The New York Times featured an article this past Sunday stating that researchers have found that over half of all Americans will develop mental illness at some point in their lives.

Uh huh.

Well, you don't have to convince me. The fact that reality TV shows are still considered "popular entertainment" is enough evidence, as far as I'm concerned. That plus the sorry truth that shameless sex video starlet Paris Hilton commands fees upwards of $150,000 to simply appear at a party for twenty minutes. (Like she needs the money, anyway, being a Hilton heir and the fiancée of Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis.) These are signs that the End Times have arrived and that the world is going more than a wee bit insane, don't ya think?

Seriously, a major paper with as much power as The New York Times choosing to promote such garbage has me very worried.

More and more, the pharmaceutical Gestapo is trying to get everyone to believe that our emotions need medicating, that there is some "norm" that we all need to adhere to.

It's scary stuff.

I have two close relatives who had antidepressants nearly shoved down their throats. One was a person who had broken her foot and was experiencing a lot of pain because it wasn't healing well. When she returned to the doctor for a second look, telling him it wasn't healing properly, he at first ignored her. Then he went ballistic. He became verbally abusive. When she stood her ground and demanded a proper diagnosis, he began shouting (literally!) that she was obviously depressed and in need of an antidepressant. She testily stated, "I'm not depressed. I'm in physical pain and I want it to stop." He ran out of the room and refused to talk to her anymore.

Then there is the case of a 92 year-old woman who had undergone a series of painful operations. Advanced osteoporosis was preventing her body from healing, and she was deteriorating from the pain. The doctors automatically prescribed antidepressants for her, WITHOUT CONSULTING HER FAMILY OR EVEN TELLING HER ABOUT IT. More frighteningly, they didn't check to see if this particular antidepressant would interact with the dangerous cocktail of other drugs the doctors had put her on. She was just automatically doped up because that's what was "obviously" good for her.

Another horror story: Many years ago I was suffering from a bout of extreme physical fatigue. There wasn't any real stress in my life at that time, I was happy with my work and my relationships. And when I found myself needing to sleep 12 - 14 hours a day just to feel rested, I worried that I had come down with Lyme disease. Lyme is very common in my geographical area of central New Jersey, and it is famous for escaping detection unless you go in for a really aggressive series of tests. I knew something was seriously out of whack with my physical body.

I went in for a check up and told the doctor I'd like blood tests and any other tests he might recommend to get to the bottom of this. I felt pretty relaxed going in to speak with my doctor. This was an elderly, experienced, Ivy League-educated general practitioner. I was certain that his years of experience and his age would prevent him from falling into the trap so many younger physicians seemed to be stepping into -- just automatically pushing drugs on people. I thought for sure that THIS guy would offer an educated and enlightened assessment of what might be happening with me.

You know what he did? This is a guy who was at least 70 years old, and he walked with a cane normally.

He literally RAN into a back room and said I needed to go onto a particular antidepressant that he just HAPPENED to have free samples of. He really pushed them on me, and I refused. I had maintained a spiritual counseling practice for ten years and had witnessed the effects of antidepressants on dozens of clients. I saw what happened to them when they went on antidepressants and when they went off of them. So I quizzed him very carefully, knowing exactly what questions to ask.

I knew, for example, that you do NOT treat antidepressants like candy. If you decide to go off of a particular antidepressant, you really need to consult your doctor about the right dosages as you wean yourself off of them, because your brain chemistry gets screwed up without those artificial boosters and it can make you feel awful.

I also knew that it can take at least four to six weeks for an antidepressant to take effect. So you should give it over a month to see how your body chemistry and nervous system are reacting.

This guy who SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER casually said, "Oh, just try this for three weeks, and if that doesn't work, I'll prescribe a different one for you - and if that one doesn't work, we'll try another one."

That's what he told me!

So not only was he trying to get me dependent on pharmaceuticals based on a fifteen minute conversation about my physical fatigue, but he was also giving me extremely dangerous and inaccurate advice. I knew for a fact that you do NOT just take this stuff like it's aspirin. The effects can be lethal.

I have a friend whose doctor casually prescribed antidepressants in a similar way. The friend went off of them abruptly because he didn't like to be dependent on a drug and the medication hadn't helped him, anyway, he felt no better on it. Within 48 hours he was suicidal and filled with uncontrollable emotions and urges that landed him in the psychiatric ward. And that was from COMING DOWN OFF OF a popularly prescribed medication, a mood altering substance that doctors are casually prescribing.

I never went back to my clueless general practitioner, although I did get the blood tests at a lab, and they all came back without any anomalies. And through a combination of spiritual self-healing, better nutrition, and exercise, my fatigue gradually went away.

To this day, I keep my eyes wide open whenever anybody tries to start mandating some level of emotional "norm," because I know the bias that most doctors have when it comes to pushing needless medication on patients. And antidepressants are very powerful. They are loaded time bombs that can wreak terrible havoc in the brain.

We all need to be very, very watchful. When the government starts its mandated mental health screening of students in 2006 and more and more of these articles start appearing in our major newspapers telling us how we're all "mentally ill," we basically have a choice: become a Prozac Nation or reclaim our rights as a sovereign and informed public.

If your doctor tries to give you the "used car salesman" approach about you or a loved one taking an antidepressant, research your legal rights and your patient's rights carefully to understand what other choices are available to you.

And don't be afraid to do a lot of medical research, either, so you can understand what a medication will do in your body, the potential good effects or negative effects, so you can be fully informed.

Unfortunately, in the years to come, I think a growing area of concern is going to be situations such as when a person loses a loved one and is experiencing a natural grief process. I'll bet most doctors will try to frame this as grief that is somehow "abnormal" or "an illness," when actually, it's the soul's instinctive way of dealing with trauma.

I mean, should we feel GOOD if we lose a son to fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan? Should we run around carefree and grinning within a few months of losing a spouse to cancer? Doesn't that strike you as being off kilter?

I'm reminded of when Bush Sr. was campaigning for the Presidency and he kept running around in a motorcade with speakers blaring "Don't Worry, Be Happy!' That was the theme song he adopted for his campaign.

Under his son's second term as President, the memory of this takes on a much scarier context, especially given Bush Jr.'s new mental health screening mandate for students.

When we get to the point where bad things can happen to us and we feel nothing, then we lose our very humanity, and we abdicate our ability to discern good from bad. If everything feels good, then we will accept abuse or inappropriate situations in our lives because our psyches will no longer register anything as being wrong.

And then we become a nation of robots instead of beings with dynamic, vibrant spirits -- passive zombies who might easily be controlled, with no wills or souls remaining of their own.

I know which reality I'd rather be a part of.

Stepford Wife? I don't $&*%in think so.

How about you?

Here's the scary New York Times piece:

HOW WE'RE ALL MENTALLY ILL

And here are the lyrics to Bobby McFerrin's feel-good hit from the 80's: (I luv ya, Bobby; I just don't feel so warm and fuzzy about the Bushes co-opting your lovely tune.)

DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY