The epidemic of mental illness

[mariness]

Much to write about, but still too exhausted to write most of it, so instead, linking you, and especially trouble and caligatia, to this article in the New York Review of Books about the epidemic of mental illness and pharmaceutical drugs.

(Not adding any personal comments/insights, just noting the article.)

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for the link!

One of my #1 fave disability rights thinkers, Cal Montgomery,
comments on atypical psychotics in the Ragged Edge. I have witnessed their profile skyrocketing; my prescribing doctors are eager for me to take them. I took one for four weeks with horrible side effects (even after reading Cal's post!)

[mariness]

I tried Cymbalta for four weeks. To be fair, the side-effects weren't as bad as with the other medications I tried, but, and these are big buts: 1) I did have have side effects; 2) it had absolutely no effect on my symptoms; 3) contrary to the commercials, it failed to cheer me up. Mind you, I wasn't depressed at the time.

A later doctor tried to put me on a couple of different SSRIs, not listening to my point that they weren't working (this is the doctor that doesn't listen period, although to be fair he is greatly renowned in the field and of course knows lots more than I do) and then later ran into problems when Walgreens refused to dispense his second attempt, because I also had a prescription for Tramadol and combining the two medications can lead to death. So. Overall this did not leave me with a positive impression.

From a biological point of view, it's not my field, and I don't study humans enough, but I am wary of playing around too much with anything that can interfere with certain biochemical communications largely because we literally haven't identified much of what's just in the air with that. We're improving by leaps and bounds, mind you, but we're not quite there yet.