From: llama@huey.cc.utexas.edu (sine nomine)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Xanax
Date: 8 Sep 92 05:57:39 GMT
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

John Setel O'Donnell (jod@equator.com) wrote:

: Psychiatric patients are given drugs to mask or numb the effects of
: old traumas -- overwhelmingly, parental abuse, abandonment, or
: enmeshment.  Giving the drugs allows everyone to avoid noticing or
: confronting this reality.  

i realize that anecdotal evidence is hardly scientific, but as a
psychiatric patient receiving antidepressants i have to disagree with
pretty much everything you say here.

i'm currently undergoing treatment for depression related to
childhood/adolescent trauma/abuse. this is the second time i've been
in therapy as a result of these issues. the first time, in 1985, i was
practically disabled by my symptoms but was able to resume functioning
after a few years of talk therapy.

this time, i was also suffering from near-disabling depression, but am
receiving anti-depressants as well as talk therapy. i've found that
the drugs clear out a lot of the -- it's hard to explain, really;
there used to be a weight, a cloud, hanging over me that the drugs
seem to dispel. things that would have caused me a great deal of pain
and confusion and immobilization before the medication are things i
can cope with now. i don't feel like i'm ignoring any issues, or
avoiding any old trauma. instead, it seems that the medication is
enabling me to deal with the old pain in ways that allow me to use it
constructively rather than being overwhelmed by it.

: Cancer patients are given drugs to kill cancer cells.  
: 
: Cancer is a physical disease.  
: 
: Psychiatric "brain imbalances" are emotional diseases.  They are more
: properly served with empathic psychotherapy.  Yes, they have physical
: encodings in neurotransmitter levels, just as our entire cognition and
: emotional life has physical encoding in the brain.  However, it's the
: suppressed experiences which are the problem, not the encoding.  Try
: to suppress the coding and you suppress the individual without healing
: what's wrong.

the drugs do not serve to suppress the memory of the experiences, or
even to suppress the pain. instead, they modulate inappropriate,
disabling emotional responses to those experiences. there is a
chemical imbalance; it's a cycle that gets started and can't stop
itself. there are times when you just can't work through a depression
without medication. there's been no change in the quality of my
therapeutic sessions since i've been on medication, except perhaps
that it's a bit easier to delve into the past when the present is
under control.

: So, in one case, a dangerous drug is being given which directly
: addresses the disease process and can lead to health.  In another, a
: dangerous drug is being given which leads to suppression of self and
: further denial of the underlying problem.  This is destructive; that's
: why I oppose it.

at least in depression, this statement is false. you seem to assume
that all psychiatric drugs "suppress" the individual, which seems a
rather absurd claim. in the case of some of the antipsychotics, this
may be true, but these drugs are given when the patient's behavior is
out of control. no good therapy can be done in this case.

as someone with a degree in psychology and as a patient, it's been my
experience that these drugs work best when used with therapy, and that
therapy can often be helped by the use of psychiatric drugs. there are
usually both a chemical imbalance and maladaptive thought/behavior
patterns; addressing one without addressing the other seems to be
asking for trouble.

--
sine nomine
debbie martinson
"pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" -- antonio gramsci