Friday, December 28, 2012
Did drugs play role in shootings?
The senseless shootings of 20 children and 6 female staff at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Conn., has dominated the thoughts and conversations of so many people recently, and rightly so. Gun control, mental health, violence in video games and movies, and the lack of God in public schools are just some of the timely topics of discussion.
As soon as this news started to in settle in for me I immediately wondered the same thing I always wonder when someone goes on a mass shooting spree. What psychological medications was this person taking? They always seem to be on some potent pharmaceutical product. The link is there and it’s getting more and more apparent, as well as more and more deadly.
Until toxicology reports are completed, and until the police have sought out and located any medical professionals who are documented to have treated this young man we can only speculate.
I do feel confident it will be discovered that this young man was currently, or had taken psychological medications in his lifetime. Due to the fact he is said to have had Aspergers’ syndrome and his brother allegedly told the police he also had a “personality disorder.” The shooter has more than likely been seen by a psychiatrist and that means one thing — meds have been prescribed.
Our children are experiencing unprecedented rates of “problems.” Autism (Aspergers is on the autism spectrum) is a neurological condition said to effect 1 in 88 children today. A once rare condition is now so commonplace, it’s practically become the new normal. Learning and behavioral problems are also common place. Here’s just a few relatively new psychiatric “labels” — oppositional defiance disorder (ODD), ADHD, Bipolar disorder, OCD, and social anxiety disorder are all psychiatric invented disorders. Absolutely no medical tests exist to prove such conditions are actually present in someone. I do not dispute the troubles are real, it is the way in which we address them is my issue.
Why are our kids so sick? And how are we addressing their illnesses beyond going to the doctor for a prescription and sticking pills in their mouths? And what are these pills doing that have rarely been tested on children, if at all? And if at all, for such short periods of time that we couldn’t possibly understand long term effects.
Using psych meds with children, teens, and young adults needs to become part of our conversations. Is this safe?
Andrea Keller, Canfield