Posted by boB on April 6, 2000, at 19:18:47
In reply to Re: meds and yapping, posted by AprilA. on April 6, 2000, at 17:04:22
Friends,
I agree that the reason there are so many posts here about meds is that this is a
psychopharmacology site. I came in through the front door, looking for ppharm
articles, and stumbled across this discussion.I am not an advocate of meds, but maybe a close friend of mine who might be
just like me but doesn't want to cop to a crime used outlaw meds for a long
time. From that experience, having a lot of respect for my friend who could
almost even be me, I have no moral high ground from which to damn people
who toy with their neurochemistry.Say this friend started out as a teen and young adult trying anything and everything, until a friend died of an OD and others spiraled into crime and confusion.
But say this friend had higher ideals, like being for a peaceful fair society, and
this friend who is a lot like me noticed that wherever he found lots of
musicians, and artists, and people whose life was an art form of sorts, planting
gardens, and wearing long folksy dresses (on the ladies) and building
pay-as-you go homes, and generally living against the tide of industrialism,
among all these groups he found a common thread, especially the use of
cannabis and hallucinogens.Well, this friend, who isn't me, so don't get a search warrant, or put a PIN
register on my phone, Mr. Government Man, soon found that the frustration of
standing against the direction of mainstream society was fatiguing.This friend, who is not me because I can't risk the professional stigma of
copping to these things, found that smoking cannabis provided welcome relief
to some of these frustrating symptoms that are described here and in DSM-IV as
depression.But this friend felt a lot like I do on one point. Me and my friend thought it was
appropriate to be sad for a long time because something very sad was
happening.Me and my friend didn't think that, once the six o’clock news was
over, the suffering of the people on the news went away.We did not thing it was anti-social to be sad and to refuse our participation in some of the competitive self-serving aspects of society, we thought it was empathetic. We thought many of the apparently happiest people in our society were actually manic and acting inappropriately happy in the face of a lot of destruction of species and of habitat and of old cultures, and of human beings.
Well, I held on to my supposedly depressed, anti-social personality, and pretty
soon (in eternal terms - it actually took a long time), those things that would
have been diagnosed as depressive anti-social symptoms became valid critiques
of my culture, and some people asked me to help articulate publicly some of
these critiques.I felt better, but I still thought cannabis did something to make my friend feel better. I now have a hunch the cannabis was boosting my friends dopamine and serotonin levels, and am a little perplexed at why some bunch of men in smog-belching limousines take issue with the way my friend chose to clog his own lungs.
Anyway, the illegal med use was not much of an issue, because I learned that
lots of people use illegal meds and just stay pretty quiet about it. I realized that a
lot of the people providing counseling, and writing insightful books, movies
and entertainment programs were the same people who secretly and intuitively
regulated their neurotransmitters with illegal medicines.So, I can't complain that people try to refine their psychopharmacological
regimes.I remember an old song, from my friends (not me, please mr. customs man)
hippie days. It said the dealer he's your friend, but goddamn the pusher man.And I realized (I mean my friend realized) that a lot of people were may be taking medicines and calling themselves sick because DSM-IV does not include nomenclature to describe a sick, poisoned, destructive, hypermanic culture.
And certainly pharmaceutical manufacturers have little incentive to give up incomes of $100,000 and up to promote instead a society of sharing, of not-excessively demanding work environments and of stable families grounded in stable communities with fair economies.
So this gets back the that rude post thread I started earlier.
I say, lets take drugs and be happy.NOT? Okay, lets stop calling ourselves sick every time we get the mental sniffles and instead lets start sweeping out some of this emotional dust that is poisoning our society.
I have no problem with treating mental discomfort with meds, or with using meds to address some of the pervasive mental conditions that effect our society, but I am concerned when, as an industry, the pharmaceutical monopoly (licensed practitioners) uses their hold on science to discourage efforts to address underlying social causes of unrest.
Someone started a private e-mail dialogue with me on this site, at once trying to
ferret out my position and perhaps responding with their own uncertainty that
any individual can effect collective change.
I replied with a couple of suggestions.One was for a study of: Neurotropic Effects on Individuals of Living in
Populations Exposed to Extreme, Varied and Frequently Changing Sources and
Levels of Sensory StimulusAnother was a frank expose of the circular logic of AA and the common practice
of courts who try to treat alcoholism with mandatory participation in a vague religious
group such as AA.
The following is a snippet of that dialogue:
I recently read a Johns Hopkins book about psychotherapy for alcoholics,
which presented the following logic for prescribing AA and for calling
alcoholism a disease:
_________________________________________________
There is some evidence that alcoholics share a common personality trait but the
evidence is not conclusive.The book does not say what the trait might be.
Since alcohol has a physiological effect, it is okay to call alcoholism a disease.
AA seems to work. Alcoholics tend to be obsessive, so telling them they have a
disease, and then prescribing AA as a treatment for the disease meets the needs
of their obsessive personality.AA alone is unlikely to permanently resolve the personality disorders of
alcoholics. Only prolonged therapy is likely to reach the causes of the disorder,
but most alcoholics never have the opportunity or inclination to attend such
therapy.
___________________________________________________Hey friends, talk about meds all you want. My desire is that an understanding
of neurochemistry and neurobiology will go beyond making new drugs and
begin to address collective, multigenerational behavioral and cultural conditions
that excite mental illness.I for one would like a med to cure this need to go on and on in discussion
boards and to repeat phrases over and over like...Lets study: Neurotropic Effects on Individuals of Living in Populations
Exposed to Extreme, Varied and Frequently Changing Sources and Levels of
Sensory StimulusLets study: Neurotropic Effects on Individuals of Living in Populations
Exposed to Extreme, Varied and Frequently Changing Sources and Levels of
Sensory StimulusLets Study: Neurotropic Effects on Individuals of Living in Populations
Exposed to Extreme, Varied and Frequently Changing Sources and Levels of
Sensory Stimulus
poster:boB
thread:28936
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000401/msgs/29120.html