I would be convinced it was the Phenergan too if I were in your position. Phenergan was actually used as an anti-psychotic back in the day. Makes sense that a drug like that could mess up the neurological development of a baby in the womb.
Pharmaceuticals used in pregnancy should be the elephant in the room when it comes to autism research. There’s a severe lack of studies that show whether or not mothers of autistic children took any pharmaceuticals of any kind during pregnancy. And many of the studies that are done end up not even getting published, like the study I linked above which was only revealed at a neuroscience conference last month. And here’s yet another unpublished SSRI autism link study shown at the conference:
The question is why aren’t these studies being published in medical journals. Its simply because the journals are bought by the drug corporations. Its sickening how real science that could hurt someone’s profits is not allowed anymore. Medical journals have become advertisements for rigged studies conducted by the companies themselves.
Hopefully more people begin to see how corrupt our medical system is.
You are absolutely right. There have already been so many studies that confirm drugs like antidepressants in pregnancy significantly raise the risk for autism. Some studies on rodents even flat out said that all the rodents in their study exposed to SSRIs during pregnancy gave birth to offspring with autistic behaviors. Even lose oxytocin receptors.
Study: Rodents exposed to SSRI antidepressant in womb show autism-like behaviors and lose brain receptors for oxytocin and vasopressin
And yet even when all the evidence is presented time and time again nothing is done. If we’re lucky we get an internet article about one of these rarely released eye opening studies and then its forgotten again or its quickly dismissed with a well-timed follow up study that suspiciously finds the opposite result. There is so much propaganda toward pregnant women to not worry about taking pharmaceuticals despite the well known evidence that shows they harm the baby.
Its so sad that the public is so clueless as to whats causing autism rates to go up when its right in front of us. But no, big pharma would rather push the idea that autism is a condition just caused by genetics. Then they advertise their same drugs that caused it as treatment for it. Its honestly genius from a business standpoint and disturbingly ironic from a treatment standpoint.
We are supposed to trust medical science, but our trust has been taken advantage of and is being used to sell us damaging drugs by the greedy corporations that now control the entire medical system and its research. It is scary how much corruption there is. Science is being bought.
I absolutely agree. These studies that say antidepressants are equal to placebo are dangerously misleading. This makes people not see the harm in simply trying one of these brain damaging drugs. I’m not sure I understand how this study came to this conclusion.
A study has already confirmed that just a SINGLE DOSE of an SSRI dramatically changes a healthy person’s brain structure. Connectivity was reduced in almost every area of the brain from the dose of SSRI.
The most interesting thing about the single dose study is that it was done on non-depressed people who had never taken an antidepressant before. Therefore it showed how dramatic the changes begin from healthy to possibly permanently abnormal (damaged).
Brain studies on depression and other mental illnesses are some of the most misleading studies out there. Most of the studies are done on people who are on or had been on brain altering psych drugs for years or decades even. Then when researchers find brain abnormalities they blame it on the diseases instead of the real cause which is the drugs.
I believe some asexual individuals could mistakenly identify themselves as LGBT. Sounds odd, but let me explain.
It could be possible for an asexual person to interpret their lack of desire for the opposite sex as signs they are gay/bi sexual. Like, lets say a child is exposed to an SSRI antidepressant in their youth or in the womb and then he/she hits puberty with no sexual interest. They have no reference point on what sexual pleasure and interest feels like. They may feel as if since they are not attracted to the opposite sex like most others they might think they are gay/bi.
You’re right it could be easier to explain the rise of LGBT people due to there being less oppression, but it could also be because of environmental factors in a child’s development. I believe this because my own sexual interest/pleasure (sexuality) was stolen from me at age 22 by briefly exposing myself to an SSRI antidepressant. I can’t imagine coming of age the way I am now without a libido. I would assume I would be very confused in my own sexual preference.
I hope this doesn’t sound offensive, but I do believe psych meds such as SSRIs, SNRIs, etc. exposure could be contributing to (not all) the increase we are seeing in the LGBT population. Especially the asexual population. SSRI antidepressants have been shown to have a lasting impact on one’s sexual interest and pleasure. They are so mind altering they can alter one’s own personality and sexual identity long term.
Article on antidepressant exposure causing asexuality:
Rodent studies showing when pregnant rats were exposed to an SSRI antidepressants they showed no more sexual interest and neither did their offspring into their adulthood.
I permanently lost my sex drive, genital pleasure, and orgasm pleasure from taking just a few pills of the SSRI antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram) years ago. I used to be a healthy young man with a very healthy libido, but ever since that SSRI exposure my sex drive has been gone. As well as my emotional range.
I believe most everyone on or exposed to SSRI get a bit of PSSD (post SSRI sexual dysfunction). These drugs are so mind/brain altering that its hard to even notice or care that your sex drive isn’t the same as it was before the pills. They change your personality. Antidepressants make you not care about anything anymore not even sex or love anymore. And there has been talk that SSRI exposure is possibly contributing to the rise in asexuality.
SSRI “anti”-depressants are like chemical lobotomies and chemical castrations given to the masses.
Articles like that Guardian one are going to fool more innocent and vulnerable people into to trying these brain damaging drugs thinking they are taking something good for their brain. It’s such an evil practice.
Ah yes, at a glance it looks like yet another proof story that people with schizophrenia have brain abnormalities. Yes we all know most schizophrenia patients do have brain abnormalities, but rarely do we see studies actually blame the true cause of these abnormalities. The Science Daily article makes no mention of the study controlling for anti-psychotic drugs, but the study itself very briefly mentions them and pretty much says the anti-psychotic drugs could be the cause for the brain abnormalities.
I’m sorry Ang for the hell that horrible man put you through. I’m glad you are recovering.
How psychiatrists get away with blaming the patient for drug reactions is beyond me. Its like whenever a drug makes a patient crazy these nutty doctors blame it as an “underlying condition brought out from the medication”. How can a sane or ethical person say that? That’s like pouring acid on the eyes and going blind and the doctor saying the blindness was already underlying and just uncovered by the acid. It’s crazy!
Psychiatrists just hope to catch the next vulnerable person so they can convince them to try their “non-addicting” “anti”depressant drugs. Using phrases like “take weeks to work”, “correct chemical imbalances”, and “non-addicting”. They make these poisonous drugs sound like harmless vitamin supplements!
Psychiatrists get paid to prescribe. Some make more money the more they prescribe and others are flat out paid (bribed) by pharmaceutical reps to push drugs onto patients.
All these seemingly good “Mental Health Awareness” ads that I see here in the states is actually cleverly disguised ads funded by pharmaceutical companies. These companies know how easy it is to convince a healthy person they have a mental problem or aren’t as happy as they should be.
I’m actually curious about psychedelic treatment. I’ve never tried them myself, but psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and Ayahuasca (DMT) have been used by humans for possibly thousands of years. I’m weary about man-made ones though such as MDMA, especially because it has been shown to be neurotoxic if taken too much.
Among users and studies have confirmed that psilocybin have a lasting effect that INCREASES emotions like empathy and love. Whereas antidepressants such as SSRIs numb all those emotions sometimes permanently if used long enough. Psilocybin hyper-connects the brain’s structure rather than disconnect it like antidepressants do.
The thing about psychedelics is they can’t be patented so to a pharmaceutical company they are worthless. Also there would be no money in a possible curing drug that only has to be taken once or a few times rather than drugs that need to be taken daily. Daily treatment is more profitable than a one time cure. Simple economics.
Maybe I should be more optimistic, but I don’t ever see psychedelics becoming mainstream medical treatment or legalized anytime soon. Big pharma doesn’t want people finding a potential one time cure to their mental health problems.
I just don’t know how this is possible. I mean, the researchers must know its the drugs causing these brain abnormalities right? How could they not? How can they not blame the drugs? It’s already been proven in studies that all it takes is ONE SINGLE DOSE of an SSRI antidepressant to immediately change the brain’s structure by reducing connectivity to nearly all parts of the brain.
It’s sickening that the research industry is still trying to use studies like this as their proof that bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, etc. are physicall brain diseases caused by the brain itself. They are lying to the public saying these brain abnormalities just “form on their on due to the disease”. ITS THE BRAIN DRUGS CAUSING ALL THESE BRAIN STRUCTURE PROBLEMS.
Are these Yale researchers not allowed to blame the drugs because it would discredit the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry? Because it would show that its a huge multi-billion dollar brain damage scam? I’m starting to think so. The proof is out there that these drugs are NOT treatment, but rather the diseases themselves. They are selling people brain damaging drugs and the money is too good to put a stop to it.
He did say the SSRI also made in manic.
Some psychiatric drugs actually have homicidal ideation listed as a “rare adverse effect” on their ridiculously long warning sheets.
Here’s a link to an article that includes experiences from SSRI users that had this effect after just one and two doses. Scroll down a bit to see it.
Also, a 2009 Oxford study on SSRIs found that SSRI antidepressants caused almost all participants to feel less empathy, sympathy, and positive emotions. Some reported feeling suicidal due to the SSRI emotional numbness and one began to self-harm in an effort to feel emotion.
Drugs that take away the ability to feel empathy and love for fellow people is dangerous and it shouldn’t be surprising to see people end up doing horrifically senseless things like this. I still blame the SSRI and whatever other psychiatric drugs he was on or used to be on.
He also wrote in his journal how the SSRI antidepressant Zoloft (Sertraline) made him feel.
“No effect when needed,” he noted. “First appearance of mania occurs, not good mania. Anxiety and fear disappears.”
So, the SSRI took away all of his anxiety and fears. It took away his fear of consequence and fear of death. Along with all other emotions too I’d assume.
The FDA wants women to think that its safe to take antidepressants during pregnancy!? What a ridiculous thing to say when Pfizer is currently all over the media battling lawsuits because they hid evidence that they knew the antidepressant Zoloft caused birth defects.
Wonder how much the FDA got paid to update these new guidelines.
The FDA is not worried about the public’s safety. They are in business with the drug companies. I can only hope and pray that these horrific updated guidelines do not become commonly accepted among pregnant women and doctors.
Advertising to doctors is one thing, but advertising to the public is even more ridiculous. America needs to be like the rest of the world and just make public prescription drug advertising illegal.
But sadly big pharma already has its money deep into our law system to make sure that most likely never happens.
Antipsychotics can also cause permanent sexual dysfunction that lasts after stopping the drug just like antidepressants can.
Why its under-reported is because antidepressants and antipsychotics can change your personality and put you into a sort of apathy mode. You don’t really notice or care that your sex drive is gone. Many just accept it if they do notice because they literally can’t care.
I think almost everyone that takes antidepressants or antipsychotics gets some degree of permanent sexual side effects whether they notice or not. After coming off these drugs its hard to realize if you’re the same person with the same sexual desire before. And studies have shown that these drugs could be contributing to the rise in asexuality among our population.
Sexual desire itself has always been THE antidepressant since the dawn of humankind. Sexual desire and love are closely intertwined. We have created drugs like SSRI antidepressants to make people feel “better” by numbing both of these beautiful human experiences. Chemical lobotomies and chemical castrations in single pills.
The top comment is from someone who admits to taking Xanax for 20+ years and they say they are still not addicted. They call the drug a “life saver”. All the Xanax is saving them from now is the withdrawal. Lets see what happens when they don’t have access to their precious Xanax and see how unaddicted they are.
I can’t imagine how bad the memory is of people that have been taking benzos that long. Recent studies have been revealing the memory damaging effects of these drugs.
The medical profession has now labeled emotions and sane emotional responses as “mental illnesses”.
People are now saying things like “he/she fell into “depression” when so and so passed away”. Depression is now a buzz word for being sick in the head and needing professional help. Professional help has now turned into pharmaceutical help.
Don’t let an antidepressant user or psychiatrist see you crying/grieving for someone because they will tell you that you should get help (pharmaceutical) like them. They will say things like “antidepressants aren’t addicting” or “antidepressants correct chemical imbalances in the brain”.
And the reason antidepressants make some people who have lost loved ones “feel better” is because antidepressants take away feelings of love.
No longer feeling love for the lost loved one means no more sadness or grief for losing them. Antidepressants numb all emotions which make a person feel better by not feeling at all. No more cares for anyone, not even yourself. Antidepressants make a person more “confident” in social situations by taking away empathy. No more empathy means no more caring what others think of you.
Antidepressants are chemical lobotomies and so are antipsychotics. Lobotomies were invented because doctors believed mental illnesses were caused by an “excess of emotions” and a lobotomy “dampened down emotions”. That “excess emotion” belief and treatment are still around today.
Antipsychotics are awful. These drugs can cause what they are meant to treat. Especially in the withdrawal of them.
Just like how antidepressants can cause severe depression/anxiety and suicide especially in their withdrawal as well.
These prescriptions psych drugs are more damaging and dangerous than any drugs on the street in my opinion. Studies have shown they alter brain wide structure after a single dose. Antidepressants REDUCE connectivity structure throughout the brain. When we look at drugs like psilocybin mushrooms where one dose changes structure by INCREASING connectivity throughout the brain and people report feeling joyous, emotionally connected, loving, and more empathetic afterwards. But how do people who take their first antidepressant dose feel afterwards? Complete opposite of that. They say “oh you feel worse at first, but it takes time to start feeling better”. No it takes time for an SSRI to disconnect your brain enough to the point you don’t have the ability to care or feel an emotion anymore and are made a purely logic mode zombie that’s suicidally addicted to lobotomy pills.
Whats even more embarrassing with the medical industry is that some studies have been claiming they have found abnormalities in brains of people with schizophrenia and severe depression. What those studies don’t seem to realize is that they are studying brains that have literally been changed by psych drugs like antipsychotics and the studies are acting like “Aha! See, there are brain abnormalities in people that are suffering from these conditions”. These idiots don’t seem to realize what caused those abnormalities. Or perhaps they do realize it and are just paid by big pharma to keep the medical profession thinking that there are natural occurring visible brain abnormalities associated with these conditions.
Its scary that all these psych drugs are now in our public water supplies in trace amounts. Fish are turning into asexual killers when exposed to the trace amounts SSRIs in our water:
And the trace amount of SSRI exposure in our water supply has been shown to activate the same autism genes in fish as in humans. Traces amounts of SSRIs could very well be whats activating these genes in genetically susceptible people:
Sadly, the medical industry will continue to be controlled by the pharmaceutical industry which will do whatever it can to keep negative drug studies from being done. And even when they are rarely done, I hate to think that even if tomorrow a study found that antidepressant or antipsychotic exposure, even a trace amount, activated autism genes in people that it would go unnoticed. Nobody would care. It may get mentioned on a news segment, but that’s it. Nothing would change with prescribing rate of these drugs. People would continue to pour money into our autism research charities wondering why we can’t figure out the cause for autism when we’ve links slapping us in the face for so long.
Thank you Dr. Breggin. People need to know that these drugs have lifelong effects on children’s brains.
SSRIs antidepressants are now suspected to be contributing to the rise in asexuality among the population. Rodent studies have shown that SSRI antidepressant exposure in the womb or in youth caused rodents to show no sexual behavior in their adulthood. Many children are being exposed to these drugs before puberty and are never developing a sex drive when they get older.
Adults can also suffer from the permanent sexual effects of antidepressants too. I suffer myself. The condition is called Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction and it can occur after a just a single dose of an antidepressant. Its hard for SSRI users to even realize or care that their libidos have been erased. For many post SSRI users, sex never crosses the mind because there is no more sexual pleasure in the brain anymore. I believe Prozac even briefly lists the possibility of permanent sexual side effects on page 13 or 14 of its info sheet.
The permanent sexual effects of these drugs are not often publicly discussed because it can be embarrassing, but I believe if more people knew of the permanent brain changes and effects these drugs can do even after just single doses would keep more people away from ever wanting to start them.
Thank you Dr. Breggin and please continue to warn people of the dangers of psychiatric drugs.
Thank you for the excellent article article Dr. Brogan.
I like that you mentioned the antidepressant study that showed only one dose is needed to change the brain. I absolutely believe that because believe it or not I took only a single dose of the very same SSRI antidepressant used in that study Lexapro (escitalopram). I only tried it for anxiety and it was the worst experience of my life. I can tell that I have not been the same person since and that was over 4 years ago. My emotions are not as strong as before and my sex drive never returned to its normal state. The condition is called PSSD (Post SSRI sexual dysfunction). I’m sure though if I would have continued with the drug that it would have made me not aware or not mind it like it seems to do to every other user. Heck I almost feel asexual now. And some researchers believe that antidepressants are contributing to the rise in asexuality in our society today from pregnant mothers taking these drugs during pregnancy and children being exposed to them in their youth.
The single dose brain change study is of course another vague pharmaceutical drug study and makes no mention of the permanence of the brain change or why the brain wide reduction in connectivity is beneficial. I do find it interesting that when looking at brain scans of a depressed brain that it looks eerily similar to the brain scan of the single antidepressant dose brain. Normal brain scans look like they have much more activity going on in the brain. Where as the depressed brain scans and single antidepressant dose brain scans look like very little brain activity is going on except maybe in a couple of areas.
These drugs give a person a brain problem rather than correct one and they are responsible for our outrageous suicide rate today. Antidepressants “work” by making a person not care about the real cares they had before. And then they can make a person not care about anything anymore which can make even mentally healthy people suicidal as studies have shown.
A 2009 Oxford study on SSRIs found that SSRI antidepressants caused almost all participants in the study to feel less empathy, sympathy, and positive emotions. Some reported feeling suicidal due to the SSRI emotional numbness and one participant began to self-harm in an effort to feel emotion.
A 2011 study found that individuals with high social anxiety had high empathy. The study found that high empathy may make socially anxious individuals more sensitive and attentive to other people’s states of mind. So SSRIs basically “treat” social anxiety by taking away empathy and making a person no longer care how others feel about them.
These drugs are some of the most evil drugs ever created. Drugs that take away the ability to sadness, remorse, guilt, and anxiety, but also take away happiness, love, sex, and empathy. These drugs are killing people every day and causing people to kill one another as well.
I can only hope more people like you Dr. Brogan continue to speak out about the dangers of psychiatric medications.
Thank you and bless you Dr. Brogan. Please continue your good work.
And thank you for your interest.
I would be convinced it was the Phenergan too if I were in your position. Phenergan was actually used as an anti-psychotic back in the day. Makes sense that a drug like that could mess up the neurological development of a baby in the womb.
Pharmaceuticals used in pregnancy should be the elephant in the room when it comes to autism research. There’s a severe lack of studies that show whether or not mothers of autistic children took any pharmaceuticals of any kind during pregnancy. And many of the studies that are done end up not even getting published, like the study I linked above which was only revealed at a neuroscience conference last month. And here’s yet another unpublished SSRI autism link study shown at the conference:
https://spectrumnews.org/news/prozac-during-pregnancy-alters-mouse-pup-behavior/
The question is why aren’t these studies being published in medical journals. Its simply because the journals are bought by the drug corporations. Its sickening how real science that could hurt someone’s profits is not allowed anymore. Medical journals have become advertisements for rigged studies conducted by the companies themselves.
Hopefully more people begin to see how corrupt our medical system is.
You are absolutely right. There have already been so many studies that confirm drugs like antidepressants in pregnancy significantly raise the risk for autism. Some studies on rodents even flat out said that all the rodents in their study exposed to SSRIs during pregnancy gave birth to offspring with autistic behaviors. Even lose oxytocin receptors.
Study: Rodents exposed to SSRI antidepressant in womb show autism-like behaviors and lose brain receptors for oxytocin and vasopressin
https://spectrumnews.org/news/prairie-vole-study-digs-up-link-between-prozac-oxytocin/
And yet even when all the evidence is presented time and time again nothing is done. If we’re lucky we get an internet article about one of these rarely released eye opening studies and then its forgotten again or its quickly dismissed with a well-timed follow up study that suspiciously finds the opposite result. There is so much propaganda toward pregnant women to not worry about taking pharmaceuticals despite the well known evidence that shows they harm the baby.
Its so sad that the public is so clueless as to whats causing autism rates to go up when its right in front of us. But no, big pharma would rather push the idea that autism is a condition just caused by genetics. Then they advertise their same drugs that caused it as treatment for it. Its honestly genius from a business standpoint and disturbingly ironic from a treatment standpoint.
We are supposed to trust medical science, but our trust has been taken advantage of and is being used to sell us damaging drugs by the greedy corporations that now control the entire medical system and its research. It is scary how much corruption there is. Science is being bought.
I absolutely agree. These studies that say antidepressants are equal to placebo are dangerously misleading. This makes people not see the harm in simply trying one of these brain damaging drugs. I’m not sure I understand how this study came to this conclusion.
A study has already confirmed that just a SINGLE DOSE of an SSRI dramatically changes a healthy person’s brain structure. Connectivity was reduced in almost every area of the brain from the dose of SSRI.
http://www.newsweek.com/antidepressants-can-change-your-brain-immediately-study-271371
The most interesting thing about the single dose study is that it was done on non-depressed people who had never taken an antidepressant before. Therefore it showed how dramatic the changes begin from healthy to possibly permanently abnormal (damaged).
Brain studies on depression and other mental illnesses are some of the most misleading studies out there. Most of the studies are done on people who are on or had been on brain altering psych drugs for years or decades even. Then when researchers find brain abnormalities they blame it on the diseases instead of the real cause which is the drugs.
I believe some asexual individuals could mistakenly identify themselves as LGBT. Sounds odd, but let me explain.
It could be possible for an asexual person to interpret their lack of desire for the opposite sex as signs they are gay/bi sexual. Like, lets say a child is exposed to an SSRI antidepressant in their youth or in the womb and then he/she hits puberty with no sexual interest. They have no reference point on what sexual pleasure and interest feels like. They may feel as if since they are not attracted to the opposite sex like most others they might think they are gay/bi.
You’re right it could be easier to explain the rise of LGBT people due to there being less oppression, but it could also be because of environmental factors in a child’s development. I believe this because my own sexual interest/pleasure (sexuality) was stolen from me at age 22 by briefly exposing myself to an SSRI antidepressant. I can’t imagine coming of age the way I am now without a libido. I would assume I would be very confused in my own sexual preference.
I hope this doesn’t sound offensive, but I do believe psych meds such as SSRIs, SNRIs, etc. exposure could be contributing to (not all) the increase we are seeing in the LGBT population. Especially the asexual population. SSRI antidepressants have been shown to have a lasting impact on one’s sexual interest and pleasure. They are so mind altering they can alter one’s own personality and sexual identity long term.
Article on antidepressant exposure causing asexuality:
http://wp.rxisk.org/asexuality-a-curious-parallel/
Rodent studies showing when pregnant rats were exposed to an SSRI antidepressants they showed no more sexual interest and neither did their offspring into their adulthood.
Here’s a few interesting studies:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3118509/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091305708001093
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006899306029787
http://www.europeanneuropsychopharmacology.com/article/S0924-977X%2805%2900099-4/abstract
I permanently lost my sex drive, genital pleasure, and orgasm pleasure from taking just a few pills of the SSRI antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram) years ago. I used to be a healthy young man with a very healthy libido, but ever since that SSRI exposure my sex drive has been gone. As well as my emotional range.
I believe most everyone on or exposed to SSRI get a bit of PSSD (post SSRI sexual dysfunction). These drugs are so mind/brain altering that its hard to even notice or care that your sex drive isn’t the same as it was before the pills. They change your personality. Antidepressants make you not care about anything anymore not even sex or love anymore. And there has been talk that SSRI exposure is possibly contributing to the rise in asexuality.
http://wp.rxisk.org/asexuality-a-curious-parallel/
SSRI “anti”-depressants are like chemical lobotomies and chemical castrations given to the masses.
Articles like that Guardian one are going to fool more innocent and vulnerable people into to trying these brain damaging drugs thinking they are taking something good for their brain. It’s such an evil practice.
Here’s a Science Daily article from a few days ago about how brain abnormalities were found in people with schizophrenia.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150707102051.htm
Ah yes, at a glance it looks like yet another proof story that people with schizophrenia have brain abnormalities. Yes we all know most schizophrenia patients do have brain abnormalities, but rarely do we see studies actually blame the true cause of these abnormalities. The Science Daily article makes no mention of the study controlling for anti-psychotic drugs, but the study itself very briefly mentions them and pretty much says the anti-psychotic drugs could be the cause for the brain abnormalities.
http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp201563a.html
I’m sorry Ang for the hell that horrible man put you through. I’m glad you are recovering.
How psychiatrists get away with blaming the patient for drug reactions is beyond me. Its like whenever a drug makes a patient crazy these nutty doctors blame it as an “underlying condition brought out from the medication”. How can a sane or ethical person say that? That’s like pouring acid on the eyes and going blind and the doctor saying the blindness was already underlying and just uncovered by the acid. It’s crazy!
Psychiatrists just hope to catch the next vulnerable person so they can convince them to try their “non-addicting” “anti”depressant drugs. Using phrases like “take weeks to work”, “correct chemical imbalances”, and “non-addicting”. They make these poisonous drugs sound like harmless vitamin supplements!
Psychiatrists get paid to prescribe. Some make more money the more they prescribe and others are flat out paid (bribed) by pharmaceutical reps to push drugs onto patients.
All these seemingly good “Mental Health Awareness” ads that I see here in the states is actually cleverly disguised ads funded by pharmaceutical companies. These companies know how easy it is to convince a healthy person they have a mental problem or aren’t as happy as they should be.
I’m actually curious about psychedelic treatment. I’ve never tried them myself, but psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and Ayahuasca (DMT) have been used by humans for possibly thousands of years. I’m weary about man-made ones though such as MDMA, especially because it has been shown to be neurotoxic if taken too much.
Among users and studies have confirmed that psilocybin have a lasting effect that INCREASES emotions like empathy and love. Whereas antidepressants such as SSRIs numb all those emotions sometimes permanently if used long enough. Psilocybin hyper-connects the brain’s structure rather than disconnect it like antidepressants do.
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/magic-mushroom-chemical-hyper-connects-brain
The thing about psychedelics is they can’t be patented so to a pharmaceutical company they are worthless. Also there would be no money in a possible curing drug that only has to be taken once or a few times rather than drugs that need to be taken daily. Daily treatment is more profitable than a one time cure. Simple economics.
Maybe I should be more optimistic, but I don’t ever see psychedelics becoming mainstream medical treatment or legalized anytime soon. Big pharma doesn’t want people finding a potential one time cure to their mental health problems.
I just don’t know how this is possible. I mean, the researchers must know its the drugs causing these brain abnormalities right? How could they not? How can they not blame the drugs? It’s already been proven in studies that all it takes is ONE SINGLE DOSE of an SSRI antidepressant to immediately change the brain’s structure by reducing connectivity to nearly all parts of the brain.
http://www.newsweek.com/antidepressants-can-change-your-brain-immediately-study-271371
It’s sickening that the research industry is still trying to use studies like this as their proof that bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, etc. are physicall brain diseases caused by the brain itself. They are lying to the public saying these brain abnormalities just “form on their on due to the disease”. ITS THE BRAIN DRUGS CAUSING ALL THESE BRAIN STRUCTURE PROBLEMS.
Are these Yale researchers not allowed to blame the drugs because it would discredit the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry? Because it would show that its a huge multi-billion dollar brain damage scam? I’m starting to think so. The proof is out there that these drugs are NOT treatment, but rather the diseases themselves. They are selling people brain damaging drugs and the money is too good to put a stop to it.
He did say the SSRI also made in manic.
Some psychiatric drugs actually have homicidal ideation listed as a “rare adverse effect” on their ridiculously long warning sheets.
Here’s a link to an article that includes experiences from SSRI users that had this effect after just one and two doses. Scroll down a bit to see it.
http://www.drugawareness.org/antidepressant-murdersuicide-airbus-co-pilot-deliberately-took-plane-down-echoes-egyptair-disaster/
Also, a 2009 Oxford study on SSRIs found that SSRI antidepressants caused almost all participants to feel less empathy, sympathy, and positive emotions. Some reported feeling suicidal due to the SSRI emotional numbness and one began to self-harm in an effort to feel emotion.
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/195/3/211.full
Drugs that take away the ability to feel empathy and love for fellow people is dangerous and it shouldn’t be surprising to see people end up doing horrifically senseless things like this. I still blame the SSRI and whatever other psychiatric drugs he was on or used to be on.
He also wrote in his journal how the SSRI antidepressant Zoloft (Sertraline) made him feel.
“No effect when needed,” he noted. “First appearance of mania occurs, not good mania. Anxiety and fear disappears.”
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/movie-theater-shooting/court-publishes-notebook-with-theater-gunmans-dark-thoughts-about-killing-and-planing-process
So, the SSRI took away all of his anxiety and fears. It took away his fear of consequence and fear of death. Along with all other emotions too I’d assume.
The FDA wants women to think that its safe to take antidepressants during pregnancy!? What a ridiculous thing to say when Pfizer is currently all over the media battling lawsuits because they hid evidence that they knew the antidepressant Zoloft caused birth defects.
Wonder how much the FDA got paid to update these new guidelines.
The FDA is not worried about the public’s safety. They are in business with the drug companies. I can only hope and pray that these horrific updated guidelines do not become commonly accepted among pregnant women and doctors.
Advertising to doctors is one thing, but advertising to the public is even more ridiculous. America needs to be like the rest of the world and just make public prescription drug advertising illegal.
But sadly big pharma already has its money deep into our law system to make sure that most likely never happens.
Antipsychotics can also cause permanent sexual dysfunction that lasts after stopping the drug just like antidepressants can.
Why its under-reported is because antidepressants and antipsychotics can change your personality and put you into a sort of apathy mode. You don’t really notice or care that your sex drive is gone. Many just accept it if they do notice because they literally can’t care.
I think almost everyone that takes antidepressants or antipsychotics gets some degree of permanent sexual side effects whether they notice or not. After coming off these drugs its hard to realize if you’re the same person with the same sexual desire before. And studies have shown that these drugs could be contributing to the rise in asexuality among our population.
Sexual desire itself has always been THE antidepressant since the dawn of humankind. Sexual desire and love are closely intertwined. We have created drugs like SSRI antidepressants to make people feel “better” by numbing both of these beautiful human experiences. Chemical lobotomies and chemical castrations in single pills.
The top comment is from someone who admits to taking Xanax for 20+ years and they say they are still not addicted. They call the drug a “life saver”. All the Xanax is saving them from now is the withdrawal. Lets see what happens when they don’t have access to their precious Xanax and see how unaddicted they are.
I can’t imagine how bad the memory is of people that have been taking benzos that long. Recent studies have been revealing the memory damaging effects of these drugs.
The medical profession has now labeled emotions and sane emotional responses as “mental illnesses”.
People are now saying things like “he/she fell into “depression” when so and so passed away”. Depression is now a buzz word for being sick in the head and needing professional help. Professional help has now turned into pharmaceutical help.
Don’t let an antidepressant user or psychiatrist see you crying/grieving for someone because they will tell you that you should get help (pharmaceutical) like them. They will say things like “antidepressants aren’t addicting” or “antidepressants correct chemical imbalances in the brain”.
And the reason antidepressants make some people who have lost loved ones “feel better” is because antidepressants take away feelings of love.
http://www.livescience.com/47262-antidepressants-affect-feelings-of-love-for-partner.html
No longer feeling love for the lost loved one means no more sadness or grief for losing them. Antidepressants numb all emotions which make a person feel better by not feeling at all. No more cares for anyone, not even yourself. Antidepressants make a person more “confident” in social situations by taking away empathy. No more empathy means no more caring what others think of you.
Antidepressants are chemical lobotomies and so are antipsychotics. Lobotomies were invented because doctors believed mental illnesses were caused by an “excess of emotions” and a lobotomy “dampened down emotions”. That “excess emotion” belief and treatment are still around today.
Antipsychotics are awful. These drugs can cause what they are meant to treat. Especially in the withdrawal of them.
Just like how antidepressants can cause severe depression/anxiety and suicide especially in their withdrawal as well.
These prescriptions psych drugs are more damaging and dangerous than any drugs on the street in my opinion. Studies have shown they alter brain wide structure after a single dose. Antidepressants REDUCE connectivity structure throughout the brain. When we look at drugs like psilocybin mushrooms where one dose changes structure by INCREASING connectivity throughout the brain and people report feeling joyous, emotionally connected, loving, and more empathetic afterwards. But how do people who take their first antidepressant dose feel afterwards? Complete opposite of that. They say “oh you feel worse at first, but it takes time to start feeling better”. No it takes time for an SSRI to disconnect your brain enough to the point you don’t have the ability to care or feel an emotion anymore and are made a purely logic mode zombie that’s suicidally addicted to lobotomy pills.
Whats even more embarrassing with the medical industry is that some studies have been claiming they have found abnormalities in brains of people with schizophrenia and severe depression. What those studies don’t seem to realize is that they are studying brains that have literally been changed by psych drugs like antipsychotics and the studies are acting like “Aha! See, there are brain abnormalities in people that are suffering from these conditions”. These idiots don’t seem to realize what caused those abnormalities. Or perhaps they do realize it and are just paid by big pharma to keep the medical profession thinking that there are natural occurring visible brain abnormalities associated with these conditions.
Its scary that all these psych drugs are now in our public water supplies in trace amounts. Fish are turning into asexual killers when exposed to the trace amounts SSRIs in our water:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/prozac-made-fish-aggressive-killed-mates/story?id=19395014
And the trace amount of SSRI exposure in our water supply has been shown to activate the same autism genes in fish as in humans. Traces amounts of SSRIs could very well be whats activating these genes in genetically susceptible people:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21882-antidepressants-in-water-trigger-autism-genes-in-fish.html#.VQjK-OHGFp0
Sadly, the medical industry will continue to be controlled by the pharmaceutical industry which will do whatever it can to keep negative drug studies from being done. And even when they are rarely done, I hate to think that even if tomorrow a study found that antidepressant or antipsychotic exposure, even a trace amount, activated autism genes in people that it would go unnoticed. Nobody would care. It may get mentioned on a news segment, but that’s it. Nothing would change with prescribing rate of these drugs. People would continue to pour money into our autism research charities wondering why we can’t figure out the cause for autism when we’ve links slapping us in the face for so long.
Thank you Dr. Breggin. People need to know that these drugs have lifelong effects on children’s brains.
SSRIs antidepressants are now suspected to be contributing to the rise in asexuality among the population. Rodent studies have shown that SSRI antidepressant exposure in the womb or in youth caused rodents to show no sexual behavior in their adulthood. Many children are being exposed to these drugs before puberty and are never developing a sex drive when they get older.
Adults can also suffer from the permanent sexual effects of antidepressants too. I suffer myself. The condition is called Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction and it can occur after a just a single dose of an antidepressant. Its hard for SSRI users to even realize or care that their libidos have been erased. For many post SSRI users, sex never crosses the mind because there is no more sexual pleasure in the brain anymore. I believe Prozac even briefly lists the possibility of permanent sexual side effects on page 13 or 14 of its info sheet.
The permanent sexual effects of these drugs are not often publicly discussed because it can be embarrassing, but I believe if more people knew of the permanent brain changes and effects these drugs can do even after just single doses would keep more people away from ever wanting to start them.
Thank you Dr. Breggin and please continue to warn people of the dangers of psychiatric drugs.
Thank you for the excellent article article Dr. Brogan.
I like that you mentioned the antidepressant study that showed only one dose is needed to change the brain. I absolutely believe that because believe it or not I took only a single dose of the very same SSRI antidepressant used in that study Lexapro (escitalopram). I only tried it for anxiety and it was the worst experience of my life. I can tell that I have not been the same person since and that was over 4 years ago. My emotions are not as strong as before and my sex drive never returned to its normal state. The condition is called PSSD (Post SSRI sexual dysfunction). I’m sure though if I would have continued with the drug that it would have made me not aware or not mind it like it seems to do to every other user. Heck I almost feel asexual now. And some researchers believe that antidepressants are contributing to the rise in asexuality in our society today from pregnant mothers taking these drugs during pregnancy and children being exposed to them in their youth.
The single dose brain change study is of course another vague pharmaceutical drug study and makes no mention of the permanence of the brain change or why the brain wide reduction in connectivity is beneficial. I do find it interesting that when looking at brain scans of a depressed brain that it looks eerily similar to the brain scan of the single antidepressant dose brain. Normal brain scans look like they have much more activity going on in the brain. Where as the depressed brain scans and single antidepressant dose brain scans look like very little brain activity is going on except maybe in a couple of areas.
These drugs give a person a brain problem rather than correct one and they are responsible for our outrageous suicide rate today. Antidepressants “work” by making a person not care about the real cares they had before. And then they can make a person not care about anything anymore which can make even mentally healthy people suicidal as studies have shown.
A 2009 Oxford study on SSRIs found that SSRI antidepressants caused almost all participants in the study to feel less empathy, sympathy, and positive emotions. Some reported feeling suicidal due to the SSRI emotional numbness and one participant began to self-harm in an effort to feel emotion.
A 2011 study found that individuals with high social anxiety had high empathy. The study found that high empathy may make socially anxious individuals more sensitive and attentive to other people’s states of mind. So SSRIs basically “treat” social anxiety by taking away empathy and making a person no longer care how others feel about them.
These drugs are some of the most evil drugs ever created. Drugs that take away the ability to sadness, remorse, guilt, and anxiety, but also take away happiness, love, sex, and empathy. These drugs are killing people every day and causing people to kill one another as well.
I can only hope more people like you Dr. Brogan continue to speak out about the dangers of psychiatric medications.
Thank you and bless you Dr. Brogan. Please continue your good work.