It’s always been interesting to me that in places like China and Korea, where on average there are more kids playing “violent video games”, there are fewer acts of violence linked to video games. You don’t have kids “going nuts” and gunning down schoolmates. Granted, guns aren’t easy to come by in these places, but still…
Then I came across this interesting viewpoint:
Prescription drugs and school shootings
Once again we see the link between antidepressants and violent behavior. I was raising the alarm about this in 1999 following the Columbine schools shootings. At that time we knew that those students were on antidepressant drugs, but the rest of the world didn’t take any notice of it. The rest of the world said, “These drugs are completely safe. They keep these kids happy and in a normal state so they don’t feel depressed.” What they actually do, though, is detach these kids from reality to the point they can go on shooting rampages and not even have a clue that they’re affecting the lives of real people. It basically transforms the world into a video game that these kids play out.
Indeed.
19 responses to “Violent Drugs?”
Wow. That is interesting. To think that drugs like that can make reality questionable. It’s kind of scary thinking about it like that because now a days all kids seem to be on something.
http://manga.clone-army.org/anm.php?page=59&lang=
Fine article, by the way. Still reading through it.
Interesting article, makes alot of sense. It doesn’t help that doctors in North America hand out anti-depressent prescriptions like candy on halloween.
I knew there was a reason I got rid of the things that depressed me in my life instead of taking drugs and dealing with em.
Pixelante #2376 signing off.
I am on antidepressants, and I can say that it has saved my life. But I haven’t been feeling like me for a while. I think I’m going to talk to my psychiatrist about this more in depth….
But your post made me think about the movie ‘Serenity’. (If you haven’t seen Firefly or Serenity, you seriously have been living under a rock and need to get some as soon as you possibly can.) And for that I say: Those ruttin doctors don’t know what’s good for these goram kids.
The “School Shooting” problem is a controversial topic actually. As far as I know, there seems no such kind gun phenomenon in chinese school. But that does not mean the existence of “School violence” in china. So the problem isn’t if the gun is easy to come by or not. The problem isn’t if the kids taking drugs or not. The prbolem isn’t if the game promoting violence or not either. Perhaps it is the result of the combination of several factors. As a game workers, It’s no doubt giving our game a nice world view or story is a good thing. But…You know…I don’t want to see the GTA happening in the street even though I am a GTA fan. 😛
Yep, because people who are on those drugs aren’t at all disturbed already, right?
Antidepressants are just the tip of the iceberg. The overmedication of school-age children in the US has been going on for a while now. The idea that ADHD *needs* to be treated by amphetamine-like stimulants is causing a lot of really brilliant kids to find themselves completely detached from what’s going on around them.
I count myself very lucky, not just for myself, but for my son, that I was able to attend an alternative school (and send him later) that required that children be OFF their medication in order to attend. What it did was it caused the children and the teachers to come up with new ways to relate and to teach/learn.
An excellent book to read is Teaching the Restless by Chris Mercogliano, which talks about his personal experiences teaching ADHD children who were removed from their medications in order to attend the school – and to learn to function in society as whole people, rather than drugged-up automatons.
This is too true. But tell me why it makes me think of, “I’m sorry, but Alice doesn’t live here anymore.” (Said be Alice herself. I don’t think it was in the game. I think I saw it on a fan site somewhere.)
What really makes me violent is people blaming violence on these types of things.
I think it is funny that you condemn those who say video games cause school shootings, but then just go off and blame something else. Did you even stop to think of how many people anti depressents have helped? Sure, they can be abused, like everything, but most people who take anti depressents dont go on emotional rampages of death. You are just as wrong as those who claim videogames cause violent behavior (at least they arent hypocrites though).
Your games really kind of suck.
Another great find Mcgee, with such great quotes as brain chemistry being “fundamentally…a nutritional problem” and “so-called” ADHD being “completely fictional disease.” It’s a wonder this isn’t in a pretigious medical journal somewhere. Surely this guy is an M.D. No? Psychologist? Psychiatrist? Licensed therapist? No, no, no? Dentist…? No doubt, he has SOMETHING to do with medicine, since he knows so much about it.
Oh wait, they have his website on the article: http://www.healthranger.org/. So, he’s just your average, run-of-the-mill looney. Just from looking over his site, here are some great snippets: sodium causes cancer (again, this guy should be in a medical journal), artificial coloring induces behavioral disorders, corn syrup causes diabetes, flouride is “dangerous” (oooh, cryptic), and MSG causes obesity. Also, never visit licensed M.D.s, never take prescription drugs, and don’t follow that lame USDA food pyramid, they’re all scams! I’m sort of surprised he doesn’t put down the conspiracy theorist trifecta and throw in a few remarks about the Jews. I guess he has no medical, medicinal, biological, scientific, or psychological training at all. He’s just a former fatty who had an epiphany one day, and took out a personal agenda on modern medicine. Seriously McGee, this guy is more out there than you are. Is this really what you’re like? This alienating, overly liberal, conspiracy theorist wacko? Is that REALLY you or do you just like feel you have to live up to your “wacky” name?
I would have thought better than this of you, because you seem halfway intelligent. Blaming school shootings on drugs is about as stupid as blaming them on video games. I doubt you’d be posting a “news” article like this if it said video games make kids kill. How many people are on medication and don’t go postal? I’m afraid that neither drugs nor video games nor violent movies nor music is responsible for school shootings. Why can’t we BLAME THE SHOOTERS? Why does there HAVE to be an external stimuli that forced them to do these unspeakable acts? I’m so tired of people using these tragedies for their own personal agenda to push whatever cause they’re going for.
Riiiiiight.
That’s a great and very argumented viewpoint from a great website that advocates to ditch all of the modern medicine without any distinction, and cure absolutely anything you might have through healthy food only.
A website (written by a single person) that claims for example that there is no AIDS virus .
DUDE!
I know a person that has a problem with the food dye red40 which causes him to become hyper and violent. So I know for a fact that certain dyes have problems with people’s brains. I have no idea what causes it though.
High fructose corn syrup (I do not know if that is the correct spelling and don’t care) is the work of the fat devil. Now I’m not saying it’s the only problem but it does take longer to brake down in your system supposedly. From what I have been hearing, it is worse that straight sugar and it is used in almost all soft drinks. I don’t really know if it matters what we eat or not but I believe it does simply based on the fact that the U.S. is sicker and fatter than it should be, being that we have money and power what not.
As far as conspiracies go, I simply don’t trust what other people say until I can prove it myself. That goes for religion too.
Now with games and other forms of art and entertainment I feel that it should be viewed by those that enjoy it and not censored by those that wish to save everybody from themselves. People should mind their own business in matters of art and parents should mind the business of their children in matters of moral belief and social interaction. People that don’t have time for kids should not have them. I should not have to be scared to walk around town at night because some man and woman popped out eleven kids and then made the kids look out for themselves. After all we are just animals and what do animals do to survive when left to their own devices? They kill and take. That is nature at its base.
That is about all I can really say on the subject without diving into a load of crap that would only make me sound like a moron. Remember, no one really knows what’s going on in the world. We all lie and try to make everyone else believe our lies; the church has been doing that since the beginning of religion. All you can do is shape your own life the way that makes you happy and try not to step on everyone else’s foot.
First we get bad parenting, then we get the prescription drugs, THEN we get the school shootings.
Good parents wouldn’t put their perfectly normal bouncing-off-the-walls six year-old on something chemically similar to cocaine; they’d instill a measure of discipline in their kids instead.
As far as I’ve read over the years, Ritalin is really only meant to be prescribed to something like 4% of children — the ones who are truly ADHD — and yet in many areas, the school district gets to make the determining decision as to whether your kid has the condition and needs to be medicated; you don’t like it? That’s ok, your kid just can’t come to this school anymore.
There’s a lot more to say and a lot more wrong with this equation, but I’m at work, so…
The thing is, if a person that is bipolar is being treated with straight anti-depressants instead of them balanced out with mood stablizers, a manic episode can be triggered which causes a person to act impulsively and unpredictably. That could be where the violence is coming from. Or, you know, they just want to shoot people. It could really go either way. Yarr, I’m a pirate.
I think doctors should prescribe MDMA for most everything. Then you’d be happy no matter what, even with a brain tumor.
I have absolutely no knowledge of the effects of drugs, but as far as violent video games are concerned, here’s a great article that completly smashes the idea that they cause school shootings. http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html . Oh, by the way, it was writen by the Director of Comparitive Studies at MIT, just in case you question the validity of it.
On a side note, I’ve been playing violent video games for years, and am also the best Halo II player in my entire school. I also happen to be a pacifist, so whenever someone tells me that violent video games cause school shootings i laugh.