Posted on 02/15/2025 7:28:56 AM PST by BenLurkin
Kennedy has repeatedly railed against what he sees as rampant overprescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, commonly known as SSRIs, which treat depression and anxiety and include medications like Prozac and Zoloft. As with his previous assertions about vaccines, many of his statements about these drugs are not backed by science. In a 2023 livestream on X with Elon Musk, he claimed that “tremendous circumstantial evidence” suggested that people taking antidepressants were more likely to commit school shootings. (Actually, most school shooters were not taking those drugs, evidence shows.) Kennedy has also called people who take SSRIs addicts—and then tried to claim he didn’t during his confirmation hearings.
...The Food and Drug Administration already requires drug manufacturers to include warnings in packaging because of some evidence that SSRIs can cause a temporary increase in suicidal thoughts in pediatric patients...
In a podcast appearance last July, Kennedy said he planned to dedicate money generated from a sales tax on cannabis products to “creating wellness farms—drug rehabilitation farms, in rural areas all over this country.” He added, “I’m going to create these wellness farms where they can go to get off of illegal drugs, off of opiates, but also illegal drugs, other psychiatric drugs, if they want to, to get off of SSRIs, to get off of benzos, to get off of Adderall, and to spend time as much time as they need—three or four years if they need it—to learn to get reparented, to reconnect with communities.” The farm residents would grow their own organic food because, he suggested, many of their underlying problems could be “food-related.”
During the confirmation hearings, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) said Kennedy’s statements about antidepressants “reinforce the stigma that people who experience mental health [conditions]…face every single day.”
(Excerpt) Read more at motherjones.com ...
What was the resolution to the whole thing besides stopping the Synthroid?
Wow! How much was he getting paid? Really disgusting.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Anxiety and sadness at times are part of life. One becomes stronger and more confident as they learn to deal with these issues. I know there are some who may need to resort to medication, but far too many don’t.
Yesterday, I had a patient at the pharmacy who was so panic-stricken that she and her voice were shaking as she spoke. She was waiting on her lorazepam, and quite a lot of it. She said, “I’m just a very nervous person.”
Therapy would do her wonders to get over that kind of anxiety. Long-term sedative use isn’t ideal.
I’ve been on it in the past, and not naïve to those kinds of drugs, but I’d be in a perpetual sleep if taking what she was prescribed.
That’s an amazing story. A good doctor is hard to find.
I read a great article a while back written about these drugs. The doctor that wrote it said that anxiety is good for you as it forces the mind to execute problem solving to relieve the anxiety instead of just taking a pill and medicating your way into putting off the solving of the problem.
Exactly.
Grounding and sunlight are effective antidepressants. Walk around barefoot outside. And it’s free!
My endocrinologist took me off synthroid completely, saying I could not take the risk and promised me in eight days I would level off, which I did. When I would have what I thought was a panic attack/anxiety, my heart would race and pound, dizziness, sweat profusely, it was terrifying, in fact I was almost agoraphobic, only in that I wouldn’t leave the house alone, (I was fine with my husband). So the doc told me I would be fine without the medication but would have periods where I would be tired and a sense of depression which he said it was only a symptom. He assured me it was NOT depression, I could live with that, but not the hyper part. I saw him every six months for years. Just a great doctor and man, as well as the psychologist I went to who referred me, knowing this was physical rather than mental. To this day, I know when my thyroid is producing hormone and when it isn’t, it phases up and down……the doc told me to enjoy the roller coaster ride. LOL
All that precisely applies to me at times over the last few months, although I lost the wife a few years ago so have to soldier out on my own when it's not too overwhelming. At other times I am almost fine. Treating the symptoms with anxiolytics is not working very well.
Glad you are doing better!
It is easy for our bodies to get out of whack, especially the endocrine system. It is tricky! Also easy to allow peculiar physical problems to be passed off as emotional. Before I went to the endocrinologist, I can’t tell you how many tests my internist put me through, only to be told I was having panic attacks and see a therapist………honestly, there is nothing like an endocrinologist, they are rare and hard to find.
Opioids = legal heroin.
Needs to be taken off the market.
Thank you for all the background.
It is ironic for me since last night I had decided that levo was highly likely to be implicated in this and so I didn’t take this morning’s dose. Since the half-life is so long it should take a lot longer to see a discontinuation effect (your 8 days), but it’s a fact I’m not beside myself with anxiety right now (just a little).
Something changed in late November that made me feel like I was “plugged into” something, like a 24 volt circuit across the chest. I stopped being able to take naps. And yes, it did ease the depression but the flip side as you say is not livable. My depression is chronic and lifelong so it’s a little different from your situation.
Do you recall what your dose was that you were able to stop cold turkey with no drama? Mine is 50 MCG (up from 25 a year ago). Up until November there was no problem. Maybe I will go back to 25. Both are considered small or small-moderate doses.
I am also plagued by what used to be called psychosomatic problems — in various mixes of physical and psychological causes — so it’s quite difficult to disentangle the whole thing.
Also decided that caffeine was worsening it so skipped the Diet Cokes today.
The lexipro? I took it four or five days at the most. I was having little electrical shocks in my head, no idea what the dosage was but think it was the lowest and I stopped it immediately.
I do Adderall. It makes me functional at work. Without it, I simply cannot concentrate. I interrupt people. I cannot pay attention to important key points. I hope Kennedy goes after things that won’t screw me up personally, I heard him mention Adderall.
There is no credible study sighted in the MJ article. Rather it’s random therapists and psychiatrists saying there is no correlation between shooters and antidepressants.
In other words a typical garbage MJ article.
Incorrect. It is ABSOLUTELY not like meth. No high involved. It is not even true amphetamine at all and the doses are miniscule. A typical drug user will consume a gram of meth in a few hours. I'm on 20mg Extended Release, that is 0.02 grams over 12 hours of something that is absolutely not meth.
It has positively changed my life, I went from a person about to be fired because I was unable to concentrate on important computer points, did not pay attention in meetings, and interrupted and talked over people (all classic symptoms of ADD) to a peak performer who's name is on the lips of Associate Directors and Directors all over the Fortune 50 company I work for.
ADD is real. I have it. I would hope you would not wish this useful medication to be discontinued from me.
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