Posted by laima on February 25, 2007, at 9:56:00
In reply to Re: Medicalize Me: Experts Look at Perceptions » med_empowered, posted by laima on February 25, 2007, at 2:04:34
Funny, rereading the article more carefully after having had enough sleep, my reading is far more nuanced and I quite appreciative of the concerns the author(s) raise. They are definately not saying that medications are not necessary or that conditions are fabrications; they rather seem quite astutely concerned about the "medicalization" of normal situations, behaviors, which are actually not necessarily pathological-but rather quite possibly part of the spectrum of "normal". So- which ones fall into which category, I suppose, is another question. Some are clear, some are murkier.One subject I've been reading about lately is sleep- I've seen several blurbs (poorly cited-sorry- in places like Ophra magazine!) which asserted that waking up in the middle of the night might actually be a normal, non-pathological sleep pattern for some people. That such a sleep pattern, as well as sleeping "lightly", might have evolved as adaptive behaviors when our ancestors had to be on guard against predators-and that many people today function just fine this way. (Others of course, do not.) Meanwhile, many of us have come to believe that any waking up at night is bad and must be remedied by sleep meds- which lo and behold- mess with sleep cycles, and before one knows it, an entire slew of complications, including tolerance and ultimately increased sleepiness, can ensue. I'd think this is an example of "medicalization". (Please note: example only- I'm not trying to pass any judgement or offend anyone who is doing well on their sleep meds, benefitting from tthem. I think the entire topic of "medicalization" seems very nuanced and easy to misconstrue, and I do not wish to inadvertently offend anyone, yet think the general topic is worthy of intellectual exploration.)
poster:laima
thread:735810
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070224/msgs/735984.html