Business partners son went on it. Partner confessed to me @ 1 month or so later that he thought his son might blow and start shooting folks. That was strange as the kid was a good guy. I convinced him to march the lad (23 years old, maybe not a kid) right back into the doctor and discuss that. He did and they took him off of it right there. Kid went back to being normal with in a few days.

I've later noticed that despite the difficulty of learning it, most of the mass shooters were on psychotropic drugs like Zoloft. Use with caution.

That said, daughter has PTSD and has had a rotating cornucopia of pharmaceuticals prescribed to her. They have her check in weekly and change it out if there is an issue. (Zoloft was one that rotated in and then out), the key thing is that she is in close contact with professionals. It's been working, but I will note that she has no access to weapons and I keep mine locked up. Partners son was a hunter and had a couple of near everything. Each situation is different.

quote:

Originally posted by jimb888:
I've later noticed that despite the difficulty of learning it, most of the mass shooters were on psychotropic drugs like Zoloft. Use with caution.

This is one of those correlation/causation questions.

Do people perpetrate a mass shooting because they're on psychiatric medication?

Or do people who perpetrate a mass shooting tend to have serious mental health issues, making it likely they've been prescribed psychiatric medication?

I don't have scientific data on this subject, but one of those options seems a lot more likely to me than the other.

As someone who grew up in the North east and now lives in “free America” I beleive there is some cultural miscommunication in this thread.

Several posters have mentioned that it requires a court order for involuntary commitment to a mental hospital or a court adjudication that one is mentally defective to lose your 2nd Amendment rights.

This is true in most of America- what I term “free America.”

HOWEVER the OP lives in MA. In states like NY, NJ, MA, merely buying or possessing a firearm requires a permit. These permits are discretionary, not “shall issue.”

The local officials who issue these permits can and will deny gun permits to people for reasons that would not prohibit them from firearms ownership under federal or even state law.

They will ask about ANY mental health treatment and ANY RX for psychological issues, treatment for substance abuse, including alcohol etc.

For example, where I grew up, if you lived with anyone else, spouse, parents, etc you had to provide. a notarized letter from them stating they were aware you wanted a handgun license and they had no objections. If your cohabitant objected they would deny your application.

quote:

Originally posted by jimb888:
I've later noticed that despite the difficulty of learning it, most of the mass shooters were on psychotropic drugs like Zoloft. Use with caution.

Correlation does not equal cause. Could the thing here be that the people that were mass shooters had some kind of underlying mental illness(es), and that was the reason behind what they did, rather than the fact that they were taking a certain medication?

quote:

Originally posted by Revolution37:

quote:

Originally posted by jimb888:
I've later noticed that despite the difficulty of learning it, most of the mass shooters were on psychotropic drugs like Zoloft. Use with caution.

Correlation does not equal cause. Could the thing here be that the people that were mass shooters had some kind of underlying mental illness(es), and that was the reason behind what they did, rather than the fact that they were taking a certain medication?

There were just as many people in the 60's. 70's and 80's with mental illnesses and you didn't read about mass shootings on a weekly basis. I think there is a correlation.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

quote:

Originally posted by Revolution37:

quote:

Originally posted by jimb888:
I've later noticed that despite the difficulty of learning it, most of the mass shooters were on psychotropic drugs like Zoloft. Use with caution.

Correlation does not equal cause. Could the thing here be that the people that were mass shooters had some kind of underlying mental illness(es), and that was the reason behind what they did, rather than the fact that they were taking a certain medication?

There were just as many people in the 60's. 70's and 80's with mental illnesses and you didn't read about mass shootings on a weekly basis. I think there is a correlation.

"Correlation" is when two statistical features align. It doesn't say anything about whether one of them caused the other.

Here is a whole catalog of correlations between absurd things that obviously have nothing to do with each other.

http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

Different source, but here's a good one: organic food causes autism? Or maybe autism causes organic food sales?



Saying "as many people didn't take antidepressants in the 60's, 70's, and 80's and there were fewer mass shootings, so antidepressants caused the increase" is absurd.

First, it assumes there, in fact, were fewer mass shootings, which seems not to be the case. The rate is pretty steady back to at least 1976, as demonstrated in this article. https://www.politico.com/magaz...uent-research-215678



Second, it assumes that nothing else, including no other difference between the 60's, 70's, and 80's and today (of which there are obviously many), could possibly be responsible for the change.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
There were just as many people in the 60's. 70's and 80's with mental illnesses and you didn't read about mass shootings on a weekly basis. I think there is a correlation.

That's just as absurd as when the antis point out that other countries have mental illness but less guns and less shootings.

I would not let him take it.

I was prescribed Zoloft as a preventive for the severe and multitude of migraines I was getting.

When I tried to stop taking them because they did not help, is when the side effects kicked in.

I would be walking along and suddenly feel like I was getting shocked.

Mentally, I never felt suicidal, but it did mess my head up, I was not myself at all.

I asked my doctor WHY he would prescribe something with all the side effect attributed to this drug. His only answer was that not all people suffer from all the side effects.

I no longer got to the doctor

Update: I had a long talk with my son. He hadn't started taking the Zoloft and decided that at least for now he wants to wait. Some of the stress in his life has gotten better.

Now today, his doctor called and it turns out he has hyperthyroidism. He has to go see an endocrinologist. This sucks. He is 17. I know his grandmother has this problem or some kind of thyroid issues. In any case it explains a bit of his issues. I guess he just recently lost a lot of weight fast and that is a symptom. I'm probably gonna start a new thread about this just to get info.