Posted by Squiggles on September 21, 2002, at 17:10:49
In reply to Re: confused thinkingsquiggles, posted by URCONFUSED on September 21, 2002, at 16:28:46
Your first point is a good one. In a sense
the drugs can bring depression or another
mental illness, to a state that may as well
be recovery from depression.The question is, can this happen without drugs?
For example, we used to have something (before
the onset of pharmacological psychiatry at this
present scale) called a *nervous breakdown*. When
a man went through a crisis and had a nervous
breakdown he would be sent to a sanitorium and
after a few months of rest and some drugs, he would
then be released. This is no longer done, and
hardly ever heard of.Another point about recovery; the concept of
prophylactic medicine does not permit the possibility
of testing recovery. That is, if it presumed from
the start that a depression or some psychological
trauma is chronic, and on the basis of that the
drugs are given for life, it is not possible to
test for recovery.A third point, even if it is presumed that the
person may have *recovered* from a mental illness,
giving drugs on a chronic basis presents another
logistical problem: the withdrawal from drugs
presents with such devastating effects, some them
chronic themselves, that is impossible to distinguish
lack of recovery from brain changes due to drugs.About the anti-psychiatry people: there are many
camps. There are the extremists like Lawrence Stevens J.D.
who argues that there is no such thing as mental
illness. The most i can say for him is that he has
J.D. besides his name and therefore no medical expertise
to argue with. Then there are the kind who wish
to protect the rights of the mentally ill such as David
Oak's group; and there are others such as Scientology
or religious groups who really have the wrong motives
at heart. There are also groups who have taken drugs,
have come off and are better and wish to educate
and inform the medical community of the effects of
certain drugs, e.g. the addictive nature of some
and i say some, benzos.As for denial, I think you are being presumptuous
in this and perhaps a bit Freudian. Some people are
quite aware of what drugs do to them and are able
to monitor their feedback according to dose and type
of drug -- that is why they are able to go the dr.
and say "i would like to try another drug" and the dr.
very often agrees.Finally, i suspect by your smart-ass tone that
you are a first year punk in medicine or pharmacology,
and lack both experience and compassion.Squiggles
poster:Squiggles
thread:120456
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020914/msgs/120631.html