Now, I’m not even American, and this is making me hot. As in PISSED OFF.
Some of you might remember the Mother’s Act-back in October there was a blog about day for support. Many of us who have suffered under PPD or PPP supported it.
One day I visit a favorite site of mine. (Well it WAS a favorite. This got it removed from my feeds I was so bloody pissed off) There’s a rambling article about how the Mother’s Act is nothing more than a way to push drugs.
I blinked. I went back to read the bill again. The only reference I could find was under “Findings:
Postpartum depression is a treatable disorder if promptly diagnosed by a trained provider and attended to with a personalized regimen of care including social support, therapy, medication, and when necessary hospitalization.
That’s it. That’s the terrifying “big brother”-oh noes! Someone wants to help women!
Seeing someone equate talking to women about PPD before hand to convincing her she had it really REALLY pissed me off. Reading these stories of women on these crazy mixes of drugs for what seem to be other psychiatric conditions that were incorrectly treated-that’s the fucking POINT of this bill. To HELP.
What in the FUCK is wrong with mothers (and fathers) today. EVERYTHING has some sort of agenda-things aren’t “natural” enough for them. You know what’s natural? Mother’s killing their children because they can’t parent them effectively. Natural is leaving a baby out to die of exposure. Natural is mother’s beating their children from frustration, or working them all hours of the day.
NATURAL IS NOT BETTER. Belladonna is natural. Want some?
I am irate with these people. Talk to me about militant stances on breastfeeding, baby wearing, co sleeping-I will absolutely support you. Start screwing with the first REAL movement towards doing something about postpartum depression, and my claws come out. The absolute IGNORANCE of these people astounds me. The selective tunnel vision amuses me. The odds that any of them have ACTUALLY read the bill…well, that just makes me giggle.
But it makes me want to cry as well.
Even the fucking Wikipedia page has been contaminated by this stupidity.
The most important thing I can remind you of are the women who killed their children because of PPD/PPP. The women who didn’t make it. The lives destroyed, lost forever, the women abandoned. The women we currently can’t help, regardless of what’s wrong. The children who were innocent in all of this.
Dr. Suzanne Killinger Johnson (This was at my usual subway stop. My mind went wild wondering “Was it here? Here?”)
and many more. There are so many of us. So many chances to get it right, to help, to prevent such horror that we close our eyes and refuse to read. To hear people, to see people trying to fight against something meant to do good sickens me. Is only they’d spend the same energy fighting the men and women who torture their children, fighting the system that leaves the poor hungry and without mental or physical health care.
If only they cared enough to truly make a difference, instead of making sound bites.
If only.
Spin Me I Pulsate 
Motherhood is never simple and entirely underappreciated. How much more so when a woman is grappling with her body is causing her psyche to self-destruct while everyone expects a Madonna, a perfect loving mother.
People fear what they do not understand and most do not understand the power of hormones over the human mind – she who suffers ppd or ppp is not crazy, she is hormonally unbalanced and thus needs medications to balance them out. Like diabetics need insulin or a broken leg needs anti-inflammatories and pain-killers.
Where to start here? PPD is a serious thing, I know people who have suffered tramendously. their spouses having to leave there jobs, education and everything else to be at home because the new mother is not capable emotionally of caring for her baby or herself. When you deside to have children you have all kinds of ideas as to how to manage financially, you work out who in the partnership will take care of what and have all these romantic notions of what being a new parent will be all about, then BAM PPD. And everything changes, I cant even imagine what it takes to get through something like this and thank god everyday my partner and I desided not to have children. I do fully support whatever it takes to get a family through this with everyone safe. The gov. doesnt want to have to spend any money untilit costs them too much in legal fees to try mothers who just couldnt take it anymore. Unfortunately like everything else no one notices until it is too late then they start thinking of what can be done differently.
Well said!
I don’t understand the ojbections to this either. Personally, I’d rather have a few people on unnecessary anti-depressants than another Andrea Yates (or whoever).
I agree with Judy.
And had never heard of many of the women you linked to. So sad.
PPD sucks.
People who are too busy looking for boogeymen SUCK. This bill might get defeated because of people like that.
Don’t forget… postpartum depression is a favourite target for Sci3ntology, who are online and do like to spread misinformation like it was honey at a peanut butter convention.
That was my subway stop too. I have to admit I still think of her and her baby. Once I had my older daughter it became so clear to me how this could happen to anyone. The social supports are so poor.
You rock girl. Love it and will link to it on Postpartum Progress. Thank you for speaking up about the silliness.
I wonder about people who are so judgmental of other mothers’ struggles (with PPD, breastfeeding, working, not working … god, what doesn’t get you judged?). Are they really so insulated that they can’t fathom someone else needing something they don’t need? Or do they also have dark or scary thoughts that they smother with the “otherness” of someone else, kind of like homophobia?
Why do you think we are opposed to the bill? Do you really think we are stupid? Read some of the stories of drug victims. Andrea Yates is one. So is Dena Schlosser. If you investigate this you might be able to understand. Nobody wants women suffering, the medications are ineffective and double the rate of suicide. Effexor which Yates was taking when she killed her kids has the words homicidal ideation listed on the label as a side effect. All of the SSRIs do this. See the resources listed on our websites. Consider how many women are dying needlessly and how many babies die needlessly. I myself experienced dose-dependent homicidal urges on Zoloft. The meds are listed in the bilal as essential treatments. I was also force hospitalized, as are many mothers. There are many many many options that women need to be given and they do not need to be forced or checked on by the government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debora_Green
Debora Green
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Dr. Debora Green (born February 28, 1951) was a former oncologist living in Prairie Village, Kansas, married to Michael Farrar, a cardiologist. After previously trying to poison Michael using ricin, on October 24, 1995 she murdered two of her children by setting fire to the family house at 7517 Canterbury Court. She pleaded no contest before the trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 40 years before eligibility for parole.
Debora Green was the subject of Ann Rule’s 1997 book Bitter Harvest.
Debora Green was taking Prozac, which affects serotonin levels in the brain and has been linked to invoke violent and hallucinatory symptoms in patients.
http://www.drugawareness.org/Ribbon/SSRIMeds.html
http://www.teenscreentruth.com/psychiatry_drugs_suicide.html
I think you’re opposed to the bill because you’re a moron.
If you read anything further than this post, you’d know I have a little experience with PPD-I nearly murdered my child honey.
I was on no drugs. This has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH DRUGS you blithering idiot.
Have you read the act, or are you blinding following all the other howling voices on the internet? Will you jump off the bridge as well, in the name of “protecting” women.
We don’t need YOUR protection. We need help and understanding for mental illness-with the use of drugs or not. We need doctors and nurses who understand what PPD and PPP look like, so they AREN’T blindly prescribing.
You want to argue your agenda? Call Big Pharma. Stop hurting women.
And I’m ON drugs for bipolar disorder, which was triggered by OOH!! Wait for it-PREGNANCY. I almost killed my child, and I almost killed myself. I am well aware that if UNMONITORED, drugs can be harmful.
So can gasoline.
So please, take your hysteria back to mothering.com and leave me alone.
I like the gasoline thing… don’t take her too seriously, this Amy person is one of the people who believes the Americans are building concentration camps around the United States which are meant for American citizens to be interned in after some kind of planned “coup” coming in November. This is an article from the website attached to her name:
http://www.uniteforlife.org/thinkingisacrime.htm
“We are beginning to see who will be the inmates of the detention centers being built in the US by Halliburton under government contract.
“Who will be on the “extremist beliefs” list? The answer is: civil libertarians, critics of Israel, 9/11 skeptics, critics of the administration’s wars and foreign policies, critics of the administration’s use of kidnapping, rendition, torture and violation of the Geneva Conventions, and critics of the administration’s spying on Americans. Anyone in the way of a powerful interest group–such as environmentalists opposing politically connected developers–is also a candidate for the list.”
oh noes! I’m sorta libertarian! Are they coming for me too!
Thanks Gabe…I needed the giggle. I can’t stomach food this morning, let alone the kind of blatant idiocy I knew I’d find on that site.
I don’t like deleting comments, but in light of what you found, I’ll do her the honor of deleting anything further (including the 3 novels that were in moderation…who has that kind of TIME?!?!?)
It just drives me batty-I’ll never dispute that these drugs CAN be harmful-they aren’t candy-but to try and shut down something that is simply trying to put resources in place to HELP women…sigh….
And I always wonder if these people would prefer us unmedicated, so we could run around and kill people? cause man, sometimes I’d like to try it in their vicinity…
I have a friend who is a Believer in the same stuff Amy is… it’s becoming a religion with him. He posts biweekly YouTube’s all about detention centres and government plots to force people into hospitals. It’s scary and sad. He posted once on my site, it was a 2800 word hate rant against everything American and pharmaceutical… I had to take it down, mostly because I was embarrassed for him.
When something happens to Us we look for reasons and sometimes there are none. So when we find a few other people who had similar experiences we find reason in the group. These people are broken and have had their teeth kicked in so they’re trying to find reasons for what was done to them, or for what they did to themselves. But sometimes there are no reasons… so to keep themselves sane they invent some. Like “The Government” or “The Man”. And within these little circles these manufactured reasons foment more and more extreme beliefs… because when you’re in a room full of broken people all trying to figure out who or what broke them no one, ever, will point to themselves and say “well, maybe I could have done things different” or “well, I guess shit can happen for no reason at all.”
Are pills bad? Of course. But no one has ever recommended eating nothing but Flintstones Multivitamins… people like Amy and my friend live in a world where pills are bad because someone overdosed or was prescribed the wrong dose. But that’s not the pill, that’s the prescription. That’s people not keeping in touch with their doctor… that’s mostly the doctor’s fault, but it’s also the patients fault… it’s also Amy’s fault.
Sorry… I’ve been meaning to write about this for awhile but I’ve been writer’s blocked with this thing I’m trying to write at the moment.
No worries…it’s a topic I’d like to explore too, but I end up getting all judgy about it. And today I’m too sick and busy to bother. (which is why I’m on here anyway-ARGH!)
Hi. First time poster here.
I came across this article and i thought you should all be made aware that the MOTHERS Act is in jeopardy.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/nationalpolitics/18963399.html
Pay special attention to this part:
‘…The MOTHERS Act runs against a major tenet of the Church of Scientology, whose beliefs are rooted in the writings of science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Followers oppose psychiatry and mood-altering medication.
In 2006 Scientology’s most visible member, the actor Tom Cruise, criticized the actor and model Brooke Shields for taking the antidepressant Paxil to combat postpartum depression. Cruise this month told Oprah Winfrey that he had been “wrong,” adding: “I’m not trying or want to tell anyone how to live their life or what they should believe or shouldn’t believe.”
Some other church members won’t waver. The Scientology-affiliated Citizens Commission on Human Rights encourages its Web site visitors to send a form letter to senators, stating that postpartum depression could be treated with “normal medical or alternative means.”
The Citizens Commission referred a request for comment to Amy Philo, a Texas mother of two who said she doesn’t follow Scientology, but is working alongside the group to help stop the legislation…’
I don’t know how many of you reading this are aware; the Church of Scientology may look like a bunch of harmless fools, but in reality (and there are PAGES of documented evidence to back this up. All available online) it’s a pyramid scheme under the guise of religion that will resort to any measure to push their agenda. They have committed atrocities against their fellow man and the CCHR is one of their many front groups.
Ms. Philo needs to be VERY CAREFUL about who she throws her support behind and who is supporting her. The COS doesn’t care about her, her children or the countless other mothers and children this bill is intended to help. All they care about is pushing their agenda. Ms. Philo is simply another pawn in their game.
PLEASE educate yourselves on the Church of Scientology. It’s critical for everyone to understand exactly what passing this bill would mean; for the countless mothers, mothers-to-be, their children and those who care about their well-being.
If you want to learn more about the COS and their affiliated groups, I hope you’ll check out Exscientologykids.com. It’s a website created and maintained by three young women who managed to escape the cult and provide support and information for others who grew up and left the COS.
In the menatime, i hope someone who knows Ms. Philo better than I will warn her about the company she’s keeping these days…
I know… 😦 and it makes me angry-and I don’t even live in your country!
Women against women, again, as always. Instead of helping, hindering, blind to anything but one’s own agenda.
I have trouble understand the motivation unless this person DOES have an untreated mental illness. Don’t try to help women-let’s instead go back 200 years where women had no psychiatric support. WHile we’re at it, let’s reintroduce childhood illnesses that killed many children in infancy or early childhood… let’s stop washing our hands during childbirth….let’s stop using modern mediciine to help ourselves.
I’m tired of the division, and I’m tired of the agendas. This shouldn’t be about people-this should be about saving lives, mother and child.