By: Heidi Zhou-Castro
News 8 Austin
10-26-2010
Ashley Schmidt said her teen years were a blur, and if you ask the now 21-year-old what movies or bands she liked, she draws a blank.But Schmidt quickly remembers a different kind of list that marked her adolescence, the names of the nine psychotropic drugs she was once on as a foster child.
"In my opinion it was like they just wanted you to remain in a state of, I don't know, just where you weren't a nuisance to anybody," Schmidt said.
After entering foster care at age 15, Schmidt was in essence raised by psychiatrists, case workers and staff members of residential treatment centers.
"They made us do mouth checks and stuff like that to make it a point we took our meds," she said.
Psychotropics are drugs that change brain function and can have severe side effects. Schmidt said they made her feel sleepy, anxious and unable to concentrate. Her grades dropped from A’s and B's, to D's and F's. And according to Schmidt, the drugs didn't really treat her bipolar disorder; they only masked it.
"Maybe if it had been a good difference, it would have been better, but seeing as how it made me feel like a complete zombie, I guess. I lost track of time," she said.
...."It angers me we go through what we go through, and it's not our choice," she said.
FULL STORY Don't miss the Video there
Note that a few years ago, it was ONE IN FOUR foster kids in Texas were on psychotropics
And also see the AFRA Doping the Kids- The Pharmacaust
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