RFK Jr. Is Already Taking Aim at Antidepressants

Forced labor farms for those deemed mentally unfit for society. That’s his solution. Fuck that, fuck him, and fuck the fascist slavery fetish.

Wait? Did he really say that?
- https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5276898/rfk-drugs-addiction-overdose-hhs-confirmation-trump
  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mzk2y41zvo
  https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/rfk-jr-s-make-america-healthy-again-movement-explained
- Yes.
- "I've seen this beautiful model that they have in Italy called San Patrignano, where there are 2,000 kids who work on a large farm in a healing center ... and that's what we need to build here," Kennedy said during a town hall-style appearance on the cable channel NewsNation last year.
  According to Kennedy's plan, outlined in interviews and social media posts, Americans experiencing addiction would go to San Patrignano-style camps voluntarily, or they could be pressured or coerced into accepting care, with a threat of incarceration for those who refuse care.
  But the San Patrignano program has been controversial and was featured in a 2020 Netflix documentary that included images of people with addiction allegedly being held in shackles or confined in cages. The farm's current leaders have described the documentary as biased and unfair
- Yes, he's been pushing that for a while

Creating an environment of corruption, chaos, hate and suffering. Hurting the majority of people economically, and ripping away hope for the future. Cutting programs that safeguard people, and specifically targeting their access to healthcare. And taking away the medications that help people deal with mental illness.

Sounds like a recipe for causing people to become desperate and decide they have nothing to lose.

These people never learned why and how Caucescu got what he got. Can't wait for them to learn first hand!
- Putin's nightmare about Gaddafi. Benito Mussolini displayed in the street. Ceaușescu's last moment on video.
  Team Luigi needs more branding.
Ding ding ding! Make no mistake about it.. the penultimate goal of the first six months of project 2025 is the suspension of habeus corpus and the deployment of US Military as civilian police. They need a riot to justify that last power grab. When you understand that fact, you can see the common thread in all of the random cruelty out of the gate. It's not called project 2026.
- Also the the goals of accelerationism, though it claims that such is a precursor to revolution and utopia.
- You know who never rioted? Luigi. I think we should all follow his lead.

Kennedy said he planned to dedicate money generated from a sales tax on cannabis products to “creating wellness farms—drug rehabilitation farms, in rural areas all over this country.” He added, “I’m going to create these wellness farms where they can go to get off of illegal drugs, off of opiates, but also illegal drugs, other psychiatric drugs, if they want to, to get off of SSRIs, to get off of benzos, to get off of Adderall, and to spend time as much time as they need—three or four years if they need it—to learn to get reparented, to reconnect with communities.” The farm residents would grow their own organic food because, he suggested, many of their underlying problems could be “food-related.”

Hol up. They've gotten rid of all the people who used to pick fruit in rural areas, and now they want to send arbitrarily diagnosed "addicts" to these rural areas to live for "free".

Not only will they live for free, but their work will truly set them free.
- Arbeit macht frei.
Slaves, they want to make us slaves
- Well sad slaves... seems odd to get rid of antidepressants during such times.
Move over re-education camps, it's time for "re-parenting farms".
- Yeah what the fuck is that about.
The idea that you can't just step down off an SSRI as if it's a heroin addiction is fucking ludicrous.
- The thing is it's so easy to verify that they're not addictive.
I didn't see "free" mentioned anywhere.
My guess is that these "wellness farms" will be just as costly to patients as traditional rehab programs, but at the same time the patients will be expected to do physical labor on the farms.
They'll literally be paying to work there. Isn't that the ultimate end-stage capitalist dream?
After six months of drinking raw milk they'se gonna be about 50% fewer ~~patients~~ slaves for them to "rehabilitate."
It's not a forced labour prison, it's a camp, where addicts are concentrated together to work. What's the problem? /s
They will even provide a free education in agricultural harvest. What lucky souls!
- Good?
Sounds like communism to me /s
At least he said “if they want to” for psychiatric drugs
- Oh well in that case I'm sure it will be fine /s
That's a pretty good concept actually. I doubt it'll be good in practice done by a guy who doesn't know what a vaccine does
- Maybe get concerned when government officials start talking about putting people on farms?
- It sounds like slavery to me.
- No it's not. Have you been smoking crack?

RFK is one of those assholes who was depressed, changed his diet and worked out, and that was enough. And he thinks that solution works for everyone. And now he has power.

Fuck anyone that takes my SSRIs away from me. That would actually make me leave the country.

"Well, have you tried not being sad?"
my parents
Being rich also doesn’t hurt
His brain was eaten by worm, isn’t that how his depression got cured?
The only thing that worked out for him was being rich. Everything else is just an excuse/wishful thinking at best and a lie to be used to manipulate others at worst.
- This is a very valid point.
  Eating healthy, exercising regularly, time to relax and meditate etc. are luxuries not easily available to the poor. But a $1 pill is.
I hate to say it, but you probably can’t. People with diagnosed mental illnesses are often banned by other countries from immigrating.
- I have EU citizenship.
- Is that really true?
  It's pretty tough to migrate to Australia for example and I don't think this is really a relevant question.
RFK is one of those assholes who was depressed, changed his diet and worked out, and that was enough. And he thinks that solution works for everyone. And now he has power.
Can't say about enough, but for me too antidepressants were not very effective (and also with some emotional downsides, I eagerly believe stats about ADs and suicide rates), and physical exercise plus simpler and healthier food (basically minimize sugar) did help me more. However, there might be a reversal here - maybe changes in weather and life events caused slight improvement in my mood first, and then came exercise and healthier food.
In any case this is considered very light depression.
- Suppose depression and anxiety can take a variety of different forms, arise from a variety of different causes, manifest in a variety of ways, and respond differently to a variety of treatments.
  In your case your particular malady didn't respond to medication but did respond to other treatments.
  It sounds like you can readily acknowledge that not everyone is experiencing the same illness and that often diet / exercise / lifestyle just isn't relevant.
  The problem @simplejack@lemmy.world is referring to is when people who successfully treat their illness with diet and exercise assume that everyone elses illness will respond in the same way.
Jesus there is another solution don't walk away from your home this is your cross to bear.
- this is your cross to bear
  The fuck it is. I didn't vote for Trump and I sure as shit didn't sign off on Elon Musk's god damned meddling.
- there is another solution
  What’s your solution to being suicidal even after trying all of the non-pharma solutions for decades?
- When the options are "I don't get the drugs that will stop me from killing myself" or "find a country that will give them to me," I think there's a pretty clear choice.

The worms have won. Pretty soon we will all have worms injected into our head.

It's the Illithid invasion.
- For the Absolute!
Goa'uld
- Teal'c, I've got a question for you. What the hell does "kree" mean anyway.
Remember that show BrainDead? I still wonder how that was cancelled so quickly. I cannot help but wonder if it was a little too close to home, even if it seemed like it was going to bothsider politicians in Washington...

You know, people off their meds don't make good choices...

I mean...the trump dictatorship are most likely all on drugs to begin with.
- Or, alternatively, not on drugs when they should be.
So I'm hearing you say this could be a self-solving problem?

I could save them a lot of time and energy, here's all the solutions to things they're "studying".

Highly processed foods and lack of varied diets.
Extremely high healthcare costs that make treatment/cures unreachable.
General distrust of medical professionals due to online guidance being actively harmful for most people.
Long commutes and general shift to online/office work has lead to greater rates of inactivity.
Lack of in person community leads to isolation and mental health issues.
High costs of living, being told your neighbors are your enemies, disinformation in the news making it hard to be informed or knowledgeable, and constant threats to people's lives leading to mental health issues.
People taking ivermectin like it's Elon musk doing ketamine.

Agreed on all of it but the WFH point. WFH has helped a ton of people. It's also a net benefit for the environment, human health, financial relief and mental health. Anyone telling you they work better in a office with a 2 hour daily commute in traffic is either middle management or C level. No one wants that shit.
- I work out a lot more and eat healthier when I'm WFH. Doesn't come close.
- I read the comment as saying return to the office was leading to sedentary behaviors - which I would believe. My commute is 45 minutes each way in ideal traffic - that's an additional hour and a half of just sitting for days I have to go into the office compared to my work from home days.
- WFH has helped a ton of people.
  Could not agree more. Most especially if you have toxic management.
  It's so much worse with those kind of people in-person. With remote work you can at least not bump into them in the bathroom/kitchen/hallway, etc., you don't have the time-and-morale-killing "pop-in", you can leave your camera off, turn off incoming video, skip non-essential meetings, etc...it really lowers the impact of having to work with someone you don't like very much and is part of management...
- Work isn't great community, WFH + in person local activities is much better.
This.

I hope to god everyone on antidepressants isn’t about to go through what people with ADHD have been going through for medication access. Ridiculous hoops to jump through, short term prescriptions, doctors treating you like a criminal, and medication shortages have made life miserable for so many people.

You mean it's like this in the USA? I'll admit I thought it's some heaven for ADHD people over the ocean with everyone getting amphetamines
- Lol... No.
  Its almost impossible to get an adult diagnosis, it only changed during covid when they bent the rules and allowed telehealth appointments.
  Then once your on it, for like the last 5, maybe more years there has been shortages on amphetamine salts and methylphenidate. One gets a shortage, then quickly it's the next in a cycle.
- Your GP is supposed to be able to write a script for Adderall, but mine refused until I went through their hospitals mental health service to "confirm" the diagnosis I got from a famous medical facility (UCSF), which was a 3 month minimum wait to talk to the person who could then write the recommendation to see the person who can diagnose me and give me a 1 week script (another 2 month wait after the first appointment, so 5 total now), then my GP could write me my full-month amount
  Oh, I'd been taking them on my old diagnosis for a fucking year and a half by that point, so it's not like I was some recent diagnosis who was trying to doctor shop, I had a record of this shit
  Oh, and trying to regularly pick my meds up from 2 different locations of the same chain pharmacy caused issues, even though it was because I travelled for work and could easily produce documents and statements from my company CEO to back me up
  every pharmacy within 75 miles of my house responded to me trying to figure out of they could take me on as a new patient with active hostility, 4 hung up on me without an answer, and one said "no, fuck off you junkie"
  I... I can go on, sadly, those are just my personal ones

According to the article RFK wants to find the “root causes” of a broad range of conditions, including autism, ADHD, asthma, obesity, multiple sclerosis, and psoriasis. Sure thing, while the his fellow fucking MAGAts shut down and destroy US medical research and increase deregulations pertaining to the food industry and pollution.

Republicans finding the major contributors to those conditions is going to be like that scroll of truth comic. They'll only care if it turns out that the root cause is gay people existing or people being in unions or something (spoiler alert: it isn't, but that won't stop them).
Don't worry the root cause is going to be vaccines. No need for science when you already have the answer.

And anti-psychotic medication too.

Does he want a bunch of undiagnosed schizophrenic people coming after him and his fellow maga stooges? Because this is how he gets a bunch of undiagnosed schizophrenic people coming after him.

Untreated, not undiagnosed.

There's a lot of reports in this thread specifically around the "lazy doctors" and "it's just stress" prescriptions.

This is where reddit would lock the thread and go "too much trouble to moderate." That's never been my personal policy.

But here's the thing... "Lazy" may not be technically correct, but it's been proven over and over again that if you are a woman or a minority or other marginalized group, medical professionals often are not listening to you.

https://www.northwell.edu/katz-institute-for-womens-health/articles/gaslighting-in-womens-health

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3797360/

https://apnews.com/article/racism-healthcare-doctor-survey-disparity-ecdc9d2fe8a59352d9bb8f2e494f5255

“When government researchers follow Kennedy’s orders to study SSRIs, they’ll find reams of research, including long-term studies, that have found that the drugs are safe and non-addictive.“

Then they will ignore science and do whatever the administration tells them to or they get fired and replaced with someone who will.
- They disparagingly refer to it as "the cult of 'science'" so that's a foregone conclusion. Complex issues as interpreted by people whose only ideology is "fuck all that pansy ass shit, man up!!!"
Then the goal posts will be moved. That's how this denialist stuff works.
Reams of research didn't stop him from continuing to push all his bullshit about autism.

If he tries to ban meds, big pharma will absolutely fucking pulverise him.

I couldn't agree more. Forced labor camps for the citizenry is totally ok, but you don't just fuck with the bag. Eli Lilly, Astra Zeneca, Pfizer & friends won't allow even the restriction of SSRIs, let alone the banning. Worst case scenario, they get "forced" to increase the price.
I don't think it will get that far even.
Too much money involved for that.
Pharma has an open left leaning culture but once you get to executive leadership and the board the only thing that matters is sales. The bribers (aka lobbyists) will work with anyone.
You can bet your ass there is more chance of the FDA getting disbanded than drugs having prices regulated or simply being banned from sale. I'm expecting the biden price negotiations for medicare and medicaid to go away so the pharmas can milk us even more with their exclusive monopolies for the first decade or so of sales.
- From what I can tell, the most widely used antidepressants are long off patent and pretty cheap as generics. That's why insurance companies want doctors to prescribe them instead of sending you to expensive therapy. Overprescribing antidepressants in that sense is more like overprescribing aspirin. Medically unnecessary, maybe even potentially harmful? Maybe. But, the stuff is too cheap for Big Pharma to be doing it purely for the money. That's what opiods were for ;).

I will pry my SSRIs from your cold, dead hands.

Go ahead and take mine away. See what happens. I dare you.

Were you clearly diagnosed with clinical depression?
Or did your doctor not know what was wrong, said it was stress related and gave you pills to go away?
- This is a really shitty attempt at a gotcha question, just so you know. I have depression, any neurologist with an MRI of my brain can tell you that, because there's a softball sized cyst and the structural placement of it makes depression highly likely, it's too big to be removed all the empty space would lead to shifting, brain bleeds, embolism, seizures, and strokes which would kill me really quickly. So shunt and valve and medication is my only treatment option. Anti depressants aren't just for people who are having a bad week and don't know how to cope, or people behind on their self care, or people who are facing a life challenge and just need a little pick me up. Anti depressants are being taken largely by people who go to their doctor and say ''I'm so depressed I no longer enjoy the things I used to love doing, I'm struggling to remember what happy feels like, and I can't stop contemplating the end of my life'' it's for people with clear diagnosable depression. Please stop acting like you have any room to jump up people's ass about the maintenance meds they've been taking for years that get them results when nothing else did. Do you think a jog a day is the solution? It's not at all. If that was the solution, this wouldn't ever be a medical problem in the first place, easy solutions don't require medical intervention. If you really think the average person on antidepressants didn't spend YEARS trying to solve it without any medical aid, your delusional.
- Oh yeah definitely. I always knew I had it, I've had it my whole life. You try being a suicidal 7-year-old and see how well you like it. I didn't start getting better until my 30s.
- Diagnosed. And I medicate with cannabis, to the objection of the Federal government.
  And, last I checked, whatever gets prescribed is between me and my doctor.
  Amazing, how Reich Wingers, once again, want Big Gubmint regulating our bodies.

i love the tough talk from all the edgelords saying "yeah wait until you take mine away then i'll be a real problem for you" -- lol they'll just lobotomize you. y'all have no idea what healthcare was like before anti-depressants, huh? you don't get a choice what happens to you after you act out ONCE in public. sure, talk your smack, it feels good... but, personally? i'm scared. my grandma used to get shocks, and that's when we actually had asylums... now we don't. pretty scary stuff, ngl. not enough room in jails for all of us... they'll find other solutions.

I grew up autistic and had adhd and an anxiety disorder when most people had no idea what those were. My autism wasn't that bad... but the way how people treated it they acted like I was less than human.
If anyone knows about lobotomies, it would be the Kennedys. Just look at Rosemary Kennedy.
- Yea, perhaps a certain Kennedy in Washington DC needs a Lobotomy
Yeah my great grandpa was in and out of the institution for anxiety and it was a miracle he kept his brain in one piece.
Antidepressants have problems. They're often treated as the first thing to throw at someone who has mental issues regardless of whether or not they're warranted (back in the day it was a common story for trans people to get prescribed antidepressants instead of hormones and have to wade through the Dr's crap), but the modern system in which people with mental illnesses are given medication that's peer reviewed and have some degree of autonomy over treatment is worth all this.
As an aside, electro convulsive shock therapy is still done. It's weirdly been proven useful for the treatment of some disorders. But as far as I know, it's now done with full consent.
But now, as back then, no one really truly understands the full mechanism that causes it to suppress symptoms.
This is of course not real. Acting out in public once may get you punched or a disorderly conduct charge but it is unlikely to enable anyone to lock you up let alone star in a remake of one flew over the cukoos nest because a lot of law and case law has happened since.
- Someone acting erratically will not survive a police encounter.
- Do you think those laws matter? You aren't living in the democratic republic you were living in six months ago.
- Isn't your executive currently saying they dictate the law though?

Do that shit. Take em away.

It won't take long before someone reminds you why they're important. Postal style.

"Why is everyone so depressed?" - A man who inherited millions of dollars from his famous family.

More proof that the inmates have taken over the asylum.

He's wanting to set up camps to help people's concentration. I wonder what they'll call it?
- Doctor Bob's Fantastigorical Focus and Wholesomeness Camps!
Translation: Prison farms people are forced to go to because someone says they have a problem. This will also help with all the migrant crackdowns because who is going to grow and harvest our food.
Seriously though, after deinstitutionalization we were supposed to build a bunch of community health centers to help people. That never happened, but it should have. This is some perversion of that stolen idea designed to enrich the wealthy.
I wondered how they planned on keeping the farms going without immigrants. Anyone who has a problem can be put in “wellness farms”. Awesome.
- Yeah it's just bonkers.
  I'm not sure that rounding up everyone on SSRIs will work out how they planned though.
Yeah, because it's soooo hard to get drugs in rural areas 🙄
- I don't think that's the point. They need a new labor force in these rural areas because they just deported the last one.

How many people, taking antidepressants, are gun owners? Yep, shits gonna go down in bad way.

According to https://gunviolencearchive.org/ over 50% of every gun death in the USA each year is from suicide. More than half. Nobody gives a shit because while the numbers are staggering, they're not kids in school or people in a theater, mall, or grocery store. They're still dead though.
Gun ranges won't let you rent a gun unless you: 1) Have someone with you 2) Have another gun with you (and clearly you just want to rent their gun to try out a different gun) because they're afraid (almost certainly through experience) that you'll kill yourself.
This nation not only doesn't give a shit, it gives even less of a shit now as seen in this article.
- Indeed, life is cheap in the USA.

This is super cool because my life would fall apart without antidepressants. Can’t wait to suffer more.

i'm sorry this is gonna happen to you, must be terrifying
- Nah, he'll make them more difficult to access for poor people. I have moderate income and can afford to access them (probably at higher prices). Sort of like how rich white women can still afford abortions. I'm not worried for myself, but I am for others.
This might not come to pass.

I have never felt more depressed then now. He's causing depression and taking away meds for it. Fuck this feedback loop

Pharmaceutical companies are going to deal with this clown quickly. Bet they are already consulting with Boeing.

That's why I'm not as worried about RFK as I probably should be. All these goals involve introducing wide-reaching regulations, which is completely at odds with this entire administration.
- it'll just be an executive order and blindly followed

Suicide rates are going to spike if this idiot gets his way. I may well be one of the statistics before it's over, if he takes away my access to medicine that has enabled me to live a somewhat normal life, not that it'll matter to him or his ilk. The cruelty, as the kids like to say, is the point, I guess.

Please remember, when the meds are gone and life is still going on, when they're threatening to put us in camps, remember... once you're in a camp with other like-minded people who have been wronged, what 'fun' we can have together. That's what will keep me going.
- Camps like those worked out great for the Norsefire party.

Keep taking away reasons for people to live. I'm sure millions of desperate, voiceless victims with nothing left to lose will not backfire for the people in charge at all.

Dude if they take away my SSRIs I'm gonna be so anxious about it.

I had someone steal my SSRIs before. I hope they're happy.
Jk, but they work more for anxiety than depression for me too. If I stop taking them then I'm going to fall back on Xanax

The inmates are now running the asylum.

They put a terminator as the Secretary of Health. He doesn't know what humans need.

From a guy that looks like he could really use them.

Ssris is not something you want to rip away from people.

This is going to be a mistake that ends in violence.

Stuff like this is why I'm nervous to take any medications for my mental health

He's doing you all a favor. You don't need meds; to cure the depression you just need to get off the bed, have a walk every day and smile more. Right? Right?

smh...

(just in case, /s, it's a shame that we can't tell anymore without announcing it)

You can't tell by just looking at words.

Looks like the dewormer didn't finish the job.

This will end well /s

Always found it interesting that they put a career environmental lawyer as the head of, checks notes, public health.

This news makes me sad.

/s

That kind of thinking will get you 2 years on the Happy Farm.

Don't get your panties in a wad, your Linux might crash. Why don't you paint yourself orange and put on a blond wig? Sounds like your already dead if it happens so what do you have to lose?

You’re*
- Don't be that guy.