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.
# 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.