Mentality and Medication

This seems like maybe the right place cause I think it falls under Psychology? Move as necessary.

I remembered this website today...after I got into this lengthy conversation about politics and the world...So I returned to see this forum (trust me this ties into the title bear with me a moment) And so I began to read through the various threads in various places...annnd well I did not really succeed enough to write a post on any of them. And I'm actually a little frustrated by this.

I have a.d.d borderline a.d.h.d which for most of my life I was like...hah! Nonsense... yeah no I have that shit. So, Here we are...What's the opinions on the fact that there's a drug for friggety fuckin every thing?

For example, do people really need medications for: distractedness (a.d.d) depression, anxiety, ocd... etc etc and by medication some can be dealt with via counselling not pills. But you know they make the pills.

And then in that light do you think it's legitimate? Do MOST people have so many issues or are we just becoming pussies and taking the easy way out? Is it the food (semi-sparked by that food article in the main article posty section) I've heard people say that it's the chemicals in the food and such that has presented the rise in these little mini brain malfunctions.

And now I think when I list depression I mean more of a chronic depression thing. Which yes scientifically there's proof of chemical imbalance in any areas. But then there could be the posed question is what is actually causing the imbalance? Is it seriously a genetic defect or is it from the person's mentality themselves? I mean I feel like most people have been depressed at some point in their life due to a serious event in their life that caused this depression but a lot of people will pull themselves together and push themselves past it. *(from that I speak on personal experience I was depressed a handful of times so far in my life (eh ok I think twice) Typically caused by a bad event that lingered in my mind)

So, are these things be a mind over matter thing? Do we need the drugs?

And to add to this. I have not taken my a.d.d medication today. And I do see major differences when I am on and off meds. For example... I actually have an interest in many threads in this forum. But when I start reading things I can't get through a sentence or two before my mind wanders elsewhere. I can attempt to force myself to read each line of written word buuut my brain only processes less than half of it and I forget what I'm reading from distraction, not disinterest. I also am semi aware that in writing this post I've just been jumping back and forth with various questions and points. And usually I have to re-read anything I write that is long to move things where they should be and re-organize for the sake of the person reading. But I think this time I'll leave it alone and you can see how my a.d.d riddled brain functions.

Oh and lemme get back to that chemical imbalance and mentality thing. Sorry. But to clarify that statement cause I got off topic with a depression side note. When I say mentality, I mean the idea of if you allow yourself to be depressed you are depressed and then your brain chemicals are indeed lacking in that area. And to be honest I haven't read that much into the medical side of these things. And also to that effect depression is my example because it's the easiest. The question could be posed to my a.d.d because I take a stimulant. The stimulant is suppose to help my focus and fight off the...omg look a butterfly...feeling. So then I mean am I just allowing myself to be a mentally unorganized mess ooor yeah is there an issue in my brain. I used to fight to not take meds...buuut honestly, and this may be how all people cop out and take meds for mental things (and mental things is not the right word. What do you call a.d.d, depression, ocd, etc?) but as my life got busier and busier, and I gained more responsibilities I decided to try medication because I didn't have the time or ability to cope with my a.d.d like I previously had. Before meds I would stop trying to focus, relax, take a walk/exercise, watch tv, play video games, etc. (the concept was distract myself to refocus myself) and go back to whatever I needed to be doing. Which stopped working when I became an animation student and any downtime/freetime = wasted time.

So then, thoughts?

Lemme give you a re-cap on what I was talking about (cause I already got a bit lost): Mentality? Do we allow ourselves to feel things like distraction, depression, ocd, anxiety, stress, paranoia, (there's a ton and I'm going for smaller things...obviously this isn't a heyy biopolar isn't real type thing) and then become consumed by them? Is medication good or bad to fix the above? What do you think causes people to become unstable from things that I feel could start from something small? (but in that note I know that somethings are tied into aging and getting better/worse with aging)

ONE LAST NOTE: I was not able to re-read my own freakin post...thank you a.d.d (or maybe I was just boring... <<; Let me know. cause I'm not sure)

Ah yeah I mean I heard someone say that America is big on repressing emotions....when my friend went back to Russia she said this. She was like in America you're not taught to stay as neutral as possible. Which is irritatingly true. I've always felt that you aren't really allowed to express anything past happy and even that can sometimes be considered too much by moodier individuals.

Long term side effects aren't really known for many of these drugs. But yeah short term can either go extreme weight gain or loss, blood/heart risk and stuffs. For example my meds suppress my appetite. Like intensely. Food repulses me completely. I actually don't eat solid food when I take my meds until they're wearing off. I can force myself to drink smoothies though. Is that good or bad? Idk. I could certainly see a weight obsessed person abusing something like this though.

Ah well, there is the issue. Workforce demands is why I now take medication. I still don't want to be on it. Which is why I actually don't take it as prescribed. I'm suppose to take one pill everyday. But my doc said it's okay to skip weekends...cause hey I drink alot so mixing pills isn't recommended esp stimulants with depressants. XD But I tend to only take them on days I feel my mind is really unfocused...like last night when I couldn't read a paragraph. In most cases, prior to medication I'd just wait these bouts out and relax to stop the inability to focus. But now that I'm older and I work, and take classes and etc...I found I couldn't find ways to deal with the a.d.d bouts naturally so I went with pills. So arguably, though I chose this, and I don't totally mind the medication, it was spurred by the demand that this ridiculously busy world calls for from everyone.

Oh and no there's really not much right or wrong. I like debatey topics that don't really end anywhere I like to hear the different opinions.

It seems to me that you are asking a whole lot of different questions and I agree there are not really any simple answers, no matter what level you approach them.

First you raise a question about whether we over medicate for things which are really just part of life. That is a point of view often expressed, but I have never seen the evidence for it. Most of the people I know have a fierce resistance to taking medication for this kind of problem: there may be some who just trot off to the doctor and demand mind altering drugs on a whim: but I never really met one. It is more usual for someone with depression, say, to suffer for ages before they finally decide that they can't manage the things they want to do at any acceptable level, and so they seek help. That is not just true of mental issues (for want of a better term): many people with conditions like diabetes or thyroid problems have to take medication all the time: and it is not unusual for them to resist, at least at some times in their lives: they stop taking it properly, or at all. That is understandable. It is not nice to be dependent on medication: in the case of diabetes it is a constant constraint on your freedom and spontaneity. That kind of resistance is compounded by the stigma which still attaches to mental problems; and the notion that it is weak or wimpy does not help. To me conditions like depression or ADD are akin to diabetes: that is not to say I have any knowledge of the origin of those conditions: but they do interfere with what folk want to do and they can be managed with medication, though they cannot be cured: those are the features they have in common with what are firmly established as medical conditions, and functionally they are just the same so far as I can see. If we do not understand the precise mechanism that is, for me, a secondary consideration

For the individual it therefore seems to me to be entirely a matter of choice, at least insofar as no-one can force you to take medication. So the decision you have to take is based on your judgement of the gains and the losses for you. As with many things, that is partly informed by the society you live in. How far we are prepared to tolerate difference varies across cultures and across time, I think. And that aspect is both philosophical and political, as Vninect has outlined. It is perfectly possible to argue that the limits are too tight: and there are groups which campaign on that basis. I am ambivalent, I confess. On the one hand I think that we are rather intolerant, and in the world of work it seems to be increasingly so. I have touched before on one of the consequences of importing private sector demands into every aspect of working life, in these terms: and I would like to see that at least tempered, so that workers are not mistaken for machines. But we live where we live, and if we choose difference (assuming there is a choice on the basis that medication is effective) we must also realise that we will not get approval or other rewards we may wish to have. That is not fair, especially when the limits are too tightly drawn: but it is a reality, and so there is a trade off which each individual must balance for themselves. And that balance will be different at different life stages too, as you also point out.

I do think that there is cause for concern about the systemic problems Vninect raised: but I also know that people who have such conditions become the experts on their management over time. That is the best defence against "big pharma" in the end. They are motivated by profit and sales, and they do a great deal which is clearly unscrupulous: but they are far less powerful than they might be, because of that expertise. It is not perfect, because you do not know what your options are at first: but with a decent doctor that changes, and each person works out what is best for them; and what the effects of different courses of action will be. In your own case you have already been doing that: you take it when it is helpful to you because of your goals: and you don't take it at other times because you have different priorities at weekends. I think that is the kind of control you can have, and you get more sophisticated as you become more experienced: that is at least what I have been told. Management of that sort make you comfortable and it does not stop you from campaigning to alter things for the better either widely as a matter of politics: or more narrowly within your own circle

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5um8QWWRvo&feature=player_embedded

This seems relevant to some of the points you raise