Letters to the Editor
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The Amish
"We don't have to live like the Amish, so we don't. Surprisingly we would be much more relaxed (and happy!) if we did."
I know I'm a little late in replying to this, but boy are you wrong! You think we'd all be a lot happier if the only activity we did on any given day was the wash? Let's all be bored housewives! Haven't you ever heard of hysteria? Emma Bovary would have been a hell of a lot happier as an attorney or a CEO.
By the way, this article blew. It was written by a supercilious little shit whose favorite movie is probably Garden State. I can imagine him chuckling to himself as he penned "and my personal favorite-- generalized anxiety disorder." Get off your high horse! Who crowned you Mr. Know It All? Try having a three-day panic attack, then come tell me how friggin' funny it was.
It's true, our ancestors weren't equipped with the same technology and medecine that we are today. They "toughed it out" right? Se we should do. You know, cavemen didn't wear eyeglasses. Does that mean that I actually have perfect vision? Woo hoo! I'm gonna go chuck my lenses down the toilet. Oh, it's only if I move to Amish country? Oh well, I guess I don't mind walking around like Mr. Magoo. God, I'm such a baby! We can't I just GROW UP and live without the modern crutch of glasses, like our monkeyish ancestors once did?
...And you know what? I really wish a "happiness pill" existed, a la Huxley's soma, because the pills we got are no miracle workers, and they're sure as hell not recreational. Being on anti-depressants is no sweet ride. Sure, people abuse them. But if my cousin sniffs glue, does that mean I'm no different when I use it to stick a photo on my wall? Anti-depressants are no quick fixes, nor are they chemical band-aids. The tough work still comes from us.
I've been on Zoloft for three years. If I weren't, I would still be curled up in my parents house watching reruns of "Roseanne," and not I'm actually dealing with shit. Running away from life's problems? I wish! I don't pop a Zoloft then Zen-out on the nuances of Pink Floyd. I just try to get on with my day.
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stigma
A few of the letter writers have been flip about some of the people who have written about their own struggles with ADD and other psychiatric disorders.
I believe the reason why so many are writing in about their own struggles has to do with the fact that there has always been such a huge stigma attached to mental disorders. Finally the tide is starting to turn, people aren't blaming the parent if the child misbehaves and wham, another article like Amsdens comes out, from a respected, progressive source like Salon no less. This article takes us back a step in recognizing that these problems are real. Alot of people here are sure that Amsden wasn't speaking of those with "real" disorders. Tell that to someone who has GAD (generalized anxiety disorer, because it seemed to me Amsden was dismissive of most of these disorders. These people felt the need to write in, not to "whine" about their problems but to stand up for themselves and others who find these medications a lifeline.
This article helps promote the stigma attached to mental illness, plain and simple.
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Brains not in Kansas anymore
Whoa! After reading David Amsden's article and 19 subsequent pages of letters, I'm exhausted. And appreciative for the world of Salon's letter writers--pro and con, mild and fierce--who responded. I learned a lot, and feel a whole lot less knee-jerky anti-Ritalin than I was an hour ago. Thanks, Salon, for being the catalyst.
Amsden may not have intended to open up the whole discussion about whether our present-day environment screws us up, but like several of your responders, I think it's a good place to start. Blame TV, blame the system that makes it a virtue for kids to sit attentively at their desk for hours each day, blame the increasing complexity of life (as in the ratio of things-to-time-available), blame the pollution, blame the malls--one thing's obvious: our brains aren't in Kansas anymore.
Back in what we now call Kansas 1000 years ago, or Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago, or Oldupai 500,000 years ago, when the architecture of our present brains was being honed, life was different. Simpler, surely. More physical, less mental. More uncertain. Fewer options. Tougher. Rawer.
Maybe we should give ourselves a collective break, remind ourselves that given the *vast* disconnect between our brains' evolutionary world and this one, we're actually doing pretty well. Whether or not we take meds to survive, just the fact that we are surviving is pretty much a miracle in itself.
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In response...
Sorry, Dr Beecham, I did not intend to insult anybody.I have just exposed some facts. The fault is in the eye of the beholder. I would like that you cite the articles which proove your points concerning Seroquel et al as well as the Ace inhibitor. Who is talking telomers? Not me. I bet I am more versed into medicine than you, as a biochemist. Medicine targets symptoms. A biochemist tries to decipher the underlying faaulty mechanisms. I said only one thing: trying to �normalize� bipolar disorder is a mistake. �My psychiatrist� has used lithium, epival and now seroquel. not to avail. I just do not used those unneccessary chemicals.As for blood pressure regulation, I let you know that I have made some studies which are going to change, if published, the whole medication of this disease. Going against current thinkings is not acceptable.
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I think there are certainly valid points made in this article, but I still take exception to couple of things.
First: the statement that
"...at the same time the definition of treatable depression was watered down -- renamed as social anxiety disorder, panic disorder and, my personal favorite, generalized anxiety disorder -- to include a seemingly endless demographic of adults and children" seems to be a trifle unfair, insofar as it suggests that these somehow aren't real or are less real or just 'watered down forms of depression'. As one with a couple of medical conditions--among them panic disorder and agoraphobia--that require treatments with medications, I can say with certainty that it is not only 'real,' it is absolutely not clinical depression that has been as it were jerrymandered to include a larger group of people.
Second, broadly equating treatment with any kind of medication, be they (as other writers have pointed out)antidepressants, anxiolytics, ritalin/adderall-type medications or painkillers causes other kinds of problems. Consider the latter--in addition to my agoraphobia, I am also a sufferer of a disease which will very likely cause me to be in pain for the rest of my life. The kinds of identifications that Mr. Amsden makes in this article are the same ones used by the DEA. That is, the DEA's obsession with controlling the abuse of painkillers has led to a state of affairs where a practitioner can in good conscience prescribe Zoloft as "pain medicine" or where even a doctor in a pain clinic will refuse to treat a legitimate condition. I've heard reports of dental patients told that they can't have anything following a painful extraction or other surgical procedure because "The DEA doesn't think that Vicodin [for example] is an appropriate treatment for this." Patients end up being essentially stuck in pain.
This is off-topic, but the point is, if this type of thinking were eventually expanded to include antidepressants, benzodiazepines and Ritalin, ever larger numbers of people with valid conditions could end up without necessary (and again, appropriate) treatment. It is probably true that these drugs are overprescribed/overused in the United States, but to assume that using them is basically the same as having a few drinks or what have you will not remedy any situation, be it undertreatment or overuse.