Tom Cruise speaks out against the evils of psychiatry on the Today Show

MISC CULTURE General Culture & Gossip
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It’s interesting, he doesn’t get to his real point right until the very end, it’s like he wants to evangelize Scientology, but it’s sort of afraid of mentioning it.

Quote:
CRUISE ‘WAR OF WORLDS’ INTERVIEW TURNS INTO LECTURE ON PSYCHIATRY, SCIENTOLOGY NBC ‘TODAY SHOW’ host Matt Lauer was lectured by star Tom Cruise on the dangers of psychiatry and antidepressant during a promotional interview for WAR OF THE WORLDS. The exchange aired Friday morning. LAUER: TOM CRUISE CREATED A FIRESTORM WHEN HE CRITICIZED BROOKE SHIELDS FOR REVEALING THAT SHE WENT INTO THERAPY AND TOOK ANTIDEPRESSANTS TO DEAL WITH HER POST PARTUM DEPRESSION. AS A SCIENTOLGIST, HE DOESN’T BELIEVE IN PSYCHIATRIC MEDICINE. I ASKED HIM ABOUT HIS COMMENTS. CRUISE: i’ve never agreed with psychiatry, ever. Before I was a Scientologist I never agreed with psychiatry. and when i started studying the history of psychiatry, i understood more and more why i didn’t believe in psychology. //And as far as the Brooke Shields thing is, look. You gotta understand, I really care about Brooke Shields. I-- I think here’s a-- a-- a wonderful and talented woman. And-- I wanna see her do well. And I know that-- psychiatry is-- is a pseudo science. MATT LAUER: But-- but Tom, if she said that this particular thing helped her feel better, whether it was the antidepressant or going to a counselor or psychiatrist, isn’t that enough? // TOM CRUISE: Matt, you have to understand this. Here we are today where I talk out against drugs and psychiatric abuses of electric shocking people (PH), okay, against their will, of drugging children with them not knowing the effects of these drugs. Do you know what Aderol (PH) is? Do you know Ritalin? Do you know now that Ritalin is a street drug? Do you understand that? MATT LAUER: The difference is-- (OVERTALK) TOM CRUISE: No, no, Matt. MATT LAUER: This wasn’t against her will, though. TOM CRUISE: Matt-- Matt, Matt, Matt-- MATT LAUER: But this wasn’t against her will. TOM CRUISE: Matt, I’m-- Matt, I’m asking you a question. MATT LAUER: I understand there’s abuse of all of these things. TOM CRUISE: No, you see. Here’s the problem. You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.// MATT LAUER: //aren’t there examples, and might not Brooke Shields be an example, of someone who benefited from one of those drugs? TOM CRUISE: all it does is mask the problem, Matt. And if you understand the history of it, it masks the problem. That’s what it does. That’s all it does. You’re not getting to the reason why. There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance. (OVERTALK) MATT LAUER: So, postpartum depression to you is-- TOM CRUISE: Matt-- MATT LAUER: --kind of a-- TOM CRUISE: --don’t-- MATT LAUER: --little psychological gook-- TOM CRUISE: That-- MATT LAUER: --googley-gook? TOM CRUISE: --no. No. I did not say that. MATT LAUER: I’m just asking what you-- what would you call it? TOM CRUISE: No. No. Abs-- Matt, that is-- the-- post-- now-- now, you’re talking about two different things. MATT LAUER: But that’s what she went on the-- TOM CRUISE: No. MATT LAUER: --antidepressant for. TOM CRUISE: But what happens, the antidepressant, all it does is mask the problem. There’s ways of vitamins and through exercise and various things. I’m not saying that that isn’t real. That’s not what I’m saying. That’s an alteration of what-- what I’m saying. I’m saying that drugs aren’t the answer, these drugs are very dangerous. They’re mind-altering, anti-psychotic drugs. And there are ways of doing it without that so that we don’t end up in a brave new world. // the thing that I’m saying about Brooke is that there’s misinformation, okay. And she doesn’t understand the history of psychiatry. She-- she doesn’t understand in the same way that you don’t understand it, Matt. // MATT LAUER: But a little bit what you’re saying Tom is, you say you want people to do well. But you want them do to well by taking the road that you approve of, as opposed to a road that may work for them. TOM CRUISE: No, no, I’m not. MATT LAUER: Well, if antidepressants work for Brooke Shields, why isn’t that okay? TOM CRUISE: I-- I disagree with it. And I think that there’s a higher and better quality of life. And I think that promoting for me personally, see, you’re saying what, I can’t discuss what I wanna discuss? MATT LAUER: No. You absolutely can. TOM CRUISE: I know. But-- but Matt, you’re going in and saying that-- that I can’t discuss this. MATT LAUER: I’m only asking, isn’t there a possibility that-- do-- do you examine the possibility that these things do work for some people? That yes, there are abuses. And yes, maybe they’ve gone too far in certain areas. Maybe there are too many kids on Ritalin. Maybe electric shock-- TOM CRUISE: Too many kids on Ritalin? Matt. MATT LAUER: I’m just saying. But-- but aren’t there-- TOM CRUISE: Matt. MATT LAUER: --examples where it works? TOM CRUISE: Matt. Matt, Matt, you don’t even-- you’re glib. You don’t even know what Ritalin is.// //if you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, okay. That’s what I’ve done. Then you go and you say where’s-- where’s the medical test? Where’s the blood test that says how much Ritalin you’re supposed to get? MATT LAUER: You’re-- you’re-- it’s very impressive to listen to you. Because clearly, you’ve done the homework. And-- and you know the subject. TOM CRUISE: And you should. MATT LAUER: And-- and-- TOM CRUISE: And you should do that also. MATT LAUER: And-- TOM CRUISE: Because just knowing people who are on Ritalin isn’t enough. //you should be a little bit more responsible in knowing really-- MATT LAUER: I’m not prescribing Ritalin, Tom. And I’m not asking-- TOM CRUISE: Well-- MATT LAUER: --anyone else to do it. I’m simply saying-- (OVERTALK) TOM CRUISE: Well, you are. You’re saying-- MATT LAUER: I know some people who seem to have been helped by it. TOM CRUISE: I-- but you’re saying-- but you-- like-- this is a very important issue. MATT LAUER: I couldn’t agree more. TOM CRUISE: It’s very-- and you know what? You’re here on the Today Show. MATT LAUER: Right. TOM CRUISE: And to talk about it in a way of saying, “Well, isn’t it okay,” and being reasonable about it when you don’t know and I do, I think that you should be a little bit more responsible in knowing what it is. MATT LAUER: But-- TOM CRUISE: Because you-- you communicate to people. MATT LAUER: But you’re now telling me that your experiences with the people I know, which are zero, are more important than my experiences. TOM CRUISE: What do you mean by that? MATT LAUER: You’re telling me what’s worked for people I know or hasn’t worked for people I know. // i’m telling you i’ve lived with these people and they’re better. TOM CRUISE: So, you’re-- you’re advocating it. MATT LAUER: I am not. I’m telling you in their case-- (LAUGHTER) (OVERTALK) MATT LAUER: In their individual case, it worked. I am not gonna go out and say-- TOM CRUISE: Matt-- MATT LAUER: --“Get your kids on Ritalin. It’s the cure-all-- TOM CRUISE: Matt, Matt. MATT LAUER: --and the end-all.” TOM CRUISE: Matt, but here’s the point. what is the ideal scene for life TOM CRUISE: Okay. Ideal scene is someone not having to take anti-psychotic drugs. MATT LAUER: I would agree. TOM CRUISE: Okay. So, now you look at-- and you go okay. A-- a departure from that ideal scene is someone taking drugs, okay. And then you go, okay. What is the theory and the science behind that, that justifies that? MATT LAUER: Let me take this more general, 'cause I think you and I can go around in circles on this for awhile. And i respect your opinion … MATT LAUER: Do you want more people to understand Scientology? Is that-- would that be a goal of yours? TOM CRUISE: You know what? I-- absolutely. Of course, you know. And people-- MATT LAUER: How do you go about that? TOM CRUISE: You just communicate about it. And the important thing is, like you and I talk about it, whether it’s-- okay, if I wanna know something, I go and find out. /Because I don’t talk about things that I don’t understand. I’ll say, you know what? I’m not so sure about that. I’ll go find more information about it so I can-- I can come to an opinion based on-- on the information that I have. MATT LAUER: You-- you’re so passionate about it. And I’m-- TOM CRUISE: I’m passionate about learning. I’m passionate about life, Matt.
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lauer needed a trick-squirting pen to zap tom in the face

it never gets old!

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Scientology aside, I can see where Tom is coming from. Unfortunetly, we don’t live in a perfect world. So unless there is real, scientific proof that diet and excercise will bring down the urge to hurt my newborn, or stop swearing at the drop of a hat, or keep me from falling asleep in business meetings, I will stick with my Paxil.

But thanks for caring Tom. It means so much…

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Quote:
Originally Posted by safacemacdonald Scientology aside, I can see where Tom is coming from. Unfortunetly, we don’t live in a perfect world. So unless there is real, scientific proof that diet and excercise will bring down the urge to hurt my newborn, or stop swearing at the drop of a hat, or keep me from falling asleep in business meetings, I will stick with my Paxil.

He’s lying, his solution is not diet and exercise, it’s "auditing ". Can’t get rid of those “body thetans” by just running around. I guess he’s not really allowed to go into the details, that’s why at the end he finally admits he’s just trying to promote Scientology.

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Actually, there are recent studies that have shown that eating good and exercising regularly helps depression.

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i agree that a natural cure should be attempted before you load up on narcotics… we rely way too heavily on medication to magically cure us… how did people make it before all of these meds were available? were kids running in circles with no available cure?! … granted, times have changed, and with changes environment etc, i suppose we may be more prone to things like depression and ADD… but we seem too quick and willing to pump our bodies full of meds

that said, cruise needs to STFU and stick to promoting his movies… people may take him more seriously… and then stop squirting him in the face, maybe Tongue

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But to say that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance is just retarded.

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If there’s one thing I fear more than being audited by the IRS is being audited by creepy guys in naval costumes.

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I think Matt Lauer’s racist outburst is being overlooked.

MATT LAUER:

–little psychological gook–

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Quote:
MATT LAUER: Let me take this more general, 'cause I think you and I can go around in circles on this for awhile. And i respect your opinion … MATT LAUER: Do you want more people to understand Scientology? Is that-- would that be a goal of yours? TOM CRUISE: You know what? I-- absolutely. Of course, you know. And people–

I don’t see that as a preach for Scientology. He asked him a question and he answered. He didn’t say “become a scientologist!” he mentions that he believed these things before he got into scientology and that he did research on the matter of psychology before hand.

In all actuality, post-partum depression IS real however the number of patients being prescribed the anti-depressants for that condition are not real numbers. The actual number of patients with PPD is actually lesser but prescribers blanket some symptums with the medication as a precaution, this is not a good thing. Not to mention the side effects of these medications are quite severe, there has been a large number of suicides because people have been ON the medication. Don’t get me wrong, people would be dead if they weren’t on it, due to suicide or murder however with the frivality of prescribers throwing prescriptions at patients the odds of higher fatalities exist as well as prolonging the depression. Once the depression has been fixed (by no means due to the medication, this is a natural process, medication does not ‘fix’ what causes depression) the medicatin can overload the brain with chemicals causing a new depression which would cause the depression to continue longer then needed.

Doctors who prescribe these medications also inform their subjects they need to try to eat healthy and exercise regularly to ensure they get better faster.

If you think doctors\prescribers get nothing out of throwing medication out, you’re mistaken. The ‘big’ pharma companies have field reps that can offer expensive perks to doctors for using their medication, they can have vacation packages given to them(for golf, their mistress, whatever), expensive watches, tickets to world series, etc…

Tom actually has some valid points..

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Quote:
Originally Posted by myPandaNY I don’t see that as a preach for Scientology. He asked him a question and he answered. He didn’t say “become a scientologist!” he mentions that he believed these things before he got into scientology and that he did research on the matter of psychology before hand.

He’s not telling us the full truth. He believes the real solution to get rid of these depressions is to remove all body thetans from us, yet he fails to mention that. Why?

And of course excersing and diet help in these and more situations, who would go against that? But there’s nothing inherently wrong in using these drugs. What’s inherently wrong is him “diagnosing” and “prescribing” solutions to people like Brooke Shields, specially with regards to post partum depression.

I’m laughing at the “he’s got a point” posts, his main point is that psychologists are evil, and when he says he knows the “history of psychology” he’s lying and misrepresenting a science with his nonsense.

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Quote:
There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance.

Once you make a ludicrous declaration like that nothing else you say can be taken seriously.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark Once you make a ludicrous declaration like that nothing else you say can be taken seriously.

if he said … “they misrepresent what ‘chemical imbalance’ is and the affect ‘chemical imbalance’ has on depression” would that have helped? because the line he said isn’t valid but, slightly modification would have been, since he was shooting from the hip I think he just mispoke, but a lot of what he states has merit. Lets face it the history of psychology has been debunked a lot of the ‘great’ psychologist theories have been disproven in case studies, who is to say 50-100 years from now they don’t disprove what we know now? … its a tough thing to say with certainty that we know what causes depression because we don’t. The number of anti-depressants on the market is large and diverse. If we had a sure-fire way of fixing it then there wouldn’t be a need for changes in medication, ‘cocktails’ of medication (mixing of 2-5 different kinds of antidepressants) or experimental medicine or proceedures. It is very much so a mystery what causes post-partum depression and the way we try to ‘fix’ it isn’t all that clear either.

Just because someone say’s something stupid, you shouldn’t discredit the rest of his argument. People misspeak all the time, without a backspace key it is even harder.

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He thinks that everyoen is born into this “ideal state” and that we are all the same. Some people require different things than other people. Some people DO have chemical imbalances. I can friggin’ draw him a picture of the synapses and show him how it works.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by myPandaNY if he said … “they misrepresent what ‘chemical imbalance’ is and the affect ‘chemical imbalance’ has on depression” would that have helped? because the line he said isn’t valid but, slightly modification would have been, since he was shooting from the hip I think he just mispoke, but a lot of what he states has merit. People misspeak all the time, without a backspace key it is even harder.

Given the large number of other fallacies and lies he’s said recently (all pertaining to this subject) I see absolutely no reason to give him such a wide benefit of the doubt.
He meant what he said.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark He meant what he said.

And he said what he meant.

A maniac’s faithful, one hundred percent.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dannychico He thinks that everyoen is born into this “ideal state” and that we are all the same. Some people require different things than other people. Some people DO have chemical imbalances. I can friggin’ draw him a picture of the synapses and show him how it works.

No, no, no, Danny. You’re just misinformed!

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Quote:
Originally Posted by CapitanAmerica He’s not telling us the full truth. He believes the real solution to get rid of these depressions is to remove all body thetans from us, yet he fails to mention that. Why? And of course excersing and diet help in these and more situations, who would go against that? But there’s nothing inherently wrong in using these drugs. What’s inherently wrong is him “diagnosing” and “prescribing” solutions to people like Brooke Shields, specially with regards to post partum depression. I’m laughing at the “he’s got a point” posts, his main point is that psychologists are evil, and when he says he knows the “history of psychology” he’s lying and misrepresenting a science with his nonsense.

there is plenty ‘inherently’ wrong with the anti-depression drugs. Have you looked at the side effects? Have you looked at the lawsuits? Have you done reserach to see how many pharamacy companies have either stopped making anti-depressants or have not gone into the field because of the lawsuits and the fatalities? lets face it, our anti-depressants aren’t the be all end all fix. They’re meant to hold you over until your body naturally fixes itself, a mood stabalizer that gives the user an artificial ‘happy’ feeling, why is it that you have to tier down from this medication, say you are on 500 mg of zoloft, why can you not just stop? because you’re body would react like that of a drug user, you would exibit those symptoms, shakes, depression, anxiety etc.. you have to tier down to nothing over a prolonged period of time (upto a year). Almost all cold turkey cases end up in a week or more at the local hospital.

Do we have an alternative? no. its the lesser of two evils so to speak. Just trusting somone who is depressed to go out and eat right and exercise when more then 80% of America cannot do that is not a solution, but neither is blanketing people with anti-depressants. We need to find a middle ground in order to combat the illness but you will never see that due to the pharacutical companies grip and the doctors lack of care for patients (not care like concern, care as in ability to see patients as often as they should due to insurance, money, or time constraints).

Why is it we have so many more ‘diagnosed’ depressed people now then we did last century? is it because we were able to diagnose it now and not then? or because we are blanketing patients with medication as a fix for people who might be depressed due to social issues or environmental issues versus legitimate medical issues?

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Quote:
Originally Posted by CapitanAmerica He’s not telling us the full truth. He believes the real solution to get rid of these depressions is to remove all body thetans from us, yet he fails to mention that. Why? And of course excersing and diet help in these and more situations, who would go against that? But there’s nothing inherently wrong in using these drugs. What’s inherently wrong is him “diagnosing” and “prescribing” solutions to people like Brooke Shields, specially with regards to post partum depression. I’m laughing at the “he’s got a point” posts, his main point is that psychologists are evil, and when he says he knows the “history of psychology” he’s lying and misrepresenting a science with his nonsense.

That is my problem with Cruise’s statements.
Where did he get his medical degree from? Where’s your license to practice medicine.,Tom?
Then there is also the point about a time and a place for everything. People who watch the interview want to hear about WOTW, not another rant from Tom. Forcing your opinions down people’s throats is not a good tactic.
Wow, hiring you sister for your PR manager was a fucking great move, Tom.
I have a feeling that the PR people for Paramount and Dreamworks would love to strangle Cruise at this point. The film will still be huge, but now it will be huge despite Cruise’s persence, not because of it.
And you have to wonder if the damage he has done to his image, wheich seems to be reaching permanent damage stage, will not impact his next film which will not have the automatic appeal the WOTW does, and will be dependent on his box office appeal, which WOTW is not..something Paramount and Dreamworks are probably very thankful for as this point.
I wonder if some his defenders here are not WOTW fans who feel that by defending Cruise they are somehow defending the film.
If he had brains Cruise would apologize to Shields saying he was out of line, and actully take her up on
ticket offer.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by myPandaNY Why is it we have so many more ‘diagnosed’ depressed people now then we did last century? is it because we were able to diagnose it now and not then?

Yes. That’s exactly why.
I’m not saying medication is the answer to everything. I’m not arguing that with you. I’m saying Cruise is completely full of shit when he says medication is inherently wrong.
I can’t wait until some of his plastic surgery records start leaking onto the net. It’ll be fun to see how many meds and chemicals he pumped into his body to keep it looking good.