Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Antidepressant Drugs Don't Work

Click post title to go to Britsh article that compared patients who took four types of popular antidepressant drugs and placebos. There was no difference between improvements made by those taking the drugs and those taking placebos. Conclusion drawn: people can get better without taking chemicals.

We seem to believe taking pills will make us better. Whether these pills are fake or real, we believe in them and the results can be improvement, either way.

But consider how much Oregon taxpayers subsidize these drugs in Oregon, through the Oregon Health Plan. If they don't work any better than placebos, Oregon shrinks and physicians need to stop prescribing them. Recent articles in the Oregonian highlighted our highly drugged up foster care children, thought to be partly caused because drugged up kids bring higher payments from the state to foster families.

And yet, if antidepressants don't work and cost a lot of money, we need to hold shrinks, drug companies and the state accountable, fiscally. Stop prescribing, stop subsidizing drugs that don't help. Start prescribing known natural remedies for deprssion, like: social interaction; purpose in life, exercise, work, fun.

A lot of high end depression results from too much stress, too many demands on individuals, too high of expectations, and from financial woes.

Perhaps some of these causes could be mitigated by the attitude of my friend Dave, the maintenance man. He says, "W'ere all just fuck ups. In the end, we all die. Kick back. Let yourself off the hook. You're not that special."

My own version of Dave the Maintenance Man's philosophy comes from looking into the stars. You'll get a better idea of your own insignificance when you stare into that vast universe. We're nothing, not even specks. This helps me, helps me relegate my particular problems as to actual importance in the vastness of space and time.

Plant your feet on the ground. Go out and stare into that beautiful massive universe some clear night. Understand, you are nothing more than a knat. Less than a knat. Let your insignificant troubles go.

Staring into the stars, as an antidepressant, costs nothing. There are no side effects that I have determined, except neck torsion, which I now must be wary of. To offset this possible side effect, I lay flat on my back on a blanket on the grass or concrete.

1 comment:

  1. We're trying to get love in a pill. That's how I see it. We're depressed because we're over-worked, under-paid, detached from one another, taught to be distrustful and suspicious, and those very folks who taught us such things, the media, the government, big business, the church, the schools, are the ones who have been lying, who are the ones to be distrustful of. Our salvation comes through connecting with one another again. No drug on the planet can give you that effect when you feel connected with something, someone.

    I've never known anyone to be helped by anti-depressants. I am also dismayed that doctors don't run hormonal/neurotransmitter testing on folks who they think are depressed. You wouldn't go in complaining of chest pain and be given a heart medication w/o extensive testing. Simple urine and saliva tests can be performed to measure serotonin (for example) levels. And even if they are low, there are natural remedies to take, amino acids and certain herbs, that are oh so much safer and cheaper. Although I still say love for self and love for and from others is really the key to knocking out most if not all of what ails us, mentally/emotionally/physically. That's something you certainly won't hear from our leaders.

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