Should We Be Numbed to Life's Problems or Take the Bull by the Horns?

A recent study was in the news regarding college-aged kids and the amount of stress, anxiety and overwhelm they've been experiencing, and how that contributes to alcohol and substance abuse. The study found that half of college-aged kids suffered from a ‘psychotic disorder.' As a result, some colleges and universities are setting up more counseling services. The intention is to curtail alcohol and drug abuse but, since drugs are the number one treatment option these days for those with psychiatric disorders of any kind, chances are many of those kids will wind up on prescription drugs.

So, what's wrong with that?

First, there's the question of whether what college-aged kids have been experiencing is a ‘disorder.' The study was based on interviews done in 2001 and 2002. Post 9/11. Who wasn't stressed, anxious and overwhelmed? We'd just been attacked by terrorists who trained as pilots on our own soil, just about everyone was suspect - you couldn't even take a bottle of shampoo in your carry-on luggage when you were flying home to visit your grandmother - we were at war with countries that harbored and supported the terrorists who could strike again at any time, and more alleged enemies were popping up all over the place.

The media, the President and other government officials became merchants of fear. In fact, any statement of the legacy of the soon-to-be previous administration would be incomplete if it didn't include setting the teeth of every American on edge waiting for the next calamity.

But could our post 9/11 fear, stress, overwhelm and anxiety be classified as a ‘psychiatric disorder'? Hardly, it's a normal response to a very disordered situation. In fact, the absence of those emotions would more likely qualify as a disorder than feeling just peachy.

Second, the alleged ‘disorders' from which we suffered, and still do, are classified as such by a group of people - psychiatrists - who have systematically managed to turn just about every less-than-perfect life experience into something they need to treat.

And since they have been woefully ineffective despite their authority in the field of the mind and make more money prescribing drugs anyway - they get paid more for a 15-minute session that ends with a prescription than for 45 minutes of helping us figure out solutions to our problems - their ‘treatment' more often than not consists of giving us a drug that has a long list of side effects, including making us want to kill ourselves.

Here's what kids are likely to have to contend with if psychiatric drugs become the solution to their problems:

Agitation, anxiety, sedation, sleep disruption, weight gain, diabetes, inability to achieve an erection, inability to achieve an orgasm (men and women), loss of libido, urinary retention, blurred vision, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain, movement disorders (including muscle spasms, fidgety movements of the legs so uncomfortable it's hard to sit still, rhythmic shaking that looks like Parkinson's, or excessive movement of the lips, tongue and jaw,) heart problems, suicidal thoughts and self-harm.

To make matters worse, many of these side effects are treated with additional drugs that have their own side effects.

Didn't we feel bad enough already?

There's more than one way to skin a cat. We can work to change the things in our lives that cause stress, anxiety and overwhelm, or we can take drugs to numb us to their presence.

If we take the prescription drug course, there are two general consequences - first, the potential of prescription drug addiction and a myriad of other physical, mental and emotional conditions that increase our misery and make us even less able to effect the change we wish to bring about and, second, the things we hoped to resolve about our lives will continue.

Or, we can take the other course - face up to and take the time to proactively do something effective about changing our lives, our schools, our relationships, our friends, our family members, and our country. No side effects except an adrenalin rush and, quite possibly, a life we want to live, that makes us relatively happy and gives us real hope that, by our own efforts, things will change for the better.

The choice is ours. Drugged and numb, or taking the bull by the horns. And whether our lives are happy and fulfilled or miserable and hopeless depends largely on choosing the latter, not on prescription drugs. Let's hope the additional counselors being put on the job in our colleges, especially in Louisiana, guide our young adults in that direction.