That is bad news. Makes me think of the comment section on IndyStar.com when there is a Zyprexa article. Lilly thugs, afraid of losing their jobs I guess, make mockery of mental illness (ex. "Would you rather have diabetes or be out of your mind") and of death ("Boo hoo" - prove it was Zyprexa that caused it") . They reflect, in a very crude way, the very attitudes held by their corporate masters.

As I read this piece I couldn't help but think the drug companies are behind a lot of this.

I concur with Jane. That is way too odd.

This is heartbreaking. I hope she can come back soon and perhaps move her blog to another forum where she can just disallow comments altogether. As someone who has been blogging about my own disorder, and is a woman, I know it is important for us all to keep going.

I'm glad she's taking care of herself.

I also had that thought that some drug company people could be behind this harassment. It really is not out of the realm of possibility. But I also suspect it's more than that. It's a crying shame whatever way you look at it. As for people going cold turkey off psych drugs and then berating Gianna for being a chicken, I am pretty sure I know who's going to have the last laugh on that one.

I've had quite a few very viscious attacks, where the person berates me as a woman, as a mother, and it always involved extreme anger directed toward me; and filled with vulgar name calling.(page long comments).

I understand Beyond Meds author needing to care for self, and not have that awful intrusion. Because, these words are sent to real people, and it is often things no one would dare say in person, and yet reading it in print--hurts.

It's the internet, this we know. But because we are human beings, we still have feelings.

Unbelievable. Just tragic. Interesting theory that drug companies are behind this. It seems unlikely, but I guess I wouldn't put it past them.

A lot of commenters are just really angry. I don't get it - what gets accomplsihed? And I understand the author of Beyond Meds - when comments are nasty, it REALLY leaves an impression, no matter how much you rationalize that these people are moronic, angry cowards. It's especially bad when you're feeling emotionally susceptible. I wish there was a better way to moderate...I hope she comes back.

It's very sad.
Gianna was doing some great work.

I also wonder if the drug companies might be behind some of it. Nothing else they do is above-board with psych medicine.

Deceipt and cowardly behavior are two of their favorite activities.

Anyway, my heart goes out to Gianna - She's a great person.

Duane

yes it is sad. i can assure you all that it's not connected to pharma companies however. something uglier and weirder though.

It sounds paranoid that pharma may be behind some of this, but there's the issue of pages of wikipedia on psychiatric medications being edited from pharma sites. It's a Google to find this information. I can't myself just now. But it's there.

And so sad.

There are two basic emotions that are common to all of humanity - these are Love and Hate.

The Hatred was usually expressed en masse at minority groups, religious groups, etc. Now that it is politically incorrect to Hate anybody becaue of their race, sex, sexual preference, religion, etc., there are only two groups of people left to Hate - these are smokers and the mentally ill.

Smokers all went into hiding years ago [imagine, over 20% of our population is in hiding!] so all that is left to rant at are the Mentally Ill. The Mentally Ill are beginning to go into hiding too now as evidenced by the number of bloggers who have been forced to quit because of the Hatred. Really tragic to see this happen.

Yes, this makes me very angry, and very sad. Gianna's blog was my most favorite out there. I will miss it a lot. I understand where's she's coming from, though--I couldn't handle that sort of agression aimed at me either--particularly when dealing with withdrawal. Like the bumper sticker says, Mean People Suck.

Perhaps Gianna can change format - continue her work from a newsletter?
And, gotta wonder... are these harassers on meds?

Philip, you must get Gianna to start up, again, and let me know if she has any unwanted callers. I'm really good at that kind of thing!

Matt