Posted by med_empowered on October 18, 2005, at 0:34:30
In reply to Re: Treatment or control? Thanks so much, » Racer, posted by 64bowtie on October 17, 2005, at 18:56:58
hey! I dont disagree, and I'm not saying that people "need medication" to "correct" some sort of poorly-understood "chemical imbalance" A lot of times, meds are overused, improperly used, or flat out ineffective. And when they are "effective," the question becomes: just what "effect" is being pursued here? I had a shrink who oohed and ahhed about the amazing effects a neuroleptic had on me. I felt like I was dying on the inside. I realized that all he cared about was reducing my hostility, my angst, etc...the BIG picture, like my values and individuality, didn't count for anything. I stopped the neuroleptic, and I stopped seeing him.
Now, though, I can see how meds can help--if someone can't leave their house, given them some Ativan. If someone can't sleep and its making them nuts, give them ambien for a while and then address it. The problem is that modern psychiatry de-contextualizes all our problems, so its as if we have these wild, uncontrollable brain cells just going crazy (when without meds) and making us do crazy things--there is no "self" in the entire equasion. Its oddly similar to Freud's idea that we are all being driven by subconscious, often repressed "impulses" and "neuroses"...again, there is, implied or directly stated, a total denial of the existence of a Self that exists in a social structure and has any measure of autonomy. I think maybe this de-humanization of suffering human beings into "patients" and "subjects" explains how psychiatry is sometimes capable of such horrible, inhumane, unscientific MIS-treatment; lobotomy, insulin shock, metrazol, high-dose neuroleptics, so on and so forth. I'm worried that with our growing reliance on medication, and our conceptualization of misery and despair as being "a chemical thing", out of our control, we may well enter into another dark period of invasive, damaging procedures and widespread degradation. But..I guess my point is that you can't really judge medication without analyzing the context in which it is used. Do I think someone with anxiety should just be handed a big candy dish full of Valium and told to take as needed? No. Do I think that denying that anxious person is OK? No. I think its callous and punitive. Used correctly, that person could be empowered to live life more fully--possibly with continued use of valium, possibly without it. Used incorrectly, that person could become oversedated and dull. See the difference? The problem isn't medication--its the dehumanization and labelling and degradation that often occurs as a matter of course in standard psychiatric "treatment".
poster:med_empowered
thread:567099
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051017/msgs/568413.html