Scripts | 2. The Mandala Effect
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- Cooper thought he understood how his psych meds were affecting him. There was a lot he didn’t know.
This is part two of a new three-part miniseries from Radio Atlantic-Scripts-about the pills we take for our brains and the stories we tell ourselves about them. (www.theatlanti...)
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Excellent series, I lost my mom to mental illness…all we were told was that she had a “chemical imbalance” and so they gave her all kinds of different drugs. She always ended up in the psych wards. I resented her psychiatrists, felt like they never dealt with her true problems.
Who else thought this was about the Mandela Effect
Terrifying as they had no idea what they were doing. I remember at the time asking how they were testing to see if the pills were working or not working. And discovered they had no idea what I was talking about. 😢
Terrifying
I nearly called my dr on this drug suboxone because it could help my pain. My cervical spine is full of titanium. I’m in pain. Then I remembered how they treated me at the pharmacy when I had pain meds. I’d rather suffer in pain.
This is incredibly good reporting. Thank you.
Stimulants are amphetamines. I guess we either need to rehabilitate street addicts and dealers, or admit that people are given narcotics to feel better. I think that the root of the problem is the family and wounded people having kids, and of course the school system with boring classes in which you are expected to sit down and listen to boring teacher. The truth is somewhere in the middle between dysfunction at home and school. The kid is never a problem.
Is this the Gazorpian podcast straight out of Rick and Morty?
I'd really appreciate it if y'all would discuss this with an expert in ADHD like Russell Barkley. I don't disbelieve the over-medication stories, and I think a good deal of kids who have attention/behavior problems would benefit from an alt-school option, at least for portion of their childhood; but I wish coverage of ADHD would balance it with the success stories and cite the data of the higher risk of premature death, drug addiction, involvement in crime, poverty, car accidents, etc of people with *untreated* ADHD.
I don't know if I would have wanted my parents to put me on medication as a kid. They didn't because they thought schools just wanted to medicate kids to get more tax funding. Instead, they pulled me from school. Homeschooling me for five years (4th to 9th grade) is perhaps one of the best decisions my parents made, because it gave me the freedom to learn at my own pace and goof off when I wanted to, without disrupting anyone else. If I was reading, my mom's rule was that she wouldn't bother me, no matter what I was reading. I just had a queue of school stuff to finish, and a deadline, and as long as it happened by that deadline, that was fine with her. If they hadn't homeschooled me, I might feel differently about medication...But mostly because school is...Awful. it's boring. It's regimented. And as a former kid: I hated it. I was already bored out of my mind by 2nd grade and spent most of the time daydreaming. With that in mind, i think the first thing parents should do is see if a different kind of school works for their kid *before* medication. I graduated valedictorian of my highschool, and i credit a lot of that to the coping mechanism I learned by learning to teach myself. I also had teachers who allowed me to knit during class because they realized that was how I channeled my boredom and paid attention. One teacher forbade it and my grades tanked in that class only (part my fault because I was punishing her by punishing my grades).
But adulthood was a lot harder to do. I still managed to graduate college with a pair of science degrees, but not to my grade standards. I'm lucky to have ended up with a software developer job, because there's a lot of creativity, leeway, and flexibility, but I finally paid for a thorough adhd evaluation at about age 34. I did a large personal history write-up, they got input from immediate family and my boss, and I did a half day of in person attention/executive function tests. I did test as having an executive functioning disorder (inattentive adhd). I now take methylphenidate XR and, as cheesy as it sounds, I did cry after taking my first dose. I felt like I was no longer a prisoner in my own brain. I can now find the information I know it's stored in there when I want it. I can complete a task that takes me past other incomplete tasks without going on side quests. Coping mechanisms can only get you so far. Hyperfocusing is NOT a super power. It might look productive from the outside, but for me it's like being stuck in your brain, banging on the walls shouting at yourself to get up, eat, go to bed, use the bathroom but you just. can't. You yell at your arms to stop picking at your face and they refuse to obey.
Medicated, I can choose what to focus on. Sometimes I focus on things i "shouldn't" but at least it's my choice now. I now want to finish things because I'm not chasing hits of dopamine by starting something new instead. I save loads of money because I can now pause myself and ask, "do you really want that? Will you use it?". I feel like more of an addict without meds than with them because of the need for dopamine. And this is the only drug I take. I don't feel like i need anything else. I've been on this same dose for three years and I have zero regrets.
Everyone's different, obviously, but I don't want people like me, or people who genuinely could be helped with medication (like me) to feel like they're an addict, to feel stigmatized for taking a stimulent medication. Caution is fine, but too many people hear this kind of story and jump to "anyone on ADHD meds is faking it and is a drug addict" and that's just not true.
After thoughts (i listened to all but the last few sentences before making my original comment): I agree completely with the end. You should not take medication, or medicate your child, because of the pressure to conform to a given societal norm - be it behaving calmly in school, climbing the career ladder, whatever. It should be your choice. I made an informed decision after a ton of research and external consultation. I don't take this medication to be better at my job (i now work part time, actually, and have no ambition to climb any ladders) or to behave a certain way for others.
Using my brain is just harder without it. It's a disorganized, noisy place where every little stray thought has an "URGENT" priority label. Working up the activation energy to start something, including things I *want* to do, is exhausting and frustrating. Losing things, wasting money and food, is exhausting and stressful. My brain, by itself, is exhausting.
These drugs are a tool and tools are neutral. The choice of what you do with the tool, and why, is what matters.
It’s interesting to me that your reaction to the story changed so much on the basis of the last few minutes
I think it makes sense: we are so used to having coverage of these issues focused on the drugs themselves, what the studies say about the drugs, what the doctors and the drug companies and the regulators do in relation to the drugs. what the drugs do and don’t do for people. And there’s really only two angles: psych drugs are a net positive, or, psych drugs are a net negative.
But when 1/4 people is taking a psychiatric drug, it strikes me as surprising that there isn’t a much more engaged conversation about what it means for people to take them long term, beyond good vs bad. There’s a whole universe of grey in between, and yet you find very little discourse going on that doesn’t gravitate towards blanket binary value judgements in either direction
It’s impossible to know how the choices we make in life will change our trajectory. But the more open discussion we have with others who have made these choices for themselves, the better the chances we will be ready for what might come to pass.
Kid was just a prepper. ❤ Sharing is caring. I forget who said it. Someone asked how did you go bankrupt? First gradually, then suddenly. That's how my bipolar depression went.
He didn't even go into the horrible withdrawal that comes from these drugs.
I'm glad he survived
Stimulant withdrawals are generally less difficult than that of other psychiatric drug classes
Psychiatrists should never be allowed to play with pills.
Important stuff. Follows Anne Harrington Robert Whittaker and others work. (Obvs). We have not yet addressed mk ultra. Wonder when this will catch up.
He seems more like the poster child for horrible parenting
Shame on you. Poor journalism......
Pharmacist or insurer?
I thought it was pretty good
Maybe government employee or lawyer? These details tend to make a difference.