Keep taking the tablets
I watched a programme last night.
It was one of those investigatory type programmes and this time their subject was antidepressants.
I’m a bit of an expert on these having been stuck on them for God knows how many years. I think I remember the original reason for being prescribed them but one of the glories of them is that they are extremely difficult to stop. So I just keep taking ’em as they do less damage that way.
The programme concentrated on SSRIs and in particular Prozac. It was not a very edifying programme. They mainly concentrated on the long term effects of SSRIs and the problems with withdrawal. Not only were the withdrawal symptoms rather nasty but they can in fact be permanent.
So the question arose as to whether Pharma knew of these side effects and the problems of withdrawal. The answer is yes and no. Initially they promised the world that quitting was easy – just stop taking them. However they were aware of side effects and even more important that they only had a marginal beneficial effect. Naturally the results of trials were run through mincing machines and .presto, results showed they were a miraculous cure and a panacea for all ills.
Many years later studies are being done on the long term effects and some of the results are not very pretty. In the meantime of course Big Pharma had been raking in billions every year on their “wonder drugs”.
The programme exposed a litany of false advertising, deliberate concealment of facts and cooking the numbers on a massive scale.
SSRIs are not the wonder drug they promised.
And then along comes the mRNA vaccine.
Another wonder drug with no studies on long term problems
Another exposé in a decade or two?
Being on sertraline for a number of years, I realise that if I miss even a dose I feel the impact. I am not sure now if I could cope with withdrawal.
Apparently the only way to stop taking SSRIs is to reduce the dose gradually over a number of weeks or months. As tablets invariably come in fixed doses, people have resorted to crushing them in liquid and then measuring out ever decreasing doses of the liquid, a few milliliters at a step. Occasionally I will forget to take a dose. Sometimes I don’t notice the difference and other times I feel just plain weird. I would love to quit the whole lot to be honest but it looks like a life-long business.
I always though antidepressants were for short term use and not as a lifestyle. Carefully controlled by a doctor. If used for a short term then I would envisage that the withdrawal symptoms would be significantly reduced.
It is just that doctors have just handed them out like sweeties as they were told there would be no issue with withdrawal and it saved arguments with the depressed.
Yet another example of Doctors taking the easy route. My old Doctor wouldn’t prescribe them by default as he though they did more damage than good. My current Doctor, I don’t know.
Pharmaceutical companies don’t like curing anything. No profit in that.
The time I was put on them the general opinion [amongst GPs] was that they were’t addictive and were easy to quit. By the time the truth came out, it was too late. My current Doc is a different animal [and a better one]. He is loath to give out any tablets at all unless absolutely necessary, such as for heart complaints.
I don’t blame the GPs. They can only be guided by Big Pharma and its trials. The latter are the real criminals in their constant drive for obscene profit at out expense.
We can blame the GPs, especially when they undertake ‘statistical prescribing’ like with statins. It may be true that 20% of people benefit from statins, but that’s no excuse for prescribing them to 100% of a patient-type.
Who knows what damage they’re causing to the other 80%? Medication should only ever be prescribed personally, with the realistic expectation that the recipient will gain active benefit from it.
But who knows what tempting inducements Big Pharma dangles before the GPs . . . . .
One thing I think I can safely say about Doc is that he gets few if any inducements. He never goes off to foreign “conferences” [i.e. a Pharma led bash] and the only holiday he gets is a week or two in Kerry. He tends to plough his own furrow and I respect him for that.
The problem with anti-depressants is the main side effect is: May cause depression. Me? I’m deathly allergic to the stuff so problem there.