Letters to the Editor
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Tina is evil--make her stop!
I have now been ordered...commanded....by the posters to get therapy, get "help", and to "take something".
When faced with a nonspecific challenge to American notions of pathology (the subject of the article), AND after pontificating for 45 pages that the doubters are unqualified armchair experts, these people viciously pathologize in turn a person on the internet they have never even met....
The recurring word is "scary". I'm "scary", the subject is "scary", everything is scary. Unbelievably, I don't think the order to go take a pill was even meant ironically.
And there's something wrong with ME?
Beyond the extent that there is "something" wrong with everybody, I doubt it. On what basis do you think I need therapy or drugs? Because I dared to challenge your assumptions? Is that all it takes?
This is where we get where we are today. I had my doubts about the article when I started but now I believe the author is 1000% correct.
You have convinced me.
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It's been 44 pages, not 45
Since truth is so important, I thought I'd point that out ;)
Tina, I think part of the issue is for every sin that you have accused us of doing, you have committed the same. You have just accused everybody of bringing fear into this, and yes I did mention your possible fear of a world with slight limits on control, but you have also postulated that people are afraid. You tell us we are afraid that we may not be sick, but when we turn around and say you are afraid then for some reason this is beyond the pale.
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@ Tina
I'll add another word. Crazy. You're obviously nuts. I don't think a pill will help. I have never been on any prescription psychoactive drugs and I think they are usually not a good idea, but I can tell you, I don't want to ally myself with someone who is as obviously as disturbed, not to mention as intellectually inconsistent, as you are.
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@Tina
People are not enraged by your suggestion we might not be 'ill'. People are annoyed at your arrogance, combined with obvious ignorance and bigotry. In the same way some people might get 'enraged' at a blatant sexist or homophobe.
Sadly, stigma against the mentally ill still exists in this day and age, and leads to untold misery, and in many cases death. It is a shame your religious dogma makes you add to that stigma. I guess you don't have a problem doing whatever it takes to make yourself happy. :)
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@rupertc
You don't know anything about the mechanism of antidepressants. What you said is hogwash. Why don't you shut up?
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There's a reason why Americans are 3 times more prone to depression than most places in the world ...
... and we're not alone. All of the Anglo-Saxon countries in the world are experiencing the same phenomenon.
Our economic systems have commodified us into virtual personalities, isolated from one another, and living in atomized communities where everyone is on his own to deal with life's anxieties. We didn't have to accept this "way of life", but we did.
Counseling is frowned upon because it's not profitable for managed care and Big Pharma (which is really just a subsidiary of Big Oil), but also because there's really nothing to talk about. A loser is a loser.
Our culture of "rugged individualism" is as emotionally and psychologically unsustainable as our phony economy of debt.
And so we become increasingly anxious and powerless, as we work longer and longer hours to increase returns for shareholders and the masters of the universe who serve them.
We made this bed for ourselves a long time ago, and now we must sleep (however fitfully) in it.
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@Pyrrho
You are nutz. After explaining it to Dr.Torrey and Dr.DuPont, my explanation appeared in NIMH literature. It hadn't been there before. Psychiatrists are not that birght, clever, inquisitive or motivated.
But who cares? The fact of the matter is that a whole lot of people are hooked on mind altering drugs that tend to impair thinking, ethics and emotions.
The same drugs also carry a lot of bad side-effects which cause more problems which is just what someone who has a mental problem doesn't need.
The commuter newspaper had a comic panel with a guy watching tv and the tv said,"Ask your doctor if playing into the hands of the pharmaceutical industry is right for you."
Enjoy the good hands of BIG PHARMA, they really care about you.
Your drugs want me to shut up. You can't handle the truth. Take some more pills and that will make it all better.
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@tina schrier
The worst part of these drugs is that they take someone who has a minor problem like depression and anxiety and turn it into a major problem like psychopathy, delusions and full on mania. Don't blame the people, it really is just a side effect of the drugs.
VA TECH, Columbine and most of the other school mass shootings involve people who are medicated, Before people were getting doped up this only happened once before in Austin at the University and that poor devil had a brain tumor. Now murder suicides by people on these drugs is so common that no one takes any particular note of it.
I remember the first such shooting when the drug was being tested before it was approved and there was a controversy before the drugs were approved and after all the concerns have been born out, no one cares. Why should they? They are medicated.
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On the bright side of the issue
I don't want to be totally negative about these drugs.
These drugs have been a great boon to the erectile dysfunction treatment industry. This has led to pills that can lead to erections lasting upwards to 4 hours according to informative television spots.
"the Pharmaceutical Industry - We Never Forget What We Are Working For"
I don't know about you, but I would prefer Bob Dole to any of the current candidates.
scccchhhhwwwwiiiiiiiinnnnngggg!
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Tina and rupertc
I agree with an earlier poster who said this article was designed to generate hits. It's a sensational bunch of yellow journalism that would do more credit to Fox News or the tabloids, not to what Salon purports to be.
The article is a conspiracist's delight, lot's of fuel for the trolls. Unfortunately, they are posting here and driving the level of discourse into the toilet.