Yes, insanity is real. So are drugs.
I've noticed that pretty much every time psychiatric malpractice of any kind is mentioned anywhere online (such as psychiatric diagnosis or hospitalization being used to control a troublemaking dissident) someone shows up to say that ALL mental medication is unnecessary quackery, for money or for mind control.
Every time I read it, I have to hold back some degree of rage. Why? Because I personally know people who depend on drugs for their sanity, and according to the insistent anti-medication nitwits, medicated conditions like severe depression are all made up. I know people who would be dead by their own hand if they were not medicated. Denial of psychopharmacology is not a position you want to take around me.
Feeling sad is NOT the same thing as chemical depression. Feeling excited is NOT the same as mania. The same goes for severe anxiety, paranoia, schizophrenia, etc. If medications can help, they should be used. These are genuinely abnormal mental conditions. And you know what? Millions of people get positive results from drugs despite their imperfections, and despite misinformation on the part of both anti-scientific mental idealists, and the big drug companies. Anyone trying to stand in the way of this already-difficult process may be ruining someone's life with their brilliant advice.
Your brain-everyone's brain-depends in part on chemistry. Fact. Mediating neural activity can change mental state. Sometimes not well, true. Sometimes people overmedicate, or rely on medication too much. But psychopharmacology is a real science, not a trick. Your brain is made of cells that interact. The mind has a basis in matter (and energy), not some phantom will to feel one way or another. It's complicated, no one understands it fully, but chemistry is really, truly involved.
If that threatens your philosophical worldview, too bad. Suck it up. The year is 2010, not 1850. Some ideas were simply bunk. Move on. This is all embarrassing, and insulting.
Every time I read it, I have to hold back some degree of rage. Why? Because I personally know people who depend on drugs for their sanity, and according to the insistent anti-medication nitwits, medicated conditions like severe depression are all made up. I know people who would be dead by their own hand if they were not medicated. Denial of psychopharmacology is not a position you want to take around me.
Feeling sad is NOT the same thing as chemical depression. Feeling excited is NOT the same as mania. The same goes for severe anxiety, paranoia, schizophrenia, etc. If medications can help, they should be used. These are genuinely abnormal mental conditions. And you know what? Millions of people get positive results from drugs despite their imperfections, and despite misinformation on the part of both anti-scientific mental idealists, and the big drug companies. Anyone trying to stand in the way of this already-difficult process may be ruining someone's life with their brilliant advice.
Your brain-everyone's brain-depends in part on chemistry. Fact. Mediating neural activity can change mental state. Sometimes not well, true. Sometimes people overmedicate, or rely on medication too much. But psychopharmacology is a real science, not a trick. Your brain is made of cells that interact. The mind has a basis in matter (and energy), not some phantom will to feel one way or another. It's complicated, no one understands it fully, but chemistry is really, truly involved.
If that threatens your philosophical worldview, too bad. Suck it up. The year is 2010, not 1850. Some ideas were simply bunk. Move on. This is all embarrassing, and insulting.