{"id":453,"date":"2004-04-05T17:59:47","date_gmt":"2004-04-05T22:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/2004\/04\/05\/\/"},"modified":"2005-10-19T20:05:11","modified_gmt":"2005-10-20T00:05:11","slug":"pill-popping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/2004\/04\/05\/pill-popping\/","title":{"rendered":"Pill Popping"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I’ve been reminded by this article<\/a> that this was something I wanted to write about.<\/p>\n

It expresses (aside from the alcoholism fears) a good number of my concerns about the mad overmedication that’s been going on in this country. This quote especially resonates with me, but also describes a lot of people.<\/p>\n

There’s another twist. I have spent most of my life learning how to cope with my moods. I’m deeply invested in figuring out how to glean something useful from my depressions as well as learning how to manage and make the most of my periods of elation. I have found ways to minimize the damage and disruption that my periods of gloom and nameless grief can cause. My moodiness is — and has always been — my “self.” Perhaps there’s some benefit to living with, rather than medicating, my temperament. I’ve certainly learned a lot about the range of ways reality can feel. What does it mean for me to start defining myself as “mood-disordered” or “chemically imbalanced” or “borderline personality disordered” or “ADHD”?<\/p>\n

By whose story should I live? Am I simply an especially emotionally responsive person, or have I squandered most of my life trying to compensate for biological dysfunctions that modern medicine now allows me to correct?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is an important question. And it’s one that people don’t seem to like or want an answer for a lot of the time. My mother, for instance, started taking Paxil several years ago, for anxiety. Among other difficulties, she had found it impossible for many years to even consider driving on a highway; it was simply not something she could do any longer. She had been able to do it when she was younger, but (and this is my opinion) as a SAHM whose husband did all the driving on family trips of any length she did not need to do it on a regular basis. And so it became something unusual and thus anxiety inducing. After my father died she began taking the Paxil to try and overcome these somewhat irrational fears. And overcome them she has: she can now drive on the highway and feels freer than she has for many years. But it is a fact that she also makes herself drive on the highway on a regular basis now, and thus does not allow it to become something out of the ordinary. So was it really the Paxil or was it necessity that did the trick? Does she really need the Paxil any longer? Is it just a placebo effect? That she believes<\/i> it works?<\/p>\n

Both of my brothers were also prescribed Paxil as well. And, frankly, I am absolutely certain if I went to a doctor and asked, I could get some. Or Zoloft or something. But… that makes me uneasy.<\/p>\n

What I do know is having spoken with mom, she believes that her and my brothers’ problems were ‘worse’ than mine because they were prescribed medicine for them. I find this attitude outrageous; she cannot know my mental state any more than I can know hers, so who is she to determine whose anxiety is really worse? Perhaps it is true and perhaps it isn’t. I’m not better than them because I haven’t taken the stuff.<\/p>\n

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I’ve been reminded by this article that this was something I wanted to write about. It expresses (aside from the alcoholism fears) a good number of my concerns about the mad overmedication that’s been going on in this country. This quote especially resonates with me, but also describes a lot of people. There’s another twist. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}