Under-medicated & over-medicated

May is mental health awareness month, and though it is very important to acknowledge it, quite ironically, we continue fighting a fire that we are fueling from the back end, sorta like having an arsonist in the fire department that could be easily discovered with a little investigation and dot connection. 

We have medicated the masses with psychotropic drugs while leaving the severely ill quite often unmedicated and unmonitored to fend for themselves (ones that fit the exact criteria that used to receive a higher level of care in state institutional hospitals). These individuals, their families, law enforcement, jails, judicial and crisis medical staffing have suffered the repercussions. 

We have interwoven our society with individuals who are advised to medicate for their mental stability and happiness but do not have the matching help and education to offramp should they decide to discontinue or have extensive education on mixing psychotropic drug usage with alcohol and other drugs. We see a prevalence of suicide rates, crazed homicides, a need for crisis hotlines, and the intensified need for the build-out of more mental health crisis stabilization units. 

It seems we get numbed somewhat to horrific things that happen unless they directly involve us; we are shocked, but then we move on. I noticed a while back how often something is in the news that sounds like a result of mental derangement, so I started collecting a few articles over the past year. Here are a few since Sept 2024: Apalachee school shooting, Former Kentucky Judge indicted for murdering district judge in his courthouse office, Wisconsin school shooting, Effingham county judge commits suicide in courtroom, Highly decorated Green Beret Army soldier, (bombing/suicide at Trump International Hotel in Vegas), Nashville school shooting, Florida State school shooting, Fulton elementary teacher shot and killed by her girlfriend (after a party), Macon man attacks family, burns their house down during mental health crisis, murder/suicide of a beautiful family in Warner Robins, Twin brothers found after double suicide, and many, many suicides in our area over the past year. Are things so much worse than they used to be, or is there potentially something else? We all know the mind is what controls the actions of the body, so are there dots that could connect many of these violent deaths to an underlying cause?        

A Legal poisoning of our population: there have been massive settlements made by pharmaceutical drug companies because of the scourge of opioids that were prescribed (let happen by the CDC and FDA, which were obviously ignorant, complicit or blind as bats). It seems our population is once again being poisoned, but this time with psychotropics. Massive amounts of SSRI (antidepressant) drug prescriptions are distributed through general practitioners who are not licensed in psychiatry but can distribute and administer psychotropic drugs. If a degree in psychiatry holds any value and professional weight, then why doesn’t the distribution and administration of mind-altering psychotropic drugs have the same value and need for credentialing? 

If the focus were intensified on the few individuals needing a high level of care, we would shrink what is perceived as a massive problem in our country. But that doesn’t sell drugs and the need for massive levels of funding without these individuals on the streets, sidewalks, homeless encampments, and in our jails and crisis centers, right? 

The Georgia Department of Behavioral and Developmental Disabilities Commissioner (David Tanner) seems to be forming a more strategic focus on the care of the severely ill, so hopefully, this will bring much-needed change and a more narrowed focus on resources. However, there also needs to be a focus on what appears to be lacing our society with powder kegs, which can go off with just one devastating spark. We currently have around 66 million adults and children on prescription psychotropics (this is almost 20% of our entire population)! 

Suicides, school shootings and many other forms of violent death (or attempts), on a scale of 1–10, is a 10, but what about all the other horrible decisions that individuals can make on a scale of 1–9? The restrictions, education, and guidance for individuals considering psychotropic drug prescriptions (or coming off of them) are simply not in place in comparison to the massive distribution that is happening in our country. Our legislatures need to look at the death and addiction that is once again repeating itself in plain sight, right out in the legalized open. 

I’m not sure how to end this article, but I want to leave off on a positive note:

One of the best antidepressants is exercise (or figure out some other way that you enjoy getting yourself physically worn out). For myself, the best calming sedative during despairing times is having faith in a God that can bring meaning and calming peace to troubled waters.