6 replies to this topic

[FiveNotions]

I can't help but ponder what impact this has on the overall health, strength, vitality ... and viability ... of our culture, society and civilization ...

More than 30 million Americans are currently taking antidepressants. http://well.blogs.ny...ntidepressants/

The rate of antidepressant use among middle aged women is far higher than for the population as a whole. At this point, one out of every four women in their 40s and 50s is taking an antidepressant medication. http://well.blogs.ny...ntidepressants/

Americans account for about five percent of the global population, but we buy more than 50 percent of the pharmaceutical drugs. http://www.technolog...e-of-two-drugs/

Americans also consume a whopping 80 percent of all prescription painkillers. http://www.cnn.com/2...d-consequences/

Doctors in the United States write 259 million prescriptions for painkillers each year. Prescription painkillers are some of the most addictive legal drugs, and our doctors are serving as enablers for millions up0n millions of Americans that find themselves hooked on drugs that they cannot kick. http://www.naturalne...hs_opioids.html

Overall, pharmaceutical drug use in America is at an all-time high. According to a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, nearly 70 percent of all Americans are on at least one prescription drug, and 20 percent of all Americans are on at least five prescription drugs. http://newsnetwork.m...al-center-find/

According to the CDC, approximately 9 out of every 10 Americans that are at least 60 years old say that they have taken at least one prescription drug within the last month. http://www.cdc.gov/n...briefs/db42.htm

In 2010, the average teen in the United States was taking 1.2 central nervous system drugs. Those are the kinds of drugs which treat conditions such as ADHD and depression. http://www.washingto...nding-problems/

A Government Accountability Office report found that approximately one-third of all foster children in the United States are on at least one psychiatric drug. http://abcnews.go.co...80#.Ttf6hlZmlH3

95 percent of the “experimental medicines” that the pharmaceutical industry produces are found not to be safe and are never approved. Of the remaining 5 percent that are approved, we often do not find out that they are deadly to us until decades later. http://www.forbes.co...re-of-medicine/

One study discovered that mothers that took antidepressants during pregnancy were four times more likely to have a baby that developed an autism spectrum disorder. http://www.cnn.com/2...risk/index.html

It has been estimated that prescription drugs kill approximately 200,000 people in the United States every single year. http://www.vanityfai...medicine-201101

An American dies from an unintentional prescription drug overdose every 19 minutes. According to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, accidental prescription drug overdose is “the leading cause of acute preventable death for Americans”. http://www.cnn.com/2...d-consequences/

In the United States today, prescription painkillers kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined. http://www.naturalne...fatalities.html

According to the CDC, approximately three quarters of a million people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs. http://www.huffingto...n_b_643690.html

The number of prescription drug overdose deaths in the United States is five times higher than it was back in 1980. http://www.huffingto..._b_5648046.html

A survey conducted for the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that more than 15 percent of all U.S. high school seniors abuse prescription drugs. http://www.mayoclini...71?DSECTION=all

More than 26 million women over the age of 25 say that they are “using prescription medications for unintended uses“. http://blogs.psychce...-drug-epidemic/

If all of these antidepressants are helping, then why are more Americans killing themselves? The suicide rate for Americans between the ages of 35 and 64 increased by nearly 30 percent between 1999 and 2010. The number of Americans that die by suicide is now greater than the number of Americans that die as a result of car accidents every year. http://blogs.psychce...-drug-epidemic/

Antidepressant use has been linked to mass shootings in America over and over and over again, and yet the mainstream media is eerily quiet about this. Is it because they don’t want to threaten one of their greatest sources of advertising revenue? http://naturalsociet...mass-shootings/

The amount of money that the pharmaceutical industry is raking in is astronomical. It has been reported that Americans spent more than 280 billion dollars on prescription drugs during 2013. http://time.com/198/...are-killing-us/

If many of these drugs were not so addictive, the pharmaceutical companies would make a lot less money. And pharmaceutical drug addicts often don’t fit the profile of what we think a “drug addict” would look like. http://www.cnn.com/2...abuse-epidemic/

[fishinghat]

Now that is a must read for everyone. Great job FN.

[FiveNotions]

hehehe.... if about 1 in 10 Americans are taking antidepressants, that would also include our elected and appointed government officials, from the White House down to the local level. Care to take bets on who they are? The president? Vice president? Supreme Court justices? Sec Def? Secretary of State? Joint Chiefs of Staff? Senators? Congressman?

Just picture those 1 in 10, all in anti-depressant withdrawal at the same time ....

[thismoment]

FN

 

What a compelling read! Thanks for your work on this.

 

These aren't merely symptoms-- this is who we are, what we've become.

-Why is that?

-How and why have these values been established in our culture?

-Where and when did this start?

-Who is responsible?

-How do we change it?

-Do we even want to change it?

-Is it even possible to change it?

-Does anybody care?

[FiveNotions]

Well, TM, those are exactly the questions I'm asking myself ... I know that I care, you care, everyone on this forum cares ... because we've been the victims of this drug culture .. and we've all woken up and realized what's been done to us, and what is happening to those around us, to our society.

Frankly, I have little confidence/hope that this can be stopped/changed/turned around on the "larger scale." I think it's a one person by one person revolution ... each one of us here has chances every day to try to get others we know and come in contact with to "wake up." May not work with everyone, fact I'm sure it won't, but it will with some ...

As for your other questions, I'm researching all of that .. huge issue ... you, FH and BLD have shared some excellent books and other materials that are a start for the research. We also have a small, but growing, list of docs/shrinks/scientists who are "on our side."

I don't like unanswered questions, discrepancies in facts, and I no longer believe the "party line" on pharma and their malevolent wares and motives... let's just say I have a "new hobby" ... tracking this stuff down and answering those questions

[BelaLugosisDad]

FN

 

What a compelling read! Thanks for your work on this.

 

These aren't merely symptoms-- this is who we are, what we've become.

-Why is that?

-How and why have these values been established in our culture?

-Where and when did this start?

-Who is responsible?

-How do we change it?

-Do we even want to change it?

-Is it even possible to change it?

-Does anybody care?

- There is profit in maintaining creating illnesses, maintaining them not curing them

- We have been contition to believe solution lie in tablet form.

- Around the time of the first block buster drug - prozac.

- Pharma, lobbying & government. 'Sponsership' of doctors & industry led 'research'.

- Independent research. Non tied to parties with vested interested. - Look at the Cochtane foundation.

- We manadate as people that drug trials have to be independently funded. The FDA has to stop being funded by pharma.

- Our children depend on it.

- History will show this as a dark age in medicine. Change will not happen for a while but yes it is possible.

- We care, the victims. But we are those with the least power. This is legistimised organised crime we are fighting. It's like fighting a cosa nostra with government backing.

[FiveNotions]

TM, awesome questions. BLD, awesome responses.