And my son was, 47, just coming out to 48.
And he'd been depressed because, although he'd worked from the age of 17, you know,
from right up until about a couple of years previously, and worked very, very hard, he
wasn't getting contract.
So he was a bit fed up, and then he and his wife ran into a bit of problems with a marriage,
so that added to the fact that he was feeling pretty rotten.
But one of the reasons was that his wife thought he ought to take some kind of prescription
and help himself through his depression, and I'm totally against that, so I was trying
to make him try other ways, do something.
And it was persuaded to take the prozac, which I know is prozac, although he'd have been
sitting on his shelf for a month at least.
And he'd been coming out to see me that day, but then he said, no, I'm not, I'm going
to see my wife, and so he said, no, I'm going to take the tablets, so I said, I could realize
that I couldn't do anything about it.
Well, on the third day after taking the third tablet, he hanged himself, and so it was a
direct result of taking prozac.
There's no question that was what happened.
It is a very typical way that people will kill themselves, seroxat, prozac, a lot of
those, I don't know all the other names.
And I felt so cut off from knowing what to do, who to contact, and coming here today has
given me a feeling that, yes, there is a way, letting other people know and trying to stop
it, because his doctor certainly isn't interested in stopping prozac.
I spoke to him a couple of times, and he just said, oh well, some people are benefits on,
I'm not going to stop prescribing it.
And I think—
What did the inquest say?
The coroner, when he heard, he was under the misapprehension, that my son had actually
been taking the drug since November, and he was just bringing in a suicide.
But then I spoke, I said, no, he's only just taking the third tablet on the third day,
and he said, in that case, it's just an open verdict.
I cannot say that a suicide, because his mind would not have been his own, as it were.
But I don't know what effect on the whole situation that particular coroner would have
had, or how he feels about it.
So have you spoken to people at this conference that have noticed that this is more common
than you thought?
I heard after his death, after my son's death, I heard a lot of people saying, oh, but did
you know, it wasn't just violence against the self, they sometimes turned violent against
the nearest and dearest, their children, mothers, and that can happen also.
And of course it does say, on the leaflet you get, that this is what can happen.
It's a suicidal ideation.
You know, you can commit suicide having taken the stuff, and yet it's still allowed.
I don't understand why someone hasn't stopped it.
But you can.
The drug company seems so powerful.
How long ago was this?
It'll be four years this year.
I haven't found a way through to do anything.
I felt I should be doing something, and I haven't found a way.
