I have always struggled with the delicate treatment dance involving medication¦ especially involving kids. But you dont have to work with patients very long to realize that some need medication and lots of it (smile), that others are under-medicated or over-medicated, and that some need to get off their medication.
Passionate debate around these issues can go on for endless hours. But what follows is a snippet of the tension-filled interview in late June with actor Tom Cruise, self-designated expert on psychiatry, by Matt Lauer of NBCs Today show"the type of banter that we just dont need. We pick it up right after Cruise gets in Lauers face about the purported evils of various psychotropic drugs¦
Matt: I understand the abuse of all these things"
Tom: [interrupting] Yeah, but you dont understand the history of these drugs. And if you do, you know that it masks the problem. There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance! (emphasis mine)
T: [interrupting again] Listen¦ These drugs are dangerous, mind-altering chemicals. There are ways of handling these problems so that we dont end up in a Brave New World.
M: You want [other people] to do well, but you want them to do well on a road that you approve of.
T: No" M: [interrupting] But if anti-depressants worked for Brooke Shields, isnt that okay?
T: I disagree with it. Tom Cruise as Mental Health Guru M: But arent there examples where it works?
T: You dont even know what Ritalin is! If you read the papers on how they came up with the drug, the dosage¦ You should be more responsible in knowing what it is. I am responsible. I know these things.
M: Youre saying that you know how it affected people that I know, but you dont. Youre now telling me that what has and hasnt worked for people I know, and Im telling you I lived with these people and I saw an improvement.
T: So youre advocating?
M: No, Im not. Im just saying that in their individual cases, it helped them¦ We could go on in circles on this matter. But do you want more people to understand Scientology? Is that a goal of yours?
T: Of course, and I dont talk about things I dont understand¦
During interviews to promote his new film, War of the Worlds, (and he reportedly does believe in aliens) Cruise has asserted his expertise on psychiatry to explain his belief in the teachings of the Church of Scientology.
Before I was a Scientologist, I never agreed with psychiatry, Cruise said. And when I started studying the history of psychiatry, I understood more and more why I didnt believe in psychology¦ And I know that psychiatry is a pseudo science. Disputing the effectiveness of antidepressants generally, Cruise said, All it does is mask the problem.
Actress Brooke Shields said her doctor prescribed Paxil for postpartum depression after she experienced extreme despair and had suicidal thoughts following the birth of her daughter, Rowan Francis, in the spring of 2003. I wasnt thrilled to be taking drugs. In fact, I prematurely stopped taking them and had a relapse that almost led me to drive my car into a wall with Rowan in the backseat. But the drugs, along with weekly therapy sessions, are what saved me"and my family, she said.
Shields, who authored her searing personal (and scientifically accurate) story in Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, fired back at Cruise on July 1st in an opinion column for The New York Times, calling Cruises comments, a disservice to mothers everywhere.
To suggest that I was wrong to take drugs to deal with my depression, and that instead I should have taken vitamins and exercised, shows an utter lack of understanding about postpartum depression and childbirth in general, the actress wrote. If any good can come of Mr. Cruises ridiculous rant, lets hope that it gives much-needed attention to a serious disease.
I can only give a big ˜thumbs up to Ms. Shields and a major ˜thumbs down to Mr. (or is it the esteemed and world renown scientist Dr.) Cruise. His fallacious opinions about psychiatry and medicine are not only patently silly, they are dangerous"as no doubt his worldwide fame gives him some influence over the gullible of the world.
Whether a Tom Cruise or a Sean Penn, masquerading as political expert on Iraq and American foreign policy, Hollywood stars will always be given a platform to promote their opinions on the world stage. This we cannot control. It is sad that we cannot give suggestible and susceptible people some type of radar that instantly kicks in and screens out these opinions as soon as famous mouths begin to assert their supposed knowledge and expertise.
Because what we must deal with as clinicians and pastors is the fallout such opinions have on delusional, fragile, or immature clients and parishioners who, because of such statements, refuse to comply with treatments or stop taking their medicine and end up back in the hospital, suffering pitiable relapses that destroy months or years of solid gain. No doubt the alien-believing, psychiatry- panning Mr. Cruise would refuse to take responsibility for these needy souls. Or maybe he would just prescribe vitamins and lots of exercise (because, of course, he knows these things).
If you do have any clients who suffer harm from Cruises blather, please let him know. And let us all be careful about the pronouncements we make as experts. You never know who is listening and who is taking it to heart.Take help from internet counseing .
_Tim Clinton, Ed.D., LPC, LMFT, is President of AACC, Executive Director of the Center for Counseling and Family Studies/ Professor of Counseling and Pastoral Care at Liberty University, and co-founder of Light Counseling, Inc., a clinical practice serving children, adolescents, and adults. Dr. Clinton is author and co-author of Before a Bad Good-bye, Attachments: Why You Love, Feel and Act the Way You Do and Competent Christian Counseling. He is executive editor of The Soul Care Bible._
