FacebookTwitter
Hatrack River Forum   
my profile login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Hatrack River Forum » Active Forums » Books, Films, Food and Culture » Do Antidepressants Work? (Page 2)

  This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2   
Author Topic: Do Antidepressants Work?
Shigosei
Member
Member # 3831

 - posted      Profile for Shigosei   Email Shigosei         Edit/Delete Post 
Phanto, while it's obviously best to know exactly how a drug is working, I don't think the lack of knowledge is necessarily a reason not to use it. The mechanism of action for general anesthesia is also unknown, but we are willing to use anesthetic drugs because we've put them through clinical trials to test for efficacy and safety. Of course, there are concerns about the trials themselves, but I think the solution to that is improvement of the trial system rather than focusing on how the drugs work.

Interestingly, one of the ways that antidepressants might work is by promoting growth of new neurons in the hippocampus. This may explain why antidepressants take 4-6 weeks to have an effect.

Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Kwea
Member
Member # 2199

 - posted      Profile for Kwea   Email Kwea         Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by AchillesHeel:
You may see my stance as ignorant, rude and dissmisive, and liken my stupidity with my age, therein your intelligence with your age.

But Im not the one who decided name-calling would be the most effective form of discussion.

Edit
I will note that this post is in direct response to Kwea.

I don't think age is a determining factor. I think it may be a factor....but it also seems like you are now trying top use it as an excuse. Keep in mind that I don't even KNOW your age...other than you are young.

But I know plenty of people of various ages who wouldn't made the same bad assumptions you have in your post.

I never said we don't over medicate. I never said the drugs in question are perfect. I was responding directly to you absurd assumption tat you "should" be able to tell if someone is sick, and the statement that somehow seeking help is blaming someone else.

Experience teaches a lot of things, including when to admit you were wrong, insensitive, or dismissive of other people's problems.

[ August 01, 2009, 04:50 PM: Message edited by: Kwea ]

Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Tuukka
Member
Member # 12124

 - posted      Profile for Tuukka           Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by rivka:
They're not supposed to "fix anything in your life". They are supposed to make you better able to cope so that YOU can fix things in your life.

Exactly.

Now there are different forms of depression, but I think the best way to describe clinical deep depression is "paralysis". Depression is not unhappiness, or sadness. Those two are normal human conditions. They can go together with depression, but they are not THE depression.

Depression is paralysis.

You are incapable of doing anything - Of course the amount of paralysis is different with different people. But the basic idea is that you can't function. You have absolutely no energy. In very deep depression you can just sleep, lay on your bed, eat, go to toilet. Anything above that is impossible - Just as impossible as it is to a person who is physically paralyzed. There simply isn't enough strength and energy to do more.

Medicine gives you energy. So you can do things. When you get more and more energy, it allows you to do things that improve your general well-being, and these things make you feel just a little bit better about yourself and your life, and this helps to make the amount of depression smaller. Anti-depressants don't make you happy, or high, and they don't solve your problems.

When enough time passes by, you slowly manage to function more and more normally. At some point you can function so normally, that you are able to work on things that caused the depression in the first place: Loneliness, low self-esteem, lack of healthy human relationships, whatever it is that causes the depression.

So anti-depressants are a temporary tool that gives you energy to work on the actual problem. You might have to use them years and years, because it can take a long time to fix the problems and become healthy. Once you are healthy, you can slowly stop using them.

There are different medicines, and they have different effects on different people. So you just need to find the medicine that works.

But medicine is not enough: You also have to have a work plan to fix the actual disease. Medicine won't fix the disease, it just gives you energy to fix it.

Posts: 273 | Registered: Jul 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Kwea
Member
Member # 2199

 - posted      Profile for Kwea   Email Kwea         Edit/Delete Post 
Not everyone CAN stop using them, and most of the people who do are wrong to stop. Don't stop until you have discussed it with your MD, and have come to the conclusion it is the right thing to do.

Too many people stop taking their meds once they think they are "better", and it causes all sorts of hurt....to them, their families, their loved ones.

It's one of the worst problems that happens, actually, and one that the MD's have little to no control over.

It's called non-compliance, and people can die because of it.

(voice of experience speaking, in case you couldn't tell)

Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Samprimary
Member
Member # 8561

 - posted      Profile for Samprimary   Email Samprimary         Edit/Delete Post 
FALLACY COUNTDOWN

quote:
Ive stated my opinion, and Ive never forced anyone to live the way I do.
1. Nobody has claimed that.

quote:
If my post ruined your day because "someone is wrong on the internet" it actually makes me laugh a little bit.
2. Nobody has stated that your post ruined their day; they were actually objecting to an incorrect assertion made in poor taste by you.

quote:
Pain tollerance is not a phrase worth mentioning when Ive never had a day without the kind of pain that can still pull me to the ground at any random time, a club foot fyi (yes, haha the same condition as Achilles from Ender's Shadow).
3. The amount of pain you personally endure over a club foot and other various maladies remains irrelevant to the accuracy — and more importantly, the lack of thereof — of your statements and value judgments made about people suffering from depression and utilizing pharmaceuticals as a way to alleviate their conditions.

quote:
I can only hope that you forgive me while sipping chardonay, wearing khaki slacks on wicker furniture.
4. A crude attempt to reframe the arguments of others pejoratively by implying that it is caterwauling by spoiled brats does nothing to enhance your argument and does nothing to advance your claim of persecution, instead making you guilty of the very same name-calling you deride in others.

quote:
Human beings have done some great things throughout history with almost no chemical stimuli, whose to say that nature isnt being interfered with on the small scale?
5. Terrible counterargument. We did great things throughout history without Ibuprofen, yet you 'interfere with nature' by even bothering to take it. Wild gesticulation.

quote:
I simply dont understand how anyone is taking a few posts on some website by one insignificant person seriously.
6. This is a discussion forum where the medium is posts; when someone finds another person's post to be in error and/or in bad taste, they typically further the intended purpose of the medium by actually responding to it. If you are confused or surprised by this mechanism, then the issue lies with you and your unfamiliarity with the medium.

quote:
To respond in advance to anymore criticism.

I killed your kitten. ... (etc)

7. A whole host of strawmen. You did actually say something offensive and wrong. It is unrelated to any of this. This comes off as puerile and immature distraction from legitimate complaints to your value judgments made earlier in the thread.

quote:
Im not the one who decided name-calling would be the most effective form of discussion.
8. Apparently, you did. Tu Quoque is not a refuge.

quote:
I have made no statements, merely opinions
9. Opinions are statements.

quote:
inspire more middle-school debate team tactics
10. More childish retorts; see above for unwiseness of strategy.

etc etc

Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Tuukka
Member
Member # 12124

 - posted      Profile for Tuukka           Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by Kwea:
Not everyone CAN stop using them, and most of the people who do are wrong to stop. Don't stop until you have discussed it with your MD, and have come to the conclusion it is the right thing to do.

Too many people stop taking their meds once they think they are "better", and it causes all sorts of hurt....to them, their families, their loved ones.

It's one of the worst problems that happens, actually, and one that the MD's have little to no control over.

It's called non-compliance, and people can die because of it.

(voice of experience speaking, in case you couldn't tell)

I assume you are commenting on my post?

I guess I didn't emphasize that aspect clearly enough: I think one should stop using anti-depressants only when you know 100% what you are doing. When it is certain that you don't need them anymore. And even then, the stopping must be controlled and slow, with preferably an outsider helping you to notice the effects the process has.

Posts: 273 | Registered: Jul 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Kwea
Member
Member # 2199

 - posted      Profile for Kwea   Email Kwea         Edit/Delete Post 
I wasn't picking, or anything, just commenting on one specific part of it. [Big Grin]

All of that is assuming you ever stop taking them, some people are on them the rest of their life. For many people it is clear to them they don't need them, so they stop...and the rebound depression is as bad or worse than ever once they are off of them.

Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Sharpie
Member
Member # 482

 - posted      Profile for Sharpie   Email Sharpie         Edit/Delete Post 
The cycle of *feeling better leading to noncompliance to terrible outcome that can lead to restarting treatments* is even worse in illnesses like bipolar and schizophrenia, where a very high proportion of patients have lack of insight into their illness to begin with. My family member says "I'm not sick. I don't need medicine." She certainly doesn't say anything like "it's not my fault." It's impossible for her to see that there is something wrong.

In a lot of states you can't force adults to take medication, either (for lots of perfectly good reasons that I agree with), but this leads to a situation where the person who stops taking medicine because they feel better ON it ends up in a terrible, terrible situation -- broken relationships, jobs destroyed, jail, while family members watch helplessly. And this is assuming that they don't listen to the voices that tell them to do something homicidal or suicidal. This is assuming that what gets the kindly police officers to your house is something "minor".

This is not theoretical. But please, AchillesHeel, please continue to advise people to get their lives fixed instead of taking those little pills. I assure you, my family member would agree with you.

Posts: 628 | Registered: Nov 1999  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
ClaudiaTherese
Member
Member # 923

 - posted      Profile for ClaudiaTherese           Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by AchillesHeel:
Ive lived my life on a broken foot and am destined to be in a wheel chiar by forty...

How does that follow from having a clubfoot? *interested
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Lisa
Member
Member # 8384

 - posted      Profile for Lisa   Email Lisa         Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by rivka:
They're not supposed to "fix anything in your life". They are supposed to make you better able to cope so that YOU can fix things in your life.

Exactly. If you're raw, like a bad scrape, and the slightest little thing affects you completely out of proportion, it becomes very difficult to live a normal life. Antidepressants can be like a mild anesthetic spray that makes it possible to touch the sore area without winding up on the ceiling.

Zoloft saved my relationship, my family, and quite probably my life. And I didn't believe in it at all. Over the first week, it actually made me feel too distant. But then I adjusted to it, and it just kept me from feeling bad emotions too keenly.

Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
AchillesHeel
Member
Member # 11736

 - posted      Profile for AchillesHeel   Email AchillesHeel         Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese:
quote:
Originally posted by AchillesHeel:
Ive lived my life on a broken foot and am destined to be in a wheel chiar by forty...

How does that follow from having a clubfoot? *interested
My mother had state insurance for poor people, and rather than tell her that I would reqiure at least five surgeries in my life before the age of fourteen they gave me a corrective cast, which as an infant I pulled out one of the screws, all corrective measures ended before I was one year old. Ive read testimonials from people who were born in the early nineteen hundreds who had a more athletic club foot than mine, but thats the thing about a deformity, no two are the same. OSC's solution to Achilles' club foot was science fiction, the only surgerie's that exist for an adult are to alter appearance, and can further hinder the motions I do have. No running, I have to drive with both feet because my right foot does not have the necessary downward motion to use the brake, and occasionally have to hop around at work like a fool due to the juxtaposition of the bones in my foot.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
ClaudiaTherese
Member
Member # 923

 - posted      Profile for ClaudiaTherese           Edit/Delete Post 
But why a wheelchair? Even people with amputations are not constrained to wheelchair use, as there are prosthetic devices and assistances even for totally missing feet, much less ones that are there but misshapen.

I'm guessing you are not taking a stand against using assistive devices altogether, or you wouldn't consider a wheelchair. I'm afraid I can't work out in my head why there wouldn't be less comprehensive levels of assistance available beforehand, though.

(Or rather, I can see it if it is a matter of Medicare/Medicaid coverage instead of HMO, as that can be limited in silly ways. But it sounds like that is not what you are talking about.)

Regardless, I hope it works out for you in whatever way is best for you. It doesn't have to make sense to me, and you surely don't have to justify your choices to me -- the constraints described just seemed peculiar from a professional point of view, and it engaged my interest.

Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
AchillesHeel
Member
Member # 11736

 - posted      Profile for AchillesHeel   Email AchillesHeel         Edit/Delete Post 
Not necessarily a wheel chair (depending on wether or not I decide to have it amputated one day), but my foot is continually degrading and the only way to hinder the advancement is to basically act like Im dissabled already, stop working and leach off the govt. despite the fact that I obviously can work. Even then it would only delay my condition, for an undertimable time. Im blue collar, it was a bit of a miracle that I was even given any health-care upon my birth. I have never considered my foot a defect, simply my situation, just like having blonde hair or long arms. I put alot of attention into the longevity of my foot though, I go very far out of my way to make sure I have boots that will support my ankle in the needed ways, I go to a gym that has enough machines that provide little to no pressure to my ankle, and own several canes for when I need them (much less than when I did not own a car and walked atleast two miles to anywhere including work).

Ive met one other person with a club foot, he happened to my age and the polar oppisite of my condition. I had no surgeries, he had six. My ankle is maleable inside, his is stiff and brittle. I grew up to be big while his body stays frail and bird like (Ive always assumed it was an unconcious reaction to his tender condition), but beyond him Ive never knowingly met another person so its hard to guage my condition against the common. Club foot doctors are difficult to find, they are specialists, perhaps even harder to procure than the services of a doctor for tetralogy of fallot (a congenital heart condition I watched my brother go through), and the two times that I had met club foot doctors aside from infancy the total experiance told me all they can do for me is place unGodly painful arch-supporter for an arch that does exist in bones. Yes it sucks, and until someone lives every last day of thier lives with an essentially broken appendige, they just dont know what its like, but to quote my own mother "If he can learn to crawl with a hip to toe cast on I dont think its ever going to stop him"

And thanks for your interest, not many people know about club feet, no one knows where it comes from, it effects all people around the world as if our DNA can just short-out randomly and give you the wrong blueprints. And I would also like to say that it is a damn tragedy that it is common-place in the UK for a fetus with uni-latteral or bi-latteral club feet to be aborted for that reason alone. I know this isnt exactly the proper venue for that one, but its too late if you already read it.

Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Phanto
Member
Member # 5897

 - posted      Profile for Phanto           Edit/Delete Post 
The theory that antidepressants work by promoting neurogenesis and growth of brain tissue is one I find more compelling than the overly simplistic serotonin hypothesis which has become far too ubiquitous.

And I don't deny that in severe cases of depression, antidepressants are important tools. What concerns me, however, is that they are vastly over prescribed, especially for conditions which they haven't been properly shown to work or even cause harm, like bipolar depression.

Also, the ridiculous amount of me-too drugs that we know horribly little about and we get inflated reports on their efficacy like Remeron.

Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
AchillesHeel
Member
Member # 11736

 - posted      Profile for AchillesHeel   Email AchillesHeel         Edit/Delete Post 
The alteration of serotonin levels can be dangerous, if I remember correctly ecstacy affects your serotonin production and was intended for anti-depressant use. And many former users of "X" have sustained permanent deficiancys and brain damage due to the chemical tinkering. Ofcourse the use was illegal and without the consultation of a doctor, I simply worry about the long term effects of altering brain chemicals that we have yet to map out.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Phanto
Member
Member # 5897

 - posted      Profile for Phanto           Edit/Delete Post 
Elevated levels of serotonin can cause serotonin toxicity, and LSD works by raising serotonin levels.

We are many years away from understanding how our brain works, and the dozens of neurotransmitters beyond serotonin, dopamine, and the select few we barely understand.

Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
ClaudiaTherese
Member
Member # 923

 - posted      Profile for ClaudiaTherese           Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by AchillesHeel:
Not necessarily a wheel chair (depending on wether or not I decide to have it amputated one day)...

I was thinking that there are more readily mobile supports to take weight off a foot than a wheelchair, such as crutches, and that could be done at any time to spare weightbearing on the foot. They are cheap, low-tech, come in a wide variety of styles, and are used by some people with extremity impairment for dozens of years without problems so long as used and maintained properly.

More high-tech supports (such as the prosthetic foot/leg replacements for competitive runners missing one or both feet) are also available, but there are so many other options, too.

Moreover,

quote:
... but my foot is continually degrading and the only way to hinder the advancement is to basically act like Im dissabled already, stop working and leach off the govt. despite the fact that I obviously can work.

See, I still don't get how that follows. I know many people with physical disabilities who are working full-time jobs, with or without degrees. The Visitors' Services center where I work has an employee paralyzed below the waist who is one of its most active representatives, and he is the person I steer people looking for help towards. He is very, very good at his job.

Mind you, there is a lot of prejudice out there despite federal laws against discrimination, but there is also plenty of work support.

I don't understand why "wheelchair-user" would either equal "can't work" or be the only alternative to weight-bearing on a foot, frankly. I think it may be worth noting for other people following the thread that -- although individual circumstances differ -- in general there is a world of options and possible avenues open to someone determined and persistent in making it work.

More than anything I want to emphasize that physical disabilities, up to and well beyond the need/preference to use a wheelchair for mobility, in no way equals someone who is necessarily limited to a life without work that is meaningful to them. One just does not necesssarily follow from the other.

Best of luck. I am sure you will make your own way and do it very well.

Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Kwea
Member
Member # 2199

 - posted      Profile for Kwea   Email Kwea         Edit/Delete Post 
Yep. And AH hit the nail on the head...there is a serious difference between altering brain chemistry for recreation and doing under a doctors care.

If you pick up a medical journal, you'd be amazed by how many things we DON'T know. A lot of the medical field is educated guesswork, mainly because each person is different, and can have a unique response to any treatment. We know how things work, generally, but until a treatment...weather it be painkillers, mood stabilizers, or even corrective surgeries...is applied to a patients there is no real way to know exactly how it will work.

I doubt we will EVER know exactly how the brain works. It is too complex, and is affected by too many factors to completely predictable. While I wonder about the effects of these classes of drugs as well, waiting until we KNEW what will happen is ineffective at best.

What is suppose to happen is that the initial dose of these drugs is given, and then depending on how each individual responds the dosages are adjusted.


AH, thanks for sharing that info with us. The tetralogy of fallot is an interesting condition, and finding doctors IS very difficult, as it is not common. I hope your brother was able to find treatment.

Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Paul Goldner
Member
Member # 1910

 - posted      Profile for Paul Goldner   Email Paul Goldner         Edit/Delete Post 
"More than anything I want to emphasize that physical disabilities, up to and well beyond the need/preference to use a wheelchair for mobility, in no way equals someone who is necessarily limited to a life without work that is meaningful to them. One just does not necesssarily follow from the other."

My father's office manager (two attorney law firm) started working for him about 23 years ago. She's had some serious health complications over the years. About 8 years ago, they synced up the office computers with her home computer so she can do her job from home, which has made her much more productive and comfortable.

Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
ClaudiaTherese
Member
Member # 923

 - posted      Profile for ClaudiaTherese           Edit/Delete Post 
I imagine finding a physician specializing in dealing with a club foot would be a lot more difficult than finding someone to deal with ToF, given that the latter is commonly dealt with by general pediatric cardiologists. It can be harder to find an adult physician (even a cardiologist) comfortable with ToF, as it hasn't been an issue for adults until survival started to improve with new surgical procedures -- and those kids at the forefront of those procedures are just now growing up. However, that's what the congenital heart defect clinics (staffed by pediatric and adult specialists) at most major hospitals are for.

In contrast, orthopedic issues seem to me to be much more specialized. Someone will specialize just in the hand, etc. I don't know as much about the availability of services for this particular issue, so I'll go do some reading and educate myself. I'd like to be more familiar with it.

Thanks for the insights, AH. (Aha! Just now got the username reference. [Wink] )

Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
AchillesHeel
Member
Member # 11736

 - posted      Profile for AchillesHeel   Email AchillesHeel         Edit/Delete Post 
Im a worker, not an entrepreneur or a prodigy comuputer programmer. Ofcourse physical conditions do not keep a person from exploring a great many proffesions, and I wasnt trying to say that. But just like many people my age I need to find a way out of the service industry if I dont want to be mopping floors with one foot (although Im sure that would be youtube gold) for the rest of my life. I like construction, building structures and finish work is kinda fun, but I cant explore that without aggrivating my foot.

Simply meant to say that if I personally cannot work full-time on my feet, that I am in trouble. I found it particularly entertaining that Achilles had a club foot (it said it may be a club foot I know). Oddly, the only famous person with a club foot Ive found is Damon Wayans, just thought that was odd.

Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
ClaudiaTherese
Member
Member # 923

 - posted      Profile for ClaudiaTherese           Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by AchillesHeel:
Im a worker, not an entrepreneur or a prodigy comuputer programmer. ... But just like many people my age I need to find a way out of the service industry if I dont want to be mopping floors with one foot.


I hear you. What I am saying is that there are many positions in the service industries that neither require advanced degrees or special training, nor are ruled out by using a wheelchair or other assistances for mobility. Like I said, where I work (a hospital) there is a gentleman who works with Visitor Services and uses a wheelchair for all his work mobility needs. He doesn't have special training other than an extensive knowledge of how the hospital works and is laid out (and everyone that works there must be taught this, although focusing in given areas), and he doesn't mop floors. Ever.

He is good at his job, well-valued, and has a high school degree. I don't think he even went to community college.

Mind you,

quote:
Simply meant to say that if I personally cannot work full-time on my feet, that I am in trouble.
If you are saying that the only work you would be willing to do requires you to use both feet, and that a service job such as the above (where you are helping people under stress and in great need on a daily basis) isn't for you because it just isn't your cup of tea, then I can understand.

Personal preferences are personal preferences.

On the other hand, in a discussion where we are talking about how people should suck it up and get on with being productive, I'm not comfortable in just going along with the idea that there is necessarily only one option here: namely, being forced to wreck a damaged foot by continuing to work knowing that a life of idle non-productivity waits right around the corner. One can do that if one chooses to pursue that path, but there are other options:

1) avoid wrecking the foot as much as outlined above by being savvy about using appropriate assistances now
2) even if a wheelchair becomes necessary, recognize that there is still good work to be done (and even in the nonskilled services area)
3) etc.

I'm not trying to be hard on you (life is hard enough! eh? [Wink] ), just to underscore in this very public forum that even with minimal background experience and/or no advanced education, physical disabilities need not limit someone from doing meaningful work if they are inclined and willing to pursue it.

And admittedly, it can be extra-challenging. That is why there are additional resources to bring people to the workforce and keep them well-occupied in it despite those challenges. Those resources are often publicly funded in small or large part, and it's a good use of resources, so long as people know about them and are willing to use them.

From my perspective, if you choose not to use them, that is certainly your choice to make. I wouldn't quibble about that. I do quibble about denying that those options exist, primarily because this is a public forum and people might believe that there really aren't any other options. What a shame that would be, you know?

-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------

*************************************************

PS: I don't know your situation. Doublessly it is vastly more complicated in the details than I could ever imagine. I am not being sarcastic -- I really believe we underestimate how difficult life is for people other than ourselves, and we tend to underestimate the ingenuity and persistant efforts other people have brought to those challenges we don't even know about, nor ever will.

So I am not -- not -- saying you are wrong in your assessment of your situation. I leave that decision-making and assessment up to you. I am saying instead that for the vast majority of people in comparable situations there are many other options, and we should all know that as members of the community. We need to know it because it is our mothers, fathers, siblings, cousins, friends, lovers, students, and co-workers [and ourselves] who have or will have additional physical challenges, and we all need to know what is possible.

We are also voters who need to know where some of that local and state or federal funding is going, where it is used and whether it results in good outcomes. Knowing that being in a wheelchair doesn't necessarily mean sitting at home drinking pop and watching sitcoms is a very, very important thing, especially if we are responsible in some small way for helping make that happen.

[ August 02, 2009, 02:24 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]

Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
ClaudiaTherese
Member
Member # 923

 - posted      Profile for ClaudiaTherese           Edit/Delete Post 
PPS: Also, jobs are getting more scarce for everyone. Depending on the job market where one lives, work may be more or less readily available, and that is one of those constraints on individual circumstances that may never be known by other people not in the given person's situation. Definitely.

All the more reason to be savvy about knowing whaat resources are available and getting hooked in ASAP, if that is what one wants. The fact that there are possible options doesn't guarantee actual results, not for anyone. In general, if it looks like physical challenges are going to play an increasing role in one's life, it may be a good idea to start finding and using those resources sooner rather than later.

Always, though, change is hard. And sometimes it just sucks to be whomever you are. No denying that for any of us.

Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
AchillesHeel
Member
Member # 11736

 - posted      Profile for AchillesHeel   Email AchillesHeel         Edit/Delete Post 
Im good at physical jobs, and they pay alot better than service in my part of the country. Im bigger than alot of guys and oddly enough my foot has let me learn how to use my body in a more cost effective way. Most anyone in thier early 20s doenst have a firm grasp on what theyre going to do proffesionally, and theres no one to help support me going to school (admittedly I have not searched for grants and such). And while on that subject, all my friends whose family's worked hard and struggled to allow them an education, are still working the same part-time job and making much less than me, I hope for them that this changes with our economy.

To your last paragraph, Im alot more worried at the lengthy use of EBT and other agencies, I have morbidly obese women with four underfed children in tow spend more than forty dollars on junk food with foodstamps in the middle of the night, and then pull out thier own money to buy alcohol tobbacco and scratchers. Its pitiful, deporable, and is so commonplace in my particular city that I tend to hate myself for being apart of the system that facilitates this jaded lesson being taught to these children.

Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
rivka
Member
Member # 4859

 - posted      Profile for rivka   Email rivka         Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese:
eh? [Wink]

noooooOOOOOOOOO!

*weeps*

It's too late! They've got her!

Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
ClaudiaTherese
Member
Member # 923

 - posted      Profile for ClaudiaTherese           Edit/Delete Post 
Ha! [Wink]

---------------

AH, what I read you as saying is that it is better (more noble, more stalwart, more wise?) to be in extreme pain by working without mechanical assistance on a foot that is being inexorably further damaged until you will be forced to use a wheelchair and, as you believe, also be forced to "stop working and leach off the govt," rather than to use far fewer community resources overall by making use of mechanical and vocational assistance now and as needed in the future to remain working, in much less pain, and stay productive as a citizen throughout your life.

For the children and adults I know, I'd find the latter a far better role model, regardless of how other people might or might not make their own choices. If circumstances do force one into choosing one or the other, I can't make sense of why the former is the better choice, especially given that it is presented as inevitably downsliding into total reliance in the very way presented as most deplorable.

But look -- again, I don't know you. I don't know your history and I don't know all your challenges. I never will, not even if we were to become best friends or even partners (and my husband would have something to say about that!). [Smile] We all remain mysteries to one another. All I will suggest is that it might be worth thinking through the various possible paths, at least if there is some thinking you haven't done yet.

And, most assuredly, I remain aware that you have done a lot more thinking about your own circumstances that I ever can or will, and you are the best to judge what is best for you. I just hope that whatever decisions any of us (me included) make about the trajectories of our lives are down with as much information and salient perspective as we can get.

All the best, AchillesHeel. You remind me in some ways*** of the remarkable Derek Jacobi's portrayal in I, Claudius. How apt for us. [Smile]

--Claudia

quote:
This conflict sets the stage for a long period of intrigue and double-crosses among the Roman elite, all of it witnessed by Claudius, whose limp and stammer cause everyone to think him simple-minded and thus leave him alone. But Claudius in fact posesses a very keen intellect, and is determined to see justice be done and Rome returned to a Republican form of government.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Added: ***Not the stammer or the seeming simple-mindedness, but the limp [IIRC, here portrayed as due to a club foot, elsewhere as cerebral palsy, etc.] and the air of being more than he seems. Claudius became an emperor of Rome, you know.

[ August 02, 2009, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]

Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
aspectre
Member
Member # 2222

 - posted      Profile for aspectre           Edit/Delete Post 
9% of Americans are on anti-depressant medications, probably closer to 11% of people over the age of 14.

[ August 03, 2009, 08:53 PM: Message edited by: aspectre ]

Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Bokonon
Member
Member # 480

 - posted      Profile for Bokonon           Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by Kwea:
Looks like I was right the first time. The only thing that will probably change is age.


If your own life experiences are the only thing that can change you then I am sorry for you. Sure, those have the most effect, but in my own life I've been able to educate myself about a a lot of things I haven't actually experienced myself.

This is the truth. Kwea moved a thousand miles away, once he found out I lived in the same state as him.

(Psst, follow this link Kwea!)

-Bok

Posts: 7021 | Registered: Nov 1999  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Kwea
Member
Member # 2199

 - posted      Profile for Kwea   Email Kwea         Edit/Delete Post 
LOL...you make good babies, Bok. Absolutely adorable pictures.


When you planning on visiting Disney? [Smile]

Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
aspectre
Member
Member # 2222

 - posted      Profile for aspectre           Edit/Delete Post 
Proportion of 8year-olds diagnosed with autism up 50% in the last 2years.
"The survey, conducted by the CDC and the Health Resources and Services Administration, asked parents of 78,000 children ages 3 to 17 whether healthcare workers or doctors had ever told them that their children had autism spectrum disorder.
Parents of 1 in 91 children said yes, and said their children currently have the disorder. For boys, the figure was 1 in 58."

Study finds commonly-prescribed antidepressant Celexa doesn't help autistic children and its side effects are twice as bad.

Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
swbarnes2
Member
Member # 10225

 - posted      Profile for swbarnes2           Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Originally posted by AchillesHeel:
I've stated my opinion,

Yes, which means that other people get to state theirs too, and how much they disagree with you.

If you can't stand the heat, you should have stayed out of the kitchen.

But honestly, what do you expect when you say "I'm fine with compensating for my bad genes with a wheelchair, but anyone compensating for bad brain receptors or enzymes is immature and irresponsible"?

quote:
If my post ruined your day because "someone is wrong on the internet" it actually makes me laugh a little bit.
Don't think so highly of yourself. No one's day was ruined. Your opinion is worth a 10 minute post in response, but not any more thought or effort than that. But your callous, ignorant (and hypocritical in your case) attitude does hurt a hell of a lot of people.

quote:
As far as being young and stupid, while I hope to be old and brilliant (as you must be, to come up with that poetry all by yourself), my current state can only changed and affected by the passage of time and my own life experiances.
Ah. And empathy for the experiences of others doesn't fit into your scheme. Your brain enzymes and receptors works fine, so why consider that other people's don't?
Posts: 575 | Registered: Feb 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
  This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2   

   Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


Contact Us | Hatrack River Home Page

Copyright © 2008 Hatrack River Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2