police reported finding him dead of suicide the day after he pledged to spend his life opposing police brutality like what he'd just experienced
(after, it must be said, threatening suicide that day as well)
I noticed it's more common to get that retort if the victim is black and/or poor.
If the victim is a middle class white American, you don't hear that.
Plainclothes officers acted like thugs/thieves, and then beat him up, and nearly murdered him. After that they charged him with an array of federal criminal offenses (including resisting arrest, assaulting them (the police), etc). This went all the way to a federal jury trial (which defendants rarely win), which he did win. The amount of emotional psychological trauma this must have caused is inexcusable. There's more details here: https://ij.org/case/king-v-brownback/ – quote:
> Worse still, Kent County, Michigan, prosecutors refused to drop the charges. Instead, after James rejected a plea offer, prosecutors subjected him to a criminal trial. Thankfully, a jury acquitted James of all charges. If James had been convicted or pleaded guilty, he could have faced decades in prison, and it would have been nearly impossible for him to sue the officers and hold them to account for their actions that violated his constitutional rights.
> if you read the autopsy report there are a variety of injuries that you'd have to try pretty hard to inflict on yourself, but are absolutely consistent with being beaten and thrown to the ground, and then having someone dead-drop knee-first into your back.
Autopsy reveals Debian founder committed suicide (theregister.co.uk) [July 7, 2016] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12050263
From the first comment [0] on that discussion: "They found chlordiazepoxide, diazepam, temazepam, and oxazepam in his bloodstream, which could have had some terrible interactions with alcohol. This sounds more to me like a drug overdose that caused a psychological episode than just the alcohol-fueled suicide they make it out to be."
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12050481
"Chlordiazepoxide, trade name Librium among others, is a sedative and hypnotic medication of the benzodiazepine class" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlordiazepoxide
"Diazepam, first marketed as Valium, is a medicine of the benzodiazepine family that acts as an anxiolytic." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diazepam
"Temazepam (sold under the brand names Restoril among others) is a medication of the benzodiazepine class which is generally used to treat severe or debilitating insomnia." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temazepam
"Oxazepam is a short-to-intermediate-acting benzodiazepine." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxazepam
That's four benzo's. The whole class of drug is known to be degenerative: they perfectly treat anxiety for 2-3 weeks, then you need to up the dose just to feel normal. Looks like Ian was on a benzo spiral.
The anxiety tragedy is that there used to be a very safe GABA supplement, GHB, in supplement stores, but this supplement got scheduled because it's also useful as a date-rape drug. GABA itself doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier, but GHB does. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Hydroxybutyric_acid
Allopathic psychiatry is an obsolete tragedy: https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/02/malignant-gooderism/
(minor edits)
psychiatric drugs can have surprising effects, but generally the terrible interaction benzodiazepines have with alcohol is that they send people into a potentially fatal coma, rather than causing suicide attempts or psychotic episodes
the hangover, though...
withdrawal from ghb doesn't sound like a picnic either, often including delirium
that blog post is pretty appalling; the author admits to intentionally submitting his 'friend' to alcohol withdrawal. doesn't he know delirium tremens routinely causes permanent brain damage
My friend ran out of alcohol - we were not aware of how much she was drinking. She lived with her mother at the time - her mother & aunt called the mental health crisis team on the first day of alcohol withdrawal. She was taken to the hospital. I think she was likely tranquilized with haloperidol. This is not an appropriate treatment for alcohol withdrawal, but it's reasonable under the psychiatric standard of care.
The physiology of psychosis is now fully described, so there's no need to use haloperidol as a palliative 'anti-psychotic' anymore.
Someone responded to my comment yesterday [0] to mention pimavanserin, an antipsychotic that works as an anti-serotonin drug (rather than an anti-dopamine drug).
[0] my comment from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37136792
delirium tremens can induce psychosis but while that's pretty unfun it's usually less crucial to interrupt the psychosis than the neural damage
The essential feature of alcoholism is that the sufferers have broken metabolisms, and they find alcohol provides the calories they need to run their brains and bodies: https://twitter.com/JamesKnochel/status/1667570759034888192
Carbohydrates and protein provide 4 calories/gram, fats provide 9 calories/gram. Alcohol provides 7 calories/gram. Alcoholics train their nervous system to run on acetate, one of the breakdown products of ethanol: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14085230
Rather than tranquilizing patients with haldol, how can the withdrawal patient's nervous system be fed?
A social worker I knew said one way to help with alcohol withdrawal is to provide a lot of sugar. The potassium in orange juice allows the body to use the sugar without having to release insulin. Other juices have less potassium, but would also be good.
I'm aware of some other gentle interventions too. Anything's better than inducing agony with haloperidol.
(of course, as i said above, psychiatric drugs can have a lot of surprising effects)
i'm skeptical of the metabolic claims in your comment
And having a significant amount of alcohol + anti-depression/anti-anxiety drugs in his system.
And a day after he was arrested (twice) for drunkenly banging on a neighbor's door.