Billiam James

Akathisia is a feeling of extreme agitation and restlessness associated with drug side effects caused by antidepressants, antipsychotics and other medications. Symptoms range from nervous twitching to a complete inability to sit still — an inner restlessness and anxiety so overpowering that it can lead to suicidal behaviour.

Our objective is to create awareness about potentially harmful “side effects” of prescription drugs used to treat mental health conditions. While these medications can be helpful, the side effects can also be debilitating.

However awareness about this problem is limited. Many people who are suffering from Akathisia, do not realize that it can be caused by their medications.

The health care system (with support from pharmaceutical industry) often prefers to ignore evidence that harmful side effects are caused by medications. As a result, problem is blamed on the disease, or worse — blamed on the patient — rather than the drug itself.

To learn more about Akathisia and other prescription drug side effects, visit www.rxisk.org/akathisia

SONG LYRICS:

Akathisia, Akathisia.
You make me wanna
Make me wanna…
Akathisia.

Thank you doctor for this little pill.
But the fact of the matter, it’s making me ill.
The fact of the matter is I can’t, can’t, can’t,
I can’t can’t sit sit still.

Akathisia, Akathisia,
You freak me out. You freak me out.
Akathisia.

I’m tripping on my restless thoughts.

Have to admit I used to be sad.
Told the doctor I’s feeling bad.
Gave me these meds and I’ve been had.
The side effects are driving me mad.

Falling through the cracks, medicated dregs.
My heart is racing, as it begs,
Doctor please, you got to stop.
Stop these restless legs.

Akathisia, Akathisia,
You freak me out. You freak me out.
Akathisia.

You make me wanna,
Make me wanna…
Kill myself.

You make me wanna,
Make me wanna…
Kill myself.

Cause I can’t, can’t can’t.
Can’t sit still.
Cause I can’t, can’t can’t.
Can’t sit still.
This pill, pill, pill. This pill
Is making me ill.

But I’m still here, trying to cope.
Doctors’ drugs, too much rope.
Reaching out, need some hope
Got to lose this prescription dope.

Akathisia, Akathisia,
You freak me out. You freak me out.
Akathisia.

You make me wanna,
Make me wanna
K-k-k-k…

Make me wanna,
Make me wanna
K-k-k-k…

Make me wanna,
Make me wanna
Quit that dope.

I’m gonna quit,
Quit that doctor’s dope.

CREDITS:

Song Title: Akathisia (I can’t sit still)
Music and Lyrics: Billiam James
Musical and Vocal Performance: Billiam James
Recording and Production: David Tallarico, The Beat Cave
Video Camera/Editing/Production: Franke James and Billiam James
Producer: The James Gang, Iconoclasts Inc.

Special thanks to Dr. David Healy

Note: Stopping or discontinuing any medications can be dangerous process. Please seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider before changing or stopping your medical treatment.

Modern Myths: Doctors and patients lost on the Sea of Medicine, an illustration for a story by Dr. David Healy.

“The clinics were different now to what they had been… The woman with burning hands, the mother with the autistic baby or the asexual son, were in the same place as her — no-one wanted to know them. Was there any way to unite all these people, each marooned on their own island, this new Archipelago of the Shipwrecked?”

Read Dr. David Healy’s full story: “Crusoe, we say, Was Rescued“.

After 20 years on antidepressants, is it possible to become drug-free? Psychiatric drug withdrawal symptoms — like burning feet, akathisia and emotional hypersensitivity — are daunting, but recovery is possible as shown by this story of one woman’s path (Katie B-T) to redemption.

“After 20 years on antidepressants, I decided I wanted to taper off. It was important for me to see what life was like without them and if I could claim more of my sexuality. I had no idea what I was in store for….

“I started SSRI’s when I was 12 years old. I haven’t gotten to try out and experiment with what I like and don’t like in relationships with the new feedback my body gives me. Some of my interpersonal dynamics related to my sexuality never got worked out because I didn’t know they existed. Now I have support to explore these concerns in therapy, playing catch-up, but knowing that I won’t have to go through life missing out on this important part of myself.”

Read the full story by Katie B-T on RxISK.org: Girl on a Hot Tin Roof

Antidepressants = Sexual Side Effects

One pill makes you smaller.¹
One pill makes you stall.²
And the ones your doctor gives you
Make you feel nothing at all.³
Just numbness⁴ and dumbness⁵ in bed.
Remember what your lover said,
“Lose your meds. Save our bed.
Save our bed.”

Antidepressant (SSRI) Sexual Side Effects:

1. Erectile Dysfunction
2. Anorgasmia
3. Diminished Libido
4. Genital Numbness
5. Pleasureless Orgasm

Post Antidepressant (SSRI) Sexual Side Effects:
Symptoms of sexual dysfunction may persist years after quitting SSRIs, resulting in the complete loss of genital sensation.

SSRI Meds linked to Sexual Dysfunction: Lexapro, Cipralex, Cipramil, Paxil, Seroxat, Prozac, Celexa, Zoloft.

For more information of SSRI and Sexual Dysfunction see these stories by Dr. David Healy and the team at RxISK.org

• Buried Alive: Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction
• Drugs and Sex Don’t Go
• No Sex and the City
• Treating PSSD
• Accutane: 30 Years of Trading our Sex Lives for Clear Skin
• Sexual Dysfunction Enduring After Treatment Halts: s-DEATH

Illustration: No Sex Please! (We’re on antidepressants). Based on 17th Century Kama Sutra and Ragamala paintings. © 2014 created by Billiam James.

Drug companies maximize the sales of new drugs by hyping their benefits while downplaying significant risks. In 2010 the European Medicines Agency began releasing patient-level data from the clinical trials used to approve new medicines in Europe – a development hailed by American, and European researchers and researchers around the world as a major step towards drug safety.

This process has been shut down by a lawsuit taken by two American corporations – AbbVie, makers of Humira, the number one selling medication in the world with projected sales of $10 billion in 2013; and InterMune, whose pulmonary-fibrosis drug Esbriet has recently been approved in Europe at a cost of over $40,000 per year.

Sign the petition here: Let us see Drug Data! Drug hazards are not “trade secrets”!

Read Dr. David Healy’s post here: Letter to Stacy London

Translations:
The posters are being translated into many languages including French, Dutch, Hindi, Kannada, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian, and German as part of RxISK‘s world-wide campaign for open data on pharmaceutical research and drug safety trials.

Humira is a monoclonal antibody – one of the new biological agents that acts on the immune system. Its side effects can be so nasty it has a black box warning on it.

Despite this, it’s on its way to becoming the best-selling drug of all time. You don’t get to be a best-seller on this scale without pushing the marketing envelope way beyond those who are seriously enough ill to warrant taking risks with a dangerous drug. Without running a marketing campaign that is to old-style drug marketing as a HumVie is to one of the smaller European cars.

The company have already been warned by the FDA for promoting Humira for milder conditions and misleading about its safety. The marketing includes many emotive messages – with images suggesting children are repelled by a single patch of psoriasis.

See more at: Stacy London: What not to Take by Dr David Healy

“There are many of us with bad Rheumatoid Arthritis or Crohn’s Disease who would gladly take these risks, especially if the drug produced a real benefit. We might be much less inclined to do for milder conditions. But in all cases the trade-off should be ours.

Ideally we should be helped by our doctors and pharmacists, but doctors and pharmacists who truly know what the problems can be. When AbbVie hide their clinical trial data, they make anyone who was involved in a clinical trial of their drug or a doctor prescribing it or pharmacist dispensing it into a potential accomplice to injury and perhaps homicide because the missing data is used to argue that ‘we’ve done trials and look there is no risk’.”

See full post: Lets do the AbbVie again by Dr. David Healy

One of the hardest things for people, who suffer from illnesses/disabilities, is getting good information and support. The health care system doesn’t seem to provide it, and so many of us join community support groups where we can share our experiences and support each other. (I go to Epilepsy Toronto and know many who use Fluoroquinolone support groups. The FQ groups are certainly not supported by any Pharmas, but my epilepsy group gets funds from UCB, the people who sell us Keppra and Vimpat.)

The pharmaceutical industry is very aware of this, and lends their financial muscle to support all kinds of community support groups — particularly if group members are potential “customers” for their meds. And this can create a Conflict of Interest, and subvert the group’s mission to serve its members.

This appears to be what has happened to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. My friend Julie Wood, a suicide survivor, decided to attend a local support group this month, only to find that they were promoting medications as the only way to reduce suicide risk, and trying very hard to ignore the well-documented links between suicide risk and psychiatric meds.

What I find particularly bad about this practice, is that pharmaceutical industry is preying on the weak and sick, offering them hope (a pill?) wrapped in sympathy and support, when in fact they don’t seem to care about whether the medication works or not, or whether it actually helps the patient…

Read Julie’s full story on RxISK.org (Data Based Medicine):
http://wp.rxisk.org/how-pharma-captures-bereaved-mothers/