Posted by pseudoname on July 31, 2006, at 10:02:47
In reply to Medications the whole answer and what about life??, posted by Karen44 on July 31, 2006, at 0:08:40
This observation seems to come up about once a month, I think. I like Karen's post better because it's clearly voiced from her point of view, it's not sneering, and it sounds like genuine dialogue-type questions.
Others making similar points sometimes have such a tone of moral superiority. Sometimes people come here just for the purpose of saying what a waste of time it is to come here.
On the apparent lack of forward movement among frequent Babblers: A lot of people here are amateur psychopharmacologists & psychologists (and a few pros). We have interests in these subjects beyond just our own problems, and we have a lot of specialized information we can only talk about with other enthusiasts. This is about the only place where we can do that. It's like any other specialized interest.
To me, participating a lot here in that way counts as "life": it can be educational, developmental, communal; it deals with important social issues that *someone* needs to think about deeply; it keeps your mind & civility skills sharp, and it can genuinely provide big help to others. I don't know if I ever really help anyone here, but I know that I would never be able to share the limited specialty information I have about meds anywhere else, certainly not in my "real" off-line life. Participating here, even doing it a lot, doesn't *always* mean we're wallowing in our own problems, even if we include our own experiences in the discussion.
I do admit, people, myself included, can wallow in problems, with or without Babble. I post here a lot, but I think that looking over my posts in the last year, one can see a lot of progress. People overgeneralize easily about Babble, and it can seem like no one ever gets better. But there are a lot of successful experiences here. (I'm half-way there.)
> I also wonder how many people get caught up in searching for the good life soley in some medication
That's a real concern. People get fixated too easily, searching for the good life solely in a lover or spouse or job or physique or house or kid or degree or whatever. But if medications are even going to be just a part of the solution to a good life, it may take a lot of work & help to find that part.
I wish you well, too, Karen. I hope you pop back in for any reason.
poster:pseudoname
thread:672192
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060724/msgs/672267.html