The Gatepost at Gunnedah

26/03/2026

Important

America's psychiatric leaders released a joint statement defending the safety and effectiveness of psychiatric medications in response to RFK looking into overprescription. I read through the whole thing. It is one of the most masterful efforts at deception I have seen in a long time, and it reminds me of the experts who used to deny that smoking caused cancer.

Here is what the statement does not tell you. The clinical trials that "prove" these medications are safe and effective typically run for three months or less. Nearly half of all Americans who take antidepressants have been on them for over five years. We have essentially no rigorous long-term evidence for what these drugs do to the human brain over that timeframe.

The relapse prevention studies they use to suggest long-term safety are deeply compromised. They put people on medication for about six months, then abruptly switch half the group to placebo with as little as five days of tapering. Of course that group shows higher relapse rates. Many of them are in withdrawal. That is not evidence of long-term effectiveness. That is evidence of dependence.

What would have been honest is if these leaders had said: we recognize the evidence base has serious limitations, we see that 20% of American women are now on antidepressants and that number is climbing, we acknowledge that pharmaceutical companies are funding covert disease-mongering campaigns through celebrities and patient advocacy groups, and we are committed to fixing this. They said none of that.

Instead they attacked the people raising these concerns and implied that anyone who speaks about the risks of these medications is putting lives at risk. That is a deflection. It is also a lie.
I looked up the organizations that signed this statement. They are funded by or run by people with deep financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. That matters.

If you believe people deserve informed consent before being handed a psychiatric medication in a seven-minute appointment, share this post.

15/07/2025

https://gofund.me/e1cf7861

This is Tori. A gentle, kind, and bright little girl full of life, full of love. She’s … Ashleigh Hudson needs your support for Help Tori Fight Liver Cancer

17/08/2024

“I actually attack the concept of happiness. The idea that—I don’t mind people being happy—but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It’s a really odd thing that we’re now seeing people saying “write down three things that made you happy today before you go to sleep” and “cheer up” and “happiness is our birthright” and so on. We’re kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position. It’s rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don’t teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say, “Quick! Move on! Cheer up!” I’d like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word “happiness” and to replace it with the word “wholeness.” Ask yourself, “Is this contributing to my wholeness?” and if you’re having a bad day, it is.” ~Hugh Mackay

(Book: The Way We Are: Lessons from a lifetime of listening https://amzn.to/3YJ2W9j [ad])

The Way We Are: Lessons from a lifetime of listening

05/08/2024

Yes

10/03/2023

04/06/2022

Yes:

“Put a rat in a cage and give it 2 water bottles. One is just water and one is water laced with he**in or co***ne. The rat will almost always prefer the drugged water and almost always kill itself in a couple of weeks. That is our theory of addiction.

Bruce comes along in the ’70s and said, “Well, hang on. We’re putting the rat in an empty cage. It has nothing to do. Let’s try this a bit differently.” So he built Rat Park, and Rat Park is like heaven for rats. Everything a rat could want is in Rat Park. Lovely food. Lots of s*x. Other rats to befriend. Colored balls. Plus both water bottles, one with water and one with drugged water. But here’s what's fascinating: In Rat Park, they don’t like the drugged water. They hardly use it. None of them overdose. None of them use in a way that looks like compulsion or addiction. What Bruce did shows that both the right-wing and left-wing theories of addiction are wrong. The right-wing theory is that it’s a moral failing, you’re a hedonist, you party too hard. The left-wing theory is that it takes you over, your brain is hijacked. Bruce says it’s not your morality, it’s not your brain; it’s your cage. Addiction is largely an adaptation to your environment.

Now, we created a society where significant numbers of us can't bear to be present in our lives without being on something, drink, drugs, s*x, shopping... We’ve created a hyperconsumerist, hyperindividualist, isolated world that is, for many of us, more like the first cage than the bonded, connected cages we need.

The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection. And our whole society, the engine of it, is geared toward making us connect with things not people. You are not a good consumer citizen if you spend your time bonding with the people around you and not stuff. In fact, we are trained from a young age to focus our hopes, dreams, and ambitions on things to buy and consume. Drug addiction is a subset of that."
Credit: Johann Hari

28/03/2022

Please sign.

Include Registered Counsellors on Medicare to Meet Australia's Mental Health Crisis. 349 signatures are still needed!

09/03/2022

🧡

17/11/2021

This:

Feeling lost and confused about yourself as we emerge from pandemic conditions? Want to discover your identity? Kick off an epic journey here