Antidepressants and the Meaning of Life (636 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 0.86 on 9 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Urf The Wog (View user info) at 2004-09-02 19:18:58 EDT
I just turned 40 about a month ago - no BFD. Knowing that my days are limited on this planet, I had a hair across my ass to try and quit smoking for the eleventy-billionth time. I have a friend who is a therapist that gave me some samples of Welbutrin (an antidepressant) to help quit. Started taking them and I did feel more motivated, generally less agitated, and I guess "non-depressed". Still smoke like there's no tomorrow, but then again, there might not be a tomorrow for all we know. So it goes (*Kurt Vonnegut reference*).
We live in a pretty fucked up world with lots of pressures from work, relationships, terrorism, and worrying that our Tivos won't record the Sopranos so I suppose I can understand why people want a happy pill. I thought that's what pot was for, but we all know the government and pharmaceutical companies can't make a dime off a simple plant you can grow just about anywhere on this planet - hence the illegality of the plant.
In talking with some friends and other people of different ages, I discovered that there are shit loads of people taking antidepressants. This was not the case a few years ago - all hail the mighty advertising dollar. Another friend that knew someone at a pharmaceutical company, said that if the clinical trials for a drug are less then a year then the there are almost definitely some serious long term side effects of the drug (I think Welbutrin had a 3 month trial - hmm).
I told my friend (the therapist) of the concerns about long term side effects and that I think depression can be normal as long as it doesn't last a *long* time. This friend said "Don't worry about it, you're a clinically depressed person and should be on antidepressants." Which I replied, "You're only saying that because your essentially a drug dealer and need another revenue stream." We laughed because I think we both knew that the statements had some elements of truth. If only the Middle East peace process could be so easy.
I'm a very anti-pharmaceutical type of guy. I think if you can get through life not taking drugs (legal or illegal), drinking booze, and eating the delicious poison of fast food then you're well ahead of the game. If people really want to get healthy and kick depression, than they'll exercise, get good rest, and eat raw and healthy foods - but that takes work - and we all know this country's filled with fat lazy slobs who would much rather watch Friends or Telletubbies, drink diet soda, and shovel the Colonel's yummy fried chicken in their pie holes than to peel their sloth-like bodies off the couch.
Thus I lead to the Meaning of Life According to Urf:
We're here on this planet to experience life and gain knowledge. Not just academic type stuff, but probably more from a human and Taoist point of view. Once we've finally attained the knowledge that we've been sent here for, we're placed on the list to be shipped back i.e. Return to Sender.
Ups, downs, and sideways events help fill in the spokes of the wheel that makes up our entirety of life. Depression is part of life. Happiness is part of life. Picking your nose is part of life. It's all good in odd and different ways.
Death is part of Life and is not a bad thing at all. Suicide, on the other hand, is very very very bad. It's like cheating yourself out of the unknown and cheating yourself out of the knowledge that will make your soul a little more enlightened when you do finally check out and go back home. Death just means that you've probably become a bit smarter and the essence of your soul more clear than the tool sitting next to you in traffic, in the next cube, or pretending to pray at your local church, temple, or cabbage patch.
So it Goes.
User Reviews
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2004-09-04 07:34:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Antidepressants do exactly what they say on the packet, but they don't make you happy. I found they made me completely numb; I could feel properly sad like I felt I should, but I wasn't happy enough to feel happy and everything was kinda meh.
Philosophy according to Stin:
Remember who your friends are. They are your best source of entertainment and encouragement.
Fuck the pills. They're great for OD'ing on, but pants for solving the problem.
Spend some quality time thinking about who you are and where you're going. Not where you think you should be, but the end of the rainbow with the pot of gold.
It's time-consuming, and often very painful. But it's worth it in the end.
Submitted by phredde2 (user info) at 2004-09-03 09:12:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
happy pills make precriber happy, make BigPharma happy, can't possibly make people happy.
happy pills are designed to dull the senses... until the only sensory inputs accepted are those which make one "happy", like bunnies hopping and puppy dogs playing. Meanwhile you're oblivious to the fact that tivo forgot to record your fav sporting event, or that work is mind dumbingly boring or that your spousal unit gives new meaning to the phase "perpetual bitching". Or even to the senseless deaths of young children half a world away, or two blocks away.
Almost all very stupid people are happy. Become stupid --> happy. That's the prescription.
Our complex feelings are what separate us from animals. Why dull them with happy pills? Because someone labelled a set of these as "clinical depression"? Go have a beer, get it over with quickly and suffer the appropriate crapulous consequences, get on with it!
We don't need a pill, we need a LIFE!
Submitted by UrfTheWog (user info) at 2004-09-03 00:36:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Agree - too long - I have about a two-paragraph attention span - if you don't drag me under the train by that point - forget it.
citib0y - "D-uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what do you mean?".
Anybody's writing is in the interpretation. Kind of like READING A FUCKING BOOK. When I was a kid I read a shit load of Sci-Fi/Fantasy. Nowadays kids are so friggin dummied down by TV, video games, and parents that don't give a flying fuck about how stupid their kids are that I'm not surprised your totally lost.
I grew up on video games and still play them - games are awesome. Reading books kicks up your imagination and intellect to a new level - but then again - "Green Eggs and Ham" wasn't required reading for my SATs.
So what's the point? What's the point of YOUR meaning of life? Why give all the answers to the test? Use your FUCKING BRAIN for christs sake.
I'm no goddamn genius. THAT'S PART OF THE POINT! IT'S ALL ABOUT THINKING ABOUT WHAT LIFE IS ABOUT - this is just my spin on it - whether you agree or not - I really don't care.
Welcome to our next generation where ignorance is absolute bliss. No wonder companies are outsourcing to India and people think GW Bush is a "great leader" - WTF!!!
Submitted by citib0y (user info) at 2004-09-02 21:55:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
So, like, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, what's your point?
Submitted by JonnyBoy (user info) at 2004-09-02 19:38:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Bah...too long, I'm still a young whipper snapper!
Submitted by UrfTheWog (user info) at 2004-09-02 19:33:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Don't have a wife or a girlfriend right now. Kind of evens out the occasinal lonliness moments and the perpetual presences of another person invading my space.
Submitted by creative_eyes (user info) at 2004-09-02 19:31:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
-1 I don't understand your post
-1 You sound depressing
-1 You made me yawn
+2 you sound real
But I like the special effects on this site:
http://echaos.free.fr/mirage/1000.html
Submitted by SPECIALk (user info) at 2004-09-02 19:27:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by shitfuck (user info) at 2004-09-02 19:22:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Why don't you try killing your wife.