It seems like everyone is popping pills these days. We have medicine for depression, Tourette’s, ADHD, OCD, PTSD, PSD, OCPD and just about every other combination of letters out there.
According to Time magazine, 50 percent of Americans are on prescription medicine for chronic health problems. I know scientists have done a lot of research in recent years and learned a lot more about people’s brains, but how normal can it be that half of Americans are on meds?
I understand that there are some disorders or diseases that must be treated, and I am not condemning those who have them. However, 50 percent seems like an awfully high figure. Could it be that doctors are too quick to prescribe medication to patients? Or is it all a conspiracy by drug companies to make more money?
I think people tend to overreact to difficulties. People are conditioned to assume perhaps from the media that because they had a day off, they must be depressed. What was once described as an energetic child is now an ADHD child. While there are certainly people with these conditions, there seem to be more prescriptions being written for them than there should be. Popping pills seems to have become the answer to all our problems, even a panacea.
Dr. Richard Bromfield of the American Council of Science and Health talked about the problem with ADHD patients in his article “Is Ritalin Overprescribed? Yes.”
He said: “Psychiatry has devised careful guidelines for prescribing and monitoring this sometimes-useful drug. But the five-fold jump in Ritalin production in the past five years clearly suggests that these guidelines are being ignored and that Ritalin is being vastly overprescribed.”
Bromfield explains that many people can have ADHD like disruptive behavior, but only 1 to 2 percent of the general population actually has a neurological impairment medication can fix.
Wrongly prescribing is just as harmful as overprescribing. It is so easy for busy doctors to listen to the symptoms, scribble a prescription and move on to their next patient, who will receive roughly the same treatment. Oftentimes, people with disorders and diseases need in-depth psychological evaluations before a treatment can be determined.
The Public Citizen’s Health Research Group lists the “seven all-too-often-deadly sins of prescribing,” which explain a lot about why people are so medicated these days. The biggest mistake doctors make? Prescribing meds for a “disease” that is actually a reaction to another drug. Other “sins” include:
• prescribing medicine where a lifestyle change is more appropriate
• giving meds for untreatable illnesses (such as a cold)
• prescribing meds which the patient is allergic to (but the doctor didn’t ask about)
• treating with medication when another is already being taken and the two interact harmfully
• giving a medicine in addition to another in the same class which does not increase effectiveness (but does increase the risk)
• prescribing medicine with a dangerously high dose
The vital thing for people to do before trying medicine or even contacting a doctor is relax. In this day and age, everybody is busy, and people are always moving, going, working and never slowing down. Sometimes the most effective medicine is simply taking a break for an hour or two, watching television, reading a book, taking a bath or doing something else to help calm down. Sometimes people just need to turn off their cell phones and computers and take a day to get away from the hustle of the world around them.
One of my favorite ways to do this is to write a journal. I can spend a couple of hours in a comfy spot reflecting on the last few days. I find this helps me process what’s been going on, how I feel about things and whether I’m where I want to be in life. It also gives me time away from classes, homework and people. Everyone needs a little breathing space. Doing something you enjoy such as painting, photography, writing, hiking or some other solitary hobby can really allow you to realign yourself. It allows you to have a necessary internal monologue.
Just because someone is not happy all the time does not mean he or she is depressed. And just because a person has trouble focusing sometimes doesn’t mean he or she has ADHD. So perhaps before asking the doctor for some medicine, it would be better to take a breath and make sure that what you are feeling isn’t just a call to relax.
Hannah Kaase is a sophomore majoring in animal and dairy science. She can be contacted at [email protected] .