Antidepressants and talk radio

November 6, 2009 at 3:06 pm (Uncategorized)

Guess who started antidepressants yesterday? Me! I did! And they’re FREE because the doctor I saw has apparently a limitless supply of free samples. So I have a followup appointment in four weeks. I have mixed feelings about the appointment itself, because I really thought he was going to question me more about my symptoms–it all happened very fast. Well, no matter.

So my dad’s work schedule and my class schedule sometimes coincide such that he can drive me to campus, which I appreciate. He usually listens to the same talk-radio station, which I’ve only just begun to really listen to as we drive.

Today the subject was this news item, concerning a man who has been charged with a felony count of putting foreign objects in edible substances. He and his wife were arguing, you see, and he wanted her to calm down, so he put half of an anti-depressant in her tea. Now the woman found out because she gave her three year old son a sip of the tea, and he spit out the white (probably mostly dissolved) substance.

As it happens, the anti-depressant he used is the one I’ve been given, Lexapro. I can already testify that when partly dissolved it tastes pretty nasty. So lucky break, I guess–one half-dose of anti-depressants wouldn’t have an effect on the woman, but I dunno if it would fuck with a three year old’s body.

Now, you or I might speculate that for a woman to press charges against her husband and the father of her children, she has to be quite upset with him. Therefore we should 1) presume that this was a really scary or upsetting experience for her, and 2) acknowledge the likelihood that this is not the only disturbing, upsetting, controlling, or frightening thing her husband has done.

But at least one of these radio hosts, and the callers, wers less inclined to that view. Oh yes. One of the radio hosts did indeed say that it was not okay to drug someone without their consent, but I also got to hear people talking about how it’s okay to drug someone if you mean well by it. I also heard that it was okay to do if he wanted to watch the Superbowl and she wouldn’t calm down. I also heard that it was okay because it was just such a tiny little pill. I also heard that it was okay to do if he just really wanted her to stop fighting and relax.

I will note that one woman called in to say that she thought the whole discussion was outrageous and they were only entertaining the notion the man’s actions were acceptable, because they themselves were men.

And then! Oh no, they weren’t done yet. One caller took the opportunity to discuss her very special views on anti-depressants themselves. Yes, doctors will simply prescribe medication as a cure-all, she said. Taking anti-depressants, she said, is like taking diet pills when you “haven’t even tried” to lose weight through diet and exercise. Yeah, she went there. Now remember that I’m sitting next to my dad, who is himself a little iffy on my medication. Well, one of the radio hosts (actually the one who had said drugging someone else without their consent is Bad) agreed, and said that *he* was depressed sometimes–yes, depressed enough to get those pills if he wanted to–but, well, he tried them for a week and then gave them up and that was that. To which the radio host who thought it was okay for a man to drug his wife if he really wanted to watch the SuperBowl said, well, if you have a doctor who will prescribe anti-depressants without actually determining if that’s what you want or need, that’s a bad doctor, that’s not a standard doctor. To which there wasn’t much of an answer.

Sheesh. One day I’m on these pills and already I get the humiliating experience of listening to someone question my choice to take meds, in front of a family member who could really stand not to hear that shit.