The business of depression: Scientology vs Big Pharma

The Church of Scientology in Hollywood

The narrative of my script took another direction when I went to an anti Psychiatry exhibit called “An Industry of Death,” presented by The Citizens Commission of Human Rights. The exhibit is a graphic presentation chronicling psychiatry’s barbaric treatments; as well as interviews with victims of psychiatric brutalities ranging from electroshock therapy and involuntary commitment to political torture, psychosurgery and the devastating effects of psychotropic drugs. I will tell you more about the CCHR but back to my screenplay called Highway 401.

The story follows Reza, a depressed, Iranian Canadian trying to come to terms with his sexuality and contemplating suicide as an alternative to facing the consequences of revealing himself to a family whose cultural values vilify homosexuality. My first draft was consistent with the reporting of young, gay men taking their life a few years ago. I remember talk show host Ellen DeGeneres sounding the alarm on the gay suicide epidemic when she described the tragic deaths of Brandon Bitner, Billy Lucas and Tyler Clemente. Those suicides touched me because a close gay friend of mine survived a suicide attempt and a family history of suicide.

The “Industry of Death,” museum impacted me deeply because it spelled out the deadly relationship between suicide and psychotropic drugs. I pondered deeply about the circumstances regarding the mystery of the 24 year old aunt that took her life and the uncle that attempted to take his life. I wondered, “We’re they taking psychotropic drugs?” I started asking myself whether any of the gay kids that Ellen talked about also took anti depressants. Highway 401 could break new ground regarding the cliché of gay men dying tragically in cinema by exposing the connection between pharmaceutical drugs and suicide. Surely, some of those gay suicides we read about must have a connection to anti depressants? Before, I can delve deeper; a bearded middle aged man broke my concentration when he tapped my shoulder:

“So what do you think of the exhibit?”

Me: “It’s heavy. It’s a lot to take in.”

The bearded gentleman stepped closer to me, invading my personal space. I felt very uncomfortable.

“Have you ever felt depressed?”

The question startled me because it was a very personal query posed by a stranger. Not only did the question make me anxious but the way he eyeballed me stirred a panic equivalent to something as sinister as an evil turn in a Hitchcock movie.

Timidly, I confirmed that I have.

“Have you ever heard of Dianetics? He countered.

Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body created by L. Ron Hubbard; Dianetics is practiced by followers of Scientology and separate independent Dianeticist groups.

As soon as I heard Dianetics, I knew instantly that I was being courted to join the Church of Scientology. I explained to the bearded scientologist that I was not interested in Dianetics but what I didn’t ask him was, “why is the church of scientology sponsoring the Psychiatry Industry of Death museum?” Before I delve into that, I am going to describe a brief history of medicine and how a monopoly on medicine opened the door for the practice of Scientology.

Ghislaine Lanctot, an MD that was stripped of her medical license when she wrote “The Medical Mafia” (her expose of the medical industry) highlights an important part in medical history when the future of health shifted from healers to bankers:

“From 1910 to 1925, thanks to rules established in the Flexner Report, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the association of American Medical Colleges would eliminate the vast majority of natural therapists. In the name of Science and the quality of the practice of medicine, demands were made on medical schools to adopt the recommendations of the Flexer Report.

Yet at this time, there were twice as many practitioners of alternative medicine than there were of orthodox medicine. (allopathic) Homeopathy, phytotherapy, manipulative medicines such as osteotherapy and massage were then taught. Medical reform eliminated them all. The number of medical schools was slashed from 650 to 50. As was the number of students, from 7500 to 2500.

The future of health fell into the hands of the rich male elite. Medicine became a service tool of high finance. The Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations had financed the Report and its application. The world of finance took over control of medicine which it has exploited ever since, with the disastrous results that are now evident.”

The transfer of health from healers to financers shifted its agenda from preventive medicine to sickness. The reason being is that there’s more money to be made from sickness.

When I returned home, I combed over all of the anti psychiatry literature that I was given at the museum. Scientology has its detractors and some might say that what the CCHR presents in its literature is conspiracy but if the conspiracy established a narrative that was consistent with modern day reality, you can’t dismiss it as just theory. The CCHR examines the rise of psychiatric disorders:

“The reason behind the increase of new disorders coincided with U.S. government insurance becoming available to the mental health industry. New legislation made drug dispensing dependent on a doctor’s prescription. “As a result, big drug companies began to woo doctors and whereas, prior to 1951, the American Medical Association had acted as a watchdog of the pharmaceutical industry, with the injection of drug company cash, the AMA dropped its critical stance and joined the drug marketing gold rush.”

The CCHR paint a strong narrative of the corruption of psychiatry. They reveal that psychiatrists vote disorders on the same scientific level as you would choose a restaurant. You create more customers and a bigger market for your products by expanding your list of disorders:

“When the American Psychiatric Association (APA) published the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1952, the book contained only 112 entries. That figure has more than tripled over the past five decades. The disorders listed in today’s DSM, and in the mental disorders section of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD), include ‘reading disorder,’ ‘disruptive behavior disorder,’ ‘disorder of written expression,’ ‘mathematics disorder,’ ‘caffeine intoxication’ and ‘nicotine withdrawal disorder;’ these publications compromise a grab bag of billing items for the mental health industry.”

The rise of disorders opened up a drug market to manage it. The pharmaceutical industry profited immensely.

On Creating a Drugged Society, the CCHR explains: “Psychiatrists and pharmaceutical firms were hard at work creating lifelong customers for their drugs, and conning society into enforcing the administration of their medications.”

The CCHR literature dispels claims made by drug companies and their wonder drugs and warns us about the dangers of their repeated use: A 1987 claim by the drug companies that the first SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) was marketed as safe and virtually side effect free. By 2004, another nine SSRI’s were in use. FACT: These drugs cause anxiety, agitation, insomnia, bizarre dreams, sexual dysfunction, confusion, suicidal thoughts, hostility and violent behavior. Suicide is also a serious risk during withdrawal.

Scientology was not going to let Pharma own a monopoly of the depression market. It saw an opportunity and entered the depression market. Scientology was the Pepsi to Pharma’s Coke. With its “mind over matter” philosophy Scientology promised that attaining a “Clear state” will eliminate illness.

“Scientology is the drug free option to beating depression. Initially people are attracted to Scientology because it provides answers. Your problems are due to past experiences holding you back. Scientology can help you deal with those problems and the upper levels will reveal the secret of life itself. Members are audited with an E-Meter (similar to a lie detector) and one-on-one attention. The auditing process is similar to psychotherapy in that it encourages people to think about their problems and work to overcome them. In Scientology, ideas are not immaterial: they have weight and solidity.”

What about the Brooke Shields of the worlds that defend pharmacological drugs and insist that drugs helped them overcome bouts of depression and post partum depression?

Dr. Joanna Moncrieff, senior lecturer in social and community psychiatry at University College London UK adds: ‘{H}uman emotions will never be located in a simple biological formula.’ There is no evidence that any drug acts specifically to reverse depression. “It’s more accurate to understand psychiatric drugs as inducing normal states, analogous to how we use recreational drugs to induce euphoria or social dishinibition.’

It’s kind of hard to oppose Dr. Moncrieff’s stance. My mom has been on Elavil as far back as I can remember. Elavil (Brand name) is an amitriptyline anti depressant. I have not seen any improvements in her depression but she does advocate its effectiveness. Unfortunately its effectiveness comes at a price: A laundry list of side effects that has led to quarterly visits to emergency rooms over a period of 30 years.

What about depression being caused by a biochemical imbalance in the brain? If I have an imbalance, I must need drugs to manage this imbalance, right? Wayne Ramsay J.D. doesn’t think so:

“It was a great surprise for NPR reporter Alix Spiegel in 2012 to discover that the psychiatric establishment now claims it has always known that the biochemical imbalance theory of depression was not true. Ronald Pies, editor-in-chief emeritus of the Psychiatric Times stated in 2011, “In truth, the ‘chemical imbalance’ notion was always a kind of urban legend — never a theory seriously propounded by well-informed psychiatrists.” NIMH director Insel had already told Newsweekin 2007 that depression is not caused by low levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin. However, psychiatry made no serious attempt to publicize the fact that the research had rejected this chemical imbalance theory, a theory effectively used in commercials to sell antidepressants as correcting this chemical imbalance — an imbalance psychiatry knew did not exist.”

Do prescribed psychiatric drugs to treat depression increase the risk for suicide?

“While correlation by itself does not necessarily mean causation, an accompanying editorial in the same journal where the article was published pointed out that associations with the features detailed in this particular study indicate a good possibility of a causal relationship. Among the reasons why psychiatric treatment could well cause increased suicide, besides the adverse effects of medication, is the stigma and trauma of treatment, as the editorial authors state: “It is therefore entirely plausible that the stigma and trauma inherent in (particularly involuntary) psychiatric treatment might, in already vulnerable individuals, contribute to some suicides.”

With all these vulnerable people seeking treatment, who do we believe and what is the best course of action to managing depression?

Scientology and big pharma are omniscient juggernauts. They have incredible resources to fight and maintain superiority over each other at the expense of discrediting one other. Both industries spend millions of dollars on PR to harm each other in the press.

For example, who can forget Tom Cruise’s rant against psychiatry? Tom boasted to Matt Lauder that he knew the psychiatry industry better than Matt did on public television.

Whenever I recall that incident, I think about a Tony Soprano quote: “I don’t shit where I eat.” Pharmaceutical companies pump millions of dollars on advertising their drugs on TV. Ghislaine Lanctot, writes, “(Pharma’s) advertising and promotional budget is two to three times greater than their research budget.” Pharma can discredit anyone that crosses their path. Cruise shat where he ate. He didn’t help his cause by jumping on Oprah’s couch but the message was clear: You cross big pharma and you’re going to be discredited and humiliated. No one cares about truth if you offend.

But Scientology wasn’t going to lie down and play dead. Lawrence Wright’s expose on Scientology, “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief,” goes into great detail about the PR battle it waged against pharma. Scientology spent millions of dollars on PR warning people about the dangerous side effects of Prozac.

The Church of Scientology credits itself as the source that lobbied the government to issue black box labeling for antidepressants to warn that they cause suicide in children and adolescents. Scientology promoted itself as the safer drug free option to beating depression, however; personal development and self improvement come at a price:

“Then there is a second stage of Scientology where people pay for ever more expensive classes, are indoctrinated into the mythology, progress up the church’s ladder of OT (Operating Thetan) levels, and may even join the elite Sea Org, signing a billion year contract.”

The PR machine of big pharma has distorted the view of scientologists. Most scientologists that I know are not cultists. They are honest, hard working, good people searching to maintain a balanced lifestyle. They spend lots of time and money devoting themselves to their quest for happiness. When they can’t afford the more expensive courses, they’re constantly being harassed to take other classes or make donations to the church of scientology.

Who is lying and who is telling the truth? Scientology is not alone in waking the consciousness of people regarding the dangers of taking anti depressants. John Rappoport of ‘No More fake News, investigative journalist Sydney White, Ghislaine Lanctot, Wayne Ransay J.D. are all speaking about the dangers of pharmaceutical drugs. Their voices echo the dangers that scientology has warned us about taking anti depressants to treat depression.

If drugs aren’t your weapon of choice then maybe Scientology is something you might consider. If you can’t afford to spend money on courses, you might do what I did when I was unhappy in my early 20s. Go to the library and research the 1000s of books that have been written on depression. Surely, you will find one or two authors that will guide you out of the darkness.

In the meantime, if you enjoyed reading this article; I encourage you to donate to the Highway 401 indiegogo film campaign. My film discusses the issues of the article. Help me make this movie by contributing. The campaign closes in 10 days and a movie about depression will reach more people than this article will. Know that your contribution is making a difference.

https://igg.me/at/highway401/x/13205668

Vince Sannuto

Filmmaker from Toronto. Director of the Quarter Life Crisis movie. Developing a road coming out story called Highway