I have learned that just because I blog does not mean anyone is listening. So far, I have only one person following my blog (Hello!). That’s kind of discouraging when there’s so much I want to share, but, then again, I don’t read a lot of blogs myself, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
My wife’s following is much bigger than mine, but, hey, I’m not jealous. She works at it. I’m much more focused on kids, job, beer and basketball (or football depending on the season). My wife practically lives online, helping people and advocating. Her website, www.uniteforlife.org, kicks butt.
There’s a new article on her website from Vogue. I don’t normally read magazines like Vogue (I prefer Cosmo, lol), but this article is very relevant for me. It is about the dangers of psychiatric drugs for pregnant moms and babies. We’ve been personally affected by these dangers and it has opened our eyes to corruption in the medical industry and ignorance in our society. I believe the tides are slowly turning and people are starting to realize that they’ve fallen under the spell of expensive and clever advertising initiatives and pharmaceutical sales growth strategies.
I work in business and understand how corporate America works. I’ve spent most of my career in Fortune 200 companies and I know that there are many smart, hard working people in the corporate world, and they are focused on making a profit. The whole point of a for profit business is to make money. We should not expect unbiased research, recommendations or communications from profit motivated companies. Third parties are needed to find the truth, and they may face opposition if the truth threatens profits.
Psychiatric drugs are not the panacea they’re made out to be. They are not as well understood or as safe as we are led to believe. They are especially dangerous for pregnant moms, yet that is precisely the population being targeted by the Mothers Act. This legislation is in the Senate with a goal of passage by Mother’s Day. If that happens, then my wife, a future lawyer, will have her hands full with lawsuits in the years ahead. When more and more moms are convinced they are in need of psychiatric treatment, more and more moms will be put on psychiatric drugs, which will lead to homicides, suicides and deformities.
This bill needs an informed consent clause and the American public needs to get informed. There are many reasons for the baby blues and there are many solutions. Why aren’t we debating a bill to require paid maternity leave or for education on proper nutrition in pregnancy or to crack down on discrimination against pregnant and nursing mothers? This focus on the psycho-pharmaceutical definitions of post partum depression and the predictable solution is frustrating, and I can’t understand why the profit motivated voices are carrying as much weight as the victims.
I hope people will check out www.uniteforlife.org and see a point of view untainted by profit and focused on the truth.
3 comments
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April 25, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Mark E Berry
Hey Joel,
Well now you have 2 followers!!! Hahahaha…..
Sometimes a quiet voice communicates better than a loud one. Listening to Amy, I’ve often wondered where you stood. I could guess, but wasn’t positive you felt so strongly. Knowing you feel just as strong about it (and what happened) really affects me. It adds a lot of fuel to the fire, especially given how long we’ve known each other.
Here is my own dilemma. Ya know that Dave has had sleeping problems since he was 20? And trust me, a real sleep-disturbed spouse is NOT pretty at all. I found him really hard to live with, every night from midnight until 2pm the next day. It was really hard. Weekends ruined months at a time; a constant unstable nagging that something was deeply wrong; and ultimately an exhausted life. Aside from my own frustrations, he spent 50% of his life drained and powerless from this problem.
We finally self-diagnosed Dave with Restless Leg Syndrome. We got him onto 0.25mg of Requip. Within 2 days of using this pharmaceutical, our lives miraculously healed. We were surprised and blessed every morning when he felt alive and awake. Instead of sleeping till 2pm every Saturday, he’s awake, excited, and productive by 8am. It’s been, quite literally, life-changing for me. It makes me cry when I think about how this pharmaceutical helped us this year. It’s been amazing.
Does the 1% of post-partem women whose lives were saved by pharmaceutical want the screening done or not? Where do they stand?
More importantly, is there a healthy solution that helps ALL the people, not just those that need saving from pharma? Dave and I tried hundreds of natural, homeopathic solutions, and all of them failed. Ultimately, only Requip’s ability to act as a dopamine agonist worked. And thank God for that.
I’m NOT for the Mother’s Act. I only wonder what the ultimate solution is: one that saves all the women who need pharmaceuticals, AND saves all the women from pharmaceuticals who could be hurt by them?
April 27, 2009 at 4:15 pm
joelphilo
I can’t say what percentage of women were ‘saved’ by pharmaceuticals or what the opinion is of women who believe salvation came in the form of a pill. I know there are women who advocate for this bill and there are women who feel they were saved by drugs. However, I also know that there is a placebo effect with these druges (a New Englad Journal of Medicine study recently showed antidepressants to be no more effective than placebos, both were more effective than nothing). I also know there are women advocating for this bill that have much greater financial interest in its passage than I do.
Regarding Dave’s Restless Leg Syndrome, I am glad you found a solution that worked for your family. Because your hunt for solutions was voluntary and you did not have a fetus to worry about, I consider your situation to be different from the one I am concerned about. To have the Federal government promoting a pro-pharmaceutical intervention for pregnant women opens up a pandora’s box of issues from Federal interference in medical decisionmaking, the corrupting influence of pharmaceutical dollars in the legislative process (PhRMA was one of the biggest donors in the recent elections), the labeling of a large portion of our population as mentally ill (with resultant curtailment of rights such as gun ownership, not to mention self-esteem issues), to the likelihood of increased birth defects and spontaneous abortions.
I do believe there are healthy solutions to the baby blues. I don’t think our society is very supportive in general and especially not for new moms. The medicalized nature of birth, the lack of government support for mothers (paid maternity leave anyone?), the nomadic society we live in that fragments families, and the expectation of independence that we drill into our people all contribute to baby blues. More faith, family, friends and support would all help. Greater education on the life changes that come with a new child and greater respect and consideration for new mothers could ameliorate some baby blues. There are also nutritional, cognitive behavioral and lifestyle solutions. Every situation is unique and I don’t know what the best approach is for everybody, but that is why I do not want the Federal Government taking a position and getting involved. We have too much labeling in our society. We don’t need more mothers labeled with Post Partum Depression anymore than we need more children labeled as ADHD. Just as a whole generation of kids is growing up on Ritalin, this Mothers act could lead to a whole generation of children’s mothers on antipsychotics.
The ultimate solution is to better understand the problems new mothers face in America and look holistically for solutions. I believe the Mothers Act will be a great distraction and a great risk. Women already have easy access to pharmaceuticals and the drug companies are doing a fine job of advertising on how they can help with PPD. Let’s not give them additional assistance from Big Brother. Rather, let’s fight this Act to promote a more balanced solution. This is the perspective of someone with no financial interest in the outcome, but only a concern for this niche issue that can have huge consequences over time.
Thanks for commenting! I appreciate you taking the time to write and I would’ve responded sooner but have been swamped with kids, housework etc.
April 28, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Amy Philo
It is not the government’s job or their right to interfere in the treatment of postpartum depression or perinatal mood / anxiety disorders unless they are doing so in order to IMPROVE or PROTECT public health from the disastrous consequences of a current treatment on the market. LSD was once a prescription psychotropic drug and the government eventually banned it. The government’s job is to protect the people from dangerous pharmaceuticals, not to encourage women to go and take them.
This whole thing is just so 1984 to me. It sickens me that some people believe there is a problem with under-drugging. One third of pregnant women in the U.S. are exposed to psychotropic drugs at some point and somehow we think the govt. has to step in and promote more mental health treatment. Ridiculous.
Oh and Mark, I see that you said you are not for the MOTHERS Act, but I am not sure if you realize how your first few sentences come across. I’ve spent a long time trying to figure out if you were trying to say Joel’s voice is so soft that you in particular listen to it, or if it’s an insult toward me for pounding this message in, or what. It’s a little confusing honestly. But that’s ok because I understand not everyone is cool with loudness but I also know that because of “loudness” babies are being saved, so it’s all good in the end. But I am still left wondering if you are somehow offended and misunderstanding the whole thing.
Do you think that the MOTHERS Act has something to do with Dave taking Requip? Because it sounds like your implication of my “loudness” followed by a justification of why Dave takes Requip = you think we are judging you or Dave or anyone who takes drugs. On the contrary, what I spend my life fighting for is informed consent. Keep in mind how dearly I paid and how much I have suffered before you imply that I judge people for taking a drug. I want them to be warned of the dangers and I don’t want them to get hurt. It’s not up to me or anyone else in our cause whether a person takes or does not take a drug that’s on the market – but what I can do is try to help them get educated. If my friend Christian knew that her baby would die from Effexor there is no way in Hell she would have taken the drug even though it worked for her. There is no way I would have taken or stayed on Zoloft if anyone had been able to give me honest information about the drug.
I don’t know if you really understand my story or not, but there is also not a chance that Joel is going to side with pharmaceuticals over our own family and his life or Isaac’s or mine.
So thank you for believing in the cause, but try to think through it a little bit more because loud or not, this is one of the most important things we could ever do. To know that a baby’s life was spared, it doesn’t matter if you have to scream it. It’s worth it. And I hope that you can appreciate that because we are just like you and want the best for our families and want people to be safe and happy. This is definitely not about a philosophical disagreement or judgment of anyone who uses the drugs, this is about protecting women and infants from a malicious industry trying to profit off as many as possible without caring who gets hurt.