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In Reply to: "What are you doing to make it right?" posted by Daniel on February 17, 2006 at 05:00:46:
Your "questions" are indeed uniformed and wildly speculative and I find them extremely upsetting.
You have no evidence either way as to whether Ricky was on SSRIs. Given his history, his experiences and what he himself documented in his sucicide video, which is more likely? That he snapped because of the evil health care system giving him drugs, or because of what he said it was, that he was in so much pain that he could not go on.
There are many, many studies and clinical trials showing the effectiveness of SSRIs in treating of PTSD in adults. Go to Medline and search on SSRIs and trauma for some examples.
Every drug has some side effects and a medication may not be compatible with a particular person’s own body chemistry. I have personal experience of friends and family who have both benefited and badly reacted to SSRIs, but that is merely anecdotal and a few personal experiences cannot be used to make blanket statements. All medications should be supervised and psychiatric medications need the supervision of a psychiatric specialist. I agree that GPs should not be handing out these drugs for minor disorders. Research has also found that the most effective form of treatment for PTSD is not medication alone, but a combination of psychotherapy and psychopharmacology.
Many more people commit or attempt suicide every day because of trauma related psychiatric disorders than from SSRIs. If someone has cancer, surgery, chemotherapy, etc. all have side effects that may be dangerous. However, the risk is usually worth taking to try to save someone’s life. PTSD can be a terminal illness if untreated.
The only research that I know of that has been done on this issue showed that SG former members experience significantly higher levels of trauma symptoms than FG former members. (Kendall, 2004. Presentation at AFF in Edmonton)
As someone else already pointed out, the Family associated a great deal of stigma with mental illness, let alone psychiatric treatment. I have heard of a number of deaths of young people in the Family who were on medication for conditions such as bi-polar disorder, were encouraged to stop medication and “trust the Lord”, and died during a depressive episode. Your irresponsible speculation regarding Ricky and other SGAs is extremely unhelpful.
The bottom line is that SGAs are not dying from psychiatric treatment but from the LACK OF IT.
It absolutely infuriates me when the same old neurotic beliefs (demon possession/oppression, worldwide conspiracies by the “evil system”, non-conformity of others to one's own religious beliefs, etc.) that were the direct cause of so much harm in the first place are used as rationalization for the results of that harm. You may believe my hostility to be unfounded but for you to laud your own pet theory by using the tragedy of not only Ricky but all the other deaths is extremely offensive.
As to your own personal culpability, if you are Daniel W., weren’t you aka Samson Warner, one of the Family’s artists? Directly responsible for creating literature (the TKs among others) for children to educate them on the Family beliefs and practices? In fact you are listed as a graphic and layout artist for the Davidito Book. You didn’t just ignore Ricky’s abuse, you personally actually helped to publish it.
