[perryp16]

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artma...cle_4921.shtml

Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior

President George W. Bush is taking powerful anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.

The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” says one aide. “We can’t have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally.”

Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay.

“Keep those mother****ers away from me,” he screamed at an aide backstage. “If you can’t, I’ll find someone who can.”

Bush’s mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the President’s wide mood swings and obscene outbursts.

Although_GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a “paranoid meglomaniac” and “untreated alcoholic” whose “lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad” showcase Bush’s instabilities.

“I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed,” Dr. Frank said. “He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.”

Dr. Frank’s_conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.

The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical dependency. Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas governor and his first campaign for President.

“President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies,” Dr. Frank adds.


The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article.

Although the exact drugs Bush takes to control his depression and behavior are not known, White House sources say they are “powerful medications” designed to bring his erratic actions under control. While Col. Tubb regularly releases a synopsis of the President’s annual physical, details of the President’s health and any drugs or treatment he may receive are not public record and are guarded zealously by the secretive cadre of aides that surround the President.

Veteran White House watchers say the ability to control information about Bush’s health, either physical or mental, is similar to Ronald Reagan’s second term when aides managed to conceal the President’s increasing memory lapses that signaled the onslaught of Alzheimer’s Disease.

It also brings back memories of Richard Nixon’s final days when the soon-to-resign President wandered the halls and talked to portraits of former Presidents. The stories didn’t emerge until after Nixon left office.

One long-time GOP political consultant who – for obvious reasons – asked not to be identified said he is advising his Republican Congressional candidates to keep their distance from Bush.

“We have to face the very real possibility that the President of the United States is loony tunes,” he says sadly. “That’s not good for my candidates, it’s not good for the party and it’s certainly not good for the country.”

[Logic]

Great story, very likely the article itself is more nuts than the description of Bush but a great story non the less. Saddest thing is that it wouldn't surprise me if parts of it is true

[dreilly1]

Mmm, Dr. Frank. Good stuff. He knows all about Alcohol.

[Y3a]

So, a doctor is blabbing a confidential medical record, or is the story most likely "BS" ???


I think it's "BS"

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Y3a:
So, a doctor is blabbing a confidential medical record, or is the story most likely "BS" ???


I think it's "BS"

I would tend to agree; no real doctor would violate doctor-patient cofidentiality like this unless the patient's life was in danger, and Bush's isn't. Furthermore, several of the things here don't fit with facts about Bush which are matters of public record and verifiable by anyone who cares to do the research. There are enough legitimate reasons to hate Bush that there is no need to fabricate more.

[voyageur]

I believe Dr. Frank is making his diagnoses from afar and has never treated Bush. I haven't read his book, but it sounds pretty bad; here's what a review on Salon said about it:

"Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President," by Justin Frank, a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University Medical Center, is supposed to offer a more in-depth portrait. To say that it succeeds would be to give Frank and his publisher too much credit. This is a sloppily written and edited book, padded with repetitions and laced with dubious psychological theories. It is also -- despite Frank's avowed intention to "preserve a distinction between my personal questions about President Bush's politics and my psychoanalytic evaluation of his character," far too partisan a work to make any claim to being a judicious examination of Bush the man.

Link

[BRussell]

Originally posted by Millennium:
I would tend to agree; no real doctor would violate doctor-patient cofidentiality like this unless the patient's life was in danger, and Bush's isn't. Furthermore, several of the things here don't fit with facts about Bush which are matters of public record and verifiable by anyone who cares to do the research. There are enough legitimate reasons to hate Bush that there is no need to fabricate more.

I also think this story is false. But I wonder about the confidentiality issue - isn't it considered normal practice to let the public know about the president's medical conditions?

[perryp16]

If anything, this story shows Americas tolerance to those who render themselves mentally subnormal through excessive cocaine and alcohol misuse. For that, it should be applauded.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by BRussell:
I also think this story is false. But I wonder about the confidentiality issue - isn't it considered normal practice to let the public know about the president's medical conditions?

Physical, yes, if the condition is obvious or life-threatening. Mental, no.

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by BRussell:
I also think this story is false. But I wonder about the confidentiality issue - isn't it considered normal practice to let the public know about the president's medical conditions?

I don't think it is true either. But in reply to your question, I don't know what is considered normal practice. It is well known, however, that the those around JFK went to great lengths to hide his myriad medical problems, prior to and during his administration.

[dcolton]

Didn't Clinton refuse to release his medical records?

[BlackGriffen]

Originally posted by Millennium:
Physical, yes, if the condition is obvious or life-threatening. Mental, no.

Are you kidding?

It would depend on the problem, of course, but if the Pres gets diagnosed as a schizo or a sociopath or something else serious, I sure as Hell want to know about it. That sort of stuff is resignation inducing. If not, the President should at least be declared incapacitated to the point of being unable to fulfill his duties in office (like a physical incapacitation). I wonder if it would be possible to impeach a loony President who refused to step down? I don't know on what charges, but if there was ever a time when impeachment would be a good thing, that would be classic.

That said, I'm rather dubious about this. I just don't think that the doctor actually treating him should or could be kept quiet if it were really serious.

BlackGriffen

[BRussell]

Originally posted by BlackGriffen:
Are you kidding?

It would depend on the problem, of course, but if the Pres gets diagnosed as a schizo or a sociopath or something else serious, I sure as Hell want to know about it. That sort of stuff is resignation inducing. If not, the President should at least be declared incapacitated to the point of being unable to fulfill his duties in office (like a physical incapacitation). I wonder if it would be possible to impeach a loony President who refused to step down? I don't know on what charges, but if there was ever a time when impeachment would be a good thing, that would be classic.

That said, I'm rather dubious about this. I just don't think that the doctor actually treating him should or could be kept quiet if it were really serious.

BlackGriffen

One of those recent constitutional amendments that talks about presidential succession says that a majority of the cabinet can vote the president incompetent. Wouldn't that be funny.

But yeah it is odd that a psychiatric disorder like schizophrenia - an arguably more serious problem because it may affect decision-making - might be more likely to be covered up than a physical illness like, say, cancer. On the other hand, as a psychologist, I'd guess that the stigma of even a mild psychiatric disorder like depression or anxiety would probably cause a huge outcry, whereas a much more serious physical illness might not. And I could easily see a president experiencing something like depression or anxiety, and it would probably be easily treatable.

I also think it's a pretty good bet that quite a number of our presidents and other politicians have been psychopaths (antisocial personality disorder). I think Nixon, LBJ, and Clinton showed lots of features. You probably need to have some traits of personality disorders to be a successful politician - some narcissism, manipulativeness, deceitfulness, and the like.

[chris v]

Originally posted by BlackGriffen:
Are you kidding?

It would depend on the problem, of course, but if the Pres gets diagnosed as a schizo or a sociopath or something else serious, I sure as Hell want to know about it. That sort of stuff is resignation inducing. If not, the President should at least be declared incapacitated to the point of being unable to fulfill his duties in office (like a physical incapacitation). I wonder if it would be possible to impeach a loony President who refused to step down? I don't know on what charges, but if there was ever a time when impeachment would be a good thing, that would be classic.


BlackGriffen

But Jeebous, then you're talking about Dick Cheney being president. I hope Bush remains sane and healthy, at least long enough to lose the election.

CV

[voodoo]

Originally posted by chris v:
But Jeebous, then you're talking about Dick Cheney being president. I hope Bush remains sane and healthy, at least long enough to lose the election.

CV

I hesitate to point out the obvious but Cheney is Mr Experience and your president Bush relies quite heavily on that experience. Bush is no puppet, he's a willing participant - the ideas being fed to him are to his liking. Effectively makeing this a Cheney/Rove administration.

[chris v]

Originally posted by voodoo:
I hesitate to point out the obvious but Cheney is Mr Experience and your president Bush relies quite heavily on that experience. Bush is no puppet, he's a willing participant - the ideas being fed to him are to his liking. Effectively makeing this a Cheney/Rove administration.

You're depressing me. Abuse reported.

[Jansar]

[AKcrab]

Originally posted by chris v:
You're depressing me. Abuse reported.

You made me put drops of spittle on my LCD. Abuse reported.

[voyageur]

Originally posted by BRussell:
I also think this story is false. But I wonder about the confidentiality issue - isn't it considered normal practice to let the public know about the president's medical conditions?

I wonder about this too. Remember when Bush Senior was president that it was revealed (during his presidency, I believe) that he was regularly taking the sleeping aid Halcion during and after the Gulf War? Was that info released by his doctor, or just leaked by someone else?

[Logic]

Originally posted by Millennium:
Physical, yes, if the condition is obvious or life-threatening. Mental, no.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by chris v:
You're depressing me. Abuse reported.

Here have a Xanax

..and watch more TV. It'll keep you distracted from teh reality.

[voodoo]

I wonder if Bush is pressing for the psychological screening because he understands

[vmarks]

Originally posted by BRussell:
I also think this story is false. But I wonder about the confidentiality issue - isn't it considered normal practice to let the public know about the president's medical conditions?

And yet FDR made it into the beginning of four terms without the public knowing he was in a wheelchair. Could that happen today? Unlikely.

[voodoo]

Originally posted by vmarks:
And yet FDR made it into the beginning of four terms without the public knowing he was in a wheelchair. Could that happen today? Unlikely.

The one thing that has to be tip top if you are president of the U.S. is to have a sane mind. Mentally fit. Healthy psychology. It is important. Should be a prerequisite.

Unfortunately for Bush, he's sick. I don't hold that against him but I think he should not have accepted the precidency knowing he's sick. I find that irresponsible, but then he is mentally sick. Some safety valve didn't work it seems.

Fortunately being able to walk isn't necessary for a person that wants to function as the president of the U.S. A non issue. Mental compitence is a major issue.

[djohnson]

BS If this were the case, there would be record of it on tv at some time. No way would he act the same all of the time. Oh and I do have an alcoholic dad who needs anti-depressants but wont go to the doctor to get them. Well one doctor gave them to him once and he was a different person. We could tell if Bush was the same way...

[MacNStein]

Originally posted by voodoo:
The one thing that has to be tip top if you are president of the U.S. is to have a sane mind. Mentally fit. Healthy psychology. It is important. Should be a prerequisite.

Unfortunately for Bush, he's sick. I don't hold that against him but I think he should not have accepted the precidency knowing he's sick. I find that irresponsible, but then he is mentally sick. Some safety valve didn't work it seems.

Fortunately being able to walk isn't necessary for a person that wants to function as the president of the U.S. A non issue. Mental compitence is a major issue.

There's one instance of someone mentioning this and you swallow it as the truth. How gullible is that? Sounds like you Bush haters are the ones who need medication. It's just pitiful, especially considering it's not even your government. Why don't you guys work on your own domestic issues?

[voodoo]

Originally posted by MacNStein:
There's one instance of someone mentioning this and you swallow it as the truth. How gullible is that? Sounds like you Bush haters are the ones who need medication. It's just pitiful, especially considering it's not even your government. Why don't you guys work on your own domestic issues?

Why don't YOU work on YOUR domestic issues?

[MacNStein]

Originally posted by voodoo:
Why don't YOU work on YOUR domestic issues?

*I* am. Or did you miss the entire thrust of my comment?

[voodoo]

Originally posted by MacNStein:
*I* am. Or did you miss the entire thrust of my comment?

please elaborate..

[CreepingDeth]

Isn't perryp the nazi anti-semite guy?

[necromactastic]

Originally posted by perryp16:
The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.

Oh, OK...just as long as nothing's really changed. Would anyone even notice if these impairments were drug-related? That sounds like Dubya all along.

[MacNStein]

Originally posted by voodoo:
Why don't YOU work on YOUR domestic issues?

If you took care of the tyrants in your own backyard, we'd do that.

(Now comes the "Bush is TEH TYRANT!!1!1" crap.)

[voodoo]

Originally posted by MacNStein:
If you took care of the tyrants in your own backyard, we'd do that.

(Now comes the "Bush is TEH TYRANT!!1!1" crap.)

You reply to the same post twice and twice your reply makes no sense.

[Zimphire]

How can one be HOOKED on antidepressants?

Perry needs to stay in class.

[MacNStein]

Originally posted by Zimphire:
How can one be HOOKED on antidepressants?

Perry needs to stay in class.

Yup, you either have an embalance or you don't, antidepressants either "work" or they don't. This thread vaguely feels like a bash on people with disabilities, what are they going to do next, attack diabetics?

[djohnson]

Originally posted by MacNStein:
Yup, you either have an embalance or you don't, antidepressants either "work" or they don't. This thread vaguely feels like a bash on people with disabilities, what are they going to do next, attack diabetics?

Bad diabetics! j/k My uncle & grandfather are diabetics...