
Welcome to the uncomfortable truth. The following article will be about something I have known about for a long time: the connection between SSRIs and mass shootings in America.
Before I start, this article isn’t about vilifying psychiatrists and doctors who prescribe medication, as many modern medicines have greatly improved people’s quality of life, from painkillers to antipsychotic drugs.
Before modern medicine, the average lifespan of humans was 30 years, so we have greatly benefited from modern medicine. Unfortunately, like all businesses, greed and the profit motive sometimes get the better of people.
I also don’t want this article to vilify people with mental illnesses, as there is no evidence that these people are typically more dangerous in acting violently toward others. Plenty of people with mental illnesses live everyday lives.
Now be aware that what I say today applies only to SSRI medications for Selective Serotonin Reuptake inhibitors. This class of anti-depressants was first released in the 80s with Prozac.
Now I will not go into too much depth about the science of the medication in this article but point to some other well-written articles about the topic, but I will get into the meat of the article.
Do you know what one of the side effects you can have when taking an SSRI medication is? Suicidal thoughts.
That’s right, a medication prescribed to treat anxiety and depression has a potential side effect of causing a person to have suicidal thoughts that are not there on.
Now how does this get worse? Most people are entirely unaware of this side effect. In my own experience, many years ago, I went to a doctor to get a referral to see a psychologist for depression, and without skipping a beat, the doctor tried to prescribe me an SSRI medication.
Luckily, I had just watched a documentary on the dangers of SSRI medication and declined. Still, I debated with the doctor as he tried to hard-sell me to take the SSRI medication.
When I showed up at the doctor’s office that day, I wasn’t expecting to get into a debate with the doctor, but when I told him that I wasn’t going to take an SSRI, he asked why, and I proceeded to explain the dangers of SSRI medications.
He then told me that he could then just take me off, to which I made him aware that I was also aware that one of the potential withdrawal side effects is suicidal thoughts.
Now I am not telling you this to vilify the medical profession. Still, a few problems here indicate the problems with SSRIs and people in the medical profession who claim these medications are safe.
What was very interesting about this experience was that when I told the doctor I had depression, he didn’t ask me about the extent of my depression.
Now you would think this would be important before prescribing someone a medication that could make them have thoughts that are not their own.
Especially if the person taking the medication isn’t made aware of this. And it appears that most of the world is utterly unaware of the dangers of these drugs, which are often marketed as safe.
Now there isn’t a medication alive that doesn’t have some side effects, some potentially lethal to some. Still, when you combine depression and anxiety with a drug that can cause you to have suicidal thoughts that aren’t your own, you see how this can be a significant problem.
I, unfortunately, should have waited to see what the doctor would do before arguing with the doctor to see if he would have told me about the danger of this medication, but based on websites like https://ssristories.org/, it seems that people are unaware of the risks of this medication.
This especially becomes a problem in the USA, where these medications are prescribed, like hotcakes. Yet, the people named are often not told about the potential dangers of these medications.
Now combine that with all the guns in America, and you start to see how this could be a powder keg waiting to happen.
Many people will say that the solution is to ban guns. Still, realistically, America has always had lots of firearms, and the epidemic of mass shootings didn’t start until the 80s, which also coincides with the release of Prozac.
An article written by https://www.psychreg.org/ was fascinating and went into incredible detail. Still, it points out the large number of cases where people have been on these drugs and committed mass shootings while in some cases having no recollection of even doing the shooting when taken off the drugs.
What is also very interesting is that I only found this article when typing “SSRI mass shootings” into duckduckgo in Tor, but I did not find this article at all in Google. All the search results on Google say it’s a hoax, while in duckduckgo, it’s more balanced.
So if you might ask, if the evidence is quite clear that SSRIs can cause violent behaviour, then why is it that the media in America, apart from Fox News in America, hasn’t covered this angle?
It’s simple. Because most of the people on the board of directors for the media companies in America are the same people on the board of directors for pharmaceutical companies, and as a result, it’s not in their interest to make people aware of the dangers of SSRI medication because it would affect their sale.
An interesting fact I came across many years ago was that pharmaceutical companies spend 60% of their marketing budget marketing directly to doctors, probably because those are the people who prescribe medications.
Also, it is not illegal for doctors to have shares in pharmaceutical companies, which also presents a conflict of interest, especially when those people are prescribing medications.
A doctor’s responsibility is to give their patients the best quality of life. It seems that when SSRIs are pedalled as safe, and the public takes them largely unaware of their potential dangers, this is malpractice to keep them ignorant.
Sources
https://www.psychreg.org/antidepressants-ssri-mass-shootings/