Posted by Questionmark on October 24, 2007, at 2:00:34
In reply to Re: Friendly Reminder to All, posted by War-Face on October 23, 2007, at 22:54:16
Sorry i just read a few other posts in lower part of thread that i hadn't yet and now i realize that this post i wrote here/below is pretty much unneeded and redundant. Sorry. Darn it. What am i DOING?!! I SHOULD BE IN BED!!! This is why i try to avoid this site anymore. I always obsessively read and compulsively write & post in it, and waste far too much time. Whycantwehaveasmuchtimeaswewant? Anyway, again sorry.
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I agree that this is an interesting and, overall, healthy discussion, although some of you guys should probably be a little more... i dunno, understanding, of the others.
Overall, I'd have to say I agree with a great majority of what Linkadge is saying. I think you have to be careful in how you say some things, though, Linkadge. For instance, though I understand what you're saying, I think the "sitting on their behinds" statement was a little insensitive, or at least, lacking of tact-- no offense.
Linkadge is absolutely right that exercise is basically an antidepressant in its own right, and that if you could put its benefits in a pill it would sell better than any other drug, antidepressant or otherwise. He's right too in that just because a person with a "mental illness" (i'm not sure how i feel about that term, but i'll use it) gets better even fully better through exercise or a healthy lifestyle that does NOT mean that s/he did not really have a mental illness. And personally I would be deeply offended if i were one of those people by a statement suggesting that. Furthermore, many of us-- myself included-- probably do (to some varying extent and largely in some subconscious way) relieve some of our guilt in not doing many of the things we should or want to do (e.g. exercise) by thinking that our "Mental Illness" is too serious to be significantly helped by healthy lifestyle changes and powerful DRUGS are our only hope. And this is also often to our detriment. But I do think Linkadge could have been a bit more sensitive/tactful in saying that and not making it sound like every m. ill person is basically just too lazy to make themselves feel better. I really don't think that's what he meant, but i could see how it could come across that way somewhat.
Nevertheless, what he was saying about the benefits of exercise was extremely noteworthy. We should all by trying to take the medication of exercise. No it would almost definitely not *cure* everyone, but it would eventually probably *help* all of us, and even cure some.
And I also think what Linkadge had to say about "alternative" therapies being deemed inadequate or nonmedical (etc.) was an excellent collection of points. A summarized interjection: If alternative therapies and healthy lifestyle suggestions were as profitable as pharmaceuticals are, the mentally ill world as a whole would be phenomenally, phenOMenally better off-- and with almost infinitely fewer side effects.
Bottom line to all of this in my opinion....
Drugs should be avoided whenever possible (*particularly* daily use) and taken in lowest possible effective doses (usually much lower than often prescribed imo). Drugs are also way overprescribed. And we would be much better off if our nations as wholes researched and utilized healthier alternative therapies, and when appropriate prescribed/suggested and used them before pharmaceutical intervention. *Nevertheless*-- some people (myself included, at least so far) absolutely need these horrible-yet-sometimes-blessed drugs to get by. And everyone should be cautious before telling someone that he or she isn't one of those people.
... P.S. I forgot one other thing i wanted to say and that is: The fact that many people cannot get off their drugs without feeling monumentally worse than even BEFORE getting on the drugs.. is I think a strike against the drugs and not for them. They alter your brain in ways we cannot fully understand (at least yet). They do not cure. They do not at ALL necessarily-- and probably rarely if ever-- correct a specific chemical imbalance, as Linkadge also already pointed out. They are simply an unfortunate necessity for many people.
poster:Questionmark
thread:790781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071019/msgs/791040.html