Tom Cruises' take on Psychiatry

GigLs2u · Jul 16, 2005

Thank you for the interview link but interestingly it was lacking part of the transcript. Did you notice the pubisher's liberty in summarizing a part of heated discussion before continuing transcript?

I know I heard him say he knows more than people who have gone to medical school. For me, he sounds as though he feels he is equal to those who teach medical school. These professors are physicians.

I disagree with your position that the American diet is a MAJOR contributor to many diseases. Diet would be just one environmental factor that can impact the human body. Even in diabetes sugar is NOT the cause. It is the failure of insulin production.

In contrast, I agree diet can be a contributing factor for some people but there are too many other variables in this world that impact us daily to say it is a MAJOR contributor. The area I will agree is may be a major contributor is obesity in people who consume more calories than energy expended based on body weight.

I just finished watching the Today show interview that Matt Lauer did with Tom Cruise. I'm quite simply mystified by his take on psychiatry. He claims to know more about it than just about anyone, including those with medical degrees. I'm just curious about what others think about his vocal opinion on the subject. Am I crazy or does HE need a psychiatrist?

GigLs2u · Jul 16, 2005

I wish TC could have spent about 3 months with me as a volunteer on my psychiatric intensive care unit in 2004. I KNOW that would have opened his mind to possible organic etiologies!

You are correct about Concerta. This is from the FDA. The problemis primary care physicians/pediatricians prescribe psychotrophic drugs to save money for managed care plans.

Did you watch Brat Camp? There is a kid on there with ADHD who went off his medications. He is 13 or 14 and went from A and B grades to D and F grades. I think it will be interesting to watch. The difference on the program though is he is not in school having to stay on task.

Tom is publicly in search of himself through one relationship/marriage after another, through his religious beliefs, through having reached the crossroad of midlife and trying to hold onto what he thinks works for him. He'll recover, but at how many people's expense?
It concerns me that he speaks as he does about depression and the medications that have proven to be beneficial in the treatment of people's depression. I am one of those people. I know my medication helps me, and I know at this time the medication is necessary. I know because I went almost a year without it, and never felt as good as I do now that I'm back on the medication.
I'm even more concerned about the young woman Tom has proposed to marry, and having so much influence over her to the point she is ready to jump ship with her Catholic faith to be a part of Tom's"EVERTHING" - including his religious beliefs. Katy Holmes is living out a lifelong fantasy of being with Tom. She may be in need of some much needed anti-depressant medications by the time she truly awakens from her fantasy about a man she's dreamt of marrying all her life.......her life is yet but 26 years. How frightening for her, and she doesn't even see how much she is swept up into the "Tom Cruise" fantasy.

GigLs2u · Jul 16, 2005

You made me laugh in agreement.

Now that I have seen the tom/oprah website and his behavior I am even more convinced you are right.

It is absolutley this kind of opinion that causes people to feel they are even more of a failure for turning to medication and those that are not stable to refuse meds. One of my sisters is a borderline personality. She is 32, still lives with my mother, and refuses to take medication. Her "reasoning' is that medication isn't natural. I do not have the space on here to tell you everything my family and my mother have been through with her. I am sure if she sees this interview, it will add more ammunition for her to continue to refuse. When she is on her meds, she is a beautiful woman, with a great personality and fun to be with. As she is now, you never know. The mood swings are horrible, depression, frequent suicide threats, running away, I could go on and on.
Tom to me is entitled to his opinion. I will fully support his right to have his point of view, but he bears a huge burden of responsibility by placing himself out there as a role model (not that he is a role model to me in any way shape or form, but he is certainly using his celebrity as a platform to be heard). I say it is obvious he does not have anyone close to him that suffers from any form of mental illness. He would have a much different perspective if he did.
Now, for my red-headed opinion, I say Tom looks to me like he might be in a bit of a manic phase, with some delusions of grandeur going on! :chuckle

GigLs2u · Jul 16, 2005

He has worn tight pants for decades now so he may have fried them all.

Marie Osmond's original story was PPD but later came out as bi-polar.

I am not sure that Katie and Tom will be able to have kids---his kids with Nicole Kidman were both adopted. Don't know which one of them, if either, was infertile--maybe they were just both too busy with their acting careers to go through a pregnancy; who knows.
I wonder why Tom didn't jump all over Marie Osmond? Remember her bout with severe post-partum depression? I don't recall for sure whether she came out publicly in support of any meds that helped her, though---that's been a while.
Here's what I wonder about the Scientologist "no meds" philosophy---now, supposedly Michael Jackson is a devout Scientologist. Yet, if you saw him as he walked into court every day toward the end of the tril, he almost appeared to be doing "The Thorazine Shuffle." Don't know what he was on, but he was clearly medicated----seemed like he always needed physical support of one or another of his entourage just to stand up.
And what about the "back pain" he had to keep going to the ER for? Surely they didn't just pray with him there! I suspect he got himself a hefty dose of Percocet or Oxycontin!

HillaryC, RN, CRNA · Jul 16, 2005

Did you watch Brat Camp? There is a kid on there with ADHD who went off his medications. He is 13 or 14 and went from A and B grades to D and F grades. I think it will be interesting to watch. The difference on the program though is he is not in school having to stay on task.

I thought the premier episode was great. I'm kind of sick of reality television, but I really like this one. Highly recommend it!

GigLs2u · Jul 16, 2005

You are right. It is a cult and speilberg should not use him in his movies. I stick by my decision not to see War of the Worlds. The first one scared me as a kid anyway. lol.

Let them defend their stance of scientology. But the truth is Ron Hubbard is a cult leader. He is there to make money by recruiting members and selling books. Does he have a medical degree ?
Vitamins and exercise are beneficial to everyone, but to assume and promote them as the sole treatment for a mental illness is not only ignorant, it could have disasterous results if someone with a mental illness discontinued their meds and went on vitamins and excercise just b/c some movie star promoted it. I hope that there isn't anyone out there who did that.

LydiaNN · Jul 16, 2005

I thought the premier episode was great. I'm kind of sick of reality television, but I really like this one. Highly recommend it!

I watched that show, but I had a problem with putting a kid who doesn't take his meds in a situation with older and/or bigger kids (I know the kid who tried to stab his brother is only 14) who have violent histories. I wonder if these bunch of kids was put together specifically for this show, or if they actually group kids like this all the time. I just kept wondering how the counselors could protect the weaker kids if one of the violent ones becomes aggressive.

TCASII, ADN · Jul 17, 2005

I read the website. The title of this post is what I am left with after reading only a small portion.
Left dumbfounded. Is this the religion that preaches each man is going to have a planet of his own? I heard something about that kind of religion in college.

I really have no clue. It's all so bizzare. From what I know, the people who are brought into scientology, as with celebrities, aren't told hardly anything for a long time. They give what is essentially a psych-personality test that almost guarantees they will fail. The questions are like "Do you get stressed at times?" Well, hello, everyone does, but they aren't ill. LOL

Much of the information you or I look up about scientology is forbidden, and they keep you from seeing it by sheltering you and shadowing you as much as possible. If you hear something or read something, they say, no it's not true and say it's been spun to sound strange. One must pay thousands to go through all these auditing sessions and processes of learning bits at a time. By the time people learn the OT stuff, they've been brainwashed for sure. It's just like any other cult. Some people are gullible enough to buy into crazy ideas, and scientology has had decades to practice.

They also have these events with music and symbols that remind some of the way the nazi party wooed people in the 30s and 40s.

kathc · Jul 17, 2005

It makes no more sense to argue against medication for these symptoms than it does to argue against the use of insulin to control glucose levels or Imitrex to treat a migrane.

Exactly! I too hate to give my son a pill everyday....but I would hate more for him to continue to miss out on life. He has ADD (no hyperactivity) and lives in a fog at times. A few weeks after started his meds he turned to me in the car and said "Mom, I like school now..I feel included." Needless to say I cried. He went from failing to 80%. I can only imagine what it is like to live in his world - a world in which when you finally get what someone is trying to say to you, they are angry and frustrated with you. A very negative world.

lpnstudentin2010, LPN · Jul 17, 2005

I HATE Tom Cruise for saying this. I have ADD or it might be ADHD I am not sure, and depression. When I found this out it made my furious. My medicine makes a HUGE difference. It has changed my life.

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Jul 17, 2005

I really have no clue. It's all so bizzare. From what I know, the people who are brought into scientology, as with celebrities, aren't told hardly anything for a long time. They give what is essentially a psych-personality test that almost guarantees they will fail. The questions are like "Do you get stressed at times?" Well, hello, everyone does, but they aren't ill. LOL
Much of the information you or I look up about scientology is forbidden, and they keep you from seeing it by sheltering you and shadowing you as much as possible. If you hear something or read something, they say, no it's not true and say it's been spun to sound strange. One must pay thousands to go through all these auditing sessions and processes of learning bits at a time. By the time people learn the OT stuff, they've been brainwashed for sure. It's just like any other cult. Some people are gullible enough to buy into crazy ideas, and scientology has had decades to practice.
They also have these events with music and symbols that remind some of the way the nazi party wooed people in the 30s and 40s.

The Nazi party, now thats a harsh comparison. To me its more like the right wing, Republican and moral majority party

KimberRN1 · Jul 18, 2005

Tom goes from one starlet to the next...he was married to Mimi Rogers then has an affair with Nicole Kidman while on set....marries her...has an affair with Penelope Cruz while on set....she dumps him, then he falls for Katie Holmes while auditioning for one of his movies....Wonder what Scientology Theory that kind of behavior falls under?...Anyhoooo....Tom's the one that looked like a total nut with his Today show rant...it was unbelievable....