Failure: Anger Management

On July 9, 2003, Douglas Williams walked out of an ethics and sensitivity course and gathered a load of weapons from his truck. He headed for the Lockheed Martin plant where he worked, shot and killed five people, wounded nine others, and then killed himself.

In 2001, Williams had completed two weeks of professional anger-management counseling and was allowed to return to work. He was considered to be a changed person.

[Data from “Factory Killer Had a Known History of Anger and Racial Taunts,” by David M. Halbfinger July 10, 2003, The New York Times]

Ron Artest, a basketball player with the Indiana Pacers, was ordered to participate in anger-management classes.

Psychologists were not surprised that previous counseling had failed.

"Anger-management classes, I think, are a Band-Aid; they allow people to feel they've done something, but they haven't had any kind of real treatment," said Dr. Ray DiGiuseppe, a psychologist at St. John's University, where Artest played college basketball. "We have no organized treatment, no idea whether counselors doing the teaching have training in mental health. We're operating under this delusion that we're helping people when we may be just continuing the violence."

[From “Anger Management May Not Help at All,” by Benedict Carey, November 24, 2004, The New York Times]

A Tragic “Success” Story

Dylan Klebold was Eric Harris’s friend, and the other shooter at Columbine High. Both he and Eric had previously been sent to a Juvenile Diversion program (an alternative to prosecution for first-time offenders) after breaking into a car. The program included “anger management” classes and counseling. The two “successfully” completed the program and were released on February 9, 1999. The Columbine shootings took place just two and a half months later—April 20, 1999. The system failed.

School Shootings

Unfortunately, this is not the entire list. Incidents of school violence and drug-related killings are too numerous for this blog. However, you have to take a serious look at the connection between psychiatric drugs and violence. To give you an idea how closely they are linked, be aware that these teens were all prescribed powerful drugs prior to going on their shooting sprees. Yes, they pulled the triggers. But did the drugs trigger them??

Kip Kinkel, age 15 — murdered his parents, then opened fire in the cafeteria at Thurston High School killing two people and wounding 22 (Ritalin and Prozac)

Eric Harris, age 18 — [along with Dylan Klebold] killed a dozen students and a teacher at Columbine High School before taking his own life (Luvox)

Shawn Cooper, age 15 — fired two shotgun rounds, which, fortunately, missed the staff and students at Notus High School (Ritalin)

T.J. Solomon, age 15 — wounded six classmates at Heritage High School in Conyers, GA (Ritalin)

Jeff Weise, age 16— killed his grandfather and his grandfather’s friend, then went to his school on the Red Lake Reservation and killed nine people, wounded seven others, then killed himself (Prozac)

Side Effects May Include Death

“Canadian health officials said on Wednesday that they were suspending the sale of Adderall XR indefinitely because the drug was linked to 20 deaths, 12 of those children. …”

—Benedict Carey, “Therapists Question Canada’s Action on Hyperactivity Drug,” February 12, 2005, The New York Times

Drugging Children

“In my practice of psychiatry, I am frequently consulted about children who are taking three, four, and sometimes five psychiatric drugs, including medications that are FDA-approved only for the treatment of psychotic adults. The drug treatment typically began when the children developed conflicts with adults at home or at school. In retrospect, the conflicts could easily have been resolved by interventions such as family counseling or individualized educational approaches. Usually under pressure from a school, the parents instead acquiesced to put their child on stimulants prescribed by psychiatrists, family physicians, or pediatricians.

When these children developed depression, delusions, hallucinations, paranoid fears and other drug-induced reactions while taking stimulants, their physicians mistakenly concluded that the children suffered from “clinical depression,” “schizophrenia" or "bipolar disorder" that has been "unmasked" by the medications. Instead of removing the child from the stimulants, these doctors mistakenly prescribed additional drugs, such as antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and neuroleptics. Children who were put on stimulants for "inattention" or "hyperactivity" ended up taking multiple adult psychiatric drugs that caused severe adverse effects, including psychoses and tardive dyskinesia.*"

It is time to recognize that the supposedly increasing rates of "schizophrenia," "depression," and "bipolar disorder" in children in North America are often the direct result of treatment with psychiatric drugs….”

—Peter R. Breggin, MD, Dir., Int’l Ctr. for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, "Confirming the Hazards of Stimulant Drug Treatment," www.breggin.com

*a movement disorder caused by neuroleptic or antipsychotic medications

Prozac Notes

Sue Grinsted was concerned about people offering her son illegal drugs. So imagine her surprise when the mail came and her son announced, “Hey, Mom, they sent me Prozac.”

Eli Lilly had been sending unsolicited drugs (via a drugstore chain) to “adults with histories of depression.” However, according to his parents, Michael—a teenager—had never suffered from depression, or taken antidepressants. Yet he received a very potent drug, in the mail, without a prescription (illegal distribution). That’s scarey.

—data taken from, “Prozac Mailed Unsolicited to a Teenager in Florida,” by Adam Liptak, July 21, 2002, The New York Times

“A young woman in her thirties who was moderately depressed over a divorce was given Prozac. Shortly thereafter, she walked up to the bedroom of her two sleeping daughters and shot them dead. The newspaper account of the incident noted that she was on Prozac, then immediately stated that this was thought to be coincidental.

I’m not convinced this tragedy wasn’t drug-related. Women just don’t go around shooting their sleeping children.”

—Julian Whitaker, MD, Editor of Health & Healing, May 1996, Vol. 6, #5, Phillips Publishing.

Drug Companies

“Addicted to their billion-dollar sales, the companies have been sneakily repackaging old pills for new uses, hawking their not-so-magic elixirs for everything from shyness to smoking to work stress to supermom jits to severe premenstrual blues to muscle tension to dating anxiety.

Some psychiatrists admitted in the Times article that ‘the impression often conveyed by commercials for the drugs is clear: Almost anyone could benefit from them.’
…
The more anxious the companies feel about profits, the more generalized the generalized anxiety disorders get.”

—Maureen Dowd, “Aloft on Bozoloft,” July 3, 2002, The New York Times

Who's Crazy?

"Eleanor was beaten repeatedly by her husband and became depressed as a result. She sought therapy because of the depression, and her therapist 'taught' her that she was undoubtedly provoking her husband to beat her, since she unconsciously 'needed' to suffer."

—Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D., They Say You're Crazy—How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal (1995, Addison-Wesley) p. 3

Retired Husband Syndrome

According to an article in the Washington Post, there’s a new “syndrome” affecting the women of Japan. It’s called Retired Husband Syndrome (for real). It affects women whose husband’s have retired and are bored and miserable. The men, who are no longer productive, sit around the house whining and complaining about their wives. The women feel unappreciated and get fed up.

The husband is nasty, and makes his wife unhappy. Conclusion: the wife has a mental disorder!

[“Sick of Their Husbands in Graying Japan,” by Anthony Failoa, October 17, 2005, washingtonpost.com]

What is the DSM?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM for short, is the psychiatric bible. Any disorder listed in the manual is covered by insurance. And how do these disorders get into the book? They are voted in. Hmm…think about that.

“As it turns out, the association* has been inventing mental illnesses for the last 50 years or so. The original diagnostic manual appeared in 1952 and contained 107 diagnoses and 132 pages, by my count. The second edition burst forth in 1968 with 180 diagnoses and 119 pages. In 1980, the association produced a 494-page tome with 226 conditions. Then, in 1994, the manual exploded to 886 pages and 365 conditions, representing a 340% increase in the number of diseases over 42 years.”

—Irwin Savodnik [psychiatrist], from his article “Psychiatry’s sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseases,” January 1, 2006, Los Angeles Times

*the American Psychiatric Association

“Something is very wrong when those at the top of the DSM hierarchy not only ignore scientific evidence and ignore proof of the harm they are doing but also admit that they don’t want their patients to know what goes on in the DSM meetings. That they would spontaneously make such remarks to those of us who were energetically opposing their moves suggests either a whopping case of arrogance and sense of privilege or an astonishing naiveté—and the latter seems highly unlikely.”

—Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D., They Say You’re Crazy, How the World’s Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who’s Normal, (1995, Addison-Wesley) p. 227

“The DSM lists the criteria used by mental-health professionals to make their various diagnoses, from ‘mild mental retardation’ (the first listing) to ‘personality disorder not otherwise specified’ (the last); there are more than 350 in all. Hence this 943-page doorstop is one of the most important books you've never heard of. And the inscrutable process of writing it is starting up again. The American Psychiatric Association (A.P.A.), the manual's publisher, recently began planning a giant review of the book. The new edition, the fifth called DSM V, will appear around 2010. Evidently, it takes a long time to figure out all the ways America is nuts.”

—John Cloud, “How We Get Labeled,” Time Magazine online, January 12, 2003

“To read about the evolution of the DSM is to know this: It is an entirely political document. What it includes, what it does not include, are the result of intensive campaigning, lengthy negotiating, infighting, and power plays.”

—Louise Armstrong, And They Call it Help: The Psychiatric Policing of America’s Children, (1991, Addison-Wesley)

The Role of Psychiatry

“The erosion of personal responsibility is, arguably, the most pernicious effect of the expansive role psychiatry has come to play in American life. It has successfully replaced huge chunks of individual accountability with diagnoses, clinical histories and what turn out to be pseudoscientific explanations for deviant behavior.”

—Irwin Savodnik [psychiatrist], from his article “Psychiatry’s sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseases,” January 1, 2006, Los Angeles Times

No Suicide Epidemic Exists

Tampa Tribune
By Ken Kramer
Dec 31, 2005

Certainly any parent suffers a heavy burden of grief over the loss of a child, and our hearts go out to any family that suffers such a tragedy, including the Dungy family.

However, your brief editorial ("The Shared Tragedy Of Teen Suicide," Dec. 23) contained false and misleading statements such as "No family is immune from this epidemic." In fact, the recent suicide hysteria is only the marketing strategy of the "suicide prevention" industry.

It is rare that a child commits suicide. In Florida over the last five years, the number has been approximately 50 per year out of millions of youngsters 18 and under, according to reports obtained from Florida medical examiners. Suicides generally have been on the decline since 1987.

The rate of suicide for 19 years of age and younger, which peaked in 1988, is less now than in 1981.

Your editorial characterizing teen suicide as a "growing epidemic" is flat wrong, alarmist and, frankly, concerning. You are acting as a mouthpiece for the psycho-pharmaceutical complex that wants to see as many children consuming its drugs as possible.

Your editorial states, "TeenScreen reports that in nearly two-thirds of suicides, the victims exhibited symptoms of depression for more than a year before their deaths." The fact is that in Florida, the majority had already been "treated."

I am familiar with this subject, as I have obtained, perused and analyzed every autopsy, toxicology and law enforcement report on every single suicide 18 and under in the state of Florida for the last five years.

The true story is that the majority had been on psychotropic drugs or had already received psychiatric treatment, which is completely consistent with the flood of FDA and international warnings that these drugs can create suicidal ideation.

TeenScreen admits that a percentage of the kids it screens will wind up on these same psychotropic drugs. In fact, a survey of recently trained child psychiatrists found that treatment for nine out of 10 children consisted of drugging.

TeenScreen was wisely denied entry into the Pinellas and Hillsborough County school districts.

There is no epidemic of suicide in young people. But your promoting that such exists in itself causes hysteria in society.

Please, have some respect for those who are grieving by offering thoughtful solutions rather than a pat editorial not based on facts.

Ken Kramer is a researcher for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida, an organization founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology, which opposes psychiatric treatment and psychotropic medications.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Tribune published a statement Wednesday correcting the editorial's use of the term "growing epidemic" of teen suicides.