Comment Re:Taking a pill and hoping it goes away (Score 1) 654
>It's one of our countries biggest problems really: instead of finding the root problem and working through it, we take a pill and hope it just goes away.
This is sort of an aside/adjunct to the earlier post "Depressed People". There's been a number of articles about stuff like "Prozac Nation" and whatnot, how anti-depressants are over-prescribed, etc. and along with that there is still this overall stigma about taking a pill to help correct a chemical imbalance that caused/is caused by (Despite great advances, this is still considered a real chicken/egg problem...) depression and related mental illnesses.
That is partly why, for example, I took so long to realize that I needed such help. Hey, I've got news for y'all: They work! But, in order to work properly, they must be combined with a doctor who cares, regular followup visits including blood tests (to determine concentration of active ingredients, etc.) and discussions about side effects and positive effects, and therapy also helps as well. I've made huge advances in the past few months, I feel better than I have in a long, long time. Check out the book "The Feeling Good Handbook" by Dr. Burns. The title smacks of those ubiquitous "self help" books, but it is a text that is based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT and it gives you the most important thing for helping get through depression and life in general: a mental toolkit to dissect the thoughts that bother you and help you un-twist them and either figure out a way to counter them or at least give them a realistic basis. The basic premise of CBT is that your *thoughts* are the basis for your feelings. Being ignored by your peers doesn't make you feel lonely. Thinking "Man, everybody is ignoring me. I must be a total loser." makes you feel lonely. A semantic difference, maybe, but an important one.
Adolescence is a tumultous time for many, with powerful new emotions and abilities as yet untempered by the wisdom of experience. In some cases, psychiatric drugs may be useful, but they darn well better be prescribed by someone who *knows what they are doing and cares about their patients*! If you can't get along with your shrink because they don't seem to want to help you work with the thoughts and feelings you have, get a different one! People who are being "driven crazy by psychiatric drugs" are obviously not getting the continuing followup care they need to make sure the drugs are doing what they are supposed to and the side-effects are being minimized. For some, the pills alone are all that's needed, and 3-6 depression-free months later they can go off them. For others, the pills make enough of a difference in their mood for them to be able to participate actively in their own therapy, which goes on to make a significant positive change in their lives and again, after 3-6 depression-free months they can go off them again, at least until the next relapse.
Okay, well, I've rambled on quite a bit here. To try and tie back to the topic at hand, targeting differences is just going to exacerbate the problem. A lot of what this W.A.V.E. program seems to try to target are well within the "normal" range of responses to the situations a "typical" hormone-engorged adolescent presents. Especially when he or she has had a particularly bad day. I can't even begin to imagine how much worse this will make life for those in high school who are discovering that they are either bisexual or homosexual! The addition of yet another set of codes to try and stay within the boundaries of in order to avoid having the spotlight put on you will make things worse... Okay, now I'm starting to get really redundant. I'll stop.
This is sort of an aside/adjunct to the earlier post "Depressed People". There's been a number of articles about stuff like "Prozac Nation" and whatnot, how anti-depressants are over-prescribed, etc. and along with that there is still this overall stigma about taking a pill to help correct a chemical imbalance that caused/is caused by (Despite great advances, this is still considered a real chicken/egg problem...) depression and related mental illnesses.
That is partly why, for example, I took so long to realize that I needed such help. Hey, I've got news for y'all: They work! But, in order to work properly, they must be combined with a doctor who cares, regular followup visits including blood tests (to determine concentration of active ingredients, etc.) and discussions about side effects and positive effects, and therapy also helps as well. I've made huge advances in the past few months, I feel better than I have in a long, long time. Check out the book "The Feeling Good Handbook" by Dr. Burns. The title smacks of those ubiquitous "self help" books, but it is a text that is based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT and it gives you the most important thing for helping get through depression and life in general: a mental toolkit to dissect the thoughts that bother you and help you un-twist them and either figure out a way to counter them or at least give them a realistic basis. The basic premise of CBT is that your *thoughts* are the basis for your feelings. Being ignored by your peers doesn't make you feel lonely. Thinking "Man, everybody is ignoring me. I must be a total loser." makes you feel lonely. A semantic difference, maybe, but an important one.
Adolescence is a tumultous time for many, with powerful new emotions and abilities as yet untempered by the wisdom of experience. In some cases, psychiatric drugs may be useful, but they darn well better be prescribed by someone who *knows what they are doing and cares about their patients*! If you can't get along with your shrink because they don't seem to want to help you work with the thoughts and feelings you have, get a different one! People who are being "driven crazy by psychiatric drugs" are obviously not getting the continuing followup care they need to make sure the drugs are doing what they are supposed to and the side-effects are being minimized. For some, the pills alone are all that's needed, and 3-6 depression-free months later they can go off them. For others, the pills make enough of a difference in their mood for them to be able to participate actively in their own therapy, which goes on to make a significant positive change in their lives and again, after 3-6 depression-free months they can go off them again, at least until the next relapse.
Okay, well, I've rambled on quite a bit here. To try and tie back to the topic at hand, targeting differences is just going to exacerbate the problem. A lot of what this W.A.V.E. program seems to try to target are well within the "normal" range of responses to the situations a "typical" hormone-engorged adolescent presents. Especially when he or she has had a particularly bad day. I can't even begin to imagine how much worse this will make life for those in high school who are discovering that they are either bisexual or homosexual! The addition of yet another set of codes to try and stay within the boundaries of in order to avoid having the spotlight put on you will make things worse... Okay, now I'm starting to get really redundant. I'll stop.
