Letters to the Editor
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the simplicity of a pill
Within the past week someone close to me has begun taking a low-dose of Zoloft due to stress from his job and hey, life in general.
He went to a GP after he had vomited that morning due to anxiety and stress about his job, and was hoping for a referral to a psychologist so he could work through some issues, and maybe come up with some strategies for tackling the stress in his life.
The GP was decidedly uncomfortable with the whole thing. He wrote off a perscription for Zoloft. I think that lots of GPs are more comfortable perscribing pills to treat your problems that to help you get to the root-cause of those problems to actually SOLVE them. Its the equivalent of looking at a person with a deep painful gash in their arm and perscribing pain-killers instead of stiches.
You see, its much more socially acceptable to be on 'happy pills' than to admit that you're seeing a shrink, especially if you're a guy. It also means you don't have a fear of judgement or rejection that comes with speaking about your problems to a stranger. And hey, who has time right? Taking pills means you don't have to make and keep regular appointments, which lots of us don't have time for (possibly why we're stressed and depressed in the first place).
Maybe if therapy was more acceptable, or if it was less costly and easier to get an appointment (when he called a therapist, there was a one-month wait) more people would turn to it. Maybe if primary care physicians had more contacts amongst quality psychologists to give referals to. Maybe if you're health insurance covered it. Then maybe fewer of us would be on Prozac or any of the other pills. Lots of maybes.