“I was frightened and bewildered. Nothing like that had ever happened before with any of our children.”
I’m writing regarding the radio show you were interviewed on in June of this year. I was very fortunate to catch this interview, normally I am not awake at this hour of the night. I was both delighted and disappointed. Delighted because you almost never hear the dangers of these “mind altering drugs.” Disappointed because nobody seems to care. I call these drugs “mind altering” because “anti-depressant” doesn’t fit the consequences it can make. I feel you are a ray of hope to people like me who have experienced the horrible effects these drugs have.
I have four children. My youngest child, Jarred was put on Paxil at 16. I took my son to the doctor because I was concerned about his abuse of alcohol. After a 15 minute evaluation, the doctor concluded Jarred was depressed. He gave us sample boxes of Paxil, a month supply. He gave us no instruction except to take one a day. There were no instructions with or on the sample packets. After the first day on this drug, my son complained of severe agitation, he said he felt “weird.” I called the doctor and asked if he had a smaller dosage. I told him I thought they were too strong for Jarred. The doctor told me there was not a smaller dosage than 20mg. He said I should cut them in half. A couple days later my son became combative with me and his father. The police had to be called. I was frightened and bewildered. Nothing like that had ever happened before with any of our children. I didn’t connect these drugs with this incident, I thought it was from alcohol use. Three days later, a family friend was murdered. Jarred was charged and convicted of first degree murder. He is in a California state prison serving life without parole. We were in shock, in total disbelief this happened.
The victim was someone we spent time with. Jarred would play games with her. He spent nights at her house with my other children. Jarred cared very much for this special lady. This was extremely out of character for Jarred. We couldn’t understand what happened. No one believed Jarred could do this. We didn’t connect the drug to what had happened until Jarred’s attorney asked us about the Paxil he was taking. He said he found cases where people have taken these drugs and committing horrible crimes. It puzzled Jarred’s lawyer because Jarred had never been in trouble or had never been violent.
This has been heavy on my heart for four years. We’re hearing of more and more cases of horrible crimes committed by people who are on these drugs. There is definitely a connection.
My question to you is what can I to help get the message across. I have been silent too long. I want to do something to help. I want to do anything I can to stop these tragedies from happening. I know they will continue to occur with some doctors handing these drugs out like aspirin.
I realize you are very busy. I greatly appreciate your work. I would love very much to hear from you.
Brenda Victor
RAWDUDE101@aol.com
Years 2000 and Prior
This is Survivor Story number 46.
Total number of stories in current database is 96
