Posted by Timne on July 9, 2009, at 23:14:13
In reply to Re: would I do it when I'm happy? ***triggers*** » Timne, posted by Phillipa on July 9, 2009, at 20:09:20
> So has this friend just started on antidepressants? I wonder how long person has been on them and if the person is having side effects or getting more energy. Sounds like the person might have a plan? If so maybe this person should see someone In Real Life? I don't know what do you think? Yes economically the country is a mess. Phillipa
Based on available clinical research about known contraindications, I think that to prescribe any of the psychotropics marketed as anti-depressants to the person I know would almost certainly be certain homicide, as would giving large doses of sugar to a diabetic. I'm not saying the drugs are generally dangerous for anybody, or for any class of people. I'm saying clinical research indicates they pose a more lethal hazard to my friend than does my friend's contemplation of an exit strategy, and only because I understand the unique situation my friend represents.
The person's clear recognition of the danger these drugs pose to one in the person's particular position, coupled with warnings from the person that those drugs would almost certainly lead to death in the person's very particular situation (and none other -- I'm only talking about my friend, and some similar past cases cited in peer-reviewed clinical research) would provide a solid basis for a large damages award if the person's survivors were left with a record of flawed efforts to intervene despite my friends specific and articulate warnings. My correspondence here could even be called as evidence that the person recognized and was known to warn others of the perils drug use would pose in the person's particular situation if the person allowed doctors to prescribe drug use as a solution. I believe at least one person who would survive practices law, and could establish a secure future with the earnings from such a lawsuit, but I don't think my friend would allow such a situation to arise, unless court ordered to do drugs as a putative medical remedy.
My friend recently decided to stand up for the person's own integrity, and for the integrity of economic activities the person was asked to engage in the workplace. In the nation where this person lives, that alone is practically suicide. In that nation, most people are expected to don one of a few socially accepted roles, while independent thinkers become usually become integrated into the worlds largest per-capita captive population, which that particular nation happens to hold in prison camps scattered across the nation.
The process of standing up for integrity cost the person jobs -- which the person left voluntarily. The process also involved a fitness regime. Physically, the person is healthier than ever, and mentally the person is as clear-headed and happy as I've seen. The person seems to be approaching the critical juncture with head up, back straight, shoulders erect, feet firmly planted on the ground, a heart full of contentment and no place for such a life on this earth. Surely a court order to do drugs -- or simply the process of trying to pigeonhole this person under the rubric of "depressed" -- would seem an invitation to exit. If the world refuses to accept the person as is, the person is quite content to carry out the bargain as the world at large negotiated it.
The person is making efforts to contact whatever reasonable and real people such as may be available and trustworthy. There seems to be a shortage of persons available to befriend my friend who are interested in friendship outside of economic and class-oriented contexts. The particular middle-class culture my friend knows practices a notion of "professionalism" that prohibits honest dialogue in favor of pretense. Nothing like the world you and I know, I'm certain -- this friend of mine lives in such a strange and far away place we couldn't possibly identify with such an alien culture or feel less positive about ourselves for identifying with that very different situation because it's nothing like the much better world you and I live in where most personal conflicts can be resolved and most social difficulties that aren't easily resolved can be treated as mental health problems by well trained professionals who pretty well understand human needs. Nobody here could possibly feel put down by my friends outlook, because my friend is looking at world so far away, it's nothing like the one anybody here would know anything about. In fact, that world that so frustrates my friend is so far away, it might not even be real, so how could anybody feel put down by my friend's experience in a world nothing like ours? We could no more feel put down by my freinds analysis than we could feel put down by a fictional character's analysis of life on a far away planet. Different worlds. In our world "it's all good." Nothing like my friends unfortunate situation where it's not all so good.
My friend's perception is that most of those who would offer "professional" assistance primarily want to convert the person to their various mystical, authoritarian belief systems, or use the person to validate their institutional roles as caregivers. I sincerely doubt any of the salaried mental health professionals in the person's area would have anything to offer, and unless the "caregivers" were ones who helped formulate an economic survival plan rather than a mental health intervention, I'm certain their intervention would most likely erase any chance of survival my friend might have.
But no, my friend does not have a plan. My friend does have military training, and in the nation where my friend served in the military, part of the training included methods for effective suicide, along with instructions from a government employee requesting such an act be performed effectively or not attempted. I don't think being a military veteran with formal training in suicide methods is a lawful cause for involuntary commitment in the nation where my friend lives.
poster:Timne
thread:905409
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20090624/msgs/905909.html