Maddie Yates, Teen’s Prozac-induced suicide
Yet another Louisville antidepressant-induced tragedy but certainly not the only one over the past 25 years. How very sad and tragic that they continue this many years later … Maddie Yates, a teen in Louisville, KY has committed suicide on Prozac after posting online that she was going to do so. Louisville, KY, of all places – right where Joseph Wesbecker, on Prozac, went on the 1989 big shooting spree at the printing company where he worked in Louisville, KY thus blowing open the controversy about Prozac and violence.
From my book Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? – Our Serotonin Nightmare, we read about this case: “On September 14, 1989, Joseph Wesbecker blew the lid off the Pandora’s box unveiling one of the most terrible of the paradoxical reactions to Prozac when he walked into his former place of employment, Louisville, Kentucky’s Standard Gravure Corp., took the elevator to the third floor, and as the elevator doors opened, started firing with an AK-47 semiautomatic assault rifle. In what authorities called a ‘blood bath you don’t get over,’ Wesbecker took eight lives and wounded twelve others before taking his own life.”
When the makers of Prozac were sued by the surviving family members of those who lost their lives along with some of the survivors of the shooting spree we were not told, but later learned, the case was a set up to make Prozac appear completely safe and not the instigator of this blood bath. Apparently it worked well in Louisville, KY with few hearing that Judge John Potter was brave enough to spend the next two years proving this case in his courtroom was settled by Lilly in the middle of the trial and then allowed to go to a not guilty verdict. Why? So that Lilly could go on national television bragging that Prozac had been found to be safe and not the cause of this tragic violence.
No one ever knew just how much was paid out on the case, but in one instance Judge Potter found indication of one survivor getting about $50 Million. We do know that it has been reported that during the decade that Mitch Daniels, now the head of Purdue where we recently had another bizarre case of a violent murder by a young man suffering depression, headed Eli Lilly there was a total of ONE BILLION paid out to keep all this controversy about Prozac and violence and suicide quiet.
So here is yet another tragic and senseless death as a result of that silence TWENTY-FIVE years later!!! Although reported as a suicide I say this was NOT suicide! This was murder, premeditated murder! And I will explain why it qualifies as such….
Who is responsible for Maddie’s death and why do I call it a “premeditated” murder?
#1 Eli Lilly, the makers of Prozac, who were told by their own scientists BEFORE Prozac went on the market that the drug itself was actually CAUSING suicide and chose to ignore those warnings and instead chose to blame the suicides on the patient’s “underlying disorder.”
#2 The FDA for issuing the strongest warning possible for increased suicidal ideation for anyone under the age of 25 who takes ANY antidepressant they have ever approved and ANY antidepressant they approve in the future except for Prozac which works like all the rest of them.
#3 The doctor who was stupid enough to give a child this drug when it is in the same family of drugs as all the others with Black Box Warnings for suicide. What is wrong with reading just a little research when a life is at stake – especially a life like Maddie’s that had only just begun?
Everything Maddie lists as her reasons for her death are all commonly reported side effects of antidepressants – the feeling like you are evil or have something evil inside you, cursing and saying hurtful things you do not even remember saying and certainly do not mean to say, and seeing no hope of ever getting better since these drugs only make depression worse, instead of better, because the hypothesis behind the drugs is backwards. Serotonin is NOT low in depression, but elevated. What is low is a person’s ability to metabolize serotonin – exactly what antidepressants are designed to do thus leading to long term worsening of depression.
I repeat, this was premeditated murder and it needs to stop!
I am so sick and tired of seeing these! For 25 years I have spent every penny I had trying to stop it, to get the truth out before more die, but the almighty $$$$ is far too important to those responsible not only for the death of Maddie Yates, but far too many others! How many more are we going to allow them to kill? Yes, I said “allow” because we are condoning these deaths by allowing these drugs to remain on the market and to continue their ridiculous advertising of them.
Maddie Yate’s original story and what she posted online: http://www.buzzfeed.com/tracyclayton/a-high-school-student-committed-suicide-after-posting-a-mess?fb_action_ids=10203407662933182&fb_action_types=og.comments&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,
International Coalition for Drug Awareness
www.drugawareness.org & http://ssristories.drugawareness.org
Author: ”Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? – Our Serotonin Nightmare – The Complete Truth of the Full Impact of Antidepressants Upon Us & Our World” & Withdrawal CD “Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant!”
WITHDRAWAL HELP: You can find the hour and a half long CD on safe and effective withdrawal helps here: http://store.drugawareness.org/ And if you need additional consultations with Ann Blake-Tracy, you can book one at www.drugawareness.org or sign up for one of the memberships for the International Coalition for Drug Awareness which includes free consultations as one of the benefits of that particular membership plan.
WITHDRAWAL WARNING: In sharing this information about adverse reactions to antidepressants I always recommend that you also give reference to my CD on safe withdrawal, Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant!, so that we do not have more people dropping off these drugs too quickly – a move which I have warned from the beginning can be even more dangerous than staying on the drugs!
The FDA also now warns that any abrupt change in dose of an antidepressant can produce suicide, hostility or psychosis. These reactions can either come on very rapidly or even be delayed for months depending upon the adverse effects upon sleep patterns when the withdrawal is rapid!
Jefferson County Public Schools temporarily shut down student access to Twitter and YouTube after learning of Yates’ passing and the video she made.
She was planning to participate in a fundraising walk to raise money and awareness for suicide prevention in memory of her friend, Brianna Berrier, who also committed suicide almost exactly one year before Yates’ passing.
Yates and two friends visited Berrier’s grave on April 12, the anniversary of her death, just days before Yates took her own life.
By her social media activities, Yates seemed a bright, happy youth, posting smiling pictures with friends and maintaining a makeup channel on YouTube.
In the above video, she encourages kids to be accepting of others and preaches the importance of staying strong and optimistic.
These videos exist in stark contrast to Yates’ final video, simply entitled “Important,” where she speaks emotionally of her love for others and declares herself “not a good person.”
A still from the final video.
The video is a heart-shattering look into her struggle with depression and anxiety. On her decision to commit suicide, she said, “I just don’t see how this is a bad idea,” and described it as the difference between deciding to jump from a burning building or staying in it and dying “a slow, excruciating death.”
“I’ve been like this for so long,” she said, “and there’s still a chance that the worst day might be coming.”
Yates was a writer, some of her work and biographies hint at her struggles.
Her Booksie bio contains the Doug Stanhope quote: “Life is like a movie, if you’ve sat through more than half of it and it’s sucked every second so far, it probably isn’t gonna get great right at the end and make it all worthwhile. None should blame you for walking out early.”
In a poem posted to her Teen Ink page called “Falling Asleep,” she envisions herself as a “cold dead body.”
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