Letters to the Editor
Ron Smith
Published Letters: 211 Editor's Choice: 11
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Each of Us Has a Depression Story
[Read the article: Don't be happy, worry]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Each of us has a story to tell either about ourself or someone close.
Mr. Weeks is telling us that as a group we are over-medicated. I agree with him. We can say that some folks need their medication and be quite right. Yet Weeks mentions CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy, as one alternative to medication or in combination with it.
For one poster here, drugs have been his salvation. I don't doubt it. Yet for me there was an aversion to taking drugs for my depression. As the youngest of four brothers, with one uncle who got Electro Shock Therapy, another uncle who never recovered from schizophrenia, and a brother who is medicated today after 48 years of treatment, I can say that CBT changed my life for the better.
Now approaching age 65, I haven't had a panic attack in more than 15 years. My moderate depression, a score of 21-30 on the Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), was self-treated. I never had to take a drug. Twenty years ago I came across a book, "Feeling Good", written by David Burns, a psychiatrist. The book was published in 1980 and came out of Burns' work with Aaron Beck and others at the University of Pennsylvania.
From the book I learned that my thoughts were the cause of my depresssion. Thus, if I could capture my quick thoughts on paper, the 3 column technique, then the thoughts could be evaluated (by me). Low and behold I was a person prone to exaggeration on the dark side. That is, instead of saying correctly that 'I have few friends' , my thought was 'I have no friends'. I would take the BDI test, 21 questions, before and after doing the 3 column technique. This test taught me that I could make myself well. Thus, my conclusion was that my moderate depression could be handled successfully. My 3 visits to a psychiatrist were ended those 20 years ago.
Other therapy included, more socialization, occasional massages, application of Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People", better fitness, getting a college degree in psychology in 1999, reading authors like Albert Ellis and Alfred Adler, and marrying for the first time in 1999.
My wife and I divorced in 2006. For one year I was sad about it and saw a therapist for 10 visits or so. But I have recovered and today saw my ex-wife at the grocery store. We conversed in a friendly manner. I can see that she is doing well. Somehow this pleases me.
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For Irving Psychiatrist
[Read the article: Don't be happy, worry]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You have implied that the black box warning on antidepressants increased the number of suicides in adolescents.
You may also be aware that psychiatrists today are so poorly trained in counseling that removing their primary skill area, prescribing antidepressents, makes a visit to them a problematic event. This is the disgrace of the modern psychiatrist. They are pill pushers if nothing else. And you know very well how addictive these drugs are.
People who stop using them suddenly experience a powerful 'rebound' effect. And what do you tell the patient? Why you tell him that he needs more of the drug to get him right.
Folks out there may want to read books by doctors Breggin and Glenmullen. A wise patient may want to take his drugs, but only in a modest dose for the shortest possible time. Get some counseling too, but not from a modern psychiatrist.
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Hurrah for MoveOn!
[Read the article: MoveOn endorses Obama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anytime you get 70%+ of a diverse group like MoveOn (280,500 voted) to support a candidate, it is a positive. I am a member and I voted for Mr. Obama.
Last night's debate was significant. On Iraq Hillary Clinton made little sense. Barack Obama has said, "No permanent American bases in Iraq." His statement is re-assuring to Middle-East countries and to muslims world-wide. None of the remaining big 3 candidates, Clinton, McCain, Romney, have said this. He is not afraid to say that the USA under Bush has created a Shiite Government in Baghdad, a natural ally to Iran. He is intelligent and eloquent.
Clinton comes off as a wonk, as someone with expertise, but not your President. Imagine a debate between Obama and McCain. Here we have a 25 year age difference in these two men and a 100 year difference in know-how. McCain believes that every problem looks like a nail and he wants to hit it with his hammer.
Of the two candidates, Obama-McCain, one is a young man who has his eye on new solutions to big problems like world-wide terrorism and global warming. The other is an old man who has his head down, clutching his hammer.
Give us Barack and we will win this November election!
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They Are Stoked and near age 65, I Am Too!
[Read the article: Young voters are stoked]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just finished watching Bill Moyers interview Henry Waxman, Congressman from California. Wow!
No wonder that neither the Iraqi government nor American contractors want us out of Iraq. It is one big boondoggle! Both groups are robbing us blind with the help of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice.
This morning I put a Barack Obama sign in my front yard. We here in Virginia vote on February 12th, Abraham Lincoln's birthday. So you folks voting on Super Tuesday be sure to give us a good start on securing this nomination for Barack. He is the only one left that takes no lobbyist money and has stated, 'No permanent U.S. bases in Iraq.'
As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "The time is always right to do what is right."