Posted by dj on July 6, 2000, at 8:27:37
In reply to Re: Why the drugs don't work - but they DO work., posted by JohnL on July 6, 2000, at 4:55:16
> I've seen the right medication totally change the lives of sufferers over and over and over. Statistics give it about a 70% to 80% success rate, but that represents a few million people in the USA alone. Not too shabby.
>In one of my first university classes, Intro. to Business, taught be a brilliant mediator he carefully and rightfully outlined how statistics can and do distort pictures, because they are often based on false evidence. The book "Prozac Backlash" by a Harverd prof. details some of the distortions in pharm. company statistics which are reflected in those companies ethics, which are a part of the presidential race discussion in your country now.
And rightfully so, as the price mechanism there is grossly distorted. On CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp - a very credible, publically supported system)Radio the other night they discussed this and how some drugs cost your citizens twice as much in your country as they do elsewhere because of price gouging practices.
> I've also seen people not improve much with counseling and psychotherapy, aimed at targeting the very topics you've discussed. When the right medication was found, all those supposedly big >problems became minor.
All one has to do is look at this board over time to see the often negative impacts and results of ADs, and the human misery they can and do cause. "Prozac Backlash" goes into this in careful detail of the facts about the negative impacts of ADs which the pharm. companies have often ignored or covered over to make their stats. and marketing look better than they are in reality.See the above quotes from "Undoing Depression" as well, which also focus on these issues from various angles.
And there are bad counsellors just as there are bad ADs. And there are clients too, who are often not willing to do the hard work to dig down deep enough to deal with and move through the real pain they experience(d). And hence they suffer still and needlessly, sometimes from the ADs.
My experience with ADs was that they helped me stabilize emotionally but cognitively and physcically they had negative impacts, which were intolerable to me once stabilized and who knows what the longterm impact would have been...nobody, especially not the pharm. cos.!!
> Depression has a way of turning molehills into mountains. Perspective is twisted. All the psychosocial issues become quite tame and easily manageable however once the depressive chemistry has been fixed. Those mountains can be reduced to >tiny molehills.
Depressives often (though not always) see more clearly than non-depressives what is really going on in their lives and the world and hence more deeply experience the pains of our lives and societies because we are often more deeply sensitized to and by them.> It's interesting to pose theories on why this or why that causes depression. It's interesting to blame society and politics. That could be correct. Maybe not. Who knows for sure. Just theory. I think it is a shameful waste of human energy though. Talent would be better utilized in helping alleviate the suffering, rather than pointing fingers.
> JohnLDepression is an at-times shameful waste of human energies and as Stanford Neurologist and McArthur Fellow Robert M. Sapolosky clearly points out in his very good book: "Why Zebra's Don't Get Ulcers: An Updated Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases and Coping": "...depression is a genetic disorder of being vunerable to a stressful environment." I wrote a bit about that and my experience about that in my Linkages note below, from last night.
And as many articles clearly point out both stressors and depressions rates are increasing, hand-in-glove, throughout our societies.
Point being, that AD's deal with the effect and NOT the cause and hence only relieve the symptoms. Good counselling CAN help one dig deeper and deal with some of the issues that DO have to do with the way we percieve and re-act to and deal, effectively or not, with issues.
Some of the actions we can take individually and jointly are to carefully analyze and deal with the sources of stress at individual, local and societial levels as Marianne Williamson brilliantly points out in her books - "Return to Love" & "Healing the Soul of America"(and others elsewhere. See my posts quoting from the latter on Healing Self and Society above and Post 4th of July Reflections below...
So if taking a pill and just getting by is sufficient for you, good on you. I believe that in the short run pressures and depressions in our societies are going to build and get worse, unless brave people dig deep and take constructive action for the better. If you and I don't deal with these issues on a systemic individual and societal basis, then we are part of the problem rather than part of the solution, are we not???
We can stay home and just watch Survivor and babble on, until we really need to call on real deep survival skills as society detiorates around and about us...or we can make a deeper and impactful difference both for ourselves, our children (if we have any) and our friends and neighbours. Consider that, possibility...
Namaste!
dj
poster:dj
thread:39430
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000630/msgs/39544.html