Mental Health And Medicine

[sobe]

Your Medication before was working OK was it? Sertralene is the same drug as Paxil,

as John said

Medication was meant for short term but it is being used for long term.

as Michael Moore said

About four hundred years from now, historians will look back at us like we were some sort of barbarians, but for now we're just the laughing stock of the Western world.

be careful many of those drugs can make you worse in the long run

Edited October 16, 2006 by sobe

[sobe]

When my girlfriend stopped taking anti depressents she cried almost every day, for no reason at all, for about a month. Then she was fine.

“I felt so sick that I couldn’t get off my couch,” O’Brien said. “I couldn’t stop crying.”

withdrawals

http://www.psychiatry.info/victims-of-psyc...rable-for-some/

the fact that psychiatry is not popular is a good thing as it is in my opinion a very dangerous form of medicine

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8...iatry&hl=en

Edited October 18, 2006 by sobe

[bendix]

Oh my god. This just gets weirder and weirder.

Don't tell us you're a damned Scientologist , sobe?

Edited October 18, 2006 by bendix

[Mr Jones]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8...iatry&hl=en

says all that needs to

[sobe]

James A. Blumenthal, Ph.D. and his colleagues surprised many people in 1999 when they demonstrated that regular exercise is as effective as antidepressant medications for patients with major depression.  The researchers studied 156 older adults diagnosed with major depression, assigning them to receive the antidepressant Zoloft (setraline), 30 minutes of exercise three times a week, or both. According to Blumenthal "Our findings suggest that a modest exercise program is an effective, robust treatment for patients with major depression who are positively inclined to participate in it.  The benefits of exercise are likely to endure particularly among those who adopt it as a regular, ongoing life activity."

In September 2000 the team released the results of a follow-up study.  Blumenthal and his colleagues continued to follow the same subjects for six additional months and found that the group who exercised but did not receive Zoloft did better than either of the other two groups. 

A very interesting finding concerns the group that received both Zoloft and exercise.  These subjects were more likely to again become depressed than the subjects who only exercised.  Blumenthal and colleagues speculated as to why the combination group had higher depression relapse rates than the exercise-alone group.

"It is conceivable that the concurrent use of medication may undermine the psychological benefits of exercise by prioritizing an alternative, less self-confirming attribution for one's improved condition," said Blumenthal. He speculated that patients might have incorporated the belief, "I took an antidepressant and got better" instead of incorporating the belief, "I was dedicated and worked hard with the exercise program; it wasn't easy, but I beat this depression."

Will exercise work as well outside the laboratory?  It probably depends on the population.  The patients in this study appear to have been highly motivated to exercise, and the researchers called them on the phone to remind them if they missed their exercise session. Not everybody is this motivated to make such a significant lifestyle change.  Exercise won't relieve your depression if you can't make yourself exercise.

Why does exercise relieve depression?  Researchers at Duke are in the process of conducting further research to answer this question.  For now it seems clear that exercise can help.  Spread the word.   

Edited October 20, 2006 by sobe

[John K]

Here is an article that I came across by non other than Consumer Reports. It compares talk therapy vs drug therapy. Point of note only in the USA 1 of 5 people who are presently on medication actually need to be. Medication only masks the problem and does nothing to resolve it. Medication was originally to be used for short term less than 6 months to help people get over a rough spot in the road. Medication was also a last resort and not like it is now where psychiatrists have their script pad out even before you sit down in their office. Essentially it has become a symbiotic relationship between the drug companies and psychiatrists. That was brought on by insurance companies getting heavily involved in cost cutting. 20 years ago it was never this way.

One other important note. Drugs for mental heath only simulate what your mind can do if properly stimulated. The difference is the drugs have negative side effects.

http://www.consumerreports.org/mg/free-hig...talktherapy.htm

[bendix]

What about 'kick up the arse for being self-indulgent' therapy?

Does that work as well as drugs?

[sobe]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4...mp;q=psychiatry

Thailand is so lucky that they have so few of these idiots ... may be the reason so many are smiling in the country ... as many as one out of three people in the US are on these ridicules drugs . Change your diet and get out there and start working out (fact)

[John K]

What about 'kick up the arse for being self-indulgent' therapy?

Does that work as well as drugs?

Just a simple question, you have been quite negatively vocal in this part of the forum. I and I am sure others are wondering what your professional qualifications are.

[sobe]

What about 'kick up the arse for being self-indulgent' therapy?

Does that work as well as drugs?

Just a simple question, you have been quite negatively vocal in this part of the forum. I and I am sure others are wondering what your professional qualifications are.

ditto

a mark used to indicate the word above it should be repeated

[sriracha john]

Oh my god. This just gets weirder and weirder.

Don't tell us you're a damned Scientologist , sobe?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4...mp;q=psychiatry

Thailand is so lucky that they have so few of these idiots ... may be the reason so many are smiling in the country ... as many as one out of three people in the US are on these ridicules drugs . Change your diet and get out there and start working out (fact)

Excellent astute spotting, bendix!!! geez... you're good!

from sobe's link:

This is a TV Edition of the popular Freedom Magazine, published by the Church of Scientology

so sobe... you're saying that 100 MILLION Americans are taking psychiatric medications?

I'm hoisting the BS Flag on that one. Make that hoisting the Utter BS Flag.

The REALLY lucky thing about Thailand is there are precious few of these scientologists roaming the streets...

[sobe]

Just a simple question, you have been quite negatively vocal in this part of the forum. I and I am sure others are wondering what your professional qualifications are.

one out of 3 is obese also ... you do not have to be a Scientologist to understand that psychiatric drugs are poison and over prescribed beyond belief .... would you put your six year old on kiddie crack (ritilan) ..... lets just say America is full of unhealthy people now and the Dr.'s are driven by the pharmaceutical company and they have one goal make money for their stockholders . So what used to be called simply shyness or anxiety in relating to people is now labeled a mental disorder and you supposedly need an antidepressant like Paxil for social anxiety disorder.

When someone came here saying they were having crying spells and depressed ... I would bet with a 45 minute a day aerobic exercise routine and the right diet that would go away and they would feel better than they ever have . If they walk into a shrinks office they are coming out with drugs and over time get worse . If you give someone an antidepressant, and that tries to keep serotonin levels too high in the brain, it does exactly the opposite. It stops producing as much serotonin as it normally does and it reduces the number of serotonin receptors in the brain. So someone who is on an antidepressant, after a time ends up with an abnormally low level of serotonin receptors in the brain. I would bet the average person in Thailand is a lot healthier than the average American . Shows you that personal income has nothing to do with health ...

The amount of money Americans spend on psychiatric drugs is more than the Gross National Product of two-thirds of the world's countries. It's just this incredibly lucrative paradigm of the mind that you can fix chemical imbalances in the brain with these drugs.

Edited October 20, 2006 by sobe

[sriracha john]

is there a way of avoiding the scientology rhetoric?

it's water buffalo manure and dangerous to spout when people are truly in need of assistance.

it's worse than spam....

[sobe]

it's water buffalo manure and dangerous to spout when people are truly in need of assistance.

telling someone to try diet and exercise before taking dangerous drugs ....

[sriracha john]

it's water buffalo manure and dangerous to spout when people are truly in need of assistance.

telling someone to try diet and exercise before taking dangerous drugs ....

What's truly dangerous is not advocating someone to go see a doctor in person. If you think it's acceptable to give any other advice based upon nothing more than a couple of paragraphs of internet text, you are failing that person and putting them at risk as well as failing to recognize the seriousness of the situation.

[John K]

it's water buffalo manure and dangerous to spout when people are truly in need of assistance.

telling someone to try diet and exercise before taking dangerous drugs ....

What's truly dangerous is not advocating someone to go see a doctor in person. If you think it's acceptable to give any other advice based upon nothing more than a couple of paragraphs of internet text, you are failing that person and putting them at risk as well as failing to recognize the seriousness of the situation.

Sj he is talking about the natural productions of endorphins associated with physical activity. It is a well documented fact. Endorphins are the feel good hormones.

[sriracha john]

it's water buffalo manure and dangerous to spout when people are truly in need of assistance.

telling someone to try diet and exercise before taking dangerous drugs ....

What's truly dangerous is not advocating someone to go see a doctor in person. If you think it's acceptable to give any other advice based upon nothing more than a couple of paragraphs of internet text, you are failing that person and putting them at risk as well as failing to recognize the seriousness of the situation.

Sj he is talking about the natural productions of endorphins associated with physical activity. It is a well documented fact. Endorphins are the feel good hormones.

Problem is, he's advocating it as a replacement to seeing a doctor in person. Certainly exercise is good for anyone, but it's no stand-alone treatment for clinical depression. You can't "will" it away, you can't "eat" it away with dietary changes and you certainly can't "exercise" it away. It requires a multi-faceted treatment plan to have any hope of success.

There's a serious fundamental lack of knowledge for people advocating anything other than seeing a medical doctor in person as the absolute first step. It's the only safe choice. No one is in a position of accurately evaluating the situation from behind a monitor screen.

Baboon... I wish you all the best, but please... see a doctor.

[davidjtayler]

it's water buffalo manure and dangerous to spout when people are truly in need of assistance.

telling someone to try diet and exercise before taking dangerous drugs ....

What's truly dangerous is not advocating someone to go see a doctor in person. If you think it's acceptable to give any other advice based upon nothing more than a couple of paragraphs of internet text, you are failing that person and putting them at risk as well as failing to recognize the seriousness of the situation.

Sj he is talking about the natural productions of endorphins associated with physical activity. It is a well documented fact. Endorphins are the feel good hormones.

Maybe thats why Thai people seem so happy ... eating all those chillis in their food ... releasing lots of endorphins ...

[Mr Jones]

Just a point on ECT the man who first dreamed it up a Portuguese, who’s name I forget, was shot dead by one of his victims, how the <deleted> did the thing inducing a fit would cure anything.

Sorry for the hijack

Lez

[sobe]

Psychiatry as we know it today is more priesthood than science. Its conglomeration of half-baked theories is handed down by an arbitrary elite-authorities who have attained such status through who they know and who can sweet-talk the government into parting with yet more grant money.

While as for what they actually do, there are only three primary methods of “treatment”-electroshock, psychosurgery and psychotropic drugs.

To illustrate the unscientific basis of this “science,” in Fascist Italy in the 1930s, Professor Ugo Cerletti noted that back in A.D. 43 or so, Roman citizens would sometimes try to rid themselves of headaches by putting a torpedo fish on their heads. A torpedo fish generates about 25 volts of electricity. Perhaps it was just coincidence that the Empire fell soon after that, but be that as it may, Cerletti was undeterred by this observation and set off on a new path. He began his experiments by killing dogs with huge jolts of electricity. However, before he could significantly reduce Rome’s canine population, inspiration came in the form of a visit to a pig slaughterhouse. There, much to his delight, he found that pigs were not killed by the electricity administered, but only sent into epileptic convulsions, whereupon their throats could conveniently be cut by the butchers. After experimenting further-and losing a great many pigs-to discover how much electricity it would take to kill one of the porcine creatures, he was ready for man. The unfortunate vagrant he chose (generously supplied by the police) received 70 volts to the head, fell, then shouted, “Not a second [one]. It will kill!” Later, it was discovered that human beings could withstand between 140 and 150 volts to the brain. Thus electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT) was born.

Psychosurgery had equally shabby beginnings, according to the medical historians. In 1848, Phineas Gage of Vermont was peering into a blasting hole when a charge detonated and blew a metal tamping rod through his brain-an unfortunate accident that he managed to survive. But, his astute physician noted with amazement, Gage had changed! A most noticeable change-from efficient and capable, to self-indulgent and profane. Thus Gage made his place in history as the first person to survive a lobotomy. The man who actually established himself as the father of the lobotomy (a procedure conducted on intractable patients to make them more manageable) was Dr. Egas Moniz. He operated on about one hundred patients. However, in at least one case, the operation might have been a success but the doctor died: he was shot by one of his lobotomized patients. That in 1949 he was given the Nobel prize for this questionable advancement is one of the saddest ironies of medical history. Nonetheless, it assured that many followed his path.

As for drugs, witch doctors have used the natural variety for centuries. Today’s pharmaceutical psychotropic drugs began their development with attempts to brainwash recalcitrant citizens and political prisoners. Virtually all of the original research-in Russia, Germany and the United States-was funded by intelligence agencies. Once again, the aim was to make individuals more tractable and malleable. And, in the United States, at least, most of it was illegal, conducted on unknowing servicemen and citizens. Except, of course, in the oft-cited instance of CIA psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Jolyon West, who was the only man known to have killed an elephant with LSD.

That all of this experimentation-drugs, psychosurgery, ECT-has never cured anyone of anything but, on the contrary, has either made people more manageable or damaged them beyond recognition, has never stopped the psychiatric community from continuing these practices. After all, these are the only tools they have. Without them, they would have nothing to sell.

[sriracha john]

bad form to cite some babble without a link....

www.scientology_bunk.com?

Edited October 22, 2006 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

Just a point on ECT the man who first dreamed it up a Portuguese, who’s name I forget, was shot dead by one of his victims, how the <deleted> did the thing inducing a fit would cure anything.

Sorry for the hijack

Lez

It's never been referenced as a cure, but it IS a treatment. Forget "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" scenarios... the utilization and implementation of ECT has progressed far past that 1960's style.

It DOES work. It IS effective.... as to why it specifically does, that remains unknown. However, that's true of many things in the medical field. Scientists still don't know why aspirin is an effective treatment for a headache. All they know is that it DOES work.

[sobe]

You just do not like what you are reading ... who would . Again if diet and exercise was a pill all of these Dr.'s would be passing it out but not many want to do the work they want a pill .. a quick fix but that is what it usually is just that a quick fix that postpones doing what is really needed and over time has side effects that make the person even sicker . People do not want the illusion that the answer lies in just popping a pill so what I am talking about is very unpopular so I will leave it alone as not to make anyone uncomfortable was just trying to help . Hope that some of the points I have made have helped a little .

[sobe]

Psychiatry as we know it today is more priesthood than science. Its conglomeration of half-baked theories is handed down by an arbitrary elite-authorities who have attained such status through who they know and who can sweet-talk the government into parting with yet more grant money.

While as for what they actually do, there are only three primary methods of “treatment”-electroshock, psychosurgery and psychotropic drugs.

To illustrate the unscientific basis of this “science,” in Fascist Italy in the 1930s, Professor Ugo Cerletti noted that back in A.D. 43 or so, Roman citizens would sometimes try to rid themselves of headaches by putting a torpedo fish on their heads. A torpedo fish generates about 25 volts of electricity. Perhaps it was just coincidence that the Empire fell soon after that, but be that as it may, Cerletti was undeterred by this observation and set off on a new path. He began his experiments by killing dogs with huge jolts of electricity. However, before he could significantly reduce Rome’s canine population, inspiration came in the form of a visit to a pig slaughterhouse. There, much to his delight, he found that pigs were not killed by the electricity administered, but only sent into epileptic convulsions, whereupon their throats could conveniently be cut by the butchers. After experimenting further-and losing a great many pigs-to discover how much electricity it would take to kill one of the porcine creatures, he was ready for man. The unfortunate vagrant he chose (generously supplied by the police) received 70 volts to the head, fell, then shouted, “Not a second [one]. It will kill!” Later, it was discovered that human beings could withstand between 140 and 150 volts to the brain. Thus electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT) was born.

Psychosurgery had equally shabby beginnings, according to the medical historians. In 1848, Phineas Gage of Vermont was peering into a blasting hole when a charge detonated and blew a metal tamping rod through his brain-an unfortunate accident that he managed to survive. But, his astute physician noted with amazement, Gage had changed! A most noticeable change-from efficient and capable, to self-indulgent and profane. Thus Gage made his place in history as the first person to survive a lobotomy. The man who actually established himself as the father of the lobotomy (a procedure conducted on intractable patients to make them more manageable) was Dr. Egas Moniz. He operated on about one hundred patients. However, in at least one case, the operation might have been a success but the doctor died: he was shot by one of his lobotomized patients. That in 1949 he was given the Nobel prize for this questionable advancement is one of the saddest ironies of medical history. Nonetheless, it assured that many followed his path.

As for drugs, witch doctors have used the natural variety for centuries. Today’s pharmaceutical psychotropic drugs began their development with attempts to brainwash recalcitrant citizens and political prisoners. Virtually all of the original research-in Russia, Germany and the United States-was funded by intelligence agencies. Once again, the aim was to make individuals more tractable and malleable. And, in the United States, at least, most of it was illegal, conducted on unknowing servicemen and citizens. Except, of course, in the oft-cited instance of CIA psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Jolyon West, who was the only man known to have killed an elephant with LSD.

That all of this experimentation-drugs, psychosurgery, ECT-has never cured anyone of anything but, on the contrary, has either made people more manageable or damaged them beyond recognition, has never stopped the psychiatric community from continuing these practices. After all, these are the only tools they have. Without them, they would have nothing to sell.

bad form to cite some babble without a link....

www.scientology_bunk.com?

You just do not like what you are reading ... who would . Again if diet and exercise was a pill all of these Dr.'s would be passing it out but not many want to do the work they want a pill .. a quick fix but that is what it usually is just that a quick fix that postpones doing what is really needed and over time has side effects that make the person even sicker . People want the illusion that the answer lies in just popping a pill so what I am talking about is very unpopular so I will leave it alone as not to make anyone uncomfortable was just trying to help . Hope that some of the points I have made have helped a little .

bad form to cite some babble without a link....

www.scientology_bunk.com?

you can not be serious

Edited October 22, 2006 by sobe

[sriracha john]

Psychiatry as we know it today is more priesthood than science. Its conglomeration of half-baked theories is handed down by an arbitrary elite-authorities who have attained such status through who they know and who can sweet-talk the government into parting with yet more grant money.

While as for what they actually do, there are only three primary methods of “treatment”-electroshock, psychosurgery and psychotropic drugs.

To illustrate the unscientific basis of this “science,” in Fascist Italy in the 1930s, Professor Ugo Cerletti noted that back in A.D. 43 or so, Roman citizens would sometimes try to rid themselves of headaches by putting a torpedo fish on their heads. A torpedo fish generates about 25 volts of electricity. Perhaps it was just coincidence that the Empire fell soon after that, but be that as it may, Cerletti was undeterred by this observation and set off on a new path. He began his experiments by killing dogs with huge jolts of electricity. However, before he could significantly reduce Rome’s canine population, inspiration came in the form of a visit to a pig slaughterhouse. There, much to his delight, he found that pigs were not killed by the electricity administered, but only sent into epileptic convulsions, whereupon their throats could conveniently be cut by the butchers. After experimenting further-and losing a great many pigs-to discover how much electricity it would take to kill one of the porcine creatures, he was ready for man. The unfortunate vagrant he chose (generously supplied by the police) received 70 volts to the head, fell, then shouted, “Not a second [one]. It will kill!” Later, it was discovered that human beings could withstand between 140 and 150 volts to the brain. Thus electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT) was born.

Psychosurgery had equally shabby beginnings, according to the medical historians. In 1848, Phineas Gage of Vermont was peering into a blasting hole when a charge detonated and blew a metal tamping rod through his brain-an unfortunate accident that he managed to survive. But, his astute physician noted with amazement, Gage had changed! A most noticeable change-from efficient and capable, to self-indulgent and profane. Thus Gage made his place in history as the first person to survive a lobotomy. The man who actually established himself as the father of the lobotomy (a procedure conducted on intractable patients to make them more manageable) was Dr. Egas Moniz. He operated on about one hundred patients. However, in at least one case, the operation might have been a success but the doctor died: he was shot by one of his lobotomized patients. That in 1949 he was given the Nobel prize for this questionable advancement is one of the saddest ironies of medical history. Nonetheless, it assured that many followed his path.

As for drugs, witch doctors have used the natural variety for centuries. Today’s pharmaceutical psychotropic drugs began their development with attempts to brainwash recalcitrant citizens and political prisoners. Virtually all of the original research-in Russia, Germany and the United States-was funded by intelligence agencies. Once again, the aim was to make individuals more tractable and malleable. And, in the United States, at least, most of it was illegal, conducted on unknowing servicemen and citizens. Except, of course, in the oft-cited instance of CIA psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Jolyon West, who was the only man known to have killed an elephant with LSD.

That all of this experimentation-drugs, psychosurgery, ECT-has never cured anyone of anything but, on the contrary, has either made people more manageable or damaged them beyond recognition, has never stopped the psychiatric community from continuing these practices. After all, these are the only tools they have. Without them, they would have nothing to sell.

bad form to cite some babble without a link....

www.scientology_bunk.com?

You just do not like what you are reading ... who would . Again if diet and exercise was a pill all of these Dr.'s would be passing it out but not many want to do the work they want a pill .. a quick fix but that is what it usually is just that a quick fix that postpones doing what is really needed and over time has side effects that make the person even sicker . People want the illusion that the answer lies in just popping a pill so what I am talking about is very unpopular so I will leave it alone as not to make anyone uncomfortable was just trying to help . Hope that some of the points I have made have helped a little .

bad form to cite some babble without a link....

www.scientology_bunk.com?

you can not be serious

sooooooo.... do you have a link for this bit of nonsense?

[meom]

Except, of course, in the oft-cited instance of CIA psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Jolyon West, who was the only man known to have killed an elephant with LSD.

That all of this experimentation-drugs, psychosurgery, ECT-has never cured anyone of anything but, on the contrary, has either made people more manageable or damaged them beyond recognition, has never stopped the psychiatric community from continuing these practices. After all, these are the only tools they have. Without them, they would have nothing to sell.

I've had some bad experiences with LSD over 20 yrs ago but they were nothing in comparison to the "medicines" the doctors put me on in order to fix things.

I went from Haldol to Fluphenazine to Trilafon to Lithium and basically what started out as a trip gone wrong ended in a 3 year nightmare thanks to the medical profession who, at least in my opinion didn't have clue what they were doing.

In the end I told them to fvk off after which things went pretty well surprisingly so I agree with Sobu that medicines ain't always the answer.

[Mr Jones]

After a horrific accident I went down with PTSD, I was told it was curable with treatment, good, the treatment I was prescribed was antidepressants, I told the doctor I was not depressed and he assured me that it is the recommended treatment for PTSD was antidepressant medication.

A week later all I could think of was topping myself, back to the doctor, he assured me it would pass, I asked how long? In a week or two, What if I can take no more and top myself? His answer was that would get rid of your PTSD.

The assault charges where dismissed on the grounds of extreme provocation.

Lez

[sleepyjohn]

whoops

Edited October 22, 2006 by sleepyjohn

[sleepyjohn]

[quote name='meom' date='2006-10-23 00:49:46' post='952531']

Except, of course, in the oft-cited instance of CIA psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Jolyon West, who was the only man known to have killed an elephant with LSD.

That all of this experimentation-drugs, psychosurgery, ECT-has never cured anyone of anything but, on the contrary, has either made people more manageable or damaged them beyond recognition, has never stopped the psychiatric community from continuing these practices. After all, these are the only tools they have. Without them, they would have nothing to sell.

I've had some bad experiences with LSD over 20 yrs ago but they were nothing in comparison to the "medicines" the doctors put me on in order to fix things.

I went from Haldol to Fluphenazine to Trilafon to Lithium and basically what started out as a trip gone wrong ended in a 3 year nightmare thanks to the medical profession who, at least in my opinion didn't have clue what they were doing.

In the end I told them to fvk off after which things went pretty well surprisingly so I agree with Sobu that medicines ain't always the answer.

Sobe is actually seeming to me to say medicines and ECT never work.

This is extremely irresponsible and ignorant advice to anyone who might be reading this forum and in some such condition..

Whilst there's evidence that talking with peers can sometimes be as curative as talking to a shrink, and psychotropic drug therapy is still basic, and has been prescribed all too easily in the past especially, the fact is that professional help can be invaluable, medicines can be lifesavers, for example in alcoholism depression and schizophrenia, and ECT does often work.

Sobe you might try to understand that the sort of people who are sent for ECT are in the psychiatric equivalent of critical condition. Their life is likely too horrible to comprehend, not only not worth living but an unimaginable torture. Death may be the only worthwhile alternative for these people.

Edited October 22, 2006 by sleepyjohn

[sobe]

Sobe you might try to understand that the sort of people who are sent for ECT are in the psychiatric equivalent of critical condition. Their life is likely too horrible to comprehend, not only not worth living but an unimaginable torture. Death may be the only worthwhile alternative for these people.

not buying it ..... most of these people are now suffering from the side effects from years of this poison . Most of these people if they had a few years with all of the drugs out of their system they would be 1000% better ask meom who was poisoned with Haldol , Fluphenazine, Trilafon and Lithium ... my god !!!!! ( good job by the way meom)

For the most part these drugs are a substitute for peoples time if a person has someone to spend time and work with them so much can be done . The pill is the quick fix and the pharmaceutical companies are running the health care biz now . This is big money drug reps is the Dr.'s office passing out the latest drug telling the Dr, about the free trips and gifts that await if he sells enough of the stuff , filling their closets with mountains of samples ... trust me the whole thing is out of control in the US and it sounds like Thailand has been spared this insanity so far , probably because the people are not able to spend the hundreds of $$ these medications cost .

Try watching the news in the US and see how long it takes before you see some drug advertised on TV. This practice of allowing drug companies to advertise patented chemicals directly to consumers in order to create demand for drugs that everyday people frankly do not understand. Every country in the world bans the practice of Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) drug advertising... except the United States, of course, where consumers are subjected to a never-ending barrage of ridiculous drug ads showing happy, healthy people popping purple pills they would never consume in real life. Of all industrialized nations in the world, only the U.S. (with the ever-caring support of the Food and Drug Administration) endorses drug madvertising .

All of these Fictitious disease's - A fabricated disease invented for the sole purpose of creating a new market for patented drugs. ADHD is the prime example of a fictitious disease, and the psychiatric community is now well-practiced at labeling human behaviors "brain chemistry imbalances that need to be treated with chemicals."

"Today’s patients, discontented, unhappy, fragmented and confused by an increasingly frantic, alienating and violent society, come to psychiatrists for help, only to have their illusions shored up by an increased dose of a technologic fix. They are told they have illnesses that are biologic and can be fixed, instead of being allowed to speak about their unhappiness, to speak about how difficult it is to be a human being, to speak about their suffering, because human beings have always suffered and always will. To believe that we can conquer depression, despair, anxiety with modern technology is the height of hubris and bad faith, a mere childish fantasy, unworthy of any thoughtful person who has their eyes open to human history and modern culture."

– David Kaiser, M.D. Northwestern University Hospital, Chicago, IL, Psychiatric Medications as Symptoms,

"No biological etiology has been proven for any psychiatric disorder in spite of decades of research. ... Don't accept the myth that we can make an 'accurate diagnosis.' ... Neither should you believe that your problems are due solely to a 'chemical imbalance.'"

Edward Drummond, M.D. Associate Medical Director, Seacoast Mental Health Center, Portsmouth, NH

In the US we now have a social trend towards not holding people responsible for their behavior was perhaps the necessary consequence of science "discovering" that, one by one, every form of ill conduct or unpleasant experience was the manifestation of a "disease." Of course, science can discover no such thing; rather, it can only define behaviors as diseases. The official compendium of "mental illnesses," the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, owes its contents not to laboratory discoveries, but to the votes of psychologists and psychiatrists. To put this in perspective, try to imagine a committee of oncologists voting on whether or not lymphoma is a disease. That is exactly how psychiatry proceeds. The process yields predictably absurd results: one year homosexuality is a disease; the next year, it is not, but "caffeine addiction" is; and "substance abuse disorders" are miraculously discovered which mirror perfectly the drug laws. Examples of such obvious nonsense could be (and are) multiplied without end. The normativity of all of this – the fact that psychiatric diagnoses are judgment, taste, opinion, and name-calling, and nothing more – is hidden behind a dense barrage of impenetrable pseudoscientific babble. We are subjected to advertisements depicting sad, anergic neurotransmitter molecules plodding slowly across the synapse, and told that "depression is medical condition, and a chemical imbalance may be to blame." After treatment with Zoloft®, we watch perky, rejuvenated transmitter molecules merrily doing laps across the synaptic space. Contemplating the fact that most people actually believe this hogwash is almost enough to make one reach for antidepressant drugs oneself.

Yea so far Thailand has been spared the insanity that is going on in the US so maybe that is so many over there are smiling even the people living in poverty .. while in the US if some housewife living in a $600K house in the suburbs has too much laundry to do she runs to her shrink and gets him to give her the latest antidepressant she just saw advertised on TV that is stuffed in the closet of her psychiatrists office by the drug rep who was just there with lunch and free gifts .

Edited October 22, 2006 by sobe