Popping mind-altering drugs not always an answer to problem

Feeling depressed? Feeling sad? There is a solution. Pump
100 milligrams of Prozac or Adderall into your brain. It’s no
big deal. 

Does it really matter whether speed-dealers try to buy Adderall
from ADD patients? Who cares if Prozac should only be taken
short-term in concurrence with therapy? Taking a mind-altering drug
for 10 years without guidance couldn’t possibly hurt anybody,
could it?

Unfortunately, this attitude is all too familiar in
today’s culture, where more young people are beginning to
take psychiatric medication. However, when one considers how little
is known of these new psychiatric drugs, it becomes obvious that
this generation is a guinea pig.

The long-term side effects of Prozac, Adderall, and Paxil (to
name a few) are unknown to doctors, who readily tout the benefits
and innocuous nature of these drugs. Advertisements on and off
campus attempt to lure students and residents to participate in
psychiatric studies. One such study involves taking a
“test” drug for an entire year! How could anyone be so
careless with their mind?

Yet patients and doctors are careless. Powerful drugs are
overprescribed everyday. Anyone can get their hands on new
medications, some of which have been known to leave people vomiting
all day or temporarily paralyzed. 

Other drugs are notorious for sapping people of
motivation. More serious short-term side-effects of the drug
Adderall (now called Dexedrine) include the potential for heart
attacks, psychotic episodes and anorexia. The Physicians Desk
Manual lists Dexedrine as an amphetamine with a potential for
addiction.

Still, to be fair, some medications greatly help people,
literally transforming their lives. But who knows how those people
will feel in ten or twenty years? There is a significant chance
they will become even more dependent on their drugs of
choice. And while doctors claim that psychiatric drugs
aren’t addicting, it’s clear that an element of
dependency exists. Why else would dosages be so frequently
augmented?

People want quick solutions, and the drug producers want quick
money. There’s no other explanation for the gigantic increase
in psychiatric prescriptions. Once upon a time, a cat scan and
other tests were required to evaluate a patient’s need for
medication. Now, a 15-minute visit with a psychiatrist seems
sufficient.

Clearly, a lack of caution permeates today’s profit-driven
medical community. And this new emphasis may devastate the
benefits of psychological research. Cognitive reconstructive or
behavioral therapies have been eclipsed by a pill-popping culture,
even though therapy is a perfectly viable solution ““ one that
has the power to alter brain chemistry just as drugs do.

Therapy is the natural, harmless method. Any psychiatrist or
psychologist is familiar with brain plasticity, the ability of the
brain to alter its chemical composition of its own accord. Not
surprisingly, life experiences and environmental factors have been
tied to such alterations.

For instance, it has been found by numerous researchers that
victims of child molestation are more likely to have an imbalance
of cortisol in their brains. Therapy can help victims of
molestation by changing their environments and thought-patterns.
But the popular solution is Prozac ““ a seratonin uptake
inhibiter that reverses the effects of cortisol in the brain.
Sadly, this emphasis on medical solutions creates a high demand for
psychiatric research and a relatively low demand for psychological
research.

The expansion of psychiatry goes hand in hand with a certain
mentality adopted by our culture. It has become acceptable to
suffocate problems with drugs, rather than dealing with them openly
and directly. This phenomenon is analogous to the devastating
effects pain-killers have on Americans. Because such drugs
numb a person, disabling his or her capacity to recognize and
address pain, a “dormant” disease can go
undetected.

Such danger can be avoided, if people are brave enough to
confront their problems. With confrontation comes understanding and
a desire to change. Whereas medication weeds a problem by
“cutting at the stem,” therapy goes straight to the
root, in hopes of forever eradicating problems.

So before you sacrifice your mental well-being to a psychiatric
study or a trendy new drug, think twice. Therapy is a second option
““ a choice far more likely to ensure your happiness in the
long-run.