Medical Nazis

[JediVulcanisim]

Suppose that your actions as a human being were to be determined by another human being that only has a piece of paper stating their qualification to essentially force you to ingest foreign substances "for your own good". Mostly by the use of empathetic manipulation.
:marionette:

I feel as though this situation is where North America is moving towards merely because of the enslavement of its people by using debt as a catalyst for fear of death. Thus forcing human beings to purchase the extension of their life "if they care about their family"...
:dead2:

 

[Little Linguist]

I read that three times and didn't get it.

 

[Little Linguist]

Wait, are you talking about psychological medication? Or what do you mean?

 

[Hive]

I think he's talking about psychologist forcing medicines on people by guilt tripping them.

 

[Randomnity]

by that logic, you're forced to drink coke because the ads psychologically manipulate you (and they do, no question about it)

 

[Valiant]

Psychologically ill people should take their meds, no question about it. Seriously.

 

[SubtleFighter]

Do you mean those drug commercials for cholesterol medicine, etc that show "daughters" and "spouses" pleading with their family member to take their drug because they care about them and want them to be 'healthy'?

Or do you mean when you're in a doctor's office and he acts like you're an irresponsible nutjob just because you don't want to take the pill that he tells you to, maybe trying to guilt trip you as well by mentioning how bad your family will feel if you "put yourself at risk" by not ingesting the chemicals he prescribes despite the fact that you've done research on your own and are objecting for good reasons?

Cause both of those make me want to punch someone.

 

[Octarine]

Conversely, there are also the "medical fascists" that prevent you from taking psychoactive drugs.

Cognitive liberty is a legitimate civil rights concern.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_liberty

 

[SubtleFighter]

Conversely, there are also the "medical fascists" that prevent you from taking psychoactive drugs.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. Who's preventing people from taking psychoactive drugs? Typically the pharmaceutical companies do all they can to get anyone to take their drugs.

 

[prplchknz]

I love paranoid INTJs, they're the best

 

[Stanton Moore]

Bong hits before posting...

 

[ThatGirl]

What's wrong with taking a pill IF it helps you feel better? I haven't been on any mood enhancing medication before, but I swear there were times I would have killed for some normality. I think the idea is to take away the symptoms with medication, so you can finally get to the problem.

 

[SubtleFighter]

What's wrong with taking a pill IF it helps you feel better? I haven't been on any mood enhancing medication before, but I swear there were times I would have killed for some normality. I think the idea is to take away the symptoms with medication, so you can finally get to the problem.

This was probably addressed to the OP, but I'll take a stab at answering.

--I have no problem with an adult making their own informed (being the operative word) decision about what to do about their health. If someone knows the real pros and cons about taking a medication and decides to take it, more power to them.

--The problem comes when
1) The patient isn't informed. When the doctor prescribes a medication for a symptom but doesn't tell the patient that a) it's new and there's no way to tell long-term effects, b) that there are proven short-term/long-term effects, c) that there are other, non-prescription drug options for their symptoms, or d) the doctor believes the drug is safe by reading the FDA's approval of it but doesn't realize that the test trials for the drug were somewhat smudged by the pharmaceutical companies to cover up side effects or something else that's wrong so they can make more money (this does happen). When any of these happen, the patient is not fully informed of the potential risks.

2) When the patient has done research on potential side effects of the drug versus non-prescription drug options to treat the symptoms, decides they're not comfortable with taking the drug, and the doctor doesn't accept their right to decide.

--I don't believe that every pharmaceutical drug out there, psychiatric or not, is bad and causes terrible side effects. But there are many that do. And that's why we all need to be careful with what we decide to put into our bodies. If we're feeling bad already, we don't need to feel worse, and that won't help to get to the root of the original problem. Being FDA-approved doesn't mean safety. Look at all the drugs that were approved but ended up being recalled because of the side effects.

If someone is fully informed and decides to take the medication, that's their right.

If someone is fully informed and decides not to take the medication but looks to alternative therapies, the doctor should respect that that's their right too!