FILM #1: YOU HAVE JUST BEEN BLACK BOX WARNED
FILM #1: YOU HAVE JUST BEEN BLACK BOX WARNED
FILM #2: IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT THE CHILDREN
About the Film
- by J.A. Carter-Winward
This film addresses one of the most tragic and serious consequences of a drug with a Black Box Warning that reads: "...may cause worsening depression, suicidal thoughts or actions..."
​
More than anything, we wish we knew what causes someone to feel so much despair or feel so much emotional pain, they believe dying is their only option. But we don't know the reasons why someone takes their own life.
​
What we do know? Drug makers have conducted clinical trials where people, at their most desperate, have participated and died because of this "side effect":
​
"May cause suicidal thoughts or actions."
​
How could a medication cause someone to want to die? And when they do, their deaths are written off as "their long battle with mental illness."
​
Where is the disconnect?
Film #2, It's Not Just About the Children, addresses the aftermath of tragedy and how our medical and healthcare system addresses normal, healthy human reactions to loss, trauma, and grief.
​
In the state of Utah, where we live, the #1 leading cause of death in children ages 10-17 is suicide, and in adults, 18-34—you guessed it, suicide.
​
Yes, it's brutal, uncomfortable, and no, we wish we didn't have to address it. My husband attended a symposium on this epidemic in Salt Lake City, and every possible avenue was explored about this alarming trend—every avenue but one: The role medications play in suicidality.
​
What are we afraid of acknowledging, and is it worth the loss of even one more human life?
​
Watch the second film here.