Posted by Ritch on May 5, 2002, at 17:45:23
In reply to Re: Are Meds over prescribed ? Ritch.. , posted by Uppendown on May 5, 2002, at 16:10:55
.........For the sake of discussion, how many *others* are out there who *were* misdiagnosed, and are now on meds believing their "emotional" stuff is a "proof" symptom that the doc was right... don't question their Dx.. and are miserable still because no pill is ever going to "fix" bad relationship skills ! ( For example) But now, on top of their original "problem" of poor self esteem, codependancy, etc.. they now have gained 60 or 100 lbs, can't think clearly, etc, etc, etc... In their now "drugged" state, ( and we've taken enough to know how mind altering and powerful alot of them are..) how many do you think will step back and question their DX at THAT point ??? How many instead will interpret their difficulties as "evidence" that the dx was in fact correct ?? To what extent do forums such as this one essentially "support" being "sick" ?? How many posts have you read of people wishing they were " my old self again" ?? How many of those may in fact be misdiagnosed??
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> As I said, my concern is sincere... I've personally gone through all the above, and am still looking for answers... I'm only trying to get all of us to think about possibilities... explore ..
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> Best Wishes,
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> Uppendown
Hi,Some very interesting points you are making there. IMO, psychiatrists do not make the best therapists. I am sure there *are* pdocs which also happen to be outstanding therapists. I have had heard some good stories related to that. However, I tend to believe that is the exception rather than the rule. Perhaps a lot of pdocs "flunk" at therapy because there isn't enough *time*. I honestly believe *any* time period less than 50 minutes is worthless for therapy, and most pdoc visits are 15-30 minutes-just a hunch ("med checks"). Before we got flooded with all of the new pharmaceuticals to tinker with-therapy was very important and that usually was accomplished with clinical psychologists and psychiatric social workers. I am not saying that has come to a stop, it is just that the spotlight has now shifted from therapy to the pdoc because they now have all sorts of new tools in their toolkits which they didn't have before-many of which are quite powerful and helpful. We are just seeing folks with the powerful new tools that don't do therapy very well, and that just highlights the issue even more. I wouldn't want to go back to being "my old self"-NONONO :-) I have put up with my share of horrific driving habits, losing jobs, failing to get thru school, etc., because I went off my meds. I think the phenomena you are trying to address is the notion of a "pill for every problem-no matter how slight". That issue gets real sticky if you include pills for purely "physical" problems which reduce suffering for people that have arthritis-diabetes-heart disease, etc. I still believe that it is all boiling down to $$$. If all of these fancy new pills for everything under the sun were exceptionally cheap, I don't think there would be that much of a controversy. I believe that many in government/politics look at "overmedication" as a danger to society (the economy), precisely because it is too damned expensive..period. All of the baby boomers are beginning to retire and the oft talked about shift from people paying for the benefits and those receiving it is now underway and everybody is trying to cut the costs.
Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:104929
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020503/msgs/105202.html