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Mass Psychosis In the USA?
Hugh Pickens writes "James Ridgeway writes in Al Jazeera that with over $14 billion in sales in 2008, antipsychotics have become the single top-selling therapeutic class of prescription drugs in the U.S., surpassing drugs used to treat high cholesterol and acid reflux. While once upon a time, antipsychotics were reserved for a relatively small number of patients with hard-core psychiatric diagnoses, today it seems, everyone is taking antipsychotics. 'Parents are told that their unruly kids are in fact bipolar, and in need of anti-psychotics, while old people with dementia are dosed, in large numbers, with drugs once reserved largely for schizophrenics,' writes Ridgeway. 'Americans with symptoms ranging from chronic depression to anxiety to insomnia are now being prescribed anti-psychotics at rates that seem to indicate a national mass psychosis.' By now, just about everyone knows how the drug industry works to influence the minds of American doctors, plying them with gifts, junkets, ego-tripping awards, and research funding in exchange for endorsing or prescribing the latest and most lucrative drugs. According to Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, under the tutelage of Big Pharma, we are 'simply expanding the criteria for mental illness so that nearly everyone has one.'"
No surprise here!
That's crazy!
I can believe it. Have you looked at our politics lately ?
Aldous Huxley was spot on ...
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
It's a Brave New World.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Maybe those drugs are just super expensive. A total number of consumers would be more useful.
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(I'm Amrecian)
PocketPermissions Android Permission Guide
Or it's just a case of mass over-prescription of antipsychotics. Nothing is normal anymore, EVERYONE has some kind of mental or physical disorder that must be treated by drugs.
Thanks to drug companies' advertising, it seems a lot of drugs of different classes are overprescribed. I'm no M.D. but it doesn't seem that antipsychotics would do much good for depression.
My doctor had me on Paxil for a year or so after my divorce, they were hard to get off of and I'd wished I'd never taken them.
However, it sure seems like there are an awful lot of really crazy people here in Springfield, many of them violent, who should probably be on medication but aren't. I'm 59 and I don't remember very many nutballs when I was young, but there sure seem to be a lot of crazies these days. I often wonder why, but didn't Reagan throw a bunch of lunatics out of the mental institutions back in the eighties?
Free Martian Whores!
Last year my wife was suffering from some anxiety during her pregnancy. An internal medicine doctor prescribed an anti-psychosis drug to treat bipolar disorder. The list of side effects included just about everything you wouldn't want to happen to a pregnant women. What would a drug like this do to an unborn child, let alone an adult!
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
Go to Fox News if you think only your biased opinion is the correct one.
The "dumb" half of the country goes manic from the hype on the media, the "smart" half gets depressed by seeing what happening. One half swallows the hype and goes nuts over it, the other half doesn't and descends into hope- and helplessness.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
the popularity of Facebook and the iPhone.
Can't we block foreign IPs from this website? Or at least foreign IPs posting as AC?
Can we block redneck bigots from this site? Or at least start Americans with karma -1 by default?
Check out the BBC show "The Century of the Self"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/century_of_the_self.shtml
When you see that, it becomes pretty clear that the US population were unsuspecting guinea pigs in what's certainly the biggest experiment in mass psychology ever done. And that experiment FAILED.
And while it would be a convenient explanation, the one that's probably more likely is that there is money to be made by selling drugs and hence there is quite some interest to call everyone who isn't "normal" by some arbitrary standard nuts and hence in need of drugs.
It's a bit like hypertension. When the sales for blood pressure lowering drugs were not high enough, we simply lowered the normal blood pressure ranges from about 130/100 to 120/80 and suddenly a lot of people were in dire need to lower their pressure.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Foreign? There's no such thing as nations on the internet you imbecile. That's the one good thing about it. And the fact that I can call you an imbecile from the safety my mom's basement.
The point is that it's evidence of overprescription, not of excessive psychotic behavior.
There is also a problem in the observations in the summary--notably, the mere fact that we are expanding our clinical definitions of psychological diagnoses is NOT a bad thing--the problem is when people treat them wrong. The good thing about expanding and re-working the definitions is that it lets you describe and identify conditions better in each generation than you did in the generation before, and maybe learn something more about how they should be best treated.
The problem is that almost nobody does real psychotherapy anymore (except for the filthy rich), so in most cases all people do is prescribe medication as if that would treat the problem. There are cases where it will, and there are more cases where it will treat the symptoms, but it often is very much the wrong approach. You can't sit down with someone and cure a psychological issue with a talking-to or folk medicine--they can be complex and very time-consuming and difficult for people to learn to live with or move past or adapt to the world in spite of--but conversations, activities, and the development of a support network in almost every case I have seen has made a bigger impact by far than the use of drugs.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
That sounds a bit paranoid to me. Perhaps you should talk to your doctor. You could probably get drugs to help you with that.
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
Well, as is obvious from our ever expanding waistlines, Americans are getting less and less exercise?and probably sunlight too). I wonder if this is, at least in part, contributing to our increased depression. Several studies have shown pretty clearly that exercise is a great, if not the best, treatment for mild to moderate depression. So instead if sucking down big pharma and big agra's endless supply of shit, maybe we should try getting off our ass and going out for a run or bike ride.
Monstar L
As an non-native American (family has only been here about 7 generations) I think it's not that far a stretch to say many American's are paranoid delusional at least when it comes to foreigners. It's probably something in the water making them crazy.
We can count them and see if we reach a couple hundred million, you can be '1'.
I remember reading an article years ago about how how the big pharmaceuticals don't invest enough research in antibiotics and how drug resistant bacteria is the new epidemic. The reason the pharmaceutical companies don't research new antibiotics is because there is no money in it. Why create a drug that a person only takes for a few weeks when you can create an anti-psychotic that people will take for years? It's a sad world.
I'm an american, and I think you're all fucking crazy, too. The strongest drug I take on any sort of regular basis is ibuprofen. I've been diagnosed with clinical depression, but I'm not taking anything for it. I was originally prescribed a couple of different things, but they had no positive effect whatsoever.
Over a decade ago, a school psychologist noticed "odd" behavior in one of my daughters. Under the guise of "vigilence", they looked for people to put on drugs. My girls, in grades 1 and 3, were interrogated -- without my permissions or knowledge -- by a school psychologist, who diagnose them with various psychotic disorders. Why? Because the girls told wild tales -- one claimed to know how to fly, and the other told dark tales ala Poe and Lovecraft.
This bitch of a psychiatrist demanded that we drug our children, and began the process of forcing us to give the girls "medicine" (i.e., anti-psychotic and ADHD drugs), even when other psychiatrists said that my daughters were fine. When asked why she was so insistent on treating my daughters for something that didn't exist, the offending psychiatrist said:
"I've been taking these drugs most of my life. I know they're good for your kids."
Needless to say, I no longer live in Colorado, where this travesty was legal. My girls are intelligent, creative, productive young adults (with lots of quirks, like any smart person). Now that they're adults, they can chose what the do and do not put in their bodies.
American society is driven by a need by people's to feel like a victim, by fear, and by selfish greed. It is a recipe for disaster.
All about me
I imagine it's pretty easy to become depressed in our society.
People who live a job rather than a life do things that advertising and media tell them to do or what other people in their situation do to escape. They turn to alcohol, nightclubs, meaningless sex*, gambling, smoking or anything that is meaningless or self destructive.
* Not that meaningless sex means anything to Slashdotters but I hope my point is made intellectually.
I imagine that these factors, plus the fact that everyone seems to be a big asshole these days contribute to people turning to drugs. Ultmately, people feel disconnected from other people, they are ostracized and bullied. Drugs don't solve problems. You do.
I feel powerless because of the following:
As Adam Smith said, agriculture is the root of all progress. Our society is unsustainable and growth seems to be on top of artificial markets. For example, digital markets like the domain market. Or on advertising.
Slashdot needs Geekcode | Can anyone recommend any good SCIFI? My tastes: Foundation, Startide Rising, CITY, Ringworld,
Ask yourself.
Why aren't you happy? You (probably) have: electricity, abundance of food and water, computers, video games, (some) free time, a job, a loving girlfriend/wife? Money?
You're not happy because you cannot be you in this society.
It's that trite cliche that materials do not bring happiness but they are necessity for happiness. You cannot be happy about something before you have shelter, food and water. (Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs)
Our society lacks somethin that people need. Drugs really don't give that to you.
Arguing about happiness on Slashdot. Very odd.
Slashdot needs Geekcode | Can anyone recommend any good SCIFI? My tastes: Foundation, Startide Rising, CITY, Ringworld,
Exactly what else did the doctor suggest you try? Counselling, Group Theory, Dietary changes? Or was it just, you go in, BANG, prescription for drugs and problem solved?
ever read what goes into Coke or Pepsi diet drinks?
Phenylalanine
"ADD/ADHD, emotional and behavioral disorders can all be triggered by too much Phenylalanine in the daily diet"
Forms of advertisement and propaganda that are commonly used in US, rely on subjecting the viewer/listener to extreme emotional pressure, as person's current state (not owning a product, acting in a manner different from one being prescribed) is portrayed as miserable, ridiculous or immoral. As a result the goal is achieved (some of affected people buy products and obey the norms of thoughts and behavior promoted by propaganda, to get rid of negative self-perception) however both those who comply and those who don't, have to deal with constant stream of insults and manipulation directed toward them from all forms of mass media. After decades of this escalating pressure, people become mentally unstable, stupid, and incapable of normal emotional reaction to real-life events.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Yeah, there is the money thing, but more important, there is the "stupud people" thing, what worries me most is that at least 2nd world war was started because germans were stupid enough, we are now in a similar fashion but with americans
I'm positive, don't belive me look at my karma
I am on these class of drugs. For over 10 years now. When I was diagnosed I told my shrink some jibberish about aliens
I've always assumed that this is why the scientologists don't like mental illness being treated properly...
Paying his bill.
Here in the US we don't have nearly as good medical care as say, Bulgaria, unless you're part of the ownership class.
You know, they say the health care system in the US is so bad it makes you crazy, which gives me a different insight into this story about psychosis in the US.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It's probably something in the water making them crazy.
We must protect our precious bodily fluids from water fluoridation of our public water supply by communist spies. So I demand that the President launches a full scale preemptive attack against The former USSR, China, Berkley, and Harvard.
Clearly a lot of drivers I see on the road are over-medicated.
You are probably one of the few correctly diagnostic persons on Anti-psychotics
how long until
I'd rather see a big upsurge in the popularity of homeopathic medicine in that case. At least the money goes to mostly-harmless hippies, the side effects are fewer, and it's cheaper.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Wrong
They do something. They bind to the receptors and stuff...
They may be called "placebos" because they don't "fix" the main issue, but they certainly change the chemistry.
It's like giving ulcer medication to someone with a broken leg.
how long until
"Mass Psychosis In the USA?" Yes it exist and effects nearly everyone in the population, it's called Television, don't laugh...how else can you explain FOX news or TV shows where a serial killer is the hero?
We have all been mislead, driven mad, outright lied too, and given values that have no depth and are meaningless, all by television.
8 or more hours a day of murder, rape, and stupidity eventually takes its toll.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I'm a victim! It's the environment! My mom was cruel to me! Hormones make me eat too much! Video games make me violent!
All I need is some understanding. And another pill.
Or I'll kill you.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
antipsychotics have become the single top-selling therapeutic class of prescription drugs in the U.S
Big Pharma forcing shit down our throats for profit. Just like every other corporation in this country: out for the bottom line. Clinical depression is a bitch. I saw first hand what these so called" thereputic drugs" did to my mother. Take this for the depression take this for the pain take this so your liver doesn't explode. Where does it end? When do the doctors stand up and say NO. Remember the Hippocratic Oath? Oh and the only reason these so called thereputic drugs are the top selling drugs is because the US government thinks mary jane is as toxic as heroine and cocaine. Serves no medical use my ass. The war on drugs was born from racism and hate. When are we going to focus on bigger problems like methamphetamines and crack. Those are far worse problems than smoking weed. Legalization and taxation. This country is broke and needs a massive infusion of cash yet the government chooses to ignore the obvious sources. Oh yeah my mother just wanted to die after my father died. They had been together for 40 years and he was her anchor. Those drugs the doctor prescribed kept her going for a few years after dad died but in the end she didn't go easily. So much for dignity.
"We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
Anti-psychotics are an interesting class of drugs in their own right. That said, many drugs have uses other than their primary one.
http://www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/index.cfm/search-for-guides-reviews-and-reports/?productid=8&pageaction=displayproduct
As you can see there, some anti-psychotics are used to treat depression, OCD, and PTSD. Each of which, I believe represents a larger section of the population than people who are actually psychotic. I would not be surprised if the off label use in the larger population of those patients, could easily dwarf the real psychotics, or at least swell the numbers quite a bit.
And I do believe it to be somewhat common, a couple of times different people told me what medications they were on, and I looked them up to find out one was an anti-psychotic, that was being given for an off-label indication.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Parents don't want to deal with their kids. They'd rather drug them and let the TV babysit. After all, being a parent is hard and a complete life changing event. If its not, you're doing it completely wrong. Most parents completely fuck up their children by trying to be their friend rather than their parent. And even then, a large number of parents are extremely poor parents because they don't want to be a good parent by ever telling their child, "no." A parent who doesn't believe in saying, "no", and standing by it, is no parent at all.
Those caring for the elderly don't want them able to resist. Compliance makes for a happy worker. They'd rather medicate them which makes them compliant.
The explosive grow of these medications says nothing about the mental health of American citizens consuming these medications and everything about those prescribing and who are providing medicating. Its disgusting.
Erh... no.
WW2 was a direct result of WW1. The combination of feeling like they didn't really lose the war, or at least would not have lost it on the battlefield (seriously, the Germans were deep in France and Russia by the time they surrendered) if some politicians and schemers didn't "assassinate" the German military and very humiliating peace conditions (Clemenceau insisted in conditions that should render Germany harmless and could only hit deeply in the heart of a nation as militaristic and proud as Germany was back then) could only lead to a longing for revenge and a continuation as soon as Germany could muster the strength. There has been much speculation whether WW2 would have happened without Hitler, and my only conclusion is that yes, it would have. Differently maybe, and let's be glad a strategic dilettante was at the helm. But I digress.
Germany was not stupid. Germany was wounded and furious. It longed for revenge after the "disgraceful" peace treaty of Versailles. With America, I'd say it's hubris, not really feeling wronged by "the world".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
was when I realized most people are nuts. I don't mean that as an insult or exaggeration. I mean that people with a tenuous grasp on what is actually happening around them are the rule, not the exception. It actually hit me pretty hard, because several people very close to me kept exhibiting horribly irrational and self-destructive behavior, and I kept expecting them to stop doing it because, hey, no rational person would do these things, right? It was just a momentary lapse in judgement, right? Wrong. And it wasn't just being irrational or emotional. It was a total disconnect from the reality of cause & effect.
I'll say this, successful people learn early that the majority of people are nuts, and to avoid those people. I say if we can tank a welfare mom up on drugs so she can look objectively at her choices and say, "You know what, I'm not going to vote for the guy that keeps saying he's gonna cut my kids health insurance!", then more power to those of us who at least try to be rational.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
If you're a mentally sane person in this time and age, I guess you have to get insane from witnessing what's happening.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
And even if drugs don't solve his problems, the right ones will solve ours, if used at at least LD50 levels.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
And by your own post you are as much a Bigot if not more.
Try holding yourself to the same standard you demand of others.
Mod parent up.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
The vast majority of prescribed antipsychotics are atypicals. While they are FDA approved for schizophrenia and type I bipolar, they are also useful off-label in treating major depressive disorder, augmentation in dementia, and even for sleep disorders. The same is true of antidepressants. Tricyclics are often used to treat neuropathic disorders--usually pain, and SSRI's are used off-label for bulimia, Raynaud's, and fibromyalgia. Psychiatric medicine is perhaps the least understood of all areas of medicine. Increased utilization of medication doesn't necessarily correlate with an increase in incidence of disease or inappropriate management of therapy. Historically, this has been linked to improvements in diagnosis rates, and sometimes because the use of a medication has expanded.
So? We're trusting articles about Iran from US news services, this is just a small leap of faith after that.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
*sigh* You're supposed to affix those performance enhancer to where your tool used to be when it still worked, not stick 'em up your rear!
Can't people read labels anymore?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I sometimes wonder if when they cure one disease they invent another. And I mean invent, not discover.
Some of our neighbors have a three year old boy. He's been diagnosed with some kidney problem I can't even remember, let alone pronounce. And yet he's perfectly healthy.
Thirty years ago, you'd have just said he needs to pee a lot.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Right?
Insomnia. It's annoying, but it's not worth losing any sleep over.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
"Satire is an imperfect mirror, in which we can see others but not ourselves."
"Shut up, buttmunch"
-- Some dudes wearing wigs.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
A drug that once was thought to have a very limited application turns out to have a very broad application. In other news, heart attack and cancer patients all stupidly think they have headaches because they keep taking aspirin to remedy their condition.
Who insist on charging prices that nobody but the rich can afford, so that they can buy their mansions, Jaguars, yachts, etc. Up to $600 an hour or more for him to ask you some obvious questions, and you to do all the work. So instead, go to a clinic, get your pills, and on your way. The same problem with the entire healthcare industry. They're apparently never rich enough, and are really not concerned with helping people, despite the Oath.
We should be giving it to all those delusional theists...
Seriously; If you Christian types think you will "deflect" the criticism of your little brain fart of a religion, By screaming bloody Muslim every chance you get, then you are wrong,
Matthew 10:34 (ASV) -- "Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."
Lucas 12:51 (ASV) -- "Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: ..."
In conclusion:
"A Christian." == "Someone who have not read the Bible."
"A Fundamentalist Christian." == "A Christian that have read the Bible.
Muslim == Christian == bat-shit crazy people.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot.
Is this not what happens to a people under the stress of being told that they are constantly under attack from all sides ?
Between "terrorism", "cyber-terrorism", and the rising local fears and money troubles, is it any wonder that the signs of stress are showing ?
Not that I don't think that such drugs are over prescribed, far from it, rather than seeking the cause they are more likely to medicate the hell out of the symptom.
There's nothing in homeopathics to "bind to the receptors and stuff". There's nothing in homeopathics to "change the chemistry".
It's more like giving a glass of water to someone with a broken leg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy#High_dilutions
It really fits with the standard way of thinking in the US for most people. "What? Germs are the cause of disease? Kill all germs!!" (Not realizing that we need germs to be healthy and to keep our immune systems strong) Got a headache? Take a pill! Feeling a bit sad? There's an app... err a pill for that too!
Most people in the US don't know how to think. They get a symptom and look to someone else to tell them what's wrong and what they need to buy. Wonderful conditioning we've got here isn't it? We are certainly not responsible for ourselves when we can offload that to someone else... and then later blame and sue them for side-effects and unintended consequences.
They did with ADHD, they did it with depression, they did it with erections. Watch out for those anti-psychotics though; a large number cause weight gain, which is not good.
Where in my post did I mention homeopathy?
It's specifically saying about "Many of those drugs are no better than placebos" whereas in context means FDA approved drugs.
Except giving homeopathy is like giving a glass of water (maybe with some sacarose), giving a FDA approved drug is giving a substance designed to bind into receptors.
how long until
"It's no good thing to be well adjusted to a sick society".
Too lazy to look it up...
May of these antipsychotic medications require careful adjustment of the dosage regimen to avoid problems with mentation or emotional control. Different forms of pseudo-paranoia and irrational reality testing are common problems.
It is self evident that if a mind altering drug is being given for a reason that does not exist, then there can be no correct dosage regimen. Any use of the drug at all is going to distort behavior and belief systems.
This could explain a lot of contemporary American politics.
Would it be unreasonable to require American political candidates to publish the list of medications they are currently using? That might be a good first step in addressing a serious national health problem that has a direct impact on national politics.
Will
I sometimes wonder if when they cure one disease they invent another. And I mean invent, not discover.
Some of our neighbors have a three year old boy. He's been diagnosed with some kidney problem I can't even remember, let alone pronounce. And yet he's perfectly healthy.
Thirty years ago, you'd have just said he needs to pee a lot.
Idiot. I suppose that you, from your vaunted position as a 'neighbor', can diagnose a disease condition ("some kidney problem") and immediately dismiss it because everything that medicine does is bad. Thirty years ago, someone with high blood pressure or diabetes would be ignored because there wasn't much that we could do about it. Now there is. The incidence of strokes and heart failure is decreasing - not as much as people had suggested - but it's decreasing. Thirty years ago diabetes was a death sentence. Now it's just another chronic disease. But that means that Big Pharma is milking it for all it's worth since we can't 'cure' it.
There is an amazing amount of black and white thinking here. The world is complex, people more so. Yep, big Pharma is, in part, evil. So is the Law, Medicine, Politics and McDonalds. Sometimes I think the average Slashdotter should really be locked in the basement and left there. FWIW, the Al Jezeera article was pretty lame. It conveniently ignores the fact that human behavior is one of the biggest problems that humans face and we've been trying to chemically modify it for thousands of years (think tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, opium and other 'natural' solutions) and that despite this, we don't have very good tools for doing so.
Recently, Al Jezeera has made some inroads into good journalism but every now and again, they can't help themselves and revert to type.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
TFA's headline talks about anti-psychotic medications, yet the article itself is about the entire class of psychoactive drugs.
Antipsychotics are a small sliver of the class of psycoactive drugs.
Antidepressants are psychoactive, but they are not anti-psychotic. The same applies for anti-anxiety durgs, such as Xanax, mood stabilizers for bipolar disorder (such as lithium), and for drugs used for Attention Defecit, such as ritalyn.
The problem is TFA lumps drugs used for depression and anxiety disorders in the same category as drugs used for treating schizophrenia.
In other words, the headline is misleading. Psychoactive != antipsychotic. The headline is purposefully misleading the reader into thinking that because someone takes a psychoactive drug, they are psychotic, and since americans take a lot of psychoactive drugs, Americans are psychotic.
This isn't a surprising headline for a news service whose primary audience isn't fond of Americans.
I'd expect to see the same sort of headline in a Scientologist publication.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
I really struggle with these broad, "America is crazy" type ideas, and all the resulting "It's because of TV!!" type responses. It reminds me of Tom Cruise declaring mental illness a hoax. I can tell you right now that it is not. My father was a severe paranoid schizophrenic, and let me tell you that it is some scary, terrifying shit that cannot be faked, and it's not caused by watching too much television. Until you've looked into the eyes of someone you love and see no recognition, see a complete stranger who's not even aware of their own identity (or you have a disorder yourself), you have no insight into mental illness. Then seeing that person waste away and die in a care home... This is no trivial thing to be diagnosed by armchair doctors, and dumbass actors who worship aliens.
One thing I would be curious to see is how many kids on psych drugs come from broken homes. I come from a broken home (and no I'm not looking for boo hoo hoo's, it's relevant to what I'm saying), and were it not for my dear Grandparents raising me, I would have probably wound up with some kind of psych disorder too. Looking back, before I moved in with my Grandparents, I remember myself on a really bad path. Antisocial behavior, skipping school, smoking dope... After moving in with my Grandparents who actually cared about me and spent time with me, things seemed to be infinitely better in retrospect. So yeah, based on my experience, I could see the 50%ish divorce rate could be part of the problem with the number of people with psych disorders. I've heard "It takes a village to raise a child", and one person is not enough to get the job done right. In my past, I really tie what I think of as early stage psych disorders directly to being in a single parent, single income home. Maybe this isn't the case for everyone, but I can sure see how being a kid on your own could facilitate psych disorders, lead you down a path of crime, etc.
I have a son now, and I can tell you that the memories of my Grandparents have made me a dedicated parent. Without a good parenting role model to look back on, who knows what kind of parent I'd be? So not only is divorce a devastating thing for kids, in my opinion it can be cyclical.
Is there an off the cuff "Dr. Phil" type solution to all this? Hell no. Maybe there is no solution at all. Do I think a lower divorce rate would lower the number of kids on psych drugs? Yes 100%. Obviously a lower divorce rate does not guarantee a healthy upbringing. There are abusers, molesters, and just bad parents even in 2 parent homes. I do honestly believe that if the divorce rate were to somehow drop (like I said, maybe there is no solution here), percentage wise there would be enough of an increase in good home lives to reduce the number of kids on psych drugs.
Unfortunately, what do you do with the existing "damaged goods"? Our government seems to think budget cuts to mental health programs is the right idea ( http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/01/state-budget-cuts-slash-mental-health-funding.html ). After witnessing the level of care my father received, I can't imagine this will help anyone. This is an "off the cuff" remark, but I really pisses me off that we can hand over 2 trillion in tax cuts to the richest people in the country, and pay for several wars, but we can't find a few pennies for people who are legitimately in need of care.
So what is my answer to "why is America crazy?" Priorities. We are completely fucking upside down in how we see the world. Money is everything, and anything that does not generate income is viewed as expendable. Family oriented social programs, care of old people, sick people, injured vets... It all takes a back seat to our corrupt politicians and the trillions in bribe money we pay to their campaign contributors, and bailouts to criminal bankers. Am I bitter? Yeah. I'm bitter. Watching your dad wither and die in a care home, while my tax money pays for war and lobbyist bribes will do that to a person.
Almost everybody I know is a criminal, it's just that most of us never get caught.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I guess the Christians do all of those things for the lulz. (Or based on the 1775 book by a French philosopher which ranged the various "races" making sure Western Europeans came out on top...)
... we're never gonna survive, unless...
We get a little crazy
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
The expansion of antipsychotic use has nothing to do with the number of people being diagnosed with psychotic disorders. AFAIK, that number hasn't increased much.
The real reason is that over the past 10 or 15 years, antipsychotic meds (i.e. dopamine antagonists) have been used with increasing frequency in patients who do NOT have psychotic symptoms. ("Psychotic symptoms" basically means either hallucinations or delusional thinking). Many of these meds are marketed as "mood stabilizers" for bipolar disorder-- and the criteria for bipolar disorder are so broad and so subjective that just about anyone can be diagnosed with it. Indeed, one of the popular "screening tools" for bipolar disorder is something called the Mood Disorders Questionnaire, which is a bit like those Scientology quizzes that tells you whether Scientology is right for you. (It always is). The MDQ was designed by doctors who work for drug companies-- I've met one of them.
There are three other groups who tend to get lots of antipsychotics-- the elderly (especially in nursing homes), the mentally retarded, and people with plain old depression. The last one is actually the easiest to justify, since there are some studies which suggest that certain antipsychotics can work as adjunctive treatment for depression-- they have managed to get FDA approval for that indication. The first two-- elderly and MR-- are impossible to defend. They don't benefit the patient, they cause cognitive slowing and deterioration of functioning, and they increase overall mortality. Lilly in particular has been guilty of marketing their antipsychotic (Zyprexa) to nursing homes and claiming that it improves "behavioral disturbances of dementia". It doesn't, and they eventually had to pay out billions of dollars in fines.
Any psychiatrist with half a brain knows what's going on here. In the mid 90s all the new antidepressants (Prozac, etc) started to go off-patent and the drug companies lost a major cash cow. Ever since then, the drug companies have sought new indications for dopamine blockers, since they are mostly still on-patent, and most of them are fiendishly expensive.
...when the American electorate decided to go with the pleasant movie fantasies of a has-been B actor in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease instead of the unpleasant energy and economic realities explained quite plainly by an engineer who happened to be president at the time. Yes, America broke with reality 30 years ago, which is more or less the definition of psychosis.
Any hope we had of energy independence and a stable economy died then. Arab oil and economic decay through debt spending were in. Whoopee! And hasn't that worked out well?
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Yes, we ARE psycotic, so DON'T mess with us!! We KILL you!!
Fuck off, you don't know him, you don't know shit and you don't know me. I'm certainly not one of those who thinks that because doctors couldn't cure XYZ, or said my father had three months and he survived for six, then all the medical business is invalid. So you can shove that strawman up your ass sideways. But a business is what it is. Businesses don't like becoming obsolete. If a miracle cure for everything turned up tomorrow what do you think would happen to it? They'd hide it in a drawer, in a basement with no stairs and a sign on the door saying "beware of the leopard".
His parents think he's fine too. Read it slowly: there is nothing wrong with him. He's had surgery. No change. Well, at least they didn't make things worse. They still got paid though.
Don't even get me started on all the mental and psychological disorders they've made up.
Now get off your high horse, its back isn't strong enough to carry a fat cunt like you. And in case you missed it, fuck off.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It's funny when you think about it. Some Americans take drugs to feel better about themselves, but non-Americans talk shit about Americans to make them feel better about themselves. Well, I guess the later is cheaper...
That also explains the "Tea Party" ?
a big part of the problem is that we've permitted doctors to form a medical mafia, and what we need is something closer to "healthcare engineering". as a guild, the medical establishment is structurally prone to rackets, and the relationship between big pharma and doctors qualifies.
As has been noted in other comments, there is plenty to be depressed about in the United States (and elsewhere). In fact, to be content is to be oblivious and fortunate to have adequate resources. I too have fought to keep my child off of medication (a faulty ADHD diagnosis in this case), and so I can totally appreciate what people are struggling with. Having to deal with systemic incompetence in psychology can be very distracting, especially considering all of the other concerns normal people typically have to deal with.
It takes ample energy to train competent psychologists, and unfortunately that is seen as being a luxury in our current economic environment. We've effectively had 40 years of an energy crisis (often denied) with no end in sight, and unless this condition is dealt with, the problems are very likely to continue. Malnutrition (obesity) is widespread as well (and growing), and this can be largely attributed to poor quality nutrients (cheap carbohydrates). As people continue to lose their jobs (minus more risky and indebting "stimulus packages"), we seem to have little to look forward to as the economic system continues to contract.
There is a way out of this mess. A very promising, but not very well-known or understood, form of nuclear energy production has been largely ignored for the better part of those past 40 years, and it is long past due to pursue agressive development of it. That technology has been discussed in this forum (Slashdot), and it remains by far the most promising energy solution we have. Unfortunately, treating the widespread fear of nuclear energy is not an easy task, and that fear continues to hamper promotion of this solution.
The anti-nuclear movement needs to concede on our need to develop sources of electrical generation that will afford a great net energy ratio. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors promise to dramatically reduce the cost of building plants, enabling a scaling capability that no other energy solution can match (we could have thousands of reactors within decades). The high temperatures at which these reactors operate remove the need for water cooling, thereby safeguarding our rivers, aquifers, and shorelines. The inherent safety features of this design (above a certain temperature, the fuel expands checking the nuclear reactions) means that we'll never have another meltdown. The excess neutrons produced in the core facilitate the elimination of long-lived radio-toxic isotopes, reducing the waste problem to about 300 years (down from about 10,000). The potentially low cost of electrical production (through a massive improvement in efficiency) will enable a revolution of the chemical industry, allowing for cheap synthetic carbon-neutral fuels and fertilizer, and we'll be able to sequester enough carbon to return our atmosphere to a pre-industrial state.
This innovative machine can provide us the hope that we need to transform our society from the sorry excuse that it currently is, to the potentially great one that we all know it can be. It is our escape pod from this depressing and reinforcing cycle of decay, confusion and division, to one of renewal and political unity.
Of course people are crazy. Just look at how many of them anthropomorphize animals to the point that they no longer can identify them as no being human. Heck, our society has gotten to the point that they are offended by the idea of "buying" a dog, and instead want people to "adopt" them.
I was on a benefits committee for a major university and it was noted by a physician member that Prozac was the most prescribed drug for all the various health insurance plans provided by the university. He suggested it would be cheaper to just dump it in the town's water reservoir. It would be a more economical distribution system. This was ~15 years ago. Not news.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Can we block redneck bigots from this site?
You are aware that the word redneck evolved as a racial slur for people who were born in the United States to mixed parents of Native American and Caucasian descent right? Combining that old racial slur with the word bigot is not only hypocritical, but also extremely ironic as, at the time of its inception, redneck was used to label people, put them down, and cast them out of "civilized society," for being related to savages. So well done.
Or at least start Americans with karma -1 by default?
*Snicker* That's delightful. So you want to start all Americans off with a moderation handicap because of the cruel words of one American? And you support doing that after complaining that said American is a bigot? Nothing like a fresh pot of hypocritical bullshit in the morning to start off your Saturday eh?
Don't get me wrong, the orginal poster was an asshole saying some stupid shit. But when it comes right down to it, your post is no better. In fact, it might be a little worse due to the added holier-than-though attitude. High five for going above and beyond though!
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
"Kids are different today, I hear ev'ry mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she's not really ill, there's a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day"
Mick Jagger and Keith Richard.
While of course it is a strong overstatement to say all of us Americans are insane in some way, it is true that Big Pharma and our simplistic views of life are turning us into mass consumers of psychotropic medications, legally.
In some ways, I was one of those the system tried to abuse. I say that not to inflame the argument- I know the people involved did not INTEND to do me harm. Luckily for me, I have good parents who resisted the BS. Way back in early grade school, they said I was having trouble and that I should be put on Ritalin, that I had ADD or ADHD. My mother, being smart person who can think for herself, looked at the situation and removed most of the processed sugar junk from my diet. I got sufficiently better that the matter was closed.
But wait! There's more! It turns out I am one of those unlucky few who actually was born bipolar! 35 years ago, we didn't really know these things, so I went without diagnosis, let alone treatment. And the argument still rages, can a child BE bipolar? (My case is a clear argument that, yes, a child can be bipolar).
And there's still more! Once I was properly diagnosed, by two separate, unrelated psychiatrists who were unaware of each others diagnosis (I call it the 'blind taste test method of diagnosis), I began treatment. Over a decade of trying this, that, and the other medication. You know what finally worked? Testosterone replacement therapy and vitamin-B complex, along with some mental trickery I do for myself. This is MY solution and not medical advice. But the idea is, they mostly want to sell you drugs, expensive drugs. You MUST take control and find the underlying cause for yourself! And you must be intelligent about it.
Which leads me to...
RANT ON
I don't see much hope these days. I work closely with the public and it makes me want to kill. It makes me want to remove the right to vote and breed. It makes me um... depressed... again. Americans want to blame an external source for their problems and take a magic pill to make it all better. I know this. I went through that phase of trying to find something outside of me that made me screwed up and I wanted an instant fix for it. Most Americans, it seems, don't get past that phase- ever. It's the immigrant's fault. It's my spouse's fault. It's my parent's fault. As I told an ex of mine many years ago, so the fuck what! You're an adult now. Act like one and figure your shit out; take responsibility for who you are today and make yourself better. Ask for help if need be, of course. I had to and it worked. My shrink helped me figure out the testosterone issue. She's one of the good ones.
So is Big Pharma really to blame? Or are they just capitalizing on our nature? That's a trick question. We are BOTH to blame.
RANT OFF
I apologize for the rant. This is a sore subject for me and working with the public the last several years has not helped! :) But try to imagine the conversation I have to have sometimes:
Me: I'm bipolar.
Them: Ya, so is everyone else these days.
Me: Yes, I know. It's being WAY over-diagnosed now, but I really am.
Them: Yep, they all say that too now.
If they only knew the real pain. The guilt of the pain my disease has caused others. Hell, they still wouldn't give a shit. Many of is Americans are too self-absorbed to notice. I wonder if there's a pill for that...
I hope this comment is well received... I could have moderated instead!
Persecutors will be violated!
There are a variety of anti-psychotic pharmaceuticals that can help straighten you on your keel. Talk to your doctor about Cannabidiol today.
* side effects may included drowsiness, hunger, giggling, Pink Floyd, intense focus, preoccupation with Bruce Lee, socialist leanings, belief in conspiracy theories, and enjoyment of life. If you experience any of these side effects, Cannabidiol may be just the thing for you.
How can Big Pharma so easily influence the minds of doctors? It is true that doctors are only human beings and subject to the same psychological foibles as most other people, but they are also quite different in having been intensively educated and trained. Doctors are supposed to have attained a greater level of consciousness and should be able to remain exclusively scientific in their prescribing of drugs. It may be possible for big companies to brainwash and delude the average (or below average) citizen, but doctors, as well as all professionals that serve our society, should be immune to such deceptive practices.
Listen, man, it's not just big Pharma that is trying to influence us (although God knows they do their bit).
The pressure comes from all sides. Staffers at nursing homes and group homes, social workers, the patient's family, and-- this is the part that gets me-- very often from the patients themselves. It doesn't matter to them that they weigh 300 pounds, that they are going to die early from uncontrolled diabetes. It also doesn't matter whether the medication is "working" in any reasonable sense. The medicines zonk them out and keep them from getting too feisty. And that, to many people, is success.
There are a lot of other pressures too-- there is subtle pressure from the legal system (you will get sued if someone flips out and hurts someone, but you don't get sued for making them fat and lethargic). There's also a kind of pressure from within. Doctors like to feel that they're doing something, and they like to feel that their treatments are helpful. And the kind of interventions that would actually make sense (talk therapy, behavioral interventions, a nicer place to live) are often just not available to us.
Can we block redneck bigots from this site? You are aware that the word redneck evolved as a racial slur for people who were born in the United States to mixed parents of Native American and Caucasian descent right?
WTF? Do you have a citation for your etymology, aside from "pulled out of your ass". Mine is below. It's about white-skinned field workers who got sunburnt necks.
redneck
"cracker," 1893; attested 1830 in more specialized sense ("This may be ascribed to the Red Necks, a name bestowed upon the Presbyterians in Fayetteville," from Ann Royall, "Southern Tour I," p.148). According to various theories, red perhaps from anger, or from pellagra, but most likely from mule farmers' outdoors labor in the sun, wearing a shirt and straw hat, with the neck exposed.
*Snicker* That's delightful. So you want to start all Americans off with a moderation handicap because of the cruel words of one American?
*Hee haw* No, it was "irony", demonstrating how idiotic the original post was by making an equally stupid and bigoted suggestion. Though responses like yours make it seem more reasonable.
First off, not all of the drugs listed are antipsychotics. Second, a lot of people need these drugs. Humans have evolved to wake up with the sun, and go to sleep not too long after sunset. Now we stay up all night. Naturally, that's going to make you a little bit crazy. 10,000 years ago, we didn't eat lots of carbs or ingest loads of chemicals, we ate natural fruits, veggies, and meat. Most of us now don't have to worry about hunting or foraging, and now that the desperate struggle for survival is over for many of us, we have time to look inward and think about thoughts and emotions. I don't know about you guys, but any time I have time to look inward and deal with emotions, I go a little bit bananas. That's why we need an unnatural solution in many cases to help us cope with this incredibly unnatural world. It's not worth freaking out over; take a Xanax and chill :-).
My post is composed of electrons. Bullshit contains electrons, however so do many other substances. Ergo, containing electrons is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for being bullshit.
There four, you're momma is a strawman.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Recently, christians have been killing each other over their own religion. I suggest you choose something in this millenium before you spout off.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Here's the deal. Anti-depressants are some of the largest money makers for the pharmaceutical industry (I don't know why... Maybe because life here in the States can be depressing?). The patents on the SSRI's and SNRI's were expiring. The drug companies needed something new, fast. However, newer SxRI's didn't show enough additional benefit to allow them to be worth trying to get them approved by the FDA. So, they took their old anti-psychotics and tested them in conjunction with the SxRI's and they had enough of an effect to become approved by the FDA. So the drug companies now have new psychodrug lines that will make the profits for the next ten or so years and you get a lot of new antidepressant ads on the TV.
That is all.
The vast majority of the over-prescribed drugs have no medical efficacy. The only quality they have is that they are addictive. The drug companies see this as their business model, and so produce new addictive products. Their control of the government protects them from low cost competition (DEA) at a cost to the taxpayer of 100 billion dollars a year. The government forces users to obtain their drugs from pushers, who steer them toward the most addictive (profitable) drugs. So the drug companies use doctors as pushers. In Canada, doctors write huge numbers of prescriptions for drugs which the government pays for (especially Oxycontin), then sell them out the back door for cash.
Sweet Cthulhu, I will find you. Stop baiting the poor semantic nazis. They can't help themselves.
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Never have I felt more depressed than if I have to run (or even just walk for the sake of walking)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
If they put you on clozapine, it had to be bad.
What does the Torah say about Goyim?
As per research studies there is no such thing as intrinsic motivation.
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/inmotiv.htm
Slashdot = Sarcasm
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
http://www.archive.org/details/AdamCurtis_TheCenturyOfTheSelf
I've heard "it's a warning, not a manual" before, about 1984, but it works here too.
As for seeing BNW positively, I've even done that sometimes.
Some people don't understand that there's too much of a good thing.
The BNW world first tried a society of all Alphas, but it didn't work (the intelligentsia not tolerating menial labor? been there done that.)
I long since saw BNW as excellent sci-fi: not only well-written tehcnology but also a well-written discussion of its effects upon society.
I also noticed a dig at the consumerism, since a desire for overly complicated games was one thing pushed via the social indoctrination
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
The NYT piece by Marcia Angell is excellent, really worth reading all the way through. The second part of her article can be found here:
here.
I found the most infuriating bit of information to be that Irving Kirsch had to use the freedom of information act to get the FDA to release all of the study data it had on the antidepressants he analyzed. I assume he succeeded because the patents had expired, so the FDA was no longer able to treat the data as "proprietary". It is really criminal that drug companies aren't forced to release all the information that they've collected about a drug once it is approved.
dig this song; its lyric sure fit the discussion theme here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XJXySZ2aiM
http://www.kflay.com/site/lyricsmp#crazytown
Did you ever think that just maybe
We’re supposed to be a little bit crazy
Can it be?
We’re really this mentally diseased?
OCD narcissistic, manic depressive slit your wrists
Hyperactive ADD, generalized anxiety
Drug addicts, agoraphobic
Panic attacks, we’re all just so sick
In the head, need medicine quick
Gotta stock up on prescription slips
Had a breakdown of a nervous kind
Pop a little xanax to unwind
Paranoid schizo half the time
Bipolar and borderline
Way fucked up when it comes to sex
Shit dick cunt that’s tourette’s
Stay in bed, we’re too depressed
Post traumatic stress effects
Bulimics barf, anorexics starve
Fast food binge inside our cars
Multiple personalities
Like hi it’s I, myself, and me
We got trichotillomaniacs
And autistic braniacs
All insaney to the max
So doped up on prozac packs
Histrionic plus delusions
Tangled dendrites, mad confusion
Klepto narcoleptic
All psych wards so antiseptic
Take your Zoloft, Paxil
Wellbutrin, Cymbalta, homie
What you using?
Ativan and Lexapro
Don’t act like you do not know
Did you ever think that just maybe
We’re supposed to be a little bit crazy
Can it be?
We’re really this mentally diseased?
As I stare at an ink blot
Thinking why I think the thoughts I think
Paying 20 g’s a year straight to my shrink
To analyze me on a couch
And while he’s zoning out
I’m tuning in to my inner child
So that explains why I get wild
On the weekend drinking no tomorrow
Sleep around to ease my sorrow
And it all relates to what happened in second grade
I am told there is a name for what is wrong inside my brain
And that fact alone makes me feel like I’m hardly that insane
I’ve undergone psychoanalysis
My dreams all full of phalluses
Psychotropics I imbibe
So happy to be prescribed
What I get from Pfizer’s not much different from Budweiser
In the end, you and I just fated to pretend
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Hmm, I think the pharmaceutical industry is the next one up for a News of the World scandal; they certainly work hard to earn it.
They have for many decades worked deliberately to make as much money out of as little actual investment as possible, and three important points in their strategy are 1) to misinform everybody about what a disease is, and 2) to give the false impression that their research is incredibly expensive and 3) can only be conducted by private companies.
The thing is that if they go about inventing drugs that actually cure diseases, they receive money once, and when the disease is eradicated, it is all over; which is why so little has been done to cure things like malaria, and so much is done to treat the symptoms of less serious, but incurable conditions.
And of course, it makes good business sense to get as many customers for your existing products, like Chlorprothixene (Cloxan, Taractan, Truxal) which is an old anti-psychotic drug - one of the notorious "chemical cosh" drugs, with serious side effects, like weight gain and addiction. Giving it for insomnia, or calling it "bipolar disorder" when you are sometimes a bit sad and sometimes quite glad is simply a cynical calculation to get you hooked on unnecessary drugs. Using cannabis would probably be much healthier, but of course nobody can claim to owh the patent for it.
As for how expensive it is to develop drugs - I'm sure they can "prove" it by showing us their accounts, but when the group of people who control the expenses are the very ones that would benefit from making it as expensive as possible, where is the incentive to make it cheap?
And the thing about "only private companies" - where does that come from, do you think? That whole ideology is yet another lie that big money and their cronies have fostered, and it has been easy. Why is it that public projects are always seen to god so badly over budget? Well, for one thing, all big projects tend to do so, private or not, but you never hear that "IBM has spent ten times as much as planned on X"; only the failures of public enterprises are plastered all over the news. And of course, a big, private enterprise that does work for the government has little incentive for delivering on time and within budget - the longer it takes and the bigger the budget overrun, the more profit, so why would they be efficient? However, if you look to China, where the big entrpreneurs ARE state owned, they bloody well do deliver on time and budget. Shouldn't that make you think?
There was a time, not so long ago, when being a government employee was considered something honourable and a degree better than other jobs; but we have let the big money run the show, and now we have news media that cynically fabricate twisted lies, big companies that consider it immoral to show social responsibility, politicians who wouldn't dare fart in private without getting the written approval of Fox News, and churches that tell us that taking care of the weakest and poorest is against God's will because it might hurt the profits of the church.
So, somebody out there is going to tell me I'm a bloody communist, and that he would rather trust his health, savings and morals to a private company that letting the state do things to the benefit of all. Strange, considering that while the government is at least in principle elected by the people and the state is answerable to us, the public has little influence on who is in charge of private companies, and they answer only to their investors. Call it Communism is you like, but the people should take the power back that rightfully belongs to them.
From TFA:
I don't understand this theory as it seems, to me, that "mental illness" and "chemical imbalances in the brain" are the same thing with no cause/effect relationship between them. It also seems that psychotherapy and drug therapy are attempts to treat the symptoms via the two respective faces of the same metaphorical coin.
Is there anything online that explains this cause/effect theory?
Why? Islamophobes tend to yammer on about Muhammed's antics, and that was even longer ago...
I agree with everything you've said, and have only one thought to offer:
All of these bad things -- consumerism, meaninglessness, joblife and rampant capitalism -- originate in the demand by individuals that life be convenient and tailored to them.
We don't have a Hitler, Genghis Khan or Sauron to blame for this one. Only ourselves, and our handy tools like democracy, self-expression and freedom which apparently let us become self-obsessed little voids of meaning.
Futurist Traditionalism
Hello there dave-boy, Maybe you should reread your original post? Did you really think anyone would reply to that, with anything but a flame!?!?!
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot.
I sometimes wonder if when they cure one disease they invent another. And I mean invent, not discover.
Some of our neighbors have a three year old boy. He's been diagnosed with some kidney problem I can't even remember, let alone pronounce. And yet he's perfectly healthy.
Thirty years ago, you'd have just said he needs to pee a lot.
Well, when I was 29, I had a major health incident. The first warning was a serious kidney infection. The doctors had sent me to get my kidney scanned in a few different ways (ultrasound, nuclear, CAT) and discovered that I had a "stricture in the ureteropelvic juncture": i.e., the junction between my left kidney and the tube that connects it to the bladder was deformed and narrowed, making it hard for liquid to drain from it. This stricture most likely was there before I was even born, and 29 years of living with that had caused my left kidney to become an infection-prone rock garden that was only about 25% as functional as the healthy right kidney. Thankfully with today's tech they didn't have to open me up to fix me; they stuck a tube into my kidney (without anesthesia!) and then shot it with lasers (with anesthesia during the lasers bit).
But guess what? Today they discover this sort of stuff prenatally, with routine ultrasound scans during pregnancy, and thus can treat it during childhood before it becomes as complicated as that.
Are you adequate?
There seem to be a lot more cases of Alzheimers out there.
Part of the progression of that disease is becoming delusional, so anti-psychotics are not an unreasonable thing to try.
As to whether they actually help, well, who knows? There isn't even an agreed-upon model for the disease.
Before you condemn American people for being unstable, you may want to step back and examine the relationship between medicare, medicaid, and substance abuse clinics in the states.
Short story is that some substance abuse clinics have started to diagnose abusers with mental disorders in proportions never seen before. Why? Possibly because state and federal funds will unquestionably reimburse for treating users - but the DSM IV diagnoses cost astronomically more than weaning drugs. This trend alone is responsible for pharmaceutical ramp-up, as drug prescriptions went up more than 100-fold in some places.
The Baltimore Sun investigated this trend and wrote up a series of articles. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-11-07/health/bs-md-bbh-housing-day-two-20101107_1_mental-illness-rowhouses-that-bbh-rents-interviews-with-former-patients
This is a country where not just a sizable fraction of the population, but several highly regarded leaders of one of the two major political parties, was and probably still is convinced that Obama is some kind of socialist Muslim Kenya-born double agent and that the most important task facing the nation is to depose him. That sounds like a wide open market for antipsychotics to me.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Anti-psychotics are a class of drug that get used to treat several different problems
Some anti-psychotics are used to supplement anti-depressants. The ones that are are not generic at this time. As a result, a prescription for a few mg of something like abilify, which helps to boost the effectiveness of prozac and other anti-depressants can cost well over a thousand dollars a month. At that kind of price, its easy to understand how so much money can be spent on these even when they are not being prescribed to people who are psychotic.
You cant go by cost, that results in the newest meds being the biggest because they are sold at such an unbelievable price. Number of prescriptions might be more interesting, but still misleading for off label and even alternative on label uses.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
Easy? You mean like "more stimulus! raise the debt ceiling! more stimulus! raise the debt ceiling! more stimulus!". I'm rather amazed people swallow _that_ "easy answer" tripe considering our current mess of an economy.
As much as I like your explanation, and the alternate path theory makes some sense, what is the % of germans that feel proud of their role on both world wars?
No matter hitler, there were a lot of stupid people willin to feel superior enough to kill some other countries just because they felt it was the correct thing to do
I'm positive, don't belive me look at my karma
Today? Not many. But you have to understand a bit of German history to understand why WW2 could even happen.
In the 19th century, the average German was more proud of his country and to be a German than the US citizen ever could be. Flags in the garden? Please, not so petty! A painting of the Kaiser in the living room and at least one relative in the military! The German society of the late 19th century was a very militaristic society, having a military title was almost, no, cancel that almost, it was being part of the aristocracy. It permeated society and you'll notice that if you look at pictures or paintings of Kaiser Willhelm II, he'll always wear a uniform. Pride and honor were the assets of the time, a dishonorable discharge from the military was worse than getting shot.
I am not really exaggerating here. The pre-WW1 Germany was one of hubris. Imagine, half a century of military victory after victory, no matter who the opponent may be. Even France had been brought to its knees in less than a year in 1870/71. The general sentiment was that no army on this planet, not even all armies combined, could hold a candle to the German.
When WW1 started, people were enthusiastic. This was a war everyone wanted, in the beginning there was no need for conscription, the volunteers were more than the army could actually equip. It quickly changed, but that's another thing.
And this army lost the war. Worse, it lost while still standing deep in enemy territory. The western front was deep in France at the ceasefire. Now, explain this to a soldier who considered himself part of the best army of the world: You are in enemy territory, you actually beat the enemy back into his own turf and you LOST!
It didn't take much to convince these people that not the military but the politicians lost the war. That they assassinated the heroic effort of the military who fought brave and relentlessly. Add the shameful peace conditions (that the "politicians" accepted) and it's easy to see why in such a country a democratic system has no chance. It has no support in the population. The military, though, has.
It was easy now for a rabble-rouser like Hitler to play on this sentiment. The shame of a humiliating peace treaty, the feeling of the "invincible army" being assassinated from betrayers within and the promise to change this made it very easy for him to climb to power. That didn't take "a Hitler", though. Anyone playing on these feelings would have had it easy to gain support from the masses. The promise to make Germany strong again and eliminate the ignominy of the peace conditions would have elevated anyone to the position.
Germany after WW2 and especially the development since led to a completely different outlook. Don't compare the Pre-WW1 Germany to the one today. You'll find few similarities in the general sentiment of the people. Germans may be "proud" of the economic power they are today, and that they are a key player in the EU, but the chauvinistic and militaristic attitude is pretty much over.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If anybody else is into this sort of thing, Checkout this freelance academy thing, I have not read it all :) but it looks like the "real deal", That is; no fancy HTML/JAVAScript, Just the "info".
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot.