"Psychiatry has destroyed my life"

A 4 part series in the Canada Free Press about the devastating effect of the Marketing of Abilify

Part 1: “Psychiatry has destroyed my life”
Part 2: A medicinal lobotomy
Part 3: “Works like a thermostat”
Part 4: “Chemically lobotomized”

Snippet from the series

“Psychiatry has destroyed my life in so many ways.”

So says Jarrett, a young man from Orange County, who for the past three and half years has been taking a cocktail of various psychiatric medications, including America’s best-selling drug, Abilify.

Less than four years ago Jarrett was a newly minted university graduate with a bright future ahead of him. But he hit a bit of a rough patch. Discouraged by his failure to find a job, he went into counseling, which dredged up some painful memories he now believes would have been better left alone. He confronted his father one night with some old hurts, in his own recollection tearful and angry and out of control, and his father called the police. Jarrett was taken away in handcuffs to a mental hospital, where he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed Risperdal and BuSpar.

Jarrett was subsequently released but found his depression worsening. He checked himself back into the mental hospital, and this time he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed on BuSpar, Seroquel, Geodon, and Celexa. Shortly after his release, he attempted suicide (he says he had never experienced suicidal ideation or behavior before starting psych meds) and was hospitalized for the third time. This time his doctor doubled the dose of Seroquel, replaced the Celexa with Lexapro, and added Depakote and Cogentin. He also discontinued the Geodon and, at Jarrett’s request, prescribed a new drug Jarrett had learned about from watching television.

“It was that cartoon commercial with the woman who says her antidepressant isn’t working,” Jarrett recalls. “She went to her doctor and her doctor said there’s a medication you can take with your antidepressant that can really help.”

And that was how Jarrett became one of untold thousands who succumbed to the siren call of the advertising copywriter to “Add Abilify.”