badstar

Just when I thought the sick sickos couldn't get any sicker...

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Story is 100% unadulterated BULLSHIT.

The “Sun” is lying. You can see the Church’s official statement here: http://news.bostonherald.com/letters/view.bg?articleid=179702

By the way, you might remember that, before he dared speak out against Big Pharma, Tom Cruise was a generally well-liked actor. If you think about it, standing on a couch is not *that* big a deal. The fact is that the drug companies have engaged in a whisper campaign of character assassination on this actor. And with good reason: since Cruise spoke out, sales of Ritalin are down 21% in USA, sales of Paxil are now banned in the UK by the UK FDA, and the U.S. FDA requires blackbox labels on all antidepressants. And Big Pharma is mad, their pockets have taken the hit.

See http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/20/health/main710455.shtml

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Your Boston Herald link isn't working.

The Cruise/drug sales drop linkage you make looks a lot like the association as causation fallacy. Can you back up your claim with anything substantial? Furthermore, what does it have to do with anything about Scientology anyway?

I'm all for exposing Big Pharma as the crooks they are, but grasping at straws is just tacky.

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http://news.bostonherald.com/letters/view.bg?articleid=179702

Works for me. (shrug)

Here it is:

A story falsely claims that Scientology leader David Miscavige has compared Tom Cruise to Christ (“Star Tracks, Jan. 24).

This is totally and utterly a lie, and has no basis in the theology of Scientology in the slightest. There is no scriptural background for anyone inside or outside of the church to come up with such a concept. As well, Miscavige has never and would never characterize any church member or anyone related to Scientology in such terms, nor has or would Cruise characterize himself as such.

While the Scientology religion was founded by one man, L. Ron Hubbard, he himself insisted that he was just a man. He was the founder and there will only ever be one founder. He was not a prophet, nor is he deified in any way, nor would anyone else be.

Karin Pouw,
Public Affairs Director
Church of Scientology International

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That's weird that the links works for me now too; at first it said the document "didn't exist at this location" and referred me to another link that was also a dead-end. Maybe it was a connection thing.

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In reply to your email:

One can argue association as causation.
The thing is, over one million American kids are now officially "diagnosed" as hyperactive and on Ritalin. It's a trillion-dollar racket. Same with all the anxiety-disorder-syndrome balloney. "Take your Prozac", "Take your Xanax", etc.

Did you know that sucking at Math is now classed as an "official disorder" by the American Psychiatry Association?

Also, do a search on Teen Screen (the new initiative where they want ALL TEENS IN AMERICA to be screened for mental disorders to be handled by drugs)

The MAIN REASON why Scientology gets all this bad, viciously bad media is because we dare stand up and speak out against Big Pharma. And they DO NOT LIKE IT.

See Citizen's Commission on Human Rights: http://www.cchr.org

best,
Greg

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No; Scientology gets bad media because it is a false junk religion championed by a leader who is a fraudulent egomaniac who told scores of lies and made openly ridiculous claims about society and religion.

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Anxiety disorder is real. Just not everyone has it so bad they need medicine. I grant that it's overprescribed.

But Cruise didn't say that. What he said was, there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in the brain, which is flat out total bullshit.

Ask any bipolar friend who has paranoid delusions that they cannot stop. Ask any woman who has had post-partum depression. The chemical reactions caused in the body by neurotransmitters and hormones ARE REAL.

You don't need to spout total bullshit to debunk big pharma.

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Cruise said that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in the brain. But this is *definitely* not "flat out bullshit."

One week later, on the SAME show (this time with Katie Couric, noted psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, MD, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical, said EXACTLY THE SAME THING.

He said that there IS ABSOLUTELY NO DATA as to the "correct, balanced brain chemistry" - that the chemistry in the brain is still being researched, and that the whole "chemical imbalance" thing was a MARKETING ANGLE used by pharmaceutical companies - (note that they always say "you *may* havea chemical imbalance). In fact, Dr. Glenmullen said that the FDA now no longer allows Big Pharma companies to use that term in their ad campaigns because it creates the impression that it is scientific fact, whereas it is just a marketing name.

Do your research.

A person with paranoid delusions needs therapy. But the point put forward by Tom Cruise (and many others) is that they do *not* need dangerous, addictive drugs like Paxil, Prozac or Xanax.

A person with PPD needs hormone treatments, therapy/counseling, proper nutrition and lots of rest. (This part about rest is usually underestimated, and now they have a crying kid to deal with. Help from a relative or nanny may prove invaluable.) But they do NOT need their brain chemistry messed with.

I agree with you that the chemical reactions caused by neurotransmiters and hormones are REAL. I disagree with you in that I think that mucking about with them without any idea what secondary effects the altered chemistry may cause is ASININE. My two cents.

Sincerely,
Greg

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A person with paranoid delusions needs therapy. But the point put forward by Tom Cruise (and many others) is that they do *not* need dangerous, addictive drugs like Paxil, Prozac or Xanax.

Um. A person with paranoid delusions cannot get rid of them via reasoning alone. The homeless person on the street with the bags and shopping cart, and the signs saying the end is near, has problems that go way beyond ones that can be wished away through waving of hands, or talked away with a therapist.

People with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, post traumatic tstress disorder, dissociative identity disorder, and schizophrenia cannot function well without medication of some kind.

Why do you think that in the absense of pharmaceuticals, many of them self medicate with alcohol or heroin or something similar?

Paxil, Prozac, and Xanax are prescribed for unipolar depression largely. They are not prescribed to take for the rest of your life when someone has unipolar depression. They are prescribed in order to temporarily get rid of suicidal thoughts so that the person can regroup and possibly get off of them. I know this, because I was on Paxil, and I was on it until I didn't need it, and then I got off of it. It was used as a quick guardrail against the cliff of suicide. Then, having not commited suicide, I was alive and could talk about things, and eventually I could get off it. My depression was caused by hormones, which *are* a chemical imbalance, sorry to bust your bubble, from going cold turkey off the pill, which I had been on for an ovarian cyst, but I had gone off of because of migraines (which were directly caused by the hormones, again a chemical reaction).

But sometimes they are prescribed to people with serious issues (like the list I made above) in conjunction with Lithium and such, to fill in an area that for that person's specific chemistry, the bipolar drugs and antipsychotics don't fill.

Now, of *course* none of these drugs "cure" the person in any case at all. What they allow for is the ability to hold down a job, not live in a cardboard box, not be constantly at the whims of the disease.

Some people cannot function without medication. I have seen acquaintances and even some friends who really needed medication go off it with disastrous results. For certain there are people who should not be on it. And there are people who only need it for a short time. But there are still people who without some kind of medication (legal or illegal) would off themselves in a heartbeat, or waste away.

I did my research. I listened to a lecture by Dr. Glenmullen online. He said, plain as day, that if you have severe depression or disorders that interfere with daily functionality, and you seriously cannot get out of bed, all things present in post partum depression, and serious depression, and more serious disorders, it's ok to take the medicine to jump start you. Even if you don't have serious depression, but it can haelp you, you should take it, and wean yourself off if possible.

So even your expert agrees with me.

A person with PPD needs hormone treatments, therapy/counseling, proper nutrition and lots of rest. (This part about rest is usually underestimated, and now they have a crying kid to deal with. Help from a relative or nanny may prove invaluable.) But they do NOT need their brain chemistry messed with.

Hormones affect brain chemistry. Period, end of report. I am a female, and I have had hormonal related issues, and I have seen them affect my mental state. PMS is real because hormones affect emotions and energy and so forth. This is a real chemical reaction in the body that affects the brain. Period. PPD is partially hormonally based. It's partially circumstance based. But it's real, and it's clinical depression. You say they need hormone treatments, well those are chemical treatments.

But the way you describe it is as if it can be wished away or willed away or taken away by family help. Loads of people who have really helpful families still get PPD.

Basically, your argument holds no water.

And anyone who doesn't ask question of their doctor and think about how a medicine makes them feel is a dumbass motherfucker who deserves what they get.

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Seaya,
This is a controversial topic and I do not expect we will agree on everything. So first of all let's be civil and allow each of us to have our own opinions.

Secondly, if anyone ever told you that a hormonal imbalance is the same as a neurochemical imbalance, then that person has lied to you. Ask a doctor.

Third: I am not dismissing nor minimizing people's problems. But I do believe that the "take a pill" camp tends to dismiss and minimize the positive effects of good support, a change of environment and other less invasive approaches can have on any person.

(See http://www.alternativementalhealth.com for example)

Anyway, most importantly, I am not at all about judging people or their challenges in life. I am all for informing the public so that they're not taken in by the Big Pharma marketing machine. That's all.

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Interesting, I'll have a look at your links.

Out of curiousity...who are you and how did you stumble upon my journal?

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Hi. Sorry for not introducing myself before.
I don't mean to crash your party, just wanted to share the fact that the "Jesus" story about Cruise is Bullshit.

My name is Greg and I'm a regular guy who does volunteer work for the Scientology Parishioners League. Basically what I do, whenever I get bored with what's on TV, is do a search for news articles on Scientology and see if they're accurate of completely off the mark. When they say something asinine about Scientology, I try to contact whoever wrote it and tell them what the real deal is.

Some people react positively. Some others couldn't care less. Oh well.

Anyway, that's how come I showed up. Didn't mean to create a big stir though.

best,
Greg
http://www.liveandgrow.org

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that's ok. I'm used to the occasional post on my journal that somehow attracts a random stranger or two, and they've gotten a lot nastier than this before.(by the way, how did you actually come across my journal? Was it while looking for news articles? Again, curiousity gets the best of me.)

I appreciate that you bothered to respond to my question of who you are, often when this happens, the person doesn't bother.

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Yup, searching for News articles in Google. Then, I found a cool new option that said "search Blogs?" and I had some fun with it. ;-)
G

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Ah, so you are a scientology missionary.

How does Tom Cruise's cock taste?

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Okay, I know that you're not exactly thrilled with what Greg has to say here, and while I have no problem with my journal being a ground for debate/discussion, I think I'd prefer it not a forum for such insults.

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It's more than what he has to say. Do a bit of googling. You'll see.

Or do you like missionaries?

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I'm not particularly fond of missionaries, but I do find them interesting. I do not agree with much of what Greg here has to say, however I also see no reason to insult him, he's been straightforward and polite. If something comes up that I have a problem with his conduct on my journal more serious than disagreement with his statements, I'll do whatver I need to do to stop it. So far, I see no reason to take any such action. Now if you would like to keep discussing and debating on my journal, feel free. I must say, I'm finding reading the discussion to be worth my time. But please, keep the insults off of my journal. Thanks!

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