Would you like a little Prozac or Zoloft with your water???

A Decade Later Additional Heightened Concerns About Pharmaceuticals inWater

An absolutely EXCELLENT article on this issue!!!! This kind of concern was first raised a decade ago in 2000. We sent out the information far and wide then. Clearly few knew enough to be concerned. But now with further study the results are shockingly confirming all we warned of in 2000! Those results are especially telling when it comes to fish being given low doses of Prozac . . . the bizarre changes inbehavior, etc.

DO NOT sit around and say it is only fish, there is no need to worry. Our entire world is balanced with each species playing an extremely important role. We do not survive if they do not survive!

And be sure to note what is said about the chlorine/flouride additives to our water when combined with these drugs! Snyder, the Arizona expert, is stating that we as humans are exposed to more of these disinfecting chemicals in our water than anything while they are so “understudied.” The truth about chemicals is that we know SO LITTLEabout any of them that we have absolutely no idea what we are exposing ourselves and our posterity to and where it could lead us as a society. Tragically the mess inwhich we now find ourselves could be a warning of what is to come if we do not wake up soon to our own insane belief system of “Better Living Through Chemistry”! We are quickly learning that we are far from invincible!!

Find below some of the highlights of this article that need to be emphasized:

- Bryan Brooks has spent a lot of time wading in Pecan Creek, a small Denton stream, searching for mutant fish. For some time, Brooks and his colleagues from the University of North Texas were observing strange things in North Texas fish—males turning into females, for example—but were unable to blame them on traditional waterpollutants like metals. The environmental toxicologists thought the mutations might have something to do with other compounds like pharmaceuticals that were showing up in freshwater streams.

Over time, they collected a bunch of fish and tested their flesh in the lab. Sure enough, they found fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline (Zoloft) and their human metabolites in every catfish, crappie and bluegill they tested. It was the first time researchers had proved that these human drugs were showing up in wild fish.

- Toxicologists have just begun the difficult task of figuring out what effects these contaminants might have on human health. A single contaminant might do nothing. Butin combination with others, the effect could be enhanced, particularly for vulnerable groups like children or pregnant women. What sort of health effects arise from complex mixtures of chemicals in drinking water?

photo courtesy Baylor University Bryan Brooks

Bryan Brooks has spent a lot of time wading in Pecan Creek, a small Denton stream, searching for mutant fish. For some time, Brooks and his colleagues from the University of North Texas were observing strange things in North Texas fish—males turning into females, for example—but were unable to blame them on traditional waterpollutants like metals. The environmental toxicologists thought the mutations might have something to do with other compounds like pharmaceuticals that were showing up in freshwater streams.

Over time, they collected a bunch of fish and tested their flesh in the lab. Sure enough, they found fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline (Zoloft) and their human metabolites inevery catfish, crappie and bluegill they tested. It was the first time researchers had proved that these human drugs were showing up in wild fish.

Brooks (now at Baylor University) is part of a growing legion of scientists and regulators studying “emerging contaminants,” a loose definition of chemicals that include prescription and over-the-counter drugs, flame retardants, animal hormones, pesticides, plasticizers and cosmetics, to name a few. Many of these unregulated contaminants pass through wastewater treatment plants and end up in streams, exposing fish and other aquatic life to an exotic chemical cocktail.

More worrisome: The same chemical-infused water ends up in our drinking water.

Take Pecan Creek. During dry spells, Pecan Creek consists of effluent from Denton’s wastewater treatment plant. The stream then flows into Lake Lewisville, a drinkingwater supply for millions in Dallas-Fort Worth. The toilet-to-tap phenomenon is becoming more common as cities look to recycled wastewater to offset diminishing freshwater supplies.

Dallas, like dozens of other cities in Texas and around the nation, has detected trace amounts of emerging contaminants in its water supplies.

“You name the compound; somebody has probably found it in somebody’s watersource or the effluent coming out of the [treatment plant],” says Charles Stringer, an assistant director of Dallas Water Utilities.

The same holds for tap water. Unwittingly, Americans are drinking a cornucopia of chemicals—albeit in tiny amounts—that in many cases we know little about.

In the most comprehensive, peer-reviewed study to date, the Southern Nevada WaterAuthority tested the tap water of 15 utilities that collectively serve 28 million Americans. Thirteen had measurable levels of contaminants, including the anti-convulsant phenytoin, the pesticide atrazine and the insecticide DEET.

Such reports have roused public concern and convinced the federal government to take a tentative step. In October, the EPA announced it’s considering pharmaceuticalsfor regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

In Texas, water utilities and elected officials are only beginning to grapple with the problem. A task force created by the Texas Legislature in 2009 is looking into ways to keep pharmaceuticals out of landfills and wastewater systems. On the local level, cities are not required by federal law to test wastewater or drinking water plants for emerging contaminants. Many choose not to, partly out of fear that the results will be misinterpreted.

“If you say you’ve got aspirin in your water at one picogram per liter, somebody says, oh my god there’s aspirin in the water,” Stringer says. “The cities that are trying to be proactive and look at it are getting the hell beat out of them.”

Dallas is proactive, Stringer says. In November, the U.S. Geological Survey published the results of extensive sampling in the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, a drinking watersource for Dallas that is downstream from other cities’ discharges. The scientists also tested the water after it had been treated for people’s taps. The federal agency found that 38 of the 42 most frequently detected compounds in the river water—including the pesticide atrazine, the gasoline additive MTBE (banned in some states) and the toxic insecticide Diazinon, whose sale is illegal for non-agricultural purposes—made it into the tap water. While the concentrations didn’t exceed federal or state standards, the study notes that only half of the detected compounds have human-health benchmarksin those standards.

The city of San Marcos commissioned Texas State University toxicologist Glenn Longley and one of his students to test surface water there for 23 emerging contaminants—pharmaceuticals, fire retardants, fragrances, pesticides and others. While Longley found 18 chemicals in the water, only one—bisphenol A, or BPA, the controversial plasticizer found in Nalgene bottles—made it into the city’s tap water.

Most of these contaminants are not new. Some have been “emerging” in the environment for decades. But the development of ultrasensitive instruments has now enabled scientists to detect the compounds at concentrations down to parts per trillion. It’s as if a powerful new telescope suddenly picked up a galaxy in a previously dark part of the sky—the difference being that these chemicals hit uncomfortably close to home.

Toxicologists have just begun the difficult task of figuring out what effects these contaminants might have on human health. A single contaminant might do nothing. Butin combination with others, the effect could be enhanced, particularly for vulnerable groups like children or pregnant women. What sort of health effects arise from complex mixtures of chemicals in drinking water?

No one knows. One challenge, among many, is that it’s difficult to perform toxicity tests for humans. “It’s not like on the aquatic side,” says Dana Kolpin, head of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Project. “We’re doing experiments with biologists where we’re exposing minnows or other organisms to, say, effluent or spike levels. You just can’t do that with humans.”

Shane Snyder, a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Arizona and co-director of the Arizona Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants, says he’s been asked to brief a Congressional committee on this issue. It’s “very difficult” to do a risk assessment for mixtures, he says, especially when chemicals can simultaneously act on different pathways in the body. For example, one substance might damage the liver, while another present at the same time disrupts the endocrine system.

“You could get a more profound effect [collectively] than from each one separately,” says Snyder.

Snyder says there’s far more to learn—and perhaps fear—from what happens when emerging contaminants go through the treatment process. Some seem to disappear, but they could be subtly transformed into something more toxic by widely used disinfectants like chlorine.

“In my mind there is no question that humans are exposed to more disinfection byproducts than any other contaminants through their drinking water,” Snyder says. “Itconcerns me as a scientist and a toxicologist that those classes of compounds are understudied.”

About 20 percent of disinfection byproducts are regulated, Snyder says. Sixty percent haven’t even been identified.

While the effects on humans remain mysterious, the ecological effects of water-borne chemicals—even at extremely low levels—is becoming well established. And those effects can be downright bizarre.

Toxicologists and biologists have linked low concentrations of pharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants to a host of developmental, reproductive and behavioral problems in aquatic species including algae, mussels, minnows and game fish. Astudy published in 2008 by researchers at Clemson University exposed hybrid striped bass to relatively low levels of Prozac.

The results were depressing—the more Prozac in the water, the longer it took the bass to nail their prey. The fish acted strangely, too, hovering near the surface of the aquarium, sometimes with their dorsal fins poking out of the water. Others floated vertically, tails down and mouths above the water level, like a kid dog-paddling in apool.

Antidepressants like Zoloft and Prozac work in humans by increasing serotonin, anatural chemical that helps regulate brain activity and is linked to feelings of well-being.In bass, among other functions, serotonin plays a pivotal role in feeding behavior. Changes in serotonin levels can tilt the predator-prey balance and affect not just the individual, but potentially the whole ecosystem.

It’s not just antidepressants that can make aquatic life go haywire. Even infinitesimally small amounts of the synthetic estrogen in birth control drugs can induce sex reversalsin male fish and disrupt reproduction. Canadian scientists brought an entire ecosystem to the brink of collapse by introducing estrogen—at levels frequently found inmunicipal wastewater—to an experimental lake in northern Ontario.

In 2008, a researcher for Johnson & Johnson calculated that toxic effects on fish from estrogenic substances could be expected at concentrations as low as 350 parts per quadrillion.

“If you can imagine 350 parts per quadrillion,” Snyder says, “it’s unimaginably small, but yet it can have a measurable impact on fish.”

Snyder points out that well-documented impacts on wildlife are often misinterpreted to mean humans are at risk from the same levels.

“The part where people get a little bit confused is they say, well if it can impact a fish, then certainly it could impact a human,” Snyder says. “That’s just not true. You’re comparing apples to oranges.”

Consider pharmaceuticals. Drug developers are required to submit reams of pharmacological information to the Food and Drug Administration proving their drugs are safe and work as intended. They’re tested on people. The levels found in game fish and drinking water supplies, so far, are thousands of times below therapeutic levels.

Brooks provides an illustration. In a national pilot survey of five effluent-dominated rivers, the highest level of antidepressant he and the EPA found in fish tissue wasabout 19 nanograms of Zoloft per liter in a fish outside Philadelphia.

“It would take me 3,500 meals of that fish to reach one daily dose of sertraline,” Brooks says. Likewise, someone would have to drink millions of liters of tap water to reach a single dose of Zoloft.

“From what I’ve seen in the developed world, I’m just not as concerned about human health right now. I think the highest relative risk is to aquatic life,” he says.

Utility managers are sticking to that point. “What we’ve been told to tell people is that these minute traces of organics are below any known health effects,” Stringer says.

Regardless, Dallas is planning to upgrade its drinking water plants to include ozonation and biological filtration, advanced but costly processes. The utility isn’t doing it primarily to deal with emerging contaminants, but that will be an added benefit.

“What we’re hoping to see is very little organic material coming out and going into the distribution system for consumption,” Stringer says.

If a city wants to eliminate virtually all contaminants, it would need to install advanced systems like reverse osmosis, which is extraordinarily expensive.
That’s not feasible, Snyder says.

“We just can’t put the whole world’s water supply through reverse osmosis because we’re worried about emerging contaminants,” he says. “It’s going to fail. Just on the energy alone, it will fail.”

With 80,000 chemicals registered for use in the United States and new ones coming to market every year, the key could be keeping the most dangerous ones out of the environment in the first place. For thousands of chemicals, there are “zero data” on their toxicity, Brooks says.

The European Union has implemented a sweeping system called Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals, or REACH. The system requires testing thousands of old and new chemicals for human and environmental toxicity, and could lead to bans on high-risk chemicals that aren’t regulated in the United States.

Given the power of the pharmaceutical and chemical industries in this country, such asystem seems like a far-off goal. Jacobs, the environmental activist on the Texas pharmaceutical task force, says his group is advocating for something far more modest: manufacturer take-back programs in which consumers could return unused or expired drugs to pharmacies for proper disposal. He says the pharmaceutical interests on the task force are doing their best to discredit the idea.

Man pleads guilty to firing shots at country club

Geodon , the report states. The medication withdrawal produced agitation,
restlessness and anxiety, as well as depression and social avoidance, the
report states.”

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/EastVolusia/evlHEAD04112009.htm

By FRANK FERNANDEZ
Staff Writer

BUNNELL — A woman who turned a golf cart into a weapon and
intentionally ran down and dragged another woman for about 15 yards was
sentenced Thursday to three years’ probation.

Pearce
Linda Lee
Pearce, 42, of Daytona Beach entered a plea of no contest to felony battery,
which could have sent her to prison for up to five years.

Circuit Judge
Kim C. Hammond withheld adjudication, meaning the decision won’t appear as a
conviction on Pearce’s record. Hammond also ordered Pearce not to have any
contact with the victim and to pay restitution of $6,299 at $175 per month, said
Chris Kelly, spokesman for the State Attorney’s Office.

The sentence was
part of a negotiated plea made in consultation with the victim, Kelly said.

Pearce, who told a psychologist she had anger problems, declined comment
when reached by phone Thursday.

“I’m not telling you (expletive
deleted),” Pearce said before hanging up.

Pearce was arrested in March
after deputies said she intentionally ran over Verna Boylan, 57, near horseshoe
pits behind the Roadhouse Bar near Flagler Beach, according to a report from the
Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.

Boylan was watching horseshoe games on
St. Patrick’s Day when Pearce, behind the wheel of the golf cart, spotted her.
Pearce told a passenger in the cart, “Oh, there’s the (expletive) . . . I’m
going to run her over, ” according to the report.

Boylan said in a phone
interview Thursday that she heard Pearce.

“I just looked over ’cause I
heard her say that and next thing I know I was already under (the cart),” Boylan
said.

She said she feared her life was over.

“I thought that was
it,” Boylan said. “My head is going under that tire and that’s the end of me.”

She heard people shouting at Pearce.

“I heard everybody
screaming ‘stop, stop, stop,’ but she wouldn’t stop,” Boylan said. “She went
faster.”

After the cart finally stopped, Pearce made her getaway in
another golf cart. Deputies later found Pearce “visibly intoxicated” at her
home, according to the report.

Boylan was left badly bruised and
emotionally battered.

“I couldn’t think,” she said Thursday. “I was
terrified. I still am. But they just told me she can’t come near me.”

Pearce told a psychologist in August she was angry at Boylan because she
had spray-painted Pearce’s girlfriend’s car, according to a psychological
evaluation in the court file.

Boylan denied Thursday, as she has done in
the past, that she had anything to do with spray-painting the car. Boylan said
she has never had a problem with the woman who owns the car and wouldn’t do
anything to her.

Pearce told the psychologist she had been doing well on

a combination of Xanax, (for anxiety) Zoloft (for depression) and Geodon (for
bipolar disorder and other problems) but just before the golf cart incident she
no longer could get Geodon, the report states. The medication withdrawal
produced agitation, restlessness and anxiety, as well as depression and social
avoidance, the report states.

Pearce admitted to having had two or three
beers before the incident, the report states.

frank.fernandez @news-jrnl.com

Infant‘s mother testifies as Tampa boy stands trial in Georgia

death

Dressed in a shirt and tie, the skinny, dimpled boy stayed calm as the
judge delivered his verdict: “I find beyond a reasonable doubt that Millan
suffered major trauma during the 18 minutes the juvenile was alone with the
baby. … I find that the juvenile caused the injuries and that the baby later
died as a result of the trauma.

“Now, what do I think happened? This child was left alone with the baby.
I don’t know that should have happened, but it did …

“Millan, a child he really didn’t know, started crying, and it got louder
…

“He didn’t know what to do. I think he was scared. He tried using the
pacifier to make this baby stop crying. It didn’t work. What did he do
next?

“He got out the bottle of water … He gives it to the baby. The baby won’t
be quiet. Turns up the radio so he won’t have to hear this baby crying. That
didn’t work. He might have even turned it up again. Well, the pink pacifier
didn’t work. Let’s use the purple pacifier …

“This juvenile was trying to get the baby to quit crying. … He was
scared, and he didn’t know what to do. … I wouldn’t expect him to know what to
do.

“I find that in order to get the baby to be quiet, using his own means as
a 12-year-old, that he committed batteries, plural, against this baby
…

“Did this child mean that his actions would kill Millan? No …

“Technically, I think I can find possibly if I wanted to go further, some
type of an involuntary manslaughter. In my mind, I’ve still got to place this
child with some expectation, some appreciation for the horrific damage that it
has done, and I find nothing along those lines.

“Did he do wrong? Oh yeah, he did. I wish it hadn’t happened, but it
did.”

Tampa
boy, 12, found not guilty of murder in infant‘s death

By Alexandra Zayas,
Times Staff Writer
In Print:
Saturday, December 12, 2009

MARIETTA,
Ga. — The 12-year-old Tampa boy sat in the Cobb County Juvenile Courthouse
Friday morning, still an accused baby murderer. A few hours later, he chomped on
potato chips and Skittles and asked to go to the all-you-can-eat buffet at
Golden Corral. He told his family he had plans for his future.

“I want to
be a judge,” he said. “I want to go to Harvard.”

This
announcement came after one made by Judge A. Gregory Poole: The boy was not
guilty of murder and child cruelty in the July death of his 5-week-old cousin,
Millan
Young. He was guilty of a lesser offense, two counts of battery, which could
carry a two-year sentence, served either in a detention center, a group home, or
as probation while living with family. The sentence will come with
counseling.

Fl. Teen Who Was
Set on Fire Is Back in Hospital

The judge
will decide it on Jan. 6.

Had the boy
been convicted of murder, he would have faced nine years in detention.

As they
prepared to leave the courthouse, the boy‘s grandmother wrapped him in a tight
hug and told him, “See how God delivered you?”

He
responded, “Yes, ma’am.”

• • •

For three
days, lawyers tried to convince a judge of what they thought happened inside a
parked car on July 4.

The boy, his
name kept secret by court order, was visiting relatives near Atlanta when he got
into a car with his mother’s 22-year-old first cousin Brittiany Young and her
infant daughter. Young stopped at Target to get food and left the car
running.

When she
returned, she testified, the boy was playing on his cell phone. The radio was
turned up. And the baby’s mouth was swollen. Her lips were blue. Her eyes were
hard to the touch. She was limp and not breathing. The baby died the following
day.

Three
doctors testified about the child’s injuries: two types of brain hemorrhages,
retinal hemorrhages, unrelated fractures on opposite sides of her head, and
bruising of the mouth and other parts of her body. Tissue on her upper lip was
bruised, something that happens when babies are force-fed.

They said
the injuries weren’t accidental but couldn’t determine who caused them. The
medical examiner called it a homicide, finding that the child must have been
held firmly, shaken and slammed at least twice against a hard, flat surface.

Crime lab
tests found no physical evidence in the car. Prosecutors had testimony that the
baby was acting normally before the mother left the car and was unresponsive
when she returned.

In closing
statements Friday, defense attorney Derek Wright tried to convince the judge
that prosecutors didn’t prove the boy was the murderer. He said he could make a
case against the baby’s mother, noting that several emergency responders said
Young was acting unusually calm when they arrived, but that the boy was sobbing
and pacing. He suggested the possibility that the baby was injured at the
mother’s home minutes away but didn’t show signs of trauma until the parking
lot.

The baby’s
mother sat in the courtroom on a bench closest to the door. She stared ahead
with tears in her eyes as Wright said she could have let her cousin take the
blame.

Prosecutor
Eleanor Odom argued that the baby’s mother didn’t appear distraught because she
didn’t yet know the extent of the baby’s injuries, but that the boy already
did.

Odom took a
blood-stained, pink onesie out of an evidence bag and showed it to the
judge.

“You can see
the size, how big Millan really was,” Odom said. “I think this speaks more words
than those pictures ever could.”

Dressed in a
shirt and tie, the skinny, dimpled boy stayed calm as the judge delivered his
verdict: “I find beyond a reasonable doubt that Millan suffered major trauma
during the 18 minutes the juvenile was alone with the baby. … I find that the
juvenile caused the injuries and that the baby later died as a result of the
trauma.

“Now, what
do I think happened? This child was left alone with the baby. I don’t know that
should have happened, but it did …

“Millan, a
child he really didn’t know, started crying, and it got louder …

“He didn’t
know what to do. I think he was scared. He tried using the pacifier to make this
baby stop crying. It didn’t work. What did he do next?

“He got out
the bottle of water … He gives it to the baby. The baby won’t be quiet. Turns up
the radio so he won’t have to hear this baby crying. That didn’t work. He might
have even turned it up again. Well, the pink pacifier didn’t work. Let’s use the
purple pacifier …

“This
juvenile was trying to get the baby to quit crying. … He was scared, and he
didn’t know what to do. … I wouldn’t expect him to know what to do.

“I find that
in order to get the baby to be quiet, using his own means as a 12-year-old, that
he committed batteries, plural, against this baby …

“Did this
child mean that his actions would kill Millan? No …

“Technically, I
think I can find possibly if I wanted to go further, some type of an involuntary
manslaughter. In my mind, I’ve still got to place this child with some
expectation, some appreciation for the horrific damage that it has done, and I
find nothing along those lines.

“Did he do
wrong? Oh yeah, he did. I wish it hadn’t happened, but it did.”

Once the
judge stopped talking, the boy started to cry. His parents embraced him, also in
tears. His mother smiled.

The baby’s
mother left the courtroom after the verdict and declined to comment. The boy‘s
grandmother said the family planned to gather at Brittiany Young’s home later
that day.

The judge
needed to decide where the boy would stay until the sentencing. He was
originally locked up in a juvenile detention center, but later transferred to a
secured group home.

A
representative from the group home told the judge the boy had a tough transition
into his school and, due to the stresses of his case, sometimes shut down
emotionally. But he said the boy was a role model and standout student.

The judge
allowed him to return to the group home and said he was welcome to visit with
family. He told the boy his behavior in the next month will be important in
deciding a sentence. The boy promised to be good.

Then, the
boy‘s attorney told the family, “Y’all go breathe.”

• • •

The boy‘s
grandmother, Joyce Hightower, couldn’t sleep Thursday night. She’d driven from
Tampa earlier that day and spent the night reading news about the case and
praying.

Now, holding
her grandson’s hand, she asked him how he felt.

“Good,” he
told her. “Anxious.”

“Anxious for
what?” she asked.

He said, “To
go home.”

Alexandra
Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or (813)
310-2081.

http://www.ocala.com/article/20091026/ARTICLES/910269989/1340/NEWS?Title=Mother-arrested-in-McDonald-s-parking-lot-charged-with-child-neglect-DUI

Mother arrested in McDonald’s parking lot, charged with child neglect,
DUI

Staff report

Published: Monday, October 26, 2009
at 11:41 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, October 26, 2009 at 11:44 a.m.

OCALA – An Ocala woman was arrested on Sunday and charged with drunken
driving and child neglect after she reportedly drove to McDonald’s while she was
drunk and transporting a 5-year-old boy.

According to a Marion County
Sheriff’s Office report, Nekisha Smith, 29, drove to the McDonald’s at 9737 SE
Maricamp Road in a blue Kia.

An employee became concerned after the woman
ordered with slurred speech and smelled of alcohol, according to the report.
Smith then asked for things she didn’t order, such as a “double chicken burger
thing.”

The employee told Smith to pull forward while her food cooked and
called deputies, according to the report.

When Deputy Gary Miller
arrived, Smith was parked in the car eating. Smith told deputies she was just
tired and had been drinking the day before.

According to the report,
Smith failed all field sobriety tests and was arrested. The child‘s father
picked up the boy and the car.

Smith told deputies she had not been
drinking, but was on several medicines including Zoloft. According to the
report, Smith would not blow the required amount of air into the Breathalyzer.
The small amount that registered recorded a 0.13 blood alcohol
content.

Deputies then contacted the Department of Children and
Families.

Smith was being held in the Marion County Jail in lieu of

$5,500 bail. Smith was arrested in 2006 for DUI with property
damage.

-Jackie Alexander/Star Banner

All rights reserved. This
copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are
encouraged.

“Not only were J.K.’s
symptoms not helped by the drugs, but because of the side
effects of the Zoloft he began experiencing suicidal
thoughts. Due to these side effects his medication was switched to

Welbutrin, which not only increased his suicidal thoughts, but
caused him to overdose on his medications in what would be his
first suicide attempt. The FDA has since placed a black box warning on antidepressants warning of
this occurrence in adolescents and young adults.”

http://www.prleap.com/pr/142396/

Narconon Louisiana drug rehab graduate traces roots of addiction back to
psychiatric medications

DENHAM
SPRINGS, LOUISIANA October 20, 2009 Health News

(PRLEAP.COM) Now drug-free, J.K., a Narconon
Louisiana drug rehabilitation treatment graduate, tells the story of how his
addiction started and how it ended. J.K. spent his adolescent years under the
care of a psychiatrist. He started seeing the doctor when he was 12 or 13 up
until the time he was 19 years old. Ten to fifteen minutes into his first visit
he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, anxiety and unstable emotions. He was
given Zoloft, Atavan, and Klonopin as treatment.

Not only were J.K.’s
symptoms not helped by the drugs, but because of the side effects of the Zoloft
he began experiencing suicidal thoughts. Due to these side effects his
medication was switched to Welbutrin, which not only increased his suicidal
thoughts, but caused him to overdose on his medications in what would be his
first suicide attempt. The FDA has since placed a black
box warning on antidepressants warning of this occurrence in adolescents and
young adults.

In a recent interview J.K. explains that because of what he
had been told by his psychiatrist, he began to think that everything he was
thinking or feeling could be controlled by some kind of pill or
substance.

“Most times, these substances could be found in my own home,
inside little orange prescription bottles,” he explains, “[But then] I began
developing addictive personality traits by turning to street drugs, like
marijuana, cocaine, and pain killers to numb my emotions. Why? Because,
essentially, I had been told that having emotions is a disease that requires
treatment, or ‘management’.”

Once J.K. became addicted to street drugs as
well as his prescriptions, his problems continued to escalate. Luckily, before
he lost his life to drugs he found a rehabilitation facility with a totally drug-free
method called Narconon Riverbend; located in Denham Springs,

Louisiana.

During his treatment he had to come to terms with his past
problems as well as the road that his psychiatric therapy led him
down.

“I had let drugs take over my life to such a huge extent that I was
no longer able to take care of myself or those around me,” he says. “I regret
that I have been lied to by a multi-billion dollar Psychiatric industry. I
regret that I tried to end my own life twice. I’m angry that these events were
the ‘side-effects’ of psychotropic medication. I especially regret the effect
that these events had on my family.”

No longer holding on to regret, J.K.
has now successfully overcome his prescription and street drug addiction and is
happily living life 100% drug-free. Today he is in control of his life – not a
psychiatrist, not street drugs or prescriptions.

J.K. does warn doctors
in the type of medications they prescribe, saying; “Next time you hand out a
prescription for the latest fad in psych meds, remember that your signature
could be the worst thing that ever happened to your ‘patient’”.

The
Narconon program specializes in getting people off all drugs and has helped
thousands become free from medications. If you or someone you know is addicted
to street drugs or prescriptions and is looking for a way to successfully get
off drugs permanently contact Narconon Louisiana today at
866-422-4650.

http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news/lindsay-lohan-s-family-plan-intervention-3065386

Lindsay Lohan’s family plan intervention
Published: 12:54AM Saturday October 10, 2009

Source: BANG Showbiz

ReutersLindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan’s family is planning to stage an intervention.

Lindsay’s father Michael Lohan – who claims she is addicted to prescription medication – revealed he and her mother Dina are concerned the star’s life is spiralling out of control and have discussed forcing their daughter to get professional help.

Michael said: “I had a conversation with her, her mother and everyone. Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to be doing things in a pretty public way.

“But Dina has got to get on the same page with me. It’s a serious situation. You can’t just talk about it and tell me that you want to do an intervention and then do nothing.”

It has been claimed Lindsay – who has completed three previous stints in rehab – is addicted to a cocktail of different prescription medications.

Among the pills she apparently takes are Attention Deficit Disorder medication Adderall, anti-depressant Zoloft and pills to treat anxiety and bi-polar disorder.

Michael says he has been forced to speak out publicly about his 23-year-old daughter’s substance problem as it is the only way to make her pay attention to him.
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He explained to website RadarOnline: “When Lindsay doesn’t adhere or listen to what I say about serious situations, I feel I have to speak publicly to put pressure on her. If she doesn’t take my advice and do what I say & the more pressure I put on her, the more likely she is to eventually do the right thing.”

Meanwhile, it has been claimed Lindsay is close to having a mental breakdown.

A source told gossip website X17online: “Lindsay is so close to going to rehab, but what she really needs is something way more than most rehabs can offer. This is way beyond just drugs and alcohol.”

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/lifestyles/local_other/article/S-PHAR06_20090902-190006/290023/

Q:I have been taking Effexor XR for two
years. At first I was pleased that it relieved the anxiety, depression and
excessive worrying I had been suffering. Then I began experiencing insomnia and

night sweats and decided to taper off this antidepressant.

After cutting
my dose in half, I have had brain zaps (impossible to explain) and pressure in
my ears.

Answer: Many people find that antidepressants such as Effexor
(venlafaxine), Cymbalta (duloxetine), Lexapro (escitalopram), Paxil (paroxetine)
and Zoloft (sertraline) are helpful for depression. But there can be a dark
side.

Stopping this type of drug can lead to withdrawal symptoms such as
dizziness, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, sweating, visual disturbances and
difficulty concentrating. Many people complain of shocklike sensations in their
head (brain “zaps” or “shivers”).

Suit blames anti-depressant drug for 2007 murder-suicide
10/1/2009 2:43 PM By Marilyn Tennissen

I am writing my story because I want to do something to help inform people about the harmful effects of antidepressant drugs. It took me several years, after using antidepressant medications for more than ten, to become clear headed enough to figure out what happened to me. I wound up having a minor stroke or a seizure according to the MRI. Now I’m trying to get my life back together.

Here’s what happened:

I went to a Psychiatrist in 1990 because I couldn’t control crying jags at work. I had been sad over a horrible accident that left my 19-year-old son permanently brain injured.

The lady psychiatrist saw me for less than five minutes, announced I was clinically depressed and prescribed Prozac. When I asked, she said it was not habit forming.

I remember feeling almost immediate relief after the first dose (surprising, since she said it would take 3 weeks to take effect). All of the sudden life became wonderful! I sang to myself all day long. I was the life of every party (or so I thought). I began drinking too much and running around like I was on speed. I just had so much fun at everything I did. The world was at my feet and I was setting it on fire! Wow…why didn’t I find these drugs sooner?

But really, as the years went by, I became unattached to the world emotionally. I became very self-centered. I lost a lot of friends. I missed major life occurrences, like the death of my father. I was not there for him during his illness nor was I emotionally present at his funeral. I was absolutely giddy all of the time. My most radical act was to sue my employer. I know now that it’s better not to sue your local government! As I look back at bad life decisions and embarrassing behavior, I can only be grateful that it was not worse. I read daily of cases describing people committing crimes and displaying truly bizarre behavior on these drugs, some turning into homicidal monsters when they try to withdraw. There are people spending the rest of their lives in prison because of these drugs. I realize I am one of the lucky ones to have come out of the fog and be able to tell my story. I have an insecure (shy), reserved personality by nature, and I come from a conservative family. I know now that the ‘drug fog’ kept me from seeing what was really happening in my life for many years. I know now that I would not have made all those bad decisions had I not been on those drugs. These pharmaceuticals that I so trusted to ‘cure’ my disease of depression have altered my entire life.

I realized I wanted off the drugs in the fall of 2001. It was nothing noble on my part that I finally decided to get off (an entirely different and very long story that I am not proud of…we’ll just say I wanted to be clear headed and leave it at that). It took from the fall of 2001 until the fall of 2003. And guess what? By December 2003 I was experiencing severe brain fogginess, mental confusion and panic attacks! I was deathly afraid of what was wrong with me and just as afraid to take any kind of medication to treat the crying jags. At this point, I did not know that I was experiencing was drug withdrawal.

I began to seek help. I had an MRI done because of the terrible brain fog.(1) They found ‘non-specific white focal matter’, which the doctor said could have been caused by a minor stroke or seizure. I searched for answers for an entire year from: three PHD therapists, one medical doctor of internal medicine, one general practitioner MD and one gastroenterologist MD. None of these professionals would discuss withdrawal effects of psych drugs! One guy curtly said in a very harsh tone, “if you want to talk about antidepressant drugs, you have to go to a psychiatrist!” Another, the PHD Psychologist lady, was giddy and scatter-brained. She left me sitting in her waiting room a half hour, then sashayed in laughing hilariously, saying she was so sorry she forgot about our appointment…then she proceeded to prop her feet up on her chair with her keyboard in her lap and and pounded in my name address and insurance information, saying “you know this drill, right?” I told her that I did not want to take antipressant drugs. She quickly explained to me that “our brains need help” and gave me some websites that supported her position. I finished the session with her and asked her not to file a claim on my insurance. I gave her a check. And guess what? The next day there was a claim on my insurance website! The woman obviously was in a world of her own. I suppose I should have written her a thank-you note for yet another example of the bizarre behavior caused by drugs that claim to “help” our brains!

Well, in fairness to these professionals, I was an emotional wreck, and probably presented a scary dilemma to them. While, all doctors may not know about the devastating physical effects these drugs have on our bodies and brains, most of them have heard about suicidal tendencies associated with them, and the well documented stories of people committing horrendous acts either on or while trying to quit these drugs. I’m sure when I mentioned I had recently quit them, I was quite the pariah.

I finally found a psychologist here in Austin, Texas, Dr. John Breeding, that lent me a copy of Dr. Ann Blake Tracy’s tape, ‘Help, I Can’t Get Off My Anti-depressants’. And wow…what a relief! I wasn’t crazy after all. It really was the drugs, as I suspected. I began reading and researching, and discovered that everything that had been happening to me was directly related to the years of antidepressant drug use.

It took a personal crisis for me to wake up. And that’s exactly what happened. The details of the crisis are not important. What’s important is that things had to get pretty bad before I realized that the antidepressant drugs were wrecking my life and absolutely destroying my soul. Author and Psychiatrist Peter Breggin writes about a spellbinding effect these drugs have on people. Believe me, I was spellbound for a long time. I absolutely accepted as truth that these drugs were helping me. Even when I got off of them it took awhile for me to ‘come back’ and fully realize how duped I had been. This year will be the 6th year I am free from those mind captivating drugs, and never have I been tempted to get back on. Each week that goes by I still continue to gain memories and mental clarity.

It’s hard to get over the fact that more than 10 years of my life were lost in a fog because of drugs that doctors said would help me. It feels like my life has been turned totally upside down because of these drugs.

There must be a reason my mind was spared. I am now supporting an effort to enhance public awareness about the harmful effects of SSRI drugs in any way I can. That is the reason for this open letter. Please people …wake up! How many more lives must be ruined before you will see the truth?

I am asking that the medical community embrace the concept of ‘informed consent’. I went to three psychiatrists. None of them were willing to discuss the negative side effects of the SSRI drugs they prescribed for me. I went to professional counselors and psychologists who said ‘our brains need help’ and ‘the drugs help so many people’. Now after extensive reading and researching, I am absolutely disappointed in the prevailing viewpoint by the mental health community that mind-altering drugs are the answer. There is clear scientific evidence that they are not. When I see the giddy, drunken behavior of people on these drugs today, I am simply appalled that they continue to be touted as helpful by professionals who take an oath do ‘do no harm’!

I have started a support group for families, friends and bio-psychiatric drug survivors as a means of helping one another to heal. The lack of support from the medical community made me feel alone and isolated much of the time as I was coming off these drugs. By forming a community support group I hope to be able to help people avoid what I went through by sharing some of the information that is not readily available to the general public. I want to do something to spare people the anguish I went through. The information that I know now that I did not know when I went through all this should be readily available. My question to the medical community is why isn’t it?

It is my opinion that SSRI drug use today is epidemic, and that our society is being adversely affected because of it. It is my belief that those of us who have been on the drugs and successfully withdrawn have a responsibility to spread the truth that we have so painfully learned. We can change the world. We must share our stories and get the truth out there. If you are in a position to spread the word about how harmful psychiatric drugs are, do so…don’t hesitate. If you touch one life, you have made a difference.

Sincerely,
Ellen Heath
Transformers Support Group

P. S. Please feel free to contact me at 512-626-7986 or e-mail me at MHEATH3@AUSTIN.RR
(1) Brain fog means: I could not think straight. I felt confused about day to day activities at work (I am a financial analyst), my short term memory was so bad that I could barely put a sentence together, and I just found myself in a state of mental confusion, not knowing if this was my fault or the rest of the world that was askew. Mental confusion is hard to describe because you don’t really recognize it until you have begun to regain your clarity. You get lost on the way to a location that you’ve travelled many times before. You forget names of people that you’ve known for years… you turn the wrong way down a familiar hallway.

They almost had to amputate my leg and my arm. My heart missed by only one millimeter. I had three surgeries. Five years later I am still recuperating.

I went through all this to realize that SSRI antidepressants are dangerous for those who take them and for all those who associate with those who take them.

I hope that my testimony today shows you that you need to take action immediately before more innocent people like me, and you, do not get hurt or die horrible deaths as a result.

As Americans we should have the right to feel safe and if you were doing your job we would be safe. Why are we worrying about terrorists in other countries when the pharmaceutical companies have proven to be our biggest terrorists by releasing these drugs on an unsuspecting public?

How are we suppose to feel safe at school, at home, on the street, at church or anywhere else if we cannot trust the FDA to do what we are paying you to do? Where were you when I and all of my classmates got shot at Columbine?

You say that antidepressants are effective. So why did they not help Eric Harris before he shot me?

According to Eric they “helped” him to feel homicidal and suicidal after only six weeks on Zoloft. And then he said that dropping off Luvox cold turkey would help him “fuel the rage” he needed to shoot everyone. But he continued on Luvox and shot us all anyway.

So, why did these so called antidepressants not make him better? I will tell you why. It is because they do not work.

We should consider antidepressants to be accomplices to murder.

SEE FULL VIDEO Click here

INFO ON OTHER SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

Mark Taylors Site.
NOTE FROM DR. TRACY: Michael Moore, after reviewing all
the data on Columbine in making his movie, Bowling for Columbine, made his
message clear in the new movie The Drugging of Our Children about what he NOW
believes caused Columbine. Click on his picture to view his video
statement at www.drugawareness.org

Mother
of Columbine killer tells of horror 10 years after massacre

•Susan Klebold says she is haunted by school killings
•’I cannot look at a child without thinking about it’

• in Washington, Sunday 11 October 2009 19.27 BST
• Article
  history

Dylan
Klebold pictured in the 1999 Columbine High School yearbook. Photograph:
Reuters/© Ho New

The
mother of one of the two teenagers who murdered a dozen fellow students and a
teacher in the massacre at Columbine high school has broken a decade of

silence to say that she is unable to look at another child without thinking
about the horror and suffering her son caused.

Susan
Klebold, whose son Dylan and another youth, Eric Harris, hunted down pupils at
the Colorado school with shotguns, a semi-automatic pistol and a rifle before
killing themselves, has described her trauma over her son’s actions.

“For
the rest of my life, I will be haunted by the horror and anguish Dylan caused,”
she wrote in O, The Oprah Magazine. “I cannot look at a child in a grocery
store or on the street without thinking about how my son’s schoolmates spent the
last moments of their lives. Dylan changed everything I believed about myself,
about God, about family and about love.”

Neither
the Klebold nor Harris families has spoken about the massacre, in which 21
students were also wounded.

Klebold
recounts how the last word she heard from her son was a gruff goodbye as he
rushed out of the door early on the morning of the killings in April 1999.

“I
was getting dressed for work when I heard Dylan bound down the stairs and open
the front door … I poked my head out of the bedroom. ‘Dyl?’ All he said was
‘Bye.’ … His voice had sounded sharp. I figured he was mad because he’d had
to get up early to give someone a lift to class. I had no idea that I had just
heard his voice for the last time,” she said.

Dylan
Klebold was headed to make a final video with Harris to say goodbye and
apologise to their families before they drove to the school to plant bombs,
which failed to detonate, and to carry through their plan to kill their fellow
students.

After
the killings, the authorities said there were indications that the two youths
were disturbed and hints of the looming catastrophe. Harris’s blog included
instructions on how to make explosives and, later, angry denunciations of
society that attracted the attention of the police after Harris posted a death
threat against another student. Closer to the massacre, Harris listed his
stockpile of weapons and posted a hit list. Klebold was less overt but with
Harris made secret videos of their weapons and wrote in his diary of a desire to
plan an attack that would match the bombing in Oklahoma City by rightwing
militiamen that killed 168 people.

Klebold
writes that she had no idea that Dylan was contemplating killing himself or
anyone else. “From the writings Dylan left behind, criminal psychologists have
concluded that he was depressed and suicidal. I’d had no inkling of the battle
Dylan was waging in his mind,” she wrote.

“Dylan’s
participation in the massacre was impossible for me to accept until I began to
connect it to his own death. Once I saw his journals, it was clear to me that
Dylan entered the school with the intention of dying there. In order to
understand what he might have been thinking, I started to learn all I could
about suicide.”

Five
years after the killings, the FBI said they believe that Harris was a clinical
psychopath who masterminded the plan and Klebold depressive.

The
massacre continues to generate debate about the motives of the two youths and
whether anything could have been done to stop them. The magazine said that Susan
Klebold was not paid for the article and will not be making an appearance on
Oprah Winfrey’s television
show.