John Travolta says he shares Tom Cruise’s opinion on psychiatry and anti-depression medication. Like Cruise, he is also a Scientologist. Travolta goes on to say:
“I don’t want to create controversy; I just have an opinion on things, and there is nothing wrong with stating your opinion if you are asked,” he continues. “Everyone wants that right, and because you are famous doesn’t mean you have less of a right.”
I’m not going to smack Travolta for an opinon, he does have a right to his opinions, just as I have a right to mine. The problem is, he’s famous. I’m not. My opinions aren’t going to sway a bunch of fans to stop in their tracks and think, “Well, she’s Jayne d’Arcy and her opinion is that going to a doctor to get my arm fixed is useless, so I’m not going.”
Travolta can think and say what he wants in regards to the psychiatric field, but he isn’t an expert and when he or any other famous person comes out with an uninformed opinion, they need to think twice about who they’re going to affect.
I can only speak for myself; anti-depression medication keeps me on the right side of life. I’d be dead by now if it weren’t for the medication. I worry about others in my position who are going to listen to Travolta’s or Cruise’s statements and stop their medication, or stop getting the help they need.
Another quote from the article:
“I don’t disagree with anything Tom says,” Travolta says in the July issue of W magazine, on newsstands Friday. “How would I have presented it? Maybe differently than how he did, but it doesn’t matter. I still think that if you analyze most of the school shootings, it is not gun control. It is (psychotropic) drugs at the bottom of it.”
I do believe that in most of those school shootings, the shooter was someone who needed help and hadn’t gotten it. In ALL of those shootings, guns were involved. Guns that were easily purchased. Guns ARE the problem. If drugs are the problem, then it’s the illegal ones, not the legal.
Tags: celebrity, depression
JT is a pretty boy who played roles in Staying Alive and Grease. He’s cute, he dances, and he should speak with his mouth shut.
Who could possibly take him seriously?
This is rather like Charles Barkley (remember him? Bad boy of the NBA before Rodman took that role…) saying that he wasn’t a role model. Rather disingenuous if you ask me. As you pointed out, when a person reaches a certain level of fame (or infamy) many people will think that person is an expert on all sorts of things, or is admirable and to be emulated regardless of what he/she does.
My Dad stopped taking his meds and he is getting worse than ever. we don’t know what to do with him.
People stopping their meds is exactly the opposite of good. There’s a thing called SSRI Discontinuation Syndrome; it happens when someone stops taking their antidepressants and it makes the initial depression even worse. A number of depressive suicides occur after the person has gotten help, but missed doses or completely stopped their meds because they felt better — which puts them into discontinuation.
Way to go, Scientologists. *glare glare* Not that I have strong feelings about this or anything…