Posted by cybercafe on July 26, 2002, at 11:21:07
In reply to Re: I'll tell you what happened, posted by Mireille on July 25, 2002, at 12:21:53
> Wow, didn't realize I'd start something with all of this...:) Ok, maybe a little...
... i think we are all anxious to see improvements in the mental health system ....
wouldn't that be great :)
> I suggest we quit accepting drugs whose effects we're not sure of...unless we really need them!i don't think there are any drugs whose effects we are sure of ....
i totally agree with you that i wouldn't want to start playing around with my brain chemicals unless i really needed to ...
but as to your specific case, of course, i can't comment as i wasn't there>Doctors are eager to hand them out in sample form, and I know, when you're depressed you're willing to try anything...I think the drugs are
... yeah... i think when you're depressed it's probably worth the risk of taking a medication... unless it's situational depression...
>getting better now but we are leaving our lives in the hands of people who aren't testing them enough before putting them on market. And you can't tell me it isn't because they see a huge market for the drugs!
i totally agree with you, it's all about money....
and if there was a company out there who wasn't all about money, they would lose market share and go bankrupt from competition (in other words, evolution is about selfishness, not kindness)
now if you required people to do more testing and spend more money on studies then there would be less profit and less motivation for companies to develop new drugs...
... i know it's a really bad thing, ... but i'm not sure you can legislate companies to behave any better...my area of concern is that the gov't spends so little on mental health ... i believe there is much room for improvement here
> Still, you are right - there isn't much that someone who is very depressed can do about it. I... actually i was sincerely interested in what you thought doctors can do to treat depression without some type of risk ...
>mean, I'm jsut getting very very angry about these horrible withdrawal symptoms and about the fact that none of the doctors I've tried can tell me if they're normal or not, and what effects all of this could have on me in the future! I'm seriously afraid it has permanently altered my personality in some way!
... i'm sorry you're having so much trouble... when i was having horrible withdrawal symptoms from effexor (i really just wanted to die), my doc recommended i take effexor and wow... i felt so relieved, ... it was a miracle...
... i know that your personality can permanently be altered.. even for the worst.. but then medication can almost always make it better ... myself i had severe anxiety, .. but after a while i was able to stop taking benzos (for about 7 months now) and a lot has dissappeared... it's really quite hard to believe... i'm always asking myself why i'm not getting these rushes of fear all the time...
... now how could doctors know more about medication? ... there is so much to know.. and the probem is, i think, the system is so swamped with patients and so few doctors (psychiatry applications are down, mental health funding is down, etc etc) that docs are too busy seeing patients to find time to really keep abreast of all of this vast information....
> > hmmm... well why do you leave your house? or drive? driving is so very very dangerous... really...
>
> Very different. You have a lot more control, although yes it's always true you could die...but should a smoker say that? Why quit - I could get... my thoughts on smoking are... i believe, and this is just a belief, that whatever need you have to smoke can be satisfied by less toxic means...
... as for antidepressants, i don't think there are many less dangerous alternatives to relieving depression..... hey therapy would be nice, if you could afford it.... i also think that if i was given a million dollars i would cheer up... or if beautiful women threw themselves at my feet... but i guess this just isn't totally realistic ...
--> but we can always hope :)>hit by a car? Yes, but that would be HAPPENSTANCE versus you ACTIVELY doing something that you know could harm yourself!
... i was under the impression that antidepressants generally have more positive effects than negative.... just like driving...
whereas smoking is pretty much guaranteed to always have negative effects on health...
... but i admitt i am quite clueless as to the actual number of serious long term negative effects of medication ...>afford them. I'm not questioning that! I'm questioning the fact that you go into a doctor and say you think you have depression, they ask you three questions and hand you a sample of drugs (whichever drug is a la mode that week - or whichever one they have the most samples of).
i totally agree with you that medication shouldn't be given out in cases where it's not needed... i suppose though it's hard for a doc to know whether it is needed or not....... in my case i have found docs very slow to jump on the medication bandwagon... i mean if i wanted to get my hands on lamotrigine for example, even though it seems to have very few negative effects and would seem to be very effective, actually finding a doc to perscribe it would be very tough...
.... so i guess the real question is... what do you think your doc should have done instead?
> Like I said, I'm poor right now, but the poor shouldn't be prey to rich drug companies who want to use them as guinea pigs or get them addicted to new drugs, either! "Here, take it, it's free...try it and see how you feel...sorry, we aren't sure of all the side effects but it will probably make you feel better..."
i totally agree ... perhaps drug companies should face tougher fines for not disclosing the negative effects of medication.... "we didn't think it was signifigant that our medication caused healthy volunteers to become suicidal" ...
let us know how you are doing
i wish you well :)
poster:cybercafe
thread:112746
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020725/msgs/113806.html