Letters to the Editor
Persia
Published Letters: 317 Editor's Choice: 18
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Reality check time.
[Read the article: Don't be happy, worry]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If that sounds harsh, consider that we report suffering from mental disorders at three times the rate of other developed countries.
We work longer hours, have less vacation time, have more overall insecurity and higher crime rates. How dare we be depressed about it!
When doctors stopped prescribing as many SSRIs to teens because of fears of bad reactions, the suicide rate in this country jumped. Something must be going on.
And guess what? My insurance won't pay for CBT. It only paid for a year and a half of therapy, and that was with one deeply impassioned letter to the appeals board. Economically, it makes a lot more sense to go with my $7/month co-paid generic Zoloft than to shell out over $400/month for therapy. I doubt I'm the only one making that calculation.
And last but not least, how sad is it that mental illness is still alternately stigmatized and romanticized in this country. On the one hand, most of us aren't really mentally ill anyway (it's all in our heads?, oh wait...). On the other, clearly we're better off with the Ernest Hemingways and Sylvia Plaths and John Kennedy Tooles of the world dying miserably at their own hands. Ugh.
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Two random comments
[Read the article: Don't be happy, worry]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]east77, I read Brave New World. Probably one of the reasons I fought taking pills as long as I did!
Amerigo, I'm still the same progressive/democrat/lefty type I've pretty much always been (aside from a shameful flirtation with Reagan when I was nine-- I blame his grandfatherly voice).
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@Patrick
[Read the article: Don't be happy, worry]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have to ask all these pharmacutical apologists if they've ever considered that environmental factors (our way of life) is to blame for so-called mental illness? I am just curious. My personal opinion is that our culture is driving us crazy, but instead of trying to cure the culture we go along with conventional wisdom that pills can cure our problems.
Oh, I absolutely think the American Way of Life is a factor.I don't know what exactly caused my depression. I can see some family history, including an uncle who self-medicated with alcohol and a grandmother who had a rough time getting over her abusive childhood; there's the possibility that it's our shallow, push-push culture; there's the chemicals in the air and water and food that can affect our moods, hormones, and ways of thinking.
But here's the thing-- if the chemicals in the water give you cancer, you still have cancer. That's why I did therapy and meds-- to both treat the depression's symptoms, which were stopping me from getting out of bed in the morning and making me physically miserable (achy and constantly cold), and to try to figure out what caused it in the first place. I still don't really know why it happened, but I'm stronger, and I'm better able to stop myself from getting 'out of whack' on my own thanks to the therapy and the medication.
I know it's hard to look at a personal story on the Internet and think 'oh, this person's an authority,' especially when they're on the drugs you're so skeptical of. But I hope that most of the skeptics (I've given up hope on Tina, who apparently thinks my depression is my fault and I'm a junkie, and Rupert, who thinks I just should've eaten more fish) can at least listen to our stories with an open mind. Do we sound like a bunch of zombies? I think there's a pretty diverse group of opinions and thoughts here, and I bet if you click on that 'read more letters by this author' button you'll find a lot more. We're hardly the pod people that some letters have depicted antidepressant users as.
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Clip n' snip.
[Read the article: Sperm on, sperm off]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I found the vasectomy to be no big deal, but honestly, the squirm factor is much more mental than physical.
My SO is too squeamish to give blood but made it through The Cut just fine. He doesn't get why people make such a big deal out of it. I'm inclined to agree, but as I don't own those bits, I'll just take his word for it.
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Thanks for the giggle.
[Read the article: I get grossed out when I hear, "I'm a mom!"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You want to take 10 years off to be a mom, but you don't want to tell people that you are a mom? Is that some kind of pre-emptive self-loathing?
I thought the same thing! LW, you might want to think about working at least part-time for a while, if you don't want your identity to be 'mom.' For better or worse, other people-- and maybe even you-- define people by what they do for money. And honestly, you should think hard about why you want to be a mom, and what your true feelings are about it. For countless people you will be little more than "Precious Kiddo's Mom." It's a real identity change.
Parsley, you are a brave soul. I'd be proud to have you as my mom (though the one I had did a dandy job too).
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A shallow cut
[Read the article: This blade slices, it dices]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I too would've liked more detail on the smiths and sharpeners and their actual lives and craft-- not just how adorably short they are (was that really necessary?). Do these 70+ men have apprentices? Is the world going to experience a shortage if the Japanese steel vogue continues and those older men pass on, or might the quality dip? A disappointingly superficial look at an ancient craft.
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Thanks for your honesty.
[Read the article: Biracial, but not like me]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is intensely personal but also thoughtful and intellectual. I'd love to hear more from the other writers and editors of Salon about their choices-- I enjoyed Traister's article on choosing who to support as well.