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Fluoxetine
Mar. 14th, 2006 08:45 pmI started on a low dose of Prozac today. Woot! :) Some of you knew about my {borderline OCD behavior / self-abuse / anxiety habit } and some of you didn't. To those who didn't: suffice it to say there's a bad habit. Having learned lately that I can't break it, I'm excited to be doing something about it that just might have a chance of helping. (I know that it also might not help, especially at this mini-dose I'm taking while I find out if I have side effects, but I'll take the odds.)
I looked at some stuff online about all this. A review of the book Listening to Prozac asks: "Is it ethical to prescribe a drug that increases a person's self-confidence, resilience, and energy level without any ill effect, when there is no underlying manifestation of illness?"
Is it ethical to make someone feel better and be more functional?? Wow, that person is on a different planet. On my planet, nothing could be more ethical than raising someone's well-being. Who cares if they start at "normal" -- whose idea of "normal" would that be, anyway, pray tell? I don't even think normal exists, and if I did, I still wouldn't believe that it's the best state for a person. There is something seriously wrong with the state of our thinking if we believe it's only ethical to help someone when they have already been seriously damaged.
Well, I know quite well that some people who will read this and disagree. To those people, I'd say: take this post as an indication that other attitudes are possible. :) There's a list as long as my arm of 'artificial' aids most of us use already (running in high-tech shoes more friendly to our bare feet than any natural surface could ever be; wearing contacts; birth control)... and my feet do hurt, so to speak. I don't care to tie myself into a knot just because my 'feet' happen to be my brain, and my brain is supposed to be special somehow. For now I'm just happy to be trying on a new pair of shoes.
I looked at some stuff online about all this. A review of the book Listening to Prozac asks: "Is it ethical to prescribe a drug that increases a person's self-confidence, resilience, and energy level without any ill effect, when there is no underlying manifestation of illness?"
Is it ethical to make someone feel better and be more functional?? Wow, that person is on a different planet. On my planet, nothing could be more ethical than raising someone's well-being. Who cares if they start at "normal" -- whose idea of "normal" would that be, anyway, pray tell? I don't even think normal exists, and if I did, I still wouldn't believe that it's the best state for a person. There is something seriously wrong with the state of our thinking if we believe it's only ethical to help someone when they have already been seriously damaged.
Well, I know quite well that some people who will read this and disagree. To those people, I'd say: take this post as an indication that other attitudes are possible. :) There's a list as long as my arm of 'artificial' aids most of us use already (running in high-tech shoes more friendly to our bare feet than any natural surface could ever be; wearing contacts; birth control)... and my feet do hurt, so to speak. I don't care to tie myself into a knot just because my 'feet' happen to be my brain, and my brain is supposed to be special somehow. For now I'm just happy to be trying on a new pair of shoes.
