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WACK JOB: My adventures in the mental health industrial complex
I recently had a minor health issue, and while talking to my doctor, he mentioned that “stress and anxiety” might be contributing to my problem.
Probably a lot of patients at doctors' offices hear this. Unless you have a broken leg or tennis elbow, doctors can probably link your health problems to “stress and anxiety.”
Did I ever think: 'The steering wheel of my car has too many buttons. I should probably just kill myself'?
These days, this is probably a reasonable assumption. You’re constipated. You have headaches. Your stomach hurts. Stress and anxiety probably play a part.
When my doctor first suggested I contact the mental health department, I politely declined.
But when my health issue persisted, he mentioned it again, and this time, I agreed to check it out. Who knows? Maybe he’s right.
Head case highway
At my health care provider, it sometimes takes several weeks before you can see someone. But if you have mental health concerns, they get you right on the phone with a mental health specialist.
It seems like health care providers currently put an emphasis on getting everyone signed up for some kind of mental health regimen.
You let a dentist inspect and clean your teeth twice a year. Why not let a mental health expert have a regular look at your brain? And maybe suggest some tweaks and adjustments?
To be or not to be
I spent an hour on the phone with different people as I did my mental health intake. During these phone calls, I was asked repeatedly if I wanted to kill myself.
Had I ever imagined killing myself? Had I ever made plans to kill myself? Did I think about killing myself with a knife? Or a gun? Or by hanging?
Did I ever think: “The steering wheel of my car has too many buttons. I should probably just kill myself”?
I assumed this was done for legal reasons. But it was alarming how thorough the questioning was. And how many times I had to go through it.
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Brain candy
And then came the moment of truth: I was asked which kind of mental health care I sought. There were two choices: 1) therapy, or 2) drugs.
They didn’t say it quite so bluntly. It was more like “counseling” or “psychiatry.” And of course, my primary care doctor would be consulted as well.
But ultimately, this was my personal choice. Did I want to talk? Or did I want to take drugs?
I opted for talking since I don’t know anything about the drugs and was told as a child to “just say no” to them.
No, I played it safe and chose “therapy.” An appointment was made for me right away — with a therapist who had a Vietnamese name, which I think is female. (But I’m not sure.)
Positive feelings
By now, I felt good about this plan. I felt a sense of relief just admitting to the intake people that I might have a problem with stress and anxiety.
Of course, I had a problem with it. I’m an intelligent person living in a once great country that seems determined to ruin itself.
Forget about me committing suicide. My whole country was committing suicide! Why wouldn’t I be a little stressed and anxious?
The great therapy problem
Then, I thought about my new female Vietnamese therapist who I’d be visiting next week. What would I talk to her about?
That’s when I remembered the great therapy problem, which is that 90% of therapists are woke. The whole field is woke. Sitting around, discussing how you feel about things — instead of acknowledging how things actually are — is essentially the basis of all wokeness.
The publication's own Josh Slocum has talked about this. What if you’re a Republican and your therapist is a democratic socialist? To that therapist, everything you think or say might be hate speech. If you were outside the office, this person would want you arrested.
OK, I thought. I’ll just be careful what I say. And make sure to avoid certain subjects. We’ll probably be talking about “therapy topics” anyway. Like my family. My upbringing. What parts of my life cause my anxiety.
This way to the rubber room
BUT ALL OF THOSE THINGS ARE POLITICAL!!! At least nowadays they are. My family? Split by politics. My upbringing? I grew up conservative, and now I’m stuck in a blue city. The cause of my stress and anxiety? The insanity of present-day society!
I’m trying to visualize my first session with the Vietnamese therapist. She’ll probably be very young. Everyone at my health care facility looks to me like they’re in high school.
What on earth am I going to say to this woman? I have no idea. This might be a bad idea. Maybe I should have just gone for the drugs. Drugs don’t care who you voted for.
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The pot industry sold America a bill of goods on the supposed 'benefits' of marijuana, and the bill is coming due.Jon Stewart to Trump: 'You did a good thing' on veteran PTSD treatments
Jon Stewart routinely derides President Donald Trump on his Comedy Central infotainment show. This week, however, the cynical liberal found himself reluctantly celebrating the president over a new mental health initiative that could greatly impact afflicted veterans.
Trump signed an executive order on Saturday aimed at accelerating research and removing barriers to psychedelic drugs — including hallucinogenic ibogaine compounds, psilocybin, and LSD — as potential treatments for serious mental illnesses, including PTSD and depression.
'Credit where credit is due.'
In addition to tasking Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary with reducing product application review times for psychedelic drugs that have received breakthrough therapy designations for treating mental illnesses, Trump ordered the FDA and Drug Enforcement Agency to create a pathway for eligible patients to access investigational psychedelic drugs.
Per the order, the Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA must also work with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the private sector "to increase clinical trial participation, data sharing, and real-world evidence generation regarding psychedelic drugs, and shall prioritize drugs that have received a Breakthrough Therapy designation." Fifty million dollars will also be provided for state-level research into ibogaine.
The White House noted in a fact sheet that over 14 million American adults suffer from a serious mental illness; suicide rates remain alarmingly high; and the suicide rate among veterans is more than double that of the nonveteran adult population.
RELATED: 4 marijuana facts the pro-pot lobby doesn't want you to know
Afforded an opportunity to speak at the signing ceremony on Saturday, podcaster Joe Rogan revealed that the ball got rolling on the executive order after he "sent President Donald Trump some information" about ibogaine.
Trump confirmed the genesis of the initiative, noting that Rogan "wrote me a little note about this, and I had it checked out. I didn't just do it. ... I went to [HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] and [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz] and went to some of the people that work for you, real pros, and everybody came back with the same answer."
"Everybody thought it was incredible, and I told Bobby, I said, 'Bobby, let's just do it, and get Oz involved," added Trump.
The president noted at the EO signing that "these experimental treatments have shown life-changing potential for those suffering from severe mental illness and depression, including our cherished veterans."
On the April 20 episode of his show, Jon Stewart alerted his liberal audience that he wanted to "give credit where credit is due. We don't, obviously, often do this."
"The president did a solid over the weekend," said Stewart. "President Trump signed an executive order in front of his fraternity brothers fast-tracking the FDA process for novel psychedelic drug treatments for veterans suffering from all forms of PTSD and other psychiatric conditions, including addiction."
After playing tape from the EO signing and reflexively attacking the president over his unscripted remarks, Stewart stopped himself and said, "I'm sorry. I'm falling into old habits. It's good. You did a good thing. I'm nitpicking. I apologize."
Stewart noted further, "A lot of the people are going to get the help they need."
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4 marijuana facts the pro-pot lobby doesn't want you to know
Today is April 20, a day of celebration for marijuana enthusiasts everywhere. But did you ever wonder how it came to be?
It's 1971 in Northern California, and a bunch of kids at San Rafael High School are on the hunt for a vast treasure: a secret patch of marijuana plants hidden in the backcountry of nearby Point Reyes.
Chinese organized crime has come to dominate the illegal marijuana trade across the country.
See, an older guy they know has been growing it, but now he's worried that he's going to get busted. So he tells the kids they can harvest it all and keep it — free of charge. He even draws them a map.
Every day after classes, they meet at the statue of Louis Pasteur to continue the search — always around 4:20 p.m. They begin using this as code to talk about the project. First "Louie 420," later shortened to just "420."
One of the kids has an older brother who is friends with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. They all start hanging out with the band, and "420" catches on as a sort of all-purpose slang for stoner culture. Later some genius figures out that "420" looks like the date 4/20, i.e. April 20, and here we are.
Oh, and those kids never did find the magical weed farm. And 55 years later, I think I know why. Ready to have your mind blown?
There was no marijuana crop. The guy just thought it was funny to send some dumb high-schoolers on a wild goose chase — complete with a corny treasure map. He and his buddies probably laughed about it once, then forgot about it. Meanwhile, these scrubs are combing through the poison oak in search of their dank El Dorado for weeks.
So when you think about it, 420 is a monument to how gullible and dumb smoking weed makes you.
Also, I've just been informed that today is April 23.
Sorry. Ever since they legalized weed out here in California, you can't roll down your car window without being forced to inhale some sickly sweet cannabis vapors. Everyone in Los Angeles has caught a secondhand high, whether they want to or not.
That's why I don't know what day it is, and that's why it just took me three hours — as well as two "Columbo" episodes and a bag of Funyuns — to write the preceding paragraphs.
Here are some other reasons legalization was a bad idea.
1. This isn’t your parents’ marijuana
Sorry, libertarians, but the whole legalization debate was built on a product that barely exists any more. In the 1970s, levels of THC (the chemical that makes you enjoy jazz music) hovered around 2%-3%. Today, it’s routine to find 15% to 20% THC in your classic "flower" — that green stuff Cheech and Chong smoked.
And nowadays we have a whole new lineup of cannabis concentrates, which can contain up to 60% to 80% THC levels. One minute you're trying to make "The Dark Side of the Moon" sync up with "The Wizard of Oz"; the next you're having a vision quest in the Vons frozen food aisle.
2. The psychosis link is real — and better established now
When it came to pot, former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson was firmly in the "it's just a plant" camp — where any suggestion that marijuana could trigger serious mental health issues was treated as laughable "reefer madness" scare tactics.
Until his wife, at the time a senior psychiatrist at a facility for the criminally mentally ill, made an offhand comment about the latest violent offender she was treating: “Of course he’d been smoking pot his whole life.”
Of course?
That was the moment that sent Berenson digging, ultimately leading to his 2019 book, "Tell Your Children."
What he found wasn’t a fringe theory, but something closer to a quiet consensus inside psychiatry, supported by study after study: Heavy cannabis use is linked to psychosis, and the link gets stronger with potency and frequency.
None of this means marijuana will cause psychosis in most users. But the fact remains that legalization normalized a product that, for a meaningful minority of users, can trigger something serious — and sometimes irreversible.
This is a trade-off that rarely makes it into the cultural conversation — and never into the marketing.
RELATED: Charlie Kirk urges Trump to reconsider reclassifying marijuana: 'Protect public spaces for kids'
3. Legalization didn't replace the black market
One of the simplest arguments for legalization was also one of the most intuitive: If you make marijuana legal, the illegal market disappears.
But that didn't happen.
Take California, the country’s largest legal cannabis market. State analysts and industry observers still estimate the illicit trade to be as large as or larger than the legal one. The reasons aren’t mysterious.
Illegal sellers don’t test, tax, or restrict — so they can move faster and sell cheaper. They can also use banned, highly toxic pesticides to maximize crop yields. This tainted weed often ends up on dispensary shelves right next to regulated dope.
Because enforcement focuses on still-illegal drugs like meth and heroin, the marijuana black market offers an attractive opportunity for criminal networks. Chinese organized crime in particular has come to dominate the illegal marijuana trade across the country — trafficking Chinese nationals to work the farms.
4. 'Not addictive' is not really true
“Weed isn’t addictive” has become one of the most repeated — and least examined — claims in the legalization era.
It’s true in a narrow, clinical sense: Marijuana doesn’t typically produce the kind of severe physical dependence associated with opioids or alcohol. But that’s not the only way habits take hold.
What is more common — and easier to miss — is behavioral dependence, building routines around use that are hard to break, even without dramatic withdrawal symptoms.
Research from agencies like the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that roughly three in 10 users develop cannabis use disorder — a figure that rises with daily use and higher-potency products.
It's a widespread crisis that is all the more insidious for how undramatic it is: a gradual narrowing of motivation, attention, and energy.
Damning study of over a million kids finds myocarditis only in the vaccinated
Biden administration officials and so-called experts characterized COVID-19 vaccines as "safe and effective" during the pandemic. In the face of an avalanche of tragic evidence to the contrary, the powers that be waged costly and unsuccessful propaganda and censorship campaigns to cure Americans' skepticism.
Although the Trump administration has alternatively acknowledged the risks and fallout associated with the vaccines — the Food and Drug Administration admitting, for instance, that the vaccines killed numerous children — a coalition of medical organizations is fighting to legally force the government to keep recommending the COVID jabs to healthy kids and pregnant women.
That legal effort appears especially questionable given the finding in a recent study that children spared from the vaccine also appear to have been spared from an unfortunate health complication.
'I only feel more vindicated I didn't take the COVID shot.'
The peer-reviewed study — conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford, the University of Bristol, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and published in January in the scientific journal Epidemiology — looked at the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine in healthy children ages 5-15 following the rollout that began in late 2021.
Using data from the OpenSAFELY-TPP database with the blessing of NHS England, the researchers compared the "effectiveness and safety of: (1) the first vaccine dose versus no vaccination and (2) a second dose versus a single dose only."
Specifically, they compared 141,711 children ages 5-11 and 410,463 adolescents ages 12-15 who were given a first dose of the vaccine with equal numbers of unvaccinated children from the same age groups.
RELATED: 'Rogue' Biden judge blocks critical pieces of RFK Jr.'s vaccine reform
The researchers found that the vaccination provided some benefits, including an "initial protective effect" that waned by 14 weeks as well as a lower incidence of emergency room visits than recorded among the unvaccinated cohort.
They noted, however, that "myocarditis and pericarditis were documented only in the vaccinated groups, with rates of 27 and 10 cases/million after the first and second doses, respectively."
As late as January 2023, the U.K. Health Security Agency said that "the reported rate for heart inflammation (myocarditis and pericarditis) was 13 per million first doses and 8 per million second doses of the monovalent Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine" among those under the age of 18.
"That there were no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis in the unvaccinated group does not mean that such events cannot occur without COVID-19 vaccination, only that these events were not observed in the unvaccinated groups in our specific matched analyses," the study noted.
For adolescents, the reduction in risk of COVID-19 hospitalization following vaccination was larger than the corresponding increase in risk of both myocarditis and pericarditis, said the researchers. The same could not, however, be said of younger children.
"The reduction in risk of COVID-19 hospitalization in children (−0.02 for first dose vs. unvaccinated) was lower than the increase in risk of pericarditis (0.22)," said the study.
Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who introduced legislation last month that would strip the liability shield from vaccine manufacturers, said in response to the study, "As it stands right now, families are limited as to how they can seek justice due to legal carveouts for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers."
"We ought to pass my bill, the End the Vaccine Carveouts Act, to hold pharma accountable properly," added Paul.
Turning Point USA contributor Riley Gaines said, "As more time passes, I only feel more vindicated I didn't take the COVID shot. I feel sorry for the people who did."
Last year, the FDA required Pfizer and Moderna to start noting the estimated unadjusted incidence of heart conditions following administration of the 2023-2024 formula of the BNT162b2 and Spikevax vaccines as well as the longitudinal results of a 2024 study concerning cardiac manifestations and outcomes of vaccine-associated myocarditis in American youths.
H/T Evie Magazine
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