Just Say Maybe
As those of us who have grown up in the wake of the War On Drugs TM know, drugs can’t solve any of your problems. You might be able to forget them for a while or lose yourself in a drug-induced haze, but it doesn’t make your problems go away. No, drugs can’t solve any of your problems.
In other news, Bush wants Americans and their kids doped to the gills.
President Bush plans to unveil next month a sweeping mental health initiative that recommends screening for every citizen and promotes the use of expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs favored by supporters of the administration.[...]
The panel found that “despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed” and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for “consumers of all ages,” including preschool children.
“Drugs can’t solve your problems, kids. Now, line up for medication time. Prozac on the left wall, Xanax on the right, and, Billy, come up to the desk for your Cymbalta.”
Is it any wonder that Eli Lilly was a major contributor to the Bush campaign – and just happens to be a major manufacturer of drugs designed to treat mental conditions?
Don’t misunderstand me. I know full well that there are serious disorders that require medication, and I’m willing to accept that a great many people who suffer from these conditions are undiagnosed. What I am dissatisfied with, however, is the rate at which prescriptions are handed out (not to mention marketed) like candy. Not everybody who feels nervous before heading out to a public place suffers from Social Anxiety Disorder. Not everybody who feels down is a candidate for Prozac. And yet it’s become the simplest thing in the world to go ahead and prescribe these medicines on the off chance that they’ll help you feel better – and with patient after patient taking Eli Lilly’s advice and asking their doctor if Prozac is right for them, the growing tide in America is to diagnose yourself before you even set foot into the doctor’s office. Now, when a doctor gets a string of patients asking for Prozac, in this day and age when socialized medicine is dead and deeply buried in favor of corporate and commercial medicine it’s better to just write the scrip and let it go.
Do we really need the government putting its stamp on that kind of world? It’s good for Eli Lilly’s business, but what will it do to us?
My doctor said, “Insomnia is just the symptom of something larger. Find out what’s actually wrong. Listen to your body.”I just wanted to sleep. I wanted little blue Amytal Sodium capsules, 200-milligram-sized. I wanted red-and-blue Tuinal bullet capsules, lipstick-red Seconals.
My doctor told me to chew valerian root and get more exercise. Eventually I’d fall asleep.
– Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
