One of the primary and driving forces behind my indomitable will to survive has been my desire to write a book about what happened to me--how Prozac, the other psychiatric drugs I was given, the pharmaceutical companies that make these drugs, the FDA, and the psychiatrists and other medical doctors who negligently treated me, ruined my life and almost caused my death. This combination literally stole my life, my identity and my very soul. My career as a lawyer was ended, and I was plunged into a life of financial insecurity. My ability to spend time with my children and grandchildren was substantially limited. I was no longer able to participate in a number of activities I had enjoyed my whole life. I was placed in an untenable health position, no longer able to tolerate a substantial number of therapeutic drugs. I was relegated to a life of misery and frustration.
As far back as 1993, I had the idea for this book. As more time passed, I became less driven by resentment and more driven by a moral obligation to try to help people avoid a fate similar to mine by telling my story. I wanted to expose the magnitude of the fraud touting the safety and efficacy of Prozac and other psychiatric drugs that has been perpetrated by Big Pharma (the pharmaceutical industry), the psychiatric profession, the FDA, and the medical profession in general. I attempted many times over the years to accomplish the tasks necessary to start writing a book. My mental capabilities had been so damaged that I was unable to do this.
Eventually, in late 2003, I was able to get a good start by transferring my original Prozac Tapes to my computer hard drive and onto CDs; and by transcribing abbreviated notes and quotations from the tapes. Finally, in May of 2007, I felt that I was running out of time, and it was my moral obligation to write this book. All of the books I was aware of that challenged the use of Prozac and other antidepressant drugs were authored by doctors or other health care professionals. They seemed like intelligent people, but they had little or no adverse personal experiences with these drugs. Their books were filled with too much psychobabble and medical mumbo jumbo. I was not aware of any book written by a victim of antidepressant drugs. I doubted that anybody else on the face of the earth had experienced what I had experienced and survived; or knew what I knew. It became clear to me that writing a book was what I could do to help people. I was the only person who could tell my story. I had to play the hand I was dealt in life, and writing this book was how I was going to play it. I had to fulfill my moral obligation. That is why I wrote this book.What you will find in ZAPPED BY PROZAC is the story of a victim of antidepressant drugs and psychiatry whose life was turned into an electric odyssey through hell. If you or someone you know have used Prozac or other antidepressant drugs and claim overall beneficial effects from them, then I am happy for you and wish you well. You are among the lucky ones. I was not so lucky.