By Nathan Barton

A website recently published some interesting and disturbing data. The “Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights International” or CCHRINT,  provides quite a bit of information on the prescribing of psychiatric drugs to both children and adults in the Fifty States. It is startling.

All Psychiatric Drugs
0-5 Years 1,080,168

Breakdown:
0-1 Years 274,804
2-3 Years 370,778
4-5 Years 500,948
6-12 Years 4,130,340
13-17 Years 3,617,593

Grand Total 0-17 Years 8,389,034 kids on psychiatric drugs

That is nearly 1% of the TOTAL population of the Fifty States. It is, in the words of one politician, “YUGE!” But now, let us throw in adults.

Again, complied by CCHRINT, but taken from what seem to be valid and generally accurate sources. (Admittedly, some are government sites, but you can argue that government would try to understate such things, if they could.)

Total US “patients”
Grand Total 78,694,222

This does include the 8.4 million children. Anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drugs account for the vast majority of those: only about 10 million are on ADHD drugs and only about 7 million on anti-psychotic drugs.

79 million of us: one in four. ONE IN FOUR. Forget about what happens if North Korea gives us a spread of EMP or Hurricane Irma doesn’t stop at the Appalachians and we lose our infrastructure, so no fuel, no electricity. What happens if the drug supply of 79 million people gets interrupted and they go off their meds? At least, if you believe that these drugs are being administered/prescribed to prevent people from going very seriously off their rockers. (Some correspondents have told me that these people probably won’t immediately go nuts just because they don’t get their prescriptions. But the general attitude (especially as stated by those doctors who are issuing these prescriptions) is that these drugs are necessary to keep these people from harming themselves and becoming physical threats to those around them.)

But more than the effect of having people drugged up and then having to withdraw from them, perhaps cold turkey, in case of societal problems (or even collapse), is the mere fact that our society imposes so much stress on its members – especially the young and very young – that these sorts of drugs are so widely used. I would love to see a breakdown like we do voting – by county or by urban versus non-urban, etc. And a timeline. Did, for instance, the number of people fed these drugs increase significantly during the 2016 election, or immediately after the 2016 election, or when Trump took office? Are hurricanes Harvey and Irma causing an increase? And going back further, was there a noticeable jump in users after the Bloody Tuesday (9-11) attacks?

Secondly, without getting into the idea of Big Pharma and some cabal of physicians (and ignoring my distrust of the psychiatric “profession” second only to that I have for attorneys), what is there that could be done instead of giving all these drugs? Silly me, but would it not be better to remove the reason for depression than just push pills down their throats?

Finally, what are the side effects of such long-term use of these kinds of drugs, especially on immature (physically) humans? For years, certain professions have refused to hire (enlist) people who have been treated with Ritalin and its sisters. And for that matter, considering that emotional and social maturity is being delayed further and further (some claim that adulthood does not begin until the mid-20s), what side effects are there on this kind of immaturity? (And is this perhaps a CAUSE of, or does it contribute to) delayed maturity, at least when considering averages?

The Romans had few tools for controlling the masses in their day: bread and circuses on the positive side, penal slavery, beheading (for citizens) or crucifixion on the down side. The French “republic” had little more: bread and conscription and the guillotine.

But modern governments have many more tools of control: the carrot being all sorts of circuses (professional sports, celebrities, music, other media, welfare, etc.) and the stick being imprisonment – and perhaps, drugs? And those are just the “legal” ones – before we start adding lobotomies and castration and other techniques. None of which government (or anyone else) should be using.

The more biddable and docile the population, the easier government can control it, and the more those of us who refuse to accept such things stick out like round pegs that don’t fit into square holes.

Note: I have been told that the CCHRI is a Scientologist organization and website. However, the data came from recognized sources.

Mama’s Note: Answering your questions here is actually a call for a whole new article. I can’t do justice to it in a “note.”

But to scratch the surface let me say that no government, especially any non-voluntary government, has any “right” or responsibility to control the lives of people, let alone dabble in their mental health. If people could get over believing that government was responsible, or that there was any way that it could be carried out in any rational way… the problem would be at least half solved. It is this trust and belief in the “authority” of government that gives it such power.

The “bread and circus” deal is always the payoff for people who don’t want to be responsible for their own lives and the entitlement mindset gives them that “out.” Governments have been playing that game for at least 5,000 years as an alternate to freedom. Except it doesn’t work, really. Eventually it boils down to our current state of nearly everyone attempting to control everyone and everything, which is the source of a great deal of the stress – on top of the denial of personal responsibility.

And the stress of modern life under the current tyranny (and fighting over who is in control) is a major cause of most “mental illness,” right along with the cognitive dissonance that comes with trusting something that has been demonstrated for so long as not worthy of any trust!

Then, if you are interesed, take a look at “The Myth of Mental Illness” By Thomas S. Szasz. Or an even better one:  “Psychiatry: The Science of Lies” by the same author, only far more recent.

I’ll work on a more thorough treatment of the subject and the questions as soon as possible.