How to Administer Medicine to a Resistant Child: 10 Steps

I understand this is a bold claim, but it’s not completely far fetched. By now, every man, woman and child knows about the one and only Bill Gates. I won’t bore you with his story in how he came to be the guy we know today, but rather focus on some of his recent endeavours. The 64 year old Microsoft founder is roughly worth about $115 billion. For these people, it’s no longer about money, they’ve been there, they’ve done it. His fetish has become playing God.
To start this off, we’ll begin with his infamous TED Talk from 2010. Link ——> https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_innovating_to_zero/transcript#t-348637 If you have the time I suggest watching it all, if not skip to the 4:00 minute mark, where he talks about reducing numbers from contributors to CO2. Notice how the presentation highlights ‘P’ for ‘Population’ as Bill says “probably one of these numbers is going to need to get pretty near to zero”. You can even hear the excitement appear within a slight voice crack. He then continues to say “The world today has 6.8 billion people. That's headed up to about nine billion. Now, if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by, perhaps, 10 or 15 percent. But there, we see an increase of about 1.3.” Before you say he’s only talking about the growth rate and not the overall population.. how do you achieve decrease in growth rate without creating an increase in sterility? After being scrutinised, his reasoning is that if parents know their child will live a full and healthy life due to vaccines and healthcare, they wouldn’t feel the need to produce so many children. I don’t believe humans naturally decide on the amount of offspring they’ll have purely on a survival success rate. If anything it’s hypocritical of the rich elites and ‘royalty’ believing in incest and large families to keep bloodlines pure and strong. Maybe Bill is just referring to a natural human instinct that we’re not actively conscious of.. or maybe it was simply a bullshit excuse for a psychopathic comment? Make of that what you will.
Now it may seem like I’m jumping from place to place, but keeping a timeline together may help with perspective. So around the same year in 2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation purchased 500,000 shares in Monsanto, valued at $23 million. For those of you unaware of Monsanto, the following is from Wikipedia: The Monsanto Company was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901. In 2018, it was acquired by Bayer as part of its crop science division. It was headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto developed Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, in the 1970s, and became a major producer of genetically engineered crops. Monsanto was one of four groups to introduce genes into plants in 1983, and was among the first to conduct field trials of genetically modified crops in 1987. It was one of the top 10 US chemical companies until it divested most of its chemical businesses between 1997 and 2002, through a process of mergers and spin-offs that focused the company on biotechnology. Monsanto was one of the first companies to apply the biotechnology industry business model to agriculture, using techniques developed by biotech drug companies. In this business model, companies recoup R&D expenses by exploiting biological patents. Link——> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto
It goes without saying, Bill is a keen advocate on GMO’s (Genetically Modified Organisms). Not only is it a venture for capitol, but it also seems to be a personal goal of his. I say that because another company Oxitech, you guessed it, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, have only just recently released 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida. This shouldn’t require a source, it’s not hidden knowledge but I chose this link to break down quickly why and how he’s modified mosquitoes. Link ——> https://bgr.com/2020/08/21/florida-mosquitoes-genetically-modified/#
Without getting into the nitty gritty, you don’t have to be a genius to realise it’s dangerous territory. It’s no longer only using Mother Nature for medicine, it’s become tampering with Mother Nature herself. Before you insist I’m dramatic, I’ll remind you that Oxitech did this back in June 2013 through to September 2015 in the Brazilian city of Jacobina. What happened there had produced unexpected results. Link ——> https://gizmodo.com/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-are-breeding-in-brazil-1838146152
It’s safe to say, Bill gets a hard on for genetically modifying organisms and stands to invest his remaining time and money on doing just that, oh... and vaccinating everyone. Talking about vaccinations, Bill has been keeping very busy doing what seems to be a decades worth of commitment in less developed countries, providing the resources to ‘eliminate disease’. But we’re on a conspiracy sub, so it can’t be as simple and as generous as that, can it? Apparently not. You see, Bill has come under fire from many people, but sadly that’s as far as it gets. You can check for yourself the confusion you’re met with when looking into his recent ‘humanitarian aid’ programmes, nearly every single country has some sort of claim against him saying he’s caused more harm than good, all for it to be brushed off by higher authorities. I’ve decided to pick one case in particular. I urge you to read from the link below, but I’ll summarise for you here. The Kenyan Catholic Doctors Association say that doctors uncovered evidence of a mass sterilization program, sponsored by the Kenyan government and funded by Bill Gates. Doctors became suspicious after a rise in infertility, an increase in the number of tetanus vaccinations being taken and overall poor government publicity. Again, you can find a few sources on this, but this makes for a brief read and highlights some interesting points that I’ll talk about in a moment. Link ——> https://globalpossibilities.org/abortion-drugs-discovered-in-bill-gates-vaccines-secret-sterilization-program-discovered-in-africa/
If you wanted a bit more information, click this link ——> https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/a-mass-sterilization-exercise-kenyan-doctors-find-anti-fertility-agent-in-u
It’s important to note this was a few years ago, with no developments since, despite the doctors claiming to have tested and found proof of HCG (the hormone causing infertility) within various tetanus vaccines. As previously mentioned, many of Bill Gates’ incidents seem to have been ‘debunked’ or cleared up, even the one we’re talking about now. AFP factcheck link ——> https://factcheck.afp.com/italian-politician-spreads-false-claims-about-bill-gates-parliament-speeches At first glance they report Kenyan authorities and the WHO have dismissed the claims, they then provide another AFP link that ‘extensively’ debunks the rumour. The link primarily focuses on Italian politician Sara Cunial, who gave a speech in the Italian parliament on May 19th 2020 regarding bill gates and crimes against humanity. It claims that what happened in Kenya 2014 was a rumour, that has since been debunked by international fact checking organisations. It expands only a little further explaining that the pregnancy hormone (HCG) found in vaccines collected from different locations over the country, was not in the tetanus vaccine and that it is safe. However, what’s not covered is the fact that the tetanus vaccinations were only given to woman, especially around child-bearing age. The WHO and Kenyan government saying ‘we don’t know what you’re on about’ isn’t debunking anything. It’s also key to note that Kenyan authorities would be given financial incentives from UNICEF and the WHO to participate in these programmes, that provide the vaccines for ‘free’ and if funding is tight, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation steps in. Guess what, the foundation have previously granted $682,305,429 to the WHO in back in 2008, that has since become part of an $8.2 billion international investment to eradicate polio in Asia and Africa. This alone should prove how Bill is protected and why it always gets swept under the rug.
One thing to leave you on regarding this topic.. as the source mentions, Kenya never actually had an outbreak of tetanus either, only the perceived ‘threat’ of one due to local flood conditions. This almost opens up another conspiracy that UNICEF and the WHO are using, or even creating (depends how deep down the rabbit hole you’ve been) natural disasters as a total means of population control in poor countries?
“Local disasters are a common reason UNICEF goes into poorer countries with free vaccines to begin mass vaccination programs. Health Impact News reported last year that UNICEF began a similar mass vaccination program with 500,000 doses of live oral polio vaccine in the Philippines after a Super Typhoon devastated Tacloban and surrounding areas. This was in spite of the fact there were no reported cases of polio in the Philippines since 1993. A very similar mass vaccination with the live oral polio vaccine occurred among Syrian refugees in 2013 when 1.7 million doses of polio vaccine were purchased by UNICEF, in spite of the fact that no cases of polio had been seen since 1999.”
Just something to think about.
Anyway, you still with me? Okay, 22nd January 2015, Bill Gates openly says he’s injecting GMO’s into babies at a conference in Brussels, Belgium. Link ——> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmE95YtxRL4 It’s as transparent as that, but if you’re interested, here’s the full video: https://youtu.be/EvoBwgd1988
Definition of a GMO from Wikipedia: “A genetically modified organism is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with the most common being an organism altered in a way that "does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination". A wide variety of organisms have been genetically modified, from animals to plants and microorganisms. Genes have been transferred within the same species, across species, and even across kingdoms. New genes can be introduced, or endogenous genes can be enhanced, altered, or knocked out. Creating a genetically modified organism is a multi-step process. Genetic engineers must isolate the gene they wish to insert into the host organism and combine it with other genetic elements, including a promoter and terminator region and often a selectable marker.”
Definition of Genetic Engineering from Wikipedia: “Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the direct manipulation of an organism's genes using biotechnology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms. New DNA is obtained by either isolating and copying the genetic material of interest using recombinant DNA methods or by artificially synthesising the DNA. A construct is usually created and used to insert this DNA into the host”
I’ll repeat the last sentence, then keep the two definitions in mind when listening to Bill again in a second. “A construct is usually created and used to insert this DNA into the host”
1st of May 2020, Bill gives us a Facebook video called ‘The race for a Covid 19 vaccine, explained’. Link ——> https://fb.watch/3eM-5drkuA/
At 1:40 he says “Instead of putting that shape in, you put instructions in the code, to make that shape”. Now this is where it gets tricky, i’m not a scientist nor a virologist, but the concept of modifying or manipulating the natural code (or messenger) sounds an awful lot like Genetic Engineering and very little to do with fighting off and eradicating a virus.
After all, the functionality and adeptness of the human physiology is astounding, we’ve come far in understanding it yet our priority is focusing on something our body already has, an immune system. There’s too many conspiracies surrounding COVID-19, from the way it had a test run months before it started, the way the outbreak was right next to a bio lab all the way up to how it’s being handled in such a dystopian manner. Whether you like to believe it or not, there is an Agenda at work, one thats been in the making for decades. I’m aware I have hand picked just a few things here and there, but this is a deep rabbit hole. The man hyped up on GMO’s and population control, has told the world we all need to be vaccinated. I’ll honestly eat my tin foil hat, if the soon to be ritual covid-19 vaccines don’t cause an increase in global infertility in the near future. On that topic, I’ll add that scrolling through the covidvaccinated sub here on Reddit, I noticed many women describing swollen and soar breasts, plus changes in their cycle. One woman went on to say that it’s definitely effected her hormones. I don’t wish to scaremonger and as I’ve previously stated I’m no expert in the field, but why would something that’s only supposed to produce antibodies to fight a virus, effect the reproductive cycle?
Now let’s wrap this up, we have Bill, who’s admitted to injecting babies with GMO’s, who’s backed the creation and release of GMO mosquitoes, who advocates for the consumption of GMO foods, who’s been accused of sterilising thousands of women across the world and who openly promotes population control, telling us we should trust a never used before vaccine to protect ourselves from a questionable virus. It’s hard to argue that he’s innocent and acting on the betterment for mankind, he acts like he’s a miracle worker not worrying about consequences because he believes what he is doing is right. Doctors and scientists have been clashing with the WHO for years, but only now are we witnessing the true colours of these organisations. They all work together, protecting one another making it near impossible to know facts. They hold an insane amount of influence in todays world but for how long do we continue to ignore one another, blindly following a man who thinks himself a saviour, when in fact there’s blood on his hands?
I wouldn’t be a conspiracy theorist if I didn’t think with a cynical mind, if there is evidence to the contrary I’m happy to discuss, but so far I don’t trust Bill Gates one bit... do you?

I got my abortion today, and I feel amazing about it. (Very positive surgical experience, LONG)

This sub has been SO helpful, I want to share my experience! Sorry this is long but I know I was super ravenous for all the details of the process, so I'm going to get it ALL out just in case it helps someone.

How I Got Here

On new years eve, my contraceptive "plan A" AND the EC Plan B failed. Shit happens...I found out I was pregnant last Monday after feeling unrelenting nausea for maybe 3 days and realizing I was overdue for my period. I didn't think much of it cause my period is pretty irregular and I didn't "feel" pregnant, but I took a test anyway. I was so confident it would be negative that I literally did it 3 min before a Zoom meeting, so needless to say I didn't have much time to process before having to put on a face, hah.
I had a tiny bit of waffling because I am in a situation where I most certainly COULD have a child, but pretty quickly I realized I just don't WANT a baby right now. It's not the right time. To his credit, my partner has been exceptional! He didn't press me one way or the other, but the thing that tilted me over to abortion was him saying "I wish this was a happy and exciting instead of stressful discovery for you." I realized that I wished so too, I want my first baby to begin with an exciting and very much wanted positive pregnancy test instead of a stressful decision, so I made up my mind within a couple hrs of the test and booked the next available appointment at PP. My partner was super supportive and on board with whatever I wanted.
At that point, I was pretty sure I wanted to do a medical abortion, and 99% sure I knew the date of conception which would put me around 7 wk at my appointment, but by the LMC method I was 10wk 2 d at my appointment, no longer eligible for a medical at my PP. Since I was only 99% about the gestational age and not 100%, I didn't want to take the risk of being turned away if I was too far along for a medical so I booked an appt for an in-clinic thinking if I was right about the date of conception after the ultrasound I'd tell them I wanted to switch. I started reading experiences on both sides, and VERY quickly realized I personally would do much better with a surgical. I'm a hypochondriac and I just know that I would be terrified going through that at home, but being in a clinic with doctors would be so much better for me.
I am SO fortunate because I live in a state where I was able to find out Monday and have an appt for a termination Friday, and am in a good enough financial situation that the cost did not set my family back. No waiting period, no "informed consent," no panic over how I was going to pay. My only considerations were getting it done and how it would feel. Not everyone is this fortunate, and it REALLY made me realize that I owe way more of my time, effort, and monetary fortune to making sure other people can access abortion who are not in such fortunate circumstances. The rest, after taking stock of all my privileges, was just trying to get through the absolute horrible nausea, headaches, and lethargy for the next four days till it was all over. Also telling my mom she was being a B for imposing her feelings about her abortions on me... but that's another story, lol. It was mostly smooth sailing with my support system, anyway.

The "Big Day"

By the time today came, I was SO fed up with feeling pregnant that I would have chewed my arm off like a coyote to make it stop, so that contributed to a sense of absolute calm on the morning of the abortion. I'm also very lucky here. I had made peace with my decision 100% and didn't feel a shred of conflict going in. I was SURE, I was READY, and I'd read many experiences so I felt like I knew what to expect. If you can somehow get in this mind state before your procedure, I highly recommend it. Think and talk and read as much as you need to feel ok with your choice, you deserve it.
The PP I went to luckily had a HUGE privacy fence around the whole complex and felt incredibly secure. There was one sad old man protestor outside with a sandwich board, I honestly felt more sad for him than anything. What a narrow life. The building was gorgeous, and I went through security and two locked doors to get in. Check in was smooth, paid out of pocket, everyone was so nice and comforting. Now it was just the waiting.
I got called back for my ultrasound which was performed by a super nice, funny, kind young nurse. I am really glad, she said first she would try with the abdominal, and if she didn't get a picture that way she'd have to do a vaginal ultrasound but she'd avoid it if she could. Luckily she was able to get an abdominal. It was kinda annoying but no pain of course. I asked to know everything she could tell me about the embryo, plus a picture to take with. I was a little afraid I might regret this or suddenly feel more emotionally attached to the pregnancy, but no. I just thought it was pretty cool to see the little wormy thing that had caused so much trouble. I was really happy I guess to reaffirm that no one knows me better than myself, even those people who want to tell me that I should feel x, y or z about my abortion. My suspicions about conception date were correct, and I was exactly 7 wks on the dot, which is what I would be if I had conceived on new years like I was sure I had. Score one for intuition? After that I went to the second waiting room which is only for people getting abortions.
My one fear was that I am on Suboxone, which is a medication that can block opiates. Normally I'd always go for some kind of sedation for medical procedures since I'm a ween who passes out, but I was afraid I wouldn't have that option. I was encouraged on this sub to speak up early and often with the staff about my options, even though I didn't have high hopes, and I am SO GLAD I did. The first nurse talked to the actual dr about it, who right away made a special trip to the waiting room to pull me aside. She told me they see at least one person per month on suboxone, given my situation with suboxone and medical fear she'd like to do an IV for me so they could control the dosing of sedation more carefully and administer more right away if needed, that she promised they'd give me enough meds that they'd get me good pain relief and sedation, and that I shouldn't worry. This blew the last shred of doubt out of my mind and I felt so calm and in great hands. I know I googled frantically beforehand looking for ANY experiences of abortion sedation on suboxone so hopefully someone googling like me finds this and is comforted. My biggest advice is, if you are in the same situation, call around and ask the person at the desk to speak to the actual dr. I got VERY lucky because I had just resigned myself to inadequate sedation, but no, I was lucky enough to end up in the hands of a dr who knew exactly how to help me. There ARE docs out there who can help you too, but don't take the chance I did, seek them out!
The rest of the appointment before the procedure was the norm- counselor visit, making sure I was doing this of my own accord, asking about birth control, etc. It felt like forever in the "special" waiting room, because the people having medication abortions were called back first, although I was kinda comforted being surrounded by others going through the same thing. It's a lot of different emotions in one room. There is no wrong way to have this experience, and no matter how you feel, you are NOT alone. Everyone was super sweet and I loved the staff. All the nurses were even wearing pins that said "abortion is normal." Although it's a small gesture, it really made me feel nice.
Finally, I was called back by another young and super sweet nurse, and it was time for...

The Procedure

The nurse took me back to the surgical room, and gave me 800 mg ibuprofen and a 1x antibiotic orally. I double checked that she knew I was on suboxone, she confirmed and reassured me that she would give me as much pain medicine as I needed. She got me ready to start my IV, and I told her I can get woozy, so she had me lay down and gave me a cool towel for my forehead. Honestly the IV was one of the easiest ones I've ever had, so I took this as a good omen. I double checked that they would give local anaesthesia too, and made a dumb joke like "tell the doc to numb my junk so much I don't feel it until next week." Not sure if she giggled out of pity but I thought it was funny.
She gave me instructions to take off my pants and underwear, and put a pad in my underwear for after. On the advice of the wonderful ladies in this sub, I wore oversize PJ pants, granny panties and cute warm fuzzy socks and I am GLAD I did. The room is cold and socks are the best. The nurse went to get the dr and told me she'd be back in about 10 to 15, to give the advil time to kick in. I sent my final pre-text to my partner, took off my bra and tucked it in my purse (cause fuck that, imma be comfy), and laid down on the table to meditate. There were butterflies on the ceiling which I found to be a nice touch. This waiting was the very worst part.
About 15 min later, the doctor and nurse came back in and got everything prepped. They had me do the standard gyno scoot into the stirrups, then the nurse started my sedation. She gave me an IV of versed, which instantly calmed my ass down to the basement, and an IV of 1.5 doses of fentanyl, which I am sure most people would feel far more than I did. I don't know that I got much pain control from it, but it did put me in a bit of a good mood. What can I say, once an addict, always an addict! I think I made a mortifying joke like "damn I haven't felt like that in a long time." Yikes. The nurse told me my job was just to breathe, that she had meds ready if I needed more, and then the doctor started. I want to be VERY detailed about the pain and sensations, since that's what I wanted more than anything beforehand, but if you're squeamish scroll down to the next header.
She told me everything she was doing. First was the shots, she did two shallow and one deep. The shallow ones were a nothing burger, they felt like a flu shot. The deep one hurt a bit but nothing absurd, maybe 2/10. It was a crampy pain mostly, a bit of burning from the lidocaine, but if you've had a dental injection you'll recognize the feeling.
Then she started dilation. I've never been bothered by pap smears, honestly this part just felt like a long-ass pap smear. I'm not sure what I was doing with my body or hands, that versed is the mind wipe magic, but I was definitely saying "that kinda hurts" hah. The doctor was commending me on staying still so apparently I wasn't squiggling. It was like a 4/10 cramp pain for dilation, like my worst normal period days. It started around a 2 and made its way up to a 4 as the dilation increased. Like I said, felt like a long pap.
Then, the doctor said she was starting the suction. She did it manually so no machine noise. I think I just closed my eyes and said "aye fuck, aye fuck, that hurts." It was a very deep, crampy pain, definitely worse than any period cramps I've ever felt, but certainly not the worst pain I've ever felt (that honor goes to a 2nd degree burn on the palm of my hand). I'd rate it 7/10. It was the kind of pain you automatically want to squiggle away from, and can't really converse normally through, but you can also deal with if needed and breathe through cause it definitely didn't hurt enough to shut down my higher brain or anything. Like I said, I'm also pretty sure the fentanyl didn't really do much for me except adding a slight happy glow, so consider my experience as being probably closest to the sensation of the process with just ibuprofen and a local.
Just when I was about to say "maybe can we do a little more pain meds..." the doctor said "okay, we're all done!" and removed the instruments, and the pain immediately dropped back to a 4/10. I seriously said, "wait, what the fuck, that's it?" The doctor said "yup." After reading experiences here saying it took 5 mins, I was obsessed with setting a timer for 5 min and trying to imagine if I could endure the worst pain of my life for that long. I'm here to tell you, that 5 mins includes getting your butt situated and in the stirrups, starting any meds, doctor prepping tools, injecting the local, waiting for the local, doing the dilation, doing the suction, and finishing up removing everything. The "bad part," the actual suction, is INSANELY fast. I kept imagining I'd be counting down the seconds or something, but it seriously was so fast I didn't even have time to think "how many seconds are left?" It felt like an eye blink. Also, side note, I recently found out the reason that so many experiences involve "just when I thought I couldn't take it, it was over" is because (correct me if I'm wrong docs) the uterus typically contracts around the suction tool when everything is cleared. So that one moment of "holy shit give me more drugs" actually signals that you're done!
I lingered at a 4/10 pain for about 2 min, I just laid on the bed and breathed through it. It felt like a normal (albeit gnarly) period pain. I did get a little nauseated after, and the nurse offered me zofran, but then she mentioned it can interact with long qt (a heart condition) and suboxone can (very, VERY rarely) exacerbate long qt, so we negotiated about whether or not it was a good idea for a min and by the time I was about at a decision the nausea was gone so I skipped it, hah.
Because of all the factors I've mentioned, I felt pretty "with it" after, and didn't need any help putting my clothes on or walking, although the nurse stayed with me. All I could think/say was, "omg you guys are so amazing, that was so easy, thank you so much." She walked with me to the recovery room, I'm pretty sure I was smiling like a fucking goober which I feel bad about cause of course not everyone there is as happy as I was, but it is what it is.
It didn't feel NEARLY as invasive as I thought it might. I personally didn't feel any sensations of tugging or suction or anything, which is what I was scared of cause those are the kinds of sensations that can make me woozy. It was just cramps. Also, as a passer-outer at procedures due to sqeamishness, it was less passy-outy than some cosmetic things I've had done and that's saying something. Of course some people have a vasovagal fainting reflex, which can't be helped, but if you're like me and just squeamish it was WAY less invasive and creepy than facial fillers for me, hah. Everyone is different, of course, but that was my experience.
All in all, I felt that the procedure itself is SO WORTH IT. If you aren't sure if you can do it, YOU CAN DO IT! Yes, it can be painful, but yes, it's also over in a flash. Also if you aren't on opiate blockers, it'll probably suck even less for you. It helped me to think of it as a challenge... like, man, I sure can't wait to find out about my pain tolerance, hah!

Recovery and Going Home

I basically could have skipped out to the recovery room, I felt so happy and relieved that it was all over. Each nice little recovery chair was separated by a curtain, but the one bad part about the recovery room was that everyone could see you come in. I tried to be respectful but you can't help but notice people are in all kinds of physical and emotional states after. It made me feel oddly close to everyone around me as we had all just been through the same, very specific procedure that only people capable of becoming pregnant can experience. There's NO wrong way to experience your emotions after this! Like I said, I felt absolutely giddy that I could go back to normal life...I felt afraid I'd suddenly have a wave of negative emotion after it became "real" but I felt nothing but positive. And that's ok too!
Some in the recovery room were kinda nauseated from sedation, but I felt I recovered really quick cause... tolerance. The nurse put the recliner back and gave me a ginger ale and a heating pad, and I ate my own cookie I brought cause I have allergies, hah. My cramps went down to about a 1 at this point... I'd call them less cramps and more just "aware of my uterus' existence."
They took my blood pressure and o2 and checked my pain rating right after I came out, and again about 15 min after to make sure all was normal. Then the nurse had me go to the bathroom and do the blood check on my pad, and point to a picture of what it looked like. I had what they considered "light" bleeding, one step up from spotting, and the nurse said that's the most common. I basically just chilled waiting for my ride at this point, as they were ready to let me go after 15 mins in recovery. They took my bp one more time before I left, removed my IV when they were sure I wouldn't need it again, and then gave me a bottle of 800mg ibuprofen and I was good to go. A nurse walked me out to security and the guard asked if I wanted an escort to my car, but I declined cause my ride was right out front. I thought it was nice of him though.
On the ride home, my pain remained at a 1, and went down to a 0 after about 2 hr. I am bleeding about the same as a very light period (although I freaking hate pads). They told me to use pads for a few days to monitor bleeding, and actually warned me that I might get cramps in a few days as my uterus shrinks back to its pre-pregnancy size. My nausea which was torturous all pregnancy felt MUCH better by the time I got home, and I'm actually hungry for the first time in a couple weeks.

The End

Overall, as I told my husband, if I needed to I would ONE THOUSAND PERCENT have a surgical abortion again. I would rather save the money and the effort, but now that I know, I am absolutely so glad that is a service that's available to me. Yes it's a bit of pain, but it's just so absurdly worth it. It was in NO WAY even 1% as scary as my brain tried to make it out to be.
I feel so relieved and happy that my pregnancy is over. I'm ready to move forward and eat stuff again. I'm just so gd thankful that I had this option and feel incredibly thankful and lucky that I can go back to my life. Not many who need abortions have the luxuries I have, so I am just beyond grateful and plan to do everything I can to pay this forward. I've always been strongly pro choice with no strings attached, but more than anything I've come away feeling even MORE firmly that every person who wants an abortion deserves to have access to safe, legal abortion with no barriers put up by state, budget, etc.
Thank you ALL for being so kind and generous of spirit to share your own experiences. I really hope my experience helps someone and gives you inner calm on your journey, or helps someone make a more informed choice. Love you all!
Edit- not all people seeking abortions are women, fixed gendered language :)

8 week old mini-Aussie made it through parvo hell.

I know this is a long tale but I really wanted to share and give hope. During the long sleepless hours described below, I scoured the internet and Reddit for other people’s journeys. I did not find much to give me hope. Either the other dogs were older or stayed with the vet. I am in no way a vet, all this could 100% be wrong and we could have just been lucky. I just needed to share my story, it is the story I needed and couldn’t find. Lastly, this post talks about bodily functions. If you aren’t comfortable with that, you probably shouldn’t get a dog or cat or have any kids or eat any food yourself.
Day 1 - we picked up our pretty girl, who had just turned 8 weeks the day before from her breeder. She’s just over 4 pounds and she’d already had the first round of puppy shots and a couple of doses of dewormer. It was a long drive but once we got her home she was bouncy, perfect little puppy. She had a vet appt set for the following Tuesday with our regular vet to get her checked out. That night she did not eat more than a few nibbles of food (we received a bag from the breeder to help transition). I chocked it up to nerves.
Night 1 - No whining. We get up twice with her to take her to the bathroom.
Day 2 - She’d had an accident in the kennel overnight. Still refusing food that morning. I added some low sodium beef broth to her food hoping to make it more palatable and she wasn’t interest. I also introduced the food we were switching her to but she wasn’t interested in that either. Mid-morning I run to the store and grab some cans of wet food. She eats some of that. Vomits it half an hour later. Poop is very runny. Refuses all and any combo of the food above for lunch and dinner. I finally scramble her an egg with some beef broth. She eats about 1/3 of it. Vomits a little bit later. Naturally, this is a Friday night and our vet isn’t open on Saturdays. I find a vet a couple of towns over who opens from 8-1 on Saturdays.
Night 2 - She’s very sleepy. Still no whining. Since she’s sick we use baby gates to create a little space for her instead of the enclosed kennel so we can easily check in on her. She has a diarrhea in the middle of the night and I spot a dead worm in it and possibly blood. I assume that we are dealing with a bad worm issue and plan to go to the vet in the morning.
Day 3 - She’s now vomiting water shortly after drinking it. Load her into the car and head to the vet, planning on getting there at open. They are double booked but will squeeze us in. Sit in the car for 3 hours. She is very lethargic. Will drink a little water but almost immediately throw it up. I don’t offer it much but I don’t want her to get dehydrated. Vet hasn’t even looked at her yet and the tech is talking about parvo. Vet comes in, checks her out and wants to do the test. She has a ‘very strong positive’ per the vet. She has a 50/50 chance to live. We have two options - leave her overnight and they will do everything they can but since it’s the weekend people come and go plus it’s much more pricey OR they can teach us what to do. Call my husband and we agree to option 2. My 7 year old son and I are given a lesson on parvo and I am taught how to use an IV to put fluids under her skin. She is given an antibiotic shot and we are sent home with the IV, twice daily antibiotic medicine, Nutri-Cal nutritional gel, 1 med for anti-nausea and 1 med that coats her stomach (Endosorb). The last three are for every 6-8 hours, dr suggests letting her belly rest about 30 mins between every oral medicine instead of giving them all at once. The IV for 2-3 times a day. Doctor says it’s a lot but the best thing to do is make a chart. I also reach out to the breeder and a friend who volunteers at a dog shelter and were given tips. I pick up pedialyte advanced care and beef liver. The beef liver I boiled until all the blood was out the liver then strained and put the liquid in a jar.
The next few days were a blur but this was our schedule:
— IV - every 3 am, 11 am, 7 pm
— Medicines - every 6 hours
— Antibiotics - 8am and 8 pm
— Pedialyte - frozen into ice cubes then crushed onto tiny pieces & given every other hour until she starts drinking on her own. Added to her water bowl for the next few days after.
— Homemade Liver water - every other hour (alternating with pedialyte); starting with a couple of drops working up to about 1cc. Again, she is tiny - just about 4 lbs. This is stopped around the time she gets enough energy to fight back. She does not like it one bit.
— Lots of praise, snuggles and love - we constantly talk to her and tell her what a good girl she is, how she’s a warrior, and this is only a short time in her long life. Our boy reads and sings made up sounds to her. We constantly talk to her and include her in all we do around the house. Our little Mama cat (who’s never even been around real kittens) claims her as her new kitten. She may have only been a part of our family for a short time but we make sure she knows she’s loved and we are rooting for her. I firmly believe this was just as important as the medicines.
Day 5 - She has started fighting against her treatments. We are having to give her her medicine teeny drops at a time bc anything more and she’s spitting it out. 24 hrs has gone by without vomiting or diarrhea. She starts drinking water on her own. Vet’s nurse calls to check in. She said it sounds like we are doing a good job. We talk about starting solids later in the day, what to try and how much. I scramble her an egg late afternoon. She completely ignores it. Try a little soupy puréed plain chicken with chicken broth that evening. Still not interested.
Night 5 - Every drop of medicine is WWIII. She howls and whines for the first time during the 3 am injection. We howl along and praise her. It is the most beautiful sound.
Day 6 - Early morning, she was fine still not interested in solids. By mid-morning, she has become super lethargic again. Can barely stand. Call the vet and they want to see her but can’t squeeze her in until late afternoon. She gets more lethargic as the day goes by; still refusing food. Collapses when placed on her feet. Husband takes her to the vet. She’s hydrated, has only lost 2 oz in this ordeal and seems like she should be doing better. They run a blood test and find out she has dangerously low blood sugar and is slightly anemic. They change up her anti-nausea medicine and change her IV to include glucose. They also give prescription food that we are to syringe every few hours. She naps on the way home and wakes us a completely different dog. She also has a very nasty, watery BM.
Day 7-11 - She continues to get better every second. It takes awhile before her next BM. I call the vet nurse and they aren’t worried. She says it will take time since she’d gone so long without anything in her stomach. We continue all the treatments but do stretch them out a little more so that we are actually sleeping at night with the exception of potty breaks. She still barely whines at night and settles down pretty fast.
Day 12 (yesterday) - She has a check-up with the vet, who in the meanwhile has become our new vet - they are full of love and patience and well worth the drive especially since I’d been unhappy with a few newer hires of our old vet in the past few years. All of the staff are happily surprised by her improvement. Vet says she is perfect, well on the mend and we need to come work for him. She can stop all treatment and we have set up a schedule to get her fully vaccinated.
So, again, I just wanted to tell our story so someone can know it is possible and there is hope. We are lucky to be able to have the flexibility of schedule to be able to care for her around the clock. We are also lucky to be able to take her to the vet as much as we did. A vet who is pretty affordable. You could follow all of these same steps and do everything the same way and not have the same outcome.
However, if you are going through this: I am sorry, it is heart-wrenching and exhausting but in the grand scheme of things it’s just a few days.

A Compendious Exposition on the Topic of Mental Illness, its Origins, Manifestations, and Relationships to Capitalism [effortpost]

Alright, lemme preface this by saying that this is basically a reworked version of a comment I posted a few years ago. It's not entirely original.

Edit: I should've known to drop a tl;dr here. The premise is that mental illness is real, and not an illness. It's a normal reaction to an abnormal world, and psychiatry is cope. This is explored in more detail in the "Why the Biochemical Basis Theory of Mental Illness is Bunk" section. Quit taking this as a personal attack. I'm not trying to invalidate your LiVeD eXpErIeNcE. I'm saying that you feel the way you do because of a combination of an alien, indifferent environment, a lack of community, an inability to control your emotions (a learned skill), and unhealthy lifestyle choices. Some things are in your control and others aren't, but being aware of this is very important. Quit whining.
Edit 2: several of you have insinuated that I myself am mentally ill. Peak irony. Yes, at 16 I was diagnosed with bipolar 2 and a host of pettier disorders. Like most normal human beings, I grew out of being a moody teenager. My life is together, I'm not on any psychiatric medications, and no, I'm not mentally ill. Lol.
Edit 3: oh, cool, this got pinned. I feel honored.
Introduction
So, right off the bat, I'm posting this because I've seen an increasing number of posts and comments (similar to the one on the front page right now) wondering about why mental illness is a thing. Why it's so prevalent these days, why it's such an intransigent issue to treat, why its practitioners seem to pride themselves on their diagnoses, and why any criticism of psychiatry is met with rabid, seething hatred.
This piece seeks to examine mental illness through the lens of evolutionary anthropology and psychology, and might not be the most neatly or cohesively written, but where it lacks in those regards I hope it is sufficiently supplemented by ample citations. Here, I seek to examine the why of modern mental illness, how the industry perpetuates mental illness, and how it grooms patients to believe they're broken. I hope to also elucidate why criticism of psychiatry or pharmaceutical companies is often received so horribly, and why psych patients tend to take this criticism very, very personally.
Some sections are not heavily supported by citations because they're new or heavily revised. I can hunt down supporting sources on request or just leave it as is, and you can take it with a grain of salt; I don't much care either way, because revising this draft already took a decent amount of time and I'm not publishing it in a journal or anything.

Some Groundwork About the History of Modern Psychiatry
Briefly, and less importantly, psychiatry emerged in the 50s and 60s as a distinct medical practice. It drew from Freud's and Jung's theories of psychology, and those some of their philosophical descendants. Previously, psychiatry was pretty much just throwing people into madhouses, where they were basically tortured to death. Think, AHS: Asylum type shit, but in the 1800s and early 1900s.
Come 1940, lobotomies were having their heyday - that fun lil outpatient procedure that involved destroying the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain that makes you, well, a person) with an icepick. These were popular through to the 1960s.
Come 1950, Thorazine came out. This is a milestone in modern psychiatry, and its use criteria basically set the standard for all of modern psychiatry. This shit is heavy. Worse than lithium, worse than prozac, worse than haldol: one shot of this shit, and you're a zombie all week. And it was this ethos that modern psychiatry continues to lean on: a fucked up definition of "normal" and a fucked up definition of "improvement". Back in the 50s and 60s, modern psychiatry was used often as a tool to suppress deviants, minorities, and political dissidents.
Thorazine was touted as a miracle treatment for schizophrenia (which originally was basically something you diagnosed angry black men with to get em thrown in the loony bin). See, when your diagnostic criteria for mental illness include anger, violence, and the like, and you've got a drug that renders any patient you stick with it a drooling zombie, well, obviously, that's an improvement, right? We'll come back to this in a bit.
Then came the DSM. I'm sure you're familiar with the DSM. It's the bible shrinks swear by. It defines and lists symptom criteria for every mental malady recognized by medicine. It's founded on sound evidence produced by reputable scientists... right? In James Davies' interview of Robert Spitzer, chairman of the DSM Taskforce charged with producing the 3rd iteration of the DSM, perhaps the manual's most influential version - Spitzer revealed that diagnoses, codified mental illnesses, were decided by consensus. In some cases, Spitzer et al. directly polled members of the APA about what symptoms certain disorders ought to include. In his defense, he was attempting to produce a rigorous checklist, a proper diagnostic tool to measure mentality. However, he substantiated few of the disorders that made it into the manual by evidence:
>"it was just a consensus. We would ask clinicians and researchers, 'how many symptoms do you think patients ought to have before you would give them the diagnosis of depression,' and we came up with the ***arbitrary*** number of five".
and
>"There are only a handful of mental disorders in the DSM[III] known to have a clear biological cause. These are known as the organic disorders [like epilepsy, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's]. These are few and far between [...] No biological markers have been identified."
So we have the dude that revolutionized the DSM and plugged it into the culture admitting both that the DSM diagnoses he added and revised are mostly unsubstantiated by any rigorous study or lab research, and that practically none of the so-called "mental illnesses" in the DSM have any biological markers (technically, this doesn't lead to the conclusion that there is no basis, only suggests it). One unnamed committee member actually said, verbatim, "No, we can't include that as a symptom! *I* do that!"

Diagnostic Techniques and Their Accuracy (Why is Everyone Mentally Ill Now?)
Even if you believe everything in the DSM is valid and holy and irrefutable (just hypothetically, here, I know this is a ridiculous position for anyone to take) - ground-level shrinks and psychiatrists can't diagnose worth shit. According to research done by PJ Caplan, the same case received the same diagnosis from two different clinicians about two-thirds of the time, and an experiment by Dr. David Rosenhan in the 70s revealed that hospital psychiatrists misdiagnosed confederates presenting with hallucination of a disembodied voice repeating the word "thud" in their head repeatedly with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. After the fact, a hospital challenged Rosenhan to send pseudopatients to them to see if they would be identified. After 3 months, the hospital identified 41 patients as impostors and 42 as suspected impostors out of 193 admissions. Rosenhan had sent zero pseudopatients to the hospital.
So shrinks can't diagnose worth shit - you'll argue that it's because we were working with diagnostic techniques of decades ago, but further research has found that it's less a matter of diagnostic precision that determines consistent diagnoses and more a matter of intrinsic bias on the part of clinicians treating and diagnosing patients.
"But!", you say, a little confused we've gotten this far, "but! Research shows that rates of diagnosis of almost every disorder are increasing in every country! Surely, this is a result of increased awareness of and improved diagnostic techniques for mental illness!"
Well, sorry, no; actually what we find is that overprescription and overdiagnosis rates are correlated with aggressive drug advertisement - a mechanism coined "disease mongering". In the late '90s and early '00s, depression diagnoses skyrocketed in Japan with the start of an incredibly aggressive marketing campaign by GSK. The strategy involved catering to Japanese culture: the Japanese had a popular notion of catching a cold of the soul, "kokoro no kaze" before GSK came in. GSK hired anthropologists to develop a particular effective method of marketing Paxil, tying it to the preexisting cultural belief in "kokoro no kaze", which had no recognized treatment and was understood to commonly be temporary. By conflating the western conception of depression with kokoro no kaze, GSK was able to double or triple its sales of Paroxetine in just a few years as depression diagnoses skyrocketed. This even altered the manifestation of depression in the Japanese population: the phenomenon ceased to be a matter of transient sadness, a trait which in Japanese culture has signified profound thought and of self-reflection, and instead mutated into a westernized ailing mind, whose symptoms included weight loss, weight gain, insomnia, hypersomnia, sadness, and suicide. The marketing campaign perpetrated by GSK created western style depression in Japan.

The Anthropological Viewpoint
"Alright," you think, a little unsettled, "but the fact that the Japanese already had a term for depression proves that mental illness exists, but just is known by many names among many cultures!" Well, yes and no. This touches the topic of symptom pools. In a study by Lise Ehlers, the idea of a cultural symptom pool is discussed. Are you familiar with hysteria diagnoses? Mass faintings? Temporary leg paralysis? The proposed theory that explains these phenomena, which make a fiery, spectacular entrance into cultures and burn out in less than the span of a generation is the "symptom pool". The idea is that every culture has a set of commonly recognized expressions of distress. Humans are inherently social creatures, and the majority of our communication is nonverbal. It makes sense, then, that once a given expression of emotion becomes popularized and well-known, it becomes a standard signal for any person belonging to the culture that that symptom is known to. Mass shootings are another example of this: in the 1600s, Malay men were running berserk, murdering their families, neighbors, and friends, before killing themselves. It was known as "running amok" and exited the culture as abruptly as it had begun. It manifested when Malay men experienced a personal slight - this was the catalyst. This slight or insult was followed by several days of disengaged brooding, and perhaps planning, and the whole behavior culminated in an act of egregious, seemingly inexplicable violence. Temporary, contagious mental disease? Or cultural phenomenon? Which is more likely?
In America, women have been expressing and diagnosed with strictly female hysterical (descending, of course, from the greek word for uterus). It was commonly recognized in the 1800s that women under great emotional strain would lose sensation and use of one or both of their legs, sometimes permanently. This particular symptom disappeared within a few decades. In the 20th century, women received a diagnosis of hysteria proper, manifesting broadly from nervousness, horniness, irritability, lack of appetite, and more; this ailment was treated by hysterical paroxysm - doctors masturbating suffering women.
So, just as mental illnesses appear to manifest differently from culture to culture, a product of cultural perceptions and beliefs about expressions of distress or emotional turmoil, so too do these mental illnesses fall in and out of favor just as fads do. The manifestation of these diseases depend on a few factors: legitimate psychological distress; cultural expectations; and mutually recognized symptoms of distress (ie, the symptom pool, or symptoms of disorders), which are subject to change.
With this in mind, the larger picture begins to take shape: mental illness is in fact a result of emotional disturbance, but the course it takes is largely dictated by the beliefs we have regarding the symptoms of this distress and the attributes of the persons experiencing that distress (autonomy, self-will, emotional volatility, etc). Now, let's talk a little about how our cultural perceptions and treatment of these so-called "mental illness" results in worse outcomes for patients than in "less-developed" nations where western-style psychiatry has less influence.
In America, those diagnosed with schizophrenia report hallucinating hostile, angry, terrifying voices and experiencing frightful delusions of government spying or conspiracy against them. In Zanzibar, as Ethan Watter investigates in Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche schizophrenics report hallucinating communion with ancestors' spirits and experiencing delusions of divine contact. Overall, these patients report their more symptomatic experiences as being generally positive, and furthermore can expect much more positive prognoses in the course of their illness than can American schizophrenics. Similarly, Mexicans diagnosed with schizophrenia are less stigmatized, and less commonly medicated. Sufferers are often included within the community rather than institutionalized, and the ailment is often colloquially minimized by the diminutive term "nervios", or nerves.
And again, hearkening back to the importation of western-style depression into Japan, seasonal/periodic bouts of melancholy (which differs vastly from suicidal depression) or melancholic personalities were transmuted by GlaxoSmithKline into a disease whose symptoms include social withdrawal, self-mutilation, and suicide.
In Sri Lanka, in the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami that claimed thousands of lives, trauma specialists flocked to the ruins to minister to survivors. What they found, however, was that Sri Lankans didn't need any help coping with the tragedy that had befallen them: in point of fact, they were very much befuddled by the idea that psychic healing would be brought about by talk therapy or medication. So strong was the emphasis their culture placed on communal solidarity and grieving that despite hundreds of ambulance-chasing shrinks actively aching to pin PTSD diagnoses on a whole nation, many survivors recovered without any psychological intervention. In fact, the conduct of many of the trauma specialists on site was incredibly unethical; different groups of researchers set up different aid camps and actually tried to lure children from competing research cohorts with fucking candy so that they could test their own pet trauma models on them. Unfortunately, I can't find the citation for this particular snippet (it's in a book I've since loaned out \[*Crazy Like Us*\]), but come the fuck on.

The Efficacy (and Dangers) of Modern Psychiatric Drugs (And the Horrifying, Unscrupulous Practices of the Industry that Produces Them)
Alright, so our psychiatry doesn't really work in other cultures. That's not to say it doesn't work in ours, right? Studies show that antidepressants are proven to benefit at least *some* portion of the medicated population, right?
Well, no. Popular SSRIs have been shown to be about as effective as placebos in treating depression. You might contend that if it helps some people, why not use them? Well, because this: side effects may include irritability, aggression, panic attacks, anxiety, unpredictable mood, impulsive behaviors, compulsive behaviors, insomnia, hypersomnia, sexual dysfunction, depressed mood, and suicidal ideation. And, uh, in case you haven't noticed, that's pretty much all the symptoms of depression as defined by the DSM, *and then some*. And that's just SSRIs, which are like the anklebiters of pharmacy.
You wanna talk mood stabilizers? Hooooly shit. They descend from Thorazine, which was TOUTED AND ADVERTISED TO PSYCHIATRISTS as a "chemical lobotomy"- yeah, that's how they marketed it, like a pill whose effects on behavior emulated those of demolishing the part of the brain responsible for personality, planning, decisionmaking, empathy, and judgement. All the antipsychotics and mood stabilizers today lean on the ethos of the Thorazine prescription from the 50s: if they're not screaming at the walls, they're "better", never mind the fact that side effects of antipsychotics like Haloperidol include shit like blunted affect, confusion, mood changes, FUCKING HALLUCINATIONS, worm-like movements of the tongue, poor balance, lips puckering and smacking, seizures, inability to move eyes... and the list goes on and fucking on. Half of these are actual symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and the other half are shit that, if you saw someone doing them, you'd think "yep, they're goddamn crazy".
Depakote, an anticonvulsant prescribed for off-label use in treating the manic side of bipolar disorder has something around a 7% incidence of uncontrollable convulsions or tardive dyskinesia, which is irreversible impairment of motor functioning. GSK, the producers of Paxil (paroxetine) (legally) (but unethically) manipulated a study into Paxil's efficacy in the treatment of depression in adolescents. They cherrypicked data that supported their thesis and dispensed with the critical results that revealed Paxil produces extremely severe side effects in adolescents with alarming regularity.
You'll say, this is just one study, and it's just one drug, and one company, and it's an outlying data point, but no it's not. It's a pervasive and nefarious practice in the industry which has nearly become the standard in pushing drugs through the pipeline to be approved by the FDA.
Oh, and drug companies are free to rebrand their drugs and market them to different demographics with little fear of repercussions: Eli Lilly, in the early 2000s, renamed Prozac to Sarafem and marketed it do women through OBGYNs as a treatment for PMS without informing patients that it was an SSRI antidepressant medication. GlaxoSmithKline rebranded Wellbutrin (bupropion) as a smoking cessation aid.
And sadly, most people are on multi-drug regimens, even just for a fucking depression diagnosis: Abilify (an antipsychotic) is often prescribed as an "augmentation" in medication regimens for depression patients. You take a drug to treat your problem, because your doctor says you have a problem, and society has convinced you that being sad is a problem, then you take another drug to augment or balance the first drug, then a third drug for treatment of occasional acute symptoms of your disorder (which will be exacerbated by the first two drugs you're taking), and then a fourth drug to counteract the side effects of the first three drugs, and then a fifth drug to quell your concerns that you're on too many drugs.
And they're prescribing these drugs to children as young as 3 or 4 years old - thousands of toddlers are prescribed amphetamines such as Adderall (dextroamphetamine) to treat ADD- thousands of children barely older than infants are being prescribed METH because they have short attention spans. Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of adolescents and preteens are prescribed antidepressants and antipsychotics and anxiolytics. The benzo family of anxiolytics is notorious for being incredibly addictive and includes, and I bet you didn't know this, Rohypnol - goddamn, motherfucking roofies. We're putting preteen girls on roofies and preteen boys on meth and wondering whence came this apparent sexual assault epidemic?
And benzos aren't even the only addictive ones! Though they may be some of the most neurotoxic in the long run, and some of the most addictive, antidepressants and antipsychotics are physically addictive as well, with the majority of patients reporting difficulty discontinuing their medications and experiencing significant withdrawal symptoms analogous to those experienced during withdrawal from illicit narcotics.
Worst of all is, we don't know how these fucking things work. Whinge at me all day about how we know SSRIs increase serotonin in the brain, and schizophrenia sufferers have low levels of dopamine - these are all catchy miracle-explanations spoonfed to you by pharmaceutical propaganda, perpetuated by sensationalist media and pop psych apologists.
SSRIs by definition actually lead to withdrawal symptoms: with repeated, excessive exposure to serotonin, serotonergic receptors lose their affinity for serotonin and, after discontinuation of an SSRI, serotonergic receptors, exposed to a lower baseline level of serotonin, receive less than baseline and produce effects analogous to a fundamental serotonin deficiency. So, alright, we know that SSRIs flood your brain with serotonin - what does that do? The answer is: no one fucking knows, because we don't even know the average distribution of serotonergic receptors in the brain. Without knowing the concentrations in which the receptors are expressed (which vary on an individual basis and with age, etc), there is no way to accurately predict the influence any drug (SSRIs, LSD, cocaine, Thorazine) will have on a human brain with any degree of accuracy through the duration of the drug's effect or thereafter.

Why the Biochemical Basis Theory of Mental Illness is Bunk
A good, but very simplistic, analogy to draw is this one: imagine your brain's a computer. Its operating system, the mind, is written in assembly, and the assembly is assembled into machine code - binary. A psychiatric medication (or any drug, really) goes into the millions of lines of binary code and, at random, switches a few thousand 1s to 0s and vice versa. Is the computer going to run Windows using this code? No. Fortunately, the brain has a great many more redundancies and is far more adaptable than a computer, but that's essentially the effect that a psych medication is going to have on your brain. We have no idea how it works, and drugs are scattershot solutions that are just as likely to harm you as help you.
The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia in particular arose from the flawed line of reasoning that, because the behavioral effects of excessive doses of dopamine reuptake inhibiting drugs such as cocaine or amphetamines mimic the symptoms of psychosis, that schizophrenia may be influenced or partially resulting from an imbalance of excess of dopamine. Look, I don't need to dissect this to explain to you why this is dangerously and ludicrously flawed logic, and if I do, fuck you, this whole dissertation is too high brow for you. Go read a coloring book.
As for the cornerstone of modern psychiatry, the biochemical theory of mental illness, well... This one is thorny, but pretty easy to argue against, because the burden of proof is on the proponents of this theory. There is, however, ZERO evidence for a biological basis for mental disturbances of any flavor. Proponents of psychiatry will argue that there are MRI studies indicating differences in activity between depressed brains and healthy brains or what the fuck ever, but what they misunderstand, because they're not terribly well informed, is that MRI and fMRI scans don't show the physiological structure of the brain - they reveal blood flow and oxygen concentrations to different regions of the brain - transient, state-dependent metrics that say nothing one way or the other about the actual architecture of the mind. There is no way to prove that mental illness is caused by a chemical imbalance, and the fact alone that, if you actually had an imbalance of neurotransmitters in your brain (or body by extension), you would be comatose, on the floor, and at death's door. That's just a fact. You would literally die.

Speculation On the Collective Stockholm Syndrome of Psych Patients
This is going to be purely speculative, though one could probably look at that recent study about TIV for scholarly support, lol.
The reasons why people latch on to psychiatry and psychiatric diagnoses are manifold, but I feel the most important reasons are these: the increasing atomization and alienation of the proletariat; a relentless onslaught of individualist propaganda; a relentless onslaught of pro-psychiatry propaganda; the pathologization of an increasingly broad range of human behaviors, and consequent narrowing of what is considered to be "normal" or "acceptable".
As organic community structures have been eroded - religion, local government, the public commons - top-down social structures have emerged to take their place: mass media, social media, psychiatry, et cetera. As workers become increasingly distrustful of their neighbors, and increasingly connected online through common synthetic cultural narratives (see: capeshit), they rely less and less on real personal interaction. Now, this is not to say this is the root cause for the explosion of psychiatry since the 80s, but it's certainly a factor in why everyone's so fucking miserable now.
Humans are social creatures, and heavily rely on social interactions to release those good-good brain chemicals (yeah, they're absolutely real - just, psych meds don't help).
Furthermore, American capitalism has deliberately fostered a cultural sense of individualist pride - and created an economic machine that disenfranchises the majority of the population. Naturally, then, people fail - but when they do, they blame themselves, rather than the system. This is a helluva pill for anyone to swallow, and, rather than assign the blame to the economy, the government, the capitalists, or to their own selves - as in, their autonomous, free-willed selves -, it is more convenient to buy into the story that psychiatry weaves about magic brain bugs that you have no control over. It's easier to cede your autonomy and buy the narrative that you literally have no control over your own mind, thoughts, or behaviors.
As human nature is increasingly pathologized, rather than acknowledged to be the gorgeous, kaleidoscopic intersection of a million different axes of personality, a smaller and smaller definition of "normal" emerges, and pills are peddled to square that circle for you. The thought of work makes you want to vomit? You might have anxiety. Take these benzos. You don't have the energy to go mountain biking on the weekends anymore? Probably depression. Here's a bottle of prozac. You're moody after a three-day-long drinking binge because your job has you working twelve hour shifts? Buddy-boy, you've gotta try our new antipsychotics for that bipolar disorder.
So, the industry and the media have succeeded in convincing people that their behaviors are out of their control, and when you try to explain to psych patients that the pills are making them worse, what they're really hearing is "pull yourself up by your bootstraps, you big whiny baby: your life isn't that hard, and you're not suffering. You're just not trying hard enough."
This is the reason why you can't tell the blue-haired Twitterati that their depression isn't real. It comes across as a personal attack. They've been taught that nothing they feel or think or do is their fault, and if you try to tell them that they do, in fact, have agency and a responsibility to manage their own emotions, it's a boulder of a pill to swallow. You can try as hard as you want to couch it in soothing terms, relating it to capitalism why they feel so bad all the time, whatever. You're never going to get through to them. They're hostages to the myth of their own powerlessness. It's unfortunate, but that's the gist of it.
And this shit works for capital. They've groomed several generations to believe that the capitalist hellscape around them isn't the problem: the problem is actually in their own heads! Literally!

In closing...
Look: the DSM is an opinion piece, not a reliable scientific reference. It was formed by committee by a privileged club of opinionated shrinks with pet theories. Psychiatrists and psychologists are systemically plagued by personal biases that interfere with accurate diagnostic practices, to the point where you're about as well off just flipping a fucking coin. We've found that diagnosis and prescription rates are tightly correlated with advertising campaigns, and that nefarious marketing practices can actually influence a culture's conception of illness, skewing it toward a belief system that generates profit rather than emphasizing community, openness, and emotional regulation.
We've found that mental illness is as fluid as commonly held opinions, and that the manifestations thereof depend heavily on public perceptions of a particular disorder. We've found that American psychiatry curiously and ironically cripples patients while more holistic approaches (community support and inclusion, minimization and destigmatization, etc) that have developed organically in less westernized cultures produce better prognoses in patients with similar diagnostic criteria. We've discussed the dubious efficacy of commonly prescribed psychiatric medications, and their disproportionately negative side effects, and the crafty practices pharmaceutical companies have engaged in to prevent the revelation of these truths to the public.
We've briefly touched on the fundamental lack of scruples and the opacity in the pyschiatric pharmaceutical industry as a whole which, alone, ought to be reason for pause for people considering taking medications or making changes to their regimen. We've covered the risks and side-effects associated with stacking medications, and the fact that there's little-to-no conclusive research which explains the effects these drugs have on global brain functioning, much less a multitude of these drugs.
Lastly, we've made an effort to explain why the biochemical theory of mental illness is erroneous and is reached via criminally faulty logic, and that, at the very least, there is such an alarming dearth of substantiating research for this theory that agreeing to consume these poorly-understood drugs is irrational and dangerous. Unfortunately, I didn't get to delve into the solutions to some of these dilemmas, such as making lifestyle changes, engaging in meditation, taking responsibility for emotional health, or emphasizing interpersonal relationships.

Can you solve the riddle? Rabbit will not eat (not stasis)

Fluoride is even worse than what we thought

by Andreas Schuld 9-19-2006 from Rense Website
About the Author .
Andreas Schuld is head of Parents of Fluoride Poisoned Children (PFPC), an organization of parents whose children have been poisoned by excessive fluoride intake. The group includes educators, artists, scientists, journalists and authors, lawyers, researchers and nutritionists. It is active in worldwide efforts to have the toxicity of fluoride properly assessed. For further information, visit their website at www.bruha.com/fluoride.
In 1999 the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a glowing report on the fluoridation of public water supplies, citing the procedure as one of the century's great public health successes.1
Ironically, the same report hints that the alleged benefit from fluorides may not be due to ingestion:

"Fluoride's caries-preventive properties initially were attributed to changes in enamel during tooth development because of the association between fluoride and cosmetic changes in enamel and a belief that fluoride incorporated into enamel during tooth development would result in a more acid-resistant mineral."

The CDC report then acknowledges new studies which indicate that the effects are "topical" rather than "systemic."

"However, laboratory and epidemiologic research suggests that fluoride prevents dental caries predominately after eruption of the tooth into the mouth, and its actions primarily are topical for both adults and children."

The obvious question is this: How can the CDC consider the addition of fluoride to public water supplies to be a public health success while admitting at the same time that fluoride's benefits are not "systemic," in other words, are not obtained from drinking it?
The truth, now becoming increasingly evident, is that fluoridation and the proclaimed benefit of fluoride as a way of preventing dental decay is perhaps the greatest "scientific" fraud ever perpetrated upon an unsuspecting public.
Even worse, the relentless promotion of fluoride as a "dental benefit" is responsible for the huge neglect in proper assessment of its toxicity, an issue that has become a major concern for many nations. As there is no substance as biochemically active in the human organism as fluoride, excessive total intake of fluoride compounds might well be contributing to many diseases currently afflicting mankind, particularly those involving thyroid dysfunction. In the United States, most citizens are kept entirely ignorant of any adverse effect that might occur from exposure to fluorides.
Dental fluorosis, the first visible sign that fluoride poisoning has occurred, is declared a mere "cosmetic effect" by the dental profession, although the "biochemical events which result in dental fluorosis are still unknown."2,3,4 The quantity of fluoride needed to prevent caries but avoid dental fluorosis is also unknown.5
What is Fluoride? Fluoride is any combination of elements containing the fluoride ion. In its elemental form, fluorine is a pale yellow, highly toxic and corrosive gas. In nature, fluorine is found combined with minerals as fluorides. It is the most chemically active nonmetallic element of all the elements and also has the most reactive electro-negative ion. Because of this extreme reactivity, fluorine is never found in nature as an uncombined element.
Fluorine is a member of group VIIa of the periodic table. It readily displaces other halogens--such as chlorine, bromine and iodine--from their mineral salts. With hydrogen it forms hydrogen fluoride gas which, in a water solution, becomes hydrofluoric acid.
There was no US commercial production of fluorine before World War II. A requirement for fluorine in the processing of uranium ores, needed for the atomic bomb, prompted its manufacture.6
Fluorine compounds or fluorides are listed by the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) as among the top 20 of 275 substances that pose the most significant threat to human health.7 In Australia, the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) recently considered 400 substances for inclusion on the NPI reporting list. A risk ranking was given based on health and environmental hazard identification and human and environmental exposure to the substance. Some substances were grouped together at the same rank to give a total of 208 ranks. Fluoride compounds were ranked 27th out of the 208 ranks.8
Fluorides, hydrogen fluoride and fluorine have been found in at least 130, 19, and 28 sites, respectively, of 1,334 National Priorities List sites identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).9 Consequently, under the provisions of the Superfund Act (CRECLA, 1986), a compilation of information about fluorides, hydrogen fluoride and fluorine and their effects on health was required. This publication appeared in 1993.9
Fluorides are cumulative toxins. The fact that fluorides accumulate in the body is the reason that US law requires the Surgeon General to set a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for fluoride content in public water supplies as determined by the EPA. This requirement is specifically aimed at avoiding a condition known as Crippling Skeletal Fluorosis (CSF), a disease thought to progress through three stages. The MCL, designed to prevent only the third and crippling stage of this disease, is set at 4ppm or 4mg per liter. It is assumed that people will retain half of this amount (2mg), and therefore 4mg per liter is deemed "safe." Yet a daily dose of 2-8mg is known to cause the third crippling stage of CSF.10,11
In 1998 EPA scientists, whose job and legal duty it is to set the Maximum Contaminant Level, declared that this 4ppm level was set fraudulently by outside forces in a decision that omitted 90 percent of the data showing the mutagenic properties of fluoride.12
The Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products, 5th Edition (1984) gives lead a toxicity rating of 3 to 4 (3 = moderately toxic, 4 = very toxic) and the EPA has set 0.015 ppm as the MCL for lead in drinking water--with a goal of 0.0ppm. The toxicity rating for fluoride is 4, yet the MCL for fluoride is currently set at 4.0ppm, over 250 times the permissible level for lead.
Water Fluoridation
In 1939 a dentist named H. Trendley Dean, working for the U.S. Public Health Service, examined water from 345 communities in Texas. Dean determined that high concentrations of fluoride in the water in these areas corresponded to a high incidence of mottled teeth. This explained why dentists in the area found mottled teeth in so many of their patients. Dean also claimed that there was a lower incidence of dental cavities in communities having about 1 ppm fluoride in the water supply. Among the native residents of these areas about 10 percent developed the very mildest forms of mottled enamel ("dental fluorosis"), which Dean and others described as "beautiful white teeth."
Dean's report led to the initiation of artificial fluoridation of drinking water at 1part-per-million (ppm) in order to supply the "optimal dose" of 1mg fluoride per day--assuming that drinking four glasses of water every day would duplicate Dean's "optimal" intake for most people. Now, according to the American Dental Association, all people, rich or poor, could have "beautiful white teeth" and be free of caries at the same time. After all, the benefits of water fluoridation had been documented "beyond any doubt."13
When other scientists investigated Dean's data, they did not reach the same conclusions. In fact, Dean had engaged in "selective use of data," using findings from 21 cities that supported his case while completely disregarding data from 272 other locations that did not show a correlation.14 In court cases Dean was forced to admit under oath that his data were invalid.15 In 1957 he had to admit at AMA hearings that even waters containing a mere 0.1ppm (0.1 mg/l) could cause dental fluorosis, the first visible sign of fluoride overdose.16 Moreover, there is not one single double-blind study to indicate that fluoridation is effective in reducing cavities.17
So What's the Truth About Tooth Decay?
The truth is that more and more evidence shows that fluorides and dental fluorosis are actually associated with increased tooth decay. The most comprehensive US review was carried out by the National Institute of Dental Research on 39,000 school children aged 5-17 years.18 It showed no significant differences in terms of DMF (decayed, missing and filled teeth).
What it did show was that high decay cities (66.5-87.5 percent) have 9.34 percent more decay in the children who drink fluoridated water. Furthermore, a 5.4 percent increase in students with decay was observed when 1 ppm fluoride was added to the water supply. Nine fluoridated cities with high decay had 10 percent more decay than nine equivalent non-fluoridated cities.
The world's largest study on dental caries, which looked at 400,000 students, revealed that decay increased 27 percent with a 1ppm fluoride increase in drinking water.19 In Japan, fluoridation caused decay increases of 7 percent in 22,000 students,20 while in the US a decay increase of 43 percent occured in 29,000 students when 1ppm fluoride was added to drinking water.21
Dental Fluorosis: A "Cosmetic" Defect? Dental fluorosis is a condition caused by an excessive intake of fluorides, characterized mainly by mottling of the enamel (which starts as "white spots"), although the bones and virtually every organ might also be affected due to fluoride's known anti-thyroid characteristics. Dental fluorosis can only occur during the stage of enamel formation and is therefore a sign that an overdose of fluoride has occurred in a child during that period.
Dental fluorosis has been described as a subsurface enamel hypomineralization, with porosity of the tooth positively correlated with the degree of fluorosis.22 It is characterized by diffuse opacities and under-mineralized enamel. Although identical enamel defects occur in cases of thyroid dysfunction, the dental profession describes the defect as merely "cosmetic" when it is caused by exposure to fluoride.
What is now becoming apparent is that this "cosmetic" defect actually predisposes to tooth decay. In 1988 Duncan23 stated that hypoplastic defects have a strong potential to become carious. In 1989, Silberman,24 evaluating the same data on Head Start children, wrote that "preliminary data indicate that the presence of primary canine hypoplasia [enamel defects] may result in an increased potential for the tooth becoming carious."
In 1996 Li 25 wrote that children with enamel hypoplasia demonstrated a significantly higher caries experience than those who did not have such defects and, further, that the "presence of enamel hypoplasia may be a predisposing factor for initiation and progression of dental caries, and a predictor of high caries susceptibility in a community." In 1996 Ellwood & O'Mullane26 stated that "developmental enamel defects may be useful markers of caries susceptibility, which should be considered in the risk-benefit assessment for use of fluoride."
Currently up to 80 percent of US children suffer from some degree of dental fluorosis, while in Canada the figure is up to 71 percent. A prevalence of 80.9 percent was reported in children 12-14 years old in Augusta, Georgia, the highest prevalence yet reported in an "optimally" fluoridated community in the United States. Moderate-to-severe fluorosis was found in 14 percent of the children.27
Before the push for fluoridation began, the dental profession recognized that fluorides were not beneficial but detrimental to dental health. In 1944, the Journal of the American Dental Association reported: "With 1.6 to 4 ppm fluoride in the water, 50 percent or more past age 24 have false teeth because of fluoride damage to their own."28
The Wonder Nutrient? On countless internet sites, fluoride is proclaimed as the "wonder nutrient," the "deficiency" symptom being increased dental caries.29 It boggles the mind that a cumulative toxin and toxic waste product can be described a "nutrient." Nevertheless, such claims are repeatedly made by pro-fluoridationists.30
On March 16, 1979, the FDA deleted paragraphs 105.3(c) and 105.85(d)(4) of Federal Register documents which had classified fluorine, among other substances, as "essential" or "probably essential." Since that time, nowhere in the Federal Regulations is fluoride classified as "essential" or "probably essential." These deletions were the immediate result of 1978 Court deliberations.31 No essential function for fluoride has ever been proven in humans.32,33,34,35,36
"Nature Thought of It First"
A popular slogan employed by the ADA and other pro-fluoridation organizations is, "Nature thought of it first!" The slogan creates the impression that the fluoridation compounds used in water fluoridation are the same as those discovered many years ago in the water in some areas of the US.37 The fluoride compound in "naturally" fluoridated waters is calcium fluoride. Sodium fluoride, a common fluoridation agent, dissolves easily in water, but calcium fluoride does not.9
Animal studies performed by Kick and others in 1935 revealed that sodium fluoride was much more toxic than calcium fluoride.38 Even worse, toxicity was recorded for hydrofluorosilicic acid, the compound now used in over 90 percent of fluoridation programs, Hydrofluorosilicic acid is a direct byproduct of pollution scrubbers used in the phosphate fertilizer and aluminum industries. Our government adds it to water supplies even though it is also involved in getting rid of its own stockpile of fluoride compounds left over from years and years of stockpiling fluorides for use in the process of refining uranium for nuclear power and weapons.39
In the Kick study, less than 2 percent of calcium fluoride was absorbed and this was excreted quantitatively in the urine. But even calcium fluoride is not benign. As the animals given calcium fluoride also developed mottled teeth, it was clear that such compounds could produce changes on the teeth merely by passing through the body, and not by being "stored in a tooth" or anywhere else. No calcium fluoride was retained.
In 1946 Samuel Chase, one of the authors of the Kick study, became president of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR). This organization promoted the idea that only the fluoride ion in the various fluoridation compounds was of importance. Yet he well knew that sodium fluoride did not behave like calcium fluoride. Unlike calcium fluoride, sodium fluoride was retained in great amounts in the body and was very toxic. Rock phosphate and hydro-fluorosilicic acid experiments yielded the same information.
New areas with "natural" fluoride are appearing all over the world, as now all areas not "artificially" fluoridated are considered "natural." The problem is that this "natural" fluoride is the result of direct water and soil contamination from petrochemical land treatment, uncontrolled fertilizer use, pesticide applications, ground water contamination from industrial waste sites, rocket fuel "burial grounds," and so forth. Suddenly we have "natural" fluorides showing up in areas previously deemed "fluoride deficient"!
Total Intake
It is well established that it is TOTAL fluoride intake from ALL sources which must be considered for any adverse health effect evaluation.40,41,42 This includes intake by ingestion, inhalation and absorption through the skin. In 1971, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated:

"In the assessment of the safety of a water supply with respect to the fluoride concentration, the total daily fluoride intake by the individual must be considered."41

Exposure to airborne fluorides from many diverse manufacturing processes--pesticide applications, phosphate fertilizer production, aluminum smelting, uranium enrichment facilities, coal-burning and nuclear power plants, incinerators, glass etching, petroleum refining and vehicle emissions--can be considerable.
In addition, many people consume fluorine-based medications such as Prozac, which greatly adds to fluoride's anti-thyroid effects. ALL fluoride compounds--organic and inorganic--have been shown to exert anti-thyroid effects, often potentiating fluoride effects many fold.43
Household exposures to fluorides can occur with the use of Teflon pans, fluorine-based products, insecticides sprays and even residual airborne fluorides from fluoridated drinking water. Decision-makers at 3M Corporation recently announced a phase-out of Scotchgard products after discovering that the product's primary ingredient--a fluorinated compound called perfluorooctanyl sulfonate (PFOS)--was found in all tested blood bank examinations.44 3M's research showed that the substance had strong tendencies to persist and bio-accumulate in animal and human tissue.
In 1991 the US Public Health Service issued a report stating that the range in total daily fluoride intake from water, dental products, beverages and food items exceeded 6.5 milligrams daily.42 Thus, the total intake from those sources alone already greatly exceeds the levels known to cause the third stage of skeletal fluorosis.
Besides fluoridated water and toothpaste, many foods contain high levels of flouride compounds due to pesticide applications. One of the worse offenders is grapes.45 Grape juice was found to contain more than 6.8 ppm fluoride. The EPA estimates total fluoride intake from pesticide residues on food and fluoridated drinking water alone to be 0.095 mg/kg/day, meaning a person weighing 70 kg takes in more than 6.65 mg per day.45b Soy infant formula is high in both fluoride and aluminum, far surpassing the "optimal" dose46,47 and has been shown to be a risk factor in dental fluorosis.48
Tea
In their drive to fluoridate the public water supplies, dental health officials continue to pretend that no other sources of fluoride exist. This notion becomes absurd when one looks at the fluoride content in tea. Tea is very high in fluoride because tea leaves accumulate more fluoride (from pollution of soil and air) than any other edible plant.49,50,51 It is well established that fluoride in tea gets absorbed by the body in a manner similar to the fluoride in drinking water.49,52
Fluoride content in tea has risen dramatically over the last 20 years due to industry contamination. Recent analyses have revealed a fluoride content of 17.25 mg per teabag or cup in black tea, and a whopping 22 mg of soluble fluoride ions per teabag or cup in green tea. Aluminum content was also high--over 8 mg. Normal steeping time is five minutes. The longer a tea bag steeped, the more fluoride and aluminum were released. After ten minutes, the measurable amounts of fluoride and aluminum almost doubled.53
A website by a pro-fluoridation infant medical group states that a cup of black tea contains 7.8 mgs of fluoride54 which is the equivalent amount of fluoride from 7.8 liters of water in an area fluoridated at 1ppm. Some British and African studies from the 1990s showed a daily fluoride intake of between 5.8 mgs and 9 mgs a day from tea alone.55, 56, 57 Tea has been found to be a primary cause of dental fluorosis in many international studies.58-70
In Britain, over three-quarters of the population over the age of ten years consumes three cups of tea per day.71Yet the UK government and the British Dental Association are currently contemplating fluoridation of public water supplies! In Ireland, average tea consumption is four cups per day and the drinking water is heavily fluoridated.
Next to water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. Tea can be found in almost 80 percent of all US households and on any given day, nearly 127 million people--half of all Americans--drink tea.71
The high content of both aluminum and fluoride in tea is cause for great concern as aluminum greatly potentiates fluoride's effects on G protein activation,72 the on/off switches involved in cell communication and of absolute necessity in thyroid hormone function and regulation.
Fluoride and the Thyroid The recent re-discovery of hundreds of papers dealing with the use of fluorides in effective anti-thyroid medication poses many questions demanding answers.73,74 The enamel defects observed in hypothyroidism are identical to "dental fluorosis." Endemic fluorosis areas have been shown to be the same as those affected with iodine deficiency, considered to be the world's single most important and preventable cause of mental retardation,75 affecting 740 million people a year.
Iodine deficiency causes brain disorders, cretinism, miscarriages and goiter, among many other diseases. Synthroid, the drug most commonly prescribed for hypothyroidism, became the top selling drug in the US in 1999, according to Scott-Levin's Source Prescription Audit, clearly indicating that hypothyroidism is a major health problem. Many more millions are thought to have undiagnosed thyroid problems.
Environment
Every year hundreds and thousands of tons of fluorides are emitted by industry. Industrial emissions of fluoride compounds produce elevated concentrations in the atmosphere. Hydrogen fluoride can exist as a particle, dissolving in clouds, fog, rain, dew, or snow. In clouds and moist air it will travel along the air currents until it is deposited as wet acid deposition (acid rain, acid fog, etc.) In waterways it readily mixes with water.
Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), emitted by the electric power industry, is now among six greenhouse gases specifically targeted by the international community, through the Kyoto protocol, for emission reductions to control global warming. The others are carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), methane and nitrous oxide (N2O).
SF6 is about 23,900 times more destructive, pound for pound, than carbon dioxide over the course of 100 years. EPA estimates that some seven-million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE) escaped from electric power systems in 1996 alone. The concentration of SF6 in the atmosphere has reportedly increased by two orders of magnitude since 1970. Atmospheric models have indicated that the lifetime of an SF6 molecule in the atmosphere may be over 3000 years.76
The ever-increasing fluoride levels in food, water and air pose a great threat to human health and to the environment as evidenced by the endemic of fluorosis worldwide. It is of utmost urgency that public health officials cease promoting fluoride as beneficial to our health and address instead the issue of its toxicity.
REFERENCES (All web addresses were visited before Fall, 2000)

CDC: "Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999 - Fluoridation of Drinking Water to Prevent Dental Caries" MMWR 48(41);933-940 (1999), http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwpreview/mmwrhtml/mm4841a1.htm
Gerlach RF, de Souza AP, Cury JA, Line SR - "Fluoride effect on the activity of enamel matrix proteinases in vitro" Eur J Oral Sci 108(1):48-53 (2000)
Limeback H - "Enamel formation and the effects of fluoride" Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 22(3):144-7
Wright JT, Chen SC, Hall KI, Yamauchi M, Bawden JW - "Protein characterization of fluorosed human enamel." Dent Res 75(12):1936-41 (1996)
Shulman JD, Lalumandier JA, Grabenstein JD -"The average daily dose of fluoride: a model based on fluid consumption" Pediatr Dent 17(1):13-8 (1995)
The Columbia Encyclopedia: Sixth Edition (2000), http://www.bartleby.com/65/fl/fluorine.html
Phosphoric Acid Waste Dialogue,Report on Phosphoric Wastes Dialogue Committee, Activities and Recommendations, September 1995; Southeast Negotiation Network, Prepared by Gregory Borne for EPA stakeholders review
Government of Australia, National Pollutant Inventory, http://www.environment.gov.au/epg/npi/contextual\_info/context/fluoride.html
ATSDUSPHS - "Toxicological Profile for Fluorides, Hydrogen Fluoride and Fluorine (F)" CAS# 16984-48-8, 7664-39-3, 7782-41-4 (1993), http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts11.html
Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride, Subcommittee on Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride, Committee on Toxicology, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council, August 1993, p.59
World Health Organization - Fluorides and Human Health, p. 239 (1970)
Carton RJ, Hirzy JW - "Applying the NAEP code of ethics to the Environmental Protection Agency and the fluoride in drinking water standard" Proceedings of the 23rd Ann. Conf. of the National Association of Environmental Professionals. 20-24 June, 1998. GEN 51-61, http://rvi.net/fluoride/naep.htm
American Dental Association, http://www.ada.org/consumefluoride/facts/benefits.html#2
J.Colquhoun, Chief Dental Officer, NZ, International Symposium on Fluoridation, Porte Alegre, Brazil, September 1988
Proceedings, City of Orville Vs. Public Utilities Commission of the State of Carlifornia, Orville, CA, October 20-21 (1955)
AMA Council Hearing, Chicago, August 7, 1957
NTEU - "Why EPA's Headquarters Union of Scientists Opposes Fluoridation, " Prepared on behalf of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 280 by Chapter Senior Vice-President J. William Hirzy, Ph.D. , http://www.bruha.com/fluoride/html/nteu\_paper.htm, http://www.cadvision.com/fluoride/epa2.htm
Yiamouyannis, J - "Water fluoridation and tooth decay: Results from the 1986-1987 national survey of U.S. school children" Fluoride 23:55-67 (1990). Data also analyzed by Gerard Judd, Ph.D., in:Judd G - "Good Teeth Birth To Death", Research Publications, Glendale Arizona (1997), EPA Research #2 (1994)
Teotia SPS, Teotia M -"Dental Caries: A Disorder of High Fluoride And Low Dietary Calcium Interactions (30 years of Personal Research), Fluoride, 1994 27:59-66 (1994)
Imai Y - "Study of the relationship between fluorine ions in drinking water and dental caries in Japan". Koku Eisei Gakkai Zasshi 22(2):144-96 (1972)
Steelink, Cornelius, PhD, U of AZ Chem Department, in: Chem and Eng News, Jan 27, 1992, p.2; Sci News March 5, 1994, p.159
Giambro NJ, Prostak K, Denbesten PK - "Characterization Of Fluorosed Human Enamel By Color Reflectance, Ultrastructure, And Elemental Composition" Fluoride 28:4, 216 (1995) also Caries Research 29 (4) 251-257 (1995)
Duncan WK, Silberman SL, Trubman A - "Labial hypoplasia of primary canines in black Head Start children" ASDC J Dent Child 55(6):423-6 (1988)
Silberman SL, Duncan WK, Trubman A, Meydrech EF - "Primary canine hypoplasia in Head Start children" J Public Health Dent 49(1):15-8 (1989)
Li Y, Navia JM, Bian JY -""Caries experience in deciduous dentition of rural Chinese children 3-5 years old in relation to the presence or absence of enamel hypoplasia" Caries Res 30(1):8-15 (1996)
Ellwood RP, O'Mullane D - "The association between developmental enamel defects and caries in populations with and without fluoride in their drinking water" J Public Health Dent 56(2):76-80(1996)
Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride, Subcommittee on Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride, Committee on Toxicology, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, Commission on LifeSciences, National Research Council, August 1993 p 47-48
"The Effect of Fluorine On Dental Caries" Journal American Dental Association 31:1360 (1944)
Examples: http://ificinfo.health.org/insight/septoct97/flouride.htm; http://www.wvda.org/nutrient/fluoride.html
Barrett S, Rovin S (Eds) -"The Tooth Robbers: a Pro-Fluoridation Handbook" George F Stickley Co, Philadelphia pp 44-65 (1980)
Federal Register, 3/16/79, page 16006
Federal Register: December 28, 1995 (Volume 60, Number 249)] Rules and Regulations , Page 67163-67175 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration, 21 CFR Part 101 Docket No. 90N-0134, RIN 0910-AA19
The Report of the Department of Health and Social Subjects, No. 41, Dietary Reference Values, Chapter 36 on fluoride (HMSO 1996). "No essential function for fluoride has been proven in humans."
"Is Fluoride an Essential Element?" Fluorides, Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 66-68 (1971)
Richard Maurer and Harry Day, "The Non-Essentiality of Fluorine in Nutrition," Journal of Nutrition, 62: 61-57(1957)
"Applied Chemistry", Second Edition, by Prof. William R. Stine, Chapter 19 (see pp. 413 & 416) Allyn and Bacon, Inc, publishers. "Fluoride has not been shown to be required for normal growth or reproduction in animals or humans consuming an otherwise adequate diet, nor for any specific biological function or mechanism."
National Center for Fluoridation Policy & Research (NCFPR) http://fluoride.oralhealth.org/
Kick CH, Bethke RM, Edgington BH, Wilder OHM, Record PR, Wilder W, Hill TJ, Chase SW - "Fluorine in Animal Nutrition" Bulletin 558, US Agricultural Experiment Station, Wooster, Ohio (1935)
US MINERALS/COMMODITIES DATABASE http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/fluorspa280396.txt
"The problem of providing optimum fluoride intake for prevention of dental caries" - Food and Nutrition Board, Division of Biology and Agriculture, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Pub.#294, (1953) ".. a person drinking fluoridated water may be assumed to ingest only about 1 milligram per day from this source ... the development of mottled enamel is, however, a potential hazard of adding fluorides to food. The total daily intake of fluoride is the critical quantity."
World Health Organization, International Drinking Water Standards, 1971."In the assessment of the safety of a water supply with respect to the fluoride concentration, the total daily fluoride intake by the individual must be considered. Apart from variations in climatic conditions, it is well known that in certain areas, fluoride containing foods form an important part of the diet. The facts should be borne in mind in deciding the concentration of fluoride to be permitted in drinking water."
Review of Fluoride Benefits and Risks, Department of Health and Human Services, p.45 (1991)
200 papers to be posted at: http://www.bruha.com/fluoride
Washington Post - "3M to pare Scotchgard products," May 16, 2000 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15648-2000May16.html
(a) FLUORIDE IN FOOD http://www.bruha.com/fluoride/html/f-\_in\_food.htm; (b) Federal Register: August 7, 1997 (Volume 62, Number 152), Notices, Page 42546-42551
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Waldbott, GL; Burgstahler, AW; McKinney, HL - "Fluoridation:The Great Dilemma" Coronado Press (1978)
Srebnik-Friszman, S; Van der Miynsbrugge, F.-"Teneur en Fluor de quelques thØs prØlevØs sur le MarchØ et de leurs Infusions" Arch Belg Med Soc Hyg Med Trav Med Leg 33:551-556 (1976)
Rüh K - "Resorbierbarkeit und Retention von in Mineralwässern und Erfrischungsgetränken enthaltenem Fluorid bei Mensch und Laboratoriumsratte" Diss. Würzburg (1968)
Analyses conducted by Parents of Fluoride Poisoned Children (PFPC) at Gov't -approved labs. Contact: [email protected]
BabyCenter Editorial Team w/ Medical Advisory Board (http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/674.html#3)
Jenkins GN - "Fluoride intake and its safety among heavy tea drinkers in a British fluoridated city" Proc Finn Dent Soc 87(4):571-9 (1991) Department of Oral Biology, Dental School, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
Opinya GN, Bwibo N, Valderhaug J, Birkeland JM, Lokken P - "Intake of fluoride and excretion in mothers' milk in a high fluoride (9ppm) area in Kenya" Eur J Clin Nutr 45(1):37-41 (1991) Department of Dental Surgery, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Diouf A, Sy FO, Niane B, Ba D, Ciss M - "Dietary intake of fluorine through of tea prepared by the traditional method in Senegal" Dakar Med 39(2):227-30 (1994)
Cao J, Zhao Y, Liu J - "Brick tea consumption as the cause of dental fluorosis among children from Mongol, Kazak and Yugu populations in China" Food Chem Toxicol 35(8):827-33 (1997)
Cao J, Bai X, Zhao Y, Liu J, Zhou D, Fang S, Jia M, Wu J - "The relationship of fluorosis and brick tea drinking in Chinese Tibetans" Environ Health Perspect 1996 Dec;104(12):1340-3 (1996)
Sergio Gomez S, Weber A, Torres C - "Fluoride content of tea and amount ingested by children" Odontol Chil 37(2):251-5 (1989)
Cao J, Zhao Y, Liu JW - "Safety evaluation and fluorine concentration of Pu'er brick tea and Bianxiao brick tea" Food Chem Toxicol 36(12):1061-3(1998)
Wang LF, Huang JZ- "Outline of control practice of endemic fluorosis in China."Soc Sci Med 41(8):1191-5 (1995)
Olsson B -"Dental caries and fluorosis in Arussi province, Ethiopia" Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 6(6):338-43 (1978)
Diouf A, Sy FO, Niane B, Ba D, Ciss M - "Dietary intake of fluorine through use of tea prepared by the traditional method in Senegal" DakarMed 39(2):227-30 (1994)
Fraysse C, Bilbeissi MW, Mitre D, Kerebel B - "The role of tea consumption in dental fluorosis in Jordan" Bull Group Int Rech Sci Stomatol Odontol 32(1):39-46 (1989)
Fraysse C, Bilbeissi W, Benamghar L, Kerebel B- "Comparison of the dental health status of 8 to 14-year-old children in France and in Jordan, a country of endemic fluorosis."Bull Group Int Rech Sci Stomatol Odontol 32(3):169-75 (1989)
Villa AE, Guerrero S - "Caries experience and fluorosis prevalence in Chilean children from different socio-economic status."Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 24(3):225-7 (1996)
Chan J.T.; Yip, T.T.; Jeske, A.H. - "The role of caffeinated beverages in dental fluorosis" Med Hypotheses 33(1):21-2 (1990)
Mann J, Sgan-Cohen HD, Dakuar A, Gedalia I - "Tea drinking, caries prevalence, and fluorosis among northern Israeli Arab youth."Clin Prev Dent 7(6):23-6 (1985)
Schmidt, C.W.; Leuschke, W. - "Fluoride content of deciduous teeth after regular intake of black tea" Dtsch Stomatol 40(10):441 (1990)
Press Releases/Market Figures - Tea Council http://www.stashtea.com/tt060595.htm
Struneckß, A; Patocka, J - "Aluminofluoride complexes: new phosphate analogues for laboratory investigations and potential danger for living organisms" Charles University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Physiology and Developmental Physiology, Prague/Department of Toxicology, Purkynì Military Medical Academy, Hradec KrßlovØ, Czech Republic http://www.cadvision.com/fluoride/brain3.htm
History: Fluoride - Iodine Antagonism http://bruha.com/pfpc/html/thyroid\_history.html
Fluorides - Anti-thyroid Medication http://bruha.com/pfpc/html/thyroid\_page.html
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION PRESS RELEASE, May 25,1999 Iodine Deficiency
Miller AE, Miller TM, Viggiano AA, Morris RA, Vazn Doren JM - "Negative Ion Chemistry of SF sub 4" Journal of Chemical Physics 102(22):8865-8873 (1995)

Symptoms of Fluoride Poisoning

· Black tarry stools · Bloody vomit · Faintness · Nausea and vomiting · Shallow breathing · Stomach cramps or pain · Tremors · Unusual excitement · Unusual increase in saliva · Watery eyes · Weakness · Constipation · Loss of appetite · Pain and aching of bones · Skin rash · Sores in the mouth and on the lips · Stiffness · Weight loss · White, brown or black discoloration of teeth

Long Term Effects of Fluoride

· Accelerated aging · Immune system dysfunction · Compromised collagen synthesis · Cartilage problems · Bony outgrowths in the spine · Joint "lock-up"

G Proteins

Signals or communications from one cell to another, and from the outside of the cell to the inside, are made possible by the action of special proteins called "G" proteins, which are found in all animal life, including yeasts. G proteins are so called because they bind to guanine nucleotides, a major component of DNA and RNA. G proteins mediate the actions of neurotransmitters, peptide hormones, odorants and light. In other words, G proteins make it possible for our nervous systems to function properly and, in particular, allow for night vision and the sense of smell.

All thyroid function is mediated by G-protein activity. Both aluminum and fluoride interfere with the activation of G proteins. Thyrotropin, the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), is considered the natural G-protein activator. Its action is mimicked by fluoride and vastly potentiated by the presence of aluminum. Pharmacologists estimate that up to 60 percent of all medicines used today exert their effects through G-protein signaling pathways. Vitamin A from cod liver oil has been used successfully to bypass blocked G-protein pathways due to vaccination damage. (See Autism and Vaccinations.)
Myristic acid, a saturated fatty acid having 14 carbons, plays an important roll in G-protein function as these signaling proteins require myristic acid added to one end of the protein. (See Kidney Fats.) Thus, diets deficient in vitamin A and saturated fats can be expected to contribute to nervous disorders and vision problems.

How Cannabis affects the brain and Mental Health - 2020 Review of the available literature

Recently I asked the community for their input on how Cannabis can be used to manage anxiety and other mental health conditions.
I've put together the most relevant findings from those clinical articles for the community, in an 18 page document containing the relevant clinical findings in regards to cannabis and it's affectation, efficacy and use in treating mental health conditions, chronic pain, and the effects of cannabis on the respiratory system, which can be showed to your GP or other doctors if they don't understand medical cannabis very well, or if you would like to understand more about how cannabis interacts with and affects the brain.
Review of literature on how cannabis affects the brain, body and Mental Health, 2020 - https://pdfhost.io/v/owrr5zobU_Clinical_Evidence_on_the_use_of_Medicinal_Cannabis_Medicationsconvertedpdf.pdf
Having regard to the studies contained above, I've made a TL;DR summary of the journal article conclusions contained in the 18 page document for those who would like to know a basic summary of what the conclusions in the studies provide.
In summary, the findings of the clinical journal articles contained in the link above provide strong conclusions which don't just recommend further studies being undertaken by academics to determine the efficacy of using medical cannabis to manage mental health conditions, but actual strong findings and recommendations which support the clinical use of medical cannabis to manage several stress induced psychiatric disorders, such as PTSD, Generalised Anxiety, ADHD, Borderline Personality Disorder, and possibly even Schizophrenia.

- "Taken together, these data suggest that 2-AG-CB1 signaling plays a crucial role in gating stress-induced activation of the BLA-plPFC circuit and that functional collapse of 2-AG signaling at BLA-plPFC synapses may be important for translation of stress exposure into anxiety-like behavior.”
-“Here we explored the neurobiological substrate by which stress exposure is translated into anxiety-like behavior and identified collapse of 2-AG-CB1 signaling within a reciprocally connected BLA-plPFC-BLA circuit as a molecular mechanism subserving stress-induced circuit strengthening and generation of anxiety-like behavior."
-"These data suggest that the enhancing 2-AG-CB1 signaling], via MAGL inhibition for example, could represent an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of stress-induced psychiatric disorders."(Chanda et al., 2019; Lisboa et al., 2017; Patel et al., 2017).” Source for the above 3 citations: “Endocannabinoid Signaling Collapse Mediates Stress-Induced Amygdalo-Cortical Strengthening” https://ir.vanderbilt.edu/bitstream/handle/1803/9850/MARCUS-DISSERTATION2020.pdf;jsessionid=AEAE66EE814F40377327C599BE03BC0E?sequence=1 - January 31, 2020.
- "The literature reviewed does not allow for general indications of treatment with CBD in BPD. However, there is enough knowledge to indicate a treatment ratio of high level of CBD to low level of THC..” Source for above citation: “Targeting the Endocannabinoid System in Borderline Personality Disorder” –Current Neuropharmacology https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32351183/–published 29 April 2020
- "Findings suggest that for some bipolar patients, marijuana may result in partial alleviation of clinical symptoms. Moreover, this improvement is not at the expense of additional cognitive impairment” (Sagar et al., 2016).”* Source for above citation: “Medical Marijuana for Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Anxiety & Mental Illness: Can It Help?” –Psych Central https://psychcentral.com/blog/medical-marijuana-for-depression-bipolar-disorder-anxiety-mental-illness-can-it-help/?fbclid=IwAR1QishTKwdbjpVkyGj6_1Svp6ay3VNCVZoYjxwQoZG7SNBJMKksx9JlQ2o– 8 July 2018
- "For adult patients with ADHD, who experience side effects or do not profit from standard medication, cannabis may be an effective and well-tolerated alternative."
-“Under Monotherapy with Cannabis, 73% of patients reached a ADHD-symptom level that allowed them to participate in working and social life. In 47% of cases, an improvement of concentration abilities were mentioned explicitly. Especially helpfulappeared thereduction of agitation and impulsiveness.”
-“The anamnestic data from adult ADHD patients indicate that Cannabis use is not a result from a prolonged misuse beginning in teenage, but rather a re- lately discovered self-medication.". Source for above 3 citations: “Successful authorised therapy of treatment resistant adult ADHD with Cannabis: experience from a medical practice with 30 patients” http://www.drmilz.de/wp-content/uploads/Poster-CC-2015.pdf, January 1 2015
- "A 28-year old male, who showed improper behaviour and appeared to be very maladjusted and inattentive while sober, appeared to be completely inconspicuous while having a very high blood plasma level of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). ... THC can have atypical effects and can even lead to an enhanced driving related performance." Source for above citation: “Case report Cannabis improves symptoms of ADHD” -Institute of Legal-and Traffic Medicine, Heidelberg University Medical Centre, Voss Str. 2, D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany –Cannabinoids Journal https://www.cannabis-med.org/data/pdf/en_2008_01_1.pdf– March 2 2008
- “The specific mechanism of ECs and CNR1 activity in the brain are currently being delineated but it is well known that many psychiatric disorders, including ADHD, schizophrenia, PTSD, anxiety, and mood disorders have various memory and inhibition impairments. The potential involvement of reward systems in multiple psychiatric disorders, including ADHD, again suggests the plausible association of CNR1 and a range of conditions.”
- “These data provide support for a putative role of endogenous cannabinoids in ADHD, and PTSD. Source for above 2 citations:“Association of the Cannabinoid Receptor Gene (CNR1) With ADHD and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”–Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatry Genet.Journal https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2685476/– published December 5 2008.
-“Overall, existing preclinical evidence strongly supports the potential of CBD as a treatment for anxiety disorders.CBD exhibits a broad range of actions, relevant to multiple symptom domains, including anxiolytic, panicolytic, and anticompulsive actions, as well as a decrease in autonomic arousal, a decrease inconditioned fear expression, enhancement of fear extinction, reconsolidation blockade, and prevention of the long-term anxiogenic effects of stress. Source for above citation:“Cannabidiol as a Potential Treatment for Anxiety Disorders”-Neurotherapeutics Journal, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/-Published 2015

Consuming cannabis (by vaporisation, smoking, orally, topically, or in edibles) can both induce and reduce the symptoms of mental health, as both endocannabinoids (internally produced cannabinoids found in great quantities in breast milk) and phytocannabinoids (plant cannabinoids) act on the parts of the brain which is responsible for regulating, inducing, and reducing stress and anxiety.
There is a high concentration of endocannabinoids (cannabinoids produced by the body) found in human breast milk. Human babies, when deprived of endocannabinoids, exhibit high amounts of stress and anxiety. This promotes feeding and ensures babies receive food and they don't die of starvation.

- "The most abundant cannabinoid found in breast milk is called 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG). This endocannabinoid also stimulates the same cell receptors that THC does."
-“Even more interesting is that 2-AG appears to be critical in keeping newborns alive. It stimulates the suckling response and tongue muscles. CB1 receptors in the brain control these functions.”
-“Without these endocannabinoids, babies may develop a disease called “non-organic ability to thrive”. This condition occurs when a baby cannot consume enough food to sustain itself.”
-“There is much that is not known, but novel findings suggest that decades of anti-drug “research” might in fact be wrong.” Source for above 4 citations: “Cannabis And Breastfeeding: How Cannabinoids Affect A Mother's Milk”–Royal Queen Seeds (Article relies on academic journal articles to substantiate it's claims) - https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/blog-cannabis-and-breastfeeding-how-cannabinoids-affect-a-mother-s-milk-n761?fbclid=IwAR1MZtlF1mUr6_WtzaGJz9Qx3BReZ1nE0vyM-InbWOdEwg6SEFPcj0eBnfw - Published 31 Jan 2018)

Upon a consuming breast milk, the endocannabinoids interact with the CB1, CB2 and 2-AG receptors in the brain and reduce anxiety and stress in babies. THC, CBD and eCB (endocannabinoids) when interacting with the CB1 receptors also cause the lips to smack, which is why you might find yourself randomly smacking your lips together when you're administering your medication and why you might get the munchies as a result of smacking your lips, which causes signals to be sent to your stomach stimulating the production of stomach acid.
If human babies are deprived of breast milk, then anxiety and stress increases as a result of the deprivation of endocannabinoids.This has also been observed in mice studies which show that mice being deprived of endocannabinoids induces stress reactions, and this is why medical cannabis is good at relaxing patients, and treating stress and anxiety.
There is a line of reasoning to suggest that all animals with endocannabinoid receptors could benefit from physically consuming phytocannabinoid flowers and oils as food, and that the human diet is suboptimal without cannabinoids supplemented into it, as a deprivation of endocannabinoids can induce stress which can cause stress induced psychiatric disorders, as found in mice, and can cause the endocannabinoid system to become disregulated, and phytocannabinoids (THC, CBD, CBN, etc.) interact with the endocannabinoid receptors CB1, CB2 and 2-AG.
Having said that, a disregulated endocannabinoid system can also be caused by consuming too much phytocannabinoids (THC and CBD) for the individuals endocannabinoid system to tolerate, which also can induce or exacerbate anxiety or mental health symptoms, because endocannabinoids work on the areas of the brain which affect stress and anxiety responses.
Too little endocannabinoids (eCB) or phytocannabinoids (THC or CBD), or too much of the aforementioned, can both induce serious anxiety and stress. Having the right amount reduces stress and anxiety, as the CB1, CB2 and 2-AG receptors in the brain directly affect stress and anxiety responses which CBD, THC and eCBs have been proven to modulate.
There is converging lines of evidence which promote the use of phytocannabinoids to treat stress induced psychiatric disorders, but everyone will react differently. A 15-20% THC flower would not disregulate my endocannabinoid system due to tolerance, but more than that and it possibly could.
There are studies contained in the document above which show that some ADHD patients experience increased concentration, productivity and increased driving performance when medicated with THC, and studies which recommend the use of THC and CBD to manage Borderline Personality Disorder, but not CBD alone, as THC has shown to reduce the symptoms of BPD in BPD patients.
Having said that, there are people who haven't had cannabis very much who might have their endocannabinoid system disregulated from smoking or vaporising 15-20% THC flowers. The more THC, which is the psychoactive compound, the greater perceptual change caused when consuming the cannabis which can induce anxiety and stress.
To answer the question of whether cannabis and phytocannabinoids can induce and exacerbate mental health symptoms in patients, there is no straight answer.
A persons reaction to cannabis varies from person to person. However cannabis containing higher concentrations of THC can cause perceptual change which as a result can induce anxiety in high doses, but this is often due to the person having extenuating life circumstances which cause stress and anxiety to begin with (income issues or concerns, housing stability, job security, grieving the loss of a loved one, relationship or marital issues, custody issues, other legal issues, self doubt, etc.), and fundamentally due to the persons inability to manage their own emotions and stress by having healthy mechanisms to emotionally regulate and to practice distress tolerance, such as breathing techniques such as what Joe Dispenza teaches in his rewired series (highly recommend), or such as thinking of moments where you were truly happy to take advantage of human neuroplasticity using neural awareness to shift yourself out of anxious/stressed/depressed mindstates by taking advantage of fond memories and nostalgia and neuroplasticity.
(An analogy would be to think about how JK Rowling wrote about how you should deal with dementors, by thinking of your happiest moments in life.)
If a person doesn't have those distress tolerance skills, then consuming high concentrations of THC has a higher likelihood to induce higher symptoms of anxiety and stress. Cannabis will likely not be the sole underlying cause though, it has to do with the individual persons underlying brain chemistry and learned behaviour, and possibly the amount of cannabis consumed could be the cause of the disregulation the individuals endocannabinoid system.
Cannabis tends to amplify what is already underlying in terms of the patterns of behaviour or concerns in a person's subconscious, when it comes to an individual's behavioural expressions after consuming cannabis. (e.g. if I vape/smoke and I'm lazy and I want to relax I'll be more relaxed. If I vape/smoke when I'm productive I'll do more work, if I vape/smoke when I'm anxious or depressed about real life heavy stuff that's going on and affecting me and if I don't know how to manage my emotions it can make me more stressed, anxious or depressed, but that's predominantly down to my inability to regulate my emotions, as well as the life circumstances mixed with consuming cannabis which can get the mind racing and worrying about existential things, and high THC cannabis can induce perceptual change which makes you perceive things differently and can give you worrying perspectives about anything, especially when you already have difficult underlying problems/life circumstances to worry about.)
I suspect those who are susceptible to anxiety attacks, panic attacks or psychosis when consuming cannabis who have those contraindications, if such mental health presentations are not caused by or related to an individual's life circumstances, they may be due to the individual's underlying brain chemistry already being predisposed to or currently experiencing anxiety/depression or stress, or already being diagnosed with a stress/anxiety or psychosis related psychiatric disorder, which is exacerbated by the perceptual change causing from consuming cannabis with high concentrations of THC, which has a concomitant effect of exacerbating anxiety in the presence of life or health related stressors, due to the perceptual change it causes, or such mental health presentations may be due to increased heart rate causing health concerns in the person, which is down to the person having a bad psychological and psychomatic reaction to cannabis due to the person having a lack of understanding how cannabis affects them as a result of not using cannabis very often or ever before, or because of a bad psychological response the individual may have to the physiological effects of consuming cannabis.
Ultimately, to note as well, that taking CBD with THC in the form of an oil or as a hemp flower like ANTG Eve, or a hybrid ruderalis cannabis cross strain that has CBD and THC, the psychoactive effect of THC is reduced as CBD and THC both fit in the CB1 receptors in the brain, which effectively causes CBD to "block the doorway" which THC would normally enter into your system, thereby reducing the psychoactive and intoxicating/incapacitating effect of THC, when CBD is consumed with THC.

"Being a negative allosteric modulator of the cannabinoid receptor-1, CBD can counter the psychotropic effects of THC when co-administered with THC. (Nichols and Kaplan, 2020)". Source of above citation:"Immune Responses Regulated by Cannabidiol", Cannabis Cannabinoid Journal, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7173676/?report=reader, Feb 2020.

It is also prudent to note, that many studies on cannabis were conducted on illicit cannabis administered by the means of smoking via combustion, and therefore the results are not directly comparable to newer studies on medical cannabis in the years since medical cannabis was legalised. The results are not directly comparable, as illicit cannabis is often grown with disproportionate quantities of THC, which can disregulate an individual's endocannabinoid system if consumed in quantity, where's medicinal cannabis is grown to optimise the therapeutic benefits and minimise the adverse effects by strain manipulation conducted by experts.

"We're Professional "Our state-of-the-art indoor growing facilities are precision controlled environments and some of the most technologically advanced in the world. We manipulate the key plant growth variables for each strain to ensure we consistently produce the highest quality products for patient’s needs." Source for above citation: Beacon Medical website: https://www.beaconmedical.com.au/

It may also be noted that illicit cannabis is often grown with plant growth regulators (PGRs) such as palcobutrazol which have been associated with many negative health effects and negative physiological and psychological effects, such a Cannabis Hypermesis Syndrome (which was a condition only discovered in 2004 shortly after the commercial use of illegal plant growth regulators in illicit cannabis which are not fit for use in products made for human consumption).

"Cannabinoid hyperemesis: Cyclical hyperemesis in association with chronic cannabis abuse". Gut. 53 (11): 1566–70. doi:10.1136/gut.2003.036350, also available at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15479672/, PMC 1774264. PMID 15479672." Allen, J H; De Moore, GM; Heddle, R; Twartz, JC, (2004)
- "One of Green’s concerns is that there is not much public information about the potential health effects of the chemical. According to his notice, the brand name is Cambistat, a plant growth retardant and fungicide. The active ingredient, Paclobutrazol, is classified as a toxic chemical by the EPA and the manufactures website says it is “used by arborists as the last step in the pruning process as a way to extend trim cycles and increase profitability.” Source for above citation:"Homeowners Concerned: PG&E Injecting Chemicals Beneath Trees On Private Properties", CBS Sacramento, https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2020/01/30/pge-injecting-chemicals-trees-private-property/, Jan 30 2020
- "LANSING, MI -- The Marijuana Regulatory Agency on Friday, Jan. 17, expanded a marijuana recall for product sold at 13 different dispensaries in nine different cities. An initial recall issued Jan. 10 identified nearly three pounds of marijuana sold at locations in Bay City in Detroit that failed testing for high levels of Paclobutrazol, a plant growth inhibitor." Source for above citation:"Michigan expands recall to marijuana from 13 dispensaries in 9 cities", MLive News, https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/01/michigan-expands-recall-to-marijuana-from-13-dispensaries-in-9-cities.html, January 20 2020.

It therefore necessarily follows that many studies conducted on illicit cannabis, which suggest or concluded that cannabis causes or is likely to cause negative mental health presentations are not directly comparable to medicinal cannabis pharmaceuticals, due to the inherent variance between potency, contaminants, and adulterants used in illegally sold black market cannabis, compared to legal medicinal cannabis, which must be compliant with strict standards and regulations to ensure minimal variance in product composition, as well as ensuring compliance to strict regulations towards the amount of allowed contaminants and adulterants which are approved for use in the manufacturing of medicinal cannabis products pursuant to TGO93, and TGO100 government standards; which all medicinal cannabis product manufacturers must ensure the compliance of their products to the aforementioned standards, before the products can be sold as medications in Australia.

TGO93 Australian Government Standards for Medicinal Cannabis Medications, 2017. Source: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2019C00328
TGO100 Australian Government Microbiological Standards for Pharmaceutical Products, 2018. Source: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2018L01685

An important note on mental health we are not really told which I'd like to share with the community seeing a lot of us are struggling with mental health issues and anxiety. Currently mental health strategy vastly advises that anger and stress are okay to be felt. Whilst this is true, until mental health frameworks start looking at acceptance strategy seriously then mental health problems will still be endemic in society.
Clinically, people are told that it's okay to be angry and they are drugged to solve their mental health problems, or removed from the situation or living environment which causes their mental health instability. These practices do work to a degree, but underlying traumas do not resolve until a person can appreciate the whole meaning of the Serenity prayer.

"GOD grant me the courage to accept the things I cannot change; The courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference.

And the truth is, something a wise man, probably Buddha once said. "Nothing should be important enough to make me angry, or to act out in aggression."
What that means is that as humans, to manage our emotions and deal with our mental health issues, we need to embrace acceptance for all past traumas, as you can't truly move on until you do. Doing so, however hard offers some perspective. Acceptance strategy is a matter of putting things into perspective to accept your past traumas, by being thankful for the little things in life, such as the food you have, or the health you have, and the air you breathe. Keeping your expectations low and having views in different perspectives is the key to happiness, and there are many people who are in far worse situations than we all are in. You can change a persons living situation, you can drug them and remove them from causes of conflict which creates trauma, but unless the person has come to terms with the past, or accept their ambivalences and anxieties towards the uncertain future, they will always be depressed or anxious and unable to really live in the present.
There are a number of important studies I have reviewed since making the document linked above, which I have included below for anyone who may be interested to peruse them.

- "The guidelines will also need to recommend a dose that has been shown to be effective for neuropathic pain but does not cause cannabis intoxication. One controlled trial found that 25 mg (roughly equivalent to one inhalation) of 9% THC relieved neuropathic pain and caused minimal intoxication.1,10 The duration of analgesic action of smoked cannabis is probably about three to four hours. In our view, the maximum safe dose, therefore, would be about one inhalation of 9% THC four times daily, or 400 mg of dried cannabis per day. (Health Canada allows prescriptions of up to 5 g/d.)." Source for above citation:"* New medical marijuana regulations: the coming storm", Canadian Medical Association Journal https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4150697/, Sept 2014.
- "The systematic review of guidelines by Deng et al.8 recommends the use of cannabinoids as fourth-line treatment of neuropathic pain. The guideline by Hauser et al.[7] mentions that cannabis-based medicines can be considered as third-line therapy for chronic neuropathic pain. Source for above citation: Medical Cannabis for the Treatment of Chronic Pain: A Review of Clinical Effectiveness and Guidelines, CADTH Rapd Response Report, https://www.cadth.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/htis/2019/RC1153%20Cannabis%20Chronic%20Pain%20Final.pdf, July 2019.
Effects of Tetrahydrocannabinol in Man. (Conclusion: CBN increases the potency and interactivity of THC on the brain, but CBN is not psychoactive alone.) Journal of Pharmacology https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/136944, 1975.
Harvard: An unexpected link between cannabis and fertility "(Conclusion: Men who consume cannabis have sperm counts 1.5x as high as people who do not use cannabis) https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/newsplus/an-unexpected-link-between-marijuana-and-fertility/, Feb 2019.
A controlled family study of cannabis users with and without psychosis. (Conclusion: Cannabis does not cause schitzophrenia.)" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24309013/, Jan 2014.
Harvard: Marijuana doesn't cause schizophrenia https://psychcentral.com/news/2013/12/10/harvard-marijuana-doesnt-cause-schizophrenia/63148.html, Aug 2018.
Harvard : Environmental factors are related to gene expression. (Abstract: the old ideas that genes are “set in stone” or that they alone determine development have been disproven. Nature vs. Nurture is no longer a debate—it’s nearly always both!) https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/what-is-epigenetics-and-how-does-it-relate-to-child-development/

My cat REFUSES to eat anything with his Tylosin in it

The Massacre at Crybaby Bridge: An Oral History - Finale and Aftermath

The following is the conclusion of my senior capstone for my journalism degree. I sought out to explore the truth behind a local legend in my hometown. My professor rejected the original draft due to its disturbing and unbelievable nature, even though everyone I spoke to claims they're telling the truth. The previous parts are available here:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7
PART 8
BOB SCHROEDER, LOCAL HISTORIAN: The Massacre at Crybaby Bridge will live on in the annals of Somerset history and lore. Like all local legends, it’s not immune to thegossip and embellishments that are inevitable in a rural town the size of Somerset.
The state news covered it for about a week and it barely made a blip in the national news headlines. The nation was too caught up with coverage of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was also an effort by many members of the community to suppress the story. They didn’t want the travesty to be the only thing the town was known for.
STEPHEN PARKER: How much fight could I possibly have left? How much adrenaline did I have in reserve? I know that a certain point that death might come as relief. I would no longer have to feel scared for my life.
I wasn’t ready yet.
We rounded the side of the house. There was a barn out back, old and wooden. Completely dark. An old truck was parked next to the barn. Maybe it was open. Maybe it would have the keys in it. Nick headed straight for it. I followed. “Need...to...catch my breath,” he gasped. “Me too,” I agreed.
DAVID NEAL, SHERIFF, MOMADAY COUNTY: The Loveless property was a massacre in its own right. That place alone might be the kind of crime scene that sticks with you for years. Five dead at the scene and in all of those different manners.
STEPHEN PARKER: The doors to the truck were locked. We darted to the inside of the barn. We couldn’t hear anything from behind us, no signs we had been seen or followed. It was really dark in there and as my eyes adjusted I could see a tractor parked dead center of the barn and smell the musty scent of dust and hay.
There was a loft towards the back of the barn that was loaded with bales of hay. A ladder led up to it and in the back of the loft under the angle of the barn’s roof was an open window.
“Let’s hide up there, catch our breath,” Nick said, pointing. Looking back it seems like such a rookie horror movie mistake.
The loft was warm and stuffy and Nick quickly piled up a few bales for us to hide behind. We lied on our bellies like soldiers in a foxhole, peeking through a crack in our alfalfa barricade, waiting for the enemy.
DAVID NEAL, SHERIFF, MOMADAY COUNTY: The first body we encountered was Floyd Loveless. He was deceased on the porch with an extensive penetrating neck injury.
JOEY KESSLER, LOCAL RESIDENT, FARMER**:** They were confused as to what to do with that ol’ gal with the blade in her back. Everyone was afraid to move it. I got creative while they was twiddling their thumbs and waiting on the helicopter. I rushed back with my cutting torch and cut it down close enough to her back.
SKYE BRIGGS: What else could I do but pray? I’d never done it much before, but I sure as hell was right then.
STEPHEN PARKER: The mind of a teenager is not a rational thing. I don’t know what I was thinking. My best friend had just been brutally killed and I had seen it, seen him staggering around in his final throes before he collapsed. All of the others, too.
Maybe stress had done crazy things to my mind. Maybe the adrenaline and survival instinct had made it impossible for me to feel any sort of grief.
It felt like we were up in that loft a long time. I guess it was the silence that made it feel that way. All that I know is that I felt safe in that moment despite all that had happened, the dark all around, the warmth. It felt like there would never be another one.
I could feel Nick’s body rising and falling beside me, his heavy respirations slowing as he caught his breath. I could feel his warmth in the crisp autumn air and smell his sweat and cologne.
In the dark it was like we were anywhere else.
I whispered his name.
“Yeah,” he whispered back, and his face was close to mine as he turned. I took it in my hand and right there in that dusty, hay filled barn, I leaned in to kiss him.
The mind of a teenager is not a rational thing.
DAVID NEAL, SHERIFF, MOMADAY COUNTY: Around the backside of the house we found the second body. A decapitation had occurred.
STEPHEN PARKER: He didn’t turn away right away, didn’t shove me off in a fit of disgust. For a second he let me, I think. I could feel his lips and mouth and then he pulled away.
“Stephen. C’mon man. A bunch of people are dead.”
“Oh. Yeah. You’re right.”
He gave me a pat on the back and then whispered, “I’ve got a plan. If he comes here we can go out the window. It’s a twelve foot drop. We’ll just hang off the side and let go. Bet we could do it pretty quietly.”
Before we could discuss any more there was a scream.
DAVID NEAL, SHERIFF, MOMADAY COUNTY: It was presumed that Mrs. Lorraine Loveless had come out to check on her husband, encountered the perpetrator, and fled to the backside of the house.
STEPHEN PARKER: It was a woman’s voice, screaming “Floyd! Floyd!” and then these kinds of yelps that started sounding closer and then nothing.
DAVID NEAL: Next it was presumed that Shaun Loveless, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Loveless that lived on the property in a fifth wheel camper trailer, attempted to subdue the suspect. His body was found nearby with a twelve-gauge pump action shotgun that was empty of shells. There was blunt trauma to the head with gray matter in the nearby grass accompanied with massive blood loss.
STEPHEN PARKER: After a little while we heard the angry shouts of a man, followed by several gunshots. From our vantage point, this seemed to be coming from a direction away from the house. Nick’s eyes got big. We inched backwards towards the window, but then he stopped, looked at me.
“I’m through running,” he said. His face was serious. “He’s just gonna keep coming and coming and more innocent people are gonna get caught up in it. I’ve got an idea.”
I could only stammer out a “What?”
“Stay here,” he said and gave me a smile. “Go out the window if things get too hairy.”
SKYE BRIGGS: They say the explosion could be heard for miles. I certainly heard it.
STEPHEN PARKER: Nick slithered down the ladder, disappeared in the shadows below me. I waited. So much for my heart rate going back to normal. It beat rapidly in anticipation and I felt close to pissing myself as I feared the worst to come.
STEPHEN PARKER: I still get nightmares where I’m at the end of a long hallway. There’s a door on the other end and it opens. I see that figure, that face, the one that had now appeared in the wide doorway of the barn. It was as close a look at him as I’d been able to get so far. His eyes were dark dead pits in the middle of an expressionless face. I could see now that he wore some type of mask over the top half of his face. His head was sleek and without hair. There were several bleeding holes scattered around his torso, blood oozing from them and not appearing to slow him down in any capacity. In his hands he wielded a T-post. Whether it was the same one he had used before or another I don’t know. It looked wet. Something dripped from its sharp edge.
DAVID NEAL: We arrived on the scene after the explosion. In fact, several of the deputies en route to the area heard it.
STEPHEN PARKER: That motherfucker looked up at me. The tractor roared to life, the diesel engine revving, the gears grinded as the clutch was popped and it lurched forward. It had a front end loader on its front-- basically like this bulldozer kind of thing. It slammed into Big Baby. He didn’t fall underneath it, he withstood the blow, caught it right in his arms and managed to push back on his feet against it. The engine struggled and the throttle roared and Nick sat behind the wheel.
Big Baby managed to skitter back a few feet, but the tractor kept coming for him and soon they both were well out of the barn. Nick maneuvered the levers and tilted the front end loader’s bucket to keep Big Baby on his heels. I slid down the ladder and ducked my head out of the barn’s doorway to watch the outcome.
The last steps took place in a matter of fast forward, before I could truly comprehend what was going on. Big Baby’s arms were bloody and he hung onto the bucket of the front end loader, attempting to pull himself up. His feet hung above the ground. It seemed his goal was climb onto the arms and leap at Nick if he had the chance.
He wasn’t quick enough.
Nick shifted gears and the tractor revved forward to a utility line pole to the left of the house. Sitting next to that pole was the shiny silver of a propane tank, one of those that are shaped like a pill and the size of a house.
I yelled for Nick to look out, yelled for him to jump off, as if gunning straight for that tank hadn’t been his plan all along. As if he didn’t know the stakes.
As if he didn’t know exactly what he was doing.
There was the collision of metal on a body and then the sound of grinding metal as the corner of the bucket pierced the tank. The gas hissed as it escaped and I saw Nick stand up in his seat and fish around in his pocket. He was pretty far away, but I could make out his hand movements as a flame appeared in his hand, the flame from a Zippo lighter.
JOEY KESSLER: I heard that explosion and I thought, “what now?”
IRENE MYRTLE, LOCAL RESIDENT: I thought the good Lord was coming down to get us. The rapture y’know?
TERESA RUSSEL, 911 OPERATOR: The calls started coming in left and right, first the injuries and then about the explosion and all in this particular part of the county. It was mayhem for a while. Busiest night I ever worked.
EDDIE DUNN: LOCAL RESIDENT, UNEMPLOYED: I thought it was them damn terrorists, myself. Heard they might try and strike a little place like the Somerset area on account of all our oil wells and the like. Had even seen some A-rabs at the truck stop recently.
STEPHEN PARKER: If this is a feel-good action movie, if I’m the one writing the screenplay, then Nick turns his back right as he throws the lighter. He does a running leap off the back of the tractor just as the propane tank explodes. The fireball propels him forward, singing the back of his shirt and head and that’s it. He lands in the grass and I run to him and I say, “Looks like you got out just in the Nick of time.” We both laugh and embrace. End scene.
But that’s not what happened no matter how much I look back and try and rewrite it in my mind. What happened was he managed to do a half turn before the tank exploded and the flames engulfed him.
Through the smoldering rubble and debris I found his body and rolled him over and it was clear that there would be no happy ending for us. No final words. Just an embrace followed by me scrambling into the house, finding a phone, dialing 911.
That was it.
SOMERSET REGISTER 10/xx/2003, FRONT PAGE: MULTIPLE VICTIMS IN KILLING SPREE SATURDAY NIGHT, SUSPECT DECEASED AT SCENE, TEENAGER REMAINS IN CRITICAL CONDITION
____________________________________________________________
AFTERMATH
SKYE BRIGGS: What we went through only made me stronger. I hate that it happened and I’m not trying to say I’m ultimately glad that it happened or anything like that. I guess what I’m saying is that after you go through something so terrible, it really puts everything into perspective y’know? All your insecurities, all your fears--surviving something like that, they’re nothing in comparison. Besides, I’m only living the life that I think Hailey would want me to. My new confidence or whatever is a testament to her. I mean if you look at what she’s gone through, it’s the least I could do. I think she’s proud of me, but I’m even more proud of her. I could only hope to be fifteen percent of what she is and has always been.
HAILEY ADAMS: That’s something I speak about at my engagements. How even still after all this time and what I’ve remade myself into, there’s still people that speak from the perspective that I’ve had my life ruined or whatever. I don’t look at it that way. Were there times I got down about what I had lost?
Hell yeah. I got pretty low on several occasions. In the end I looked at it as my life was headed in one direction and then this happened and it swerved to this other direction.
The extent of Hailey Adams’s injuries was significant. She was medflighted to the University Hospital, the state’s only Level One trauma center, where she underwent an eight hour surgery. In the end she was left with a spinal cord injury that left her with paraplegia.
Her disability was only the beginning of her journey, however. After rehabilitation and high school graduation she attended college and received her teaching certificate where she became a cheer coach and special education teacher for a number of years. She would later become an advocate for those with disabilities and became quite active on the motivational speech circuit. She has signed a book deal with Simon and Schuster for the publication of her memoir.
She is married and has two children.
STEPHEN PARKER: Back when I would get those emails from Dylan about him and Nick hanging out and I would get this uncomfortable feeling I didn’t quite understand. Later, I would be able to put a name to that feeling: jealousy.
I wished it was me hanging out with Nick instead of him, sweating in that barn and playing guitar, his jawline and the look in his eyes while he played and got lost in the music. I would imagine it would get hot and there and we would have to take off our shirts and then who knows what would happen. It was a fantasy I returned to often and it left me feeling guilty and ashamed. I tried to suppress it.
I didn’t come out for many years after. I grew up going to church and church camps and all that stuff and I guess I suppressed a lot of stuff, y’know? Grew up hearing the word “f-g” and “fxxgot” tossed around. There was lots of denial and confusion. For the longest time, I thought that the death of Nick and everything we’d been through was a punishment for being gay.
SKYE BRIGGS: Steve and I? Yeah, we ended up dating for a while. A long while actually. Going through that event together really made us closer. How could it not? We would go visit Hailey at the hospital together. We would recommend music to each other. My dad, he would teach Steve guitar. He was my date to Junior Prom and we even went to Senior Prom together as friends.
If you had told me before that night all of this, it would’ve seemed like a dream come true. After a while though I realized something was up. I had no qualms or hang ups about sex before marriage and when we got to that point in the relationship I noticed something was...off. Like he wasn’t totally into me that way? I mean I tried to convince myself otherwise and he would swear up and down that he was, but there was a drunken night in his den our senior year when we went out to the alley to look up at the night sky and he broke down and confessed.
STEPHEN PARKER: I could trust Skye. It was finally time for me to tell someone, but I asked her to keep it secret. We continued to fake it for a while and eventually broke up. We still keep in touch pretty regularly, although it’s been hard in recent years.
Skye Briggs became the front woman to an alternative rock band. They performed at Vans Warped Tour, SXSW, and ACL Music Festival among others over the years. They had several mild crossover hits including songs featured in various soundtracks for television and movies that you have most likely heard.
She is twice divorced and has a daughter and when not parenting she can be found working on her solo musical career. Her debut solo album is set to release next year.
BOB SCHROEDER, LOCAL HISTORIAN: Why does such a tale captivate us? It is a classic tale with much in common with the slasher genre of films from the horror section of the video rental store. There are teens to be sacrificed, bodies to be collected, scores to be paid, and lessons to be learned. Except in this tale, I’m not sure that there is a moral or lesson to be learned.
STEPHEN PARKER: A moral? A lesson to be learned? Stay home, I guess. Wrap yourself up in bubble wrap and never go outside.
BOB SCHROEDER: Teenagers as a cautionary tale is an old concept. They are the bridges to adulthood, yet we’ve used them over the years for various ends. They are young and dumb and full of come. Or is it piss and vinegar? I can’t remember.
They are nine foot tall and bullet-proof. Or so they think. We use this to our advantage, get them to join our wars and fight for us. They will storm that hill without a second thought and we like them for that. The thirty year old might have second thoughts about it.
We give them 2 ton hunks of steel, death machines capable of reaching speeds of 120 MPH. We give them cell phones to check in with us, knowing full well that they are distracting and likely to increase the chance of a wreck. We cross our fingers and hope for the best.
We send them to school with bullet-proof backpacks and contingency plans for school shooters. We haven’t figured out a better solution.
Our teens are lambs to the slaughter. Always have been. (shrugs shoulders) Eh, but most of them make it out ok.
STEPHEN PARKER: I mentioned earlier that I had found myself back in Somerset years down the road. I mentioned that it brought the emotions roaring back. I found myself in the park and I got out and it was mostly empty, but I was under this row of giant sycamore trees, and I walked around a little until it hit me like a sledgehammer to the gut.
I just broke down and wept. I wept for my past. I wept for Nick and Dylan. I wept for what could’ve been.
BOB SCHROEDER: The other thing about slashers is that they often feature the common trope of the killer getting away. The killer is out there, not quite dead, waiting to return again.
STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION NOTES, OCT 2003: A body from the state medical examiner’s office has been reported missing. The body of the John Doe believed to be responsible for the numerous deaths in Somerset has vanished from the lab site. If you have any information regarding this please contact us at (XXX) XXX-XXXX.
STEPHEN PARKER: I mentioned before about pivotal moments and I’ve thought of another. It’s one that I keep coming back to, a moment outside of all of the trauma. Something warm. Something comforting. In spite of everything that happened, I’m glad that I have this.
Let me set the scene. We’re heading out to Buster’s and we’re all a little giddy. Dylan, he says, “Look at us, just a regular bunch of Breakfast Club motherfuckers up in here.”
HAILEY: Oh really? Why’s that?
DYLAN: It’s an unlikely crew is all I’m saying.
HAILEY: Oh, because I thought you were saying its like all of us fit into a bunch of cliched roles. Are you saying that I’m the cheerleader and Nick’s the jock? What does that make Stephen and Skye?
NICK: I ain’t no jock.
SKYE: Wait, are you saying I’m the weird girl?
STEPHEN: No way in hell you’re the rebel, Nick. You’re the geeky dude.
DYLAN: Look, can we just drop it? How about we’re the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Justice League or something?
Just then, Nick starts to sing the chorus of that song from the movie, “Hey! Hey! Hey! Don’t you...forget about me…” And before you know it it was like a goddamn singalong, the whole truck singing along.
So this was another pivotal moment, for we were all happy and it was like this high we would continue to pursue so that the night didn’t have to end.
Now I’m not a journalist or writer or anything, but if I was writing this thing, that’s where I’d end it.
END

Stephen Parker drifted for a few years after high school. He eventually pursued a career in medicine. He lives in California.
Image of Bridge 17 Years Later: https://imgur.com/a/CwuQxbF
~~~[II]

how to give babies oral medicine video

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