dr peter breggin

Apr

2023

Big Pharma and Nashville Shooting

How To Taper Off Pharmaceutical Drugs

or How to Get Back to Normal

or Why On Earth Should One Not Do Pharmaceutical Drugs

or What Is Killing North America

or School Shootings and Big Pharma

or What Is The Most Dangerous Age Group For Anti Depressants?

A good friend recently conveyed his story coming off anti depressants. The telling was considerably shorter than the coming off. Well, sort of. After being on an anti depressant for a few years and feeling that it was making him worse than before, he went cold turkey.

This is very difficult for anyone. It is also extremely dangerous. Not recommended. These anti-depressants are horribly addictive. The professionals that monitor tapering off advise doing so in very small increments over weeks and months, sometimes years.

Most times the reactions of coming off can be far worse than the effects of the drugs themselves. And most times much worse than not doing them in the first place.

Some of the withdrawal symptoms can include headaches, burning, electric-like or shock-like sensations, insomnia, drowsiness, not feeling like oneself (a disconnected feeling), dissociation, impotence, tingling, fatigue, nausea, headache, light-headedness, chills, body aches, vomiting, cramps, diarrhea, dizziness, vertigo, nightmares, vivid dreams, light-headiness to name just a few. Withdrawal symptoms can last from weeks to months.

“…can be notoriously difficult to quit because stopping can produce withdrawal-like symptoms referred to as "discontinuation syndrome.”

Very Well Mind

One of the more prominent doctors that encourage tapering off pharmaceuticals but also give an exact science as to doing so, is Dr Peter Breggin. Dr Breggin wrote a book dedicated to the subject. It’s called Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. Read his article here: Dr Breggin Book.

Another doctor that has been a great help to a great many tapering off anti depressants and anti anxiety pills is Dr Kelly Brogan. Dr Brogan stresses the need for coming off these drugs properly. Her website is filled with natural, holistic ways of being healthy, sane and stable without the need for mind altering drugs. Spend some time there.

If you read through the websites of Dr Breggin and Dr Brogan, you will see some of the dangers of anti-depressants and anti anxiety pills. Some of the more dangerous side effects of anti-depressants are ‘depression’, ‘suicide ideation’, ‘panic disorder’ and violent behaviour.

“…for 15 to 24 year-olds, the findings were more grim: There was a very substantial increase – 43 percent – in their risk of committing violent crimes while on antidepressants.” - The Heart and Mind Institute

So, in light of the recent shooting in Nashville, Tennessee by 28-year-old Audrey Hale - she was a being treated for a ‘mental disorder’. This has been the case with far the majority of school shootings. Given the side effects of the drugs likely given plus other treatments it is far from surprising that she acted out this violent ideation.

An excerpt from risk.org explains it a little more thoroughly.

“Dissociative experiences

Dissociative experiences refer to unusual changes in perception and feelings, often involving a sense of detachment.

Antidepressants can cause a number of dissociative experiences including:

▪ Amnesia

▪ Déjà vu

▪ Depersonalization

▪ Derealization

▪ Hallucinations

▪ Prominent nightmares or lucid dreaming

Depersonalisation is an experience of feeling strange and unusual, almost as though you are not really yourself anymore, or that you are in a kind of a dream or haze.

Derealisation refers to a similar set of feelings and perceptions, but in this case it is the world itself that seems strange or unreal; everything may seem far away or staged in some way – as though life is being watched rather than lived.

Depersonalisation and derealisation are relatively common on antidepressants.”

Remember that the above are side effects of the drugs, not the reason for doing them. Feelings and actions created by taking the drugs. So, the most dangerous age group for anti depressants and anti anxiety are the young.

If you are truly interested in finding out more I’ve put together a few references:

Resources On Psychiatry

Oct

2017

Drug your Children!

Before you allow your children to be subjected to the dubious wonders of drugs like Ritalin, read this article by Dr. Breggin. He outlines exactly what various drugs actually do to the brain. It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear of some child's parent resorting to drugs to 'handle' any trouble they might be having.

Believe it or not, Doctors are paid big bucks to hand out these things and most of them have not done their own proper research as to side effects etc.

Psychiatric Drug Facts

Here is a short excerpt from the article:

"Antipsychotic drugs, including both older and newer ones, cause shrinkage (atrophy) of the brain in many human brain scan studies and in animal autopsy studies. The newer atypicals especially cause a well-documented metabolic syndrome including elevated blood sugar, diabetes, increased cholesterol, obesity and hypertension. They also produce dangerous cardiac arrhythmias and unexplained sudden death, and they significantly reduce longevity. In addition, they cause all the problems of the older drugs, such as Thorazine and Haldol, including tardive dyskinesia, a largely permanent and sometimes disabling and painful movement disorder caused by brain damage and biochemical disruptions.

Risperdal in particular but others as well cause potentially permanent breast enlargement in young boys and girls. The overall risk of harmful long-term effects from antipsychotic drugs exceeds the capacity of this review. Withdrawal from antipsychotic drugs can cause overwhelming emotional and neurological suffering, as well as psychosis in both children and adults, making complete cessation at times very difficult or impossible.

Despite their enormous risks, the newer antipsychotic drugs are now frequently used off-label to treat anything from anxiety and depression to insomnia and behavior problems in children. Two older antipsychotic drugs, Reglan and Compazine, are used for gastrointestinal problems, and despite small or short-term dosing, they too can cause problems, including tardive dyskinesia." (...more..)