Paxil or self medication?

[Stinkbug]

I know some people- a family as a matter of factman woman and girl about 15- all on paxil. Now I realize life is full of stresses and melancholy can strike us all, but is this normal? What is worse? Selfmedication by alcohol or letting big pharma control your moods and life?

Something doesnt seem quite right

[Memphis Mike]

Fart

[LeeG]

does Stinkbug have a real name?

[StevenBauer]

Yeah, it's Dutchrub.

[rbgarr]

Oh yeah. Self medication by the depressed with alcohol (a depressant) is the way to go alright. Especially when rational outlook and strong judgment are shaky at best.

'... big pharma control your life?' Worried about conspiracy much?

"Something doesnt seem quite right"

[Domesticated_Mr. Know It All]

With my co-pay Lexapro is only 25 bucks a month and I feel just peachy.
Paxil didn't do much for me but I have a friend at work who is doing well with Paxil.
Some good pot and a few good (cold of course) beers would be my second pick, but I would usually spend more than 25 bucks a month on those.
Feeling better is good and I say go for what ever works for you.
Life is too short to spend it in misery.
Don't knock the legal meds until you've actually tried them.
Better living through Chemistry eh?

[Stinkbug]

im not knocking anything kevin. everyone has to get through this world the best way they know how. but what gets my gorge up is folk who look down their nose at me if i get up in the morning and have a beer or two to get my brain waves back into balance, but they sneak off to the bathroom and pop their pills. it just doesnt add up. the world is full of so many kinds of hypocrisy

i see the hippocracy of it all- thats what drives me crazy

[Leon m]

Healthy living...If the body is healthy the mind will follow...start with the body.

[Stinkbug]

while i agree wiht you to a certain point leon, i think youre being over simplistic, there are a whole host of reasons some people display anxieties and other behaviours which require medication in order to keep that person on an even keel while traveling through life. what my gripe is is the fact that half the country is on prescription dope for this or that, yet someone who drinks every day is labeled a drunk and treated with scorn. there is such a thing as a functioning alcoholic, many who self medicate - to think less of those people than drug dependent folk doesnt make any sense to me

[Leon m]

there is such a thing as a functioning alcoholic, many who self medicate - to think less of those people than drug dependent folk doesnt make any sense to me

Good point

OK maybe I was being a little simplistic ...take care of the body first,and get far away from this goofy society we've created.
You ever see that show about the guy who lived alone in the widerness,I believe it was called "Alone in the wilderness". I think
people who stress out too much should live like that.

[Domesticated_Mr. Know It All]

Self medication is for people who don't trust doctors.
I know I was one of them.
Self medication usually dosen't treat the problem as well as meds and can create more problems than just people looking down their noses at you.
When my doctor got me on the right medication, I felt like a retard for not doing something sooner.
While I do enjoy a good beer buzz early in the morning, if I did it every morning I'd probably lose my job.
No one has to know you're on medication either and it's easier to hide than beer breath.

[LeeG]

1. dutch, you won't lose anything by having a name
2. alcohol isn't a medicine.

3. here's an example of self-medicating :

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=5295669&nav=menu45_2

[Katherine]

There are a lot of ways to self-medicate that are legal, but you end up just as dead.

[Bob Cleek]

In this case, Mr. Know It All does.

[Stinkbug]

There are a lot of ways to self-medicate that are legal, but you end up just as dead.

I have no idea what that is supposed to mean, and I have thought about it for a while. That is the essence of life- death in the end. Otherwise you arent alive are you? Everyone dies sooner or later from something. Just because the doctor prescribes the medication doesnt neccesarily mean you will be around any longer than the self medicater. As a amatter of fact I dont dtrust the medical community. By and large they are no more than pill pushing whores. When was the last time your doctor told you that you are responsible for your own health- to loose some wieght or exercise more or stop smoking or knock off the cheese fries and meaty lifestyle? Take a look at the television any night of the week. Its all about pills solving your problems

[Stinkbug]

lee- I dont know what a couple of drunken jarheads who are being trained by our government to kill people and are boning up on their agggressive tendencies every day of the week, has to do with me- at least not anymore

[LeeG]

So what's the disease that self-medicating with a deppressant is curing? It's not helping these soldiers.

[Stinkbug]

so what is the disease that any of the multitude of pills you see being pushed on a daily basis cures?

the answer is none- they dont cure jack ****. they simply control conditions- and sometimes create new conditions all on their own, that, suprise, require you to take more pills to control - you have to keep taking the pills for ever -

i dont get the drunken jarhead analogy and wont discuss it anymore

[LeeG]

Whoever you are. You are free to imply alcohol is a medicine, except it's not.

You are free to diagnose and treat yourself with a drug that affects your risk/reward judgements regarding the efficacy alcohol as a medicine. Sounds circular? It is.

Not distinguishing between types of pills and types of medicines makes as much sense as calling all the tools in your tool box "screwdrivers". This is the logic of self-medication speaking.

One more on the drunken jarhead analogy. It's not an analogy. They are recreating with something you are calling a medicine. That's what self-diagnosis with recreational drugs does. There's no boundary between treatment, recovery, escape, recreation, diagnosis, cure. It's all ingestion,,and elimination.

It's a lizard brain meeting it's needs. Eat, kill, screw, crap, sleep, flight, fight.

Not everyone self-medicates to self-destruction, but some drugs are more suitable for that effort than others. Coffee is a different drug than amphetamine, alcohol is a different drug than Wellbutrin.

[Stinkbug]

cigarettes have probably destroyed more lives than alcohol has. the active drug nicotine is highly addictive for some but not for others.

back to the paxil vs self medicatiuon- paxil is used to treat anxiety and depression. alcohol has the same effects without the prescription and other side effects

and - self diagnosis? you bet. I know myself better than any one else ever will, including some quack who has me make an appointment, lets me see his magazine choices for an hour in the waiting room, asks a few inane questions as he sees me for a brief couple a minutes and then determines what drug will make me whole as he goes out the door

[Milo Christensen]

Dutch, this discussion is a good first step (provided it's not one of your typical trolls). Perhaps you are starting to think about your alcoholism, maybe you are starting to see the effect of alcoholism on your life and perhaps you will eventually be able to face your alcoholism and overcome it.

But first, I think you should rethink your belief that alcohol is an anti-depressant without side effects. You've written a lot of truly stupid stuff here over the years, but this is the stupidest statement you've made yet.

You like to say it's AAJ. But what you need to do is attend AA.

[Chris Coose]

This is a classic example of the insanity of the wet drunk.
Smokes his dependancy to avoid the cure.
Some fall for it.

Get sober for a while Dutch. What's it been? A couple of years ago you raised up your problem with alcohol dependance and look how far you've come.

[Tom Montgomery]

there is such a thing as a functioning alcoholic, many who self medicate
Dutch, I would like to know how you define the term "functioning alcoholic?" Is it someone who continues to hold their job? Who is never charged with DUI? Seriously, what does someone fitting this description look like to you?

I've heard people use this term before and, frankly, both my father and I could have been described by others as "functioning alcoholics." But to imagine that my father and I suffered no side effects from our self-medicating with booze is laughable.