Posted by ricker on August 19, 2008, at 12:46:15
In reply to The stakes are too high., posted by SLS on August 19, 2008, at 8:11:07
Less is more. When I started treatment in the 80's, I would follow the doctors directives, to the best of my abilities.
Then comes the internet and suddenly, everyone is a pdoc or certified pharmacologist.
Mentally ill patients can be extremely desperate, gullible and influenced. So, when we log into our personal on-line mental health clinic, we can instantly justify our failures.
Strenght in numbers. If one person says drug A causes this, well, it must be so? I think the biggest placebo effect bar none is the internet forums.
We belive the experts really don't care, have no idea how the drugs work, and don't know as much as us?
I know for a fact that mental illness is the only disability where a patient can have a consult with a specialist and pretty much demand what their prescribed treatment should be.
Other healthcare fields have proven treatments and that's what the patients are offered...end of story... no second guessing.
Oh, but we are educated people that prepare ourselves for each and every p/doc appointment. We walk out of the office with a script in hand that WE believe is the best course of treatment.
The thing is, our doctors actually know more than what many of us believe. And they certainly know that if we walk out of their office with a script that is a "terrible drug" that causes this or that, we will be back in short order begging for a change in course.
We know all these negative effects will happen because our on-line mental health clinic says so.
The docs know this too, they see it every day and know the power of the placebo.The thought of questioning my pdocs treatment years ago was just that, a thought. But now I can march in there with this internet empowerment and explain why I should give drug B a try.
So I get MY drug of choice. And as it absorbs it's way throughout my body, I can quickly surf the net looking for all these strange side effects. I will find them and when I do, well, that's the moment the "drug" loses it's theraputic value.
I must make another appointment with my p/doc asap, how dare he prescribe this terrible stuff?
poster:ricker
thread:847169
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080814/msgs/847216.html