I guess I just don't get what Cruise is trying to say: you shouldn't try to correct a chemical imbalance in a person's body that causes them pain, suffering and makes it difficult for them to function? Why, Tom, why? Is it you, or is it L. Ron Hubbard speaking through you?
The American Psychiatric Association (APA), which represents more than 36,000 physicians specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, has similar issues with the querulous movie star. In a statement, the drug-dispensing brain-doctor collective struck back at Cruise.
“It is irresponsible for Mr. Cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need,” said APA President Dr. Steven S. Sharfstein.
The release continues, "Over the past five years, the nation has more than doubled its investment in the study of the human brain and behavior, leading to a vastly expanded understanding of postpartum depression, bipolar disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
"Safe and effective treatments are available and may include talk therapy, medication or a combination of the two. Rigorous, published, peer-reviewed research clearly demonstrates that treatment works. Medications can be an important and even life-saving part of a comprehensive and individualized treatment plan.
"Mental health is a critical ingredient of overall health. It is unfortunate that in the face of this remarkable scientific and clinical progress that a small number of individuals and groups persist in questioning its legitimacy."
“We know that treatment works,” said APA Medical Director James H. Scully Jr., M.D. “And since safe, effective treatments are available, Americans can have what everyone wants – healthy minds and healthy lives.”
What say you, Tom?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - DrPat
Cruise should take his example from John Travolta, who survived the transition from "hot young star" to "solid leading man". When was the last time Travolta appeared on national TV to tout his religious beliefs or grope his latest girl-friend?
2 - Dawn
Tom Cruise should shut his fat piehole. Does he even have a high school diploma, let alone a college degree in psychology?
What a pompous dickhead.
I would like to urinate on him.
3 - Eric Olsen
he seems to revel in this nonsense, though, and does nothing to quell it: another attention-freak like MJ
4 - Matthew T. Sussman
At the same time the media is to blame. They have the option to not ask him that question if it's a live show. If it's a pre-taped interview, they can cut that part out.
After the "Early Show" interview I hope that shows don't look for a similar sound byte by asking Cruise about Ritalin.
5 - Lisa McKay
When performers show themselves to be crazed over issues like this, it makes me much less likely to want to line their pockets with silver. I wonder how much damage Cruise is actually doing to his opening weekend. Not much of the public reaction to this has been positive.
6 - Al Barger
Well, a guy in a white lab coat signifying authority has spoken, so who are we to disagree, right?
"Mental health is a critical ingredient of overall health. It is unfortunate that in the face of this remarkable scientific and clinical progress that a small number of individuals and groups persist in questioning its legitimacy."
Does feeding amphetamines to millions of children not strike you as questionable?
7 - Lisa McKay
What strikes me as questionable is the wisdom of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Undoubtedly, psychiatric medications are over-prescribed - I have no quarrel with that. Just as undoubtedly, many people have been able to live productive lives with the help of properly prescribed drugs used to treat properly diagnosed illnesses. I'm not sure why Cruise, who is an actor, not a mental health professional, feels qualified to speak on such matters with such absolute authority and to dismiss the personal experiences of people who have actually been diagnosed and treated. That, in my opinion, makes him a bit of a jackass.
8 - JR
Tom Cruise should shut his fat piehole. Does he even have a high school diploma, let alone a college degree in psychology?
Yeah, if he had a degree in psychology, at least I'd know he's crazy before he spoke.
9 - Eric Olsen
physician, I mean actor, heal thyself
10 - Eric Berlin
What really strikes as silly is when he talks about all the teens he has "cured" by (personally, he infers) helping them to get off drugs.
The good Dr. Cruise must be quite the busy time...
11 - Eric Olsen
all drugs can have side effects, be abused, or be overused - that's why we have trained physicians oversee their distribution (this is a broad generalization but the point holds)
12 - Eric Berlin
I think the extremes of Cruise's (and Scientology's) position is what so turns off most people.
If he made it his "thing" to go out and say, "Some children are being over-medicated -- it can be dangerous and people need to be informed about these drugs," I think he'd get a much more positive reaction.
That said, bro is an actor, and talking about these things on chat shows is silly... as is the entire chat show industry, but that's another matter entire.
13 - Dorian Grayson
As someone who has posted an anti-Cruise rant, now I have conflict. Call it "Strange Bedfellows" conflict, in which you and your enemies share similar enemies. What do you do? Why not admit it. The adversary (better word than enemy) that I Cruise & I seem to have in common is the Pharmaceutical Industry, which I find more threatening to the welfare of the nation by magnitudes than Scientology. This is an industry which is not only working overtime to "hook" half the population, but to bankrupt the nation as well. Whole industries (like General Motors for example) are struggling to find ways to honor their healthcare commitments, and state Medicaid budgets are busting all over the place. Big Pharma is the primary culprit in all of this. 20 years ago I was lucky to get some good benefits out of talk therapy. Now the Psychiatric profession has found they can make more money faster by dispensing drugs. How I hate to have to agree with someone I essentially don't like. But hey. Sometimes one truth is inconvenient to another.
14 - Al Barger
I will defend Cruise here. He's not on some self-serving pr fling. He's not just reading off some cheesy liberal laundry list of issues. He's got a particular issue that he's interested in, and seems to have done some study.
That doesn't necessarily mean that he's completely correct, but he speaks honestly from his own knowledge and experience. Perhaps he overstates, but he's speaking from the heart.
15 - Mark Saleski
yes, from the heart of cult-swallowed 'thetan'.
16 - Eric Olsen
Dorian, very well and honestly put, but would Big Pharma be more dangerous than Scientology if as many people were Scientologists as drug customers?
Obviously the drug companies pursue profit above all else, but so do all (successful) companies
17 - Eric Berlin
Al - So it's okay to espouse any idea you like as long as it's "heart felt"?
And I assume you forgot to mention the cheesey conservative laundry list of ideas?
You know, in order to be fair and balanced...
18 - Eric Olsen
I think the real point is that he is aggressively pursuing a religious agenda under the guise of "research"
19 - Temple Stark
Is this not a religious tenant of Cruise's?
And it sounds like a pretty healthy one - Stay away from drugs if you can at all help it. I do that and I'm not a Scientologist. I'll suffer a headache a little bit - the few times a year I get them - rather than try and take something.
I haven't followed it closely enough to say whether he is saying NEVER take drugs akin to NEVER have an abortion.
20 - Mark Saleski
it's a healty way to go...however, cigarette smoking is rampant among scientologists.
seems kinda funny to me.
21 - Temple Stark
Mark - ha ha good point RE : Cigarettes.
22 - sylvie
the point is that, we the public, have contributed to the ego-manial rantings and over-the-top behaviour of well-meaning Cruise who seems to think he is god.... he has become a self-righteous ACTOR who thinks he is above it all, a god-even, and he obviously must be because we continue to support and line his pockets with gold, adoration and avid interest.
is he all bad? no. is he a saint? no. is he a self-created diva feeding the public's hunger? yes. does that mean that anything he says in his well-meaning way has to make sense? no. will it go away? not unless the public stops supporting his crazy, attention-grabbing antics...
(rolling up the red carpet on a motorcycle with his trophy wife on the back? how utterly embarrassing!)
23 - Eric Olsen
whoa, good points sylvie, but I can't talk because I wrote the story
24 - Temple Stark
Actually how about this. People only want their "gods" with no brains.
Once they start talking, people get preturbed. Especially when a celebrity says don't do something. People are very protective of their vices.
See cigarettes, guns, porn. Prescription drugs.
25 - Eric Berlin
There's definitely a book's worth of exploration in here... Cruise as the epitome of the post-modern information age celebrity cult-worship media culture...
Or something.