posted @ 09:21... I got the opportunity today to watch some TV. Yes, actual television. The show I managed to pick up was "
Red Eye," a show on Fox News that I had never seen before. The host, Greg Gutfield brought up something that appeared in a recent issue of Men's Health. We happen to have that issue of the magazine in our office and I've read it.
Essentially, the magazine printed a story about Soldiers who are on prescription drugs like anti-depressants, and how horrible it is that "so many" of our service members are on prescription drugs.
Gutfield put it in perspective. Men's Health failed to mention that the percentage of military personnel on anti-depressants is far lower than the percentage of general-population, American civilians who are on those drugs. That means people who have cushy lives, sitting at desks, going to school, going to the mall, and following tweets, are actually taking more anti-depressants than Soldiers are.
I realize most of the people who read my blog are civilians, and I'm not trying to belittle your contributions to society. And I'm certainly not going to ridicule those with legitimate mental health problems, military or civilian. But on the other hand, a small part of me wants to go find some civilian on Prozac, sitting comfortably behind a desk in an air-conditioned office, complaining that Starbucks didn't have their preferred style of muffin this morning... I would grab them and say, "You think you've got problems? You're not being shot at! Nobody's trying to blow you up! You'll go home and see your family tonight."
Am I being insensitive? Do you think maybe I need anti-depressants? Well, I don't, and I never have. I went through a period about a year after I came home from Iraq, in which I had anger issues. It was more than just a temper, but not so bad that I would physically hurt anyone. My wife and I decided that if they tried to give me medication for it, I wouldn't take it. We know plenty of people on anti-depressants and other mind-altering crap, and we had noticed how those people seemed to have lost touch with reality. (Maybe that's a good thing for some folks, for whom reality is miserable.)
I got over my anger problems. I went to a once-a-week anger-management group. We drew pictures and listened to Enya while doing breathing exercises. But that's not what helped. In fact, it was pretty much worthless. You know what actually helped? One thing was prayer, and saying "God, I can't fix myself. Please help me." Another thing that helped was constantly reminding myself to keep things in perspective. And the third thing? The scooter. There were times I would start getting cranky, and my wife would say, "You have 30 minutes. Go for a ride." Amazing how therapeutic that can be.
1 Comments:
I know the topic of anti-depressants is controversial period. I have tremendous respect for the men and women in uniform. Having been around people who experienced PTSD from other situations, I know that it can occur at anytime and cause extremely painful flashbacks and memories. I think we should positively support our armed forces with good cognitive, mental, and pharmaceutical care if needed and I do not believe that anti-depressants work for everyone. But there are some chemicals involved in certain mental problems that can be addressed by using pharmaceuticals in the simplest situations. This should also be addressed with cognitive therapy which will help the person problem solve on the global level, a sort of mental teaching them to fish instead of giving them food.
Post a Comment
<< Home