Posted on 08/26/2014 8:57:49 AM PDT by Sean_Anthony
Part 3: "TORN TO SHREDS"--The unheralded epidemic of disease and death wrought by anti-anxiety drugs
Part 1: “I’ve lost everything” Part 2: A double whammy Part 3: A nine-billion-dollar-a-year industry
Anxiety, fear, and terror are universal human experiences. It is only within the 150 years that they have come to be regarded as “diseases” that can and should be treated by the medical profession.
Most anti-anxiety drugs, or anxiolytics, belong to a class of chemical compounds called benzodiazepines, a category which includes alprazolam (Xanax), lorazepam (Ativan), diazepam (Valium), olanzapine (Zyprexa), chlordiazepoxide (Librium), clonazepam (Klonopin, Clozaril, Leponex), and estazolam (Prosom). These drugs are variously marketed as anxiolytics, sedatives, muscle relaxants, hypnotics, or anticonvulsants, implying a specificity of action that does not in fact exist. All these drugs are general central nervous system depressants, essentially no different in their mode of action from opiates or barbiturates or, for that matter, gin.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
I believe these drugs are the root of liberalism. People joke (or don’t joke) that liberalism is a mental illness, that liberals are a combination of lockstep obedience, brittle shrill rage eruptions, irrational thinking, and a horror movie level of lack of conscience. Well, it just so happens that those are the exact symptoms of taking antidepressants. And Democrats didn’t used to be nearly this insane - they changed quite dramatically at the beginning of the Clinton 90’s. And take a wild guess when antidepressants exploded into break use. Go ahead - guess.
Common use, not “break” use.
(Grrrr... autocorrect)
Legalize them and then tax the hell out of them.
If people want to self-medicate, who are we to stop them?
End drug snobbery, why just legalize pot?
Because it is easier to hand someone a prescription than to figure out what may be causing their depression.
I remember reading about a medical conference where it was announced that there soon would be on the market "anti-depressants" that would make their jobs a lot easier. Plus, they stood to make a lot of money. That made all the attendees quite happy.
I swear, the entity that has done this will not be satisfied until they get everyone on meds and adult diapers.
Ummm.
Fact check
Zyprexa and Clozaril are atypical anti-psychotics, not Benzodiazepines.
They are primarily Dopamine blockers, not GABA agonists
“figure out what may be causing their depression”
I have a pretty good idea what causes it in people that make over about $75,000.
These drugs are not anti-depressants. They are anxiolytics - Zyprexa is an atypical antipsychotic although chemically it is related to the benzodiapines.
My experience as a nurse and EMT - people on anti-depressants can function normally, their depression under control as hypertension can be controlled. There is generally very litte increased tolerance and the need to increase dosage occurs slowly, over a period of years if ever.
People on benzodiazepines and the related sleep aids, e.g. Ambien, Lunesta, tend to function poorly. They generally lose their ability to self-regulate their anxiety and to sleep without medication. Their tolerance and perceived need for the benzos increases. Many become addicted to opioid pain medications as well.
Some people are extremely addiction-prone, and some are not prone at all. If only there were a way to tell in advance!
But benzodiazepines should only rarely be used as a long-term treatment. They should function as a bridge of a few weeks to long-term treatment or resolution.
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