Fort Hood shooter on Ambien, antidepressants and a 'cocktail' of mind-altering meds
(NaturalNews) Earlier Natural News reported that the Army
specialist who shot and killed three and wounded more than a dozen
people at Fort Hood April 2 before taking his own life was taking the
powerful delirium drug Ambien.
That was certainly true enough, as
we documented, but later reports indicated that the shooter, Spc. Ivan
Lopez, was actually on several mind- and mood-altering medications.
As reported by Britain's Telegraph:
A
U.S. soldier who shot dead three comrades and wounded 16 others before
killing himself was on a cocktail of prescription drugs and had managed
to smuggle a semi-automatic handgun on to one of America's largest
military bases.
Did no one see warning signs - that is, the SSRI drug?
At
the time of the shooting, Lopez was in the process of being examined
for post-traumatic stress disorder, though he had only been deployed to
Iraq for four months and had not seen any combat or been involved in any
combat actions, according to Pentagon officials and general-staff
officers familiar with his case.
Still, despite his non-combat
experience, his claims of injury most likely were a call for help that
dangerous mind-altering medications ultimately only exacerbated - though
just last month Lopez had been cleared by mental health personnel at
Fort Hood following examinations with the finding that he was no threat
to himself or to others.
A reporter from Infowars.com
asked specifically about the names and types of drugs Lopez had been
prescribed. The Army's reponse, given by Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley: "He
was on medications, that's correct."
"The obvious link between psychiatric drugs and violent outbursts is a common theme that crops up in almost every mass shooting incident, yet the media is routinely loathe to make the connection," Infowars.com reported.
Earlier, The Associated Press reported:
The gunman, who served in Iraq for four months in 2011, had sought help
for depression, anxiety and other problems. Before the attack, Lopez
had been undergoing an assessment to determine whether he had
post-traumatic stress disorder....
The married suspect had arrived at Fort Hood
in February from another base in Texas. He was taking medication, and
there were reports that he had complained after returning from Iraq
about suffering a traumatic brain injury....
Is this to be
the military's answer to its rising incidents of psychological problems
in uniform - medication? Because if so, someone needs to throw a red
flag - the Defense Department's got a suicide problem, and throwing more
medication at the problem is liable to make it worse.
According to National Journal and other reports, 22 veterans
a day, on average, are committing suicide; since the beginning of the
year, more than 2,000 have done so, based on Veterans Administration
figures.
It's gotten out of hand
Quite clearly, the military is facing what advocates call a "suicide epidemic." As reported by NJ:
To help address the growing problem, Democratic Sen. John Walsh of
Montana introduced legislation last week that includes provisions to
force the Pentagon to reexamine troops who were discharged for
PTSD-related behaviors - which can include nightmares, flashbacks,
changes in personality, sleeping disorders, and suicidal thoughts.
The
bill also expands veterans' eligibility to enroll in VA health care
from five to 15 years after leaving the military. The current system
doesn't take into account the fact that some veterans have a delayed
reaction to trauma after they leave the service, according to veterans'
advocates.
But will that be enough? The military already has a
number of suicide awareness and prevention programs. What is not
addressed in any of them is the military's penchant for putting its
mentally disturbed members on SSRI-type medications that can push them
over the edge.
What is also unclear is the numbers of veterans
who have killed themselves this year were placed on one or more of these
mood-altering drugs. Nobody seems ready, willing or able to find those
statistics.
Sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.nationaljournal.com
http://www.naturalnews.com
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