My favorite button on my TV remote is Mute. Especially when those pharmaceutical ads roll on about their possible side effects and skip over the, perhaps, "educational" benefits. Depression is getting a lot more attention today than 15 years ago when I began my recovery/treatment. There was no media advertising or print ads. Even then, I saw the advertising potential and fancied I could write brilliant pharmaceutical or public service announcements. (PSA)
So why is the media "on topic" about Depression? We are closing in on an epidemic but do not have enough psychiatrists to treat the growing number of patients. With research and science we are rapidly learning more about the chemistry and function of the brain related to mood. I find it encouraging but the health-care system, as we know, is dysfunctional. The only ones making money are the US pharmaceutical companies. Another great amount of money is used to prevent proven European and Asian pharmaceuticals from reaching American consumers hands.
In 1995 when I was diagnosed and began my own research, the facts were grim. They haven't improved much since. 50% of Americans will have at least one, serious episode of depression in their life. In a country of 310 million, it's estimated 10% of the population has bipolar depression. That is 31 million souls of whom 90% will never seek a diagnosis or treatment. That means only 3.1 million people are in treatment at any given time. Of this significant group, 98% of individuals will go off their medication! For every time an individual goes off their medication, it sets the course of the disease further back.
Feel free to correct my arithmetic, but I believe that means, only 2% of the population accepts the diagnosis and stays on the 'right' medications to remain stable. How is it possible that only 62,000 people out of 3.1 million with bipolar depression may achieve some degree of wellness? I had about as much of a chance of remission, as a camel passing through the eye of the needle!
The only known and repeatedly stated chance at medical success was to never go off the medication. I have stayed that course for 15 years and watched in horror as friends and acquaintances died of "complications" of this dreadful, inherited-by-chance-disease. Psychiatric medications, like insulin and ,are tools to prevent death. Yet the treatment outcomes for diabetics, most cancers and HIV-AIDS is far greater than for this "common" medical affliction. You hear that word often, trust me, these statistics are not common. Numbers tell the truth.
Denial is a powerful force but our minds and our spirits are more powerful than even denial. Where does your mind live? It's not in your brain, it's not in your heart or your soul. Your/Our minds exist in the life of every cell of the body.
It's the 21st century. Bipolar depression is a very expensive disease to have. We know the drugs work but not why. My drug costs alone are about $12,000 a year. These pharmaceuticals are only one part of the recovery equation. However, they play a very important part. To receive public health care benefits in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I am fortunately required to have counseling and talk-therapy. This is another equal part of my recovery mission. When I lived in Florida, I did not qualify for public health-care assistance so therefore there was no counseling. I love the talk therapy. I can unburden myself on a weekly or monthly basis without ever over-burdening others. Early on medicine divorced itself from the treatment of the mind and the teeth. Therefore, I have a team of well-educated, altruistic doctors. Another medical expense. Spirit/soul/faith is other equal partner.
Let me tell you there is an epidemic of Depression in the USA. There are two new and very vulnerable groups of people that are of great concern. They are deployed troops and their families. The other is the growing population of children with autism where the foundation of attachment and communication is affected. Like any other medical illness, early detection means an intervention, and a better prognosis. This is according to an awesome documentary production called The Emotional Life. It's currently running on PBS. Check it out. It's worth you're while as it focuses on teens, college students and the developing brain.
http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/
It has long been the assumption that humans are thinking beings who feel. Perhaps the best perspective is, we, humans, are feeling beings that think. Follow your heart! Trust God. Let your mind serve.
No comments:
Post a Comment