Tom and Katie: Is it real?

I just read over the transcript. Thanks for posting it! Sooooooo, since Matt Lauer's opinion on psychiatry and antidepressants differs from Tom Cruise's, that means that Matt doesn't know anything about the subject???

What scares me is that there might be some diehard Cruise fan out there who decided to quit taking their antidepressants without first consulting their doctor because of what Cruise said.

[PrincessFiona]

whoa!!!!!!!

I like the googley gook too.

And speaking of mental illness, treatment, medication, here is a more interesting (IMO) look:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&c ... er_nations

Thinking about this today....I realized that part of what bothers me about all this is that if Scientology and dianetics are such a cure-all and wonderful thing, why don't they offer it more freely? Literally and figuratively -- of the few people I know who are into Scientology, it has brought them to the financial brink (spending $$$ to get to the next level, etc). Perhaps those few people are not representative....but it seems an awful lot like a pyramid scheme. :!

[DCJenn]

Perhaps it's the Pollyanna in me, but I'd like to think that MOST psychiatrists think long and hard before prescribing Ritalin in the first place. I think we all acknowledge that it's not exactly a benign medication. Jeez, Tom- way to lump everyone together.

Jerk.

Jenn

[PrincessFiona]

I don't know, Jenn. It's been my experience (not personally, but from talking to other parents) that you pretty much just have to take your child in and describe symptoms of 'hyperactivity' and they get an Rx. When we moved here we met a woman who had just managed to get her son back from her exhusband. He had taken the child and not returned him after the weekend visitation ended. You would think that it would have been as simple as calling the police and getting him back, but it wasn't. It took over a year of legal wrangling before the police went in and took the child. In that time he had lived in absolute squalor in what appeared to be a drug house.

The child came back to mom and started first grade...and he was disruptive and anxious. The teacher insisted that the child was "ADD" and that he get on meds...and the school backed the teacher. Mom couldn't even get a report card for the child until she brought ritalin in to the school nurse. The medication made the child vomit and he couldn't sleep. He looked horrible.

So...mom told the nurse that the doc was changing to an extended tablet and that he didn't need to take it in school anymore. She stopped giving it to him and the teacher continued to rave about the 'improvement' in the child and how much the medication had helped. In the meantime, the little boy was in counseling to deal with what had happened and was taking no medication at all.

I'm sure that adhd exists...but it can be a subjective diagnosis...and at least here it tends to be overadvocated as a treatment by the schools. Unfortunately, many docs are happy to comply.

I don't know, Jenn.

I'm sure that adhd exists...but it can be a subjective diagnosis...and at least here it tends to be overadvocated as a treatment by the schools. Unfortunately, many docs are happy to comply.

I agree that it has become too easy to get. My 12 year old niece has been Ritalin since she was 9 and I cried when I saw her after she started taking it. She looked like a starved zombie. Ritalin suppresses the appetite and my niece was and still is blatantly underweight. The little food she did eat consisted of McDonalds or chicken nuggets and fries. This still doesn't seem to bother her pediatrician nor my naive sister. It drives me crazy but there's nothing I can do. My sister is too lazy to feed her child a nutritious diet or take her to counseling. She is the type of person that doesn't believe that giving her child a coke and cookies at 10 at night affects her behavior. A pill is the easiest solution despite the consequences.
I believe these meds are absolutely necessary and appropriate for some but IMHO they are overprescribed. I think it has become a convenient solution for overcrowded classes and busy parents.

[SueC]

I love how he lumps all psychiatric drugs into the category "anti-psychotic" drugs. He sounds like quite the expert. I only worked in a mental ward for 3 months and know well enough that someone that is seeing little dwarfs and thinks she is married to Gene Autry cannot be helped by diet and exercise alone.

[Rapunzel]

I only worked in a mental ward for 3 months and know well enough that someone that is seeing little dwarfs and thinks she is married to Gene Autry cannot be helped by diet and exercise alone.

No joke!

I grew up around an unmedicated paranoid schizophrenic (my grandmother). I can attest from personal experience that diet and exercise and meditation DO NOT improve the lives of people with very real, very scary mental illnesses.

I totally agree with Ritalin being vastly over-prescribed from all apparent accounts, though.

Jennifer

DW is working hard to keep from prescribing such drastic meds, and she has actually changed meds for several kids from Ritalin to another(the name escapes me at this moment), but it was a drastic change in behavior and ability to function. It has got to be tough to have to make the decision, as a Dr, to put kids/adults on ANY meds that may or may not help the current situation. But without attempting to "help" is a liability as well...

...as for Dr. Tom, I wonder what his feelings are about Professional Liabilty Insurance??

I was thinking that maybe after all the movie promotion, he could take a few weeks and work with some unmedicated schizophrenics on establishing a vitamin and exercise regimen. Then he could prove the rest of the world wrong!

Interesting about the situation prescribing ritalin, Matt.

http://gorillamask.net/cookkimmel.shtml


wait for it....

too funny....don't bite Nelly!!

too funny....don't bite Nelly!!

That was my favorite part -- because my daughter bit my shoulder today!

This was hilarious. I also watched the clip of the real TC with Oprah. That's a little more than a natural high.

[mommax3]

OMG. I had seen him on the Today Show and had been following the story in a general sense, but I had only seen a short clip of his antics on the Oprah show. What a freak! If I was Katie Holmes and saw that display, I would have run out of that studio as fast as I could. I hope she comes to her senses before she wastes too much time on him. She seems like a nice YOUNG girl......she should get out while she still can.

When Oprah writes her tell-all, I wonder what she will write about that experience. Wouldn't you love to know what she was really thinking when he was hopping around like a maniac and pounding on the ground like a gorilla? Of course, she may not write one since she is already richer than God.

Sally

[SueC]

I've been meaning to post this latest little tidbit I heard about ol' Tom. A lady I go to church with has a sister-in-law who is friends with his ex-publicist (you know, the one he recently fired). Apparently, he was caught in bed with Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20, and is doing damage control by snatching up the lovely Katie. Of course, seeing as how my gossip is fourth or fifth hand (I lost count), it could be crap, but I like to think it's true. Except, I'd rather it not be Rob Thomas because I'm quite a fan of his!