Tag Archives: Salt Lake City

Safer Alternative: Bird Droppings vs Antidepressants

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bird man

Judge Orders Man to Get Rid of Birds

Here is something to give you a chuckle in the middle of all these horrific antidepressant-induced tragedies…

While in Salt Lake City lecturing I read this article in the news today …. it is about a poor elderly immigrant who loves pigeons and spends his time caring for them. Well one of the SLC suburbs of South Jordan wants him to get rid of his birds he has had in his backyard for years. Most all of the comments are supportive of the man and his rights and upset with the city for doing something like this to him. But one comment was something I HAD to respond to so here it is – his first and then mine …. hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! 🙂 (See the original story link below)

“So if he was harboring 300 rats we should leave him alone? I think everyone who is whining about how mean the world is to this guy should do a little research. Just for fun, Google the words “Pigeon, health, and hazards” all on the same line. Did you know that the EPA, yup our liberal EPA, says that you can kill as many pigeons as you want? They are considered a “bird pest” and for good reasons all having to do with DISEASE.they are basically rats with wings. I hate to sound harsh but these are the facts. Honestly if I was in charge of a city, I would ban any private ownership of pigeons because their populations can get out of control in a hurry. I have been on jobs where we had to remove years of pigeon droppings from rooftops. It’s basically a hazmat situation where protective clothing and respirators are required. When pigeon droppings dry out they become airborne and can cause serious respiratory disease. I highly recommend the city not level their roosting place. They need to exterminate the population prior. Leave the buildings and get rid of the birds.”

MY RESPONSE: “Hazmat situation?! When anything dries out and becomes airborne it turns to dust that can cause respiratory disease. Dust does that.

“They call out hazmat teams to clean up hydrochloric acid spills(yes the same muriatic acid that is used to clean toilets and cement spills), yet people in the Salt Lake Valley voluntarily consume more of that daily than anywhere else in the world in the form of an antidepressant. (Example: fluoxetine hydrocloride [Prozac], sertraline hydrocloride [Zoloft], etc.) I would be far more concerned about these highly toxic chemicals than I would pigeon droppings!

“Now there is a solution! The City of South Jordan could check with a large pharmaceutical firm to see if they could come up with a new drug promoted to be the next new “cure all” that has pigeon droppings as an ingredient since people seem so willing to put anything in their mouths as long as the marketing tells them it is good for them. Then everyone could see value in the pigeons since sadly money seems to be our society’s mode of determining value now. They could all make money on the situation and walk away happy campers. Not so sure the patients will be such happy campers, but pigeon droppings sound safer than what they already take!”

Original Article: https://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=29798204

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Media With Mental Health to Work Together for Suicide Prevention???

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suicide stats

Public health burden of suicidal behavior among adults

aged =18 years — United States, 2008

The Deseret News in Salt Lake City just ran an article titled, “Media, mental health professionals discuss working together on suicide prevention?” Really? And how many are going to fall for that? The link to this original article is below and here is my comment on that article:

“Without question suicide is a huge problem plaguing our society. But in searching the cause few see the obvious as the cause, even when admitted, due to the huge amount of revenue associated with it. That is the drugs prescribed to those who are depressed – antidepressants which carry warnings of suicidal ideation. A decade ago antidepressants were given an FDA Black Box Warning (the next step from a complete ban).

“Now we should feel better knowing that media, who receive massive amounts of advertising dollars to promote these drugs, and groups like NAMI, who was shown by a Senate Probe led by Senator Charles Grassley to be 75% funded by Pharma, are looking for answers? Also just days ago JAMA published a study showing 40% of teaching hospitals, like UNI, have drug company ties.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1853147

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22919-leaders-of-teaching-hospitals-have-close-ties-to-drug-companies-study-shows

“Propublica in their Dollars for Docs program is working to stop these vested interests. Until it is no longer financially advantageous to those searching I would not expect real answers to suicide prevention. The answer will continue to be “Take your drugs and don’t worry about the suicidal ideation warning. It will not affect you, only others.”

I should have finished with this line, “It will not affect you, only others, because as soon as you go manic on your antidepressant you will become invincable.”

Original Article: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865600455/Media-mental-health-professionals-discuss-working-together-on-suicide-prevention.html

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!

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UT Freeway Accident After Man Hears Voices Telling Him to Let Go of Wheel

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truck rollover

Voices told driver to let go of wheel…

As the morning commute began in Salt Lake City this morning a man called 911 to report he was hearing voices telling him to let go of his steering wheel and crash his truck as he neared the busiest section of freeway in the state. He obeyed those voices and rolled the truck. Amazingly it ended up being a single car accident and the man was not critically injured! Although he did become combative as emergency personnel tried to help him out of the vehicle.

I have long warned to look to Utah as one of the main microcosms of what is to come with the backlash from antidepressant use, due to the high rate of use of the drugs there. So here is yet another case indicating what the world has to look for in the near future.

I actually believe we have already seen many similar cases to this. But this may be the only time someone has called to report it before he did this.

Remember that ANY abrupt change in dose of an antidepressant can cause suicide, hostility or psychosis. Sounds like this man was experiencing all three of those. Had he recently started on an antidepressant or changed from one antidepressant to a new antidepressant or was his dose just increased or decreased abruptly (as was the case with Andrea Yates the day before she drowned her five children) or was he trying to discontinue his antidepressant too rapidly?

As more and more people lose medical benefits with the introduction of Obamacare we are going to see more and more of these cases as people will not be able to get new doctors quickly enough to maintain their meds or feel they must stop their meds because they no longer have coverage….the possibilities there are endless and deadly.

Of course once again all the public will be told is that the poor fellow was suffering “mental illness” NOT that he was suffering a reaction from his medication. The “mental illness” puts the blame on the patient and removes it from the drug company thus avoiding lawsuits. The media is complicit in the lie because if they are not they will lose their biggest advertisers….thus all the serotonin lies continue and we left to bury our dead.

Original article and video located here: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=28183252&nid=148&fm=most_popular&s_cid=popular-1

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 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! You can find the hour and a half long CD on safe and effective withdrawal helps here: http://store.drugawareness.org/

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ZOLOFT & ZYPREXA: GRANDSON STABS GRANDMOTHER 111 TIMES

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Zak Weston

ZACHARY COLE WESTON

Just over a year ago on October 3, 2012 while under the influence of Zoloft and Zyprexa Zak Cole killed his grandmother stabbing her 111 times. The attack was brutal and very gruesome. You can read the details below from the original article.

“SALT LAKE CITY — Prosecutors say a man accused of killing his grandmother in her Avenues home stabbed her 111 times.

“Disturbing new court documents were released Friday as Zachary Cole Weston, 21, was charged with aggravated murder, a capital offense.

“Weston is accused of stabbing Joyce Dexter, 84, multiple times on Oct. 3. Police were called to Dexter’s house, 310 J St., where Weston was living, on a report of a possible domestic disturbance. When they arrived, they found Weston standing over his grandmother while holding a bloody knife, the charges state. He also had blood on his hands and clothing.

“Weston told investigators that he “stabbed his grandma” and admitted that he “slit her belly, her jugular and her heart,” charging documents state. A medical examiner later determined that nine of the 111 stab wounds were to the heart. Prosecutors said several of the victim’s internal organs had also been removed.”

Clearly he had serious reactions to medications with several charges being filed for other incidents within the past couple of years before this tragedy. What a shame that no one caught it all sooner to wean him off the medications. Knowing UNI as I do, it being the first place I was ever invited to lecture on the subject of violence associated with the SSRI antidepressants, I can tell you there is no way they would have ever picked up on what was happening to him!

Once again I repeat that medical research has been clear from the early 50’s that increasing serotonin via interfering with the metabolism of serotonin (or serotonin reuptake inhibition – exactly the mode of action of SSRI and SNRI antidepressants) will produce impulsive murder and/or suicide. For verification of that feel free to access the court testimony of Dr. John Mann in the WY case of Tobin vs Glaxo, decision 2001. Dr. Mann was the expert witness for Glaxo yet was compelled to testify to his years of research into serotonin and impulsive murder and suicide.

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!”

The Physicians Desk Reference states that antidepressants can cause mania, psychosis, abnormal thinking, paranoia, hostility, aggression, agitation, confusion, amnesia, abnormal dreams, sleep disorders and a host of other adverse neuropsychiatric effects. Withdrawal, especially abrupt withdrawal, can also cause these same adverse effects.

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! You can find the hour and a half long CD on safe and effective withdrawal helps here:http://store.drugawareness.org/

Read more at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=22530258#GirDFF6iLC4I5QvB.99

SALT LAKE CITY — Prosecutors say a man accused of killing his grandmother in her Avenues home stabbed her 111 times.

Disturbing new court documents were released Friday as Zachary Cole Weston, 21, was charged with aggravated murder, a capital offense.

Weston is accused of stabbing Joyce Dexter, 84, multiple times on Oct. 3. Police were called to Dexter’s house, 310 J St., where Weston was living, on a report of a possible domestic disturbance. When they arrived, they found Weston standing over his grandmother while holding a bloody knife, the charges state. He also had blood on his hands and clothing.

Weston told investigators that he “stabbed his grandma” and admitted that he “slit her belly, her jugular and her heart,” charging documents state. A medical examiner later determined that nine of the 111 stab wounds were to the heart. Prosecutors said several of the victim’s internal organs had also been removed.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill could not comment Friday on a possible motive or Weston’s possible state of mind at the time of the attack. He praised police, however, for responding so quickly to the crime scene and confronting the grandson before he left.

Family members have told reporters Weston suffered from a mental illness.

Weston has been involved in a recent series of incidents against relatives and others, showing an apparent trend of increasing violence, according to court records.

Last week, he was charged in 3rd District Court in an unrelated assault against another family member. On Sept. 27, Weston, who was living at the time with his father, got into an argument with his dad and began hitting him, according to court documents. When a female friend of Walt Weston, who was also at the house, tried to intervene, Zach Weston allegedly bit her.

In 2010, Weston was arrested for shoving his mother and hitting a police officer. He pleaded guilty to one of two assault charges. As part of his sentence, he was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and complete any recommended treatment.

On Aug. 8, Weston was at the University Neuropsychiatric Institute at University Hospital for an initial assessment when he slapped a UNI employee with an open hand, according to a University of Utah police report, and punched another in the face.

For those incidents, he was charged on Aug. 9 with two counts of assault and interfering with a police officer during an arrest, class B misdemeanors. On Sept. 24 he was charged with two counts of battery and making a false alarm, also class B misdemeanors.

Read more at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=22530258#GirDFF6iLC4I5QvB.99

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SHOCKING BENEFITS ON APPEARANCE OF STAYING PRESCRIPTION DRUG FREE!

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Traci After

TRACI BEFORE MEDS AS A MODEL

Traci Vaillencourt After

TRACI ABOUT A DECADE AFTER MEDS

Several months ago I posted pictures of 12 year old Kara over about eight months that she survived on Paxil before taking her own life to show you the drastic changes in her looks over that period of drug use. Kara did not live long enough for us to see before and after pictures about a decade later. Today I bring you before and after pictures of Traci Lee Vaillancourt just about a decade apart which should be enough to let anyone know they never want to get started on these so called medications we refer to as antidepressants or any other serotonergic medication which is what nearly every pain killer out there is. All of them extremely addictive drugs that lead to more and more drug use.

Sunday in Draper, Utah, just south of Salt Lake City Officer Derek Johnson was ambushed after stopping to check on a car parked at an odd angle on the side of the road. Before he could exit his patrol car the man in the parked vehicle stepped out and pumped 5 – 6 bullets into the officer and his car. The officer was able to place a call into dispatch before running into a tree four blocks away as he passed out from his injuries and lost his life.

Responding officers found 34 year old Traci Lee Vaillancourt, pictured above, shot and in critical condition in the parked car along with the shooter who had shot himself. Above you see a picture of Traci before she was diagnosed with “Hereditary” Angioedema and became addicted to pain killers. The other picture was taken just months ago when she was arrested for shoplifting. What caught my attention was the edema – the most common thing I watch for in someone who is having adverse reactions to an antidepressant.

Angioedema is a blood disorder. But antidepressants produce fatal blood disorders. I had a friend who testified before the FDA Advisory Committee in 1991 on Prozac who told them her blood would be on their hands. She passed away, transfusion dependent due to that blood disorder, just a year and a half later. In fact if you do a Google search for “angioedema” and “antidepressant” the first result you will find is on prescription drug-induced angioedema showing antidepressants and other prescriptions to be the most widespread trigger for the “disease”. It can be triggered by pregnancy, surgery, and a whole long list of medications. In spite of that it seems that antidepressants are often prescribed to treat the disorder. And since edema is listed as a frequent side effect I would question WHY antidepressants would ever be prescribed for angioedema. Either way whether an antidepressant triggered it or her pregnancy triggered it … it seems the odds are high that she was given an antidepressant either before or after the diagnosis.

We have long documented that the use of antidepressants will often lead to the use of pain killers and illegal drugs. So I question what her drug history may have been especially considering she lives in Utah with such a high, high use of antidepressants. Is this yet another life destroyed by antidepressants? Most likely. Will I be investigating that further? Certainly.

But this has also made me realize that we need to do before and after pictures of those whose lives have been destroyed by antidepressant use – just as they do with charts of before and after pictures of those taking illegal drugs. I say that because Traci’s after picture is just much too common a look for those who have been on antidepressants!

Cher Bono reported to friends that she stopped Prozac because of the rapid aging antidepressants can cause. Seems that is nothing compared to what this young woman has gone through. But I have often wondered what Cher’s daughter Chastity, who is now her son Chaz, might have taken to go through such drastic changes in her appearance other than the drugs she took for her sex change. The hormones would explain the changes in sexual appearance, but there was also so much weight gain which is often the result of antidepressant edema.

But when you consider that antidepressants affect hormones so drastically that previously heterosexual patients are becoming homosexual on the drugs (and male fish exposed to them in the womb are being born with ovaries!) and the large majority of homosexuals are taking antidepressants the chances are fairly high that Chastity may have started on antidepressants before deciding to become Chaz.

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 long warned can be even more dangerous than staying on the drugs! The FDA warns that any abrupt change in dose of an antidepressant can produce suicide, hostility or psychosis. And these reactions can come on very rapidly! Find the CD here: http://store.drugawareness.org/

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!”

Original article on Traci can be found here: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=26714771&nid=148&title=sister-describes-downward-spiral-of-woman-connected-to-draper-shooting&fm=home_page&s_cid=featured-1

 

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ANTIDEPRESSANTS: Father Kills Wife, 2 Small Children & Self: UT

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Paragraphs 22 and 23 read:  “Natasha Matern said her
father was distraught over the separation. Last week, he checked
himself into LDS Hospital for depression and remained there a few
days, Natasha Matern said. When he left, the hospital prescribed
an anti-depressant, she said.”

“Both Natasha Matern and
Merkley said they had never known Justin Matern to be violent.
Natasha Matern said her father had a concealed carry permit because the family
used to live in what they thought was a dangerous neighborhood in Salt Lake
City.”

http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_14034390

Money problems put stress on couples, and Justin and Melissa Matern were
one of those couples.

Melissa Matern was constantly trying to find rent
and grocery money, one of her former co-workers said Saturday. Justin Matern’s
daughter said he pawned pool cues and his wife asked him to sell more.

Even Justin Matern’s final text message to his surviving family
discussed money.

“My dad’s never been a horrible guy,” said Natasha
Matern. “He just snapped.”

Justin Matern on Thursday shot and killed his
wife, Melissa, then murdered their sons, 6-year-old Gabriel and 4-year-old
Raiden. Matern, 36, then killed himself.

The killings occurred at the
West Jordan apartment Melissa Matern and the boys moved to after leaving her
husband. Justin Matern left a note at work discussing his plans and sent text
messages after the killings.

Natasha Matern, a 16-year-old daughter from
one of Justin Matern’s previous relationships, said her father sent his sister a
text message saying he killed them and he was next. The text also said his
sister could expect a check to pay for the funerals, Natasha Matern said. It was
unclear whether Justin Matern was discussing an insurance policy or something
else.

“Nobody knew what he was going to do,” said Natasha Matern.
“Everybody was shocked. A lot of people even talked to him that day or the day
before and he was laughing.”

Melissa Matern told Jennifer Geneile
Merkley, one of her former co-workers, there were problems in the marriage.
Merkley said Melissa complained her husband was not home often enough to help
with parenting and chores.

Instead, Justin Matern would hang out with
his friends and stay away from home, Merkley said. Meanwhile, Melissa, a
certified nurse’s assistant, worked two jobs and a total of 60 to 70 hours a
week, Merkley said.

Merkley, who worked with Melissa at Woodland Park
Care Center in Salt Lake City, said Melissa would leave the third shift there to
go to work at another nursing home.

“She was constantly trying to put
together rent money or grocery money,” Merkley said.

Justin Matern
“wasn’t the greatest of men,” Merkley said. “He didn’t put his family ahead of
anything else.”

Court records show the state placed a tax lien against
Justin and Melissa Matern in 2004 and again in 2008. In 2006, a judge issued a
$700 judgement against the couple in a debt-collection case. Records show the
family had at least four addresses since 2003.

Natasha Matern said her

father also worked two jobs. He was a tattoo artist at a parlor in Salt Lake
City and also loaded freight for a shipping company. The shipping company
recently laid him off, she said.

Justin Marten was a good pool player
and collected cues, his daughter said. He pawned some of the cues to raise
money, and Natasha Matern wanted her husband to pawn his hunting bow, too, she
said.

“Even though she knew my dad didn’t have that much money, she
still tried to get him to pawn his own things,” she said.

Natasha Matern
lived with her father and stepmother for many years and watched her brothers for
several hours a day, the teenager said. Natasha Matern said she grew tired of
baby-sitting so much.

“I tried to talk to them about it,” she said, “but
they would tell me if I wanted stuff I would have to baby-sit so they could earn
money.”

A few months ago, the teenager moved in with her mother in
Ogden.

Merkley said Melissa Matern threatened to leave her husband
several times, but stayed. Merkley does not know what finally persuaded Melissa
Matern to leave.

Natasha Matern said her father was distraught over the
separation. Last week, he checked himself into LDS Hospital for depression and
remained there a few days, Natasha Matern said. When he left, the hospital
prescribed an anti-depressant, she said.

Both Natasha Matern and Merkley
said they had never known Justin Matern to be violent. Natasha Matern said her

father had a concealed carry permit because the family used to live in what they
thought was a dangerous neighborhood in Salt Lake City.

Merkley said
she’s angry at Justin Matern and her one comfort is her belief that anyone who
commits suicide “burns in Hell.”

“How could you look at your own flesh
and blood and pull the trigger on a 4-year-old?” Merkley said.

Natasha
Matern said she thinks her father decided to kill his wife and himself and
killed the boys because he did not want them to grow up in a foster home. She
does not believe the murders were justified, but understands what he was
thinking.

“I’m mad but there’s also nothing I can do,” she said.

ncarlisle@sltrib.com

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Pregnant on SSRIs

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“My son, Taylor, was born weighing much less than any of my previous seven children and displaying an irritability I had never experienced.”

To the FDA Advisory Panel on Antidepressant Safety in Children,

My name is Sylvia Olsen and I am the mother of eight children from Salt Lake City, Utah. I suffered for many years with clinical depression and in 1988 my psychiatrist put me on an SSRI medication. I was told that, because it was clinical depression, I would need to take it for the rest of my life. Subsequently, when I got pregnant with my eighth child in 1991, I asked if I could keep taking the medication. My doctor said there was no evidence of negative side effects, and since I was already on it, I just kept taking it. Looking back, I believe the medication produced an overriding feeling of “everything is fine” which clouded my judgment. Normally, I would think twice before even taking an aspirin when I was pregnant. After all, we are talking about the development of a human being.

My son, Taylor, was born weighing much less than any of my previous seven children and displaying an irritability I had never experienced. I soon noticed his body was tense all the time and his movements stiff. The slightest sound would startle him to the point of screaming and, often, even as he slept, his arms would be held stiff and straight up from his body. Although I’ve had no experience personally taking care of “crack babies”, as they used to call them, I kept thinking how he reminded me of things I had heard about them. He would cry continually and seemed to find great comfort in being wrapped very snugly in a blanket and held very tightly.

As Taylor grew, we also had to deal with episodes of unreasonable displays of anger. When he got upset about something as simple as his shoe tied wrong, it was as though he had no ability to reason. He would scream, kick, and flail completely out of control. We would have to put our arms around him to restrain him from hurting himself or trashing his room and sit there for as long as half an hour before he would start to gain control of himself and stop screaming and gnashing. Then, everything would be fine as if nothing had happened. Other than this, and some allergies and skin problems, things appeared normal until he started school.

Although, he seemed to be bright and aware at home, in school he struggled with reading, writing, spelling and math, unlike his older brothers and sisters. Even though his tantrums are almost non existent now,(we believe through the help of nutritional supplements) and his academics have improved a lot, he has always required remedial help. One thing that always comes up when talking to school aids who have worked with Taylor, particularly, one-on-one, is that they are puzzled by one thing in his learning process. He will appear to understand something perfectly, a math process for instance, and even be doing it on his own for a while, when suddenly, in the middle of the same work, it’s as though a light bulb goes off and he has no knowledge of even being taught the process. Then, later, he knows how to do the problem again as if he never lost it! They say it appears to be some odd kind of glitch in his brain, and I believe it is just another symptom of the developmental problems due to the SSRIs I was taking when pregnant with Taylor.

I believe there are safe and affective ways of dealing with clinical depression in children other than the use of SSRIs and that the benefits do not outweigh the risks and unknown side effects.

Antidepressants do not actually heal the human mind. If they did, then we would see a decline in depression across our nation, but we do not. Please look at the possibility that there is another way to treat this growing problem that, I believe, SSRIs only mask. Even John March, chief of child psychiatry at Duke University, who receives grants from Lilly and research funds from Pfizer, said, “These medicines are not a panacea, and will not, on average, carry kids to remission.”

After eight years on these medications, I once spent a several months trying to cut back by just a few milligrams and suffered terrible bouts of depression from the withdrawal. Yet, later, through the help of a nutritionist, I was able to wean off of them completely in just a three month period. That was seven years ago and I have not suffered from depression since.

Sincerely,

Sylvia Olsen
574 Latonia Circle
St. George, UT 84790
(435)688-7915

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4/19/2001 – Ann Blake-Tracy on the air with Columbine victims

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* Before I give you this information on the Columbine shooting victims, you
should know that it was announced today in San Diego that Jason Hoffman, the
school shooter in El Cajon, had taken two different antidepressants.

Now for a little over a month I have been working with the victims of
Columbine shot by Eric Harris, and the Harris family attorney, as they have
prepared their lawsuits against Solvay, the makers of Luvox. We have been
invited by the largest talk radio station in Utah, KSL, to do a show with
Doug Wright. It will air Friday, April 20, (the anniversary of the Columbine
tragedy) at 10:00AM Mountain Time.

Another show will air Monday morning on KIQ 1010 in Salt Lake City with Joe
Jackson at 8:00AM Mountain time.

You can find the particulars on how to listen to these shows online or you
can find information on any other upcoming shows by going to:
http://members.aol.com/atracyphd/appear.htm

Check this site regularly for upcoming shows you can listen to online. If you
would like a show in your area contact your local station and tell them to
log on to www.drugawareness.org and let us know when they would like us on
the air.

Ann Blake-Tracy, Executive Director,
International Coalition For Drug Awareness
www.drugawareness.org

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