For those who stood and continue to stand

My first ever post on this blog came on April 7th 2006. I never knew back then how much I would learn regarding how pharmaceutical companies work, how easy it is to research, how dark it can get sometimes when you read countless horror stories of those that have endured Seroxat withdrawal.


I've had death threats from Australia, an apparent dirt campaign against my name and been threatened with defamation via GlaxoSmithKline's Lawyers.


My personal life over the past two years has been a rollercoaster ride, the death of my mother, waving goodbye to a son who is off to fight for Queen & country, a relationship breakdown, being told I cannot be helped back to work via a disability scheme. Many other issues have got me down yet one thing has remained the same.


I don't have to rely on Seroxat to get me through the dark times anymore. I freed myself from its clutches a few years ago - it was a long journey, 18 months to wean down from 40mg per day to 22mg per day until eventually having to go cold turkey to free me from the shackles of addiction.


I no longer have to wake in a bed saturated with my sweat. No longer have to prepare my Seroxat dose by carefully administering the exact amount of Seroxat liquid into an oral syringe - too little and I'd feel like shit - too much and I'd be hooked back into its addictive clutches. I no longer feel the need to seek confrontation - the withdrawal process made me yearn confrontation, I wanted violence or rather the last dregs of Seroxat in my body wanted the person who it held on to, to go out and seek confrontation. Those god awful electric zaps ripping through my body have been kissed goodbye as have the visionary disturbances - my eyes no longer take that extra split second to focus when I turn my head. I no longer have to explain to my beautiful children why 'dad' is acting out of character because the drug inside their dad's body has him under its control. My short term memory is fucked beyond repair as is my tolerance to sudden loud noises but I guess a manufacturer of a drug will see that as a small price to pay for apparently helping someone through dark times as they probably would with the inner restlessness that has been left behind since I quit Seroxat.


The onus, I guess, is on me to prove that Seroxat has left me with these long term (probably permanent effects) - In truth, all anyone has is my word... knowing what we do today about how Pharma suppress, deny and bully then I think my word stands heads and shoulders above those whose sole intentions is to make money at the hands of those who suffer


I'm not a religious person, I have no God, no faith other than a belief that those who torture others will get their comeuppance - call it Karma if you like 'What goes around comes around'

Mental torture far exceeds physical torture. To fuck with someones head and have no shame or guilt is a despicable act by any standards. To live in total denial is an illness that not only affects the person living in it but those who have been roped into it.

To walk down a street with your head above your shoulders knowing you are free from guilt is a wonderful experience - One day those responsible for causing mental torture to another human being will realise this. Maybe then they will fall to their knees and beg forgiveness from their God or even shed a tear whilst they think about those they have hurt along their path of denial and ignorance.

I seriously doubt faith in humanity. I have learned of acts of complete and utter depravity by pharmaceutical companies - this blog will hopefully be a testament to that when I'm long gone.

Those that were put in a position to protect us have failed on a grand scale - they too are responsible for the mental torture suffered by those who have had severe problems withdrawing from Seroxat. They continue to bury their heads in the sand hoping the problem will go away so they can continue to live with a conscience blocked by denial.

Those that have fought the cause, those that have put their name to their beliefs, deserve to be applauded. I have the utmost respect and gratitude toward Rob Robinson. Rob started this ball rolling. He stood up and said enough is enough, his campaigning sent shockwaves through GlaxoSmithKline and opened the eyes of millions of disbelievers. The guy deserves an honorary medal for what he achieved and for the awareness he raised. He put his name out there and opened himself to ridicule, he fought with every ounce of belief and he took a rather large dump on GlaxoSmithKline, the stench of which still hangs around today. It is rumoured that Rob and GlaxoSmithKline came to some financial arrangement for him to remove the site that caused them such grief. Unfortunately for GlaxoSmithKline the site, Paxil Protest, is still available through the wonders of the internet. If rumours are true then I for one applaud Rob for scaring the living daylights out of GSK for them to come to such a conclusion!

The tireless campaigning of the Seroxat User Group here in the UK has to be admired. Once again someone (Janice Simmons) has stood up to the might of Pharma. She has stood firm in her beliefs and listened to thousands of sufferers. She has put forward her concerns time and time again to the regulators, she has knocked down brick wall after brick wall and never given up - she still continues to knock down those brick walls.

Derek Scott of the Online Seroxat Support Group has campaigned tirelessly. Letter after letter to MP's, DoH and other government officials. Once again here we have a human prepared to stand up in what he believes in, a human who puts his name on the line and leaves his name open to ridicule to a whole bunch of unsavoury characters in the land of cyberspace.

Matt Holford calls a spade a spade, he shoots from the hip. He backed the regulator into a corner, they couldn't give him answers so they labelled him 'vexatious', in other words they found him 'annoying' . He still writes on his blog, he still asks questions, he is still stonewalled.

Just a few of the Brit campaigners who have put their name on the block and stood up for what they believe in and left themselves open to a whole range of insidious characters whom try to discredit them.

Those in the professional field will also be remembered for standing up to the might of Pharma, notably Prof. David Healy, Journalist Shelley Jofre, Social Audit's Charles Medawar - each have had their part to play as they have tirelessly strove to help unravel the Seroxat scandal. Each will be remembered for this, each will be free from any shame or guilt. Each needs to stand up and take the applause.

Personally, I feel BBC TV's Shelley Jofre grew from a poodle into an Alsatian, she would nip at the heels of the MHRA and GSK - those nips have turned into major bites so much so that anyone from GSK or the MHRA interviewed by Shelley now requires a shot for rabies. Again, I have nothing but admiration for the way she grabbed the bull by the horns and slammed it to the ground with one almighty bang. The moment she turned MHRA Chairman, Alasdair Breckenridge into a stuttering mess will go down in television history.

Then we have those bloggers who write constantly about this whole sad affair. We have those who create videos to get the word out. They choose to remain anonymous which is their prerogative - they too deserve credit for their tireless work. As does Steph Gatchell, mother of Sharise, a beautiful girl whose life was cut short at the age of 18. Sharise had been prescribed the anti-depressant Seroxat. The American bloggers who continue to stand up to make a stand, in particular Julie, mother of Manie, a child born with severe birth defects. Julie had taken Seroxat whilst pregnant. More recently Shelley Hart's Paxil Blog has attracted the attention of many readers and her desire to write a book about Seroxat withdrawal is, it seems, causing major concerns for GlaxoSmithKline.

If it ever comes to task that Seroxat is not the preffered choice of SSRi prescribed to British patients by GP's then all of the above should take a bow. They have achieved something that our regulator has not. They can all sleep soundly at night in the knowledge that their work has saved lives, financial hardship and mental torture for those who have ever had the misfortune to introduce Seroxat into their lives.

I guess if it wasn't for the constant denials of those in charge then those responsible for this whole mess would not have been recognised. If Pharma had any morals we wouldn't have got to this point, their company name would have remained untarnished. Had the regulator regulated then all those advocates mentioned above would have all been able to take different paths, they wouldn't have had to witness via research, the horrors and the trail of destruction Seroxat has caused thousands of people.

There's a fat lady somewhere... and she is just itching to sing.

Fid

Read the new book, The Evidence, However, Is Clear...The Seroxat Scandal

By Bob Fiddaman

ISBN: 978-1-84991-120-7
CHIPMUNKA PUBLISHING

AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD HERE


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