Tom Cruise, Post-Partum Depression Expert
Scientology freak Cruise slams Brooke Shields for using Paxil to overcome postpartum depression:
Cruise, who claims to have helped people fight drug addictions through his controversial Scientology religion, says the Suddenly Susan actress should have used vitamins to help her feelings of despair.Cruise says, "Here is a woman, and I care about Brooke Shields because I think she is an incredibly talented woman. You look at, where has her career gone?"
Despite the Minority Report actor's declaration her career is over, Shields is currently receiving rave reviews playing murderess Roxie Hart in the London theatre production of Chicago.
Cruise maintains, "These drugs are dangerous. I have actually helped people come off.
"When you talk about postpartum, you can take people today, women, and what you do is you use vitamins. There is a hormonal thing that is going on, scientifically, you can prove that. But when you talk about emotional, chemical imbalances in people, there is no science behind that.
"You can use vitamins to help a woman through those things."
Thanks, Tom. Like it's smart to take a couple of B12s at the advice of some movie star when you alternately want to die and find yourself dreaming of seeing your baby hurled against a wall. Brooke jabs back at "doctor" Cruise:
Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens," she tells People magazine, referring to his upcoming film "War of the Worlds," "and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them."
And maybe on the advice of people who have actually gone through some medical training, not those who simply go around with a bunch of pamphlets promoting a cult and a "clearing" machine with a long red hose, which he brought to Athens, NY, when he was shooting War Of The Worlds and kept in his hotel room...where we stayed a few weeks ago -- at Stewart House. Thanks, but I'll take better living through chemistry. Taking Ritalin has changed my life. It helps me focus well enough, for example, to write blog items about moron actors who take it upon themselves to give medical advice based on their wacky cult affiliation.
This piece has a nice locution for Cruise:
- "He just seems so outside himself and so
- bizarre," said brand and image consultant
- Morris Reid, the managing director of Westin
- Rinehart in New York City.
"Outside himself" is neat way of putting it.
Crid at June 4, 2005 7:59 AM
I would totally take medical advice from this man!
Jim Treacher at June 4, 2005 9:55 AM
Brooke's a smart gal. I knew someone who took classes with her at Princeton back in the 80s, and Miss Shields reportedly made a lot important contributions to classroom discussions.
Lena-doodle-doo at June 4, 2005 11:22 AM
This is a fine example of the special status we assign actors. They're expressing ordinary opinions like anyone else, but because they're actor millionaires, it's vitally important that we care what they think.
Ritalin? I wonder about its application whenever I read about it. Do you think it's more beneficial, even mandatory, for a person who has multiple interests consuming their time to use it?
Admiral Rickover maintained that people do focus on what they consider important; he changed the entire Navy to make his nuclear power program so important to his officers that his methods are now minor legends. As a result of his success, no one cares that dozens of reactor plants are in assorted American harbors now, as they have been for over 40 years. Is having a multitude of interests a negative, or is the decision tree which results so frustrating that calming action is desired?
Radwaste at June 4, 2005 8:39 PM
Dear Amy,
I am a doctor. I don't play one on television. I graduated from my school a few months ago and I'm not working until later this year.
Besides the obvious problems of dispensing medical advice without any expertise, medical license, or thought whatsoever, Mr. Cruise has fundamentally flawed reasoning in that he dismisses one group of substances (possibly because of a fear of science/technology) and extolls the virtues of another as a mere value judgment without consideration of the pharmacology involved. Both groups of chemicals can help people or cause great harm if taken improperly. I won't bore you with examples (e.g., vitamin E is synergistic with warfarin in larger doses which causes bleeding problems, etc.) Chemicals that are made in a lab are not intrinsically evil (vitamin C ironically) and those that exist in nature are not completely wholesome and pure (botulism toxin).
Plants lack claws and teeth. They have evolved mechanisms to defend themselves. They use tough exteriors, and many "do not touch" type of things such as cactus needles. They also have sophisticated methods of chemical warfare. There is a reason why you never see insects eating mushrooms. They are the most mutagenic food know to man. Bruce Ames is the classic source for this kind of research. He is a chemist in California who devised the industry standard test for mutagenicity of substances. I'll skip detailed explanations. Plants defend themselves from their predators by producing contraceptives, abortifacients, outright poisons, bad tasting substances, tough or prickly outer husks, etc. It's more complicated that an Oprah show.
I had to write. I'll stop now. Keep up the good blogging.
Warmest regards,
--Eamonn Keane, M.D.
Eamonn Michael Keane M.D. at June 4, 2005 9:12 PM
Hi, Amy...
I saw that interview. I was so revolted by the whole thing I wanted to puke.
I almost turned it off but I was mesmerized by the audacity of this nut. He was SO impressed by his own self-importance it was scary to see. It was like he was acting the part of an insane person except that it was real and he STILL couldn't act well enough to pull it off.
He sat there with his eyes popping wide open, dictating what people should do with their lives. It's frightening what monsters Scientology makes out of the victims it controls.
And that's what Tom Cruise is...just another victim of that cult. Completely brainwashed! I guess he's more to be pitied than criticized, but I just can't help it.
Apple at June 5, 2005 12:49 AM
Althouse has a post that says Cruise is paid to convey emotions, not to feel actual ones handsomely. We shouldn't be surprised that a successful industrialist of his magnitude isn't, in his heart of hearts, a fun fellow. What do you suppose Steve Ballmer is like in private? To call a control freak awkward is redundant.
Gladwell writes about microexpressions, and that last photo that Treacher linked above is wonderful example... Holmes looks like she's putting up with a drunken, boorish uncle, as she does every summer at the family reunion.
Crid at June 5, 2005 1:51 AM
"I saw that interview. I was so revolted by the whole thing I wanted to puke."
Unless you equate nausea with feeling entertained, next time you could try simply turning it off. What would happen if everyone stopped doling out attention and money to buffoons like Cruise? They'd go away!
My television is good for one thing, and one thing only: It's connection to a DVD player with a threadworn copy of Black Dick on Duty.
Lena Cuisina, Cultural Elitist at June 5, 2005 9:05 AM
Deet-Duh-Deet-Deet-Deet NEWSFLASH! As their careers wrinkle and sag like their formerly moist and firm hides, it's game on for two of the 1980's most inexplicably beloved pop figures!
Risky Business was a really fun movie, though... It had a really good original score.
Crid at June 5, 2005 10:00 AM
Be nice to Brooke. She "dated" Michael Jackson, remember?
Lena at June 5, 2005 11:42 AM
There's no such thing as post-pardem depression. It's just an excuse that crazy women have come up with to do crazy, violent shit. You'd think with the larger number of crazy, violent and shitty acts committed by the larger number of crazy, violent, and shitty men, we men would have come up with another similar bullshit disease to justify it.
Oh yeah, we did. RAGE. What bullshit!
Little ted at June 5, 2005 3:48 PM
Brooke Shields reportedly got in another good barb, offering Cruise tickets for him and his girlfriend to see her show:
"If he wants to see Chicago, I've left him two tickets - one adult, one child."
Frank at June 5, 2005 7:56 PM
Little Ted -- We need labels like "post-partum depression" so that shrinks can bill the insurance companies. One of the biggest bullshit diseases out there has a very high prevalence among American men with histories of violent behavior. It's called "Gulf War Syndrome." -- LC
Lena at June 5, 2005 9:07 PM
>It's called "Gulf War Syndrome."
CNN told me that one was just radiation poisoning from all the uranium that we use in our bullets. But point taken, and agreed.
If someone's mental illness doesn't show up on those crazy MRI things as black spots where the brain should be working or manifest itself as out of wack dopamine or seratonin(sp), the only thing wrong with the subject is that they are a selfish, garbage person.
A metal plate in the head is also a valid excuse for being nuts.
Little ted at June 5, 2005 9:32 PM
Little ted's a little simple. Post partem, female depressions in general, PMS, are all chemical imbalances that men can't understand because they don't revolve around them. If men could, I think a lot of them would like to tell us that our periods are something we make up to get out of sex.
Anyways, Cruise is a jack ass who is known best for gliding across the floor in his drawers. The day he becomes The Voice of the People, is the day the people all fucking die. Possibly in matching sneakers...
Lia at June 6, 2005 1:42 AM
Ted and Lia, I am so not worthy! You are a joy to read. No guesswork here!
-- "the only thing wrong with the subject is that they are a selfish, garbage person."
That is FANTASTIC. Unfortunately, no one gets paid for treating a patient with Selfish Garbage Personality Disorder.
-- "The day he becomes The Voice of the People, is the day the people all fucking die."
Priceless! Will you please be my editor?
Lena Cuisina, Selfish Garbage Person at June 6, 2005 2:58 AM
Hey - whatever happened to reason? Actors are just like other people, only famous. If you spent your life saying what other people have written, you'd be seeking some cause of your own; fortunately, many of us can just blow off what an actor says.
Remember when Ted Danson told Arsenio, "We have just ten years to save this planet?" That certainly wasn't the way to get people behind ecology.
I'm not sure why, but handsome Mr. Cruise IS a jerk to the "little guy"; while filming "Top Gun" he was even rude to the flight officers.
So don't obsess on him. Think about how much society encourages people to blame a disease for their lack of guts. That'll take you down a better road.
Radwaste at June 6, 2005 3:04 PM
Tom Cruise, a sterling example of how a pinhead can have beacoup movie credits and a boatload of money, can still be a pinhead.
Sheryl at June 6, 2005 8:21 PM
"Think about how much society encourages people to blame a disease for their lack of guts."
Radwaste --
Now you're right up there with one of my great culture heros, who said of her book "Illness as Metaphor":
"These parallels -- between myths about tuberculosis to which we can all feel superior now, and superstitions about cancer still given credence by many cancer patients and their families -- gave me the main strategy of a little book I decided to write about the mystifications surrounding cancer. I didn't think it would be useful -- and I wanted to be useful -- to tell yet one more story in the first person of how someone learned that she or he had cancer, wept, struggled, was comforted, suffered, took courage... though mine was also that story. A narrative, it seemed, would be less useful than an idea."
"The purpose of my book was to calm the imagination, not to incite it. Not to confer meaning, which is the traditional purpose of literary endeavor, but to deprive something of meaning: to apply that quixotic, highly polemical strategy, "against interpretation," to the real world this time. To the body. My purpose was, above all, practical. For it my doleful observation, repeated again and again, that the metaphoric trappings that deform the experience of having cancer have very real consequences: they inhibit people from seeking treatment early enough, or from making a greater effort to get competent treatment. The metaphors and myths, I was convinced, kill."
Susan Sontag
from "AIDS and Its Metaphors"
Lena Cuisina, Groupie Extraordinnaire at June 6, 2005 11:40 PM
Lena, if you persist in being intelligent, you're going to convince me that no matter what I did you'd be thinking about something else... imagine the heartbreak! (vbg!)
Radwaste at June 7, 2005 2:46 AM
Cruise can mind his own business.
Patrick at June 7, 2005 7:35 AM
But will he?
Lena at June 7, 2005 9:46 AM
Some of you have expressed a disparaging opinion of psychiatry and seem woefully ignorant on the subject of mental illness or complications of childbirth, i.e., postpartum depression. How many of you sneering have the unique expert point of view of being pregnant, enduring labor and giving birth? If it didn't happen to you, or couldn't happen to you doesn't mean that it can't be real.
Mental illness is not weakness, but simply a type of illness that manifests itself with a pathological mind/body dysfunction. It is commonly regarded by some ignorant or bigoted people with the superstitious mind-set recorded of the Salem witch trials, the roots of which are considered to be a combination of religious fundamentalism, ergot poisoning, and the unique psychological conditions imposed by organizations and groups. The people in authority making judgments were simply ignorant of these influences, and these factors did not exist in their world view. The discounting of the women who have had difficulties after having delivered and not lived up to narrow and unrealistic expectations is no different here.
Life-altering experiences leave a mark on the psyche (mind) and the soma (body). Putting these two concepts together gives a category of illnesses that are real and still considered to be "all in your head." We have probably all seen a wide spectrum of grief reactions in people we know, and there is a strong correlation between the severity of the dysfunction caused by grief and shortened life expectancy. If this example is too abstract to grasp, then think of how mentally and physically impaired you were the last time you had a toothache.
emkeane at June 7, 2005 3:00 PM
EmK, Thanks so much for weighing in again on this. Although I was disturbed by the pooh-pooing of postpartum depression as a real illness -- as well as some of the other sneering about mental illness -- I've been so consumed after the evolution conference with just making my deadline that I didn't have time to respond. I have not studied postpartum depression, but it seems entirely reasonable, considering that a woman's undergoing a major hormonal event, that she might experience some type of psychological changes because of it -- positive or negative. Doesn't it? Better to acknowledge that, recognize it, and treat it than smugly insist there's no such thing, huh?
Amy Alkon at June 7, 2005 3:24 PM
"If it didn't happen to you, or couldn't happen to you doesn't mean that it can't be real."
This, and the preceding material, is fallacious. Clearly, the observer does not have to undergo a trial to note its characteristics.
Nearly every human condition is suffering of some sort, and has a profundity of expression in the life of the subject.
There is a large contingent in the US urging others to drug themselves into happiness - with alcohol as well as OTC and prescription drugs. We don't even bat a reddened eye at current ads for medications which bring relief from mild conditions as they list side effects including death - and drug industries today eclipse the pitiful efforts of illegal drug dealers.
I am personally leery of a profession in which "popular" media, like "Psychology Today", are so full of themselves that they cannot notice contradictions in successive issues.
By the way - though mental illness is a thoroughly natural consequence of genetic mutation, it is indeed weakness. Were natural selection allowed in our society, such people as cannot cope would be removed from the gene pool, not treated with drugs to allow those genes to pass on. We constantly pay for the largesse of observing "human rights" - which we define - by the presence of the measures to support such people. No, it's not their fault. Yet the oarsman who does not pull still weighs down the boat. It is a continuing moral issue to define what "quality of life" means, and what the taxpayer owes a stranger to bring it about.
Radwaste at June 7, 2005 4:49 PM
Take a pill and stop moralizing, Radwaste. A lot of us have some type of severe mental illness, and we're doing quite well on meds. Making lots of money and paying lots of taxes, thank you very much. In fact, we're doing so well that the idea of stopping to pass on our genes is laughable. We'd rather cut a rug, jitterbug. We have books to write and wads of dead babies to blow up each other's asses. We know exactly what "quality of life" means.
Lena Cuisina and the Diamond Dogs at June 7, 2005 10:00 PM
I wonder why he's called "Little ted"?
Darla at June 8, 2005 12:35 AM
Radwaste I want you to do something for me. I want you to walk up to the nearest woman/man and ask her to kick you, as hard as she/he can, in the nuts. I then want you to do everything in your power to make it necessary for you to pass a kidney stone. And I want you to take absolutely nothing to feel better. I want you to, not only not complain or acknowledge the pain, but make it worse by jumping up and running a 5k marathon. I then want you to find someone who wants to fuck you, and proceed for the couple minutes that'll take you. Then get up and cook them breakfast with a smile on your face.
And by the way, you want to talk weakness? I can give birth- some men can't even give directions! And if I don't want a kid, at least I have the guts to admit it.
And don't give me that 'logistics' bs. Someone could spend hours telling you about the slow death of a loved one but fact is, if it hasn't happened to you, as much as you might try to get it, you really can't. You can sympathize, or shut the hell up, but your experience ends there. So please, hush. Because something tells me I'd be better off talking to a shrink and poppin a pill then waiting for people like you to make me feel better.
Lia at June 8, 2005 3:29 AM
Oh how nice it must be to think that we can cure things with vitamins. Hey, you have what, a broken leg, oh here, take some vitamin A and you'll be good to go.
I had postpartum depression and Paxil saved my sanity. After my second child I felt the onset of depression again and went back on it. Screw vitamins and screw you Tom Cruise!!! If there's a bigger ass out there show him to me.
Donna Foy at June 8, 2005 8:59 AM
>I wonder why he's called "Little ted"?
Bent-ass Tom was taken.
>Little ted's a little simple. Post partem, female depressions in general, PMS, are all chemical imbalances that men can't understand because they don't revolve around them
And rage is an equally non-existant psychological condition that women don't understand because they don't like that excuse as much. It's all bullshit. There is certainly no such thing as "Female" depression. Just depression.
>I think a lot of them would like to tell us that our periods are something we make up to get out of sex
I'm so going up to some girl at the bar this weekend and telling her that.
Little ted at June 8, 2005 11:56 AM
Lia, Lena - what works, works, and what doesn't, doesn't. The plain fact of the matter is that life is not fair, and when it is not fair to you, that doesn't convey righteousness at all. You either cope, or you don't. I'm pleased when people eke out success, whether they started with a lot or a little, and I rate hard work highly, but there is a really popular fallacy out there, and its cry is "It didn't happen to you, so you don't count!" This is a fallacy because we all learn from watching others, and because the mistakes or misfortunes of others are becoming more and more intrusive on the lives of those who do not suffer the same mishaps. Life would be too short if we had to learn from our own mistakes. The actual situation is that the non-sufferer has different priorities.
It may be unpleasant to hear that one is not the Apollo or Aphrodite of our age, but it's still true, regardless of "self-esteem" issues.
Radwaste at June 9, 2005 6:03 PM
"Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens," she tells People magazine, referring to his upcoming film "War of the Worlds"
Dang, I thought it was a double entendre including Scientology as well!
CaptDMO at June 10, 2005 3:22 PM
"the mistakes or misfortunes of others are becoming more and more intrusive on the lives of those who do not suffer the same mishaps."
Caller ID will help you with that problem, Radwaste. It's really worth the extra monthly charge.
Lena-doodle-doo at June 11, 2005 6:13 PM
On the contrary, Ted, men and women are biologically different.
http://www.advicegoddess.com/columns/column122.html
...hormonally and physically.
Amy Alkon at June 12, 2005 12:31 AM
Lena, Caller ID doesn't keep your taxes down against the efforts of some group who wants Viagra covered by Medicaid; it doesn't help hospitals deal with ER visits due to discomfort; in short, it cannot stop nor slow the campaign to get people to "be happy, take this pill, your insurance will pay for it".
Insurance pays for nothing. In the end, individuals pay for everything. Some people are just fine with the idea that those individuals are "other people".
Radwaste at June 12, 2005 5:42 AM
Men and women are different in that they prefer to manifest their greed, fear and selfishness in different ways. That doesn't mean we should validate any of that in any way that it comes out.
Suggesting that their is such a thing as female depression is like suggesting that their are female compound fractures or female MS.
Little ted at June 12, 2005 10:47 AM
replace 'their' with 'there' every time I screwed that up
Little ted at June 12, 2005 10:47 AM
Suggesting that their is such a thing as female depression is like suggesting that their are female compound fractures or female MS.
Posted by: Little ted at June 12, 2005 10:47 AM
Except that science has proven time and time again that illness can affect us differently based on sex, race, age, etc. In fact, those factors partially dictate the illnesses one may succumb to. If women experienced broken tibias differently than men, there'd likely be a separate term and treatment. So there may not be a "female depression" you can catch, but "depression" can affect women differently than men.
And MS does affect women differently, both physically and mentally. I have a lesion on my spine and a very good, very communicative doctor. I know. K?
Please don't tell me that you are arguing PDD can't real because men don't get it too. I mean, think.
Recognizing a particular depression associated with childbirth (and hence women) does not mean that whatever a woman with PDD does is excused. Do you think every woman with PDD drowns her children? Most of them just cry constantly and experience a letheragy so extreme they cannot care for their infant son or daughter. Most are plagued by guilt and shame, not the voices of Satan.
There is not "one" depression. Depression can vary in severity and even symptoms (say, sleeplessness in some and hypersomnia in others). The attributes of one's depression also depend on the context in which it occurs. Is the person's sole problem depression? Or is it in the context of a bipolar disorder? Is it connected to PTSD? Similar differences apply to PDD.
If we had to wait for a scan to show a colored dot before we recognized mental illnesses, no Vietnam vet could ever have gotten away with a "lazy excuse" of being traumatized or of being anxious or depressed. In fact, I hope Cruise agrees with you on that because you CAN see adhd on a scan, thank you. Check out the Dr. Daniel Amen clinics.
Btw, Nice page, advice goddess. :)
just a girl with an illness and some research at June 24, 2005 7:15 PM
hey -- you should have seen his comments yesterday on the today show.
http://tomcruiseblog.blogspot.com
Woody at June 25, 2005 1:21 PM
i wish this idiot tom cruise would get depression to see how terrible and debilitating it is and then try to say that vitamins will cure it-bitch please
nadia at June 27, 2005 10:15 AM
Tom Cruise knows NOTHING about Depression. Only those that experience the dark depths of that hell KNOW about Depression...and even they struggle with understanding the illness that can strike them at any time with no warning. I've survived 3 major depressive episodes in the last 10 years. The first was Postpartum at the birth of my son. The second struck when my son was 2 1/2, after I'd been off anti-depressants for a year. The third happened while I was on anti-depressants but became ill with pneumonia. I've been on anti-depressants ever since and probably will remain so for the rest of my life. I have no side-affects except if you count a depression-free life! I still suffer from anxiety and panic attacks from time to time but they're brought on by my own fault - not enough sleep and/or exersice, eating badly, missing a few pills, drinking alchohol, etc.
Tom's idea that you can fix an illness of such magnitude that can be potentially fatal as Depression is not only laughable but inexcusable! I hope no one that truly has Depression listens to Tom and ignores getting REAL medical advice!
Jodi at June 27, 2005 2:19 PM
What more can be said? Tom has never met my bipolar daughter but I suppose if he would, no doubt he could cure her, him and L. Ron together. If you ever get a comeon from a Scientologist, run like hell. I think I will vote with my purchase of movie tickets.
Roy Hill at June 29, 2005 8:59 AM
When Tom (or his partner) has given birth and experienced the physiological and pyschological effects of having BIOLOGICAL children....he then has the right to express an opinion.....but until then.....he needs to shut the hell up...he has no clue what he is talking about.
teachercate65 at July 1, 2005 12:14 PM
...well, Mr. Cruise has successfully now turned my stomach and I will NEVER watch any of his movies (past, present or future)! Perhaps more people should express their opinion where it would hurt Mr. Cruise the most.....in his bank account.
teachercate65 at July 1, 2005 12:24 PM
I'm heartened to see people talking of boycotting his work. I won't see War Of The Worlds. Then again, it sounds like a crappy movie anyway!
Amy Alkon at July 1, 2005 1:52 PM
This was the point that Tom Cruise didn’t make. Do you know how much prescription drugs are worth to Big Pharma? On a world wide basis about a trillion + dollars. How much do you suppose the pharmaceutical companies spend advertising drugs on TV, Radio, Magazines and News media? How much do they spend lobbying Congress to look the other way? How much do they pay (Grants) universities such as Harvard and Columbia to agree that drugging children is scientifically valid? Do you think that they want to protect this income? Right now Ritalin is being dispensed in schools under the guise of treating over active children. Ritalin is a mild form of amphetamine and of course as time goes by that doesn’t “work” the school psychologist then prescribes amphetamines and the end product is the teenager becomes a drug addict and a lifetime client. Please don’t believe me but take the time to research, Google is a great tool for this. Keywords are Prozac, Ritalin, School shootings, and Suicide. Regards Michael Hammond
Michael Hammond at July 10, 2005 2:18 PM
Oh, please. I want to protect Ritalin, because I live in the 21st century, where somebody has come up with a chemical that makes my brain a little more focused and makes my writing day that much less torture. Ritalin is an amphetamine, yes -- but for people like me, with ADHD, it is a calming, not an exciting agent. Don't believe you -- no, I won't because you're just another guy lacking data who's heaving and moaning that pharmaceutical companies are making a buck. I only wish somebody had dosed all my food with Ritalin as a child, so I would have spent my school years in some mode of attentiveness rather than in constant attention everywhere-ness. Yeah, sure, I wrote my way to As and A-minuses. But how great it would have been if I could have took classes where youi had to memorize things, and not gone on 25 vacations in my head at once every time I had a boring professor. School shootings? School shootings? I erased the words "you idiot" from a portion of this reply earlier, but...
MORON!
Amy Alkon at July 10, 2005 3:00 PM
PS Regarding lifetime clients...ooh, those five and ten milligram doses I take...and have been taking for years...I guess I'll be losing my teeth and shooting meth any day now. In the mean time, I'm writing a syndicated column and managing to do the research and reading this involves, with a lot less struggle, and make my deadlines, and forget about 20 percent fewer things, I'd estimate, than I would if I weren't on this drug.
Cathy Seipp, in a Jared Diamond interview, wrote about what's called "the naturalistic fallacy"; ie, the notion that if something is natural, it's good. Well, poison mushrooms are natural. And, thanks to some scientist, I have an easier work day. Here's to better living through chemistry. PS When you come down with some disease, you go ahead and give the finger to "big pharma" and take a bunch of herbs and frog snot. I'll be on the latest drugs.
Jeez, I get so enraged at needless stupidity. Too bad you can't rent a brain yet. So many people should be in the market.
Amy Alkon at July 10, 2005 3:04 PM
In the recent interview with Matt Lauer this is the point that Tom Cruise didn’t make.
Do you know how much prescription drugs are worth to Big Pharma? On a world wide basis about a trillion + dollars. How far do you think they would go to protect this income? How much do you suppose the pharmaceutical companies spend advertising drugs on TV, Radio, Magazines and News media? How much do they spend lobbying Congress to look the other way? How much do they pay (Grants) universities such as Harvard and Columbia to agree that drugging children is scientifically valid? Right now Ritalin is being dispensed in schools under the guise of treating over active children. Ritalin is a form of amphetamine and of course as time goes by and it doesn’t “work” the school psychologist then prescribes a higher dosage and then amphetamines and the end product is the teenager becomes a drug addict and a lifetime client. Please don’t believe me but take the time to research it, Google is a great tool for this. Keywords are Prozac, Ritalin, School shootings, and Suicide. Regards Michael Hammond
Michael Hammond at July 12, 2005 7:03 PM
Bottom line is that Brooke did not kill her daughter. Until a solid therapy is in place for mothers that are having problems I would rather see a mother on TV that is testifying to how some drug helped her cope rather then testifying to how she smothered, drowned or beat her child to death.
Suzy-Q at August 4, 2005 2:04 PM
Hello Amy,
I am not a doctor or a psychiatrist. I am a businessman and a Scientologist. The controversy surrounding postpartum depression is a remarkably interesting one. I actually had a very long conversation with my girlfriend last night (on 12/7/05) about this. She (as well as her mother and female friends) feel that Tom Cruise should not have expressed his thoughts on the subject because "he is a man" and "doesn't know what it feels like to give birth." This was very interesting to me because, personally, I understood what Mr. Cruise's platform was regarding mind altering SSRI psychotropic drugs and feel strongly against these prescriptions for treating "depression". My girlfriend's mother claims she was very depressed after giving birth. Ok, now she has been on psychiatric drugs (on and off) for the last 30 years. WOW!!! The drugs didn't CURE ANYTHING. In fact, she is still seemingly depressed. How long does it take to cure depression with drugs? Maybe her depression predated giving birth? There is a MAXIM in Scientology that states, "Any and all illnesses in greater or lesser degree and all foul-ups stem directly from a PTS Condition" (PTS basically means being "connected" with someone who is actively and knowingly supressing another). Once discovered, the condition of "depression" or sadness or hopelessness actually GOES AWAY. This aspect of Scientology, the subject covering the identification of the "source" of the depression is probably the most important and most valuable. The individual himself/herself no longer becomes the "effect" of supression and no longer has the condition of depression, which we all know leads to illnesses, diseases and self-destructive additictions.
I also had a conversation with my mother regarding postpartum depression. She is an old-fashioned italian lady who birthed four children. She is also a catholic (just in case religion denomination means anything) however doesn't believe in postpartum depression at all. Ok, so she wasn't a victim of postpartum depression. "Good for her" anyone would say, but what if, just what if, this postpartum "label" is just another classification of grouping individuals that could be treated with drugs? Ok, the drugs are only prescribed temporarily. Ok, good. People say they need them "for a short time only" and that in itself is interesting-to wit: Brooke Shields won't actually take Paxil while pregnant as she recently claimed she is "weaning off" the drug. So Brooke does have an interesting contractiction inside herself. It is ok to take the drug post birth but "not during pregnancy". Why? There is an ethic and a responsibility there. She can soothe her own mind but won't dare add any toxins to her body affecting her next born. This is responsible. Cruise just said, "Not responsible enough." Believe me, we all hate added responsibility, especially when another imposes it upon us.
Well, this was fun. I have to go now. Take care.
Matteo
Matteo at December 8, 2005 8:31 AM
Matteo - that makes no sense.
mw at June 5, 2007 8:58 PM
Um, you believe in ground-up space aliens, Matteo. Let's just say we're not taking what you say with a grain of salt, because that would be a waste of salt.
As for your claims about Brooke Shields and what she is or isn't taking, do you make your home in her medicine cabinet? Tom Cruise believes in ground-up space aliens, and he's an actor -- certainly not qualified to make pronouncements about what drugs do and do not do. Neither are you.
L.Ron Hubbard invented your religion because he couldn't think of a better way to separate fools and their money. I believe the quote is, "The best way to make a million dollars is to start a religion."
P.S. As somebody posted here recently, "the plural of anecdote is not data."
Go read Albert Ellis and use the capacity you have to be rational.
More about Scientology here, at Operation Clambake:
http://www.xenu.net/roland-intro.html
What kind of person believes this shit?
Amy Alkon at June 5, 2007 11:20 PM
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