Prozac and Ritalin more matrix control.

Sheesh,

The thing is, how many of them have actually stopped partying as well? Prozac, Ritilan AND alcohol, X, meth, opiates, huffing... scary, huh? Of course, hopefully, this is just the older kids, and not the 4,5,and 6 year olds.

It was very disturbing when I worked at the methadone clinic to find really young ones (17/18 year olds) full-bore addicted to opiates AND on psychoative drugs. It is a god-awful thing to see an 18 year old in withdrawals.

Oh yeah, these young ones I write about were sooo angry, it's like it was all they were, anger in a bag of bones, this exactly why they were put on the meds in the first place... didn't help. And surely it didn't help they were doing street drugs as well.

They actually scared the bejesus out of me. I'd have horrible nightmares. One of them was so angry, I was her counselor, and she actually a few times "called me out" in the lobby of the clinic... she wanted to fight me... like beat the kwap out of me. She did everything but spit on me to incite me into a fight. What was I doing? Trying to help her find herself... that was part of my job, and as well, where my heart took me.

It's bad enough they're being put on the meds in the first place like Barefoot Doc writes, but that they're too inexperienced and young to understand the implications of mixing meds and street drugs is beyond alarming. It's almost like a Matrix double-whammy .

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
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Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we might as well dance.
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If you spin around on your chair really fast, things around here will make a lot more sense.

This reminded me of the movie "Equilibrium."   Really great movie, we own it.  It's like a hybrid between "1984" and "A Brave New World."  Takes place in the future when "feeling" has been outlawed.  Society lives in an oppressive, rigid, Big-Brother type society and people ae required by law to take their daily injections of Prozium, which squashes their feeling.  Everybody is a flat, emotionless, obedient automaton.   It is a crime to stop taking one's Prozium, punishable by death, no second chances.  People are always on the lookout to spot anybody who seems to be acting suspicious, displaying emotions; everybody is always turning other people in, even family member against family member.   All the while, society is ruled over by the infamous "Father", who nobody has actually seen in person, only on TV screens, but they just trust and believe that he actually exists and obey and follow along.

I don't want to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, but do rent it, it's a great movie, a must see.   For some bizarre reason it kept getting compared to The Matrix (???!?!?)  even though there's absolutely no similiarities.   For that reason it's been overlooked for the most part and most people haven't seen this gem.  I know that I read about it back in 2002 or '03 or whatever and dismissed it for that very reason.   I find that in itself to be a small conspiracy -- considering the number of people who are on psych meds, and how much of a multi-billion dollar industry it is, I think they didn't want anymore people seeing this movie than absolutely necessary.    Might make people start questioning the necessity and benefits of psych drugs.   Might cause a few people to toss their pills out the window.        As it was, the studio made it very difficult for the director to make this movie, alloting him a bare-bones amount of money.   The director didn't even get enough money to make a soundtrack.   But despite all that, it's a top quality movie, and you'd never know all that when you watch it.

Thanks for the recommendation Lyra, i finally got around to watching it this evening. Definitely a great movie, and like you I don't understand why it's been compared to The Matrix so much. Apart from a few Matrix like action sequences they have very little in common.

It's really scary that this is the kind of society that TPTB would probably love to see made real. It made me realise just how important emotions are, even negative ones. Can you imagine watching someone being incinerated alive and not feeling any emotion towards it? Eeeek!

Andy

One noticing I have had--related to depression and "mental illnesses"--is that problem behavior is almost always socially-defined, or defined by someone else besides the person who is supposedly depressed or sick.

Take this list of symptoms of depression from www.prozac.com:

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"Lack of interest or pleasure in your usual activities and a lack of motivation. Depression makes it difficult to care about things that used to be important. You may have to push yourself to get things done. Even little things can seem a burden. Many people who have depression say they are bored and sluggish, and even if they have no sleep problems, they are tired all the time. Reduced interest in sex is also common."
<<

...Ummm...Is it possible that a person may "normally" lose interest or pleasure in former activities, or "what used to be important?"  This symptom also could be interpreted to suggest that it is abnormal to have a loss of interest in "things" period.  Is it always abnormal not to care about "things?" 

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Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and insecurity. People with depression often feel negatively about themselves, the world around them, and the future. They may feel guilty about things in the past. Many people with depression feel that they are worthless or that their depression is a punishment for something they have done or left undone. Depression can lead to feelings of insecurity and the need to be dependent on others. It can also lead to poor grooming and personal hygiene.
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...What's interesting here is the statement about grooming and personal hygiene?  It doesn't give a standard for what poor grooming is.  Some would define hippies or Aborigines as having poor hygiene because they don't shave their legs or wash their hair seven times per week.  I understand the spirit of the statement, but isn't it entirely subjective?  It also might lead a person with low awareness to conclude that because they aren't as well-groomed as they could be that they must be depressed.  And, hygiene, again is pretty much socially defined.   

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Difficulty concentrating and thinking clearly. Depression makes it hard to think clearly, and decisions about even small things may be difficult to make. Often, people who have depression cannot concentrate easily - so work and daily routines become less efficient, and feelings of failure and disgust may appear.
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This is a whopper.  This symptom would have one believe that difficulty concentrating and thinking clearly is depression!  It also defines low concentration SOCIALLY--"so work [becomes] less efficient."  So, performing poorly at work may be a sympton of depression?  Furthermore, I find difficulty concentrating to be intrinsic to the growth process.  If one doesn't encounter difficulty concentrating every once in a while then they're probably not challenging themselves mentally to grow... 

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Fatigue or lack of energy.
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Fatigue and lack of energy may be a result of working sixty hours per week, eating nutritionally bankrupt food, ignoring one's spirit, and, heck, being overexposed to certain EM fields.  The fact that the Prozac site doesn't qualify this statement, saying that "fatigue or lack of energy" could be caused by something else is irresponsible. 
A person may decide to ask for Prozac solely based on this symptom.  And, of course, a person may only be fatigued or of low energy COMPARED TO OTHERS.  There are individuals who are thriving in the work/play/sleep/eat schedule of this society, and individuals who are dying in it.     

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Thoughts of suicide. Many depressed people think about death. Thoughts and actions related to death may occur as part of a wish to end pain, suffering, and confusion.
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This I find most interesting of all, because the site is offering Prozac as a response to this symptom (presumably).  So, the makers and advertisers of Prozac are, in effect, saying that thoughts of suicide are the result of a chemical imbalance and may be wiped away with the addition of their chemical.  But I suppose that's not exactly fair since they do recommend therapy and the drug together.  I'm only
suggesting that the website itself, and participation in the therapy, seems to ask for a certain materialist belief-system from the outset. 

This "symptom" being listed also suggests that it is abnormal to think about death.  And, by emphasizing "thoughts of suicide" instead of the feelings of "pain, suffering and confusion" the writer already has shifted attention to effects and not causes.     

I, too, have encountered the "zombification" that can happen with friends of mine on prescription drugs. 

I'll close with this...The site also advises the reader of the webpage to remember:

"Depression is not something you've brought on yourself, and it doesn't reveal a personal weakness or an inability to cope."

Translation:

(1) You are not responsible for your depression, something or somebody else is.  (A posture of blame and powerlessness is encouraged from the beginning).

And (2) Stop trying to cope with it--do anything about it yourself--because depression isn't a problem, it's normal. 

...

I guess I can applaud the compassion of the writer by writing that depression doesn't mean that one is weak.  And even the "normalizing" of depression is laudable--life has seasons.  But THE WAY that they normalize depression, I believe, invites a victim consciousness (again: "I can't do anything about it...")

Yes, good post.    Czyx, you made me laugh with the whole "Is getting out of bed and putting on your brown shirt in the morning becoming nearly impossible?" 

It's all about labeling and pigeon holing.  Society loves to neatly label everybody and put them in their tidy little boxes.  Everybody can be reduced to a checklist, and there are no shades of gray.

X!

I think also that some of the so-called "signs of depression" are actually signs of "waking up."   If you read the Stuart Wilde book "Whispering Winds of Change", he gets into detail the entire process from start to finish of extracating yourself from the matrix.   All the phases and steps you'll go through, what will happen, what you'll see / hear / feel / experience.   Interestingly enough, if you were to go by that so-called checklist of depression traits, many of them fit the changes that Stuart talks about to a T.  When you begin to wake up, you naturally begin to lose interest in many of the things that you previously thought were so important.   You begin to see things for what they are.   Sex may also fall to the wayside, you may drop some friends from your life because you've polarized so far away from them, eating habits could change - many people begin eating less, going vegetarian, etc.   It's all a part of the process, and I think much of it may be mistaken for "depression."

I still think though that there is a such thing as legitimate depression, and that it arises from such things as feeling lost with no purpose in life, being overwhelmed by mounting problems / debt / relationship troubles / health issues, etc.  Those things can easily topple a person and make them want to stay in bed with the covers over their heads all day.   That's true depression..................but I don't think medication is necessarily the answer.    Tackle the problems and change your perspective....don't medicate to mask the problem.

I do acknowledge that pills (like Prozac or Ritalin) do genuinely help people.  But I also feel that, after having done energywork for a few years, that the mechanisms that allow pills or drugs to help some people and not others are being naively ignored.

Yesterday, at work, I overheard a female co-worker telling another co-worker how happy she was because she had finally found a multivitamin combination that helped her with her fatigue.  She added, "I only hope that the effect isn't psychological..."

I didn't enter the conversation, but thought to myself: "Why WOULDN'T she want her increase in energy to be because of her psychology?"  Why wouldn't it be good news to her that she was able to increase her energy merely by using her mind?

Most everyone is familiar with the placebo effect, and some find it more interesting than others.  I feel, for one, that the appearance and re-appearance of the placebo effect in numerous, different scientific studies confirms for me that it is a rational, scientific--and predictible--phenomena (not just an exception to the rule, but a rule in itself).

Less well known is the "nocebo" effect.  This is a negative effect that happens because subjects EXPECT negative or no results.  A famous instance of this is mentioned in "The Holographic Universe" by Michael ???.  He cites a chemotherapy study wherein the CONTROL group, the ones given no medication whatsoever, actually lost their hair.  They lost their hair because they believed they were receiving chemotherapy when in fact they were receiving IV drips with saline solutions or something similar.

Anyway...I know most people on this forum are familar with this phenomenon.  I only wanted to introduce the idea that there may be a deeper reason why drugs work for some and not for others--and the reason that some get well on drugs may not be because of the beneficience of the drug.

It also may be that many people want (at a core level) the spiritual experience of dependency upon the physical...