Flip that around: Why would you want to be continually reliant on a designer drug for the rest of your life just to feel normal?
To me, that defines a dystopian nightmare. I'd sooner go without than be shackled to the pharmaceutical industry.
To me, that defines a dystopian nightmare. I'd sooner go without than be shackled to the pharmaceutical industry.
I’m continually reliant on prosthetics for the rest of my life just to see normally. Other people are forever reliant on wheelchairs or pacemakers or medication that stops their immune system from tearing up their organs. And that’s ok!
After having spent a few years studying the neurology of aging, and having my life saved by SSRIs at age 33, I've concluded that SSRIs are very much in the same category as eyeglasses, especially since 1/6 of the population takes them.
The human brain is the most complex thing in the universe. Its not perfect. We can make it better, stronger!
Imagine saying to a diabetic, "Why would you want to be continually reliant on a designer drug for the rest of your life just to feel normal?" Or closer to target, to an anorexic/body image patient, "Just eat!"
For some people it truly is life or death with anti-depressants. Some people are in shitty situations with dysfunctional brains that are actively working against their best interests. Is it really that bad that literally taking a pill solves some people's issues. Perhaps anti-depressants are over-prescribed, but damn, a pill that aligns your brain to be able to rationally handle day to day issues seems pretty neat!
If you're successfully treated by a generic anti-depressant, please ignore the hyperbole of the above commenter. If you feel you no longer need the support of your medications, work with your psychiatrist to safely wean off them. There is no impending dystopian nightmare nor is there any shame is taking anything daily to manage your mental health.
EDIT: I should add, if I got diabetes and had to take insulin, I would be pissed to the point that I'd make it my sole goal in life to find a way to live without having to take insulin.
To me, it is absolutely infuriating that I can be required to take a drug just to live. I fully understand this stuff works great for people - by all means use them! For me? I'd rather get sick and fail than live with it forever.
(Yes, I'm irrational, excessively autistically stubborn, and all the other negative things you're thinking about me. :)
I feel like you're ascribing it to some sort of moral failing then that someone would turn to medication for help. These things aren't always under people's control.
> I'd rather get sick and fail than live with it forever.
In the case of type 1 diabetes that could literally mean death. These hypotheticals are very easy to lay out, but much, much harder to live with.
It came on so slowly that I didn't really notice, and most people around me who you would imagine should have noticed also did not. I finally hit a breaking point, and started therapy and medicine again. It has completely changed my life around, and possibly saved it.
Would I like to live without it? Well, I would like to not need it, but if it is a given that I do, then I most certainly will continue using it. I've experienced the alternative, and there is nothing preferable about it.
It _is_.
> I'd rather get sick and fail than live with it forever.
It's easy to say that now. When you've not slept for three days, and that happens so often it's become routine, or you've not used the phone in _months_ due to the anxiety it causes, it's not so easy.