‘1776 Will Commence Again If You Try to Take Our Firearms!’: Watch Alex Jones Lose His Mind on Piers

[BainsBane]

111. there are a number of factors to consider

Not only is the other poster's point about causation vs. correlation important, there are additional factors to consider. While the mentally ill display a low propensity to commit violence, there does appear to be some correlation between serious mental illness and mass shootings. To say that they are on some psychiatric medication tells you only that they are being treated for a psychiatric illness. It doesn't tell you whether they would have committed those atrocious crimes absent the drugs.

Having taken SSRIs myself, I can tell you that if misprescribed, they can create very uncomfortable side-effects. The first anti-depressant I took was Prozac. I could not tolerate it. It made me feel like I was crawling out of my skin. I told my doctor and he switched me to another medication that did not cause that effect. I also heard a psychiatric talk about the fact that the early period in which one takes psychotropic drugs leave the person most vulnerable, and it may be in this period that these men became violent (if the drugs are part of the cause of their actions). That is because the body takes some time to develop tolerance for side effects. That, however, does not mean such drugs are not immensely valuable. Like all drugs, there are risks and dangers. The newest research for depression involves Ketamine, known by the street name Special K. Early trials show that it is far more effective than any other treatment developed for depression. No doctor, however, is going to give a patient a prescription for Ketamine. In these trials, K is administered by doctors only in a hospital setting. They are hoping to use the information to develop safer drugs that a patient might take at home. So if Ketamine does turn out to be a fantastic treatment for treatment-resistant depression, that does not mean it's a good idea to widely prescribe it or to give it to everyone with depression. Drugs need to be prescribed with care. But the same is true for sleeping pills, antibiotics, and other medications no one associates with violence.

Blatantly condemning psychiatric drugs can have pernicious consequences. Mental illness already carries a great stigma. The last thing we need is for people to be discouraged from seeking treatment. It appears you may think such drugs are unnecessary. If so, that stems from a profound and unfortunate lack of understanding on your part. For many of us, drugs and therapy are what make life possible. Brain scans show that both alter brain chemistry in different ways and actually generate the growth of new neurons, something killed by the disease itself. Those treatments are as essential as anti-virals for AIDs patients.