The Olympics and psychiatric drugs

[Shep]

Go back in the media three years and Simone Biles was an athlete who was doing great and winning competitions while she was taking "anxiety medication":

 

Simone Biles opens up on taking anti-anxiety medication video (4 minutes) 

 

Around 2 minutes in she mentions medication for anxiety but doesn't disclose what it is, but perhaps a benzo or an SSRI. 

 

And this was just announced in the media on July 27, 2021:

 

Simone Biles' Exit Puts Mental Health Center Stage as Athletes Embrace Well-Being

 

The problem with the messaging for the harm of these drugs comes when someone, such as a star athlete, excels while on the drugs and then when they crash, it's messaged as a "mental health" issue or "mental illness" issue and not a drug issue and / or other life-traumas that may be happening. It's a form of gaslighting.

 

Big pharma weighed in when it was Naomi Osaka going public with "mental health" issues back then: 

 

Vivera Pharmaceuticals Supports Naomi Osaka's Stance On Prioritizing Mental Health

 

I would expect to see more and more corporate media -- especially funded by big pharma -- launching campaigns to address the growing "mental illness" epidemic with advice to see your doctor for help and using star athletes as examples. Some of this has already started. 

 

I hope at some point the disease narrative of "mental illness" ends, but until it does, marketing manipulation will continue and when the drug works, that will be messaged and when someone reaches tolerance, has an adverse reaction, or goes into withdrawal, it will be messaged as a return of the original "disease."

 

Hopefully one of these athletes will connect the dots and speak out. 

Edited July 28, 2021 by Shep
fixed typo, added info

[Shep]

I want to point out something else in this article to highlight one of psychiatry's many contradictions:

 

Simone Biles' Exit Puts Mental Health Center Stage as Athletes Embrace Well-Being

 

Note this part about yet another athlete: 
 

Quote

Olympic swimmer Simone Manuel took a break training earlier this year after being diagnosed with overtraining syndrome, a condition that is defined as a "maladapted response to excessive exercise without adequate rest."

 

 

What exactly is a "maladapted response" to anything that's "excessive"?

 

And the diagnosis of "overtraining syndrome" should be applied to the coaches and trainers, not the athletes. 

 

The reason this is bothering me so much is this type of exploitation will be targeting children wanting to follow in these athletes footsteps and may be especially susceptible to this type of gaslighting.  It's also going to give coaches, trainers, and parents who are exploiting these athletes and future athletes a way to cover up abuse as "mental illness." When someone is sad or anxious, there is a reason for it. 

 

Psychiatry is without morals. The thought leaders of psychiatry should be speaking out against this so that pediatricians and GPs will stop massively prescribing these and start fixing the way athletes are trained. Change the environment and the system, not the individual. 

 

And I thought watching the Olympics would be a good distraction . . . .