NationStates Jolt Archive

Have we gotten too pill happy when prescribing pills to not happy people? Anti-depressants and anti ADD meds have been used in full force this past year. What will be the outcome of this? Is it too much? How much is too much?

I take lexipro. What do you take?

I took ridalin for years and now I regret it. I think phisyuyaciatrics or whatever are just prescribing meds do pay for their giant trucks.

Do you mean are we prescribing too MANY mood altering pills. Use proper English please.

Do you mean are we prescribing too MANY mood altering pills. Use proper English please.Actually the English may be correct. "Meds" is often used as a collective noun, and if it is considered a collective noun then "too much . . . meds" is correct. It is hard to be sure however as the word is still in its formative stage and the multitudinous users of English have not settled on a complete concensus of its definition, much less settled the specifics of its usage. My own vote goes for "many", but it is only a personal preference and the user group of English TKK is most acquanted with may favor the collective usage.

The question is "how much is too much?" The problem is that there is no simple answer, and by the time we know the complex answer it is likely to be years from now. All we can really do is take the best guess and hope don't find it ten years we've created a population of emotional basket cases. I supect that many of these meds (I'll stick to my prefered usage, thank you) are being used in lieu of actual treatment. The problems I see are that for some people they are the correct treatment and for many people they are an invaluable part of treatment. It is a bothersome question and there are enough people out there with strongly held convictions about whether or not psychoactive drugs are being overprescribled that discrining the objective truth from the conviction based truthes is well near impossible.

I myself don't buy into 'depression" or ADD etc. and I certainly don't think the stuff can be fixed by a pill I think its just the businesses wanting to make more money and the public schools doping up the kids so they won't think for themselves etc.

I believe both of these issues can be dealt with naturally and emotionally rather than medically or something along those lines.Glad to see most agree so far

I've always been a happy guy and in regards to ADD I've been told I' have it a bit but I deal with it and well enought that meds weren't needed even so I would not have taken them but I rarely use modern medicine I like the natural hippie stuff if I use any.

In a word, yes. These medications are by and large treating the symptoms, not the problems themselves.

In a word, yes. These medications are by and large treating the symptoms, not the problems themselves.
But can we treat the problem itself? Not yet. Some depression problems, like depression, are medical, not psychological. It's caused by a serotonin imbalance. Believe me, I know. I'm on paroxytene.

i was on Zoloft for over 8 years and it numbed my brain so i can no longer feel bordem at all.

im on zoloft.

It's just like Brave New World, where everyone takes sedatives.

Not just yes, but "Hell, Yes." It's become too easy to blame anything from chemical imbalance to low self-esteem for people's failure to adapt. In my teen days (we're talking the 80's here,) while in school, I had behavior that today would get me classified as ADD or ADHD and drugged up. However, that behavior didn't stop me from graduating 40th out of 450 in my high school class, and becoming an engineer...and I have NEVER been drugged.

Not just yes, but "Hell, Yes." It's become too easy to blame anything from chemical imbalance to low self-esteem for people's failure to adapt. In my teen days (we're talking the 80's here,) while in school, I had behavior that today would get me classified as ADD or ADHD and drugged up. However, that behavior didn't stop me from graduating 40th out of 450 in my high school class, and becoming an engineer...and I have NEVER been drugged.
Still, it'd helped. And I think I've heard somewhere that kids with ADD symptoms are prone to being engineers.

Not just yes, but "Hell, Yes." It's become too easy to blame anything from chemical imbalance to low self-esteem for people's failure to adapt. In my teen days (we're talking the 80's here,) while in school, I had behavior that today would get me classified as ADD or ADHD and drugged up. However, that behavior didn't stop me from graduating 40th out of 450 in my high school class, and becoming an engineer...and I have NEVER been drugged.
Still, it'd helped. And I think I've heard somewhere that kids with ADD symptoms are prone to being engineers.Must be, since our minds tend to work a lot faster. Did I mention I finished high school at age 16? I was also advanced in grade several times (kindergarten at age 4, first and second grade in the same year, promoted from fourth to fifth grade after 2 weeks' of class being in session.) I started to read at age 3, shortly after I started to talk coherently. I started college math while in 10th grade.

Ouch, all this patting of my own back is putting a hurt on my shoulder blades. :oops:

Not just yes, but "Hell, Yes." It's become too easy to blame anything from chemical imbalance to low self-esteem for people's failure to adapt. In my teen days (we're talking the 80's here,) while in school, I had behavior that today would get me classified as ADD or ADHD and drugged up. However, that behavior didn't stop me from graduating 40th out of 450 in my high school class, and becoming an engineer...and I have NEVER been drugged.
Still, it'd helped. And I think I've heard somewhere that kids with ADD symptoms are prone to being engineers.Must be, since our minds tend to work a lot faster. Did I mention I finished high school at age 16? I was also advanced in grade several times (kindergarten at age 4, first and second grade in the same year, promoted from fourth to fifth grade after 2 weeks' of class being in session.) I started to read at age 3, shortly after I started to talk coherently. I started college math while in 10th grade.

Ouch, all this patting of my own back is putting a hurt on my shoulder blades. :oops:
Very good, Panhandlia. Yes, geniuses often have problems mentally. I have Aspergers, though a very mild form of it.

Too many medications, yes. Seems like everybody has one nowadays. The question is never "do you take medications" but "which pill do you take."

And if not that, caffeine. The hidden drug, the underestimated one, the one everybody and his uncle does. What kinds of problems does that lead to again? Heart problems, right, because it's a stimulant?

And what are the top 3 causes of death in America?

Hidden. Silent, but deadly. :!:

I take a combination of nicotine, caffiene and alcohol. It doesn't make me happy, but my misery will be brief. :lol:

You bet we do. ADD is hugely over diagnosed and over treated, as is depression and bipolar. One can cope without medication. I was on ridilan for several years, hated it, and took my self off, and I'm feeling much better now than when I was on it. These kind of meds are horrible.

*grins darkly w/satisfaction*

I dont take any pills; I'm one of the people out there who doesn't need them . . .

We've been popping too many pills recently. Sooner or later our bodies will just become immune to their effects

I can't answer right now - gotta give Jr. another dose of ritalin before bedtime.

I have never gone to a psychiatrist for anything. I'm assuming I don't need any kind of medication, though, since I don't have problems thinking of something for extended periods of time and my mood usually stays constent.

Go me.

It's sick.... we are drugging a generation. At least 1 out of every five of my friends takes ritalin or something akin to it. I watched drugs prescribed for a family memeber with OCD rip him apart. It rrduced his memory made him become an insomniac and depressed him. He finally just stopped taking them. And has been his old, slightly quirky, perfectionist, happy self.

Also.... ritalin is dangerous.... if you overdose on it your circulation gets messed up.... i saw it once, this girl took a bunch to "help" her study, her hands turned black for a day, if she took anymore they probably would of been amputated.