"What's So Bad About Feeling Good?"
Once again, Nurse Ratched provides me with plenty of food for thought. She writes:
"Yesterday, CNN released a story about a guy who takes antidepressants. The problem is the guy doesn’t suffer from depression. He said he takes Wellbutrin because it makes him feel good, really good.
Troy Dayton started taking Wellbutrin when he was kicking cigarettes, but now he doesn’t want to give his little helpers up. Troy said the medication makes him feel great, and that the medication gives him the ability to think more clearly. It sounds like Troy has found pharmaceutical nirvana. Some of my past patients have told me that Wellbutrin gives them a rush, the same kind of rush they get when they take amphetamines.
Now hear this! Antidepressants aren’t sugar pills, they are serious medications that have risks as well as benefits. If you take them long enough, you might become physically or psychologically dependent on them, and they can trigger manic-depressive illness in susceptible people."
(Check out the complete post here: Nurse Ratched's Place.
I have mixed feelings about anti depression meds. I took them for nearly a year in college and I truly feel that they saved my life. However, it is nice to know that now, I am able to cope without chemicals that make me feel "normal." I still suffer from episodes of depression, but for the most part, I know how to make myself feel better naturally; I take a walk through the local park, eat more fresh fruit and veggies, enjoy a night out on the town with my husband, or hole up in the apartment and play gory video games and eat pizza for 24 hours...
I know that sometimes, I am just not going to feel "happy." Still, when I look back at the last few years, I see a trend - most of the time, I am content with my lot in life. If I am not usually super happy, than I am at least somewhat emotionally even, and not super sad or distressed either.
I worry about people for whom feeling "normal" isn't good enough. At what point did we become a society that had to be super happy all the time? How do we know what happiness really is if we haven't allowed ourselves to experience the opposite of it? Life is about experiences. We know this, but we seem to have a much harder time admitting to ourselves that not all of Life's experiences are, or should be, good ones. Life is made up of a strange and ever-changing mixture of good and bad that Mr. Dayton, however "happy" he may be, is not getting to fully appreciate.
(By the by, the pictures used in this post were taken by yours truly somewhere in southern AZ and CA...)
Labels: News
posted by Spelunker @ Monday, November 20, 2006
2 comments
2 Comments:
I am Troy Dayton.
You say, "Life is made up of a strange and ever-changing mixture of good and bad that Mr. Dayton, however "happy" he may be, is not getting to fully appreciate."
As I am quoted saying on the CNN special, "Wellbutrin makes me feel great. I mean it doesn’t mean that I don’t ever experience sadness. But I think it certainly helps me experience sadness in a very healthy way."
You can see a clip of the special at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugw6xeTuTCg.
The pursuit of happiness is so intrinsic to the human experience that it is the last three words in one the most important documents of this country.
Happiness is a process more than it is a place to get to. It is a fleeting feeling and almost everything all of us do in life are efforts at attaining it.
It's just that humans are notoriously bad at predicting what will make them happy. New cars, big houses, another drink, more money wagered, a decadent dessert, hating gay people, stopping the dog next door from barking, etc. But those things don't make people happy despite the ever present belief that they will. But as long as those people aren't hurting anyone else I would never dream of supporting a law to coerce them to stop those behaviors.
I use data, reason, my faith and a deep inner knowledge of myself to create happiness.
Most people only take antidepressants if something is wrong. Most people only go to a therapist or get a coach if something is wrong. Why can't drugs and therapy be evaluated on the basis everything else we do in the pursuit of happiness is evaluated?
Do the benefits outwiegh the risks? Does the value outwiegh the costs?
You, Nurse Ratched and others make it sound as if the risks associated with taking antidepressants changes based on why it's taken. That is false and an absurd notion. The risks are constant. It is the benifits and the value palced on them that changes with purpose.
It is not surprising that medical professionals who are trained to alleviate diagnosable problems put a high value on that and not a very high value on maximizing human potential.
I've studied the risks and benefits of using Wellbutrin. For me and my values, the benifits outwiegh the risks.
I'm all for people having the right to disagree, but when they force their opinions through policy, I rightfully stand in defiance.
You and Nurse Ratched have government coercion on your side. She even threaten doctors for prescribing off label.
Assuming you agree with the current laws around prescribing medication, how dare you support denying me and my doctor the right to choose the course of therapy we see fit!
Troy,
Drug abuse is Drug abuse, no matter the reason. The fact that you're doctor allows and endorses your habit is troubling. You say, "Wellbutrin makes me feel great. I mean it doesn’t mean that I don’t ever experience sadness. But I think it certainly helps me experience sadness in a very healthy way." How is it healthy to experience a basic human emotion through a drug-induced haze?
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