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Originally Posted by Golden Teapot
Lots of people have minor mental difficulties that really could do with treatment. There's currently a big social stimga associated with seeking help of this kind and this needs to be changed.
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Which is all well and good, but in many cases simply prescribing drugs is a false cure, and can ultimately lead to even worse societal problems. As Pixie's blogger friend eloquently says:
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Originally Posted by www.undulatingungulate.com
People’s struggles with their minds are usually (IMO) a function of imbalance in their lives. A disease model for mental illness is inappropriate in the absence of a physical pathology/cause. Drugs cannot “cure” because there is no disease to fight. A better solution is to make changes in lifestyle, to engage honestly with the self and find meaning, and move towards balance, rather than to drug the crap out of oneself so as to maintain an ongoing unbalanced state causing misery. This approach is mainly pushed by those who benefit financially.
Not to blanketly say drugs are bad, here. But they should be a last resort, not least because of their side-effects, but especially because of their actual effects. We don’t need disconnected zombies, we need actively engaged humans.
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Several years ago I was given Fluoxetine to treat what was an all-consuming chronic anxiety leading to depression. I won't deny that it assisted me out of that malaise, but several relapses after coming off it meant that I began to believe the drug would always be my crutch, and I started to look at it as though it was insulin, or an asthma inhaler.
Now, 6 years later, I haven't had any medication for 4 years, and despite the world progressively becoming a more depressing place, I am more in control of my own mood and mental state than ever before.
The reason as far as I'm concerned is that I've done exactly those things described in the above quote: "changes in lifestyle, to engage honestly with the self and find meaning, and move towards balance". However, I'm sure to someone as emotionally crippled as yourself that sounds like ineffectual wank.