What the FDA Knew—and When: The Case for a Black Box Warning on SSRIs for PSSD

Republished with permission from AbleChild.

A recent article in the DailyMail focused on what many who take antidepressants are reporting as sexual dysfunction. Apparently, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI), antidepressants not only cause people to feel nothing – not good, not bad -they also are unable to experience sexual pleasure…and it could be permanent.

The problem, of course, is more than sexual dysfunction. The bigger problem is that there is a risk of the psycho/pharma industry making the reported sexual dysfunction a mental illness, rather than call it what it is: an adverse effect of the SSRI drugs taken as “treatment” for depression. After all that’s what the psycho/pharmaceutical industry does…finds ways to profit from people’s feelings, even when those feelings are caused by that industry.

In fact, it is of interest that the DailyMail article refers to sexual dysfunction as a “condition,” writing the “American Psychiatric Association (APA) to help psychiatrists diagnose conditions states ‘in some cases, SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction may persist after agent (SSRI antidepressant) is discontinued.’” AbleChild cannot stress enough that the reported sexual dysfunction associated with antidepressant “treatment” is an adverse effect of the drug…not a mental disorder and certainly not something that needs to be “treated” with another mind-altering, mind-numbing drug.

Unfortunately, the inability to experience sexual pleasure is referred to as Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) and these adverse antidepressant side effects are not new. An increasing number of people are reporting experiencing PSSD, with symptoms that include genital dysfunction, loss of libido, difficulty or inability to reach orgasm and feeling muted or no sexual pleasure.

Some refer to PSSD as “emotional blunting,” but AbleChild would argue that antidepressants have long been reported to leave people feeling nothing. The overall feeling that comes with the antidepressant “treatment” is emotional blunting. It would appear that the answer from the psycho/pharma industry is that if someone is depressed, that can be “treated” by providing mind-altering drugs that make a person feel nothing. The patient won’t be depressed. The patient will feel nothing.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been aware of the emotional blunting, including sexual dysfunction associated with SSRIs for years but, unlike its counterparts in Europe, has failed to warn the public. But this is typical of the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry’s control over it. Recall that it took decades for the federal drug approval agency to approve the Black Box Warning for suicidality caused by antidepressant use. One can only wonder how many died because of the FDA’s lack of action on that front.

Now, however, one also must wonder how many will take their lives due to the sexual dysfunction associated with antidepressants? Daniel Demers, a Board Member of the PSSD Network, a 20,000 strong support group for PSSD sufferers, explains what happens in real life to those who are suffering with this drug adverse side effect. “At a bare minimum,” explains Demers, “the FDA must add a boxed warning for Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD).” “The agency’s failure,” says Demers, “to take a proactive approach to drug safety monitoring and labeling has contributed to untold preventable harm—including suicides that would certainly have been avoided if the FDA never approved these antidepressant drugs in the first place.”

Demers explains what happened to a PSSD sufferer. “Mary Amelia Koback was born in 1998 in Montgomery County, Maryland, just miles from FDA headquarters. By then, Prozac—the first SSRI—had been on the market for over a decade, and the agency had already received reports of persistent sexual dysfunction linked to the drug. In 2011, pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly, informed the FDA of such cases from its clinical trials. Yet Mary, like millions of other Americans, was never warned of this risk.”

Demers says that “on October 25, 2018, she submitted the following public comment to the FDA: PSSD is the worst thing that can happen to a person. After taking Zoloft, my genitals felt completely numb and my emotions completely disappeared. I went from being a sexual, outgoing, cheerful person to having 0 emotions and 0 sexuality. In addition to all of the terrible withdrawal symptoms I experienced (and am still experiencing at over 2 years off Zoloft), PSSD has ruined every aspect of my life. Thanks for listening!”

Despite Koback’s public comments and call for help, Demers reveals that “exactly one year later, Mary took her own life. She had only just turned 21.  If she hadn’t taken that fateful decision over 6 years ago, Mary would be 27 years old today, only to realize that the FDA still hasn’t bothered to listen.”

So, the FDA’s failure to address what is clearly an adverse event associated with one class of the agency’s approved drugs is standard operating procedure. It’s a kind of laissez-faire attitude in line with “oh, well, what’s a few deaths compared to all the help the drugs are providing.”

Along with that same government agency mentality, one must wonder how many people have reported the emotional and sexual blunting associated with antidepressants to the FDA’s MedWatch system? It’s difficult to know what the FDA is aware of given that the federal agency does virtually nothing to make the public aware of a publicly available system for reporting adverse drug reactions.

The question really is how many people will be harmed while the FDA does nothing? How many people will take their lives over this very serious sexual blunting while the FDA does nothing? Ironically, the deep thinkers at the FDA took only four years to approve the first SSRI antidepressant Prozac.

AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.

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The post What the FDA Knew—and When: The Case for a Black Box Warning on SSRIs for PSSD appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Families in Ladera Ranch, California, have experienced a nightmare that they believe could involve toxic chemicals from pesticides.

Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, wants the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the matter and determine whether environmental factors explain why so many children in that community have developed rare forms of cancer.

“There has been an unusual cluster of pediatric cancers in the Ladera Ranch community,” Essayli wrote Thursday on the social media platform X.

Essayli asked that the EPA “conduct an appropriate investigation into whether there are any environmental causes, and whether any federal environmental laws are implicated.”

A letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin accompanied the post.

“My office has been made aware of recent reports of multiple pediatric Ewing sarcoma cases within the Ladera Ranch community,” Essayli wrote.

“Residents are raising concerns about a potential cancer cluster and whether environmental factors may warrant further evaluation. At least six children have been diagnosed with this rare bone and soft-tissue cancer, with one 17-year-old, Brody Matteson, dying after complications during treatment.”

There has been an unusual cluster of pediatric cancers in the Ladera Ranch community. I am requesting that @EPA conduct an appropriate investigation into whether there are any environmental causes, and whether any federal environmental laws are implicated. pic.twitter.com/DkRKlZUQ6L

— F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) July 17, 2026

Indeed, according to KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, the rare cancer cases, as of Wednesday, had reached roughly a dozen.

That has made parents like Jessica Keetch desperate for answers.

“I think people need to listen and wake up and realize something is happening to our children,” Keetch said. “This is not random.”

Keetch’s 18-year-old daughter, Haven, developed a rare cancer called synovial sarcoma. As a result, the teenager had her right foot amputated.

“I’ll always remember the day,” Keetch said. “I’ll cry thinking about it because it’s the worst day for a parent you can ever have.”

Megan Matteson, mother of Brody, who passed away in March, recalled the community’s reaction to her son’s cancer diagnosis.

“To have three families that just contacted me right away after Brody was diagnosed was helpful but scary at the same time,” she said.

Of course, no one knows for certain whether environmental factors caused these rare cancers.

The parents, however, have their suspicions.

“These are our children. These are our babies,” Keetch said. “I raised my children in Ladera, thinking it’s safe. Maybe there’s no safe community, but if we can do better, we need to do better.”

No matter the cause, the Ladera Ranch pediatric cancer cluster appears statistically unfathomable.

According to KNBC-TV, which cited the American Cancer Society, each year only about 200 to 240 children and teens nationwide develop Ewing sarcoma.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post ‘Unusual Cluster’ of Rare Child Cancer Cases Triggers Calls for Investigation appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The New York Times is at it again, pushing anonymous-sourced garbage designed to smear the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and protect those who attack federal officers.

According to the Times, federal agents around the country were supposedly told in recent days that the FBI would no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents, cases that “sometimes yield evidence that could be used to prosecute DHS agents implicated in violent encounters.”

According to the news outlet:

If enacted, such a change would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents, as the Trump administration draws mounting criticism over killings at the hands of federal officers. In the last two weeks, two fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas and Maine have thrust the government’s tactics back into the spotlight.

F.B.I. managers around the country received a written notice informing them of the change on Thursday, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal communications. The same day, some ICE agents around the country were notified by their F.B.I. counterparts.

The guidance shared with them said that the bureau would stop investigating claims of assaults against Department of Homeland Security agents, the people said. Even though such investigations are intended to determine whether the officers were in fact attacked, they can provide a crucial means of gathering evidence implicating the agents themselves.

[…]

An investigation by The New York Times found that the Trump administration had filed charges against more than 550 people for assaulting federal officers. Of the more than 400 cases that had been resolved, nearly half had unraveled, with charges being thrown out or withdrawn, or the defendants being acquitted.

DHS wasted no time shutting it down.

In a direct response on Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security stated:

“This is FALSE. The relationship between DHS and @TheJusticeDept in investigating assault on federal officer cases has NOT changed, and @FBI will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy. This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

This is FALSE. The relationship between DHS and @TheJusticeDept in investigating assault on federal officer cases has NOT changed, and @FBI will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy. This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will… https://t.co/Z0qBJTCTW8

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 19, 2026

The joint denial from DHS and the Justice Department is crystal clear. No change. The FBI will continue doing its job under agency policy. Anyone who lays hands on a federal officer will face the full force of the law.

The post DHS BLASTS New York Times FAKE NEWS Report Claiming FBI Will Stop Investigating Assaults on ICE Agents – “This is FALSE” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Plateau State has endured a season of sustained bloodshed this year, with Christian residents and local associations increasingly describing the violence as coordinated rather than isolated. Data compiled by the Berom Youth Moulders Association shows that at least 121 people were killed between May and July 11, 2026, in communities across Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Bassa, Jos South, Pankshin, and other local government areas. The association recorded 62 deaths in May, followed by 43 in June. Another 16 people were killed during the first 11 days of July.

The Youth Moulders have repeatedly characterized the strikes as a “fresh wave of coordinated attacks,” pointing to near-simultaneous raids on multiple communities on the same night and reports of armed groups camped across the state ahead of scheduled assaults.

The most recent mass killing struck Kum, a village in Riyom Local Government Area. Attackers stormed the community around 11:30 p.m. on July 11, continuing into the early hours of July 12, killing nine members of a single family, including a three-month-old infant, and critically injuring community head Pam Yohanna. Residents told reporters the attackers had spent the day blending in as herders before striking at night. Troops of Sector 6, Operation Enduring Peace, arrested four suspects on July 12 in a follow-up raid on Fulani hamlets in neighboring Barkin Ladi LGA.

Residents in Kum reported drones over the community during the attack. Kum community leader Chollom Dung said, “We don’t know who flies them.”

The Kum attackers came from Fass and Rankum, a Berom village in Jol Ward, Riyom LGA, seized by armed Fulani militias in 2001 and renamed Mahanga, according to reporting on the occupation. The Plateau State Government said in 2025 that at least 64 communities in Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, and Riyom local government areas had been forcibly displaced and taken over by criminal groups, part of a wider pattern in which 151 villages across five local government areas have been annexed or occupied since 2001, according to a coalition of Plateau indigenous youth associations.

The same pattern has continued in Jol, a Christian village of approximately 1,200 people in Riyom LGA, roughly ten kilometers from Kum. Mr. Gankis Emmanuel Dalyop, 47, youth leader of Jol Ward, described the assault on his community.

“From Tuesday to date, we have been experiencing attacks,” he said. “We have not rested.” The raids ran roughly July 14 to 17, 2026.

Dalyop said attackers travel from Rankum (Mahanga), Fass, Loton, and several other local communities where residents were driven out and which attackers now use as staging points.

Mahanga sits roughly three to four kilometers from Jol. Attackers typically travel by motorcycle, Dalyop said, before leaving the bikes near a river and continuing on foot. “They come in large numbers,” he said. “They can reach 200 to 400 people.”

Attackers arrive armed with what Dalyop called “sophisticated weapons,” a term commonly used in the area to distinguish military-grade arms such as AK-47 rifles from the primitive or homemade muskets and hunting shotguns typically available to the Christian farming communities they attack.

He said the pattern has changed from prior years. “This year is very, very different,” he said. “In years past they came with their cows and destroyed our crops. Now they come on foot without the cows.” He took the shift as a sign attackers intend to drive the remaining population out permanently.

Attacks ran between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m., Dalyop said, with attackers approaching on footpaths through the valleys after abandoning motorcycles at the river crossing. Dalyop said he believes attackers use aerial surveillance, though he could not say for certain whether the drones observed belong to the attackers or to government security forces already operating in the area.

When attacks begin, villagers contact security personnel, Dalyop said, and local vigilantes stationed at observation points provide early warning by monitoring approach routes. Security forces have on occasion remained overnight in the village, he said, but attackers retreat into surrounding valleys when personnel approach, making engagement difficult.

Dalyop dated the underlying land conflict to about 25 years, centered on control of territory. “Our land is vital,” he said. “Out of 100 percent of our land, we are using only about 2 percent now.” He said several Fulani settlements surround Jol but do not attack one another. “The Fulanis do not attack themselves,” he said. “They only attack us.”

Asked how residents identify attackers as Fulani, Dalyop said the community has lived alongside Fulani neighbors for years and recognizes them on sight. Some privately pass along information ahead of attacks, he said, but stop short of naming individuals, fearing that if they “leak something,” their own neighbors would retaliate.

In April 2026, suspected terrorist elements reportedly from the Rankum (Mahanga) area attacked Jol, killing 51-year-old Dalyop Betobeje — an earlier instance of the same attack corridor Dalyop described.

The post Nigerian Christians Report Increasing Coordination Across Fulani Attack appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Fake news CNN contributor and longtime left-wing activist Van Jones finally had enough of the radical Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) faction that is devouring his party.

In a lengthy statement posted Saturday, Jones emphasized that he remains a committed Democrat who supports progressive policies such as criminal justice reform, universal healthcare, free education, and environmental protections.

But, he warned, the agenda being promoted by some activists affiliated with groups like the DSA goes far beyond those policies.

Jones wrote on X:

“I’m tired of being told that, to be a progressive, I now must swear allegiance to crazy ideas. I’m a strong Democrat, with a winning bipartisan track record. I’m rooted in progressive ideals and policies: criminal justice reform, Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free education, clean air and water. These are ideas I have fought for my entire adult life. But some people in groups like the DSA are pushing an agenda FAR outside those ideals. Supporting Hamas is not progressive. ‘No police, no prisons, no borders’ is not progressive. Celebrating the murder of Israeli civilians is not progressive. These ideas are REGRESSIVE.

If there were no police or prisons, if anyone in your neighborhood could do whatever they wanted, while politicians cheered on terror groups — would that represent PROGRESS to you? No, that would be a step back. Those are REGRESSIVE ideas.

On the other hand, if everybody could see a doctor when they got sick, get a good, free education and breathe clean air — would that represent progress? Yes. Those are PROGRESSIVE ideas. They are NOT the same thing. And the difference matters.

Some defend the far left by claiming they only want Nordic-style social democracy. If that were true, I might applaud them. I want those policies, too! But what does universal healthcare have to do with Hamas? With abolishing all law enforcement? With erasing all borders? With treating every wealthy person as a villain? Ideas matter. And these are terrible ideas.

Right now, extremists are trying to sneak backwards proposals into our party, hoping mainstream Democrats are too frustrated with MAGA and the Democratic Party establishment to notice. But we see you.

Yes, we want our Democratic Party to be a big tent. But we don’t need ‘party poopers.’ So STOP pooping in the punch bowl — and telling us the turds are ice cubes. They aren’t. And we are smart enough to know the difference.”

WATCH:

I’m tired of being told that, to be a progressive, I now must swear allegiance to crazy ideas.

I’m a strong Democrat, with a winning bipartisan track record. I’m rooted in progressive ideals and policies: criminal justice reform, Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free education,… pic.twitter.com/foPRXip7fb

— Van Jones (@VanJones68) July 18, 2026

The Gateway Pundit reported just weeks ago that Van Jones was already publicly fretting as DSA-backed candidates crushed moderate Democrats in New York and elsewhere. In late June, Jones warned that the DSA had built a disciplined “army” of organizers while establishment Democrats relied on expensive ads and distant donors. He admitted the “roof is collapsing on the Democratic Party establishment.”

Other Democrats, including longtime strategist James Carville, have likewise voiced concerns about the DSA’s expanding influence, with Carville even suggesting the party may need a formal split if the socialist faction continues to gain control.

Jamie Metzl, a lifelong Democrat who served on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council and in the State Department under Madeleine Albright, also issued a stark warning that every American needs to hear.

According to Metzl, this is a highly coordinated, dangerous strategy by a small group of radical extremists who are actively working to hijack the Democrat Party, crash our economy, and completely dismantle our American system of government.

The post CNN’s Van Jones EXPLODES at Far-Left Socialist Radicals: “STOP Pooping in the Punch Bowl — And Telling Us the Turds Are Ice Cubes” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.