Linking Mass Murders to Psychotropic Medications

I’ll tell you the truth, I had latent bipolar that was activated by an SSRI and sent me into a manic state where I made a lot of outrageous choices that were not in my normal character. My bad decisions continued for years until I got on some mood stabilizers and lowered my SSRI dose.

I went from the top student in my school with a 4.0 to a C student troublemaker in one semester. Then I continued having trouble for years while on the SSRI.

originally posted by: darkbake
I’ll tell you the truth, I had latent bipolar that was activated by an SSRI and sent me into a manic state where I made a lot of outrageous choices that were not in my normal character. My bad decisions continued for years until I got on some mood stabilizers and lowered my SSRI dose.

I went from the top student in my school with a 4.0 to a C student troublemaker in one semester. Then I continued having trouble for years while on the SSRI.

Thanks for sharing that. Are you still on medications for it?

What was your interaction like with the prescribing Dr? Did he/she suggest anything prior to the meds? Or in conjunction with them as far as diet or lifestyle changes?

a reply to: Assassin82

Psychotropic medications? What's that? I've been chewed up and spit up by the doctors, I still don't know what the means...

Everyone who’s caught up on a ‘root cause’ need to understand that it’s not just guns, or just meds, or just society.

Not all people on paychoactive meds magically turn into shooters. But people who are already disturbed & approaching the edge because of society, with access to guns, absolutely can and have been pushed OVER the edge by their meds.

People act like they live in a place they can vote for who they want, but forget they’re only allowed to choose between two parties.
So it’s no surprise you can’t see past the only choices the media gives you to debate: pro gun or anti gun.

We’re raising our kids, toddlers(!), on psychoactive drugs that changes their development permanently. And you don’t question those meds when they list violence as a side effect and that kid shoots up a school later?

I don’t see how more gun regulation can hurt, but the reluctance to even consider a connection w psychoactive drugs by some of you is f#ing scary.

Any updated sources on what he was on, if any at the time, I don't think that has been released yet? Could also be symptoms from withdrawals as well contributing to violence.

originally posted by: Assassin82
Yet another school shooting, and immediately the conversation turns to guns. This thread isn’t about guns though...it’s about what I believe to be the true and underlying force behind this social disconnect demonstrated by lost souls who go on a rampage and commit atrocities on a seemingly weekly basis.

Psychotropic medications; they are a common link to almost all mass murders. Our perception of mental illness is flawed. Flawed in the sense that we seek pills to cure our woes rather than face the fears of life head on. Those pills are disconnecting people from their own humanity.

...

Pushing as many expensive pills as possible is big business. USA is pretty much the poster boy when it comes to administering way too many drugs for way too many conditions.

In the grand scheme of things, it's a self-propelling bad circle - Medication leads to behaviour that leads to increased crime that leads to more money to be had talking about it, or making equipment protecting against it.

"The shooter was depressed."
"More research on depression - we need to get these kids medicated before it's too late!"
"We need to install X-ray machines in schools, cinemas and 7-Eleven's"

Anyone thinking Big Pharma is about anything but making money, have a somewhat rose-tinted view of the world.

a reply to: odzeandennz

At last someone sensible and rational

whatever spurs someone to commit these vile acts they seem to use firearms to achieve their goals

originally posted by: dreamingawake
Any updated sources on what he was on, if any at the time, I don't think that has been released yet? Could also be symptoms from withdrawals as well contributing to violence.

All the articles I have read indicate he had been on treatment but he stopped it approximately a year ago. Which totally contradicts the OP.

originally posted by: Agartha

originally posted by: dreamingawake
Any updated sources on what he was on, if any at the time, I don't think that has been released yet? Could also be symptoms from withdrawals as well contributing to violence.

All the articles I have read indicate he had been on treatment but he stopped it approximately a year ago. Which totally contradicts the OP.

That's because the media tends not to report these things. One of their top financial contributors is big pharma; so printing negative facts about one of their biggest ticket items isn't exactly walking the company line.

Yet the predictable response from the press is always the same – not only a total lack of curiosity, but disdain for any who ask the question, as though connecting psychiatric meds to mass shootings is pursuing a “conspiracy theory.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers are understandably nervous about publicity connecting their highly lucrative drugs to murderous violence, which may be why we rarely if ever hear any confirmation to those first-day reports from grief-stricken relatives who confide to journalists that the perpetrator was taking psychiatric drugs. After all, who are by far the biggest sponsors of TV news? Pharmaceutical companies, and they don’t want any free publicity of this sort.

The truth is, to avoid costly settlements and public relations catastrophes – such as when GlaxoSmithKline was ordered to pay millions of dollars to the family of 60-year-old Donald Schell who murdered his wife, daughter and granddaughter in a fit of rage shortly after starting on Paxil – drug companies’ legal teams have quietly and skillfully settled hundreds of cases out-of-court, shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars to plaintiffs. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly fought scores of legal claims against Prozac in this way, settling for cash before the complaint could go to court while stipulating that the settlement remain secret – and then claiming it had never lost a Prozac lawsuit.

Media ignoring crucial information

Friends said he spoke little of his relatives. He and his brother were adopted when they were young by Lynda and Roger Cruz, of Long Island, New York, according to relatives. They raised the boys in Parkland.

Roger Cruz died over a decade ago and Lynda struggled with the boys, said Barbara Kumbatovich, a former sister-in-law. “She did the best she could. They were adopted and had some emotional issues,” she said.

Kumbatovich said she believed Nikolas Cruz was on medication to deal with his emotional fragility. “She was struggling with Nikolas the last couple years,” she said.

Family Says He Was Taking Medication

a reply to: Assassin82

He is a young man with many problems, autism and ADHD have been mentioned. He was on treatment but, I repeat, he had not been in treatment for more than a year, probably since his mum died and there was nobody to control him anymore.

Link from the same news site you posted...

If he had continued his treatment this tragedy may have been avoided.

a reply to: Agartha

There are thousands of people who have tragedy that surrounds them every day of their lives. Sometimes they can't control, other times they can. Sometimes they need help, other times they don't. Nobody is disputing any of that. But it's a fact that he has been on psychotropic medications and very well could have still been on them, or coming off of the meds. I highly doubt he was taking them as prescribed. When that happens, the side effects are exacerbated.

At this point, you're trenched in to your belief and I can't force you to see that devastating consequences that these medications CAN have on a person. (Vastly different than WILL have). And the correlation of active shooters, mass murders, and suicides to the use of said medications deserves much more coverage in the media, studies from unbiased professionals, and a federal investigation into the devastation that they can create.

FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE in the US.

Again. FOR PROFIT.

"Thanks for the money. Sorry about your kids"

- Big Pharma

As an aside, and I say this in total agreement with the OP. WHY do you think that after every shooting event we:

ONLY talk about guns, policy, politics and NOT about commonalities in the players involved, i.e. prescribed meds?

a reply to: Assassin82

Assassin, 1 in 6 Americans are on some kind of psychiatric drugs and only approx. 3% commit violent crimes. How can you see a correlation there?

And if the drugs are culprits, why don't we see the same problem in Europe? (where the same percentage of people take psychiatric drugs).

For every school shooter who is on psychotropics, there is a shrink in the background prescribing these pills. But have you ever heard even one of these shrinks being named and questioned? That's where the snake lies.

originally posted by: SecretsoftheBlueApples
...U.S. Air Force Academy... have not had a single incident since.

Even the Air Force Academy is not immune:

www.abovetopsecret.com...
"Suspected Active Shooter at Air Force Academy Co-Springs, CO"

a reply to: Agartha

Nearly 1 gun per American citizen



Approximately 25% of American citizens own a gun



3% of Americans own half the guns in the U.S.



Source

Nearly 80% of guns used in a crime are obtained ILLEGALLY



Source

Fact: Fewer than 1% of firearms will ever be used in the commission of a crime

Source

If you're 3% number is indeed accurate, then it's a bigger problem then guns.

But as I've been saying all along, and I don't know if I can continue to go back and forth with you on this, I'm not denying that there is more at play in this country than just psychotropic medications. Gun laws need some form of reform; There must be some middle ground to be had. Our culture, our society, our way of life needs to be seriously looked at for all its flaws. But we MUST stop ignoring the fact that psychotropic medications are a HUGE part of this equation that is being overlooked by too many people. I feel like I've done a pretty good job of providing legitimate evidence to support that claim. Though little, if any, has been provided to negate that claim.

originally posted by: Agartha
Assassin, 1 in 6 Americans are on some kind of psychiatric drugs and only approx. 3% commit violent crimes. How can you see a correlation there?

Yes, there are all kinds of reasons people commit violent crimes. Love and money are the most common. But the question should be, of that 3%, how many people who already had violent / suicidal tendencies acted on them due to triggering by a psychiatric medication? It might be difficult to parse out, but I expect the percentages in that study would be much higher. Most violent crime is "intimate." Are potentially violent people who are given the wrong medication significantly more likely to commit larger, more public violent crimes?

And if the drugs are culprits, why don't we see the same problem in Europe? (where the same percentage of people take psychiatric drugs).

Are all the other factors taken into account besides the relative availability of guns? Like the amount of monitoring or counseling done? Or differences in European laws that make it easier for police to investigate threats and potential shooters? Or differences in European parenting where they are encouraged to keep a closer watch on their family members and notify the authorities if something is amiss?

So many questions.

a reply to: Agartha
It does make the most sense that he was no longer on the medication/s. Plus the hint was the image on his Instagram with bullet holes in a "group therapy target" with the comment claimed shooting was “group therapy".

a reply to: Agartha

But Europe doesn’t have the same percentage of psych meds. It’s about 3x higher in the US

a reply to: zardust

Yet the number of mass shootings is considerably higher than 3x, with the US being responsible for 31% of global mass shootings whilst having only 5% of the world's population.

To quote the famous Onion article headline:

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.