There's a pill for everything

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by CATO, Mar 27, 2013.


  1. CATO

    CATO Monkey+++

    Being a mommy tough? Because, being a mommy back in the 1800s out on the plains was probably a piece of cake . . . . :rolleyes:

    Then you obviously need mood altering drugs.

    Moms on Xanax: Women Say Antidepressants, Anti-Anxiety Meds Make Them Better Moms | ABC News Blogs - Yahoo!

    More and more people are taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications, and among that number is a growing legion of women who say these medications help them become better mothers.
    One such mother, Anne-Marie Lindsey, says her daily pill regimen wards off paralyzing panic attacks. She has an infant son, and the new mother worries about him.
    "Without the medication, my mind starts racing, and it can't stop, 'What if he gets sick? What if he gets sick? What if he gets sick?'," the New Haven, Conn., woman told "Good Morning America" in an interview that aired Wednesday on the show. "I might need to be in a bathroom with the door locked, hyperventilating, 'what if he gets sick?'"
    MORE: Stars Open Up About Postpartum Depression
    A study that will be published in the medical journal, Pediatrics, next month suggests as many as one in five new mothers suffers from heightened anxiety in the weeks and months after childbirth. Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine are now encouraging friends, family members and doctors who are treating new mothers to monitor them closely for anxiety disorders so that the mother and baby can get the support they need in the first critical months of a child's life, HealthDay News reports.
    Doctors now monitor new mothers for postpartum depression, but not for anxiety. Researchers reportedly found that anxiety - acute emotions in response to a perceived stressful, dangerous or threatening situation - was more common than depression after pregnancy, HealthDay also reported.
    Melissa Sanchez told "GMA" that she had several panic attacks after her son was born, adding that she "psychically collapsed.
    "I couldn't get out of bed all weekend …," Sanchez, of Manhattan, said. [violin]
    She reluctantly agreed with a therapist's recommendation that she start taking Celexa, a drug that would calm her nerves.
    "After about six weeks, I was back to myself," Sanchez said.
    She has no doubt that her anti-anxiety drug made her a better mother.
    WATCH: Vanessa Lachey Reveals Struggle With Postpartum Depression
    "Oh, absolutely … I don't think I would have been able to function," she said, adding that, without the drug "I think I would have been admitted somewhere. I really do."
    Lindsey and Sanchez were each under a doctor's care when they were prescribed the medications.
    A February article in Parenting magazine focused on the practice of taking the medications - such as Zoloft, Prozac and Xanax - for this purpose. The story was titled "Xanax Makes Me a Better Mom," and it set off a heated debate.
    Michelle Canarick is a therapist who specializes in mothers. She says medication can be a good thing, but only under a doctor's supervision.
    "I think mothers should be thinking of it as …'I'm going through a hard time and I'm going to use medication to get me through this'," she said, adding that the use of the medications shouldn't be "a forever kind of idea."
    Ann McWilliams calls her time on Xanax a temporary fix. The Petal, Miss., mother and author of the blog "Mommy Needs a Xanax," went on the medication when full-time parenting felt like just too much.
    "It did get me over a speed bump … It helped to remove me from the high-pressure feeling that I had," McWilliams said.
    MORE: Alanis Morissette's Post-Partum Blues
    Aware of the addictive nature of Xanax, McWilliams recently weaned herself off of the drug, but she - and Sanchez and Lindsey - all say no one should judge mothers who turn to medication.
    "How can you be a good mom if you don't take care of yourself?" McWilliams said. "You wouldn't tell a diabetic not to take a medication just because they're a mom … I don't know why anyone would tell anyone who needs a medication not to take a medication just because she's a mother."
    For more information and resources to help with postpartum depression, please click HERE and HERE.
     
    Motomom34 likes this.
  2. Witch Doctor 01

    Witch Doctor 01 Mojo Maker

    Hmmm... better living through "Quick Fixes".... I miss it when folks worked to overcome temporary problems rather than take the first quick fix pill available regardless of poetential side effects....
     
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  3. CATO

    CATO Monkey+++

    Imagine to actually have to deal with a toddler . . . oh the humanity. Somebody needs to put on their big girl panties and be the BOSS . . . and do it with a smile.
     
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  4. allyn211

    allyn211 Monkey+

    I'm going to play devil's advocate here. While I think your concern is over the mentality of "oh, just pop a pill and you'll feel better", there are people like myself who do take antidepressants, and they wouldn't be able to function if they didn't. Also, drugs are not the cure-all. For many, it makes it possible for them to DO the hard work of therapy or whatever else they need to do in order to get better mentally.

    Mental illness is a bit like having diabetes. You would not tell a diabetic that they don't need their insulin or their medication. Or you wouldn't tell someone with hypertension not to take their blood pressure meds.

    Some depression can be treated without meds. It may be true that some doctors are a little too quick to prescribe meds. But I do know of people who would *not* be able to function without some sort of antidepressant. One online friend of mine is bipolar. She has to take lithium or else she is unable to work.

    There may be times when the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and get to work" attitude is appropriate . . . and then, there are the times when it isn't. Mental illness is just that, an illness that can and should be treated.
     
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  5. Witch Doctor 01

    Witch Doctor 01 Mojo Maker

    My concern is with doctors treating the symptoms and not the problem... according to some AMA surveys only 30% of initial diagnoses are correct the other 70% are being treated for Symptoms.... and with the MSM and TV commercials pushing pills for everything under the sun and the willingness for sheep to run to their doctor and request the latest pill that will cure everything, I don't see things getting any better.... It's true that some folks are being treated appropiately with medication for mental illness... but there are many who are just being given a pill and told that this will make it all better. Consider the number of childeren being given drugs for ADHD... most are being diagnosed at the request of a non-medical professional.... the teacher, or parent... how many of these kids are normal kids who are bored because the teacher is teaching to the lowest common denominator... or a poor teacher who cannot control her class... A stressed parent who dosen't really try to unde stand their childs needs.... I would hate to do more then speculate.... but i would Guess that a majority of kids fall into the latter category...

    This is an opinion... YMMV
     
    BTPost likes this.
  6. CATO

    CATO Monkey+++

    Watch first, then discuss....

     
  7. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    Did it three times, didn't have too much trouble. You just have to remember that if you scream at them, they'll scream ... louder. I didn't need antidepressants or anything like that. Once the kids were down for a nap, my hubby obligingly played 'pell' for me to beat up on ... with protective armor, of course. [viking]
     
  8. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    Makes me wonder if the people that take these medications, are the next on the list of people to be denied the right to bear arms, due their diagnosed medical condition and the inability to function without those prescribed drugs. It's just a question.... as we know the .gov is just looking for any reason to perform confiscations like CA is doing right now.
     
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  9. allyn211

    allyn211 Monkey+

    I think you have a good point. This is a issue that has multiple sides to it.
     
  10. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017

    Bullshit.
    You can take a blood test to find out if you're diabetic....high blood pressure is also easily measurable.
    There is NOT ONE SINGLE TEST TO PROVE "chemical imbalance" in people with "mental illness". In fact - RESISTANCE to AUTHORITY is a "mental illness".
    Your friends who "wouldn't be able to function without their dope" are victims of a combination of many things:

    1. Vaccines.
    2. Modern Diet.
    3. RF wifi pollution.
    4. TV.
    5. Popular culture.
    6. Suspended Disbelief.
    7. Mass Stockholm Syndrome.
    8. Cognitive Dissonance.

    While i respect that you choose to take meds for whatever reason - please be aware I'm not talking out my @ss here. Dietary change combined with Cognitive Behavior Therapy with a GOOD doc will do any person with bipolar a lot more good than 600-900mg of lithium daily plus whatever anti-psychotic they beta test on you. I'm speaking from experience as someone who is "moderate to severely" bipolar and extremely good at my job when not constantly pissed off at how fake the world is, how crooked our "leaders are" and how the whole system is designed to soft kill us.
     
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  11. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017

    Yes.
    In Canada, I am denied a fire arms control permit because of being bipolar.
    I would need to be symptom free for 5 years and signed off by my GP and shrink before even applying. I can still bow hunt though. I could tell ya'll some pretty terrible stories about psych drug interactions/side effects that are FAR worse than being perpetually agitated about things that are entirely appropriate to be agitated aboot...but I won't.
     
    Motomom34 likes this.
  12. Mountainman

    Mountainman Großes Mitglied Site Supporter+++

    When I grew up I only knew of 1 kid that was diagnosed with hyperactivity and was on meds and no adults I knew on meds. Nowadays I know all kinds of people that are diagnosed with one disorder or another and are taking something for it, truly amazing.


    I believe you are 100% right on this. The more people that can be diagnosed with some disorder and put on meds, the more people .goob can say are not fit to own firearms.
     
    Yard Dart likes this.
  13. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    The only reason there's no test is because it's more profitable and makes it easier to control people to prescribe the pills, instead of finding out what's REALLY wrong.

    As a person with mild Asperger's Syndrome (a form of functional autism, which is a type of neurological misfire), I can completely agree with the diet and behavior therapy would help in many cases. Of course, so would finding out what was actually wrong and correcting the imbalance, but the drug companies haven't managed to patent fruits and vegetables. That's Monsanto's bailiwick. :blah:
     
    Witch Doctor 01 likes this.
  14. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    Sounds about right. Remember, just because you're 'crazy' doesn't mean you're wrong.
     
  15. DMGoddess

    DMGoddess Monkey+++

    Of course, and they set up the shootings in Colorado and Connecticut to 'prove' it.
     
  16. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    Good God.. I can't deny it anymore. We are suffering from information overload. WAY too much information is REALLY bad for your sanity!
     
    Mindgrinder likes this.
  17. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017

    If you take enough lithium and maybe some seroquel...you'll read slower.
     
  18. tulianr

    tulianr Don Quixote de la Monkey

    Mother’s Little Anti-Psychotic Is Worth $6.9 Billion A Year
    EXCERPTS:
    The best-selling drug in America isn’t what you think—and it’s a whole lot more powerful than you’d expect.
    Quick: what’s the top-selling drug in the United States?

    Prozac? Viagra? Maybe something for heart disease?

    Nope—Abilify, the powerful anti-psychotic medication that’s now widely used to treat depression. From April 2013, through March 2014, sales of Abilify (official name, aripriprazole) totaled $6,885,243,368—that’s right, almost $6.9 billion. That’s more than all other major anti-depressants combined.

    And yet, the FDA says that the way Abilify works is “unknown.” Unknown! As in, we have no idea why this medication seems to help people with bipolar disorder. But go ahead and try it anyway, since it seems to work somehow.
    .....

    Critics such as Britain’s Joanna Moncrieff have argued that anti-psychotics don’t treat anything at all; they just zone people out so they don’t notice much. They’re effective in the short term, but essentially, that’s because they are really just powerful tranquilizers.

    This makes sense for their primary use: anti-psychotics like aripiprazole are administered to seriously ill people like schizophrenics. Abilify is a close cousin of Thorazine. Yet, now it’s the most profitable drug in America.

    In fact, the present trend has been going on for some time. Two years ago, Dr. Richard Friedman wrote in The New York Times about the disturbing rise in the prescription of anti-psychotics for routine complaints like insomnia. Since then, Abilify has risen from the fifth-most-prescribed drug to the top of the heap.
    .....

    To be sure, there are clinical trials showing that aripiprazole does indeed seem to work better than placebos—Otsuka referred The Daily Beast to two six-week studies of people with major depressive disorder—but no explanation of why it does. And of course, there are the usual array of side effects. Most of these are routine (risks of seizures, strokes, and so on), but some have claimed (though this is disputed) that anti-psychotics can cause a kind of withdrawal, once you go off them. There are reported cases—though, again, not fully understood—of non-psychotic people going on anti-psychotic drugs, and then experiencing psychotic symptoms after they stop.

    That would certainly make for an interesting voice-over warning: “Note, this medicine may cause psychosis, hallucinations, or the inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality.”
    .....

    But the notion that Abilify is simply a thermostat that you adjust up or down—I’m feeling a little blue today, I think I’ll kick it up a notch—is surely hard to justify. I’d wager most users aren’t even aware that it’s an anti-psychotic drug that’s used to treat schizophrenia. I wonder if they’d be paying $6.9 billion for it if they did.

    Mother’s Little Anti-Psychotic Is Worth $6.9 Billion A Year - The Daily Beast
     
  19. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    My daughter is being weened off it as we speak. She will be using a difrent leeo aide.
    (yes, it does cause hallucinations)
     
  20. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    I will confess, I was on those Mommy's Little Helpers. It was brief. I had a real high stress job, a mini-van load of kids. I went to the Dr. They gave me a script. It made me foggy. So I quit the job, quit the script and kept the kids. My stress went way down. The kids said I was so much calmer once I lost the job. This was years ago but I learned lots from it. But it is nothing new:

     
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