Too many autistics are bieng prescribed too many drugs

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I would agree that medicines in general are over prescribed, not just to autistic people. However, not all medicines are bad, and I'm sick of the stigma that surrounds psychiatric medication in general.

I was an utter mess before I started the medicine that I currently take (pregabalin, Venlafaxine). I couldn't even do therapy or any other helpful activities because I would panic, freeze up, etc. I know that medicine doesn't always help everyone, but pregabalin in particular has been so helpful to me. A short term prescription of Valium also helped as a 'breakthrough' drug when I started to experience psychotic symptoms due to my anxiety disorder being severe.

However, I think doctors are too ready to throw antidepressants at people with mental health problems rather than trying other things (like therapy). Medicines aren't even a quick fix, anyway - most antidepressants take six weeks or so to start having an effect, and it can take years to find one that works for you. I've tried so many different medications up until this point.

I am lucky to have an amazing doctor who consults with psychiatrists to make sure my medicine is balanced and okay if changes are made. Not everybody gets that chance. Not to mention that waiting lists for therapy and such are very, very long where I live. My boyfriend is currently considering going back to therapy and possibly speaking to a doctor about medication, but the waiting list is pushing him towards going private.

Sorry for rambling a bit there!

My dad before he passed was taking 13 medications. He did not have dementia at all but because he was tired, not feeling well in part because of the medications I am positive he screwed up the routine he was supposed to follow plenty of times. Last year when I was in rehab for my tongue cancer my medication list included oxycodone when needed. A couple of times I was in mild pain and requested Tylenol, they would not give it me because it was not on list. They could not give me a mild over the counter medication, but when I requested an addictive opioid I got it every time and quickly. That was probably a result of the incestuous relationship between the doctor and the drug companies.

That was last year. This year there is a big and increasing panic over opioids and doctors are fearful of prescribing lest they get bad publicity or sued. People dying of cancer are having trouble getting oxycodone. At that point, it does not really matter if they get addicted. But if you do get addicted we have a drug for you

The two above examples are representative of a big problem with America we go back and forth between extremes. When I was growing if I was sick the doctor said to go to your local drug store (much less if any big chains back then) take asprin and a decongestant. Behavior problems? Tough love and if that did not work institutionalization. If you had cancer you died an excruciatingly painful death. Heart disease often meant you were often bedridden for a long time if not permanently.

Now we way at the other extreme. We have a drug for seemingly every problem. People expect life to be convenient, and if it is not people are offended. And that is why no matter what America chooses be it going back to marketplace insurance, continuing with some version of Obamacare or single payer healthcare costs are going to bankrupt America.

I have no idea if prescribing drugs is a US thing because it seems like if your depression or anxiety is caused by the environment and you are having normal anxiety and stress, they are prescribed pills. I once wrote a blog post about it but can't find it because it's buried in there. if your depression is caused by the environment, the solution is pills. But I am on the fence about it because what if you can't change your environment? Let's say your anxiety was caused by your boss over working you because he is an as*hole and he will not change so your only solution is to quit or take pills so you can deal with it easier and function better? What if you can't quit your job? But hey if you don't start taking medicine for anxiety, you could have a nervous breakdown and then you could lose your job and then what?

Unless you have an anxiety disorder so you are having anxiety about normal things most people would be able to handle such as working full time and you are acting like you have been working too hard even though it's just normal stuff so it's affecting you mentally. The person could either take medicine or quit their job and live on Social Security or just work part time and get Social Security and they're "normal."

I am not totally against pills because they can really help people and make them function so they're "normal." Not everyone can do it without pills. I am not taking any but my husband does. He says they help him out and since he has been taking anti anxiety pills, he has been having no seizures so now I know his seizures are caused by his anxiety so he has no need to take seizure meds if anxiety meds help with it too. When I was having seizures, mine were caused by the side affects of the pills I was on whenever I would have anxiety so what did my family do? Took me off the medicine and flushed them down the toilet. No need to take more pills to help with my seizures when you could just stop the pills that were causing it. It's a matter of figuring out what is causing what before you decide on medicine for it.

In my personal life, I feel as though I am surrounded by sick people.

In my circle, most everyone subject to chemical dependency, is in withdrawals, at the the end of almost every month.

You are giving control of your bodily functions, over to strangers, who lack self-discipline.

I am not a prohibitionist-type, either.

I think that responsible self-medication is empowering and that giving control to others is a dependency.

They're realizing this now? I'm surprised this wasn't linked to DUH Magazine.

Have you seen the ads on American TV networks? Every other ad is for some stupid kind of drug. When I stayed at my parents' on the Easter weekend I watched a lot of reruns of COPS and Forensic Mysteries, and there must have been a million ads for drugs, a lot of them for allergies now because of it being spring, but also practically everything else. I hate those ads and their long lists of side effects that are terrifying than whatever disease they're for, being at least two minutes long. And now they even have "ask your vet" ads for dogs and cats that are just as bad. If there was something wrong with my cats that I thought required the advice from a vet, I would have likely already asked them, and they would have likely already prescribed something better and safer than whatever garbage those ads have.

This just makes the "Drug-Free America" PSAs even more hilarious.

This was my case too. If people would have listened to me once in a while, I wouldn't need to have been on them in the first place. But no, if I was unhappy about something, it was the result of a chemical imbalance according to my mother. Not because I didn't feel listened too or felt like I just got in the way.