
Oh no, Jim, they've gotten to you, too!
Monday night on Larry King Live, Jim Carrey, whose cuteness wore off a long time ago, had a lot to say about his battle with depression. After pulling a variety of oddball faces and funny voices , Carrey got to his main point: He's basically transcended the need for psychiatric help. You know someone's about to say some crazy shit when they preface it with, "Now I don't wanna sound like Tom Cruise, but…" Ahem.
Well, that's another thing. You know at the risk of like opening up the whole Tom Cruise Prozac argument, you know, I don't disagree in many ways. I think Prozac and things like that are very valuable to people for short periods of time. But I believe if you're on them for an extended period of time, you never get to the problem. You never get to see what the problem is, because everything is just kind of OK. And so, you don't deal. And people deal when they get desperate. I take supplements. … It's a wonderful thing. It's amazing. I'm going to talk a lot about it in the near future.
Carrey is, of course, in a relationship with anti-vaccination crusader Jenny McCarthy, a connection that got us to thinking: What is it with all these famous, anti-medicine crackpots? Has all of Hollywood gone of its meds? Well, yes.
So let's look at which celebrities have gone rogue on Big Pharma.
Tom Cruise
Drug of choice (to rail against): antidepressants, specifically ones for postpartum depression
Matt Lauer and alien-worshiper Tom Cruise have since made up and resolved their "tell me the history of psychology" differences, but in 2006 Cruise publicly berated the glib Lauer for his defense of Brooke Shields, who admitted to taking Paxil for postpartum depression after the birth of her baby. Said Cruise:
"Here is a woman, and I care about Brooke Shields because I think she is an incredibly talented woman. You look at, where has her career gone. These drugs are dangerous. I have actually helped people come off. When you talk about postpartum, you can take people today, women, and what you do is you use vitamins. There is a hormonal thing that is going on, scientifically, you can prove that. But when you talk about emotional, chemical imbalances in people, there is no science behind that. You can use vitamins to help a woman through those things."
Tom Cruise: Fully aware of what's best for womens' bodies since 2005!
Jenny McCarthy
Drug of choice (to rail against): kiddie vaccinations
Oh Jenny, our Jenny. We loved you when you were Singled Out's co-host on MTV. We even loved you post-glam, with your Jenny McCarthy Show on MTV, which was actually amusing in a Chelsea Handler sort of way. And watching you get involved in autism activism because of your son and his struggles just made us go, "Awwww."
But there is activism, Jenny, and then there is fanaticism. You are walking a very thin line between concerned parent and rabid PETA supporter. Because though there is still a lot that doctors don't know about autism and its causes, running around on national television and telling everyone that if you vaccinate your child, you might as well sign him up for Special Ed also, is just plain stupid, half-cocked and dangerous. And nothing shows off your big mouth and how little you actually know like going on Larry King and pitting yourself against some real doctors by claiming your child was "cured" of a disease that doesn't have a cure. (It was later shown that McCarthy's son had symptoms more fitting for Landau-Kleffner syndrome.)
Val Kilmer
Drug of choice (to rail against): all of them
Ol' Jim Morrison himself. Kilmer and Tom Cruise have nearly dovetailed with their temperamental, prima-donna work habits and propensity for weirdness. The only difference is, Kilmer's career careened off the rails somewhere in the 80s, and he got old and fat while Cruise injected aborted babies into his face in an attempt to stay in Risky Business shape forever.
But time away from the spotlight hasn't made the former Batman any less devout to being a drama queen. Kilmer is a Christian Scientist, a faith that won't allow its children Tylenol in order to bring down a life-threatening fever—because prayer is the real medicine! Currently, Krazy K's making a vanity feature about the founder of Christian Science, Mary Eddy Baker.
Bill Maher
Drug of choice (to rail against): antibiotics, vaccinations, Adderall
Apparently, Bill Maher doesn't plan on stopping until he ruins everyone in America's good time, and health. Besides the religious, the smug comedi-host loves attacking fat people, whose apparently simply defeated aversion to diet and exercise makes them the way they are. Maher's is almost a Draco-Kellogg approach to life, one that cheers healthy living while refusing to factor in life-saving medicines or even the occasional cold remedy in pill form. So while he goes off on "big pharm" for causing the health care crisis (which is legit), he undermines his entire argument by coming off as the atheist version of Tom Cruise's position.
Dr. Drew
Drug of choice (to rail against): alcohol, amphetamines, heroin, pot, all the good stuff
It used to be that Dr. Drew Pinsky was synonymous with Dr. Love, when he and Adam Corolla hosted Loveline way back in the day. But then the Doc got it into his head that his skills were being wasted advising people on how to remove that gerbil from their ass. Now he's all serious as the host of Celebrity Rehab, a show exactly as exploitative and ill-advised as its title suggests. The program routinely finds Dr. Drew snatching the fat stashes of several B and C-level celebrities who thought reality television was supposed to be fun. Paging Dr. Buzzkill!
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I hate drugs of any kind too. Street drugs are bad but psychiatric drugs are even worse. People trust Psychiatry and Big Pharma when they need help and they are betrayed BIG TIME, because they aren't told the DANGEROUS side effects of these drugs. They are supposed to cure depression, ADHD and others, but they haven't cured one single person. They only create lifelong addiction, psychosis, bad health, violent reations that make patients commit murder or suicide way too often and for sure they FILL THE POCKETS OF BIG PHARMA with billions and billions of $, which is the main purpose. Think for yourself! Get the facts from independent sources!
I don't think it's a bad thing to be against using drugs. I, for one, have never resorted to anti-depressants or psychiatry because I feel like I learn a lot about myself and am able to help myself when I find healthy ways to cope with my emotions. It's my goal to live a lifestyle that I can avoid using medication when there are alternatives. Some people can't do that though. I think what is plaguing our nation today, though, is over prescribing. I do think there are people who are on medication but really don't need to be - that's not to say no one should be though.
@Joxe Arkaitz:
Getting the facts is definitely a good idea, but if you are saying pharmaceuticals have never "cured" one single person, than you aren't looking at the big picture and you aren't taking into account that some drugs (like for ADHD) aren't meant to "cure", they are meant to balance. I know some people will make the argument that people don't need "balancing" (which is true in some cases), but I would say until they know someone who struggles with depression or ADHD or some other "unbalance" or they themselves struggle, than they can't make such wide generalizations.
While I think it's idiotic to deny life saving medication to children, I don't see anything wrong with what Carey said. I've seen some people go on Prozak because it helps them with momentary depression and then they go off. I don't think most people have mental disorders so serious that they have to be constantly medicated. And what's wrong with taking supplements if they help you? What's wrong with talking to someone to find the root of your sadness? Drew, you need a nice little vacation in the country, my friend.
And… uh… Carrey, some people have to be on Prozac their whole lives because it's not a situational depression. It's a chemical imbalance.
Joxe- Look, I saw The Medicated Child, too. There are some doctors out there who are fucking things up. But there are also some psychiatrists out there who are saving lives. You fail to present any good arguments. You're just coming off as an alarmist.
Spottsy- Some depression is genetic. Some is the result of abhorrent situations. Sure, there are some folk who don't try to help themselves, but it's pretentious and innacurate to claim that you're not depressed simply because you're more proactive and driven.
If the meds work for the people who are on them, who is Tom Cruise or anyone else to tell them that they don't? Mind your own business unless you have a medical degree.
slayer for the win!
None of this addresses the fact that the majority of the pharmacueticals mentioned are radically over-prescribed today.
They are effective if the initial diagnosis is correct, but unfortunately this is often not the case.