Re: Happiness, happiness/Holden and Diagnoses
Camille Scaysbrook (the_globe@hotmail.com)
Sun, 05 Apr 1998 04:28:16 -0700 (PDT)
----------
> From: helena kim <helenak@geocities.com>
> To: bananafish <bananafish@lists.nyu.edu>
> Subject: Holden and Diagnoses
> Date: Thursday, 2 April 1998 10:51
>
> It's all
> absolute poison. I'm not against use of psychotropic drugs, but let's
just
> say, I remain very,very sceptical of them. It's true though, these
days
> they would have just tipped Prozac into his vanilla malt and be done
with
> it.
>
> Camille
>
>
>
> 'I never thought that this antidote to a disease as serious as
depression
-
> a malady that easily could have ended my life - would become a
national
joke.'
> -Elizabeth Wurtzel
I'm sorry, you almost lost me as soon as you quoted Ms Wurtzel. This
kind
of links with all that Hamilton stuff I've been ranting about, but I
found
`Prozac
Nation' one of the most boring, self-important, self-centred,
indulgent,
and over all very bloody bad tomes it has ever been my misfortune to
stumble through. Not because of its subject matter by any means, but
just
the author's tone.
But that's beside the point : I wasn't even talking about depression, I
was
talking about Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) which, if you look at the
symptoms (for example, his love for digressions) is more likely what
Holden
was suffeing from than the `clinical depression' everyone keeps talking
about. If you are a responsible adult and wish to alleviate depression
by
these methods, that'sall very well. My relative was five years old when
first prescribed these chemicals - hardly at an age where he is in the
position to control such
things - and his parents were bullied into giving him these things by
doctors who receive a commission on the drugs they reccommend (this
fortunately has been outlawed in Australia) and who are sometimes too
busy
or lazy to do anything else about it . The chemical cocktail of
uppers and downers screwed him around far more than any of his symptoms
-
you have not felt fear until you've seen a ten year old boy suicidal.
The
case of Kurt Cobain is another classic example - not to say a myriad of
other causes didn't contribute to his suicide - but as a child he was
fed
exactly the same chemicals, which chills me to the bone.
> I'm not about to start coming out with the intimate details of my
mental
health,
> especially at a time when I'm starting to feel like an intruder in a
mens
club,
Hey - I'm a girl too you know. I don't see what it has to do with
anything
anyway.
> Camille, I admire your skepticism; it's a healthy
> attitude to have. But please, please can you try and show a little bit
more
> sensitivity? It was the last sentence of your post that really stung.
Sensitivity is what spurred me to comment in the first place. I heard
the
massive stats on Prozac prescription in America and I think it is a
valuable therapeutic drug to maybe 20 or 30 percent who are on it; I
just
don't think it should be looked upon as the Universal Happy Pill for the
rest. Yes, it is the only answer for some, but not for everyone. Nothing
hould be burdened with the title of Ultimate Solution, because nothing
is.
In an ideal world we wouldn't need them at all, but as we all know, it
isn't an ideal world.
What I meant was, if Holden had been a 90's boy his parents would very
likely have taken him to an upper class Californian doctor who, rather
than
rooting out what the real problem was, would have given him a course of
Prozac and expected everything to be all right.
> P.S. Might I suggest that your relative has the doctor to blame for
prescribing the
> drugs.
I totally agree. But what difference does it make? He's already had
those
experiences, they are un-erasable. It's like insurance - what good is a
pile of money to me when my house has just burnt down? I want my house
back, not a bunch of green paper. I'd like to add that it certainly
isn't
all doctors; in fact in the case of this relative's hearing problems
(which
contributed to his ADD) it was a suburban ear nose and throat doctor who
finally cured them in one afternoon, after his family had spent three
years
and vast amounts of money on the state's best ear doctor who didn't have
the time to find out what the problem was!
I certainly didn't mean to demean the experiences of you or anyone else
who
has used these drugs. I was just expressing my experience of them.
Camille
P.S. Since writing this I have read Scottie and Malcolm's posts, and I
think they have the same idea. Scottie, I'd be especially interest to
know
what your thoughts on Holden and ADD are.
verona_beach@geocities.com
THE ARTS HOLE
@ http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
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