To Medicate or not to Medicate, that is the Question.

As a person that has the challenge of suffering from a mental illness I am caught in a bit of a catch 22. Some people believe that medications are being almost literally forced down our throats by the pharmaceutical industry and truly not all that necessary. On the other hand there are many that strongly advocate the use of medications along with therapy in treating mental illness. There are definitely many examples where someone has gone on medication and their condition has dramatically improved. Also, many others have had the unfortunate occurance where they decided they were doing so well that they didn't need medication any more and ended up much worse. Some of these individuals have ended up incarcerated, institutionalized, or in some cases they have ended up dead. Since I prefer to be alive for a variety of reasons I have consistently stayed on my medication.

If I was a paranoid individual I might believe more strongly in the pharmaceutical conspiracy. Don't get me wrong I am not saying it is not clear right now that there is not a pretty clear over medicating of our society. However, I do believe they do more good than harm. I was in my psychiatrist's office a number of years ago where he proceeded to give me a large amount of samples for a new medication he said I should try. I was there because I was having trouble with my old medication so there was a clear reason for him to try something knew on me. However, as I started to leave the office I noticed a ton of notepads with that product's name on it as well as a very nice lunch brought in by a sales rep. When I opened the door to leave, a stunning woman rolling her products around walked through the door. Drug reps are usually easy to identify because they tend to pull a bag behind them and they look like they just came off the cover of Vogue or G.Q.

Do I know the answer? Heavens no! I know only that there was a time when I didn't take bipolar medication due to a Doctor's belief that I was fine. However, after 3 plus years, adding ADHD meds, and a large amount of stress I was majorly screwed up. What I have found though in the last 6 plus years since then is I need to work through my issues better. I have found strategies to do so and this clearly has helped.

This leads back to the problem of knowing which is the better route to take regarding mental illness. First, it is important to make sure a diagnosis is done impeccably, second. the person needs to take the medication long enough to see if it works right, third, adjustments need to be made to have the medication work best, and lastly the medication level should be followed by a team of doctors including a psychiatrist and therapist.

What if it is felt or decided that medication isn't really necessary? Maybe it is determined that counseling is all that is necessary. This is fine as long as the therapist maintains a close watch on the behavior of the patient. What happens in these cases? The problem I see is that a human is not someone you should experiment on. I go off my medication because a doctor thinks I might be ready then I end up in the mental hospital. The general belief  I have heard is that the more often you go into the hospital, the harder it is to come back to your previous mental agility. I don't want to take that risk. Age has already made it difficult for me to think at times, I don't need any more hinderance.

So what is my answer? As the title of my blog indicates I was asking a question and didn't state I know the answer. It is important to look at all the data and not being driven just by one's personal experience. What will help is not making a rush to medicate. It is important to find other ways of helping out individuals who a re suffering. Let's see if there are issues in how stress is being handled that can be altered so that problems don't get to the point of long term hospitalization. Further research into genetics and their effect on mental health will be highly beneficial. I am not naive enough to think that we will have an answer in my lifetime let alone one that all will agree on. However, we have had made a lot of progress in mental health research over the last 40 years and the next 40 should be even more successful.

What's Wrong With the News

I grew up during the late 70's and into the 80's so I didn't have the pleasure of watching the brilliant newscasters like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. I vaguely remember seeing Cronkite right before he left the air, but I was too young to process the information. There are still some individuals that I think represent the quality of work close to these gentlemen, but they are few and far between. Most of the ones I refer to are either on 60 Minutes or some of the nightly newscasters like Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and Ann Curry. There are many others though I can't take seriously either due to the news they present, the way they are clearly there for their sexiness i.e. women wearing extremely snug blouses, or hosting another show that is utterly silly. The last newscaster I refer to is Julie Chen who is a co-anchor on The Early Show on CBS and also hosts the absolute train wreck reality show Big Brother. How can I be expected to focus on the news she is presenting when I know that later that night she is going to be asking inane barely clothed twenty somethings about their romantic liaisons. It just doesn't work for me.

The other problem I have with the news is that many times the teasers are longer than the stories that they tease. Also, many times the teases are misleading or just plain lies about the information to be provided so to keep the most people to hang on till the end of the news. There is also this abuse of the news by the entertainment division so that many times a major news story is what happened on one of that network's own shows.

In addition to these problems is the rush to be the first on stories. I hear so often news shows bragging about how they were the first to break a certain story. I would rather a station investigate a story and advertise that they got it right and were the most detailed then focus on speed.

Another concern is that the amount of news and the importance of the news varies every day, but the news almost always stays the same length. Unless there is an emergency like the heavy storms we just experienced or something as tragic as the Haiti earthquake then the local news stays at 35 minutes. It could also be longer if some idiot decides to run for the cops so we get to spend an hour or two watching a car weave around traffic. How about we run the news along the bottom of the screen unless there is a serious incident that needs more detail. During this time a television show which can be interrupted without too much of a problem or any at all can be playing. Now that most people have access to the internet specific news can be found by the individual.

I know this is a crazy thought. Actually get news that we need and not just what is sent out to us. Choose to enjoy programming that you enjoy and not sit through the crap that is local news. If I want to look at buxom women then I can watch HBO or Showtime or the E channel rather than see it from my local weather woman. Traffic reports can be found online and are more up to date. There is much more interesting program out there that I get to pick from. I know many people will say you can just turn it off which is true. However, there is some challenge with that. Some people including my girlfriend do not have cable. The only channels that come in are the digital cable channels. When the news is going there are very little alternatives. If the news was changed to how I propose there would be a lot more room on the air for interesting programming. I got news for you that would be an improvement over what is going on now.

Superficiality

How come it seems to take events like the earthquake in Haiti for people in this country to think about something other than the happenings on Jersey Shore or The Real Wives of Orange County? As someone who suffers from a mental illness I recognize that we need our outlets in life. We need something that will make us laugh and not think about our travails in life.At risk of sounding like an old fart I am to think back to my childhood and the good old fashioned boob tube. As the t.v.'s have been getting bigger so does it seem to be the amount of boobs on that tube. One of my favorite shows was Happy Days starring Ron Howard and Henry Winkler. This was not an intensely deep show, but it did feature a somewhat functional 50's family with typical challenges. There was silliness with overly cool Fonz, the naive and innocent Richie, comedically challenged Ralph, and silly singer Potsie. Life issues though came up in many episodes. Whether it was the Fonz learning he didn't have to always act cool, the effect of drinking on Richie, unrequited love of Joanie towards Potsie, and standing up to "gangs" that were out to hurt Richie and his pals. The show was a bit masogenistic with the way the girls ran to the Fonz and how they dressed, but this is nothing like what we see on t.v. today. I will discuss a few because if I mentioned everyone that is out there today this would become a novel rather than a blog.

There is a young woman on t.v. named Heidi Montag whose only fame I understand is from being on a reality show based on living in a beach town. She has gone from being a pretty girl next door to a plastic surgery enhanced woman who looks like she should be auditioning for Heidi does Hawaiian Gardens. Apparently her breasts have been changed from a reasonable C sized chest to a gargantuan DDD and her behind and other parts of her also have been adjusted. Now, I admit that I enjoy looking at an ample bosom as much as the next guy and maybe a bit more, but what is going on in this country that we look to bimbettes or overly stereotyped Guidos to watch. This has become the modern freak show with the "freaks" lining up to be watched instead of the circuses hunting them down.

I am getting the feeling that having this kind of entertainment is like opening Pandora's box. We may never be able to go back to a time when in depth news was revered and talented writers and performers were looked up to. However, can't we strive to do better? I know there are definitely quality shows out there trying to make a difference. I personally enjoyed the show V and look forward to it coming back as it questions a lot of assumptions towards "aliens" as well as our desire for a savior. This also is special to me as I was a kid when the original came out. My desire is that my 5 year old daughter will have young women to look up to that have quality characters. Her mother and teachers are my first hope, but of course I know that entertainment does have a strong influence on the youth. The trick is directing her towards the proper examples without forcing it so she rebels. All I can do is present her with values that strengthen her as a being and always be available for her. It is going to be a challenge, but one that is extremely important in this world which is becoming more and more superficial.

The Joy of Facebook

I just changed my blog title and focus and I feel freed. Discussing only issues related to mental illness can be limiting and at times depressing. Nobody is only their illness, there is much more to them and I know there is more to me.

Lately, I got back into contact with many of my friends thanks to the joy of Facebook. Some of these are friends I lost touch with and some are people I knew only a little, but now have gotten to know much better. There is something special about seeing people who knew me when I was stick thin and the tallest in my class. Now, at a chunky 5 ft 10", I am no longer that same dude. I miss that aspect of myself, but I don't miss the guy who used to walk around with his head down because he thought he was the biggest geek on the face of the earth.

During the past year I have attended around 5 get togethers that I only found out about on Facebook. I attended a wedding of a friend I worked with at my first job and got to know her husband. I also attended a funeral which was sadly for a high school acquaintance who passed at the way too young age of 40. There were many others at the funeral who only heard of it on Facebook. The social networking era has come and for now I believe it has truly made the world a better place.

Do I sometimes spend too much time on Facebook? Of course I do. However, one doesn't know what it can lead to either. I am currently looking for a job with my experience in bookkeeping, customer service, and also as a teacher. I now have over 300 people that have at some point seen one of my comments about job hunting and who knows if that will lead to a job. Of course if I play Lexulous or Wordscraper too much then I won't have the time to find jobs on Craigslist or the various sites like Monster.com which has the same listings as other sites and unfortunately most of these have listings that are months old.

Last erratic thought for the day. My birthday was on January 14th and it was nice to receive 30 or more happy birthdays on Facebook. These were mostly from people that I have been friends with over the years so it was nice to know they cared enough to take the time to write something even if it was just saying Happy Birthday.

Humor me

There are many oddities in life and intriguing observances to be made. How many security guards were really guys that paced around a lot so somebody through a uniform on them, gave them 10 bucks an hour and a handy dandy flashlight? Why do many of the most intelligent, creative, and entertaining people in the world suffer from mental illness? Is it because the more you know about this world; the more it drives you closer and closer to go off the deep end? When life gives you lemons make lemon bars sounds more appealing to me. We have so many different religions in the world fighting with each others, but we all want the same basic things. I would think the old hierarchy of needs stuff from Mazlow. Also, many guys would take 72 virgins although what happens when you have been with each one? Doesn't that lose it's appeal since you are living forever with them in Heaven? Since I haven't read the Koran I can't speak to the truth of that idea, but it is intriguing. How many men would want 72 women that don't know what they're doing in the bedroom? On the other hand they don't know if you are good or bad since they have nothing to compare it to so that does have an advantage there.

These are some of the things that keep me up at night or just keep me sometimes from getting off at the right exit. I know I am glad that the Rose Parade is called that and not the cilantro parade because I would be in a whole lot of trouble. It wasn't till I was 18 that I had a burrito with cilantro and it just overwhelmed the item. Since then I always ask for no cilantro and invariably 20% of the time the item comes back with cilantro in it. Cilantro to me is like the woman in your office who bathes in perfume making all who are near wish for gas masks to appear from above their cubicles.

Funky things happen at many food places. I went to KFC once and the girl asked me if I wanted crispy or regular, when I said crispy she told me that they were out! My friend ordered soup and asked the waitress if it was vegeterian; she said yes except for this as she scooped up a big piece of chicken in the bowl.

These are just some of my silly thoughts and experiences. I plan to share more in the future. Humor helps us get through life's challenges we all face and one's those with mental illness are likely to contact even more.