Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Prince
That is not to say ADD isn't a real medical problem. In some cases, it may be bad enough that it needs medicating. But the same goes for a lot of things these days. I walked into a mental health counselor's office some weeks ago, and on the first session she offered to write me a prescription for antidepressants. I declined, but then again I am old enough to make that decision for myself. The point being that I believe in some cases they push meds on you well before it should even be considered.
|
I think a lot of that has to do with how much time a medical practitioner can give or is willing to give to a patient or client. It's much more efficient and statistically effective (in the short term at least), for them to hand you a prescription and move on to the next person. We're dealing with the massive generation of aging baby boomers, and the population of doctors has not scaled to it.
That's not to excuse them offering pills the first time they see you. I think that's borderline irresponsible. You can't really get a complete picture of a person's mental health in one sitting, largely because the patient himself might not be aware of the depth or complexity of his condition. Or they may be understandably uncomfortable with disclosing every relevant detail to a person they've never met.
There's also the symptomatic approach to Western medicine that you mentioned. You can give a person Tylenol if they get headaches a lot, but you could also stop the headaches from recurring in the first place, if the problem is environmental or dietary.