The Rising Tide of Mental Illness & Autism in America
In recent years, America has faced a silent but growing crisis: a surge in mental illness that affects millions of lives, from bustling cities to quiet rural towns. The numbers tell a stark story. In 2022, an estimated 59.3 million U.S. adults—23.1% of the adult population—lived with a mental illness, up from 20.6% in 2019. Among young adults aged 18–25, the prevalence is even higher, with 36.2% reporting mental health conditions. This is not just a statistic; it’s a signal that our society is grappling with a public health challenge of unprecedented scale.
A Drugged Up Nation Can’t Cope
Toward the end of my tenure as a Deputy Sheriff & Senior DUI Investigator, I found an alarmingly high rate of young adults in their early to mid twenties were driving under the influence of a variety of medications they used to address their “anxiety & depression”. These medications ranged from Xanax to marijuana in a variety of forms. As a Gen X’er, I often wondered how stressful could their lives possibly be? They still lived with their parents. Their car & insurance were paid by their parents. All they had to do was either go to their job at Starbucks or attend whatever classes they were finishing up. Yet the following are sobering statistics:
Approximately 23% of Americans aged 17 to 24 are eligible for military service without needing waivers, according to the Department of Defense’s 2020 Qualified Military Available study. This age group, which represents about 90% of military applicants, consists of roughly 34 million people. Therefore, around 7.8 million young Americans are eligible for service.
Eligibility is determined by criteria including health, education, and criminal background. Common disqualifiers include obesity (11%), drug and alcohol abuse (8%), medical/physical health issues (7%), mental health (4%), and lack of a high school diploma or adequate aptitude test scores. Many are disqualified for multiple reasons, with 44% facing more than one barrier.
Only 23% of our youth are fit to fight their way out of a wet paper bag. That’s a depressing statistic in itself.
This chart applies to the United States versus other countries:
Given the population of the United States is approximately 341 million and the current population of Iceland is approximately 0.1% of the United States at 397,242 this is very bad.
During the past several decades, I’ve observed what appears to be a massive decline in the population of those who can handle ‘life’ & the minor tragedies that come with it. Grown adults go Code Black & freeze in place like a deer in headlights unable to make a decision. Road blocked & GPS not working? Frozen. Phone battery dead? Frozen. Credit card terminals down? Frozen.
As a Deputy Sheriff, you wouldn’t believe the number of calls the Sheriff’s Office would receive regarding domestic disputes, parents not disciplining their children, parents asking Deputies to tell their child to behave or go to school, neighbors fighting over being looked at the wrong way, etc.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
‘Pandemic’-Induced Mental Illness
During the ‘health crisis’ the main stream media, CDC, WHO, NIH, & the government’s so-called experts in white lab coats scared the living daylights out of the majority of the world with their “Two weeks to stop the spread” & ‘you’ll kill grandma if you unknowingly are infected’ B.S. The psychological trauma caused by masking, lockdowns, constant fear-mongering, & massive power plays by all levels of bureaucracy still linger five years later. You can see the mental illness remains in the grocery store or the gym where people are still wearing masks & food-service gloves in their daily life.
Myself & many others have observed a distinct pre & post-COVID personality shift among friends & loved ones. An article published on April 22, 2025 quoting an Italian pathologist supports my assessment:
A world-renowned Italian pathologist has raised the alarm after discovering that Covid mRNA “vaccines” have “completely destroyed” the pineal gland of recipients, causing widespread “personality changes.”
The pathologist’s discovery was revealed by Fabio Zoffi, the founder of Zero Spike.
Zero Spike is an organization researching the toxicity and detoxification of spike proteins, as found in mRNA “vaccines.”
Zoffi described an Italian pathologist’s discovery showing spike proteins damage the pineal gland.
The pineal gland is a pea-sized organ inside the brain that regulates sleep, mood, and hormones.
Zoffi explained that the pathologist found that “the pineal gland was completely destroyed” in mRNA-vaccinated people, causing erratic personality changes.
During a People’s Health Alliance roundtable discussion, Zoffi told a group of researchers:
“I want to add also a comment…about the change in personality, depression, and all these things.
“This is very real,” he asserted.
“And we have identified the reasons from the theory, and some doctors in Italy have, some pathologists have confirmed that the spike protein, unfortunately, attacks and destroys also the endocrine system.
“So the glands producing hormones, and hormones are what make our emotions and feelings and all these things.”
Zoffi continued:
“And so an Italian pathologist near Venice, he went on a newspaper telling that all the brains he had investigated, he found the pineal gland was completely destroyed in all the people who were vaccinated.”
So, the spike protein is also very dangerous for the endocrine system.
“That’s why people have these changes in personality.”
Family and friends who once called, texted, and extended invitations have gone silent—replaced by distance and isolation. Attempts to reason, to share facts or logic, often fall flat. Minds don’t change, and apologies never come.
They’ve chosen their side now—the ones still clinging to the familiar comfort of lies and propaganda. And you? You’ve simply stepped outside the illusion.
Over the past thirty or so years, we have seen this sweeping illness of delusion over westernized society. What would once get a person locked up in the mental ward is now a hate crime if you don’t play along. Thirty years ago we didn’t see things like:
Pronouns & misgendering
Tampons in the boys restroom
Biological males competing in women’s sports
Litter boxes in school restrooms
Drag queen story hour
Non-binary persons
Compelled speech
Inappropriate books in children’s libraries
‘Pride’ flags
A debate on the definition of a Woman
Today, people are having meltdowns because of election results, gluing themselves to highways, & are health advisors using turtle pronouns. No, seriously:
A member of a state panel advising the director of Oregon’s Health Authority (OHA) made a wild first impression at a meeting by proclaiming, “I use they, them and turtle for my pronouns.” JD Holt, who also goes by “JD Terrapin” on Facebook, made the declaration with a straight face while introducing themself at a virtual council meeting on Dec. 20. NY Post
This person is considered a “consumer” on the Oregon Health Authority’s Consumer Advisory Council. Health Authority?! Yikes.
Decades ago society wasn’t expected to cater to others’ delusions. Anyone can kindly say, “you do you, just leave me out of it.” Now, one can be fired for ‘misgendering’ someone. Western society not only condones mental illness, it is attempting to force everyone into accepting mental illness or else.
If one wants a sex change, great! Have at it. Make sure you’ve had some really good counseling, you are throughly informed about the pros & cons, & then make an informed decision…as an adult over 18.
If you want to live your life as a turtle, great! Have at it. But don’t force everyone to treat you as a turtle & then get offended if they don’t. It’s your mental state, not ours.
Youth In Trouble
Our youth are in more trouble than ever. Starting from vaccinating them with these aluminum containing jabs at birth to the other 108 jabs on the CDC schedule.
Source: CDC
Scientists have found aluminum in the brains of children with autism—at levels HIGHER than almost any human brain tissue ever recorded. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin. It’s not supposed to be in the brain at all—especially not during early development, when the brain is most vulnerable. We know aluminum is used in many vaccines to amplify immune response—but where does that aluminum actually end up? -
19 April 2025 X Post
Autism Rates in Youth
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released its 2025 report from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, and the findings are alarming: autism spectrum disorder (ASD) now affects 1 in 31 American 8-year-olds—the highest rate ever recorded.
For boys, the numbers are even more staggering: 1 in 20 nationwide, and 1 in 12.5 in California. The report, which tracks children born in 2014, reveals a crisis growing in severity and complexity, yet broadly unacknowledged in the national discourse.
From Dr. Peter McCollough’s Speech:
DR. PETER MCCULLOUGH: “Autism was one in 10,000 when I was a kid. It’s now one in 36.” That explosive rise is finally being exposed by Secretary Kennedy and HHS. Dr. McCullough says the timing is no coincidence. The surge in autism, he explained, “appears to be associated with the expanding childhood vaccine schedule.” In the 1960s, kids got just 3 shots. “Now, a child today faces 108 shots.” “At one of the visits between age one and two, there’s 13 shots administered altogether in children,” he said. “And it’s been well demonstrated that if a child gets sick with a big round of shots, and they have a seizure, there’s about a 40% chance that the brain is injured, and they develop autism.”
Click Picture to Watch Video
Here’s an excerpt from Steve Kirsh’s article on vaccines & their link to Autism:
Here is a list of some of the most compelling evidence I’ve run across.
If there is a hypothesis that is a better fit to this evidence than vaccines cause autism, I’d love to hear it.
We have a single case that is statistically impossible if the vaccines don’t cause autism. This is all we need to prove our case. Details here.
Lack of a single case where a child became “overnight autistic” before a vaccination appointment: There are thousands of parents who report that their child became “overnight autistic” within 24 hours after a vaccine shot. I personally know dozens of these parent (and here are some parents who agreed to have their name used publicly if you want to verify this). So if vaccines don’t cause autism, there must be a roughly comparable number of parents who noticed this within 24 hours before a vaccine appointment (because the number of cases will be comparable on any day you pick). Yet, nobody has ever heard of a single kid who became “overnight autistic” even within 2 weeks before a vaccination appointment! All the “overnight autism” stories are all after a vaccination appointment, generally within a 2 week window but sometimes as short as just 2 hours after the shot is given. Here’s an example of overnight autism. And here’s another where 3 twins all developed autism within hours after the shot. Note that in general that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but if there was such a story, someone would have heard it. None of the experts I contact had heard of a single “before” case. Note that I also asked on Twitter for a counter-example, and nobody had one there either. Here’s yet another ask for exceptions. If vaccines weren’t causing overnight autism, the anecdotes of this happening pre-vaccine appointment would be as easy to find as the anecdotes of it happening post-vaccine appointment. Finally, the argument that nobody would remember if their child got overnight autism before their vaccination appointment is silly as this simple Twitter poll demonstrated (relating a sudden death of a friend and when the friend was scheduled to be vaccinated). As a second demonstration of recall, I did a second poll on getting COVID right before the COVID shot appointment. People remember this stuff. In both cases, people easily recalled a big event happening right before a vaccine appointment. Bottom line: If you are a critical thinker, you really don’t need anything more than this one point to prove causality. We’re done.
Their studies don’t prove what they claim they prove. See this 92 page article created by SafeMinds, Vaccines and Autism What do Epidemiological Studies Really Tell Us? which describes what you need to know about many of the most important studies they cite as strong evidence including both widely cited studies such as the Verstraeten study (where it describes in detail the five generations of the study) and some of the more esoteric studies like the Honda study (where the just replaced a single vaccine MMR with separate vaccines M. M. and R. and found no difference). See also this analysis by Jerry Hammond entitled: “Why the Claim ‘Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism’ Is Disinformation” as well as this article which debunks the 16 most cited papers on their side: Part 2: Vaccines and Autism - What Do Epidemiological Studies Really Tell Us?. The reality is that their evidence isn’t compelling at all. There is also the Hviid 2019 study which was debunked by Brian Hooker here.
214 papers in the peer-reviewed literature linking vaccines and autism: Autism mom Ginger Taylor compiled a list of 214 studies showing the link between vaccines and autism. Here’s the list as a single download. Here’s a short list (30 key papers). There are also 400 papers showing how dangerous the vaccines are in general. See Miller's Review of Critical Vaccine Studies: 400 Important Scientific Papers Summarized for Parents and Researchers.
We can show how every one of the papers brought forward by vaccine proponents are flawed. For example, there are 164 papers listed in this Michael Simpson article which he claims is proof that there is no association between vaccines and autism. He asserts that the single best paper is a 2014 meta-analysis by Taylor et al., “Vaccines are not associated with autism: an evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies” (you can see a proof of the article here without a fee) which analyzes 10 studies (5 of each type), including Madsen (2002), Hviid (2003), DeStefano (2004), Andrews (2004), Smeeth (2004), and Verstraeten (2003). The problem of course is that all of these papers were debunked in the SafeMinds analysis. The best studies were the cohort studies and one of the cohort studies was judged to be “high risk.” The other four cohort studies were described in the SafeMinds analysis. For the case-control studies, the two largest ones in the study were also described in the SafeMinds analysis. So the best of the best of their best studies were debunked. These meta-analyses are only as good as the underlying papers. Can we talk in detail about the top 3 papers in each group? I’d love to meet with Simpson and we can debate his strongest evidence vs. my strongest evidence and let’s see what happens. But Simpson ignored my request. We cannot get a debate on this with anyone.
The other side declares victory (that it is “settled science”), yet runs when challenged to a simple debate on the top 5 papers on both sides. It is odd that they write pages and pages of text attempting to explain why they are right, but when challenged to discuss the top evidence, they don’t even reply. There are two “tells” here: anytime someone uses the term “settled science” when there is such a massive reality disconnect as demonstrated here, that’s disingenuous. Secondly, the side declaring “settled science” subsequently refusing to even respond yes or no (with a legitimate reason or counter offer) to a legit debate challenge with experts is a huge red flag that something is seriously wrong.
They won’t meet with scientists on our side to discuss all the data on the table to see if we can get a consensus. This is tragic. Kids suffer because their side won’t meet with our side. We are willing, they are not. What does that tell you? Someone is afraid of debate. RFK Jr. has been trying to get a debate on autism for 20 years.
Their argument for why vaccines don’t cause autism is to cherry pick all the studies showing no signal, and completely ignore every study with any signal. That’s dishonest science. An honest scientist would present credible studies and then explain with evidence the other studies that show the opposite to show why those studies not credible. They don’t do that. They avoid the studies that show the linkage like the plague. Watch this Susan Oliver video to see how they argue by cherry picking flawed studies and ignoring studies that conflict. Note in this article I include supportive studies and I debunk every study that they use. So I’m walking the talk here.
The McDowell triplets all became autistic within hours of each other on the same day (full video here). How is that possible? Easy. They were all vaccinated at the exact same time in the same pediatrician appointment with just one vaccine shot: the pneumococcal vaccine! Date of vaccination 6/25/07. They never held hands again after that day. The girl (Clair) shut completely off just 2 hours after the shot. The first boy, Richie, shut down 4 hours after the shot. See also this article. They were all 9 months and 4 days old at the time with no problems. The geneticist that was consulted told the McDowell's that it is an IMPOSSIBILITY for this to happen due to GENETICS. It is impossible for three different siblings to genetically get autism on the same day. What they mean by that statement is that the odds of this happening are so rare that you are highly unlikely to see a single case like this in your lifetime if it happened by chance. The article goes on to say, “We hear about children getting autism ALL THE TIME after their vaccinations.”
Hannah Poling developed autism within 2 days after her shot. She went from perfectly healthy to autistic. It was even determined scientifically that her autism was caused by the vaccine. So that should have ended the debate.
There are way too many of these “coincidences” (like Hannah and the triplets) to be random chance. You cannot orchestrate anecdotes like you can game a large research study.
There are apparently no cases of a unvaccinated child who was meeting all their milestones, then suddenly regressed into profound autism at 12 months or older. Note that profound autism affects 1 in 4 kids with ASD. See this tweet for details and the references.
Madsen study: A Population-Based Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and Autism (Madsen, 2002). This is cited by Martin Kulldorff as proof vaccines don’t cause autism. Even in this heavily flawed study, the raw data showed a strongly elevated risk of autism. So they never showed the raw data odds ratio (did you know that the rate of autism was 45% higher in the vaccinated group than the unvaccinated group?) and the paper only showed the adjusted numbers! That’s unethical. You can read the flaws in this study that was widely cited to prove that there was no association here. Over 1,000 scientists didn’t see anything wrong with the study! It’s really stunning how easily bad science propagates into the mainstream. Note that this is the single best study that is cited to prove that vaccines don’t cause autism and it is deeply flawed. The authors wouldn’t provide the underlying data and refused to answer any questions. Is that the way science works? There is also the Hviid 2019 study which was debunked by Brian Hooker here.
Wakefield 1998 paper: Wakefield’s retracted paper reported that “We investigated a consecutive series of children… Onset of behavioural symptoms was associated, by the parents, with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination in eight of the 12 children, with measles infection in one child, and otitis media in another.” So 66% of the cases were associated with the MMR vaccine.
The 2022 Morocco study: 70% of the 90 parents surveyed affirmed that the first autistic features appeared after vaccination with the MMR vaccine. The rates are nearly identical to the 66% rate in the Wakefield study.
DeStefano paper evidence destruction: CDC scientist William Thompson was ordered by his bosses at the CDC to destroy ONLY the evidence linking vaccines and autism. Furthermore, the race subgroup analysis showing the link was omitted from the paper which is also unethical. When Congressman Bill Posey tried to get Thompson to testify in Congress, they shut him down so there was no testimony. This coverup was what convinced Wakefield that he was right: vaccines cause autism. DeStefano refused to release the data when James Lyons-Weiler requested it. Also, all data has to be retained for 7 years. You can’t destroy data before that. The FOIA request took 10 years before the CDC responded to it. More about the DeStefano paper in this article.
Simpsonwood meeting: CDC scientist Thomas Verstraeten did a study in 1999 linking thimerosal with autism. They tried to make the autism signal go away. They couldn’t. The original signal was a RR=7.6 (see also this abstract) which is a huge signal. See my article for details and a link to the original Verstraeten study. See also this article and this historical overview and Simpsonwood 23 years later and the transcript. More history here.
Paul Offit lied to RFK Jr. about thimerosal: RFK Jr told me the story personally, but now, it’s on the Joe Rogan podcast Episode #1999. Start listening at 23:00. The punchline is at 28:33. Basically, the ethylmercury in the thimerosal makes a beeline out of your blood and deposits into your brain (unlike the methylmercury in fish which has a harder time entering your brain so it stays in your blood longer). Offit tried to convince RFK that the mercury gets excreted by referring to a paper. When RFK brought up the Burbacher study, there was dead silence on the line because Offit knew he had been caught in a deception. In short, thimerosal can seriously damage people’s brains. Vaccines are not supposed to cross the BBB. This creates biological plausibility needed for causality. See also my article about Offit attempting to respond to the episode.
Japan, France, and Sweden have fewer vaccines with better health outcomes. Why not adopt one of their schedules in the US?
There was a House bill (HR 3069) asking the NIH to compare vaccinated vs. unvaccinated, but it never made it out of committee. They know the damage.
Read the rest of the article here.
Don’t be surprised if your child’s pediatrician drops you because you don’t want to inject them with poison a million times. Here’s why:
They get kickbacks from big pharma. No surprise. Since they need to meet 63%, any decliner would detract from their goal.
What can my Fellow Warriors do About it?
Although there may be no cure for some mental illnesses, there are widely accepted treatments that are effective
Therapy - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help reframe thought patterns, process trauma, build coping skills, and address root causes.
Medications - modern psychiatric medications help regulate brain chemistry for serious conditions. Take the lowest effective dose if necessary. Antidepressants should not be stopped cold turkey without medical guidance. A tapering schedule is advised.
Lifestyle Interventions - underestimated but powerful & preferred since they support overall brain health and reduces systemic inflammation, which is linked to mental health issues:
Regular Exercise (especially cardio)
Consistent Sleep
Balanced, anti-inflammatory Diet
Mindfulness & Meditation
Reduced Alcohol/Substance Use
Community & Social Support - Support groups, peer counseling, family involvement. Programs like AA, group therapy, or local mental health communities. It helps reduce isolation, builds resilience, offers accountability and perspective.
Faith, Purpose, & Meaning - Many people experience transformation through spiritual practice, volunteering or helping others, & creative expression as they may offer a sense of identity, belonging, and motivation to heal.
As for Autism, the best we can do is offer a sense of understanding, support, & help with resources for impacted families. We can share information in an attempt to educate potential parents so they can make their own informed consent.
Until next time my fellow Warriors, stay informed, stay vigilant, Ever Forward!