Sure, let's use an index of the prescription of Prozac, Ritalin, etc. But
for what? as a measure of how mentally ill our society is?
It's definitely true that it's not just individuals but society that's
mentally ill: egged on by school bureaucrats and drug companies -- and
allowed by scared and ignorant parents -- pediatricians who don't know
anything about mental illnesses are over-diagnosing attention deficit (and
hyperactivity) disorder and over-prescribing Ritalin. Further examples can
be listed, I am sure.
We should be careful about rejecting these mental medications: not all are
bad, including Ritalin. There are kids for whom Ritalin works as
advertised. (The scuttlebut among parents is that you can tell that a kid
really has ADHD or ADD if the Ritalin works.) My son, who has a mild case
of autism (a.k.a. Asperger's Syndrome, which recently got its public debut
in NEWSWEEK), which have some side effects that seem to require Zoloft (a
Prozac substitute). (It's always a matter of experimentation and careful
observation to make sure the medication and the dosage are correct.)
Psychiatrists, a more expensive bunch than pediatricians, are the only ones
who should be prescribing this stuff.
In summary, the prescription of ment. meds should not be totally avoided as
much as treated with extreme caution. Unfortunately, the profit-driven
system with its top-down system of control won't allow that.
The above should be titled "Jim Devine on Drugs." ;-)
in pen-l solidarity,
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/1997F/ECON/jdevine.html
"A society is rich when material goods, including capital, are cheap, and
human beings dear." -- R.H. Tawney.
