I'm the first to admit that I'm on psychiatric drugs and have been for about, oh, ten years. There are times when I think they're working really well and that I can therefore put up with the side effects, and there are times when they suddenly seem to stop working, and my psychiatrist changes me to another medication. Occasionally she suggests that my diagnosis should change too. Something that annoys me as I'm not interested in labels (I have always seen them as a way to add a whole dimension of "lack-of-control" to the person being labelled).
I've always had nagging doubts about whether the cycle of depression that I suffer would be any better or worse without the medication. I've always had a fear about the long-term side-effects that these meds could cause, but I've balanced that out with the fear that without them, I could well commit suicide. The fact that I am a single mother and would so anything to give my children the best mother that they can possibly have has made me accept my own need to be on these meds.
It's an issue which came to a head when it was suggested that there is an anti-depressant that would help Toto stop his hair-pulling. My STRONG reaction of "There is no way that my child is taking a psychiatric medication" surprised even me.
Now, please understand that I am in no way condemning anyone for putting their child on psychiatric meds, or for taking or not-taking them themselves. This is purely about me and my feelings on the topic..... NOT about judging anyone else.
I was googling some contra-indications for "her" when I came across a website which led me to a website which led me to.... (you know the drill)... a website which contains a film exposing a whole other side to the pharmaceutical companies' relationships with psychiatrists and the FDA etc. There are 10 YouTube videos of 10 minutes each. I was transfixed.
When I was living in the UK, one of the contracts I had was within the new product development and marketing division of a multi-national pharmaceutical company. The corporate mentality and resulting decisions that I witnessed there shattered any belief I had in the "good intentions" of these companies. I was witness to a meeting in which it was decided to throw billions of dollars of research money at a new headache pill INSTEAD of at an AIDS drug because the profit margin to the company would be much larger (people with headaches are likely to live for a long time - and therefore will buy pills for a long time, whereas people with AIDS are likely to die and therefore stop buying the meds).
The thing that REALLY got me was that it was marketers who made the decisions, based upon public purchasing statistics, as to which area of disease the researches would focus on.
Please watch these videos if you or your family, or any of your friends are on psychiatric meds. Please DO NOT go off your meds because of watching the videos!!! I'm not sharing them (they're out there for you all to find on your own anyway) with the intention of turning anyone off the field of psychiatry or psychiatric meds, but with the intention of having a conversation with you about your thoughts on the subject.
I'm not suddenly going off my meds as a result of watching them. I'm just doing a lot of thinking which may change how I handle my medical treatment in the future. It also may not.
Click here to go to a blog which has all 10 videos posted.
And then PLEASE come back here and talk to me about it. (Obviously I still want you to talk to me even if you haven't watched the videos!)
Monday, December 8, 2008
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17 comments:
Of course we'll talk to you anyway ;)
I have someone close to me who is now on epillum for bi polar, rather than anti depressants or mood tabs. It's made a huge difference to him.
That's the kind of conversation I wanted to start! Is the Epilim making him put on weight?
I've been put on Epilim too, but without the bi-polar diagnosis. I'm not sure really if it's making a huge difference (some days I feel great, others I'm SO not). Of course, that is probably just all the real-life crap that is getting in the way.
The vids have an important story to tell, but there are other, equally important success stories that should be told here too.
Thanks xoxo
I don't have a lot of positive feelings towards psychiatric meds. I personally know some people who are on them (actually sometimes it seems like EVERYONE I know is on them). Okay, yeah. That's a bit of an exaggeration.
When I was a teenager, I became sad about something. Instead of letting me be sad for a little while, my parents rushed me to my dad's psychiatrist. He showed no interest in talking to me about how I was feeling. He wanted to put me on Lithium. He acted like it was a miracle drug. I have a severely ill cousin who is schizophrenic. The poor girl has not really responded to any treatment. This doctor was telling us that she should have Lithium--as if this one thing would make her better. It was ridiculous.
I went on Lithium for awhile. At one point, I stopped. I didn't tell anyone. One day my mom commented on how I seem to be feeling/doing much better. I told her I had stopped taking the lithium weeks ago. I think that changed her views about things and I wasn't made to go back to that doctor again.
I think way too many people are on these drugs. But like you, I don't know if they're needed or not.
How can I be like Tom Cruise and tell someone they don't need a drug?
My BIL was bipolar and had a nervous breakdown--hallucinations and everything. Because of my experience with my cousin, I was terrified that this was it for him. But he went on drugs and he seemed mentally healthy. I think he NEEDED those drugs.
So, I think sometimes drugs are needed and sometimes they do help.
But I think for the most part, it reminds me of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers--trying to make everyone alike and stopping normal human emotions.
We're human beings. We get sad. We get angry. Sometimes we get very angry and very sad. Well, you know what? Sometimes life really sucks and there's a reason for us being really sad and angry.
I don't know. I think we need more hugs and less medication. Wow. I sound like a total hippy.
Well you know that I get every side effect that meds have, so any comments about meds must be prefaced with that. It makes it hard for me to tolerate most meds. Back in 1993, when I was clinically depressed, rather than my usual moodiness, I did go on anti-depressants. I tried every single one and all made me either zombie-like or speedy and bitchy, before settling on Zoloft. Other than not sleeping for the 10 months I was on it and some minor edginess, it worked well. I was at a place, after the death of my mother, brother, aunt, best cat ever, where I would just cry for no reason while driving to work. I had recently moved here and loved the city and my job. When I was in Colorado, my dislike for all that cold and snow and the intolerant community masked the sadness (my mother died while I was in Colorado). Plus I am the family member who is strong and handles everything, so I never took time to grieve. Once I didn't have a reason to be sad and I still was, I realized I needed help. I was very clear that I could not get out of the depression myself, which was a new feeling for me. So I took the pills and went to therapy and eventually got out of it. For that period, the drug was helpful. It got me to a place where I could function and the therapy could work. It was very difficult staying on the med because of the side effects and I hope I don't need them again.
I just watched a little of the videos. It reminds me a lot of the infant formula companies and how they're so well partnered with doctors, nurses, and hospitals.
The world is a very scary place--especially when you realize the people you put your trust in are so corrupt.
Okay, now I sound like a paranoid hippy ; )
Working in the medical field, I sometimes think that psychotropic drugs are being prescribed more and more frequently. I am convinced a large number of people people don't have their medication reviewed frequently enough, or that the GP's prescribing them always have the appropriate skills and knowledge for prescribing them so freely.
I know when I lost my baby, everyone I saw was quick to offer me antidepressants and sleeping pills. It was generally one of the first things any medical professional said to me. At that point in my self centred-ness though, I wanted to have those raw emotions and work through my grief so I chose not to have any meds. Obviously, that's not an option for everyone, that is just me.
I have seen similar videos to the You Tube ones before. I worry that people who really need meds see these and make snap decisions to discontinue. It really is a tough one because there is no answer...
Who really knows if meds are helpful or not? Who knows if meds are continuing to be helpful and necessary for any given person? I don't!
I truly believe that these meds DO work for some people, but the thing about the videos was that they showed a side of the industry that we rarely see or talk about.
There is obviously much evidence to show that the creation and prescribing of these meds is not based upon science but upon profit, and that they are being marketed SO aggressively to people who very possibly don't need them.
And their effectiveness is based upon skewed trial results and a motivation for profit, not improvement.
Let's face it, these meds haven't been around long enough for ANYONE to really know what the long term effects are. And we know that from past history, many so-called "safe" drugs ended up having horrendous long term repurcussions.
I guess it's a split field.
I'm probably biaised because I am a psychotherapist. A huge part of my training involved learning to recognise people that we COULDN'T treat with non-drug therapy. We were taught to refer those patients on to psychiatrists for prescriptions. Something that I must admit I did only twice in my years of practice.
Unfortunately I knew of many of my colleagues who would pass patients on if they didn't see instant results. They didn't want their "success rate" (which was measured by feedback to an independent association) to be anything less than perfect.
The fact that medicare and private health insureres re-imburse psychiatrist visits, but not psychotherapists is another issue which skews the industry.
There are wonderful psychiatrists that believe in talk-therapy as well as or instead of drug-therapy (I have one who believes in it as well as meds), but there are also many others (a couple of whom I've visited) who only offer a half-hour appointment and basically treat you ONLY with meds.
Having said all of that, I'm not leaping off my meds now. I know that I'm going through too much drama and stress to add any kind of withdrawal symptom to the mix, or the risk of a worsening of my original symptoms.
I don't think any of us has an answer (I certainly don't claim to) but I know that education and conversation is the key to making informed decisions. Which is why I'm loving this conversation so much.
xox
I think those videos might have been produced by Scientologists. At least, that's what people on YouTube are saying.
So, I don't know.
I don't trust psychiatry. But I also don't really trust Scientology.
I could be wrong though.....
Okay, I did my research. Here's the organization that makes the video. http://www.cchr.org/#/faq/about-cchr
It was founded by the Church of Scientology.
Now I'll feel really bad if you are a Scientologist. If so, please just ignore the foot I just stuck in my mouth.
I don't mind that they might be produced by Scientologists. They still contain a lot of stuff which is undeniably true. Everything has a slant to it... it's just about listening with an open mind.
They also might not be produced by Scientologists. I'm pretty unimpressed by Scientology (although I certainly am not anti-scientologists). But the message in this video has at least some stuff in it that I know to be true (the pharmaceutical company and the marketing stuff). I think that, whatever the source, it's good to be open minded and to listen to things that come from both sides of the debate.
We also have to admit that the stuff that we get in the media and from our doctors is skewed towards what they believe and have been told.
*sigh*
It's a toughie, isn't it!
Good research Dina! Thanks!!
I still don't mind WHO it was produced by. It's like a Michael Moore expose. Love him or hate him (I'm in the former catagory) - you have to take what he presents to you and ultimately decide for yourself.
And although I'm not anti-psychiatry or psychiatric meds (like the Scientologists are) I am concerned that it's only one part of the solution and yet it's being offered (and forced in some cases) to be the ONLY solution.
xoxo
And I want to thank EVERYONE for being so honest in telling their stories and giving their opinions. I'm so grateful for this discussion!
xoxo
Dina... I just read the CCHR website. Ugggh. It's too slanted one way.
I still think it's good to hear all sides, but this one looks as though it was created without any impartiality at all.
Not good.
I was very anti drugs for a long time - I thought I was smart enough to handle my brain without drugs. And then I realised that I was wasting my life being unhappy, and if drugs could help, I owed it to myself to give it a shot.
So I took the drugs, and I got better. Suddenly, dramatically better. And then I stayed on them for far too long (but that's another story).
Eventually, I weaned off them, slowly, and with medical supervision, and I've been doing well without them for years now.
I wish I hadn't wasted so much time, I wish I'd taken the (right) drugs years ago - but at least I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I had tried everything else, I wasn't just put on drugs because it was easy.
I've read an article recently (it might have been in Time Magazine?) about SSRI's having the potential to repair the brains ability to transmit seratonin, and that taking these drugs for a while can actually cure depression in some cases. I feel like this might have happened to me, since I was down for so long, and now don't need the drugs.
Anyway, I take it for granted that pharmaceutical companies are evil (and so are scientologists), but some of the things they do can be useful.
Like keeping Tom Cruise busy so he can't be in too many movies...
PS. Inigo is sleeping peacefully to the Vocal Chocolate recording of Happy Together - we're conditioning him to love the sound of your voice ;)
Tell Inigo I'll sing for him anytime. Sweet.
And thanks Lara.
I don't think I've ever had an instant reaction to a psychiatric med like that. And "she" definitely hasn't. I think it's part of why I'm questioning it all.
It's a complex issue, but the good side is definitely that Tom Cruise is too busy to make more films!!
Great to find the upside to the Scientologists!!
Another thing about anti-depressants...In the states they are inow marketing a med to take with your ant-depressant because "two out of three people don't have their depression helped by anti-depressants alone" Argh!
I'm with you on that one, Wen. At one stage I was on 3 different meds for my depression. I'm now on one, with a tiny bit of a second one which I am phasing out.
So, although I'm still pro-psychiatric meds (believing that they work), I'm not pro the aggressive marketing of them.
At least here in Oz they aren't allowed to market them to the general public.
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