Well, this is a depressing report.
Earlier this month the Archives of General Psychiatry released a much publicized study that one in 10 Americans is now taking antidepressants within the course of a year, making antidepressants the most prescribed kind of medication in the country. [...] One has to wonder: Are we really that miserable?
Manipulated might be a better word than miserable. If we were to pick one factor that explains the dramatically increased number of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (the technical name for drugs like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft) that now run through our collective bloodstream, it would be direct-to-consumer advertising, otherwise known as television commercials for prescription drugs. [...] The pharmaceutical companies concentrated on their best-selling “blockbuster” drugs — Lipitor, Claritin, Nexium, Viagra, as well as the psychiatric drugs Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, and more currently, Effexor and Lexapro — and soon enough these drugs became, quite literally, household names, the celebrities of pharmaceutical agents.
Why do we take so many drugs where we are supposed to ask our doctors to prescribe them for us. I thought doctors would determine if we had an illness and prescribe the correct drugs to fix the problem. Oh wait, no that is the way it works in the rest of the civilized world where people have medical care provided by the government. Here we ask our doctors to give us all the crap where insurance companies will pay 65% of the cost.
#18 Faxon
I truly pity your child. Truly. Honestly.
…you did not feel elated??? “No pills for YOU!” I told him. Also, “Man up and deal with it!”
Anti-depressant drugs don’t make people feel elated. Far from it. Many times, they make them feel like crap, sometimes to the point of killing themselves.
Telling a clinically depressed person to ‘man up and deal with it’ isn’t very helpful because they simply aren’t capable of doing that.
You see, not being able to deal with it isn’t a symptom, it’s the disease.
I’m not trying to be cruel here but I don’t expect you to get this at all – but maybe accurate information will help someone else and their child.
My kid’s doctor said he should be on antidepressants. I looked into it. Finally, I said no.. I wondered when he would get OFF of them, and asked myself how ANYONE could get off of them.
People only get off medication if the medication is for something that can be cured.
How silly would someone who said, “my doctor said I had diabetes and needed to take insulin. I wondered when I would ever stop taking it so I told the doctor no.”
I will probably be taking zoloft the rest of my life and that is much better than being depressed and having anxiety all the time. The medication isn’t so that I never get unhappy or that I don’t worry about anything. It is so that I will occasionally be happy and will only worry about the things that matter.
You know what the best health care system in the world doesn’t pay for? Accurate Diagnosis–especially for mental health issues, if they are even covered at all.
#18–Faxon==you looked into it. I believe you, hows it working out? “In General” the alternative to drugs is counseling. Slightly more in depth than “man up” but that sometimes works too along with a 3 year enlistment.===ie, what depressses most people is their local environment and any change is an attempt to cure. That and getting laid.
Subtle stuff.
I would not have posted without Weary’s fine example. Thanks.
#19–Benji==good book on this and larger context is “Clockwork Orange.” Much better than the more limited movie.
Antidepressants prescribed as part of an ongoing course of counseling are the most effective way of treating acute anxiety before it becomes chronic depression, which is a psychiatric illness. My culture uses tea, scones and a friendly fireside chit-chat.
@sargasso
My culture uses beer, pot and television.
#22, Weary Reaper… Good post. Basically what I was going to say.
THX1138
How much money do the Drs get as a kickback?
#24, Bobbo said “Benji==good book on this and larger context is “Clockwork Orange.” Much better than the more limited movie”
I really enjoyed the movie and always meant to read the book. I will have to give it a try.
Some medicine, including anti-depressants, is over prescribed. Ritalin for boys is especially over prescribed as well.
#29–Benji==you should like it. Just enough sex and violence to keep you hooked. From memory, the movie is mostly about that aspect but the book is more about the Droobs (?) or the anti-hero striving to get free of the mind control shackles put on him by an overcontrolling State Authority. Tension is created because what Alex wants to do is rape women and rob men and beat both to death.
Just what would a LIEBERTARIAN do?
The assumed position is that ALL DRUGS ARE OVERPRESCRIBED. Docs make more money and its easier than close observation, active management, and considering alternatives.
If you ever do get on a drug regime, try backing off every year or so to see if they are still needed. Often enough, the disease is no longer there and the side effects of the drugs go away when they are stopped. Of course, not always but often enough to consider it.
#29: Burgess created a whole language for the book that is reflected in what Alex says in the movie. Hard to read at first, but you eventually get the hang of it. Doesn’t make for a fast read, though. An amazing accomplishment on many levels.
#1 count yourself lucky — there is nothing worse than mental illness
#9 tend to agree about the legality issue — talk about nanny state — but as one who has been there, for me, marijuana sucks. Anti-depressants don’t.
#12 thanks for the link — I’ve forwarded it to my son and a few friends
#18 I pity your son. Try and expand your thinking, man.
#22, 23 — well said
# 32 – I dunno, back pain is pretty bad
My GP calls them SOMA pills and will generally only prescribe them if the patient insists. Then again, they really helped my sister through acute anxiety problems. I get the impression that some doctors prescribe them willy-nilly.
#18, faxon,
You make a great father of the year candidate in someplace like Alphie’s budding Nazi, Statist world. In the real world you are an asshole.
The best medicine for mental illness is that rarest, most expensive thing in today’s world: the individual attention of a knowledgeable and skilled human being. It’s amazing what can be accomplished in fifty minutes of talk a week with an experienced therapist.
Way, way back before most of you were born, as a teenager I got so messed up I even had to repeat a year of school, mostly due to social anxiety and being hung up on stuff that happened years before. My parents took me to a psychiatrist, who put me on some strong “tranquilizers” as they were called then, and talked to me once a week. Many times he would suggest something and I’d say “No, I don’t think that’s right at all.” And the next week I’d start out with “You know, I’ve been thinking about what you said and I think you may be right after all.”
After eight months he said he didn’t at first believe I could make the progress I had without hospitalization. I don’t claim to be a fully sane, well-adjusted human being, but at least I’m no longer crippled in social situations.
Over my (mumble)-ty-some years I’ve had sessions with several counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists, etc., and I’ve found that about half of them helped me materially, about every third or fourth one was useless, and about every third or fourth one helped _substantially_. (I managed somehow to avoid any that were actually harmful.) The point is, don’t be too discouraged if counseling doesn’t work right away. I’ve heard many people say (or write to Dear Abby) “I tried it once but it didn’t do any good.” Don’t give up after just one.
And sometimes the drugs are a big help; just try not to have to take them “every day for the rest of your life.” (The new motto of the drug companies.) Unless, of course, your problem is schizophrenia inherent in your brain chemistry. Those you keep taking until they tell you to stop.