Excellent article. Glad you read it, and took its cautions to heart. It is certainly important to take the drug cartel’s claims with a 25 lb bag of salt. Beware the clinical community sellout, and it’s also important to be aware of how the research community has sold out to the drug pushers, both at the individual and the institutional levels. Maybe I should be “civil” and say cognitive capture. The Atlantic had a series on this aspect about six months ago.
I keep insisting that no one knows the impact of these drugs, intended or side effects, except the person taking them. Or, as we said in the sixties, everyone has their own trip. Therefore, only the patient can make the final “cost/benefit” decision.
But be careful not to throw the b out w the bw. If you were miserable, and now your life is better…
I was chatting with a massage therapist the other day who described the incredible impact a psychotropic scrip drug had on the mind and body of an older client who had been deeply depressed for years. She could literally feel her body opening up. Transformative.
Tradeoffs. Ya can’t escape them.
I didn’t feel bad in the first place. I was paralyzed, not functioning in the way I wanted to, but I didn’t feel unhappy. That said, everything seems a lot lighter and easier to deal with when I’m medicated — except when I’m wondering what it’s doing to my brain chemistry, of course.
I once had a girlfriend who was taking Wellbutrin. It didn’t help her kind of crazy, and I use the term “crazy” with full awareness of its spectrum of meanings. When she was a child, she and her sister had seen their mother commit suicide by hanging in the basement. She was never well and was diagnosed (of course) as a borderline personality when I knew her. Living with her was like living with schizophrenic bobcat. That was the relationship that made me consider why I felt comfortable in relationships with a certain sort of person. The girlfriend did herself in a decade later.
I think a lot depends on the trust you have in your doctor.
Major Kong, I’m very sorry for your loss if there was one. But does this also mean that men make bad decisions too?
Don’t answer.
Well, I’ve been taking Celexa since last fall and felt better in just a few weeks. A lot of the “noise” in my head became a little more organized. But, in addition to the medication, I was let go from a VERY TOXIC job situation which improved my outlook as well, but has wreaked a little havoc on my finances to say the least. But, for some reason I am not functioning in “an impending disaster” mode much anymore and my more creative side is returning and my motivation to do things I like, my hobbies and such, has risen sharply. (but, no drug has ever made me fond of housework!) 🙂 I guess the brain chemistry alterations does concern me a little. I have a good GP that will take time to answer questions about the drugs and gives me information that I should be aware of.
Sizzle, sizzle. This is your brain on drugs.
Excellent article. Glad you read it, and took its cautions to heart. It is certainly important to take the drug cartel’s claims with a 25 lb bag of salt. Beware the clinical community sellout, and it’s also important to be aware of how the research community has sold out to the drug pushers, both at the individual and the institutional levels. Maybe I should be “civil” and say cognitive capture. The Atlantic had a series on this aspect about six months ago.
I keep insisting that no one knows the impact of these drugs, intended or side effects, except the person taking them. Or, as we said in the sixties, everyone has their own trip. Therefore, only the patient can make the final “cost/benefit” decision.
But be careful not to throw the b out w the bw. If you were miserable, and now your life is better…
I was chatting with a massage therapist the other day who described the incredible impact a psychotropic scrip drug had on the mind and body of an older client who had been deeply depressed for years. She could literally feel her body opening up. Transformative.
Tradeoffs. Ya can’t escape them.
I didn’t feel bad in the first place. I was paralyzed, not functioning in the way I wanted to, but I didn’t feel unhappy. That said, everything seems a lot lighter and easier to deal with when I’m medicated — except when I’m wondering what it’s doing to my brain chemistry, of course.
I once had a girlfriend who was taking Wellbutrin. It didn’t help her kind of crazy, and I use the term “crazy” with full awareness of its spectrum of meanings. When she was a child, she and her sister had seen their mother commit suicide by hanging in the basement. She was never well and was diagnosed (of course) as a borderline personality when I knew her. Living with her was like living with schizophrenic bobcat. That was the relationship that made me consider why I felt comfortable in relationships with a certain sort of person. The girlfriend did herself in a decade later.
I think a lot depends on the trust you have in your doctor.
Major Kong, I’m very sorry for your loss if there was one. But does this also mean that men make bad decisions too?
Don’t answer.
Well, I’ve been taking Celexa since last fall and felt better in just a few weeks. A lot of the “noise” in my head became a little more organized. But, in addition to the medication, I was let go from a VERY TOXIC job situation which improved my outlook as well, but has wreaked a little havoc on my finances to say the least. But, for some reason I am not functioning in “an impending disaster” mode much anymore and my more creative side is returning and my motivation to do things I like, my hobbies and such, has risen sharply. (but, no drug has ever made me fond of housework!) 🙂 I guess the brain chemistry alterations does concern me a little. I have a good GP that will take time to answer questions about the drugs and gives me information that I should be aware of.