The lists of side effects of these medications seem to run in lockstep with the illnesses they supposedly control.

I'm not saying I don't get relief from them - I can get to work and am about 18 months from my second good pension - but everything seems to be out of whack with reality.

If the drugs just put me back in sync with everybody else, that would be great. It's just that I'm in that great DMZ out there, or so it seems, where everybody else isn't.

Let's line up some "attitude adjustment agents" -

1) alcohol, 2) marijuana, 3) antidepressants, 4) atypical antipsychotics, and 5) anti-seizure medications.

Numbers (1) and (3) tend to be extremely addictive. I know I'm not supposed to refer to my "habituation" to klonopin as a drug addiction, but I've seen me go off it suddenly and it's horrifying. It was on an airport shuttle, if that gives you a clue.

Number (2) has been discussed in TTWS at some length. It has "lots of unstudied compounds" in it, yet it's been around for 5K years. I know it makes me silly and goofy, but...

Numbers (4) and (5) seem to have valid medical studies underpinning their use, but their funding comes from federal tax dollars and we really never see most of the results, just what they choose to present. And then (in the case of Celexa/Lexapro) they change one molecule around and get another seven more patent years out of it, with the claim that it's "better" and that it's not as "dirty" (as laden with side effects) as the earlier drug.

I've heard - first-hand - that the manufacturer's rep visited a hospital and offered Lexapro at a lower cost per dose than Celexa to hospital administration, who would then authorize continuation therapy on Medical/Medicaid.

Suddenly getting a little goofy or having a drink after work doesn't sound like such an evil idea.

Anonymize me, would you?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This somehow reminds me of a phrase I heard somewhere a long time ago: "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." [And who could disagree with that?]