Posted by SLS on April 29, 2012, at 1:55:33
In reply to Re: ADs may do more Harm than Good -New Research paper, posted by Phil on April 28, 2012, at 22:40:25
Hi Phil.
You said much of what I was thinking and feeling, but that I didn't have the motivation to write. This is an old topic, and I have had my fill of addressing it the way I have in the past. However, I would be interested to see the actual research paper that is being referred to in the article introduced here. Perhaps I would have commented on it.
I thank God for the true scientists and doctors who study and treat mental illnesses. Without them, I doubt that I would have allowed myself to suffer beyond the 1980s. I am guessing that we were born 50 years too early to have been cured of these illnesses. I am just grateful that I was born late enough to have some chance of being treated successfully and living the last third of my life happily and free of psychic pain.
The treatment of mental illness is not a free ride. Usually, one must make compromises and sacrifices in order to tolerate the adverse effects of the currently available therapies. Do psychiatric drugs leave indelible footprints in the brain? The answer to this question seems to be yes. This is important information. However, it is a matter of perspective that influences the decisions made using this information. Attitude affects perspective. I will continue to work with the attitude that the fields of neuroscience and psychiatry are genuinely interested in healing people and preventing the induction of these illnesses. The resulting perspective for me is that drugs are better than no drugs. They are imperfect tools to be sure. They have their liabilities. So, too, do a great many drugs used in other fields of medicine. If cancer doesn't klll you, the chemotherapy used to treat it might do so first. It is a difficult decision to make to treat an illness with a harmful substance. Yet, that is precisely what many of us agree to, whether it be for depression or for gout.
Okay, so we remove every psychiatric medication that has been shown to produce adverse side effects = get rid of them all. What do we do next? Nothing? Not treat? Blame "Big Pharma" for not discovering and developing better drugs? Shall we also remove those drugs for HIV AIDS that have side effects = remove them all? What about NSAIDS and fatalities from bleeding ulcers = remove them all? I will leave for others the attitude that greed alone drives medicine. Yuck.
- Scott
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> These kinds of threads always make me want to ditch the meds. I've been on many over a 30 year period mostly at high doses. I don't feel brain damaged or any other kind of damaged.
> I've never felt that the doctors I've had were doing anything other than trying to keep a wicked disease under control. I don't feel like a chump eager to do anything my doctor says.
> I don't believe that all psychiatrists are evil or stupid trying to get the whole planet strung out on drugs.
> I've never had a hideous discontinuation syndrome but I've had side effects. If they were bad I would find something hopefully better.
> Who knows? Maybe if I got off of everything I might feel better or the same. But I remember the crushing depression I had before meds and I have gotten off TCA's once or twice. The depression was waiting.
> I don't think that it would be wise for 'me' to drop medication. Everyone has a choice and I respect that. There are tons of people online that said psych meds screwed them up so they got off of them. Then some say, well orthomolecular medicine helped them or a constantly rotating mess of handfuls of herbs, vitamins, SJW, colon cleansing, massage, chiropractic, etc. Many have absolutely no idea what they're doing but in their minds it's better than a pill. More power to you.
> I trust my doctor more than I trust 99% of the crazy sh*t some people buy into to treat their disorder.
> Maybe I am a chump. But having this 'inherited' disease for 30 years and to say I'm still on this planet is enough for me. Maybe tomorrow I'll change my mind, but it won't be because I'm brain damaged. I guess I'm not enlightened and 20 years from now this time in psychiatry will be compared equally with lobotomies and asylums.
> With my family history I doubt I'll be around for people to tell me I told you so.Some see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1016380
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120425/msgs/1016667.html