PROZAC & ALCOHOL: Former Wall Street Investment Banker Becomes an Alcoholic: New York

Paragraphs 9 through 12 read:  “Like many people he knew, Mr. Goldberg had been on Prozac since college, during the height of its wonder-drug status. He blames the drug, and the emotional numbness he said it induced, for the heavy drinking binges in his 20s. “I couldn’t drink one beer,” he said.  ‘It had to…

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ANTIDEPRESSANT, PAIN KILLER & ALCOHOL: Soldier: Suicide Attempt: Iraq/Colorado

Paragraphs three through five read: “It did not work. He was prescribed a list of medications for anxiety, nightmares, depression, and headaches that made him feel listless and disoriented.” “His weekly session with a nurse case manager seemed inadequate to him. And noncommissioned officers ­ soldiers supervising the unit ­ harangued or disciplined him when…

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PROZAC: Suicide Attempt: Teen: New York

Cage performs with Less Than Jake on Wednesday, December 9, at the
Granada Theater.

Just because an artist evolves doesn’t mean his
fans will. So, while Chris
Palko, aka Cage, may have experienced a personal epiphany that’s taken his
music in a new direction, he doesn’t blame his fans for not wanting to come
along for the ride.

See, the rapper’s latest, Depart From Me, is
hardly a rap album at all. Rife with indie-tronic synth and raging guitars
(courtesy of ex-

Hatebreed guitarist Sean
Martin), it follows up on the direction hinted at by his Darryl
Palumbo 2005 collaboration, “Shoot Frank,” off his second album, Hell’s
Winter. Only, this time, there are hardly any beats at all. There’s also a
more positive tone­though only slightly more positive­which is
equally bewildering given the darkness Cage sings about.

His father was
an abusive heroin addict, whose crazy, rebellious streak he emulated. A wild kid
who was beaten by his stepfather and uncle, Cage got into drugs and was
committed by his mom to a psychiatric hospital as a teen. There, he was among
the first test cases for Prozac,
and he attempted suicide with shoelaces and the tape from a Big
Daddy Kane cassette. Such trials are recounted throughout his catalog, and
his persona­a decadent, nihilistic, drug-addled MC­was cultivated in his
single “Agent Orange” and 2002 debut, Movies for the Blind.

He
dropped the drugs and degrading sexual undertone on Hell’s Winter, but
his latest even attempts to short-circuit some of the self-hate and angst. It’s
expressed on tracks like the punky “Fat Kids Need an Anthem,” which keenly
dissects his former food issues, and “Captain Bumout,” which repudiates his old
image, suggesting “there’s more than being in a club, getting drunk, one of us
throwing up and waking up like we’re in love.” One catalyst for both the change
in sound and expression is his friend and protégé Camu Tao, who died of cancer
last year.

“After he passed away, my entire world fell apart,” Cage says.
“I had never been so wounded in my whole life. I had been through so much. I
felt like in life, as a little kid, gritting your teeth and clutching your
fists, you can take anything, but then the grown man just is
broken.”

But, really, the change began several years ago, when Cage and
his tour mates watched videos of their performances and became dissatisfied with
the stale elements of typical hip-hop.

“We saw ourselves walking back and
forth on the videotape, trying to say ho,” Cage recalls. “After a while, you get
tired of doing the same thing over and over. And, then, it’s either join in on
the reindeer games or start your own.”

They watched videos of Black
Flag and Iggy
Pop, trying to adopt rock mannerisms. The change in music comes out of the
same impulse, as Depart From Me represents an attempt to bring the sound
in line with the stage show. To that end, Hatebreed’s Martin joins Cage and his
DJ on tour, playing guitar and keyboard parts. And, as such, even old songs are
getting a facelift.

Meanwhile, Cage’s spirit has already gotten one.
Watching his friend die of cancer made his bleak attitude hard to
sustain.

“I couldn’t come in and say, ‘Hey, listen to my songs. I know
you’re dying, but listen to my songs about wanting to die,'” he says. “I didn’t
know what to do, so I started making songs that were a little
happier.”

While he understands his fans’ frustration with the new

direction, he couldn’t care less about pissy blog rants or reviews.

“When
I was 16 years old, I was selling crack and was a buck-fifty, in people’s faces
with box cutters. I wasn’t sitting on the Internet, telling people they’re
faggots because I don’t like their music,” Cage says. “People don’t get it. The
record’s called Depart From Me, dude. You don’t get
it?”

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CELEXA: Suicide Attempt: Arizona

UAPD officers were dispatched to the La
Aldea apartment complex at 825 E. Fifth St. on Oct. 11 at 1:56 p.m. in reference
to a resident who had attempted to overdose on prescription medication. Upon
arrival, officers made contact with the resident. According to police, she was
semi-alert and slurring her speech. She informed police that she had taken

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ZOLOFT & WELLBUTRIN: Teen Attempts Suicide: Louisiana

(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.

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UPDATE: ANTIDEPRESSANT: GA House Speaker Resigns After Suicide Attempt, Affair

ATLANTA — Georgia’s powerful House speaker resigned
Thursday after a suiciide attempt and allegations by his ex-wife of an affair
with a lobbyist.

Glenn Richardson, the state’s first GOP speaker since
Reconstruction, had won sympathy from even his political enemies when he
revealed last month that he attempted suicide by swallowing sleeping pills.
But then his ex-wife went on TV and accused him of having “a full-out affair”
with a lobbyist while they were still married.

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Medications for Depression & OCD: Thanksgiving-Man Shoots & Kill 4 Relatives: FL

MIAMI Paul
Michael Merhige, accused of killing four relatives at a Thanksgiving dinner in
Jupiter, had threatened to kill family members before and often refused to take
medication prescribed to treat his longtime mental illness, according to court
records and Merhige’s mother.

In April 2006, during a fight with his
sister at their parents’ house outside Miami, Merhige told the sister “I’m going
to slit your throat,” according to a domestic violence complaint filed by the
sister, Carla Merhige.

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ANTIDEPRESSANT: Overdose ruled as cause of Reading High student’s death

An overdose of a
prescription drug caused the death last month of a 17-year-old Reading
High School student, the Berks County coroner’s office said
Friday.

Noelle-Cian Rodriguez, a senior, took a lethal dose of an
antidepressant medication and the death was ruled a suicide, Deputy
Coroner Jonn M. Hollenbach said.

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