A warning is needed before reading/watching below: you'll find it to be very disturbing, in all sorts of ways. Gwen Olsen describes the horrific events that pushed her out of the Rx industry…
And a reminder that as usual, none of what you see here should be taken as medical advice. Yes, there may be times in your life when drugs are needed and I know they really have saved lives. However, the story below is NOT a rare incident, and we also know the drug companies have dark secrets when it comes to vaccine safety, so before going on any medication, I just hope you'll be inspired by this post to be SO diligent in your research first and know what you're getting into. Make SURE there is no other way…
- Here are 20 Tips for How to Fight Anxiety and Depression Naturally
- How to fight depression and anxiety – help for teens
By the way, the first commenter below has reminded me to remind YOU how important it is to advocate for our loved ones who are ill. NEVER leave them alone in the hospital unless you are absolutely positive that they're totally aware of what's going on so they can say no to some things, or double check other things, like what drugs might be coming at them. Be confident and ask questions, make sure they know that *nothing* will be done or given until you decide it's needed. I don't mean to imply that doctors and nurses are out to get us, I truly believe most of them have huge hearts and want to help (but many are just very deceived about drugs vs. natural methods of healing), however even at our big popular local hospital in Grand Rapids, there have been TOO many reported cases of medical errors. Some of which have cost patients their lives. It's a scary time with such pressure to do things with less and less financial cost, which means less staff, cutting corners, etc. It's happening everywhere. Be smart and be aware, it very well could save the life of someone you love.
Here's Gwen Olsen, author of Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher:
(I've written out the transcript below for those who prefer reading…)
Here's the transcript:
There's no such thing as a safe drug.
By the time a drug's approved and it hits the general population we don't know even 50% of the side effects involved with that drug.
We were being trained to misinform people.
I spent 15 years working in the pharmaceutical industry working for some of the major manufacturers. It wasn't like I woke up one morning and said, “You know I need to get out of pharmaceutical sales,” it was actually an awakening process for me, it was a spiritual and consciousness process, where as I started observing what was happening, what some of the drugs were doing, the misinformation, the disinformation, that I was being encouraged to minimize side effects when I talked to doctors.
I started to recognize that these patients were literally being tortured by the drugs that they were given.
My niece was 20 years old, she was attending Indiana University, and she was a pre-med student, extremely intelligent, beautiful woman, just a beautiful spirit inside and out. She was in a car accident and was prescribed Vicodin (Hydrocodone) for pain, and became addicted. While she was studying she determined that the sedative properties of her drugs were keeping her from being able to concentrate, so she purchased some Ephedra, which is a stimulant. She had a drug interaction and ended up in the emergency room at the local hospital, and they tagged her with a Bipolar illness diagnosis. Not a drug toxicity or a reaction to the drugs that she was on! They started giving her more major anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers and that set her on the road to becoming a mental patient.
She eventually had to drop out of school. After a five month period of trying to withdraw from Effexor and all the other anti-psychotics and drugs that they had put her on, she was extremely severely depressed. Her Mom was on her way home to take her forcibly to the psychiatrists and get her placed back on drugs, so my niece walked into her younger sister's room and took an angel shaped lantern that was filled with oil and poured it over herself and ignited it and she burned herself alive.
It was a promise that I made to her that I would not let her memory be sullied, that I would tell people what in fact had happened to her and that she would not be remembered as a mentally or genetically defective person, that I would not allow that to happen.
I realized that there are thousands and thousands of those people out there, and they need a voice, and I'm serving as that voice.
(Enter Katie Couric)
Now how's this for a very scary number? In the last 10 years, the use of anti-psychotic drugs on young children and teenagers has increased more than 500%. There is growing concern these drugs are being given in even greater doses to kids in foster care, putting them in a virtual chemical straitjacket. Here's national correspondent Byron Pitts with tonight's Eye on Your Children.
Yes, this child is on 6 different psychotropic drugs, 7 different psychotropic drugs. Gwen Olsen is a child advocate and a former pharmaceutical rep, who quit her job and wrote this book, Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher after seeing so many children given so many drugs.
They clamp down on the central nervous system, in effect they reduce your mobility and that sort of thing, so they're sort of like a chemical straightjacket. There are a large number of dishonest psychiatrists because I see them giving people drugs that they know are brain damaging therapeutics, that they know do not have positive long term outcomes, that they know will not cure anything. They just take a list of symptoms and then they call it a mental illness or a mental disorder and these are voted upon by psychiatrists.
We can define people as being mentally ill and therefore we can sell more drugs for the pharmaceutical industry, this is an extremely lucrative alliance because there's no scientific data that's required for a psychiatrist to diagnose a mental illness, there's no blood test, there's no urine test, there's no PET scan, there's no medical evidence required and therefore that broadens the potential patient population considerably.
I was so disillusioned, as well as angry when I really found out how much deception, how much misinformation was taking place and how I had been used in that game, because I literally was the one who was on the front lines, I was harming people, unintentionally, but I was responsible and I carry a burden for that now.
I decided that in order for me to be able to live with myself based on what I had observed and participated in, that I had a moral obligation to get out and inform other people.
When I have talked to as many people that I have talked to in the last year, when I have seen as many psychiatric patients damaged, I know that what I'm doing is a calling, it's a spiritual calling for me, and I do it with great conviction and I do it with passion, because I understand that this is a situation that's not going to get any better unless people that have this experience and knowledge start speaking out.
Your turn to speak out! Do you agree that this is not a rare incident? Do you know of a similar story?
Related:
- Weaning off Paxil
- Again, find all sorts of practical help here: How to Fight Depression and Anxiety Naturally: 20 Helpful Tips for Anxiety, Depression, and Fatigue.
- How to Help Teens with Anxiety or Depression
Elizabeth Anderson Coonce says
May 9, 2017 at 2:36 PMNo surprises here.
Rita Plazo says
May 9, 2017 at 12:15 AMUnfortunately this story is way too common. My sister was a victim of polypharmacy and passed away way too young. She might have needed a few of the medications but that few soon turned into many. Now she is gone. Speak up people. Speak up anyway you can.
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
May 9, 2017 at 12:21 AMI’m so sorry, Rita. <3
KimberLee Medlin says
May 7, 2017 at 11:15 PMPHARMA GREED at the ROOT
Michelle Irizarry says
May 7, 2017 at 11:11 PMThis is becoming VERY COMMON! Thanks for warning your followers! Drug toxicity is NOT mental illness but gets treated as such and more meds are added to the mix often proving fatal 🙁
Frances Wassell Shantz says
February 8, 2016 at 3:59 PMThe truth is whether depression is treated medically or not, a potential side effect of getting better is suicidal thoughts. Before this the patient is too symptomatic to do much about their condition. The fog starts to lift but the person’s quality of life takes longer to improve and is influenced by more than physical health. This is why treatment needs to be multifaceted.
Melanie Stievenart says
February 8, 2016 at 3:52 AMMy daughter was recently told told by her doctor that she must change her attitude towards medications…..because she told him she’s trying to change her life ( chronic pain disorder since childhood) thru lifestyle/diet changes.
She’s not anti meds when it’s necessary but doesn’t want her life controlled by drugs……..
Sad that you cant find doctors who are willing to work with a patient …… Just drugs and more drugs!
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
February 8, 2016 at 6:16 PMMelanie Stievenart, has your daughter explored Functional Medicine? This topic is coming up today on another post–FM is an emerging approach to medicine that is very holistic, integrative, individualized, and seeks to optimize the functioning of the body. https://www.functionalmedicine.org/What_is_Functional_Medicine/AboutFM/
Melanie Stievenart says
February 8, 2016 at 6:24 PMHi Kelly yes absolutely. But here in South Africa to be honest the functional doctors I’ve looked up are not quite what I’ve expected. We started going to a naturopath who said she practiced integrative medicine but basically said acupuncture was the answer! What I tend to do is constantly research and then follow doctors like Amy Myers and Josh Axe – read their advice and implement as much as we can.
Teri Evans says
February 8, 2016 at 3:32 AMFrightening
Kathy says
February 7, 2016 at 7:35 PMThank you for posting this article. I too have survived the nightmare of coming off of antidepressants. I really didn’t think I would live through it!
Kathy says
February 7, 2016 at 7:31 PMThank you for paying this article! I have lived the nightmare of coming off of antidepressants! It’s a horror story that I didn’t think I would survive!
Jan O'Brien Schaefer says
February 7, 2016 at 11:40 PMThat is so true. I’ve actually heard that as a side affect of antidepressants on tv.
Valerie Mathes Howells says
February 7, 2016 at 11:24 PMThat’s the STANDARD of care
Trixie Grohman Ferguson says
February 7, 2016 at 9:12 PMThis does not surprise me at all. Modern medicine’s mantra is “if we don’t have a pill for that, we’ll just push a new one through the FDA”. 🙁
Dr Avnesh Sharma says
April 16, 2015 at 10:26 PMRarest of issue, Thanks for brining it to public.
Martha Van Noppen says
April 21, 2015 at 12:42 AMThere would be no psychiatrists if there were no brain drugs. That’s all psychiatrists do now. They must diagnose on the first visit if insurance is going to pay. The situation is even more complicated than that. Very dangerous situation for the client and suggests the psychiatrists have no conscience, since they know they’re expected to make an instant diagnosis and that they make a lot of money just filling out prescriptions.
Taylor says
February 8, 2016 at 10:46 AMOH MY GOD how many psychiatrists have you seen? The first question I am always asked (and I’m on my 5th…) is if I would like to try a drug or not. Every single time in all different clinics. Sorry if you didn’t have that experience, but I’m assuming you’ve never been. God, you people are so weird.
Catrina says
April 16, 2015 at 8:35 AMAccording to the transcript she became addicted and she was a pre-med undergraduate student. The title is misleading and intended to be eye-catching and emotionally charged. Her educational status should have no bearing on whether she should be excused from using a diet pill to help her focus. Quick-fixes often cost more than we anticipate.
We need to be careful about throwing the baby out with the bath water. Physicians as a whole have improved the health and lifespan of our society. And they too are susceptible to poor choices. What we need here is a balanced view and a problem-solving approach.
Catrina says
April 15, 2015 at 9:47 PMTragic story. Unfortunately, the story and its telling is slanted to support a particular view. I am all for truth and ethical treatment. It sounds as though her niece had some predisposition for mental health difficulties to begin with. Vicodin is a painkiller, it does not in and of itself create addiction. It acts on opioid receptors to decrease pain. Addiction is more complicated than just taking too much Vicodin. Her niece choosing to counter her response to being sedated by Vicodin by taking Ephedra, points to poor decision-making and likely impairment secondary to addiction/mental health maladies. Her story is being oversimplifyied to pursue an agenda and to keep a promise that her name not be sullied. Mental health problems are real and as much as her aunt has very valid points about big pharma and its practices, she is not helping anyone by taking the other extreme stance. The answer is always somewhere in the middle, with both sides needing to acknowledge the extremity of their stance. There is way more to this poor young lady’s tragic story, and unfortunately the real lessons will get lost in the very personal agenda.
Stacey says
April 16, 2015 at 7:37 AMShe did not say she was addicted to Vicodin. She said it made her hazy and she couldn’t study. I took it ONE day after my surgery and only because I was in major pain. And I HATE the stuff because it makes me feel like my head is full of cotton. So just picture a MED student with SO much to study and catch up on after an accident. Thinking that well maybe I could get rid of the Vicodin enduced “fog” by taking ephedran. Which unfortunately she had a reaction to. THEN the LOVELY docs at the hospital came to the conclusion because of poor decision making that she needed to be on SRI’s and MORE meds. THAT was the key to her undoing. Sometimes the SRI drugs have their place. But A LOT of doctors push things on you that you REALLY do not need. And then they add on more drugs if you try to get off of them. They just work up a new cocktail for you.
Kevin Fredericksen says
April 15, 2015 at 9:38 PMBoy, I can relate to this. I spent 14 years as a highly paid caterer and marketing whore in this slimy industry. Most days I would rationalize that I had to make a living somehow; if I didn’t do it, someone else would happily take my job. I have a biology degree and I feel that I wasted my education in marketing schlock for benign, or even, fictitious disease states.
I refused to use the company propaganda message except when I absolutely had to due the unfortunate presence of a so-called manager. I know that my efforts helped make the company profitable and no doubt, harmed most patients. Business majors should not be telling doctors how to treat patients! This is one reason we have the most expensive healthcare system in the world..
Viewer says
April 15, 2015 at 12:44 PMMisinformation here. She was not a med student, according to the story. She was pre-med. And Effexor is not an antipsychotic drug. Otherwise, yeah. Horrible story
KitchenKop says
April 15, 2015 at 12:48 PMHere’s what she said: “After a five month period of trying to withdraw from Effexor and all the other anti-psychotics and drugs that they had put her on, she was extremely severely depressed.”
Kelly
vsnessa sozh says
April 16, 2015 at 6:37 PMEffexor is used for lots of conditions . Neuropathy depression fibromyalgia. And pre med and med student pretty much the same thing
hrd2c4tch says
April 8, 2015 at 1:36 PMIs it really necessary to use drugs to treat depression? I mean for the short term, maybe, but for the long term?
I’ve read here https://depressionslaying.com and other places that sufferers are now looking for drug free methods to deal with the condition.
I think it makes sense, but would like to have a second opinion on it. Thanks!
KitchenKop says
April 8, 2015 at 1:43 PMAbsolutely!!! See the link I put at the top of the post about treating anxiety and depression naturally, it IS possible to get over that really tough time without drugs, many have done it. 🙂
Kelly
FrankieG says
April 8, 2015 at 2:34 PMInspiring success stories there. Thanks for your help and keep up the good work!
homeactivist says
April 8, 2015 at 1:07 PMThank you for this important post. Isn’t Gwen Olsen afraid for her life? Telling the truth about the pharmaceutical sales industry sounds like a dangerous thing to do. My mother had a bad reaction to a blood pressure medication, that could have started her on a path to more and more medications. Luckily, I recognized the problem, and was able to get the doctor to discontinue the blood pressure medication. She returned to her normal self in a few days.
KitchenKop says
April 8, 2015 at 1:44 PMYay! Good for you for advocating strongly for your Mom, that’s so important and you’ve reminded me to add something about this in the post…
Kelly