Category: news

Serious emotional side-effects of antidepressants reported by more than 50% (media release)

Results: Eight of the 20 adverse effects studied were reported by over half the participants; most frequently Sexual Difficulties (62%) and Feeling Emotionally Numb (60%). Percentages for other effects included: Feeling Not Like Myself - 52%, Reduction In Positive Feelings - 42%, Caring Less About Others - 39%, Suicidality - 39% and Withdrawal Effects - 55%. Total Adverse Effect scores were related to younger age, lower education and income, and type of antidepressant, but not to level of depression prior to taking antidepressants. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

How Big Pharma profits from war

by PAUL WOODWARD Yes, the medicating of combat troops has been done in such a way that it constitutes a form of drug abuse. A year ago the Army Surgeon General warned that medications being widely used to treat PTSD risk making the condition worse. And the dramatic rise in suicides has been widely linked to the effects of suicide-triggering medications. But there is a gaping whole in Friedman’s commentary: no recognition that the misprescribing of psychiatric drugs by military doctors does not so much contrast with the practice of civilian doctors — it is merely an amplification of already excessive use in the wider population. … [click on title to read the rest]

How Monsanto is killing off the monarch butterfly

by PAUL WOODWARD Thanks to its lackeys in the Senate, just a few days ago Monsanto (the manufacturer of Roundup and Roundup-ready GMO crops) got a legal waiver that effectively bypasses consideration of the safety of its products. … [click on title to read the rest]

Poisoning the planet for profit

by PAUL WOODWARD The mealy-mouthed, equivocating, spineless New York Times reports on the devastating loss in bee populations caused by what is termed “colony collapse disorder.” The insidious feature of this report is that while it highlights the magnitude of the problem, it implies that concern about the dangers from pesticides is prevalent mostly among beekeepers — as though scientists remain largely agnostic on how much harm derives from chemicals, as opposed for instance to naturally occurring viral epidemics. The takeaway narrative is that humble beekeepers, perturbed by their losses are afraid of the chemicals, scientists are earnestly investigating the issue, while industry meekly awaits the results, happy to be guided by whatever science reveals. … [click on title to read the rest]

Yoga: it works!

Yoga has been an integral part of healing my body/mind/spirit after the assault upon all of them by the long-term use of psych drugs and the subsequent withdrawal. Yoga helped me regain my strength after 2 years of having been bed-ridden ...yeah, it got me back in physical shape. Just as important it strengthens my general sense of well-being and confidence in my capacity to heal. Yoga can be foundational to well-being, in a general and broad sense, and that is why it has so many applications.

Top 10 posts of 2012 with commentary

This is a top ten posts of the year list with some additional commentary. Some posts with very important information got the attention they deserved this year. I was pleased to see it also included a FUN post...one that stars Henry the Cat! The readers of this blog may be interested in some very serious issues, but we also know how to have fun. So the top ten in order:

DSM‘s Somatoform Disorders: millions more might be diagnosed (those with withdrawal syndrome are high risk for such misdiagnosis)

The Somatic Symptom Disorder category is also of particular concern to those who are suffering from drug iatrogenesis and particularly psychiatric drug withdrawal syndromes. One of the common manifestations of debilitation when struck with withdrawal syndromes are numerous, often bizarre, acute, painful and disabling physical sensations. They include varieties of neuropathies and parasthesias. They are NOT in the patients head. And since the drug use caused these disabling symptoms more drugs to cure them is exactly the wrong way to go. This, of course, already happens. Many people are wrongly diagnosed when they start manifesting adverse reactions or acute withdrawal to drugs. They are often already disbelieved when they start reporting such adverse events.

Adverse Childhood Experiences: Risk Factors for Substance Abuse and Mental Health

Dr. Robert Anda, emphasizes that most mental health problems and substance abuse issues are not genetically determined even if there is some genetic association. More important is the environment that people are subjected to when they are young. If we prevent adverse child experiences we will prevent most of what gets labeled mental illness. These injurious childhood experiences are very common. That means we need to heal society. That means we need to heal the whole family. That means we need to heal ourselves.

What Happened When Portugal Decriminalized Drugs? (resounding SUCCESS)

The government in Portugal has no plans to back down. Although the Netherlands is the European country most associated with liberal drug laws, it has already been ten years since Portugal became the first European nation to take the brave step of decriminalizing possession of all drugs within its borders—from marijuana to heroin, and everything in between. This controversial move went into effect in June of 2001, in response to the country's spiraling HIV/AIDS statistics. While many critics in the poor and largely conservative country attacked the sea change in drug policy, fearing it would lead to drug tourism while simultaneously worsening the country's already shockingly high rate of hard drug use, a report published in 2009 by the Cato Institute tells a different story. Glenn Greenwald, the attorney and author who conducted the research, told Time: "Judging by every metric, drug decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success. It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country.

Blaming the mentally ill for violence is bad public policy as well as just plain misguided

Another repost of an article that talks sense from the last time we had a tragic shooting. The aftermath of these things are always horrifying in a completely other way as “normal” people completely lose all sense of reality and terror starts reigning supreme, leading to another sort of dangerousness, more insidious than what triggered it.

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