Biggest BS "Disease"

[Ecthy]

[Q Classic]

perhaps i was a bit too hasty about some of those things i said. but i still don't buy the fact that those conditions need to be advertised on tv like they are in the us. it just strikes me as giving the consumer just enough information to make him feel informed, but not enough to actually know what it's all about.

i have to find the study, but as i understand it, the majority of people who see these ads and think they have these conditions go to the doctor and ask for the prescriptions--and the doctors often don't really do a full check; they just nod, fill out the form, and then let them have their drugs.

so naturally, i find it disturbing, because i can't seriously believe that so many people have acid reflux disease, or erectile dysfunction, or depression, or anxiety attacks, that they need to advertise such drugs on television.

and that's what i think the original intent of this tread was. it wasn't to disparage the real ills that people have; it was to point out how many people think they have x condition, when they don't, and ask for such medication, thinking it will solve all their problems, some magical little pill.

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in case you don't know, as in, not live in the us and don't see these jacksh1t ads:
for detrol la:

jingle is as follows: "gotta go gotta go gotta go right now!"
follows a person, usu. female, in a panic because she can't contain her bladder during an important issue. one of them includes a police officer directing traffic. it gets to the point where she must go, so drops it all in the middle and goes to seek a wc.
then it's the junk about the thing: 'if you have an overactive bladder blah blah blah...'
ending is woman, now newly confident, because she has pill.

for viagra:

people comment on how a certain guy is different: 'did you get a new haircut?' 'a new promotion?' 'a new car?' 'new shoes!'
naturally all are not the issue. it's actually that he got viagra (HOW THE HECK WOULD THEY KNOW?? )...
tagline: 'try asking your doctor about viagra today'

those are two examples of what kind of advertisements people get in regards to pharmaceuticals. is it any wonder a lot of these conditions are ovediagnosed and these drugs overprescribed?

just enough information to be dangerous, not enough information to be safe.

[Pythagoras]

You are correct, Q-cubed, it is a problem. We just shouldnt over react at witnessing some mis diagnosis. I really disagree with prescription drug advertising. Makes drugs more expenive IMO. All the sudden you have tons of new demand (many of it unwarranted) for all this extra crap so the price naturally goes up. Our health system is just so f'ed up. We're stuck halfway between a purely capitalist one and a purely socialist one.

[Loif]

My two cents on the matter at hand: One of my boys has always been, how shall we say, eccentric. I wondered for years if he was autistic but no one took me seriously. Finally, in grade four he was referred to a specialist in the city. This doc had never seen my child before and yet he diagnosed him as being ADHD within an hour. He prescribed Ritalin and we tried it. For two months. There was no improvement in his behaviour at all. The day he told me it made him feel like an alien, the pills were flushed down the toilet.

A year later he was still exhibiting the same eccentricities so I took him to a mental health clinic to see a child psychiatrist. Turns out he's Autistic. Aspergers Syndrome actually, on the higher end of the Autistic Spectrum. He doesn't require any medications, thank goodness.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that yes I do think that ADHD is a rushed diagnosis. I work with young children and I see a lot of these kids on medications that they may not need to be on. Then again, I'm not their parent, I don't have to live with them so I don't see the precipitating behaviour that made the parents take them to the doctor in the first place. I guess you do what you've gotta do.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Hmm. Not to beat a dead horse. But. When you've laid in bed (or more often a bathtub in my case) and screamed at yourself in your head for hours, willed with every fibre of your being to get up and get your butt out the door because there are things that you need to do which will make you happy and make your life work, and your body still refuses to move because you just don't care, then you tell me there's no such thing as clinical depression. Lather rinse repeat daily for your entire life.

And no, I'm not trying to defend taking pills because I don't take them. Not that I really don't want to, because they've helped before, but I simply don't care enough to make the effort of remembering to swallow a pill every day, whether it helps or not.

And no, I'm also not using it as an excuse, because I think you'll find that a lot of people in that situation beat themselves up a hell of a lot more than anybody else in their lives, myself included. Just stating a fact.

[Loif]

Just as I believe that ADHD is overdiagnosed, I don't believe that clinical depression is. Case in point, I had an aunt (God rest her soul) who suffered from it her entire life. She passed away a few years ago never knowing a day of happiness in her life. She was on and off meds and nothing seemed to help. My heart goes out to people who suffer from this illness.

[Narz]

My parents always encouraged me to take drugs. I've been on over 15 perscription drugs in my life, now I am on my own and drug free. My parents were obessed with classification and ADD, depression, mania, "oppositional-defiant disorder" and many others. When I was 12 I refused to take Ritalin anymore, so my mom used to slip it into my morning orange juice. I say, if you're not gonna accept your f***ing kids, don't have 'em!

Its cool though, I am quite resiliant

- Narz

[Narz]

By the way, here's a list of drugs I've been on (I don't recommend any of them, though if I had to recommend one, it would be Wellbutrin) :

Depakote
Respiridol
Addiral
Lithium
Ritalin
Prozac
Zoloft
Dezipramene
Thorazine
Wellbutrin
Luvox
Xanax
Klonopin
Remeron
Dilantin

Break free

[Hoek]

I think the whole ritalin/add fad is very related to a rash of poor parent the U.S. experienced in the 90's. I know tons of parents who raised their kids on TV and ritalin, and who lobbied the SAT's to give extra time for kids diagnosed with ADD, and who got a California board of education to overturn 15 F's a teacher gave out to kids when she discovered they cheated on a project. These are the same parents who trick themselves into thinking that divorce is "good for the kids," and then immediately bring them to a therapist. The baby boomer generation doesn't seem to want to ever deal with reality or accept responsibility for anything. The reason I singled out Ritalin is because to me, it is the most hypocritical, most dangerous fad our country is experiencing. The same parents who slip ritalin into their kids' orange juice are the ones who scream bloody murder when someone suggests legalizing marijuana.