The author of Shunned: Outcasts in the Land, Cynthia Darling, is well aware of the impact antidepressants can have; her son was given antidepressants by a college counselor and experienced significant negative effects that almost cost him his life. The story below tells us that we all need to watch out for our loved ones carefully.
A Blind Mother
I always thought that I had done my best to be a good mother. I believed I was pretty good at reading my younger son’s feelings—and, besides, he and I had always talked freely about what was going on in his life. So, when he came home from college that summer, I was glad to see that he seemed happy, even elated. Well, yes, he was now a lot more aggressive when driving, even yelling at other drivers, once getting out of the car to lecture a man who was driving behind us. Men, I remember thinking to myself, why are they such competitive drivers?
Next, I noticed the sweating. It was profuse, on his face, his hands, even when the weather got cooler. I learned later that the sweating bothered him so much that he took the drastic step of going to Tai Pei to have surgery to clip his sweat glands. He maxed out his credit cards to take this step. Looking back, I think if I had known more at the time, I would have picked up warning signals that something was happening in his life. I would have sensed that this was not like my son, but I never in a million years would have attributed it to antidepressant usage.
