Posted by yxibow on April 2, 2009, at 19:06:49
In reply to Re: Barbiturates for insomnia, posted by metric on April 2, 2009, at 13:29:13
> You'll never get a barbiturate prescribed for insomnia so don't even bother.
>
> Hopefully one day you'll be able to buy any drug you want over-the-counter, as was the case a century ago. In the meantime you're stuck paying extortionate fees to doctors to obtain permission slips for useless drugs such as Remeron and Ambien. I, for one, do not need or want a doctor to "diagnose" me with me with insomnia when I can't sleep, anxiety when I'm nervous, or excessive-daytime-sleepiness when I'm tired, or depression when I'm depressed. I urge everyone who cares to complain as loudly as possible about the encroachment of medicine into every unpleasant human emotional state.
Despite the rant, chronic insomnia is a condition that affects millions of people. I for one know that it is probably one piece of the very intricate disorder I have.It affects anxiety, depression, EPS and side effects -- the lack of sleep interferes and can increase those disorders.
I wouldn't just snub it off like that, but you're entitled to your own opinion. I know personally I don't like being an insomniac.
As for "as it was a century ago", people were selling heroin, cocaine, anything, you name it, over the counter. Do you really think in a society where medicine has rapidly expanded health you would want readily available hard drugs OTC ?
Oh, and about a century ago 20 million people died of the flu around 1915-1920.
There were no antibiotics, at least none you would want unless you wanted to play russian roulette with sulfa drugs.
No MRIs, polio, malaria, a lot of diseases were rampant in 'modern' countries.
Yes, people were stylin' in the roaring 20s in some ways like rebirths of fun and debauchery in recent times.
But if one thinks psychiatry is still fraught with problems, which it is, because while we have a lot of tools, it is still in some ways in the 'middle ages' -- try living then.
There was nothing but asylums, misunderstanding at best, and rough and inhumane at worst.
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:887877
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090330/msgs/888297.html