Square peg, meet round hole.
I shouldn’t say meet, as this misfit’s been happening for decades now, but the tragic outcomes, like these, are happening way too often now to ignore.
If you don’t know the story, Lindsay Clancy, 32, from Duxbury, admitted to strangling her 3 kids Cora, 5, Dawson, 3 & Callan, 8 months, to death before attempting to take her own life after suffering what medical records say was post-partum depression (& lawyers claim momentary psychosis).
Clancy had previously mentioned having suicidal thoughts & checked herself into a MH facility for 5 days in early Jan.
Her husband said at a hearing last wk that he went to her doctor & warned that his wife’s Rx meds were turning her into a ‘zombie’.
What were those Rx’s? According to her lawyer – 13 over the course of 4 months (Oct – Jan). The list is in the next slide➡️.
We know – don’t think – KNOW that many of these Rx’s come w warnings of suicidal & homicidal ideation. We also know Clancy was begging for help the day of the tragedy.
I’m not here to damn meds. They help manage symptoms for many ppl. What I am here to do is to damn this ridiculous practice of being prescribed 13 in 4 months!!
If you’ve followed here you know my story: 52 Rx’s prescribed to me in 2.5 yrs. When I share that ppl say that’s not possible: well do the math on Lindsay, at that rate, over 2.5 yrs. It happens, & it happens a LOT. We’re treated like human mood meters by many, being put on as many as 5-6 or more at a time: up on this, down on that.
Last 2 slides look at the stats: CDC says that MH help seeking is up to over 20% of the population. Good, right? But the next slide: 1/4 ppl in the US are on Rx MH meds. MORE than seeking MH help. 250 per 1,000 is more than 2X most all “western” counties. For anyone who says our MH is the same as other countries – no it’s not. We’re throwing pills (& lots of them, at the same time) more than any country by far. Square Peg – Round Hole.
We don’t know definitively what happened w Clancy. But, if we don’t move to trauma-based care, brain/body skills/exercises…& instead just throw pills alone, these probs continue to happen.
