[Rayne]

So, you have a problem...Do you want to add dependancy on chemicals to that problem, along with feeling like you're too weak to handle things on your own?...What exactly does THAT do for your insecurity, self-esteem and dependency issues?...Wouldn't that kinda make you depressed?... The key is to learn to CONTROL those emotions, which usually comes with maturity, experience and information...NOT drugs...You can't learn to control the emotions if you depend on drugs to do it for you.

This was aimed at the people who have been convinced that they need chemical assistance, when they DON'T and I firmly believe in it, despite your opinion.

You are entitled to your own opinion, Rayne, but to ignore those exceptions has absolutely nothing to do with simply "being offensive."

I wasn't ignoring any exceptions, hence all of the "many"s, and "most"s, rather than "all"s and "every"s

The only time I was all-inclusive was in mentioning the school violence incidents, and my statement concerning THAT is accurate and easily verifiable

Ignorance springs from lack of information...I have been stockpiling information about this since before you were born...From psychology classes to hands-on experience.

20 years ago I knew exactly ZERO people on these drugs...NOW, over 90% (and that's NOT an exaggerated figure) of the people I know have been on one form of these drugs or another...To date, I do not know ONE person who has actually been 'helped' by any of these things...I know several who have been harmed by them, and none of them continued to take them for more than a few months...Except one:

Mabel (Girl who lived up the street from me for 8 years...moved 2 years ago, I have no idea where she ended up) - Had left her family in another state to marry young and have a baby (looking for a better, more 'normal' life, attempting to escape from abusive parents)...Got a divorce, was left alone with her son, couldn't cope...Went to a psychiatrist...To date, has been on 6 different medications (sometimes 2 and 3 at a time) which caused her to go from bad to worse...Hallucinations, depression, attempted suicides (I helped mop up the blood from one of them), rages, extended hospitalization and stays in the psych ward, all of which eventually caused her to lose her son.

Brandon (Mabel's son) : With the personal problems his mother was dealing with, she couldn't handle him, so when he was only 2 years old, he was diagnosed with ADHD and also bipolarism (yes, a 2 year-old...You can also read the news story that I posted about a year ago concerning the little girl who was diagnosed with the exact same things at the age of 2, was put on many different medications, and was found dead on a pile of clothes in her parents' bedroom floor wearing nothing but a diaper at the age of 4...Cause of death: overdosed on medications prescribed to her by a psychiatrist, given to her by her parents who according to relatives kept the girl sedated because she was easier to manage that way...Relatives called authorities several times over that 2 year period, but authorities did nothing because the parents were giving her medications that were prescribed to her)...When Brandon was 6 years-old, his mother was awakened at 3am by movement on her bed...Brandon was standing over top of her with a steak knife...His eyes were glazed and he didn't seem to hear her screaming...Ambulance arrived, Brandon was hospitalized...His psychiatrist determined that either one or all of his medications (he was on 3 different ones at the time), were either too weak or two strong...He told her to cut them in half for a week and if that didn't work (I guess if Brandon actually succeeded in killing her), they could try DOUBLING them instead...If THAT didn't work, they would play with the dosages of each, one at a time, until they figured it out...Meanwhile, this kid's brain is frying...At the age of 8, after his suicide attempt, he was made a ward of the state and placed in a mental facility...After 6 months, he was determined to be 'well', was given to a foster family, was given NO drugs, and last I heard was doing well in school and turned out to be a perfectly normal kid...As of 2 years ago (last I heard), Mabel was unable to regain custody of him because of psychological problems she was still having...She was also still on various medications.

Dustin's mother (Drug-addicted, alcoholic, uneducated drama queen) : Thought perhaps all of her problems (caused by her own actions) could be solved by a psychiatrist, most likely prompted by the fact that everyone she knew kept telling her that she "needed some serious help"...I don't remember all of the different medications they experimented on her with, I could ask Dustin but I'm not waking him up...I remember that one of them was Wellbutrin, and that all of them made her "crazy", angry, abusive...Basically, just worse...Fortunately, she didn't take them long because she didn't like the way they made her feel, and friends and family kept telling her that she was much worse...After about a week without the drugs, she reverted back to her 'self', but everyone decided she was much more easily manageable that way, and she felt better, too.

Paula Jo (My cousin) : After her third child, she was "stressed, depressed, having a hard time coping"...Was diagnosed with post-partum depression and given drugs...These drugs made her feel like crying all the time (not good for 'depression', huh?), and at times made her feel 'out of it', not good when you've got 3 small kids to take care of and your husband is always working...Ater a couple of months, when she started to feel suicidal, was irritable with the kids, and family members were telling her that the drugs were making her "different" and causing her to act strangely (that and the fact that she seemed to be unable to keep her thoughts straight, and just generally felt bad), she stopped taking the pills, her husband cut back his hours and her sister came to stay with her for a while to help with the kids...Turns out taking care of 3 small kids by yourself is a bit stressful...All she needed was some help and a break...She was perfectly fine after that.

Jennifer (My sister) : As a teenager, was unable to deal with the normal teenage problems, was depressed and insecure, diagnosed as bi-polar, was given Prozac...Seemed kinda loopy to the rest of us during the month that she was taking it...After the first month, when she got her refill, she broke up with her boyfriend because they were fighting all the time, and she decided to swallow the entire bottle of Prozac along with a bottle of Ibuprofen for good measure, in my guest room...Where Seri found her, weakly banging on the floor and I took her to the emergency room and watched her gag and cry as they pumped her stomach...She never took another pill (except for the occasional migraine pill), and she has been fine ever since...Dustin hired her to work at the hotel about 6 months ago, in fact Seri hung out with her at the hotel just last night...She's still a pain in the ass, but she's not 'psychologically impaired'.

Terry David (My uncle; Mother's brother) : Had heart surgery after which he developed a staph infection while still in the hospital and nearly died...For some reason (upon his release from the hospital), a doctor felt it would be difficult for him to deal with the trauma he had just experienced without some sort of 'temporary help', so he prescribed him Paxil along with his heart medication...After one week, and a terrifying incident in which my uncle said he felt like he was fighting with himself to keep from killing himself, "I was going to kill myself, I have no idea why, but I was going to do it, I HAD to do it, and it took all my strength to stop myself because I did NOT want to die", he called the doctor to find out what the hell was going on...Turns out it was just the Paxil, dose must have been too high, no big deal...Doctor told him to cut it in half for about a week, as it would be dangerous to just abruptly stop taking it altogether, and see if he felt any better...So, my uncle hung up the phone and flushed the pills down the toilet...And that Vietnam Vet who had been more traumatized by the ordeal caused by those drugs (none of which he had ever taken at any time before), has never taken any since, and has been well, healthy and perfectly sane.

Vera (My ex sister-in-law) : Was told by teachers in her kids' public school, in the state of Texas that all 3 of her kids should be tested for ADHD and possibly medicated...She said "no way" and was informed that it wasn't merely a suggestion...She was threatened with charges of "medical neglect" if she refused to take action and "meet her children's needs"...She was properly intimidated, and of course, the kids were promptly put on medication, all 3 of them, isn't it amazing?...Perhaps teachers are getting really good at diagnosing these sort of 'illnesses'...In less than two weaks, the kids weren't the same, their behavior (and their complaints of feeling "weird", "wrong", "always tired" and "out of it") scared Vera enough to remove all 3 of her kids from public school and teach them at home, without medication...The school board no longer seemed interested in the kids' "medical needs" after they were removed from their system, and the kids are now all above the age of 18, working, living on their own and doing just fine without any medicinal aid.