Pamela Paul/ NY Times Magazine, 25 August 2010
Above, the link to the 25 August 2010 NY Times Magazine article that seriously questions whether or not preschoolers can be clinically depressed. Can you see the collective saliva forming in the jowls of big pharma? Just when you thought medical warnings against current chemically induced euphoria might be slowing down Big Pharma’s drugging of America, apparently side effects such as kidney failure, strokes and/or thoughts of suicide are swell for children under the age of five.
PROZAC FOR PREMIES
For the past 13 years (that’s how long its been since the FDA changed the law banning pharmaceutical companies from advertising on television) American households have been watching and listening to unrelenting, bogus and authoritative “DEPRESSION HURTS” advertising to the point that most people if polled would regurgitate, “depression is a disease.”
Depression is NOT a disease.
“Depression’s roots are….psychological….”
If your toddler IS depressed then you need to do some investigating. Have you noticed that he/she doesn’t like it when you leave him/her alone with your creepy nanny or other child care provider? How much time do you actually spend together? Have you been listening to complaints and taking them seriously?
If a child is listless or seems to exhibit signs of depression, for God’s sake, don’t reach for a pill. Ask the hard questions. Is Uncle Eddie spending a lot of time alone with little Alice? Has she started to wet her bed? Come on. Sorry to offend your parenting bubble but one in five girls are incested by some member of the family.
Those are the questions to ask when and if your child seems sad. Here is the question NOT to ask.
What drug should we start giving [little Alice] to make her happy?
TOM CRUISE GOT IT RIGHT
Well, minus the belief that scientology is the be all and end all and his strange ownership of the entire history of psychology, psychiatry and all recorded investigation into the human psyche. So, who’s perfect? Anyway, when Tom said, “Drugs simply mask the problem,” he had me at ‘mask’.
Ask anyone whose been stabbed, pushed, prodded, poked, raped, mugged or assaulted by a newly released criminal who stopped taking his meds.
Bill Maher and the government’s drug problem.
Simply stated, the answer isn’t (always) another pill. It’s been documented that the proliferation of ”Ask your doctor” drug adverts has led to the over-prescribing of drugs. Especially for children who — at 1, 2, 3 — generally run around spewing bodily fluids, screaming at high pitch and lack maturity. But, wait, “There’s a pill for that.”
Depression is a reaction to conditions.
When the FDA signed off on depression as “disease,” big pharma, exploded. Qualifying depression as a disease was like winning the medical America’s Got Talent. Drug companies went viral with whirlwind tours pushing and pedaling their magical potions. Most which, in clinical studies done with control groups being dosed with placebos, fared about equal.
Getting to the Cause
In the September ’08 issue of Psychology Today, Dr. Stephen Diamond, a clinical and forensic psychologist and author of Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity stated,
Antidepressants and mood stabilizing drugs do something that psychotherapy cannot: they provide relatively rapid relief of the painful and debilitating symptoms of depression and stabilize otherwise dangerously labile mood swings. Does this prove that depression is primarily a biological disease? Not at all. It only demonstrates that we have fortunately found biochemical means to counteract and control the most acute symptoms of depression: sleep and appetite disturbance, lack of motivation, apathy, depressed or manic moods, anxiety, suicidality, etc. But….even when the symptoms of depression are mitigated by medication, the underlying depressive condition evidently remains, rendering even medicated patients susceptible to future episodes. More than half of those suffering a first major depressive episode are likely to experience subsequent episodes at some time. The probability of recurrence increases dramatically (90%) after three such episodes. What is this underlying susceptibility? It seems to suggest the presence of something biochemical treatment doesn’t resolve. What is this latently persisting vulnerability? It is the depressive core of the personality. It is the figurative heart of the Hydra.
No Other Countries Allow Consumer Drug Advertising
Here’s the 2007 NYTimes Article. Well, except New Zealand. But come on. Except for NZ, only the US? Does that seem like a good thing?
