tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post3498162529017036752..comments2024-03-09T08:58:57.961-05:00Comments on Everything is Interesting: Trying to cure lifeJulie H. Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-6942029834522055072010-03-14T10:25:57.007-04:002010-03-14T10:25:57.007-04:00By the way, I read R.S. Lang's "Knots&quo...By the way, I read R.S. Lang's "Knots" and was very impressed with him. Of course, he wrote during a time when there were few drugs to treat anxiety or depression. If he were alive today, he might very well have the same point of view as he expressed in his books. But my views have changed after seeing the inability of talk therapy to help anyone who I know and the ability of chemicals to help at least some people that I know.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00575553838144184162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-19991212091030038382010-03-14T10:20:26.264-04:002010-03-14T10:20:26.264-04:00Hi there
First, I personally do not believe that ...Hi there<br /><br />First, I personally do not believe that it's unethical or even unwise to give people drugs if it makes them feel better even if their unhappiness is because of life situations. You ask, why not give everyone heroine? Well, that drug has very bad side effects. But if there is a drug with minor side effects that could, for example, shorten the grieving process, why not take it. I know people say it's important to go through the grieving process, but where's the proof of that? Maybe the end of grieving is just a matter of time -- say 6 months. If you can take something that can help you during those six months, why not take it? And does going through the pain of depression based on a life situation make one more resilient? I don't know that that's true. It could just as easily break someone, demoralize them. Say one is depressed because she's a single mother with many kids, poor housing and little money. If an anti-depression drug can help her gain the self-confidence to go back to school despite all the challenges, why not prescribe it? I know someone who was having a hard time because both her children were diagnosed at the same time with a disease which would render them legally blind. The doctor gave her something to help her through this: to allow her to eat and sleep and deal with what she had to deal with. What's the harm? <br /><br />Anyway, I highly recommend this New Yorker article (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/03/01/100301crat_atlarge_menand?printable=true), which discusses the very issues you bring up from a number of different points of view.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00575553838144184162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-66786922449271526082010-03-12T17:59:42.625-05:002010-03-12T17:59:42.625-05:00I read to the part were you started using the phra...I read to the part were you started using the phrase 'drug people.'<br /><br />Is that anything like, for example, 'feed people' or 'house people?'<br /><br />If you don't like drugs, don't take them.<br /><br />I guess I should finish reading in all fairness.dick fischbeckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05277255042244511975noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-24970765005640162972010-03-12T16:20:18.281-05:002010-03-12T16:20:18.281-05:00I'm reading a new book,"Manufacturing Dep...I'm reading a new book,"Manufacturing Depression", and I will send it to you when I'm done reading it. <br /><br />I suppose I don't worry what others think, which is both a good and bad thing, but that's who I am. If someone is threatened by my opinion, I rather think they must be insecure about their own. <br /><br />I'm glad you appreciated the post. <br /><br />The disease model has taken over every sphere of human behavior. At the same time, new behavioral therapies are proving to have enormous efficacy. To my mind, that doesn't add up. <br /><br />We CAN improve our own lives, and I agree wholeheartedly that the disease model creates helplessness (and hopelessness, I might add). AA is based on the disease model, and it also is based on saying "I am powerless. . ." This, I must disagree with. We must re-take our power, not give it up! There's a book (name forgotten) that has a feminist perspective on AA, and in it the author changed the 1st step to something like "I WAS powerless and my life was unmanageable. . ." <br /><br />Excuse me, I'm all over the map today (not unusual for me!)Julie H. Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18370626312151913595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7048229334858323343.post-23190832535631391012010-03-12T09:58:21.980-05:002010-03-12T09:58:21.980-05:00Yes! Yes to everything you wrote. As another who h...Yes! Yes to everything you wrote. As another who has "struggled with depression," I am dismayed by the way drugs and the disease model have taken over our understanding of human feelings. I rarely feel free to say it as openly as you have, because so many people in my life take these drugs and they feel attacked by any questioning of the model.<br /><br />When I was dying of anorexia--and that's not too strong a way of putting it--I got enormous pressure to take medication, and my refusal was considered evidence of my mental illness. That's the Catch-22 of the disease model. You are reduced to helplessness, and you begin to doubt your own ability to improve your life.<br /><br />Thank you, Julie.BitterGracehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18262639525430954930noreply@blogger.com