Americans are the happiest people on Earth
- Thread starter Blackleaf
- Start date
Re: RE: Americans are the happiest people on Earth
Good point :thumbleft:
have read that the presciption writing rate for anti depressants and anti anxiety agents in the US has really shot up.
jjw1965 said:
Good point :thumbleft:
have read that the presciption writing rate for anti depressants and anti anxiety agents in the US has really shot up.
I saw a story today that said women in Iraq are taking huge doses of vallium and getting hooked on it .They can readily get it on the black market their.I wonder who the supplier is I don't think theres companys there that make it :?
Me thinks they are gonna need something stronger than valium mom 8O something to counter act the acid trip they are on. :? :? :?
Brave New America
by Gail Jarvis
Certain periods in history are characterized according to the dominant trends and behaviors of the time. For example, the 1920s are called the "Lost Generation" and the 1950s are described as the "Beat Generation." When posterity looks back on our contemporary society, I suspect it will classify us as the "Medicated Generation."
Since the 1980s, the use of psychotropic drugs has increased more than 40%, primarily to treat depression. Anti-depressants are being prescribed to allay symptoms such as sadness, anxiety, hopelessness, agitation, mood swings, apprehension, grief, feelings of panic, and lethargy. In other words, the day-to-day symptoms that prior generations learned to cope with.
To obtain a prescription for a psychotropic drug, you don’t need a diagnosis from a psychiatrist, your regular doctor will be happy to oblige you. And young children are popping these pills as regularly as their parents. In fact, drugging children seems to be replacing discipline.
The classification of these drugs says a lot about our society; i.e. inhibitors, mood stabilizers, hypnotics, and tranquilizers. Their use is so prevalent that they have become a part of everyday conversations and it is fashionable to constantly change to the latest drug on the market; "I was taking Paxil but I’m getting better results from Zoloft."
Of course, since health insurance as well as Medicaid and Medicare bear the bulk of the cost of these new drugs, there is no reason not to get on the bandwagon. Especially, after being lured by the bewitching full-page advertisements in magazines extolling the wonders of these medications and showing happy faces with radiant smiles. To use the language of the ads, psychotropics are on the cutting edge of new technological developments.
The euphoria produced by these little capsules is indeed enticing but what about the long-range, or even the short-term, consequences? One critic summarized his concern with these comments: "Medical science helps unhappy people by clouding their thoughts, by making them less aware of the world, and by sapping their urge to see themselves in a true light. People medicated for everyday happiness gain inner peace, but they do so through a real decrement in consciousness."
Already there are studies being conducted to determine the relationship of these drugs to driving and traffic accidents. This is especially troubling when we see so many drivers with a cell phone in one hand and a breakfast biscuit in the other.
We can safely assume that, like alcohol and illicit drugs, psychotropics also impair motor and cognitive skills. Furthermore, and this is the point I want to make, as the use of these medications becomes more widespread, a significant portion of the population could be reduced to a state of mellow docility wherein unsanctioned conduct by the State would seem unimportant. In fact, I maintain that this is already happening.
The growing disregard of the State’s infringement on individual freedoms that we have witnessed over the last half-century is a result of cumulative trends like this one. The earlier trends include an increased use of recreational drugs, an indiscriminate acceptance of information reported from the national media, an uncritical belief in politically correct opinions and versions of history, and a refusal to speak out for fear of being demeaned with an unflattering label.
Interestingly, these psychotropic drugs are popular with very moral and religious types who do not condone alcohol consumption or the use of illegal drugs. After all, a physician prescribed the pills as part of his plan of treatment for an illness. So there is no impropriety involved. Unfortunately, these same people have always been keenly concerned with public and governmental affairs. They took issues seriously and voted their convictions. But the drugs they are now taking may be making them less discerning and more compliant.
I believe this complacency is growing. Clerks, waitresses and other service personnel seem less alert and less informed about current events. Also, based on conversations I’ve had, letters to the editor I’ve read and email I've received, it appears that more and more people are unwilling to publicly refute the interpretation of events peddled by the establishment; an establishment that allows only one side to every story.
I’m sure that the physicians prescribing these new drugs are doing what they believe is therapeutic for their patients. But the impairment of performance caused by psychotropics as well as their harmful side effects and risk of addiction should be a real concern to the medical community. It is possible that further studies may result in a severe reduction in the prescription of these drugs. But in the meantime, as the use of psychotropics continues to increase, the innate resistance to loss of individual liberty will decline as the differences between right and wrong become blurred. This trend should trouble us but for lovers of big government it is like manna from heaven.
by Gail Jarvis
Certain periods in history are characterized according to the dominant trends and behaviors of the time. For example, the 1920s are called the "Lost Generation" and the 1950s are described as the "Beat Generation." When posterity looks back on our contemporary society, I suspect it will classify us as the "Medicated Generation."
Since the 1980s, the use of psychotropic drugs has increased more than 40%, primarily to treat depression. Anti-depressants are being prescribed to allay symptoms such as sadness, anxiety, hopelessness, agitation, mood swings, apprehension, grief, feelings of panic, and lethargy. In other words, the day-to-day symptoms that prior generations learned to cope with.
To obtain a prescription for a psychotropic drug, you don’t need a diagnosis from a psychiatrist, your regular doctor will be happy to oblige you. And young children are popping these pills as regularly as their parents. In fact, drugging children seems to be replacing discipline.
The classification of these drugs says a lot about our society; i.e. inhibitors, mood stabilizers, hypnotics, and tranquilizers. Their use is so prevalent that they have become a part of everyday conversations and it is fashionable to constantly change to the latest drug on the market; "I was taking Paxil but I’m getting better results from Zoloft."
Of course, since health insurance as well as Medicaid and Medicare bear the bulk of the cost of these new drugs, there is no reason not to get on the bandwagon. Especially, after being lured by the bewitching full-page advertisements in magazines extolling the wonders of these medications and showing happy faces with radiant smiles. To use the language of the ads, psychotropics are on the cutting edge of new technological developments.
The euphoria produced by these little capsules is indeed enticing but what about the long-range, or even the short-term, consequences? One critic summarized his concern with these comments: "Medical science helps unhappy people by clouding their thoughts, by making them less aware of the world, and by sapping their urge to see themselves in a true light. People medicated for everyday happiness gain inner peace, but they do so through a real decrement in consciousness."
Already there are studies being conducted to determine the relationship of these drugs to driving and traffic accidents. This is especially troubling when we see so many drivers with a cell phone in one hand and a breakfast biscuit in the other.
We can safely assume that, like alcohol and illicit drugs, psychotropics also impair motor and cognitive skills. Furthermore, and this is the point I want to make, as the use of these medications becomes more widespread, a significant portion of the population could be reduced to a state of mellow docility wherein unsanctioned conduct by the State would seem unimportant. In fact, I maintain that this is already happening.
The growing disregard of the State’s infringement on individual freedoms that we have witnessed over the last half-century is a result of cumulative trends like this one. The earlier trends include an increased use of recreational drugs, an indiscriminate acceptance of information reported from the national media, an uncritical belief in politically correct opinions and versions of history, and a refusal to speak out for fear of being demeaned with an unflattering label.
Interestingly, these psychotropic drugs are popular with very moral and religious types who do not condone alcohol consumption or the use of illegal drugs. After all, a physician prescribed the pills as part of his plan of treatment for an illness. So there is no impropriety involved. Unfortunately, these same people have always been keenly concerned with public and governmental affairs. They took issues seriously and voted their convictions. But the drugs they are now taking may be making them less discerning and more compliant.
I believe this complacency is growing. Clerks, waitresses and other service personnel seem less alert and less informed about current events. Also, based on conversations I’ve had, letters to the editor I’ve read and email I've received, it appears that more and more people are unwilling to publicly refute the interpretation of events peddled by the establishment; an establishment that allows only one side to every story.
I’m sure that the physicians prescribing these new drugs are doing what they believe is therapeutic for their patients. But the impairment of performance caused by psychotropics as well as their harmful side effects and risk of addiction should be a real concern to the medical community. It is possible that further studies may result in a severe reduction in the prescription of these drugs. But in the meantime, as the use of psychotropics continues to increase, the innate resistance to loss of individual liberty will decline as the differences between right and wrong become blurred. This trend should trouble us but for lovers of big government it is like manna from heaven.
very true. Whether on prescription drugs or "recreational" drugs.......drugs have taken on a whole new role .......greater than the "pill culture " of the 60 s and 70's. Complacency and apathy follow. So it would seem that a sedated nation is being led by a drug/alcohol addict who was"born again" into something called a warmonger and proceeds to try to control the world. ==with the glazed over sedated population apathetically and obediently following.
BREAKING: Bush Taking Anti-Depressants to Control Mood Swings
Capitolhillblue.com
Jul 24, 2005
President George W. Bush is taking anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.
The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President's mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.
"It's a double-edged sword," says one aide. "We can't have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally."
Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay.
"Keep those motherfuckers away from me," he screamed at an aide backstage. "If you can't, I'll find someone who can."
Bush's mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the President's wide mood swings and obscene outbursts.
Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a "paranoid meglomaniac" and "untreated alcoholic" whose "lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad" showcase Bush's instabilities.
"I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed," Dr. Frank said. "He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated."
Dr. Frank's conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.
The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical dependency. Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas governor and his first campaign for President.
"President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies," Dr. Frank adds.
The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article...
Capitolhillblue.com
Jul 24, 2005
President George W. Bush is taking anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.
The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President's mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.
"It's a double-edged sword," says one aide. "We can't have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally."
Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay.
"Keep those motherfuckers away from me," he screamed at an aide backstage. "If you can't, I'll find someone who can."
Bush's mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the President's wide mood swings and obscene outbursts.
Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a "paranoid meglomaniac" and "untreated alcoholic" whose "lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad" showcase Bush's instabilities.
"I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed," Dr. Frank said. "He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated."
Dr. Frank's conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.
The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical dependency. Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas governor and his first campaign for President.
"President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies," Dr. Frank adds.
The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article...
jjw1965 said:
No surprise. This is close to how many of my psychology peers have assessed him. (mental status wise) It is the megalomania that got him involved in this Iraq mess too. Feelings of Power and grandiosity and overconfidence with little consideration of the consequences. His untreated alcoholism contributes to his deceit and persistant lies.
but then we have seen megalomaniacs in leadership positions throughout history.--and the destruction they have caused. They are detached from the reality of things. and feel themselves invincible. But they also fluctuate between those feelings and and others of impotence and insecurity.Ergo the erratic behavior.
I think not said:
it doesn't end , does it???? :wink: Seems "we" have only scratched the surface :wink:
(how are ya today ITN??
Ocean Breeze said:I think not said:
it doesn't end , does it???? :wink: Seems "we" have only scratched the surface :wink:
(how are ya today ITN??
I was alot better before you started accusing me of being sedated
I think not said:Ocean Breeze said:I think not said:
it doesn't end , does it???? :wink: Seems "we" have only scratched the surface :wink:
(how are ya today ITN??
I was alot better before you started accusing me of being sedated
that is so silly. (and paranoid). General situations are not to be taken personally. sheesh. Common now, lighten up. :wink:
(if Americans are this "sensitive" or "reactive" , how can they be the "happiest" people on this planet???? :?: :?
Ocean Breeze said:
The general population includes me, and contrary to what you say, I do not believe Americans are sedated with drugs. And I don't listen or pay too much attention to polls as they are very selective to who they contact.
Did they contact for example, homeless people in the South? Unemployed in Ohio? Uninsured in Oregon? Someone who lost a family member in Iraq in Long Island? Being happy is a state of mind and you cannot measure it with one parameter, money, health, intelligence etc....
That is a very subjective question and bares no weight unless you ask all 300 million Americans.
back to American "happy" people.
What constitutes a happy/content population??
Is it material possessions???
Is it status??
Is it feeling safe and secure ??
Is it the ability to trust their leadership??
Is it job security???
Is it good health??? (and the best health care a system can provide for ALL its citizens??)
Is it money , the aquisition of same and the "power" it can bring ???
Is it the simple fullfillments in life on a personal level??
What constitutes a happy/content population??
Is it material possessions???
Is it status??
Is it feeling safe and secure ??
Is it the ability to trust their leadership??
Is it job security???
Is it good health??? (and the best health care a system can provide for ALL its citizens??)
Is it money , the aquisition of same and the "power" it can bring ???
Is it the simple fullfillments in life on a personal level??
It's asking a person if they are happy...there is no one thing that happiness can be derived from for the general public. I love my family, my pets and the fact that I have become a person that I am proud of. I don't need wealth, but I am unhappy if I feel that I can't provide for the ones I love. I am happy that I can be independent, but happier still that I share my life with someone I love.
These are the things that are important to me and make me happy, not neccessarily the same ideals of others. The only way you can rate happiness is by asking a person. You can then do a later survey of what makes them happy. Problem solved! :idea:
These are the things that are important to me and make me happy, not neccessarily the same ideals of others. The only way you can rate happiness is by asking a person. You can then do a later survey of what makes them happy. Problem solved! :idea:
Happiness is lots of vacation time.. :wink:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/03/bush_poised_to_set_vacationing_record/
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/03/bush_poised_to_set_vacationing_record/