Taking drugs

I dont see any diffrence.

Self medication is a huge sign of some sort of internal problem.

I rely on caffeine. (and american whisky)

And if I'm not mistaken, you have experience to back up your position, of a slightly different sort. But at the same time, I have trouble rationalizing the reason. Are we not obligated to work towards our own happiness? Is it merely a combination of fear(that they will not work, or will have bad side effects or dependencies) and ignorance(of how much better they might feel) that keeps people from using these drugs? I am speaking hypothetically now, about a drug with no side effects, no dependencies, no legality issues, no cost...simply a drug that increases your happiness. Is there any reason to avoid it other than stubborn pride?

A drug is any biological substance, synthetic or non-synthetic, that is taken for non-dietary needs. It is usually synthesized outside of an organism, but introduced into an organism to produce its action. That is, when taken into the organisms body, it will produce some effects or alter some bodily functions (such as relieving symptoms, curing diseases or used as preventive medicine or any other purposes).

Note that natural endogenous biochemicals (such as hormones) can bind to the same receptor in the cell, producing the same effect as a drug. Thus, drug is merely an artificial definition that distinguishes whether that molecule is synthesized within an organism or outside an organism. For instance, insulin is a hormone that is synthesized in the body; it is considered as a hormone when it is synthesized by the pancreas inside the body, but if it is introduced into the body from outside, it is considered as a drug.

It is a substance which is not food, and which, when ingested, affects the functioning of the mind, or the body, or both. However, under the philosophy of Chinese medicine, food is also considered a drug as it affects particular parts of body and cures some diseases. Thus, food does satisfy the above definition of drug so long as ingestion of it would alter some bodily functions.

White sugar would fall under the drug category.

Including with drawl effects..

I don't believe drugs have the ability to increase your happiness, in and of itself. Either it produces and artificial and temporary feeling of well being, bliss, etc....or acts in such a way to allow your body to regulate its own functioning so we can better live up to our potential for making ourselves happy.

I take a serotonin reuptake inhibitor daily, for panic attacks. The drug itself does not prevent them, but rather prevents my body from pillaging itself, leaving me bereft of serotonin.

Through a combination of heredity and environmental factors, my body somewhere along the line lost the ability to manage itself. Now it does, and words can't express how much it's brought me back to being a functioning human.

(and yea, I say.)

I'm not sure I'm against any drug given adequate information to the folks, and we're all folks, re one drug or another.

On the other hand, I'm pretty proscriptive re some variously influenced people driving on Coors Boulevard.

That comes down to a general point of view I have, which can be summed up as "performance criteria" - does this person endanger the general welfare...

or, does this forty foot wall block your natural ocean view - not, is it made of x material.

I have no problem with people taking whatever they want so long as they are not driving in front of me or behind me!

That's the problem, Nick, too many people like these are on the road.

I can't believe how many people are trying to get a quick fix to happiness
through medication. Unless there is a chemical imbalance, people should
not take antidepressants. A much safer way - therapy - should be considered, if help is needed.

There is no such thing as a quick fix to happiness. One only achieves it
the old fashioned way, not the chemical way.

I have always been very dubious of the whole "chemical imbalance" thing. If you define "in balance" to be the chemical state in which you are happy, then your life sucks and you are unhappy, then you have a chemical imbalance -- ie, you are not happy. Talking about it in terms of chemical mumbo jumbo just makes it sound as though it's a disease or genetic problem...something out of your control...I don't believe it.

You're wrong, Stuh. When people have a true chemical imbalance,
they're not really concerned with being "happy", they're trying to
function normally. Their neurotransmitters (which are chemical substances) don't work properly, and as a result these people might either develop
obsessive compulsive behaviors, have panic attacks, or show other signs
of disorder. Serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter, will give them
a normal life.

This has nothing to do with happy pills, having a chemical imbalance
is something, one cannot control by itself.

You have to differentiate between true sufferers and people who
just want a high, or feel depressed due to certain circumstances that
can be helped via therapy.

You are using disease as some kind of perjorative - it's an early word for a process going on that may threaten the patient. Proliferating cancer cells metastacizing into tumors form a disease. Much is just biochemistry. Human biochemistry has variations in many systemic ways. Some of that affects brain activity.

Take me - I'm a scattered sort of person, and I've no doubt my ways of thinking and dealing would be reflected in various brain scans. I can look at my way as being useful for creativity, which, in fact, it is. Or I can look at it as a deficit for leading a linearly logical life. Luckily, my own biochemistry re my brain hasn't so far kept me from being functional, though it's a close call.

Some can be helped with some pills, some helped very well.
With other pills, there needs to be a lot of tuning.
Many people skip all that and self medicate, and this has its own usually poor side effects, unless well controlled.

Others seek help with counselling, which despite my general recommendation of, I've not gotten into myself. But.. I suspect good counselling is priceless.

Just looked up and see CJ's remarks, and agree.

Oh, a topic close to my heart.

'Bad' medicine vs. 'good' medicine.

I agree that there isn't much difference, at the heart of the matter.

The problems start when we have folks who begin self-medicating in a destructive way, I think, or encounter 'doctors' of one sort or another who are not knowledgable/good at their job.

Ok, that's very vague but it is how I see it.

We have people who are in a state where they want/need some relief of some symptom(s): they are not in a position or state of mind to begin with to be dolling out and choosing their own 'medication' but do anyways (with pot, hard drugs, insane amounts of coffee and ciggies, quick stop at the doctor to say 'i need anti-depressants' without even a proper diagnosis etc.)

We have doctors that are more than happy to overmedicate/not admit ignorance to how to help a person/ make extra money and so give drugs like candy.

It can be difficult finding good help! Good doctors, good therapy, good drugs that are properly suited to the person/circumstances/problems that is properly weighed in relation to the ill-affects it may cause: priceless.

Drugs like marijuana, while initially creating euphoria, over a period of time will cause depression. It's also very addictive despite claims to the contrary (I know from experience).

Well, usually with anti-depressants, you have to take them every day over a long period for them to become effective whereas ecstacy works pretty much straight away! Excellent!

No, seriously, I took Prozac for 3 years after having my daughter and although I think it did help me get through some bad times, it left me feeling very strangely numb. I was unable to cry but unable to be very happy either. It was as though I was existing in some sort of robotic state.

I think Marijuana in particular can be a very useful and sometimes pleasant drug to use but the problem is that it can be hard to know what your limits are and it does stop you getting anything done.

I don't really see the difference in taking either prescribed or illegal drugs to give happiness, it's all chemicals to me.

x

In college I smoked a fair amount of marijuana. At one point I may have even been a "pothead". I managed to give it up cold turkey with no withdrawls. Now I will smoke the occasional dube. It's certainly not addictive like heroin or crack. I never hear of a heroin user who just does the occasional needle.

stuh...calamity jane says a lot of important things about chemical imbalance.

I'm not saying there aren't those who use that as an excuse for their behaviors or drug use, but that doesn't take away from the fact that for some/many people, some sector of the brain/body just isn't working the way it should.

No one would say to someone who has bad eyesight "That's in your control, just try harder to see clearly." If someone is alergic to something, be it strawberrys or an antibiotic, you can't take control and tell your body to deal with the chemicals causing a reaction.

I don't walk around wearing the label "chemically imbalanced" and in truth, I didn't start taking a drug to feel happy. I started with enormous resistance, but the stronger desire was not to feel like something was taking over my body every day. Happiness was the last thing on my mind, I was willing to settle for "not stark raving mad"

I went the therapy route for about a year before finally finding the incentive to try medication. Early on, my therapist had asked me "what do you want out of life" I said "to feel normal" she waited for me to say something else, but that was the only thing I wanted. I wanted to be able to drive to work without pulling off the road to hyperventilate. I meditated, exercised, read books, took therapy. I took it all very seriously. Prior to therapy, I tried cutting anything out of my life that induced my heart from going from 70 beats to over 200 beats a minutes with 15 seconds. That list grew to cutting out...TV, Radio, Magazines with pictures, phones ringing, driving, talking to people, heat, eating, alarm clocks, craning my neck up, turning my head too quickly....you get the point.

The scariest thing I had to do was admit I needed medication, and actually taking it. Especially knowing that for the short term, it might actually make me feel worse, and it did. Suddenly, I was preventing my body from grabbing the little bit of seritonin I WAS managing to produce. Fortunately that didn't last long and my body learned to not rape itself.

The high? Let me tell you the most wonderful high I got from all of this...One sunny winter day I was sitting on the couch, and looked over at my cat Lulu, who had found a patch of sunlight on one of the cushions and settled in for a nap. I looked at her and thought to myself, "That looks like a wonderful idea" I laid my head next to her, slept for and hour, and woke up refreshed and not freaking out that something must be wrong. That was the first time I had done that in 30 years. I woke up, looked at my Lulu and smiled, feeling truly happy.

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"Chemical imbalance," in knowing circles, simply means "There's some sort of physiochemical defect but we don't know exactly what it is." And people can have bum central nervous sytem receptors or transmitters just like people with type II diabetes have insensitive insulin receptors.

Now, I've got no problem with empirical drug use -- so long as it's understood that that's what it is, that other treatment modalities are being used to try and identify underlying problems, that treatment will be changed if there is no further evidence (e.g., positive response to treatment) that the treatment is indicated. A positive diagnosis would be better, but in the still-nascent field of neural psychophysiology (or whatever you call it), it's virtually impossible.

Similarly I've no problem with the idea of drugs-for-pleasure -- so long as they aren't being used chronically. (I could certainly cut back on the caffeine and the alcohol in that regard. We're all flawed.)

There is a very real problem, though, with "That vague syndrome fits me a bit, so I'll take some drug that's been shown to have some success with some people who fit the syndrome and everything will be better." It's not a proper diagnosis, it's not a proper treatment -- it's crappy medicine that is tolerated because the drug companies like to sell the drugs, the doctors like to make the money, and the patients (or their parents) like to think they're doing something positive.

(When 90% of the time the root of the problem may be the inability of patient to effect any positive change in their own life...)