Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Take two after meals, forever...




Imagine if the pharmaceutical companies all stopped manufacturing anti-depressants this afternoon at two pm. We’d be ok for maybe a month, and then all hell would break loose. It seems to me that most of the people I meet are medicated. I don’t mean that critically- just an observation. I get it. I live in constant anxiety and swinging moods. I don’t take pills, yet.

But, I can understand why: We have to have these jobs, these houses, these bills. We have to answer emails, generate emails and keep up with everyone else. I don’t mean the Jones’s- who can do that anymore? The Jones’s have a different phone every day, and 10 000 friends on facebook and twitter, and are linkd in to every damn social network you could care to name.

The Jones’s have a mansion which is paid off, ten children with even tempers and suspiciously good manners. Mrs Jones doesn’t work. She doesn’t need to. They are happy… too happy. They go on holidays together, and never use bad language. They lack for nothing, and are generous to charities.

I don’t know anyone like that. My friends, online and otherwise, spend their days with the rats of debt gnawing at their hems, wondering just how long they can keep their children from becoming a sordid newspaper headline, or, wondering if they’ll ever be able to conceive. They can’t get relationships off the ground, or, if they are off the ground, keep them in the air. They know babies are cute, but sleeplessness and added pressures of looking after another human when they feel so out of control causes even more anxiety. The cooking and cleaning never stops, and entertainment is just more pressure to perform in front of people who seem to have it all. They harbour fantasies of living in huts in the semi-desert, growing cabbage to eat, and working online without having to deal with colleagues and bosses.

If the pills stopped, where would we be? Would we be opting out, heading for the nearest cliff like suburban lemmings? Would we be weeping and gnashing our teeth, attacking each other? If the pills stopped, there would be infanticide, patricide, fratricide, suicide, general, er, cide. Or maybe not.

Think you have what it takes to survive a pill-free future- or does the thought of that make you shiver in fear?

My own take on pills: If they can help you to function, then why not take them? I don’t judge people who take anti-depressants, although I have met people who think they are in some way shameful. People not unlike the Jones’s. I want you to be happy, as happy as you can possibly be. I like happy people. Anxiety, depression, fear, hopelessness, sadness, nothingness: If those things can be controlled by pills, then pop away.

I could care less if you think me irresponsible for saying that, or for not mentioning ‘under the supervision of a mental health professional’. We’re not stupid, just depressed.

2 comments:

  1. I was on happy pills for a long time, and saw nothing wrong with it- for anyone. If it helps and its legal, go for it.
    Now I'm off them, and have been for a while. Having my Glugster with me has made a huge difference in my life especially in helping to control my anxiety and neuroses. And we're trying to get pregnant, and ADs are not a good idea if you're knocked up.

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  2. @angel: Just some people who have outspoken objections to happy pills- see them as weakness, or unnatural. I'm with you, though- iif they are helpful, then we should take em.

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