> > > That seems to imply that they don't know what it "means", i.e., have an..." /> > > > That seems to imply that they don't know what it "means", i.e., have an..." />

Psycho-Babble Medication | about biological treatments | Framed
This thread | Show all | Post follow-up | Start new thread | List of forums | Search | FAQ

Re: Effexor stuff » Elizabeth

Posted by jojo on July 22, 2001, at 23:01:52

In reply to Re: Effexor stuff » jojo, posted by Elizabeth on July 22, 2001, at 15:19:09

> > > "RE: "(some authorities, notably Goodman & Gilman, recommend dropping it from the medical
> > vocabulary altogether)."
> >
> > That seems to imply that they don't know what it "means", i.e., have an acceptable definition, either.
>
> No, they say that because "addiction" has become a very loaded word with political and legal connotations. G&G uses a definition that's very close to the APA's definition ("substance dependence" in DSM-IV).
>
> > If it were used more, possibly to apply to everyone who is pharmacologically dependent, such as diabetics or people dependant on anti rejection drugs, it might loose its pejorative power, similar to the
> > emasculation ; >) of the word "fuck".
>
> Maybe, but I think it would not be clinically correct to make no distinction. I believe that there really is a separate phenomenon of "addiction" (what used to be called "psychological addiction") that is largely unrelated to substance-specific withdrawal symptoms.
>
> > If you do use the word, what do you understand it to mean?
>
> Pretty much the same thing as Goodman & Gilman and DSM-IV say. I can quote them if you like. Once I started studying the current medical approach to addiction, it became very clear to me that it wasn't about withdrawal symptoms or tolerance. That doesn't mean that I think drug addicts should be considered criminals; I think that's an abomination.
>
> > Certainly there are so many good reasons for dropping it, but as they haven't been effectual for the past
> > ….. what? Certainly before the death of Len Barney, around 1983, when the War was declared.
>
> I guess I'm not old enough to remember that: who was Len Barney? My understanding is that Nixon was the first president to declare a "war on drugs." (I don't see the drugs fighting back much. Although there was this article in the Onion in which it was reported that the war on drugs had ended, with the drugs as victor.)
>
> > This is not about being "intellectually honest" or "medically pragmatic", it is about politics, the art of the possible. Part of that art is forcing one's opponents, and I use that word advisedly, into an untenable position, which is what I am suggesting.
>
> Beating our opponents by playing as dirty as they do? I'm not really in favour of that, even if it's the only way. I think we would debase ourselves and betray our own values if we did that.
>
> > Anyway, what is the distinction between "drug addiction" and "pharmacological dependence"? Pleasure? Also, do you know anything of the replacement of the word "euphoria", meaning "normal mood", by "euthymic", which I guess means "not abnormal mood"? Could the meaning of "normal" be the problem?
>
> Euphoria doesn't mean "normal mood;" it means unusually high mood (e.g., hypomania or mania can be said to be "euphoric" if it's not a mixed state; some drugs, the so-called "drugs of abuse," can cause euphoria as well). Euthymia means normal mood. They're both words of Greek origin; I'm not sure what they mean literally in Greek.
>
> -elizabeth

Sorry, I'm having computer trouble, and I can't spell check this.

Maybe it was Nixon in the 70". Robert Altman (I think)
had just made the original movie of "Mash", with Donald Sutherland
and Elliot Gould. People were doing drugs, as they always have,
except that powdered coke was becoming popular as
the American "improvement" on the centuries old habit of leaf chewing,
which is still legal in Columbia, and more acceptable than the high tech, purified,
more potent, extract). Neither the media nor the politicians had yet discovered
the power they could wield with an additional War. Len Barney was a young professional
basketball player with a promising carreer, when he O.D. on coke and died.
This was the immediate precipitating factor in the War. The American government
had to do something, because, as I remember it, all these veterans were coming
back from Viet Nam, and had had wide experience with heroin and marijuana, and their experience with its
addictive qualities was somewhat different than the authoraties would have preferred, so Barney's death was the perfect opportunity to 'set the record straight' on the dangers of drugs, and get these
kids to be a little more ernest about imposing democracy on Viet Nam. We had already rejected the election
which we had agreed to when the Vietnameese kicked the French out, and these kids prefered getting high
to killing. Go figure out human nature. When Muhammed Ali refused to kill people in Viet Nam, they took away his boxing license. Told him if he wouldn't kill people, they wouldn't let him beat them up anymore.
This is getting long for my "Wordpad", so I'll have to add to it later when the other computer is fixed.
World Book Dictionary:"Euphoria":a feeling of happiness and well being. EU - good;PHORIA-well bearing, ease of bearing; good bearing.
More later.



Share
Tweet  

Thread

 

Post a new follow-up

Your message only Include above post


Notify the administrators

They will then review this post with the posting guidelines in mind.

To contact them about something other than this post, please use this form instead.

 

Start a new thread

 
Google
dr-bob.org www
Search options and examples
[amazon] for
in

This thread | Show all | Post follow-up | Start new thread | FAQ
Psycho-Babble Medication | Framed

poster:jojo thread:17065
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010720/msgs/71456.html