Alarming Statistic - Xanax Users 40,000,000

A startling statistic: 46,000,000 prescriptions a year of Xanax for American coping with stress and anxiety, a drug that is very addictive. Is this drug the modern replacement of Valium? Or alcohol? Or ????

Anxiety Disorders are more acceptable than other mental illness or behavior problems that persons visit psychologists for help and therapy. Phobias, anorexia, drug abuses, and so on seem to be a plague of the people of their own making. 

I viewed a television program (CBS) this morning highlighting the dangers of Xanax when taken with other substances.  Michael Jackson was cited as a user of Xanax.  Do Americans turn to drugs either by prescription or otherwise to solve their personal problems?  What does this imply for our future which requires full ability to cope with reality of life without the aid of mind or mood altering drugs?  Driving under the influence is a frequent offense that comes to mind. It adds inmates to prisons increasing the stress on the citizens to pay for the costs.

In choosing friends, I try to find the most sane and stable so to assure positive influences and interesting peers, but I also have many friends who have physical and mental problems so severe that my own problems seem insignificant and trivial. With the increased use of drugs, an otherwise sane person can quickly become out of control and so much so they are  not even the same person.. My thoughts ponder not only my own bi-polar condition, but the wellness condition of the community, and our American culture. 

What is the lifeline?  Sometimes, you have to self analyze and create your own.  It is not exactly life boat ethics yet, or is it? I am afraid to help some I know because I realize their desperate situation is more than I can turn around and they would perhaps injure me while trying.  The computer offers answers because at least there I can find information, facts, figures, and understand what is happening and safely socialize with others who understand. Many times online friends have the experience and wisdom they share with others and that is greatly appreciated.  Appreciating another helps everyone to work collectively to overcome obstacles and be happier, relieves stress, and reduces the need for drugs or other escapes.  I find that hobbies, reading good books, gardening, pets, or enjoying art activities also helps. Anything you do that focuses your mind and resources on positive plans and achievements toward personal goals is helpful.  Instead of fueling harm, fuel help for yourself and for others and the price of that fuel is free!

Psychiatrically Challenged

I am diagnosed as one with a Bi-Polar mental health condition. To some, I’m crazy, nuts, insane, sick, and a burden or threat to society, perhaps even a menace, and they didn’t hesitate to tell me or talk about me in such terms, or I read jokes using those derogatory word. It is not uncommon for a person with a mental health condition to be sent to a state asylum or to jail where they may never be released. People who think that is ok are lacking reasonable expectations of a basic mental health education and awareness. They are being unkind, if not rude and insulting, either directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly. Their behavior may mask their fears because mental health is a serious problem in American and the World Health Organization representing the world around us.

This afternoon, I was chatting with some friends who have much higher reasoning ability of the mental health in America problem and proper standards of conduct than many I have known, and one said I was a psychiatric survivor. I can live with that, it is not verbally abusive. I now realize that before I was a psychiatric survivor, I was ‘psychiatrically challenged’ (PC).  

To not add injury to insult, and in the interest of mental health education and awareness sensitivities, the labels that are verbally abusive to the psychiatrically challenged DO need to be changed. It requires a change in thinking also about the problems of mental health (the lack of it). When someone refers to a person whose mental health is not up to par, or their behavior is unacceptable socially, it is better to refer to the person as psychiatrically challenged. We use terms such as physically or mentally challenged for persons trying to overcome special difficulties in their life as best they can in order to live more fully and normally as possible, hence the additional term ‘psychiatrically challenged’ seems to be an improvement in language. Continuing to think or be verbally abusive to anyone with special challenges is a form of bullying and is not an acceptable social conduct.

 Everyone experiences some level of psychiatric challenge in their life, and for some, it is so overwhelming they succumb and are lost forever. To the level the psychiatric challenge is severe, it is important to alleviate, prevent, and correct a life threatening danger to that person or to others. If positive help is needed, no psychiatrically challenged individual should have to be subjected to ugly stereotypes of worse case imaginable propaganda stories or suffer verbal indignities disrespecting their rights as a person at any point in summoning professional help or any time afterwards. Americans and their mental health quality will improve if and when our language and our thoughts about psychiatrically challenged persons improve and are focused on positive mental health and not its negative. It shouldn't be called mental illness because that term reinforces a negative focus but if their is absence of good mental health then I would suggest referring to his "mental health condition" which focuses on a positive goal of health direction during the condition even if life long. Mental health is a concept that is linear with points on the line of negative infinity, zero, positive infinity and persons are on at some point on that sliding scale of mental health. It can not be stressed too much that verbally reinforcing health for mental health conditions is the ideal and not its negative (using the word 'ill'.... unless additional abusive punishment and suffering is the objective).

Psychiatrists or Psychologists

Psychiatrists (medical doctors whose province is the functioning of the brain)and psychologists (not medical doctors but resolve patient’s problems with testing and psycho therapy counseling) work together to improve mental health of their patients and in the community. How did the term shrink become a very derogatory pejorative? That word has done much harm to the profession and for many who are reluctant to see a doctor for their mental health. You will see no really good explanation for the origin of the word shrink being applied to a psychiatrist and sometimes to the psychologist. In fact most of what you will read belongs in the dark ages along with were-wolves, witches, warlocks, and vampires. Mental health attitudes do need to be improved greatly and then you will see mental health of Americans improve and America improve as a nation. One has a better chance of getting a heart transplant than adequate mental health care in today’s health care system. Who pays? That is always the question. But we can see the results of overcrowded prisons, drug addictions, and many other mental health issues costs because mental health is not a priority and affordable.

I have a very good psychiatrist and have seen many (too many) mental health practitioners who call themselves psychiatrists but I don’t agree they are competently qualified despite what their credentials say. I have seen enough to form a valid sample needed to rate them via various criteria I have used in my various visits. I know there is a BIG difference in their quality of service and results they provide on the behalf of their patient. Mental health care professionals are expensive and so are the medicines they prescribe like Zyprexa, but since I am a bi-polar patient I have been lucky have my mental health restored. Psychiatrists (competent ones) do know how to prescribe the correct medications then monitor their patient’s mental health improvements.

There really shouldn’t be a stigma attached to going to a psychiatrist any more than visiting a dermatologist, allergist, heart specialist, or another other specialist for a health “condition”. It took a long while for me to consider my psychiatrist as my best friend, and my only advice to others is it is better to see ANY reputable mental health practitioner rather than to continue in an unhealthy state of mind or mood burdening your family, friends, or employers. I have never had a psychiatrist offer a couch for me to lay on and think that belongs to the psychologist’s sterotype of practices. Since my condition was one that could be treated with Zyprexa at a low dose and I had the means to pay, I have never seen a psychologist myself except for some IQ testing and personality assessments or my employer furnished theirs to evaluate its prospective employees. I think psychologists and therapists are for treating phobias and behavioral maladies and not for problems mental problems of bi-polar, schizophrenia, or other severe mental conditions for which medication is the mainstay of treatment. The psychologists could be viewed as generalists who are able to recognize when to refer a patient to a psychiatrist or sometimes the patient just goes directly to the psychiatrist who then might recommend a psychologist to provide therapy along with any medications that are to be prescribed. Neither profession should be referred to in derogatory terms.