Antidepressants kill again

This Web only Speakout has not been edited.

Edward C. Krug, Ph.D

Thursday, February 28, 2008

We have just had another antidepressant-induced murderous rampage at
a school. As a biochemist and minister, I need to point out some things
that are missing in the public discussion of these tragedies.

? First, these antidepressants cause chemical imbalances. The body
is well perfected by God and evolution. When you introduce an outside
chemical to change the body, the body pushes back, reacts. For example,
when you first start drinking coffee for the extra energy, you get
jangles or nerves, the result of a chemical imbalance. Continue
drinking coffee and the caffeine lift decreases as your body
compensates to the chemical imbalance created by the caffeine. Stop
drinking coffee and you get headaches as your body adapts to the
chemical imbalance caused by caffeine withdrawal. Antidepressants
create far worse chemical imbalances.

? There is no chemical imbalance that causes the depression. This is
an advertiser’s lie. Some, long term, inescapable problem causes the
person to feel like they are being slowly destroyed. This is called
suppression. Strongly suppressed people become depressed. The chemicals
are balanced for the stress the person is undergoing. Giving the person
drugs that make them feel happier does nothing to change the
suppression. They just tolerate it better. If they are lucky,
conditions change and they escape the suppression, and the drug is said
to have worked. Often, the antidepressants don’t work because the
suppression is not handled.

? How the person reacts to the drug-induced chemical imbalances
depends on the nature of the suppression that caused the person to
become depressed. Murder and suicide are just the reactions that get
noticed. These individuals have battled the suppression long before
they became depressed and the anger and desperation built up determines
how they lash out under the antidepressant-induced chemical-imbalance.
Without the suppression and drugs, they would be fairly normal people.

? The drug-induced chemical imbalance affects another principal of
biology: Use it or lose it! The ability to cope with stress is a skill.
Under the influence of these happy pills, the ability to cope
deteriorates. Remove the drugs, and the stress is now too much, and the
person takes desperate measures.

? These antidepressants also erode the moral compass we all have.
Normally, the idea of causing damage to our self or others stresses us,
but less so under antidepressants. Under continued suppression, and
now, with a weakened moral compass, people still look for ways to fight
back. Elaborate plans can be developed, as we have seen at these school
mass murders. Once the person has a plan on how to fight back, a
calmness and determination sets it. The moral compass is discarded. The
rest is history, and the future.

? These murderous rampages will continue to happen because
Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising of pharmaceuticals is increasing
antidepressant consumption and annual multi-billion dollar sales, paid
for by tax dollars and insurance dollars.

Advertising works! Describe a condition well enough and anybody
listening will believe they have it, and ask for medicine. It must be
true if they say it often enough! Our government is spending millions
in the war against drugs, and the pharmaceutical companies are spending
so much more to keep us taking more drugs. Antidepressant consumption
has skyrocketed. Antidepressant drugs are now measurable in river water
leaving major cities, and occasionally in city drinking water. As drug
sales go up, the violence will only get worse.

? Two actions are required. First, repeal direct-to-consumer drug
advertising! Call your congressman, demand it! Second, be a friend,
care, take time to listen, and be willing to butt in to stop
suppression, bullying and injustice. This message has been repeated by
great people throughout history; Love thy Neighbor. Drugs are not
answer. Listening and understanding is. The wrong thing to do is
nothing. A punch line to an old joke says it best. We don’t need
psychiatrists; we have friends!

Edward C. Krug, Ph.D. is a resident of Denver.