Home > Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior

Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior

by Open-Publishing - Friday 30 July 2004
23 comments

By TERESA HAMPTON

President George W. Bush is taking powerful anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.

The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.

"It’s a double-edged sword," says one aide. "We can’t have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally."

Angry Bush walked away from reporter’s questions.

Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters’ questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay.

"Keep those motherfuckers away from me," he screamed at an aide backstage. "If you can’t, I’ll find someone who can."

Bush’s mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the President’s wide mood swings and obscene outbursts.

Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a "paranoid meglomaniac" and "untreated alcoholic" whose "lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad" showcase Bush’s instabilities.

"I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed," Dr. Frank said. "He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated."

Dr. Frank’s conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.

The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical dependency. Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas governor and his first campaign for President.

"President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies," Dr. Frank adds.

The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article.

Although the exact drugs Bush takes to control his depression and behavior are not known, White House sources say they are "powerful medications" designed to bring his erratic actions under control. While Col. Tubb regularly releases a synopsis of the President’s annual physical, details of the President’s health and any drugs or treatment he may receive are not public record and are guarded zealously by the secretive cadre of aides that surround the President.

Veteran White House watchers say the ability to control information about Bush’s health, either physical or mental, is similar to Ronald Reagan’s second term when aides managed to conceal the President’s increasing memory lapses that signaled the onslaught of Alzheimer’s Disease.

It also brings back memories of Richard Nixon’s final days when the soon-to-resign President wandered the halls and talked to portraits of former Presidents. The stories didn’t emerge until after Nixon left office.

One long-time GOP political consultant who - for obvious reasons - asked not to be identified said he is advising his Republican Congressional candidates to keep their distance from Bush.

"We have to face the very real possibility that the President of the United States is loony tunes," he says sadly. "That’s not good for my candidates, it’s not good for the party and it’s certainly not good for the country."

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4921.shtml

Forum posts

  • that story should be in "the onion"

    • This is hard to believe. Where can I find substantiated proof that this claim is true?

      Mark Phillips
      Atlanta, Ga.

  • There has to be some sort of complete release of the Presidents medical records. Cheney’s physical health is questionable, but my President’s mental health is definitely in question. The administration should find an excuse for POTUS to step down for a few weeks to get it together.

    • What a bunch of BS. Doctors can’t come out and report on people they have treated w/o their permission. And this would not happen. Why didn’t CNN or CBS news pick this up? They would love for this to be true.

    • While I agree with you that the story’s a fake, I don’t consider CNN or CBS to be all that liberal - look at all the true stories these past three years that they underreported or just plain dropped the ball on.

    • Interesting; at a semi-professional gathering in March, I heard a counseling psychologist remark, in conversation, not on the podium, that Bush’s behavior was typical of the recovered alcoholic — he didn’t say ’untreated’ . He cited inappropriate jokes (looking for WMD under the table) as an example. How long has it been the scuttlebutt of the psychological world?

  • I do not agree that you can dismiss Capitol Hill Blue out of hand. I have researched their record for a couple of months and not been able to find any truth to the allegations that it is "unreliable".

    The President’s physicians certainly CAN and DO discuss his health at every opportunity for precisely the reason that it is very much the American public’s business whether he is in good health or not. What is not disclosed, tho, is exactly the information we need - such as what kind and how many medications he is taking. When the world’s most powerful leader is on any kind of drugs, it is much more than just our right to know; it is our civic duty to be sure the person closest to the nuclear panic button is in their healthiest sanity at all times.

    I challenge anyone to come up with a rebuttal to this information. If Bush is being unfairly "smeared", show me. I don’t believe he is; I believe these are just a few of his deep, dark secrets which are finally seeing the light of day.

    • try doing some research on these ’prominent’ doctors that are quoted. Dr. Franks is an unpaid volunteer at George Washington. the others are just as dubious.

  • Well, I can’t say I’m surprised, but it saddens me that someone that has problems like he does can’t be able to smoehow function as a leader. He’s not being coerced against his will to take medications but he is probably doing so to control anger. I would hope that he could somehow overcome his problem without drugs. I also hope this information is not used as a rationalization for coercive treatment of anyone. He should be allowed to make mistakes as anyone else is and I would hope he would be principled enough to acknowledge to them when questioned. Defeating being alcoholic is one issue but overcoming negative depressive attitudes is a whole other difficulty, best dealt with when a person decides the occasion to change. Maybe he’s doing better. I hope so. Kerry is a very positive guy and I understand his need to become president during a time of trouble. If Bush is not fully aware of his own difficulty then it’s a embarrassment, not really evil. Coercion should not be an option. Makes me wonder if his bosses threatened him or the press was too much for him to handle because he can’t coercively control them. You get what you give. If all a person does is attempt to control people, because they ask embarrassing questions then they shouldn’t be shocked when the others being coerced push back. joseph

  • Drugs and alcohol kill brain cells. Bush was drunk and/or high throughout his early to mid adult years. Long term users do permanent damage and getting "born again" doesn’t fix it. This isn’t the kind of person we want running the U.S.

  • This is the reason America resents France. It is a nation with a paranoid, schizophrenic media that rejects the truth in favor of generating factless, laughable anti-american attack stories. It is truly wonderful that so many great French artists, musicians, lawyers, athletes and the like have made their home America - a nation that accepts the French. The French will never accept Americans, Jews, or ethnics, and will continue to reach new lows of social morality because of their pathetic behavoir.

  • The American public should know what "medications" Bush may be taking. God forbid every other profession other than doctors, nurses, the government and police have to take a drug test to get or keep a job. Perhaps some type of amphetamine or who knows what may be used behind closed doors.

    Also, anyone can have a problem with depression, mania—the only "safe" people are those who recognize their own problems and do something to take care of the situation themselves. I can only imagine what the medical doctor who "observed" videotapes, etc. must have seen to come to that conclusion. It worries me that Bush is not man enough to admit he has problems and go on medication or into therapy. It’s scary that Bush didn’t know his actions were inappropriate. How erratic must one be?

  • This story sounds like it is straight from the mind of Michael Moore.

    • I agree, lots of allegations and hearsay, it would not stand up in a court. The people saying things need to come forward and put the facts out, the fact that they have not casts some doubt on their claims. I would also think far more mental health professionals would have made observations on President Bush, the one in the article has a book to promote and money to make, therefore he has an agenda and some interest in having people believe that it is true whether it is or not, getting a book to market and sold is an expensive proposition. And that the White House had no comment and did not call them back, that does not mean much either - John Tesh as been accused of being an extraterrestrial and has made no comment, you have a tendency not to comment on the ridiculous. It is really defamatory to hide your name and face and make allegations about someone, they should come out and prove it, otherwise it is just gossip. Maybe they would get a comment from the White House if their accusers came out and went public.

    • That’s right. Bush is NOT on drugs. And: He REALLY is the acting president, not Cheney. The Republicans did NOT steal the election, you can blame Ralph Nader and the people who neglected to check if the state of Florida had purged their voting rights by accident before they they tried to vote. And maybe Bush WILL find those weapons of mass destruction in the Oval Office, wherever the Saudis hid them as a little joke between friends. And Bush DID show up for a dental exam during his National Guard year for which there are very few other records.

      So there, all you ONION-heads, not to mention all you PEACEniks who think that war is a bad thing.

  • Theresa, you should be SUED for libel!! You are an IDIOT for not checking your facts before printing such calumny.

  • hello,
    why do you write trash?
    he’s the greatest president other than ronald reagan why don’t you wake up and look what’s in front of you and the best for the country. talk about flip flop look at john f’n karry
    please vote for bush save america oh listen to rush limbaugh,and shawn hannity you might learn something. pete s. thanks for this oppertunity.

  • Why get so upset about this? The Presidency is a tough job, and anyone would feel the strain under it. After all, things haven’t gone so well for the President in these past years. He has been caught in untruths, has been part of a team that justified torture, and is not doing that well in the polls, the economy under his leadership has toppled, millions are out of work and living on the streets. It’d be enough for anyone to lose a little bit of their minds over. Have some compassion!

    These antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs have side effects, too, so rather than deride him for having mental problems, be compassionate. For one thing, these drugs slow you down, so he has to suffer the indignity of not being the quick witted Rhoades Scholar Rocket Scientist type guy he used to be. For another thing, these medications will take away what Viagra could not restore. Poor Fellow, and his poor wife and aides.

    If he’s feeling the strain and is under a doctor’s care, he won’t be the first person in that position.

    • Maybe Bush will denounce this article...after he denouces the Swift Boat Veterans for Lies (holding my breath ha ha).

    • This article by Teresa Hampton has been quoted on the internet by hundereds of WEB pages. However there is no other independant source of information on this. If it were true then other news sources would have gone to interview the Col. Richard J. Tubb for their own spin. If it were true the Mr. Kerry’s supporters would be putting this on American network TV attack adds. Bottom line, pure BS.