Apr 5, 2023·edited Apr 5, 2023Liked by Mathew Crawford
I completely agree.
I have spent most of my career doing academic research on depression and anxiety. I would move heaven and earth to stop any loved ones of mine from taking antidepressants.
I interviewed primary healthcare physicians about antidepressants once. I said "Has any patient ever returned to the surgery after you prescribed antidepressants and told you that they work well?" They all thought for a second and said, "Actually, no."
I also asked the physicians how they think antidepressants work. None of them had a cogent answer.
They told me that they prescribe antidepressants because the waiting list for therapy is over a year long (I am in the UK) and they don't know what else to do with desperate people who come to them for help.
Apr 5, 2023·edited Apr 5, 2023Liked by Mathew Crawford
Agree 💯. When you learn to respect and pay attention to depression and pain as valuable signals in order to correct course, you'll never want to quiet it with medication of any sort again. Even small amounts of alcohol, cigs, etc can be dulling the pain you would otherwise be motivated to find relief from by realigning your life, purpose, relationships etc.
There is an insightful piece by the Midwestern Doctor, which has been updated after the recent events. It illustrates the connection between violent crime and SSRI/SNRI.
I also read for a while through a self-help forum where people assist each other to taper off these drugs. It's obviously a major problem to stop taking them, judged by the discussion. People celebrate it as a major achievement once they are completely off the meds, a process which can take years.
thank you for your testimony. 14 years ago, my husband committed suicide while on antidepressants. Later on I was told, that when they come out of the deepest dark, they finally find 'the courage' to do it. A few days after he left the hospital. In 2 weeks ik will be 14 years but the pain is still there.
I love the Rat Park experiments. Really spot-on article, Mathew. I'd add the lack of meaning to exercise and good food, and I think they could all be related. We don't do the physical labor of maintaining our own lives and caring for each other, which is meaning in the simplest terms. I did a YT episode on Bruce Alexander, and mostly Gabor Mate's conversations with Russell Brand. It was pre-Substack so no text version, but one of my favorites. The Epiphany Jumpstart: https://youtu.be/erwJwvid4o4.
Apr 5, 2023·edited Apr 5, 2023Liked by Mathew Crawford
I always suspected Eli Lilly paid Elizabeth Wurtzel to write Prozac Nation. They certainly employed PR firms around the world to co-ordinate a global campaign.
In 1971, when LY110141 - the compound that became Prozac - was developed, it was first tested as a treatment for high blood pressure, which worked in some animals but not in humans. Plan B was as an anti-obesity agent, but it didn't work for that, either. When tested on psychotic patients and those hospitalised with depression, LY110141 - by now named Fluoxetine - had no obvious benefit, with a number of patients getting worse.
Finally, Eli Lilly tested it on mild depressives. Five recruits tried it; all five marginally improved. Although in large scale RCTs it is barely better than placebo. Nowadays, it provides Eli Lilly with more than 25 per cent of its $10bn revenue.
I was on Zoloft for 30+ years. When the “pandemic” hit, I was skeptical from the get go...about everything. While delving into Substack articles and research on the vaxxines, I read a lot about the harms of antidepressants and knew I needed to stop taking Zoloft.
Knowing it would might be difficult, over the course of 6 weeks, I gradually weaned myself off of it. During that time I also started taking Magnesium supplements. Save for a week or so of random crying bouts, snapping at a few co-workers (who kind of deserved it), and times where I questioned my choice, I’m happy to say that I’ve been off of it for 6 months now and am doing just fine!
Your interview with Kim was fantastic, I joined her threads and have been reposting both. We got into a further conversation about grief being described in the DSM as a short term condition, after which antidepressants are indicated. 🤯
When I first heard the term ANTI-Depressant I laughed at its oxymoronic nature, as Depression has a clear obverse, which is Happiness. But as your gang knew, Mathew, Happy Pills is a derisive term, so they couldn't call them that!
As a Chinese Medicine guy, its clear that Depression is a signal that something in your life is out of order, and as always, masking it with drugs can only result in further disturbance to a cascade of neurological responses.
In my work as a drug educator, I spent years looking at our highly profitable licit pharmacological lobotomization industry, its antecedents, methodology, as well as its illicit parallels. They will conduct whatever studies necessary to model a condition to the known effects of a drug, then market that condition and remedy to the public.
"Soma" is the all-purpose drug Aldous Huxley created in Brave New World to ensure a docile, compliant citizenry. We're consuming trillions of dollars worth of it every year.
We are programmable. It's a matter of forming good habits and positive patterns of thought. Something simple like a daily walk in the park can make the difference between a good day and a bad day. I don't watch the TV news and not much TV at all. It's a downer. We get positive feedback by doing things. Do something.
I have anxiety and I have a bit of ADHD. I have always been urged to take the SSRI's. My own research and reading lead me to say NO WAY JOSE. I saw my overweight friend at work get diagnosed as a depressive with anxiety and watched her balloon out. I had a boss on anti anxiety meds always portly fat and smoking and fake jolly, in short nearly everyone I worked with was on it. Some of them also drank. I realized in short order: 1 in 10 or more are not in their right minds (medicated) 2. the meds don't do much for them but destroy what health they do have (obesity and lack of drive and/or smothering inquiring minds). Perfect for the Big Harmas.
One of the best writers, researchers and practitioners on this subject is Dr David Healy. If you don’t know his work, I would heartily recommend spending some time getting to know it.
As a gawky adolescent with braces and headgear who developed crippling agoraphobia and panic attacks with nausea at the thought of facing grade ten in a new school after moving to a new town, I was prescribed Stelazine, a powerful fluorinated tranquilizer I learned years later was for psychotic schizophrenia, and a known cause of Parkinson's and tardive dyskinesia. It made me a zombie (but panic-free). I took it 'as needed' until I made friends and got involved in sports and clubs. Duh. But the damage was done to my CNS and thyroid.
As the dad of a 17 year old who is dealing with all kinds of depression and emotional regulation issues (as well as multiple autoimmune disorders), I can unequivocally say that the childhood vaccine schedule is the root cause of the dramatic increase we've seen in anxiety/depression disorders. There are certainly co-factors, but the massive increase in the vaccination schedule since the early 90s is the elephant in the room.
The aluminum salts in the vaccines are getting into children's brains at a very young age and unplugging/disrupting growth of the neurons. The more acute cases are obvious to see (autism, speech delay, severe ADHD), but there's a whole nother tier of issues that generally don't fully manifest until puberty, when the brain takes another big leap forward towards adulthood. This can manifest in multiple ways. Inability to socialize correctly is a big one, but unexplained anxiety and depression.
We have tried everything with our sun from a diet, exercise, lifestyle standpoint but nothing seems to really move the needle all that much. I'm staunchly against ssri therapy, as I know the potential for violence and suicide lurk there.
I completely agree.
I have spent most of my career doing academic research on depression and anxiety. I would move heaven and earth to stop any loved ones of mine from taking antidepressants.
I interviewed primary healthcare physicians about antidepressants once. I said "Has any patient ever returned to the surgery after you prescribed antidepressants and told you that they work well?" They all thought for a second and said, "Actually, no."
I also asked the physicians how they think antidepressants work. None of them had a cogent answer.
They told me that they prescribe antidepressants because the waiting list for therapy is over a year long (I am in the UK) and they don't know what else to do with desperate people who come to them for help.
Agree 💯. When you learn to respect and pay attention to depression and pain as valuable signals in order to correct course, you'll never want to quiet it with medication of any sort again. Even small amounts of alcohol, cigs, etc can be dulling the pain you would otherwise be motivated to find relief from by realigning your life, purpose, relationships etc.
I suspect that ‘happy pills’ are a crucial part of the ‘you will own nothing and be happy’ equation.
There is an insightful piece by the Midwestern Doctor, which has been updated after the recent events. It illustrates the connection between violent crime and SSRI/SNRI.
https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/the-decades-of-evidence-that-antidepressants
I also read for a while through a self-help forum where people assist each other to taper off these drugs. It's obviously a major problem to stop taking them, judged by the discussion. People celebrate it as a major achievement once they are completely off the meds, a process which can take years.
thank you for your testimony. 14 years ago, my husband committed suicide while on antidepressants. Later on I was told, that when they come out of the deepest dark, they finally find 'the courage' to do it. A few days after he left the hospital. In 2 weeks ik will be 14 years but the pain is still there.
I love the Rat Park experiments. Really spot-on article, Mathew. I'd add the lack of meaning to exercise and good food, and I think they could all be related. We don't do the physical labor of maintaining our own lives and caring for each other, which is meaning in the simplest terms. I did a YT episode on Bruce Alexander, and mostly Gabor Mate's conversations with Russell Brand. It was pre-Substack so no text version, but one of my favorites. The Epiphany Jumpstart: https://youtu.be/erwJwvid4o4.
I always suspected Eli Lilly paid Elizabeth Wurtzel to write Prozac Nation. They certainly employed PR firms around the world to co-ordinate a global campaign.
In 1971, when LY110141 - the compound that became Prozac - was developed, it was first tested as a treatment for high blood pressure, which worked in some animals but not in humans. Plan B was as an anti-obesity agent, but it didn't work for that, either. When tested on psychotic patients and those hospitalised with depression, LY110141 - by now named Fluoxetine - had no obvious benefit, with a number of patients getting worse.
Finally, Eli Lilly tested it on mild depressives. Five recruits tried it; all five marginally improved. Although in large scale RCTs it is barely better than placebo. Nowadays, it provides Eli Lilly with more than 25 per cent of its $10bn revenue.
When people took pills instead of learning life lessons that depression was there to teach....err then we were owned by the big pharma
I was on Zoloft for 30+ years. When the “pandemic” hit, I was skeptical from the get go...about everything. While delving into Substack articles and research on the vaxxines, I read a lot about the harms of antidepressants and knew I needed to stop taking Zoloft.
Knowing it would might be difficult, over the course of 6 weeks, I gradually weaned myself off of it. During that time I also started taking Magnesium supplements. Save for a week or so of random crying bouts, snapping at a few co-workers (who kind of deserved it), and times where I questioned my choice, I’m happy to say that I’ve been off of it for 6 months now and am doing just fine!
Your interview with Kim was fantastic, I joined her threads and have been reposting both. We got into a further conversation about grief being described in the DSM as a short term condition, after which antidepressants are indicated. 🤯
When I first heard the term ANTI-Depressant I laughed at its oxymoronic nature, as Depression has a clear obverse, which is Happiness. But as your gang knew, Mathew, Happy Pills is a derisive term, so they couldn't call them that!
As a Chinese Medicine guy, its clear that Depression is a signal that something in your life is out of order, and as always, masking it with drugs can only result in further disturbance to a cascade of neurological responses.
In my work as a drug educator, I spent years looking at our highly profitable licit pharmacological lobotomization industry, its antecedents, methodology, as well as its illicit parallels. They will conduct whatever studies necessary to model a condition to the known effects of a drug, then market that condition and remedy to the public.
Create a solution, create a problem
Sound familiar?
My dear, talented, beautiful friend took her own life because of the unbearable pain of coming off Cymbalta. I write about it here: https://marypoindextermclaughlin.substack.com/p/the-unseen-element.
"Soma" is the all-purpose drug Aldous Huxley created in Brave New World to ensure a docile, compliant citizenry. We're consuming trillions of dollars worth of it every year.
We are programmable. It's a matter of forming good habits and positive patterns of thought. Something simple like a daily walk in the park can make the difference between a good day and a bad day. I don't watch the TV news and not much TV at all. It's a downer. We get positive feedback by doing things. Do something.
I have anxiety and I have a bit of ADHD. I have always been urged to take the SSRI's. My own research and reading lead me to say NO WAY JOSE. I saw my overweight friend at work get diagnosed as a depressive with anxiety and watched her balloon out. I had a boss on anti anxiety meds always portly fat and smoking and fake jolly, in short nearly everyone I worked with was on it. Some of them also drank. I realized in short order: 1 in 10 or more are not in their right minds (medicated) 2. the meds don't do much for them but destroy what health they do have (obesity and lack of drive and/or smothering inquiring minds). Perfect for the Big Harmas.
One of the best writers, researchers and practitioners on this subject is Dr David Healy. If you don’t know his work, I would heartily recommend spending some time getting to know it.
https://davidhealy.org/
As a gawky adolescent with braces and headgear who developed crippling agoraphobia and panic attacks with nausea at the thought of facing grade ten in a new school after moving to a new town, I was prescribed Stelazine, a powerful fluorinated tranquilizer I learned years later was for psychotic schizophrenia, and a known cause of Parkinson's and tardive dyskinesia. It made me a zombie (but panic-free). I took it 'as needed' until I made friends and got involved in sports and clubs. Duh. But the damage was done to my CNS and thyroid.
As the dad of a 17 year old who is dealing with all kinds of depression and emotional regulation issues (as well as multiple autoimmune disorders), I can unequivocally say that the childhood vaccine schedule is the root cause of the dramatic increase we've seen in anxiety/depression disorders. There are certainly co-factors, but the massive increase in the vaccination schedule since the early 90s is the elephant in the room.
The aluminum salts in the vaccines are getting into children's brains at a very young age and unplugging/disrupting growth of the neurons. The more acute cases are obvious to see (autism, speech delay, severe ADHD), but there's a whole nother tier of issues that generally don't fully manifest until puberty, when the brain takes another big leap forward towards adulthood. This can manifest in multiple ways. Inability to socialize correctly is a big one, but unexplained anxiety and depression.
We have tried everything with our sun from a diet, exercise, lifestyle standpoint but nothing seems to really move the needle all that much. I'm staunchly against ssri therapy, as I know the potential for violence and suicide lurk there.