InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "2. 4. 3."

jlroberson (jlroberson) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-07-11 22:16:00

Current location:	Seattle
Current mood:	lazy
Current music:	Matching Mole, "O Caroline"
Entry tags:	genre: public service announcement, theme: drugs

How To Avoid Drugs--And Hey, Here's A Handy Shopping Guide! WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT USE.

This comes from Austin cartoonist/writer Ethan Persoff's "Comics With Problems."
It's from the end of an anti-drug comic from 1970, seen here, that has a totally
sober cover(which, if you click on it, will take you to the whole comic):

At the end, they include this, which, well, I don't know about you,
but if I were a teen curious about drugs, this is the part I'd be perusing over and over...

HMMM.

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Re: We're Not Candy

jlroberson
2009-07-13 02:09 am UTC (link)

And then you can steer them to the patented and branded mind-altering drugs.

Some of which are useful, I'm not a Scientologist or something, but really, they're mind-and-mood-altering drugs, the way they're overprescribed, in practice that respect no different than Dexys or valium at one time.

I once mentioned to a doctor I was having trouble sleeping. She prescribed not a sleep aid but Paxil. But I do not have a mood disorder, merely insomnia and circadian-rhythm issues, and I did not actually NEED Paxil. It fucked me up HARD for about a month till I went off it. Were there any tests to see if my brain chemistry was off? Fuck no. She just prescribed it.

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	Re: We're Not Candy mysteryfan 2009-07-13 02:14 am UTC (link)
	Oh, agreed. I had trouble sleeping and got a scrip pushed on me and the pharmicist (who I love, thank you, Mr. Vo, said, "Do not fill this prescription. Try some melatonin and lifestyle changes.) It worked. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: We're Not Candy

jlroberson
2009-07-13 02:19 am UTC (link)

AND then there was my ex-wife, suffering from depression, who went to see a therapist and he said, "Before I even talk to you, you have to be on meds." (I forget which one, just that it was an anti-depressant)

I come from a family that's half-medical and I despise irresponsible doctors who give people things that, in fact, can permanently change their brain chemistry so irresponsibly, just because insurance encourages them to. Additionally, in Charleston, where I grew up, I knew so many people in HS who got dosed with lithium just because they were a bit of trouble with their parents. One girl in particular whose real problem was post-rape trauma. But talk therapy--tsk, too slow. Just give her these pills and she'll shut up.

And after she took them, there were only two real changes. One was that she couldn't write poetry anymore. The second was that she got much better at trying to kill herself(which, fortunately, she never succeeded in doing). Thanks, big pharma.

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Re: We're Not Candy

artemispanthar
2009-07-14 05:22 pm UTC (link)

Wow, that's fucked up. And really pisses me off as a student of Psychology. I mean, goddamn, how irresponsible.
A) Frankly, I don't think non-Psychology trained doctors should -ever- prescribe psychological drugs like Paxil. It's irresponsible and they don't have the training necessary to properly prescribe psychological drugs. Not to rag on MDs too much, but a lot of them seem a little too eager to give psychological drugs for minor issues like insomnia.
B) I can't wrap my head around the idea of a trained psychiatrist having the gall to prescribe drugs without at least one session. I mean, you don't even know what they need before speaking to them. Jeez.

Sorry, I'm just RAGING at the irresponsibility of these people. Christ.

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