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RFK Jr. Is Already Taking Aim at Antidepressants
mother jones ^ | 02/14/2025 | Kiera Butler

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: antidepressants; kierabutler; rfkjr
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To: blackdog

How different was the government office dynamics in “Blazing Saddles”, one spec of a difference than that of the Biden Office of government?


Biden was “President” Lepetomane. Just signing whatever Hedley Lamarr put in front of him.


81 posted on 02/15/2025 10:03:53 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Meeting is adjourned!

It is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVG1uClfOKs


82 posted on 02/15/2025 10:04:45 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: yldstrk

I tried an anti-depressant for a short while but finally decided that with what I was going through I ought to be depressed and it was normal. The issue became how to fix the problem - which eventually got worked out.


83 posted on 02/15/2025 10:05:36 AM PST by Aria (Voted for Trump 2016, 2020 & 10/22/2024 )
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To: FreeReign

Actually, I believe the article is technically correct. I seem to recall that the most dangerous time (most likely time to flip out) with SSRIs is the first couple days of going cold turkey.


84 posted on 02/15/2025 10:09:32 AM PST by BikerJoe
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To: BenLurkin

Is Mother Jones another federally funded NGO?


85 posted on 02/15/2025 10:12:48 AM PST by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they. control you. )
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To: dandiegirl

I went to a doctor right about when the prozac craze came out. I went in for a heart issue. The doctor, a young guy, walked in with a bag full of “free” prozac samples and handed them to me. WTF does that have to do with an irregular heartbeat? (Turns out it was a food allergy) Never went back to him.


86 posted on 02/15/2025 10:17:01 AM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: Islander7

Same, since 1990


87 posted on 02/15/2025 10:17:13 AM PST by married21 (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: johniegrad

“The solution is to substitute a longer half-life SSRI to get the patient off the shorter half-life drug. Prozac’s half life is in the range of 36 -48 hours.”

Yes, can help immensely with discontinuation syndrome. And the Prozac can still be tapered.


88 posted on 02/15/2025 10:18:08 AM PST by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: MTBobcat

agreed


89 posted on 02/15/2025 10:19:21 AM PST by Bob434 (...Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: 2nd Amendment

Yes. Thank you!


90 posted on 02/15/2025 10:19:29 AM PST by married21 (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: Toespi

“He immediately took me off the thyroid medication and within ten days my depression and anxiety resolved.”

That is most interesting.


91 posted on 02/15/2025 10:22:05 AM PST by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: Toespi

yeah but soem depression is severe, unrelenting, and very very negative thoughts- all the time- an it appears that htere is a medical reason, dopamine, or lack thereof, involved-


92 posted on 02/15/2025 10:22:40 AM PST by Bob434 (...Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: Toespi

Can you tell me the “rare condition”?


93 posted on 02/15/2025 10:26:45 AM PST by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: Toespi

Depression isn’t just about what mood you are in. It can affect your ability to remember, concentrate, learn, even drive attentively. It can be debilitating in a way that costs you your job. You need the chemicals in your brain to be circulating properly. Prozac helps with that. The chemical gateways that allow substance has to pass in and out of your cells aren’t always perfect. It was explained to me, that some of us have metaphorically, gateways that are a little too small. The medication is intended to work around that problem. Adjusting one’s behavior can only go part way toward addressing the problem. There is an underlying biochemical difficulty which must be solved. That is what Prozac does. Over prescribed? I wouldn’t know. But when correctly prescribed, it makes holding down a job, and driving safely, possible.


94 posted on 02/15/2025 10:28:37 AM PST by married21 (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: BenLurkin

To RFK Jr:

Have the tech guys run a list of all suicides in the US since 2010. Next run the names on that list against their Affordable Care Act medical records for SSRI prescriptions.

You will find an exceedingly high match. Now allow the family members to sue Big Pharma for grief and loss of income. Not only will they pull these dangerous drugs off the market and substitute ones without suicide as a side effect, they would not push product to market that their own internal studies show to have high risk side effects of their poisons in the future.


95 posted on 02/15/2025 10:37:41 AM PST by anonsquared
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To: steve86

Just a heads up on the thyroid. I was hypothyroid for years and treated with
synthroid. Dosage had been changed occasionally but seemed stable. Then
In my forties I started having periodic episodes of intense anxiety followed by depression/exhaustion. The endocrinologist found my thyroid was fluctuating. I would go from hyperthyroid to hypothyroid. When my phase was hyper and taking the synthyroid, it was like an overdose of thyroid hormone. Then it would transition to no production and I would swing back to hypo along with adrenal exhaustion from the hyper phase. The endocrinologist called the thyroid the bodies second brain


96 posted on 02/15/2025 10:39:58 AM PST by Toespi
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To: BenLurkin

Oh my god. This is cruelty. How will the deep state cope?


97 posted on 02/15/2025 10:41:36 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: BenLurkin

Lexapro is absolutely addictive; the withdrawal effects were nasty for me.


98 posted on 02/15/2025 11:19:19 AM PST by SovereignVA
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To: Toespi

“Then in my forties I started having periodic episodes of intense anxiety followed by depression/exhaustion.”

I am much older but that is exactly what is happening to me. On levothyroxine for several years.


99 posted on 02/15/2025 11:19:48 AM PST by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carcerem™)
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To: BenLurkin

Mormons are further depressed...


100 posted on 02/15/2025 11:22:42 AM PST by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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