotional screen. The effect can be a lot more positive than that.

These points aside, I agree with most of what you say, and their is an undeniable recklessness in the way their prescribed that's truly alarming. People are making a massive profit out of them, there's no question of that.

But there are some people who simply don't have the strength to "face up to their emotions" - I guess that's what you call learned helplessness - and who may be saved by psychiatric drugs. That's worth remembering.
 

LUH 3417

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2016
Messages
2,990
I can understand how certain psychiatric drugs can be useful in acute care settings, although I think the key word being useful, to whom and in what context. No one is going to take a psychotic person and sit in a circle with them to make them feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, to ground them in reality or to respect their experience as something authentic. No, they will be given haldol or a similar kind of antipsychotic drug and they will slowly stabilize which means return to a less aggressive state and eventually be released from whatever institution they've been in only to have to deal with the trauma and stigma associated with being mentally ill and institutionalized. Most likely they will never come to terms with the mental material that was surfacing during their psychotic state or what exactly that material was trying to point them to.

Sorry if I'm coming off on a tangent but I am a student and recently I was assigned a schizophrenic patient. Her outbursts were exacerbated anytime I left the room or didn't give her attention. If I treated her like a normal person, she would stabilize. This reminds me of a post elsewhere on this forum about an effort to treat schizophrenics by having them join households and partake in meaningful work, mostly on a farm and with animals, as a means of recovery.



I think the criticism of SSRIs on this forum comes from a desire to revise the current emphasis on pharmacology which just seem to fall short to really getting at the root of the issue.

You're right, saving a persons life is important, but on a personal level I often wonder how different my life could have been if my mother had to deal with her emotions as a young woman instead of taking benzos and SSRIs. In a sense my formative years were overshadowed by the need to escape a severely narcissistic person who was considered functional because she took her meds and put on her good face for the world.

One thing that has always interested me is the lack of mental illness in many cultures besides western/US, specifically within indigenous cultures. Anthropology as a discipline was in a large part funded by an interest in schizophrenia and it's overlap with trance states as performed ritualistically by indigenous peoples. I think when mental illness becomes the epidemic that it is today, it forces us to question the values of our culture and reflect on the lifestyles we choose to live. In a sense all the diseases we experience are symptoms of the illness within the culture.
 

Hugh Johnson

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
2,648
Location
The Sultanate of Portugal
It is not the doctors that have this intent. It is the result of Big Pharma's influence and the ideology of performance over functionality. As long as a symptom is quenched you are considered cured. Lacking a wholistic perspective has plagued western medicine since it's creation.
True enough. Although someone must know.

Also, could you clarify what you mean by "performance over functionality". It is not obvious to me.
 
Back
Top Bottom