Posted by DStupid on March 30, 2007, at 20:18:02
In reply to Re: Mind Is Awakening After ll Years, posted by Phillipa on March 24, 2007, at 22:57:27
Good ideas, Phillipa. I think the root of the problem is money. The popularilization of psychiatric meds is based in the U.S. government's refusal to fund mental-health institutions and related facilities. We all have seen homeless mental patients who have been discharged without any provision for their upkeep. (A recent analogous case in the U.S. is a hospital discharge of a paraplegic on a wheelchair, to the skid row.) Institutionalized mental patients are an extreme case, however. There are millions of those, like me, who are uncomfortable with the present life as the society presents it to them: long hours at work, high prices, few places of entertainment, no health insurance if unemployed, low social security benefits on retirement, lack of adequate medical care, disrespect by the aristocrat (wealthy, or professionals like doctors). Such people can't be institutionalized; the legal commitment standards aren't met; and the government doesn't want to pay for their stay even if do qualify for commitment. So what's an easy answer for the government? Let those people be drugged with the psychiatric meds. Let them be chemically happy -- not as people -- so that they can continue functioning as units of society. No longer is the government waiting for people to become mental ill before treating them. No, it's nipped in the bud. The government assumes everyone to be mentally ill, and therefore makes available preventive treatment to everyone. More than just makes available, through the Federal Drug Administration, it lures them into an easy fix: Ambien or Lunesta for a sleep disturbance, Prozac or its siblings for a slight depression, Klonopin for a slight worry.
We're living under a slogan: You got a problem, take a pill and don't bother us.
poster:DStupid
thread:743841
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070327/msgs/745618.html