Random observations on mood and its meaning; and of course, guns
Thursday, April 11th, 2013On guns and “mental illness”
You know I don’t usually get into conspiracy theories, but some connections are just too convenient.
First, you build a medical/pharmaceutical industry that successfully pushes the notion that every little sorrow, nervous twitch, or bit of restlessness is a “disease” that needs to be treated with psychoactive drugs. Then you go on a holy crusade to take guns away from the “mentally ill” (and all the bobbleheads who haven’t thought about the implications repeat “good idea, good idea, good idea”).
So with the consent of the ignorant, complacent, well-programmed, and the devious slimeballs who take advantage of all of the above, any one of the millions who’ve been propagandized into taking one of those psychoactive drugs can become a candidate for losing his or her gun rights. No due process, no nothin’. (Added: Well, maybe the opinion of an authoritarian, anti-gun counselor or shrink.)
It’s just too-too perfect. Politically elegant.
The people who are so eager to grab the guns (you will not be surprised) don’t much care whose guns they take in the process. Because after all, the point isn’t preserving rights, it’s taking rights from one and all. Grab the guns from the “wrong” guy? But there are no wrong guys when it comes to taking away firearms!
Oh yeah, and it helps if you also set up “medical privacy” systems that centralize your health-care data and share it willy-nilly with “authorities.”
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Now as this trend takes hold, how many gun owners who might actually benefit by some of those drugs will avoid getting help because they fear the cop-knock on the door? We know that some murders have been committed because drugs exacerbated the problems they were supposed to help. How many other acts of violence may be committed because somebody who might have been helped by drugs goes over the edge?
And how many gun owners who would never dream that their depression, anxiety, or ADHD constitutes a “mental illness” will remain blissfully ignorant until
Authoritah comes for them?
And how many of those gun owners will have, in fact, supported the laws to “take guns out of the hands of the mentally ill”? But wait! Not me! You were only supposed to take some dangerous wacko’s guns! Sorry, guy. You’re the dangerous wacko now, dontcha know?
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On a more personal note
The long winter that’s clutched the NW and strangled my spirit goes on. We did have an incredible, better-than-summer weekend at the end of March. But since then we’ve had some of our rainiest, blowiest days. And days. And days. And did I mention, days? That glorious weekend feels like long ago.
I can’t cheer up no matter what stories I tell myself.* I can’t warm up no matter how many layers and jackets I wear. My friend Jill is in the final stages of dying of cancer, which seems incomprehensible, outrageous, and unfair for a person of such grace and goodness. She won’t let anyone visit, which I understand intellectually, but not emotionally.
But there are a few rays of sunshine, even if not the atmospheric kind or the need-a-miracle-for-my-friend kind.
On Tuesday, longing for something good to happen but not knowing how to bring it about, I stopped by the local Chinese restaurant and discovered they were having a buffet.
Though I arrived at the very end, there was still a fair bit to choose from, including some of my favorites (mmmm, cashew chicken). So I indulged.
While I was eating, the nice lady who owns the place went over to the steam tables, filled a go-box brim-full, and brought it over to me. She did the same for several other diners.
It was probably food she’d have had to throw out, anyway. But I’ve never had a restaurant do that. When I got home and opened the box, I noticed that everything she’s given me was something I’d had on my plate; she noticed and chose what she knew I liked. I was very touched.
Not to mention very well-filled with delicious food for my last two lunches.
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I’ve also decided to gift myself with 10 sessions of structural integration (aka Rolfing). Turns out there’s a practitioner in the nearby berg I jokingly refer to as The Big City.
Financially, I can’t afford to do this. Mentally and physically, I can’t afford not to. Rolfing is very powerful and good body-work is also, at its best, good mind-work. I’m hoping that it will help kick-start me out of this gloom and lassitude.
I’ll probably give some progress reports along the way.
—–
* But I’m not taking any medication for the blahs, therefore (NOTE TO AUTHORITIES) I must be sane.
April 11th, 2013
“that every little sorrow, nervous twitch, or bit of restlessness ”
It’s worse than that. A lot of doctors are pushing antidepressents as painkillers now, along with anything they can’t diagnose on their first 3 guesses.
April 11th, 2013
The last time I went to the doctor, years ago, I was diagnosed with bronchitis. In addition to prescribing medicine for the bronchitis, he also tried to push one of those anti-depressant drugs on me–because I was, not surprisingly, a bit unhappy about being so sick. Not being a complete idiot I took the antibiotics and declined the rich-people-crack.
April 11th, 2013
A like-minded friend is just finishing up his Phd in head shrinking. It has been a month or two since we had a conversation on today’s blog topic, but he said that the psychiatric field was shunned by those who believe in personal responsiblity back in the 1960’s, and thus the ranks were filled with goons of the worst types. Now they are in charge of deciding who and what is “abnormal”, literally writing the book every few years. The latest addition includes all sorts of politically motivated nonsense.
Of course, the John Birch Society has been saying the loons were in charge of the nut house since before I was born.
My friend bops by every once in a while, maybe I can coerce him to chime in.
April 12th, 2013
“Oh yeah, and it helps if you also set up “medical privacy” systems that centralize your health-care data and share it willy-nilly with “authorities.””
Absolutely. HIPAA was a set-up from day-one.
Among other things, “The administrative simplification provisions also address the security and privacy of health data. The standards are meant to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation’s health care system by encouraging the widespread use of electronic data interchange in the U.S. health care system.” (Wikipedia, under HIPAA)
It’s not about privacy and security of data, and certainly not about patients, but about the ‘health care system’–which was just another step toward Obamacare.
In fact it started in the 60s with Medicare/Medicaid, and continued in the 80s with DRGs (Diagnosis-related group) which ultimately dragged the insurance companies into it, raising their premiums and altering their coverage.
(Again from Wikipedia, under DRG) “In 2007, author Rick Mayes described DRGs as:
…the single most influential postwar innovation in medical financing: Medicare’s prospective payment system (PPS). Inexorably rising medical inflation and deep economic deterioration forced policymakers in the late 1970s to pursue radical reform of Medicare to keep the program from insolvency. Congress and the Reagan administration eventually turned to the one alternative reimbursement system that analysts and academics had studied more than any other and had even tested with apparent success in New Jersey: prospective payment with diagnosis-related groups (DRGs). Rather than simply reimbursing hospitals whatever costs they charged to treat Medicare patients, the new model paid hospitals a predetermined, set rate based on the patient’s diagnosis. The most significant change in health policy since Medicare and Medicaid’s passage in 1965 went virtually unnoticed by the general public. Nevertheless, the change was nothing short of revolutionary. *For the first time, the federal government gained the upper hand in its financial relationship with the hospital industry.* Medicare’s new prospective payment system with DRGs triggered a shift in the balance of political and economic power between the providers of medical care (hospitals and physicians) and those who paid for it – power that providers had successfully accumulated for more than half a century.”
Sorry for getting sidetracked. When you’ve worked with it, it’s hard to keep an objective mind about the future of medicine. The best way to stay healthy is to keep out of the medical system.
…..
It does indeed make a great conspiracy theory: guns, drugs, and health care. We soon will be a nation of sickies. America has been taken over by political quacks whose only “cure” is
a bottle of snake oil and a fleam for bloodletting. If the American Empire doesn’t die on Wall Street, it will surely die in a psychiatric ward.
April 12th, 2013
When my Mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, the first drug they tried to put her on was an anti-depressant. After all, she was depressed, but um, she’d just gotten the news that she had terminal cancer. Takes the wind out of the sails a bit, y’know? She refused it.
What I found interesting though, was after she refused it, her docs handed me(as her next of kin/advocate) a form to fill out, which included all sorts of personal questions about me, my family, and whether or not I owned any guns. I think the idea was to find out if I was going to hand Ma a gun to off herself when the pain got unbearable. Handed their form back and told them to shove it, I wasn’t answering any of their bullshit questions.
April 12th, 2013
SO sorry about your friend and the way she’s handling it. It hurts to be shut out at a time like that. All you can do is let her know that when she needs you, you will be there.
April 12th, 2013
As an AP-RN, specializing in hospice pain and symptom management, I supervised the administration of a great many different psychoactive and other drugs over many years. In all that time I had just two patients who vocalized ANY real suicidal thoughts, and zero who evidenced any tendancy toward violence.
Are these things overused and abused, both by doctors and patients? You bet! I now know that there are many, many much better alternatives and would never suggest psychoactives to anyone again. But they can be used safely and rationally with some effort on the part of all involved.
Conspiracy? Who knows? The bottom line question is the same for everything:
By what legitimate authority? http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/?page_id=1294
Where does legitimate authority over people’s lives and property originate?
And it’s the most important question we can ask ourselves. Do we own our lives, or have we given our sovereign and natural authority over ourselves to the rulers and politicians?
April 12th, 2013
After people on psytropic medications, will be those with strongly held religious beliefs. Next will be those that don’t beleive in government as god, maybe homeschoolers too. After that will be those that are found out to be into herbalism, alternative mexdicine, or self medication. Then it will be everyone else except the outlaws and criminals, we’ll keep our guns…
April 12th, 2013
Pat said:
“The best way to stay healthy is to keep out of the medical system.”
I agree wholeheartedly, after my experiences of being subjected to dangerous, and terribly invasive “tests” just to “rule out” something a PA THOUGHT. (Tests disproved her theory – and she still hates me to this day, because I TOLD her at the time, she was going extreme and was wrong.) I couldn’t just refuse the tests, either — because that goes in the record: patient refused MD recommended tests/treatment. If you are a patient – you are also a guinea pig, and give up all your rights. (YES, I’ve also known docs who were NOT like that…)
I’ve been one of those pointing out that to be an effective “gun control”, the Psych industry would need to create, agree on, and disseminate to the public what constitutes “a danger to oneself or others”… right in their DSM… BEFORE they go adding people to some “don’t sell guns to…” list. The chances of getting that definition/agreement?? Oh… about .05%. In an ideal world… that’s what needs to happen. But the chances for misdiagnoses, personal bias, and plain old abuse? Probably greater than 75%.
Claire – I know it won’t cheer you up – but I don’t think your linking of those things is all that far-fetched.
If I find a new planet with sane people, I’ll let you know.
April 12th, 2013
I cringe a little when I hear someone has put their child on Rytalin or something similar because their offspring has “ADD”-or some other set of initials. Isn’t a child who’se rowdy and active just a normal little kid?
Years ago, some friends of mine lived in a little town outside Olympia-and claimed the rainy, dreary weather gets to you after a while-I suppose it would get to anyone if it dragged on long enough.
April 12th, 2013
I could see “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” (rats, a mental disorder I bet) getting bad when three of the seasons include rain and snow and the forth season is just rainy.
April 12th, 2013
I spent 21 years in the Pacific Northwet. I hated it; the weather, the over-reaching statism, the tenor of political debate, the leftists who think they are so progressive (but are actually jerk-kneed Fascists), the out of control LEO’s and on and on. I stayed because my kids were there.
When I spoke to an MD about my issues with all of the above, I was “diagnosed” with depression. First question; Do you have any guns in the house? My answer: We are not going there! First method of “treatment” offered (read pushed) was Prozac. I declined. Next offer was some other lesser form. I declined. Next, I went to a psychologist who determined I had SAD and his first recommended course of “treatment” was Prozac. I declined.
Around the same time, we went to visit an old school pal of my ex-wife’s in AZ. She was an MD and I spoke with her about the issue. She recommended guess what? PROZAC! Then in a more detailed conversation later that night. This old friend revealed that she was often invited to posh dinners paid for by big-pharma companies. These dinners are effectively sales pitches for the latest and greatest new wonder pill. I queried her about the nexus between free dinners and hawking drugs. She became defensive. It was about that time, I pretty much quit going to any MD for anything. I have never felt better than the day I left the PNW.
Conspiracy? No way. That can’t happen here. I mean we are talking about doctors, politicians, lawyers and other highly “educated” folks. hahaha! I think most of them missed Mark Twain’s point about not letting your schooling get in the way of your education.
April 12th, 2013
I’ve read about rolfing. Never tried it — pretty sure I won’t. Now a good swedish or shiatsu massage, I wish I could afford to treat myself.
Wish I could send you some Colorado sunshine. (We have more snow in the forecast — I’m really done with that for a while, but nooooooooooooo.
So here’s a happy song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhjSzjoU7OQ
And a dog at the beach:
http://blog.joehuffman.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/RockawayBeach-314BlackDog.jpg
http://blog.joehuffman.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/RockawayBeach-360FlyingDog.jpg
Summer’s coming, and you’ll have all that lush green around you. I sure do miss that.
April 12th, 2013
I suffer from migraines. If you look into the subject, which is actually pretty interesting when it happens to someone else, you’ll see that most of the meds are actually working on your brain chemistry. That’s because your brain chemistry getting out of whack is the cause of migraines (Yes, overly simplified but it is the essence of the thing).
I really worry to at some point, after we have gotten the guns away from all those crazy people, they’re going to come after folks like me. After all, the crazies take drugs that fool around with your brain chemistry, and I take drugs that fool around with my brain chemistry, so I must be crazy, right?
April 12th, 2013
from jed;
“Wish I could send you some Colorado sunshine.”
Me too. We’ve certainly got enough wind to get it out to you. Trade some CO sunshine for some Norwet moisture.
And a puppy-upper……adorable animals sleeping.
http://www.causes.com/actions/1729831-modernmoms-top-10-sleepy-animals?recru%20http://
Meanwhile, I keep expecting a knock at our door since DH is bi-polar and takes Prozac and Seroquel. He’s the sanest and least violent person I know, but who’d take my word for it. I figure with a CCW permit I’m already on at least somebody’s list. Good thing they’d probably get lost looking for us out here
in the woods.
April 12th, 2013
Clinical medicine is repair work. In it’s best form, it’s also maintenance work. It’s like taking your car to a mechanic. Sometimes the car is fixed, sometimes it’s worse, and sometimes it doesn’t make any difference.
Antidepressants are used for pain, as noted above. And they can be effective; it is a valid use for them. The doses, though, are much less than the doses needed to treat depression. This is a subtlety the authorities will find it very convenient to ignore.
Quite some time ago, there was a California (I think) psychiatrist who decided to do a study where he had normal volunteers admitted to mental institutions with bogus diagnoses. It was their job to try to get out. Saying “There’s nothing wrong with me” got them nowhere. Saying they knew they were ill but were better now proved the best strategy. Some couldn’t get out until he publicly announced the end of the study. At a later date, he said he would do another study and gave the starting and ending dates. During that time the institutions refused admission to a very significant number of people. At the study’s ending date he announced that he hadn’t sent anyone.
This is all so depressing; perhaps we could temper it with something unrelated and uplifting. http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/Health-News/bras-breast-sag-support/2013/04/11/id/498963
April 12th, 2013
Freeholder: “That’s because your brain chemistry getting out of whack is the cause of migraines (Yes, overly simplified but it is the essence of the thing).”
But what’s the cause of the brain chemistry getting out of whack? Have you checked for allergies? My son used to have migraine headaches from chocolate; he hasn’t eaten chocolate for several years now. Cheese, wine and processed meats also cause migraines, esp. the sulfites in food.
Many years ago I lived in a small town in Washington State where migraines were “rampant” along a small valley. After several years of studies, it was believed that allergic toxicity to a pesticide being sprayed on apples (I lived in heavy apple country) was considered the cause for so many migraines. Later after I left the area I heard from a nurse friend that the number and severity of migraine patients had decreased considerably after the pesticide was stopped around the state.
April 12th, 2013
First, the only people who can be disarmed are those who agree to be. Don’t agree, you can’t be disarmed.
Second, it may be a conspiracy, or not. Doesn’t matter. Some years back I started introducing the idea in gun forums that there shouldn’t be such a thing as a government “prohibited persons” list for owning guns, not for mental problems or for ex-felons, or for any other reason. Got a lot of resistance back then, but more and more people are agreeing now. The further they go with this, the more obvious the problems there will be with it. There is simply no way they can confiscate any but a tiny, tiny minority of guns with this tack. At best they will create a thriving black market. No, people just won’t go for this. It is too clever by half.
Anyway the economy will crash before any such long term plans can be taken to fruition.
As to weather, I spent the last 35 years in western Oregon. At first I liked the rain because it kept the Californians out, sorta. But lately the winter blues have gotten to me. So I spend most of my time in sunny Wyoming.
Here is a typical Wyoming scene:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/Zxcv12003/d4361cfe.jpg
April 13th, 2013
@Shel: Article needs pictures.
@Paul: Then you remember the anti-Californian t-shirts.
* People in Oregon don’t tan in the summertime, they rust
* Map of the state with I-5 detoured around the perimeter
April 13th, 2013
drop CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS and all the others. check out the real news.
http://www.drudgereport.com
http://www.infowars.com (who linked to this article.)
April 13th, 2013
Ritalin does nothing with sucidal tendencies. I was on Ritalin for a few years as I was older in college and never in HS. The only thing it does it makes you focus more. Its like a energy drink(2-3) at a time feeling, or the morning cup of coffee that is loaded with caffine. It does no more than that!! It does not change your feelings. it makes up that are very talkative to shut up more and listen, your brain wants to learn when on it. It has nothing on depression. anything it makes you feel different but really focused. Like I said just like 3 cups of coffee within a few min and last for hours. These politicians have no clue. they need to have multiple people say this person is unstable not just one dr. you could be in a bad mood and go see a dr and they could get the impression that you are unstable since they are thinking they are the ones that are normal and if someone is seeing the Dr there must be something wrong with them. Just pretend being a Dr and seeing the people you notice before they see one.
April 15th, 2013
I’ve seen this link for awhile now and try to inform everyone who will listen. Thanks to panic attacks and constant anxiety, I’ve been on many of the anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds. I now refuse to take any of those meds and instead take herbal supplements which actually work and have no bad side effects. But since I have this history, red flags go up whenever someone talks about taking guns from “the mentally ill”. I have no doubt I’ll be included in that group just because of the meds, and they’ll not only take away my 2nd Amendment rights but also my husband’s. After all, they will say that I cannot have access to any guns whether they are mine or not. Talk about catching a lot of folks with that wide of a net. All of this is just a first step, though, because listen to all the side effects of the drugs advertised on TV for anything from diabetes to impotency. Those drugs cause symptoms that are now classified as “mental illness”. It stands to reason these folks will be added to the list sooner or later.
I’m firmly on the side of not taking away anyone’s right to have a gun. No one should be unable to protect themselves from a bad guy or a tyrannical govt no matter what. Take away our guns and you make us slaves. Whatever the argument, that is the ultimate goal.
April 17th, 2013
I agree with Nell, but I go farther. The 2nd Amendment is very clear: “the right to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT be infringed.” I don’t read any exceptions in that language: no “community safety” or “school zone” exception; no insanity or criminal history exclusion; no limitation on the type or number of arms which can be owned; no “outs” whatsoever. Where does it say you can’t have an automatic rifle, or a suppressor? If you can afford an M-1 Abrams tank or and F-16 fighter jet, have at it. There is nothing which the US military has which the citizens shouldn’t also be allowed to own. The American colonists had essentially the same arms as the British army; if we hadn’t the revolutionary war could never have been won.
Unfortunately, I think George Carlin had it right when he said that we don’t have “rights” but “privileges”. (http://youtu.be/gaa9iw85tW8.) There is not a single “right” in the Bill of Rights which hasn’t been watered down or eliminated when it suits the federal government’s purposes (“emergency powers”). 1st Amendment? Ask the newspaper editors jailed by Lincoln for criticizing his war. 2nd? Limitations on the type of weapons you can own, the necessity of CWPs in most states. 3rd? Ok, maybe that one has been spared (so far), but only because the government hasn’t needed to house troops in private residences. Yet. 4th? Warrantless searches and wiretaps. 5th? Ask the Japanese-Americans held in detention camps in WW2. 6th? Guantanamo Bay. 7th? Jury trials have been limited in a number of states, and in any event the entire concept of an “impartial jury” has been vitiated by the empanelment process and the official rejection of “jury nullification” (historically a core element of a jury trial). 8th? Who can plausibly argue that asset forfeiture is not an “excessive fine”? 9th and 10th? Simply ignored. That’s all off the top of my head; a whole book could be written about the court-sanctioned gutting of the Bill of Rights. Our soi-disant “rights” are only in our heads; no government actually recognizes them.