Tackdriver, I'm a school teacher and I also sometimes work at a summer camp. I'm not a psychiatrist, but I do see the effects of the prescription culture on a daily basis and I can tell you that although some people on this thread might be mistaken as to cause and effect, they are not "talking out their rear ends." There's something going on here.
You say it's a chicken and egg question, but how then do you answer Neal Knox when he says to look for the variable that has changed? The drugs these people are taking are the biggest changes. Now, it's possible that depressed people have always been the ones committing these kinds of murders, so that now, when most depressed people are on medication, the medication would be involved even if it doesn't cause the person to act out.
But with the lack of studies, I have to rely on anecdotal evidence and common sense. I have several kids in my class on medication, and none of them need it. That's right, there are NO kids who need medication in my classes. Many of them could use better parenting IMO, but medication doesn't solve their problems. If you don't know that it's wrong to hit people, medicating you to the point that you don't feel like doing much is not going to teach you not to hit people.
My sister was depressed a couple of years ago. She went to a therapist, who saw her once, prescribed Zoloft, and made no effort at other treatment. She went INSANE. She had been depressed before, yes. But now she began accusing me of trying to break up her relationship with her boyfriend, shrieking like a wildcat at the slightest or no provocation. Again, I'm not a doctor, but it seemed to me that she was manic and depressive, not to mention inexpressably angry all the time. So she stopped taking the drug. She was depressed again for awhile; then she found a better job, clarified some things with her boyfriend, and by improving her life, seems to have gotten rid of her depression with no chemical help at all.
I'm NOT saying that all depressed people should "just get over it" or anything like that. I'm just saying that if Danielle could snap out of her depression and get over it by getting out of her rut, it doesn't seem to me to have been a chemical problem--so why were chemicals prescribed? Why are chemicals with unpredictable properties being prescribed for people, especially children, who don't seem to need them in the first place?
(If it seems like I was loaded for bear, I apologize. I had exactly this discussion with my wife in the car last night.)
You say it's a chicken and egg question, but how then do you answer Neal Knox when he says to look for the variable that has changed? The drugs these people are taking are the biggest changes. Now, it's possible that depressed people have always been the ones committing these kinds of murders, so that now, when most depressed people are on medication, the medication would be involved even if it doesn't cause the person to act out.
But with the lack of studies, I have to rely on anecdotal evidence and common sense. I have several kids in my class on medication, and none of them need it. That's right, there are NO kids who need medication in my classes. Many of them could use better parenting IMO, but medication doesn't solve their problems. If you don't know that it's wrong to hit people, medicating you to the point that you don't feel like doing much is not going to teach you not to hit people.
My sister was depressed a couple of years ago. She went to a therapist, who saw her once, prescribed Zoloft, and made no effort at other treatment. She went INSANE. She had been depressed before, yes. But now she began accusing me of trying to break up her relationship with her boyfriend, shrieking like a wildcat at the slightest or no provocation. Again, I'm not a doctor, but it seemed to me that she was manic and depressive, not to mention inexpressably angry all the time. So she stopped taking the drug. She was depressed again for awhile; then she found a better job, clarified some things with her boyfriend, and by improving her life, seems to have gotten rid of her depression with no chemical help at all.
I'm NOT saying that all depressed people should "just get over it" or anything like that. I'm just saying that if Danielle could snap out of her depression and get over it by getting out of her rut, it doesn't seem to me to have been a chemical problem--so why were chemicals prescribed? Why are chemicals with unpredictable properties being prescribed for people, especially children, who don't seem to need them in the first place?
(If it seems like I was loaded for bear, I apologize. I had exactly this discussion with my wife in the car last night.)
