Elucidation…

I just got an interesting email from someone who wrote in regards to my previous post. And I thought I was the only one up this time of the morning. They wrote…

Andrew,

Don’t you think that most psychiatric medications are over prescribed? I am appalled at how often Ritalin and other mind altering drugs are prescribed by doctors to control children and their actions. I know that I thought I was depressed from time to time [which is a normal feeling by the way] and sought out treatment for it until I realized that I was being overmedicated for something that was perfectly normal. It is okay to feel down and it is a normal feeling to have. It is also normal for children to be active and restless and not want to sit still for hours on end learning stuff they are not interested in. What child wants to sit in a desk all day for eight hours when he could be outside exploring the world and discovering nature and their backyards filled with wonders? Anyways, I was interested in your thoughts.

~AM~

My elucidation is that, yes, many medications are over prescribed and it has become a big business in the United States and all across the globe. I, too, am appalled at how many children are being medicated for perfectly normal behavior. I thought school, as a child and a young adult, was the biggest bunch of bullshit I had ever experienced in all my life. I learned far more life important skills spending the summers on my grandmother’s farm for those few short months that I was there than I ever did spending most of my childhood in public schools. I learned about life and not arithmetic tables.

I would sit in school bored out of my mind most days and luckily, never had to study to get decent grades and could get by as long as I avoided math. I see now that school and higher education is just a conditioning process to mold young people to accept and become affluent participates in a protestant work ethic influenced environment. Very little true altruistic life skills (if any) are taught in schools such as money management, nutrition and dietary considerations, emotional coping skills, building healthy relationships and friendships; all things that would have benefited me to no end if they were taught as I wasn’t being taught them in my home by my parents as a child. Instead, I was taught to employ rote memorization to pass silly, often overly hard, exams and to sit diligently and quietly for hours everyday and to listen to some authoritarian person tell me what should be important; all skills that would only be important for me to fit in a work environment of the profession of my choice. I can pretty confidently say I have never benefited from these skills in my non working life and I no longer work so they are moot.

The above brings me to the point that many people are often medicated as “mentally ill” when they break the laws and norms of society or don’t go with the flow so to speak. Oddity or eccentricity is often seen as a character flaw by the mundane, vast majority of society. We are taught that conformity, group think, social compliance, work ethic, etc, are far more important values than individuality and eccentric brilliance in my opinion. Individuals that walk to the beat of their own drum can often get lost in our mental health care system as ill and sick with a strong need to be medicated to force compliance. I have been a victim of this mindset many times myself during my short life by my father. Person’s who conform and “play to win” excel in modern American society as our extreme work ethic and competitiveness extols such values. The rest are left on the wayside or medicated in an attempt to bring them up to society’s standards for living.

Anyways, I will quit rambling. Thanks for the thoughtful email. I enjoy exploring, writing, and thinking about these subjects. Although, I think I will probably have pissed a few friends off with my ramblings though.