Tom Terrific?

Last Updated on January 21, 2017

So what’s up with Tom Cruise?

I’m happy the guy is in love, even if he’s going a little overboard in showing his affection for his fiancé. I’m happy he’s getting lots of great publicity about his new picture. I’m happy for him that the constant speculation about whether he is or isn’t gay — which, in the grand scheme of things should make absolutely no difference whatsoever to anyone else who has a life of their own — doesn’t bother him. And I’m happy that he’s found so much personal fulfillment with his religion, Scientology.

(I would be more likely to call it a psuedo-religion because it does not require one to necessarily abandon their religious beliefs to practice it. Cruise himself states, “You can be a Christian and be a Scientologist” and “(Scientology is) tools that you have that can actually…that you apply to your life.”)

But after his appearance on NBC’s Today show Friday, I’m more than a little perplexed. And I’m not the only one, apparently. The appearance had New York Daily News writer Tracy Connor asking whether the War of the Worlds star was “lost in space!”

If you missed the interview, and the subsequent clips rebroadcast on every show from Entertainment Tonight” to Inside Edition, he was chatting with Matt Lauer about how wonderful life was…until Matt turned nasty and asked him about his remarks about Brooke Shields.

Shields wrote in her memoir that she had suffered from post-partum depression and took anti-depressants to beat the condition. Cruise, who shares the Scientologist distrust of psychiatry, criticized her for having done so.

“I’ve never agreed with psychiatry, ever. Before I was a Scientologist I never agreed, and when I became a Scientologist, I never agreed. … All it does is mask the problem,” he told Lauer.

Lauer asked Cruise why, if the medication worked for her, it was a problem for him, precisely the question I’d have asked.

Cruise defended his earlier criticism, assuring the audience that he only wants what’s best for Shields, but told Lauer, “You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.” He went on to suggest that Shields “doesn’t understand the history of psychiatry. She doesn’t understand in the same way that you don’t understand it, Matt.”

He then suggested that there is no such thing as a “chemical imbalance,” and said that “mood disorders” can be cured with vitamins, exercise and “various things.” He didn’t say whether the “various things” included Scientology, but one can only assume…

But wait a second here. No such thing as a chemical imbalance? That’s funny. If mood disorders aren’t caused by a chemical imbalance, then vitamins, which are also chemicals, shouldn’t have an effect on them any more than anti-depressants. And if there is no chemical imbalance going on, exercise, which produces physiological and chemical changes in the body, likewise shouldn’t have an effect.

Shields last month called Cruise’s comments about her “outrageous:”

“Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them.”

Cruise also attacked drugs used to treat hyperactivity in children. Here is an excerpt from that exchange:

Cruise: Matt, you have to understand this. Here we are today, where I talk out against drugs and psychiatric abuses of electric shocking people against their will, of drugging children with them not knowing the effects of these drugs. Do you know what Aderol is? Do you know Ritalin? Do you know now that Ritalin is a street drug? Do you understand that?

Lauer: Aren’t there examples, and might not Brooke Shields be an example, of someone who benefited from one of those drugs?

Cruise: All it does is mask the problem, Matt. And if you understand the history of it, it masks the problem. That’s what it does, that’s all it does. You’re not getting to the reason why. There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance.

Lauer: But aren’t there examples where it works?

Cruise: Matt, Matt, Matt, you don’t even – you’re glib. You don’t even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, okay? That’s what I’ve done.

His personal research was quickly called into question by members of the mental health community. The National Mental Health Association issued this harshly-worded statement:

“Tom Cruise’s destructive, anti-mental health comments on the Today Show this morning — and over the course of the last few weeks — fuel an already intense stigma associated with mental illness that can force people with real needs to go without care.

“Each year, 54 million Americans experience a mental illness, such as depression or an anxiety disorder. Yet, only one-third receive any treatment at all despite very high treatment success rates. In fact, the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health wrote in its final report, ‘Mental illnesses are shockingly common; they affect almost every American family.’ Clearly, the real crisis facing our nation is not that we over- or mistreat people, but that we fail to meet basic needs of most Americans living with mental health problems. The gap between the number of adults and children with mental health needs and those receiving treatment will certainly widen if people are dissuaded from seeking treatment because of such visible misinformation.

“Cruise’s comments could have very damaging consequences for Americans with mental health needs by increasing stigma and shame, discouraging treatment and forcing people to go without needed care. Celebrities, like Cruise, have an organic platform to share their talents and their viewpoints. However, this opportunity comes hand-in-hand with a responsibility to not mislead the American public with unfounded rhetoric.”

One of the few points that I agreed with Cruise on, and I suffer from anxiety and depression myself badly enough to know that it’s not something taking a walk or popping a One-A-Day vitamin will fix — I’ve tried that, thank you, Tom — is that to merely pop pills is to mask the problem.

That’s definitely true.

But part of dealing with anxiety, panic, depression, or any of the other mental disorders is to use medication as part of the treatment, not all of it. Psychiatrists prescribe such medication after talking one-on-one with their patients and urging them to undergo counseling as well.

To pop a pill and do nothing more for depression is like popping an aspirin to ease the headache from a brain tumor: the symptoms may ease themselves, but the underlying condition is still there. Surgery will take care of the tumor, and therapy can take care of the root causes of the anxiety.

The beliefs of Scientology include this interesting tidbit:

“Xenu, the evil intergalactic ruler who implanted “thetans” or alien spirits, in earth’s volcanoes 75 million years ago, after which they escaped and invaded human bodies. The ultimate belief of Scientology is that you are possessed by the spirits of aliens murdered 75 million years ago by ‘Xenu’ and you have to exorcise these spirits.”

For someone whose religious beliefs involve the notion that my problems today are the result of space aliens who died 75 million years ago to try to dictate to me and others what is and isn’t science fiction seems a little over the top.

If those beliefs work for him — and clearly they do — then that’s fine. He has every right to believe what he considers to be the ultimate truth in his heart. But don’t preach to me that I’m wrong for taking medication while claiming that the study of space aliens has given you the real story about real science. Those beliefs definitely do not work for me.