interesting point..

...talking with a friend who has seen one side of T and not the side i am usually writing about. to be completely fair, she really is an ok human being in the big picture of life.

what i found interesting is that before i became 'the help' i was asked seriously about strategies or things for the kids. once i became the 'help' i was then only told what to do and not asked for my i guess they call it 'professional' opinion.

she will ask other parents but not me.

this is fine, i don't have a bug up my ass about it. i am being mostly defiant now and doing what i want....so that's not the issue and how did it take me this long to realize that i was 'the help' and not feeling like a part of the greater whole of them?

living and learning i guess.

then onto conversations i had yesterday about medications. for mentally ill people.

america really is an overly medicated society.
there's a pill for just about everything and if there isn't one, here in basel at novartis, they are surely trying to come up with one to market.

in the US also there is very little in the way of actual help as there is say in germany or switzerland....france and most of the rest of europe.

unemployment might be high but at the same time, those that are mentally unable to keep jobs are given help from the welfare state.

there is SSI in the states which helps those that cannot maintain that kind of stability but it ends there really.

i have a few friends who take prozac religiously. in some ways i can see how this might help but sometimes i don't know. there have been times people have told me that i would be better off on mood stabilizers. i might be moody but i am me. i don't want to lose myself. i was always scared of medicines like prozac or whatever else.

my PCP in DC would try to give me anti depressants for free because his closet was full of the stuff. this man is a regular doctor, not a psychiatrist.

should he be dispensing these medications to unsuspecting adults....they see the commercial on TV and think they are depressed when maybe they're just having a bad week then they go to their doctor to ask for this to see if it helps...voila!

i take medications. i take my beta blocker and i take ibuprofen. on bad allergy days i am known to take some allergy medication because it really does help.

there was a time when i was taking much more than that....thinking it was something that i needed when i really didn't.

i admire the choice of some people i know to not take medications but sometimes my mind wonders if they would be more productive...that's the idea behind modern medicine. it's supposed to help those that really need it....but now it really does seem that we take a pill for all ailments and that makes it better.

don't get me started on antibiotics....in meats and foods.....to taking them when they are not going to do anything.

also....people who are too clean with their kids. kids need to be around mud dirt and animals....nothing has to be so spic and span....

i think of people my age who were told 'go outside and don't come back until the sun goes down' and we'd get into all kinds of trouble....playing with bugs and dirt and getting sweaty...learning to cope with the elements of life, the earth....

the pharm corporations have a lot to do with this too i am quite sure..peddling their new medications.

i took the pill once and it made me sick.
i am allergic to penicillin and other anti biotics.....

the most i get sick in a year is a few times....taking on a new strain of kid colds....and usually a couple times a year getting that awful stomach bug....

bah. i ramble.

happy monday!